By Tom and Amelia Boomershine

Jesus taught that the greatest commandment was “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.” (Deuteronomy 6:5) Jesus probably knew this commandment because his mother Mary and his father Joseph were faithful in following the next commandment:

Keep these words that I am commanding you today in your heart. Repeat them to your children and talk about them when you are at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you rise. (Deuteronomy 6:6-7)

The people of Israel handed down the stories of God by repeating them to their children and talking about them at bedtime and at mealtime, while working and traveling, while playing and resting. The early Church continued this practice by telling the stories of Jesus to their children.

Story is a primary way we make sense of our lives and form meaningful relationships with each other in families, in communities, and with God. Sacred story is at the heart of faith formation for both children and adults. The human spirit is formed by weaving one’s own unfolding story into the stories of God and God’s people.

Families share common ancestors and common memories. One of the sources of the deterioration of families in the modern age is the decline in family storytelling. A family’s stories form the web of relationships that link people together. The broader and deeper a family’s shared memories are, the healthier and more intimate the relationships between members of the family will be. Not all family stories are happy or positive, as the stories of the Bible clearly demonstrate. But the stories of their families have great value for young people because they are a network of experience that provides a context for their lives and a sense of belonging.

Biblical stories are our primary source of the knowledge of God. The biblical tradition draws together the stories of the spiritual experience of the communities of Israel and the early church for nearly two thousand years. And the stories have been confirmed as sources of revelation of God’s character for the two thousand years since the Bible was written.

In particular, people have found that getting to know Jesus’ teachings and the stories about his life, death and resurrection has enabled them to know God. Learning and telling the stories of Jesus is a way of deepening our knowledge of God.

The history of religions shows that spiritual vitality is directly related to the interiorization (learn by heart) and recital of a religion’s scriptures. Knowing sacred stories by heart and telling them to children is important for the health of our Judeo-Christian tradition.

The resurrection stories transform the meaning of the passion stories into stories of victory and hope. The resurrection stories set the experience of suffering and death in a context of celebration of new life and new possibilities. The resurrection is also a vindication of Jesus’ way, by which the people of the early church lived. In the midst of a war-torn world, then and now, these stories are signs of hope for a peaceable future for the world. Jesus’ way is shown in this series to be a way of life that leads to peace and breaks the cycle of revenge and violence.