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Narrative* ( lia ra ttcr of ( lirist¡an Social l lliU s
assumpt ion that the unity of these people required the tel ling o f the slory of
this man who claimed to be nothing less than the Messiah o f I s rae l .54
The fact that we now have a canon and recognize its authority in the
church does not mean that we can be any less concerned about what kind of
community we must be to remember rightly through the biblical narrative.
Our selectivity and arbitrariness in using scripture ultimately result from our
attempt to be something less than a people capable of carrying God’s story in
the world. For who “wants to hear about brave deeds when he is ashamed of
his own, and who likes an open, honest tale from someone he’s deceiving. ”55
The canon is not an accomplishment but a task, since it challenges us to be
the kind of people capable of recalling the stories of our fathers and mothers,
on which our existence continues to depend.
The temptation, now that we have the canon, is either to objectify
scripture in a manner that kills its life, or to be willing in principle to accept
the validity of any interpretation by way of acknowledging the scripture’s
variety. Both responses fail to meet the moral challenge of being a people who
derive their identity from a book. The continued existence of Israel is alone
enough to make us recognize that the question of what kind of community we
must be to be faithful to God is not an issue settled by the mere fact we possess
a canon. I have tried to show how the very nature of the biblical literature
requires us to be as able to remember as those who produced the literature.
The question of the moral significance of scripture, therefore, turns out
to be a question about what kind of community the church must be to be able
to make the narratives of scripture central for its life. I have already argued
that such a community must be capable of sustaining the authority of scripture
through use in its liturgy and governance. But first and foremost the commu
nity must know that it has a history and tradition which separate it from the
world. Such separation is required by the very fact that the world knows not
the God we find in the scripture.56
The virtues of patience, courage, hope, and charity must reign if the
community is to sustain its existence. For without patience the church may be
tempted to apocalyptic fantasy; without courage the church would fail to hold
fast to the traditions from which it draws its life; without hope the church risks
losing sight of its tasks; and without charity the church would not manifest the
kind of life made possible by God. Each of these virtues, and there are others
equally important, draws its meaning and form from the biblical narrative,
and each is necessary if we are to continue to remember and to live faithful to
that narrative.
As I have suggested, Christians continue to honor the decision of their
ancestors to fashion a canon because they believe the scripture reflects the
very nature of God and his will for their lives. Put more concretely, scripture
has authority for Christians because they have learned as a forgiven people