Recently, my 5-year-old son and 3-year-old daughter have been enjoying a special addition to our nightly bedtime routine. Thanks to their Grandma, we have a jumbo-sized canister of gourmet jelly beans…Jelly Bellies to be exact. Just before we do our Bible time and prayers, the kids ask Daddy to tell them a “jelly bean story,” which is just like any ol’ bedtime story except that the objects in the story present opportunities to slowly dole out jelly beans. For instance, the characters in the story might have a sudden thirst for root beer, which results in each child receiving a root beer flavored jelly bean. Likewise the characters might climb an orange tree, presenting the perfect juncture to pass out, you guessed it, orange jelly beans.

The first time we did a jelly bean story, I remember watching their little faces light up at every unexpected story and flavor twist. I savored the challenge of telling the story in a way that would keep them in rapt attention, never knowing when the next jelly bean would be handed out.

However, something changed after many weeks of jelly bean stories. The creativity and cohesiveness of my story-telling took a nose dive. You see, I was slowly starting to view the jelly bean story as a simple means of getting the bedtime routine kicked off so that I could get them quickly to bed. I would dispense the jelly beans in a slipshot manner, no longer taking the time to look for something delightful in the reaction of my children to a good story. Whether the story had any particular charm or flow made little difference to me after a long day. I think they’ve caught onto me, but at some base level, jelly beans are still an acceptable tradeoff.

Strangely enough, it took a conversation this week about books with my mother-in-law (their Grandma) to make me aware of my storytelling atrophy. She was recounting how some friends recommended a popular Christian work of fiction, saying “You just have to read it!” To her dismay, she found the book to be tedious with characters that could only be described as “one-dimensional”.

I responded by sharing my theory that Christians sometimes have an unhealthy view of the arts as merely a vehicle for a gospel presentation; rejecting the pursuit of beauty or truth as a sufficient justification for creative work. In a word, it’s utilitarianism. Then it hit me. That’s exactly what I was doing with the jelly bean story by cheaply slapping together a story with the “required elements” (a.k.a. jelly beans) without regard for the drama or quality of the story. The humor of this realization was not lost on me, the guy who is always quick to notice the lackluster nature of much of what currently passes as “Christian” music or books, yet who had unwittingly assumed that same mentality in my storytelling.

In further consideration, it occurred to me that this tendency rears its ugly head in more places than just the arts. Though Jesus Christ, in his person and his story, should provoke infinite wonder, we somehow manage to reduce our thoughts about him to mere catch phrases. It’s as if we were offered the greatest feast ever cooked, yet could only manage to describe it as “pretty good” or “nice”. It happens as a parent speaks to a child, as an artist speaks to an audience, and even as a pastor preaches to a congregation.

Writer and playwright Dorothy Sayers (1893-1957) wrote brilliantly about the irony of making Christ’s story dull in her essay “The Greatest Drama Ever Staged”:

This is the dogma we find so dull—this terrifying drama of which God is the victim and hero. If this is dull, then what, in Heaven’s name, is worthy to be called exciting? The people who [crucified] Christ, …to do them justice, [never] accused him of being a bore—on the contrary, they thought him too dynamic to be safe. It has been left for later generations to muffle up that shattering personality and surround him with an atmosphere of tedium. We have very efficiently pared the claws of the Lion of Judah, certified him “meek and mild,” and recommended him as a fitting household pet for pale [clergy] and pious old ladies. To those who knew him, however, he in no way suggests a milk-and-water person; they objected to him as a dangerous firebrand.

Speaking later of the person of Jesus Christ, his incarnation, and his dying in the place of guilty sinners, Sayers notes:

Now, we may call that doctrine exhilarating, or we may call it devastating; we may call it revelation, or we may call it rubbish; but if we call it dull, then words have no meaning at all. That God should play the tyrant over man is a dismal story of unrelieved oppression; that man should play the tyrant over man is the usual dreary record of human futility; but that man should play the tyrant over God, find him a better man than himself, is an astonishing drama indeed. Any journalist, hearing of it for the first time, would recognize it as news; those who did hear it for the first time actually called it news, and good news at that; though we are likely to forget that the word Gospel ever meant anything so sensational.

I trust that Sayers’ words challenge the reader as much as they do me. They help me to think on the great drama of the gospel and the wonder of Christ that should be shared with others. That’s a tall order (to say the least) but merely retelling his story with worn-out slogans or religious-sounding words isn’t enough. Doing so would either give a dull impression of my God or send the message that I have a low view of my audience’s capacity to take in the story. No, such blandness would treat the audience like toddlers who are satisfied with a sugar buzz instead of the captivating story they deserve.

• Read Dorothy Sayers’ works including Creed or Chaos? Why Christians Must Choose Either Dogma or Disaster (Or, Why It Really Does Matter What You Believe)
• Read Imagine: A Vision for Christians in the Arts by Steve Turner
• Read A Better Way: Rediscovering the Drama of God-Centered Worship by Michael Horton
• Munch some Jelly Belly jelly beans (except for the nasty coffee-flavored ones)
• Listen to the White Horse Inn
• Do not forward this post to the American Dental Association

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