WEBVTT 00:00:19.000 --> 00:00:19.000 that maybe some of you have heard. 00:00:19.000 --> 00:00:21.000 If you grew up in church, maybe you've heard this statement, 00:00:21.000 --> 00:00:23.000 the Bible says it. 00:00:23.000 --> 00:00:25.000 I believe it. 00:00:25.000 --> 00:00:26.000 That settles it. 00:00:26.000 --> 00:00:28.000 Anybody heard this? 00:00:28.000 --> 00:00:30.000 The Bible says it. 00:00:30.000 --> 00:00:32.000 I believe it. That settles it. 00:00:32.000 --> 00:00:36.000 In fact, that phrase kind of defined a whole era of faith 00:00:36.000 --> 00:00:38.000 for a lot of us. 00:00:38.000 --> 00:00:39.000 It sounds confident. 00:00:39.000 --> 00:00:41.000 It sounds faithful. 00:00:41.000 --> 00:00:46.000 But it doesn't actually invite curiosity or conversation. 00:00:46.000 --> 00:00:50.000 It shuts those both down completely. 00:00:50.000 --> 00:00:53.000 And that's what happens when we read scripture through 00:00:53.000 --> 00:00:57.000 what Zach calls in this book, the literalism lens. 00:00:57.000 --> 00:01:01.000 Before we unpack what the literalism lens is, 00:01:01.000 --> 00:01:03.000 let's have some fun. 00:01:03.000 --> 00:01:10.000 So I get some of the wild literal readings of the Bible 00:01:10.000 --> 00:01:12.000 that we could get into. 00:01:12.000 --> 00:01:17.000 So years ago, so long ago it seems now, 00:01:17.000 --> 00:01:20.000 I was a youth pastor. 00:01:20.000 --> 00:01:25.000 Yeah, some of you remember that. 00:01:25.000 --> 00:01:30.000 Students in our youth group thought that they were funny 00:01:30.000 --> 00:01:33.000 as students too. 00:01:33.000 --> 00:01:38.000 And when they would see me without a hat, 00:01:38.000 --> 00:01:40.000 it's been this way for years. 00:01:40.000 --> 00:01:42.000 I'll give you a caveat real quick. 00:01:42.000 --> 00:01:43.000 This is kind of funny. 00:01:43.000 --> 00:01:45.000 You guys see the top of my head, right? 00:01:45.000 --> 00:01:50.000 Like, I just got it shaved or trimmed, but you see. 00:01:50.000 --> 00:01:54.000 I was at a party, a birthday party recently, 00:01:54.000 --> 00:01:58.000 and I was sitting in this room and just talking to this guy, 00:01:58.000 --> 00:02:02.000 and he brought it up probably because I'd taken my hat off. 00:02:02.000 --> 00:02:05.000 And he was telling me about how he'd flown to Turkey. 00:02:05.000 --> 00:02:08.000 And when he went to Turkey, he got hair implants. 00:02:08.000 --> 00:02:10.000 They're doing this whole thing where they take care 00:02:10.000 --> 00:02:12.000 from the back of your head and they put it in the front. 00:02:12.000 --> 00:02:17.000 And he started showing me pictures, and it was gross. 00:02:17.000 --> 00:02:22.000 But he had gotten his hairline fixed and created different parts. 00:02:22.000 --> 00:02:24.000 He was like, "I just couldn't." 00:02:24.000 --> 00:02:26.000 He's like, "Have you ever thought about getting hair implants?" 00:02:26.000 --> 00:02:30.000 And I said, "I'm 43 years old and I've been bald for like 20 years." 00:02:30.000 --> 00:02:35.000 If I came back in with hair, it would be like LeBron James. 00:02:35.000 --> 00:02:40.000 His hairline moved and everybody was like, "Wait a minute. 00:02:40.000 --> 00:02:43.000 It's been too long, guys." 00:02:43.000 --> 00:02:46.000 Anyway, so it's been this way for a while. 00:02:46.000 --> 00:02:48.000 So when I was a youth pastor, students thought it was funny, 00:02:48.000 --> 00:02:51.000 and they would send me this picture really most of the time 00:02:51.000 --> 00:02:54.000 and the video clip, but this picture from SpongeBob. 00:02:54.000 --> 00:02:56.000 (Laughter) 00:02:56.000 --> 00:02:58.000 I don't know if you guys, if you've watched SpongeBob, 00:02:58.000 --> 00:03:01.000 you might know exactly what clip this is. 00:03:01.000 --> 00:03:05.000 But this king had a paper sack on his head 00:03:05.000 --> 00:03:10.000 and SpongeBob's asking why, and he takes his paper sack off his head 00:03:10.000 --> 00:03:13.000 and this is the moment that SpongeBob is staring at it 00:03:13.000 --> 00:03:16.000 and just goes, "Bald, bald, bald." 00:03:16.000 --> 00:03:20.000 And then it clips to all these other little weird-looking things, 00:03:20.000 --> 00:03:23.000 all yelling, "Bald, bald." 00:03:23.000 --> 00:03:27.000 So my youth thought it was really funny to send me this. 00:03:27.000 --> 00:03:30.000 Let me put this back on so I don't blind you. 00:03:30.000 --> 00:03:32.000 So naturally, when I would get this, 00:03:32.000 --> 00:03:36.000 I would read a certain story out of Scripture. 00:03:36.000 --> 00:03:40.000 I would go to 2 Kings, 2 Kings 2 or 23, 00:03:40.000 --> 00:03:42.000 and I would start with this story. 00:03:42.000 --> 00:03:46.000 From there, Elisha went up to Bethel as he was walking along the road. 00:03:46.000 --> 00:03:48.000 Some boys came out of the town and jeered at him. 00:03:48.000 --> 00:03:50.000 "Get out of here, baldy," they said. 00:03:50.000 --> 00:03:52.000 "Get out of here, baldy." 00:03:52.000 --> 00:03:55.000 He turned around, looked at them, 00:03:55.000 --> 00:03:58.000 called down a curse on them in the name of the Lord, 00:03:58.000 --> 00:04:01.000 and two bears came out of the woods and mauled 42 of the boys. 00:04:01.000 --> 00:04:07.000 (Laughter) 00:04:07.000 --> 00:04:08.000 Yeah. 00:04:08.000 --> 00:04:10.000 And then I would start counting. 00:04:10.000 --> 00:04:15.000 One, two, three, four, five, six. 00:04:15.000 --> 00:04:20.000 That's in Scripture. 00:04:20.000 --> 00:04:23.000 (Laughter) 00:04:23.000 --> 00:04:26.000 Like, are we supposed to believe that... 00:04:26.000 --> 00:04:27.000 Thanks. 00:04:27.000 --> 00:04:28.000 Appreciate it. 00:04:28.000 --> 00:04:33.000 We're supposed to believe that God is waiting to unleash bears 00:04:33.000 --> 00:04:35.000 on teenagers with bad attitudes. 00:04:35.000 --> 00:04:38.000 Some parents are like, "Hmm." 00:04:38.000 --> 00:04:40.000 But if we're taking that story literally, 00:04:40.000 --> 00:04:43.000 like this is what we're thinking, right? 00:04:43.000 --> 00:04:47.000 Or if you go to, like, even the New Testament, Jesus in Mark 9, 00:04:47.000 --> 00:04:52.000 he says, "If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off." 00:04:52.000 --> 00:04:53.000 Right? 00:04:53.000 --> 00:04:54.000 Just get rid of that thing. 00:04:54.000 --> 00:04:56.000 If it's causing you to sin, get rid of it. 00:04:56.000 --> 00:04:58.000 If that's literal, then at least half of us in here wouldn't make it 00:04:58.000 --> 00:05:03.000 through this week with one piece of us still intact, right? 00:05:03.000 --> 00:05:07.000 And then there's the verse in Mark 16 that says, 00:05:07.000 --> 00:05:11.000 "Believers will pick up snakes and drink poison." 00:05:11.000 --> 00:05:13.000 And there were churches in the Appalachian Mountain area 00:05:13.000 --> 00:05:14.000 that began to do this. 00:05:14.000 --> 00:05:16.000 They would grab snakes and they would... 00:05:16.000 --> 00:05:18.000 They said that they were fine. 00:05:18.000 --> 00:05:21.000 The Scripture said that if they got bit by the snake, 00:05:21.000 --> 00:05:22.000 it didn't matter. 00:05:22.000 --> 00:05:23.000 The Holy Spirit would protect them. 00:05:23.000 --> 00:05:25.000 And then you had a bunch of people ending up in the ER. 00:05:25.000 --> 00:05:28.000 (Laughter) 00:05:28.000 --> 00:05:31.000 In fact, when we moved into this building, 00:05:31.000 --> 00:05:34.000 we moved a bunch of our equipment and boxes and stuff, 00:05:34.000 --> 00:05:37.000 and there used to be a box back here. 00:05:37.000 --> 00:05:41.000 This red rolling box, a tour box. 00:05:41.000 --> 00:05:45.000 And on the top of it, it said snakes. 00:05:45.000 --> 00:05:47.000 And I remember walking back there one time, 00:05:47.000 --> 00:05:48.000 I forget who was with me, but they were like, 00:05:48.000 --> 00:05:49.000 "What is this?" 00:05:49.000 --> 00:05:50.000 I said, "Oh, that's where we keep the snakes 00:05:50.000 --> 00:05:51.000 for Sunday morning worship." 00:05:51.000 --> 00:05:52.000 (Laughter) 00:05:52.000 --> 00:05:54.000 And they were like, "What?" 00:05:54.000 --> 00:05:58.000 But it's like sound snakes. 00:05:58.000 --> 00:06:00.000 Anyway. 00:06:00.000 --> 00:06:02.000 I mean, I grew up Pentecostal. 00:06:02.000 --> 00:06:06.000 We never played with snakes, but... 00:06:06.000 --> 00:06:11.000 But if we read the Bible flatly, 00:06:11.000 --> 00:06:14.000 we'd have prophets summoning bears, 00:06:14.000 --> 00:06:16.000 people cutting off limbs, 00:06:16.000 --> 00:06:19.000 pastors handing out venom at communion. 00:06:19.000 --> 00:06:22.000 So maybe the problem isn't the Bible itself. 00:06:22.000 --> 00:06:26.000 Maybe it's how we've been taught to read it. 00:06:26.000 --> 00:06:28.000 And that's what we're talking about and the whole reason 00:06:28.000 --> 00:06:32.000 that we're in this series that we call better ways to read the Bible 00:06:32.000 --> 00:06:35.000 through this book that Zach is helping us point things out. 00:06:35.000 --> 00:06:40.000 Last week we talked about how all of us come to Scripture 00:06:40.000 --> 00:06:46.000 wearing lenses, our experiences, our culture, our upbringing. 00:06:46.000 --> 00:06:49.000 They all color how we see the text. 00:06:49.000 --> 00:06:52.000 The problem isn't that we have those lenses. 00:06:52.000 --> 00:06:56.000 The problem is pretending that we don't. 00:06:56.000 --> 00:07:00.000 Zach compares it to being at the eye doctor, the one. 00:07:00.000 --> 00:07:02.000 Is one better or two? 00:07:02.000 --> 00:07:04.000 One or two? 00:07:04.000 --> 00:07:06.000 I don't know. 00:07:06.000 --> 00:07:08.000 Neither of them. 00:07:08.000 --> 00:07:10.000 I actually, I don't know where I put them. 00:07:10.000 --> 00:07:12.000 I had my glasses. 00:07:12.000 --> 00:07:13.000 They don't even work. 00:07:13.000 --> 00:07:15.000 Everything's blurry. 00:07:15.000 --> 00:07:19.000 I think I messed up on the one and twos. 00:07:19.000 --> 00:07:24.000 But the goal isn't to find no lenses at all 00:07:24.000 --> 00:07:25.000 for us to read Scripture through. 00:07:25.000 --> 00:07:29.000 It's to find the ones that help us see Jesus most clearly. 00:07:29.000 --> 00:07:33.000 He points out in this book that the way Zach has broken it down 00:07:33.000 --> 00:07:39.000 is there's four lenses that he points out that inflict harm. 00:07:39.000 --> 00:07:42.000 And then there's others that actually promote healing as we come to Scripture. 00:07:42.000 --> 00:07:45.000 The four harmful lenses we're going to explore are the literalism lens. 00:07:45.000 --> 00:07:46.000 That's today's focus. 00:07:46.000 --> 00:07:47.000 We'll look at that. 00:07:47.000 --> 00:07:50.000 The apocalypse lens. 00:07:50.000 --> 00:07:53.000 The moralism lens and the hierarchy lens. 00:07:53.000 --> 00:07:56.000 So we'll go through those over the next few weeks. 00:07:56.000 --> 00:07:59.000 And then later we'll come into the healing ones. 00:07:59.000 --> 00:08:07.000 The Jesus lens, the context lens, the flourishing lens, and the fruitfulness lens. 00:08:07.000 --> 00:08:10.000 And these are going to be ways that we can come to Scripture 00:08:10.000 --> 00:08:14.000 and read it in a way that's a little more healing and has a healing impact on us. 00:08:14.000 --> 00:08:19.000 But each one shows or shapes just how we read the Bible. 00:08:19.000 --> 00:08:24.000 And it shows us how we see God, how we see people, 00:08:24.000 --> 00:08:30.000 how we see ourselves, and how eventually we react to relationships and other people. 00:08:30.000 --> 00:08:34.000 How loving we are or unloving we are. 00:08:34.000 --> 00:08:36.000 David Simmons says it like this. 00:08:36.000 --> 00:08:41.000 "Biblical literalism has never been about being faithful to the Bible, 00:08:41.000 --> 00:08:47.000 but about weaponizing selective parts of it to give a personally preferred interpretation 00:08:47.000 --> 00:08:52.000 the weight of God's full authority." 00:08:52.000 --> 00:08:57.000 literalism tries to make the Bible something it was never meant to be. 00:08:57.000 --> 00:09:05.000 It flattens poetry, metaphor, and story into one dimensional commands. 00:09:05.000 --> 00:09:10.000 It's like trying to read a love poem as a legal document. 00:09:10.000 --> 00:09:16.000 You might know every word, but you'll miss the heart behind it. 00:09:16.000 --> 00:09:21.000 It says if it didn't happen exactly this way then it can't be true. 00:09:21.000 --> 00:09:27.000 But the Bible is full of truths that are told through story. 00:09:27.000 --> 00:09:30.000 Parables, metaphors, symbols, imagery. 00:09:30.000 --> 00:09:36.000 When we get into the Jesus lens we're going to see that this is how Jesus taught. 00:09:36.000 --> 00:09:39.000 literalism doesn't make us more faithful. 00:09:39.000 --> 00:09:44.000 It often makes us less loving. 00:09:44.000 --> 00:09:48.000 When we read the Bible flatly we forget it's a library. 00:09:48.000 --> 00:09:55.000 It's a collection written by dozens of authors across thousands of years in different languages, 00:09:55.000 --> 00:09:58.000 cultures, and world views. 00:09:58.000 --> 00:10:01.000 We start asking the Bible to be something that it's not. 00:10:01.000 --> 00:10:07.000 We start asking questions, trying to get answers, and it doesn't have them. 00:10:07.000 --> 00:10:11.000 How old is the earth? 00:10:11.000 --> 00:10:23.000 Where was Eden, when I was in Baghdad, on the south side of Baghdad in Iraq, everybody thought 00:10:23.000 --> 00:10:28.000 that the Garden of Eden was like 25 miles south of our base. 00:10:28.000 --> 00:10:30.000 That's where it actually was. 00:10:30.000 --> 00:10:31.000 It was in Iraq. 00:10:31.000 --> 00:10:33.000 It was 25 miles south of our base. 00:10:33.000 --> 00:10:34.000 I never got to go there. 00:10:34.000 --> 00:10:35.000 I was like it's 25 minutes. 00:10:35.000 --> 00:10:36.000 Let's go. 00:10:36.000 --> 00:10:37.000 But we never got to go. 00:10:37.000 --> 00:10:38.000 I don't know. 00:10:38.000 --> 00:10:39.000 Maybe it is. 00:10:39.000 --> 00:10:42.000 The belief that that's where the Garden of Eden was. 00:10:42.000 --> 00:10:48.000 If you think that the Garden of Eden is a very specific place on this place we call earth. 00:10:48.000 --> 00:10:54.000 Or did Jonah really live in a whale for three days? 00:10:54.000 --> 00:11:03.000 These are modern questions that ancient texts didn't give us the answers to even though we tried to get them. 00:11:03.000 --> 00:11:07.000 Genesis isn't trying to tell us how the world was made. 00:11:07.000 --> 00:11:11.000 It's telling us who made it and why. 00:11:11.000 --> 00:11:22.000 A scholar, Pete N. says, the question Genesis is prepared to answer is whether Yahweh, the God of Israel, is worthy of worship. 00:11:22.000 --> 00:11:26.000 That's the question it's trying to answer not. 00:11:26.000 --> 00:11:31.000 Was the earth actually created in 24 literal days? 00:11:31.000 --> 00:11:37.000 Because in science says, no, this place is so much older than that. 00:11:37.000 --> 00:11:39.000 There's a lot that has happened. 00:11:39.000 --> 00:11:44.000 And then we have to decide, do we believe just exactly literally what the Bible says? 00:11:44.000 --> 00:11:45.000 Or where's science? 00:11:45.000 --> 00:11:49.000 Where do we go with this? 00:11:49.000 --> 00:11:54.000 As Pete says, Genesis is not a science book. 00:11:54.000 --> 00:11:57.000 It is not trying to give us scientific answers. 00:11:57.000 --> 00:12:03.000 It's trying to ask the question and preparing us for the answer of is Yahweh, the God of Israel worthy of worship. 00:12:03.000 --> 00:12:08.000 And literalism misses that completely. 00:12:08.000 --> 00:12:15.000 Part of how this idea, this literal reading of scripture, every single word is literal. 00:12:15.000 --> 00:12:17.000 It must be followed exactly. 00:12:17.000 --> 00:12:20.000 It's a modern Christian idea. 00:12:20.000 --> 00:12:25.000 The way that it came into modern Christianity was through this doctrine of inerrancy. 00:12:25.000 --> 00:12:32.000 Inerrancy is this belief that the Bible is completely without error. 00:12:32.000 --> 00:12:41.000 In everything that it teaches, not only in spiritual or moral matters, but in history and science and every factual detail. 00:12:41.000 --> 00:12:44.000 It cannot have an error. 00:12:44.000 --> 00:12:54.000 And so in 1978, this group of shocking, primarily white theologians drafted what's called the Chicago statement on biblical inerrancy. 00:12:54.000 --> 00:13:03.000 So 1978 is when this became like a solid thing that we began to wrap Christianity around in our country. 00:13:03.000 --> 00:13:11.000 It was designed to protect the truth of scripture, but it also built a fence around how people were allowed to read it. 00:13:11.000 --> 00:13:21.000 If you don't affirm their exact version of inerrancy, you were labeled unfaithful or even heretical. 00:13:21.000 --> 00:13:34.000 And the message was clear, true Christians read the Bible literally, word for word, error-free, unquestioned. 00:13:34.000 --> 00:13:45.000 And I think Zach actually tells us in here how many, it was like 313 signatures I think were on this Chicago statement on biblical inerrancy. 00:13:45.000 --> 00:13:50.000 And 11 of them were non-white men. 00:13:50.000 --> 00:14:04.000 And it just, we talked about this last week that in seminary, most of the books, 97% of the books that are typically given out and read and learned from are written by white European men. 00:14:04.000 --> 00:14:14.000 And so there's a single lens that is thought to be the lens that you read scripture with when there's so many other things and cultures and ways to come to the scriptures. 00:14:14.000 --> 00:14:19.000 And a lot of us in this room, a lot of you, are not white men. 00:14:19.000 --> 00:14:33.000 And I can't say us, because sometimes I try not to be, but, but I am, alas, I am. 00:14:33.000 --> 00:14:39.000 Inerrancy wasn't an idea that Jesus taught, or that the early church held. 00:14:39.000 --> 00:14:47.000 They were modern attempts to make faith safe, certain, and controllable. 00:14:47.000 --> 00:14:51.000 You either believe this, or you're not a real Christian. 00:14:51.000 --> 00:15:01.000 A few years ago, I met with a non-profit organization here in town that helps feed kids. 00:15:01.000 --> 00:15:02.000 They help feed food to kids. 00:15:02.000 --> 00:15:07.000 They give kids and families that have food insecurities. 00:15:07.000 --> 00:15:16.000 They allow churches to come in and pack these boxes and then take them to families and give them to families so that kids have things to eat. 00:15:16.000 --> 00:15:19.000 It seemed like a perfect fit for us to partner with. 00:15:19.000 --> 00:15:21.000 It was something we could do. 00:15:21.000 --> 00:15:22.000 We could go in. 00:15:22.000 --> 00:15:24.000 We could spend a day in there packing these boxes. 00:15:24.000 --> 00:15:35.000 And then we'd have the opportunity in our neighborhood and in our community to go to families with food insecurities and hand them boxes of food. 00:15:35.000 --> 00:15:40.000 So I went in, had a meeting in the office with the VP here in town. 00:15:40.000 --> 00:15:47.000 And I was ready to work with him, say yes, and as I sat down at the table in his office, he slid across the table with this piece of paper. 00:15:47.000 --> 00:15:49.000 It wasn't a background check. 00:15:49.000 --> 00:15:53.000 It wasn't like, "Hey, here's the volunteer release form." 00:15:53.000 --> 00:15:56.000 It was a theological statement. 00:15:56.000 --> 00:16:05.000 And he said, "In order to be one of the churches that works with us as a partner, I need you to look at a theological statement, go through it, and you have to agree to it. 00:16:05.000 --> 00:16:08.000 If you don't agree to it, we can't work together." 00:16:08.000 --> 00:16:11.000 I was like, "Okay." 00:16:11.000 --> 00:16:23.000 So Paul opened it up, and the word and erancy of Scripture showed up in that statement more than any other word. 00:16:23.000 --> 00:16:37.000 And I read it and I was like, "So what you're saying is that I'm required to affirm the erancy and infallibility of Scripture and to sign my name on this in a very narrow, rigid definition of Scripture. 00:16:37.000 --> 00:16:42.000 Before we can help hand out food to hungry kids." 00:16:42.000 --> 00:16:45.000 I mean, just that part. 00:16:45.000 --> 00:16:49.000 If you wanted to come in and pack food here, you could do that. 00:16:49.000 --> 00:16:53.000 I was like, "Well, can I? 00:16:53.000 --> 00:16:58.000 What about quite a few people in our church or LGBTQ? 00:16:58.000 --> 00:17:00.000 Could they come in here and pack?" 00:17:00.000 --> 00:17:07.000 Well, yeah, they could come pack. 00:17:07.000 --> 00:17:12.000 It was like, I had just like, shocked, "Wait, what?" 00:17:12.000 --> 00:17:16.000 As long as we don't take pictures, right? 00:17:16.000 --> 00:17:28.000 And I was like, I actually was like, I said, "It doesn't sound like I'm trying to sign something about the gospel here. 00:17:28.000 --> 00:17:34.000 It sounds like you just want me to agree on inerrancy and infallibility of Scripture in order for us to partner together." 00:17:34.000 --> 00:17:38.000 And he goes, "I don't know about all those big words." 00:17:38.000 --> 00:17:43.000 I said, "It's your statement." 00:17:43.000 --> 00:17:48.000 This looks like John MacArthur wrote this statement. 00:17:48.000 --> 00:17:51.000 And I found out he did. 00:17:51.000 --> 00:17:59.000 And I was like, "There's no way. We cannot sign this. We cannot partner with you if this is what I have to agree with." 00:17:59.000 --> 00:18:03.000 And that really stinks because we just want to hand out some food to some kids. 00:18:03.000 --> 00:18:07.000 But it's your ministry and if that doesn't work, I get it. 00:18:07.000 --> 00:18:12.000 But I cannot sign this. 00:18:12.000 --> 00:18:16.000 And we walked away from it. 00:18:16.000 --> 00:18:22.000 I think the most frustrating, never mind. Anyway, we won't go there. 00:18:22.000 --> 00:18:26.000 Say the thing. 00:18:26.000 --> 00:18:38.000 Okay, okay. At the time, one of our church members was one of their largest donors. 00:18:38.000 --> 00:18:43.000 And they didn't have to sign a statement in order to write a check, but we had to write a statement in order to hand out food. 00:18:43.000 --> 00:18:59.000 Anyway, so they would take your money not requiring your theology, but to give food to a child you had to align with their statement of belief. 00:18:59.000 --> 00:19:03.000 But that's what literalism lens does. 00:19:03.000 --> 00:19:08.000 It builds gates or Jesus built tables. 00:19:08.000 --> 00:19:15.000 It creates theological fine print that love has to sign before it's allowed in. 00:19:15.000 --> 00:19:26.000 And if that's what an erancy produces in practice, exclusion, gatekeeping, conditional compassion, 00:19:26.000 --> 00:19:31.000 then maybe the problem isn't people's lack of belief in the Bible. 00:19:31.000 --> 00:19:37.000 Maybe it's that we've believed the wrong things about the Bible. 00:19:37.000 --> 00:19:40.000 We take off this literalism lens. 00:19:40.000 --> 00:19:45.000 We can finally see things like Genesis 1 through 3 for what it really is. 00:19:45.000 --> 00:19:54.000 It's not a rule book or a science report, but it's a revelation about the character of God. 00:19:54.000 --> 00:20:01.000 In the beginning of Scripture, Adam and Eve disobey, and what does God do? 00:20:01.000 --> 00:20:06.000 He told them, "If you eat of this tree, you will surely die." 00:20:06.000 --> 00:20:11.000 They eat of the tree and disobey, and do they die? 00:20:11.000 --> 00:20:13.000 Did God kill them? 00:20:13.000 --> 00:20:16.000 No, no, he comes in, he says, "Adam, where are you?" 00:20:16.000 --> 00:20:18.000 Adam says, "We are hiding. I'm naked." 00:20:18.000 --> 00:20:20.000 And God goes, "Who told you you're naked?" 00:20:20.000 --> 00:20:28.000 And then God actually creates clothing for them to cover up and help them with their shame. 00:20:28.000 --> 00:20:32.000 He covers their shame, and then he still walks with them. 00:20:32.000 --> 00:20:35.000 They don't die. 00:20:35.000 --> 00:20:41.000 Richard Rohr says it this way that every time God forgives, 00:20:41.000 --> 00:20:50.000 God is saying that relationship is more important than God's own rules. 00:20:50.000 --> 00:20:55.000 Now, if relationship is more important than God's own rules to God, 00:20:55.000 --> 00:21:01.000 then maybe that's also how we should operate. 00:21:01.000 --> 00:21:07.000 Every time God forgives, he says that this relationship is what matters the most. 00:21:07.000 --> 00:21:14.000 Literalism can't see that because it's too busy defending its system. 00:21:14.000 --> 00:21:20.000 When literalism becomes our lens, love becomes conditional. 00:21:20.000 --> 00:21:28.000 Faith becomes a checklist, and God becomes small enough to fit inside of our certainties. 00:21:28.000 --> 00:21:36.000 Literalism leads us to fear, while love will lead us to freedom. 00:21:36.000 --> 00:21:43.000 Literalism draws lines, and Jesus consistently crosses them. 00:21:43.000 --> 00:21:46.000 The goal isn't to throw away the Bible. 00:21:46.000 --> 00:21:49.000 It's to read it better. 00:21:49.000 --> 00:21:51.000 It's to be honest with our approach to it. 00:21:51.000 --> 00:21:54.000 It's to be honest with what the Bible was meant to be. 00:21:54.000 --> 00:22:03.000 To let it be what it actually is, its poetry and prophecy and story and song and lament and love. 00:22:03.000 --> 00:22:08.000 It's humans writing God's story. 00:22:08.000 --> 00:22:12.000 The literalism lens says obey first, then you belong. 00:22:12.000 --> 00:22:21.000 Jesus says you belong, you're loved, and that's what's going to transform you. 00:22:21.000 --> 00:22:27.000 We take off this lens that limits love. 00:22:27.000 --> 00:22:30.000 I think we get to choose one that helps us see more clearly. 00:22:30.000 --> 00:22:35.000 This is what we get in this book as Zach is helping us point out. 00:22:35.000 --> 00:22:44.000 Hey, here's the different parts of Scripture that maybe we've taken out of context. 00:22:44.000 --> 00:22:48.000 Or maybe we've said that it's something that it's not. 00:22:48.000 --> 00:22:55.000 Maybe there are not bears waiting in the woods to maul a bunch of children. 00:22:55.000 --> 00:23:00.000 Maybe someone made that story up. 00:23:00.000 --> 00:23:04.000 But what do we do with that? 00:23:04.000 --> 00:23:09.000 If we're not reading it this way, then what do I do? 00:23:09.000 --> 00:23:12.000 Well, that's what we're going to talk about the next few weeks. 00:23:12.000 --> 00:23:18.000 It's the other lenses, the ways that we approach Scripture where Jesus is the way that we read Scripture. 00:23:18.000 --> 00:23:26.000 We see what Jesus does and says we see who God is and what God does. 00:23:26.000 --> 00:23:29.000 We don't have to draw lines. 00:23:29.000 --> 00:23:37.000 If we draw lines and if we exclude people, then we're doing things that Jesus never did. 00:23:37.000 --> 00:23:45.000 If you want to be honest with it, you have to step back and say, which one's right? 00:23:45.000 --> 00:23:49.000 Or was God bipolar? 00:23:49.000 --> 00:23:56.000 Like the Old Testament is just a different God and the New Testament with Jesus is the nice one. 00:23:56.000 --> 00:24:01.000 I mean, you have to. 00:24:01.000 --> 00:24:04.000 You can't have it both ways. 00:24:04.000 --> 00:24:10.000 I mean, you can, but it's just not honest. 00:24:10.000 --> 00:24:14.000 So last week I gave you a practice. 00:24:14.000 --> 00:24:16.000 Who did their homework? 00:24:16.000 --> 00:24:17.000 Yes. 00:24:17.000 --> 00:24:19.000 One of you. 00:24:19.000 --> 00:24:20.000 Two. 00:24:20.000 --> 00:24:21.000 I got two. 00:24:21.000 --> 00:24:22.000 Two. 00:24:22.000 --> 00:24:23.000 Yes. 00:24:23.000 --> 00:24:29.000 I think I actually said it wasn't homework, but it was. 00:24:29.000 --> 00:24:31.000 I'm going to give you more homework. 00:24:31.000 --> 00:24:32.000 Another one. 00:24:32.000 --> 00:24:40.000 Another practice to open up Scripture with a fresh set of eyes. 00:24:40.000 --> 00:24:43.000 I want you to read Genesis 1 through 3. 00:24:43.000 --> 00:24:49.000 You may notice that there's two creation stories, one in Genesis 1, one in Genesis 2, and they don't actually line up. 00:24:49.000 --> 00:24:53.000 And you're going to be like, whoa, we were created twice. 00:24:53.000 --> 00:24:56.000 No, just it was written two different ways. 00:24:56.000 --> 00:25:00.000 And in Genesis 1 through 3 with your fresh eyes, don't ask, how did this happen? 00:25:00.000 --> 00:25:04.000 Ask, what does this reveal about who God is? 00:25:04.000 --> 00:25:10.000 Do you see how the different, the answer, the approach to this is different? 00:25:10.000 --> 00:25:14.000 Number two, notice where belief has become a barrier in your world. 00:25:14.000 --> 00:25:19.000 Ask, would Jesus stop here or keep moving toward love? 00:25:19.000 --> 00:25:29.000 I will tell you, if you start asking that question theologically and in practice, it's going to get you in trouble. 00:25:29.000 --> 00:25:33.000 Because you're just going to keep moving toward love, and keep moving toward love. 00:25:33.000 --> 00:25:36.000 And you're going to keep loving people and being compassionate with people. 00:25:36.000 --> 00:25:46.000 And it's going to be people that scripture or the way that interpretation of scripture maybe tells you they're not supposed to sit at the table. 00:25:46.000 --> 00:25:51.000 And then you look at Jesus and you go, but that's who he sat with. 00:25:51.000 --> 00:25:55.000 How? 00:25:55.000 --> 00:25:58.000 I know Jesus knew scripture. 00:25:58.000 --> 00:26:01.000 He knew the law. 00:26:01.000 --> 00:26:10.000 I was even told that Jesus was sinless, anybody else? But if you break the law, that was called a sin. 00:26:10.000 --> 00:26:13.000 What is Jesus so? 00:26:13.000 --> 00:26:17.000 Or maybe there's a different way to approach this. 00:26:17.000 --> 00:26:20.000 And maybe Jesus was showing us this. 00:26:20.000 --> 00:26:27.000 Maybe he was calling out the hypocrisy of how we were approaching scripture that talked about him. 00:26:27.000 --> 00:26:34.000 Maybe he was saying this story points to me and you've read me all wrong. 00:26:34.000 --> 00:26:40.000 And I'm here to show you who I really am. 00:26:40.000 --> 00:26:48.000 Brian Zahn says that Jesus is what God has to say. 00:26:48.000 --> 00:26:58.000 If we take Jesus and we take the written scripture, one of them is God's word to us as humanity. 00:26:58.000 --> 00:27:02.000 The other is supposed to point to the word. 00:27:02.000 --> 00:27:05.000 And I'll give you a hint. 00:27:05.000 --> 00:27:10.000 The word is a person, not. Words on paper. 00:27:10.000 --> 00:27:15.000 John says that in John 1 that the word was with God and the word was God. 00:27:15.000 --> 00:27:21.000 Jesus is the word of God. Jesus is what God has to say to you. 00:27:21.000 --> 00:27:25.000 We'll get into that in the Jesus lens. I'm jumping ahead. 00:27:25.000 --> 00:27:35.000 So, as you do this practice, and as you go this week, I want you to know that you are free. 00:27:35.000 --> 00:27:38.000 You're free to read scripture differently. 00:27:38.000 --> 00:27:41.000 You're free to bring your questions. 00:27:41.000 --> 00:27:47.000 Free to let go of fear based interpretations that made you feel small. 00:27:47.000 --> 00:27:51.000 You don't have to defend the Bible to love it. 00:27:51.000 --> 00:27:57.000 You don't have to understand every verse to encounter God through it. 00:27:57.000 --> 00:28:04.000 Reading the Bible with curiosity and compassion and imagination, it's not rebellion. 00:28:04.000 --> 00:28:10.000 It's actually faith at its most honest. 00:28:10.000 --> 00:28:18.000 Because what makes your reading sacred is not how literal it is. 00:28:18.000 --> 00:28:23.000 But how much love it produces. 00:28:23.000 --> 00:28:27.000 So, may you see scripture not as a weapon or a test. 00:28:27.000 --> 00:28:32.000 But as a living conversation between God and humanity. 00:28:32.000 --> 00:28:38.000 And an invitation to wonder, to wrestle and to grow. 00:28:38.000 --> 00:28:49.000 And may you find that as you let go of the need to be certain, you become more open to love. 00:28:49.000 --> 00:28:56.000 And then we do what we say every week, arsenal, just go love well. 00:28:56.000 --> 00:28:59.000 That's who we're meant to be. 00:28:59.000 --> 00:29:06.000 So, we do that this week. Walk into freedom that God loves you, that you belong, 00:29:06.000 --> 00:29:15.000 that every time God forgives, He says that that relationship is more important than even His own rules. 00:29:15.000 --> 00:29:19.000 Go allow Him to love you this week and then love well. 00:29:19.000 --> 00:29:22.000 That's who you're made to be. We'll see you next week.