A Bible Study Plan, Part 5: Luke 18:18-27

               VI.            Our choices

 The Luke passage does not have the phrase that Mark included, “Jesus, looking at him, loved him…” (Mark 10:21a). Without that reminder in Luke, we might miss that Jesus is saying all that he says to the man out of love. As Wesley said, the Savior knew his heart. What is most important to us? Is it God? Or is it money? Security? Admiration? William Barclay writes, “The whole tendency of possession is to shackle our thoughts to this world….It is not a sin to have much wealth – but it is danger to the soul and a great responsibility.”  He goes on, “For those who walk the Christian way there may be things the world calls hard, but beyond them all and through them all, there is a peace which the world cannot give and cannot take away, and a joy that no one can take away.”  (Barclay 1953, 272). Jesus is calling the ruler and us to “store our treasurers in heaven.” 

 

We are told that the rich young man walked away from Jesus, grieving, but we are not told what happens after that.  We might assume he is unwilling to do what Jesus has asked him to do, and that that is why the man walks away.  Maybe we make that assumption because that is what we believe we would do.  This short-changes the possibilities. 

 

We are invited to allow God to do the impossible in our lives.  Will we let go of what we value and trust the most so that we can enter into a relationship with God?  Will we allow God to do the impossible and change the world through us?

 

Prayer: Creating, loving, sustaining God. Remind us that you look up us with love. Remind us that when we place our trust in something other than you, we miss your kingdom. Open our eyes, open our hearts to you when you remind us that through God, all things are possible.  Open our world to possibilities. Amen.

 

A Bible Study Plan, Part 4: John 18:18-27

 V.                   The text and our world 

A.    Wesley’s view

Late in John Wesley’s life, he preached a sermon entitled “Causes of the Inefficacy of Christianity.” To me it reads like a lament for how, even though we are equipped by God to do good work in the world, and have the ability to practice Christian discipline, still we are not effective as Christians.  He preached, “Many of your brethren, beloved of God, have not food to eat; they have not raiment to put on; they have not a place where to lay their head. And why are they thus distressed? Because you impiously, unjustly, and cruelly detain from them what your Master and theirs lodges in your hands on purpose to supply their wants?  (Wesley in Outler and Heitzenrater 1991, 553)

 

B.     Our world today

 

Q: How is our world today similar to the world described in the passage?

 

Q: What does our culture in the United States value?  Transactions. Success measured by accumulated wealth. Independence (pulling up by the bootstraps)

 

Q: How does this passage speak into our lives today?

 

C.     Current Situations

1.      According to Pew Research, “Economic inequality, whether measured through the gaps in income or wealth between richer and poorer households, continues to widen.” (Pew Research)  

Q: How does the passage speak to this situation in our society?

 

2.      According to Kids Count data, 20% of children in West Virginia live in poverty. According to the DHHR in WV, over 6000 children are currently in state custody – that could be adoptive homes, detention, hospitals, foster care, etc. 

Q: What light does our passage shed on this situation?

 

3.      According to Earthday.org, “The [garment] industry employs approximately 75 million factory workers worldwide, yet less than 2% earn a living wage. Garment workers endure unsafe conditions, wage theft, exhausting hours, minimal pay, and gender-based harassment… As the industry has changed, fashion brands have shifted their supply chain model from one based on trust and innovation to one based on mistrust and punishment, using punitive tactics to meet quotas. The modern fashion supply chain is designed for maximum efficiency and speed, driving huge profit margins for brands at the expense of workers. 

Q: What is our role in this?

 

Q: What wisdom from the Luke passage can we gain as we confront this?

A Bible Study Plan, Part 3: Luke 18:18-27

 

I.                   Background to the passage

 

A.    Who wrote it?  The authorship of the Gospel of Luke is anonymous.  According to Fred B. Craddock, we can “sketch a general portrait of the writer.”  The author was not an eyewitness to the story; he relied on other sources.  His writing style demonstrates that he is a person of education, familiar with the “narrative current in that culture.”  Traditionally, the author of the Gospel is Luke, a companion of Paul’s (Craddock 1988, 925).  We believe that Luke and Acts were written by the same person – a two-part volume.

 

B.     When was it written? The time of the writing is also under debate. It was written before or after A.D. 70. (Campbell and Pennington 2020, 120). If we estimate the work was completed between A.D. 60 and 90, then we can see that at least one and maybe more generations have passed since Christ’s ministry.  There is a need of an orderly account – Luke even talks about this in the prologue to the book.

C.     To whom was it written?  It is most likely that the first readers of the Gospel were gentile Christians, probably from a Greek background. (Craddock 1988, 926).   The Greco-Roman world that Luke encountered would have been controlled by the Romans, although still influenced by Greek culture. (Campbell and Pennington 2020. 22-51)

 

D.    Why was it written? Luke’s purposes were to provide an orderly and trustworthy account of the life of Jesus while at the same time sharing the “good news” of Christ, especially for the marginalized. 

Luke’s themes include:

 

1.      Luke helps readers understand that salvation is for all. “Although Jesus’s initiatives towards all persons regardless of their social standing are a common feature of all the Gospels, no other Gospel is so clear and emphatic on this point.” (Culpepper 1995, 21).   Imagine for a moment that the man was present when Jesus was telling the disciples, “Truly I tell you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will never enter it.”  (Luke 18:17 – right before our passage). 

 

Q: How would a rich ruler react to the idea that he had to come to the kingdom as a child would come? Would this have been part of his motivation for his question?

 

“If children are paradigm-setters for God’s reign, what place will a member of the social elite have?” (Carol 2010, 701). His expectation would have been that he would be honored because of his status; Jesus turns that upside down and tells him that his status, based on wealth, is his prevents him from entering the kingdom.

 

2.      In Luke we see Jesus’s focus on the marginalized – women, the poor, and the outcast. Adam Hamilton, in his book Luke, writes that one of the overarching themes in the Gospel of Luke is that the author wants “to appeal to the same people he notes Jesus appealed to: the outsiders, the outcasts, and even the outlaws…. (Hamilton 2022, XVI).   

 

Q: Where do you see that in the passage?

 

3.      The Gospel focuses on questions relating to not only the inclusion of the Gentiles in the Kingdom of God, but also the continuing loyalty of God for the Jews. Luke works to ensure people God had not abandoned the Jews while welcoming the Gentiles.   We’re assuming that the man is a Jew, because he follows the commandments. 

 

Q: What would this passage have said to a Jewish listener?

 

Q: What would it have said to a Gentile listener?

A Bible Study Plan, Part 2: John 18:18-21

 B.    The Eighteenth Chapter 

        Let’s take a look at what comes before and after our passage in the 18^th chapter:

1.      The conversation with the rich young ruler follows:

a.       The Parable of the Widow and the Unjust Judge (Luke 18:1-8) – a widow persistently nags a judge – the judge grants her what she wants just so she will leave him alone.

b.      The Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector (Luke 18:9-14) – a pharisee and a tax collector are in the temple to pray. The Pharisee is grateful he is not like “those other people,” and the tax collector asks God for mercy.

c.       Jesus interacting with children (Luke 18:15-17). – “let the children come to me – you must receive the kingdom as a child does.”

 

2.      Following the conversation with the rich ruler:

a.       Jesus tells of his death and resurrection (Luke 18:31-34),

b.      Jesus heals a blind beggar (Luke 18:35-43). Jesus is approaching Jericho, and a man yells at the Son of David to heal him. Jesus heals him, and says, “Your faith has made you well.”

 

Q: Do you see a common thread running through Chapter 18?

 

To various degrees, all of these passages describe a reversal of status.  “What may appear to be little more than a string of unrelated episodes in this narrative section is actually a series of scenes held together by the common theme of division between those who have faith and act faithfully, on the one hand, and those who are self-possessed and position themselves over against the active beneficence of God, on the other.” (Green 2003, 1888).

A Bible Study Plan - John 18:18-27

I. Introduction

Open with prayer.

In our time together today we’ll being taking a deep dive into the story of the “rich young ruler” as found in the book of Luke, chapter 18, verses 18-27. 

Q: Are you familiar with the story?

 

A.     (If the answer in the class is yes): What do you remember about it? (As answers are shared, write them on the whiteboard.  To prompt responses, ask questions such as: Who was Jesus talking to? What was Jesus asked? How did Jesus respond? What was the response? What else do you remember?

 

B.     (If the answer to the question is silence or no, then do this instead of the white board, tell the story…Skip this part if there have been responses to I.A.)  The story we’ll be discussing today is about a rich young man who comes to ask Jesus about what he needs to do to inherit eternal life.  After the two of them talk about following the law, Jesus tells him that he needs to do one thing more – sell all he owns and give the money to the poor; then come follow Jesus. The man is sad – he has many possessions.  Then Jesus tells him and those gathered around something surprising.

 II.                Reading the Scripture

Distribute Handout A to two people who agree to be readers – Man and Jesus. Distribute a Handout to everyone else with the passage in New Revised Standard.  Ask the readers to read the passage, along with the teacher as narrator. 

 

Q: Anything surprising about what you heard?

III.         A Closer Look at the Passage

III.             A closer look at the passage

 

A.    Comparison to other Gospel stories

This story we’re looking at today is in two other gospels – Matthew and Mark.

 

Use the whiteboard information that to indicate which parts are in Luke or Matthew or Mark, using the table below. Circle (or add and circle) those things which are unique to Luke; place an X on those items in other gospels.  Be sure to mention the ones in bold – the others are not as important to the rest of the lesson.

 

If the class wasn’t familiar with the story as the lesson started, share information comparing the three gospels.

 

Luke 18:18-27	Matthew 19:16-26	Mark 10:17-31
Calls the man a ruler	Calls him someone	Calls him a man
	The man asks which commandments he must follow
	Adds love your neighbor as yourself	Adds, you shall not defraud.
	The man asks what he lacks	Jesus looks at him and loves him.
“You lack one thing”	“If you wish to be perfect”	“You lack one thing”
The man does not leave, and Jesus directs the comment about the rich entering heaven to the man.	The man leaves, and Jesus tells his disciples how hard it will be for the rich to enter the kingdom of God.	The man leaves, and Jesus tells his disciples how hard it will be for the rich to enter the kingdom of God.

 

Q: Any thoughts anyone wants to share here?

 

For me, one of the most interesting parts about the comparison is that in Mark, Jesus looks at the man and loves him.  According to the notes on Mark in The New Interpreter’s Study Bible this is “the only person in the Gospel Jesus is said to love.” (Tolbert 2003. 1829)

 

I also find it interesting that the man doesn’t leave in Luke – he goes away and doesn’t hear what Jesus says to the disciples, including the point that with God all things are possible. In Luke, the man sticks around to hear that point of hope.

I also want to point out that nothing in the Bible tells us what happens to the man.  It is open ended.  We often hear “The man couldn’t do what Jesus asked – but that’s not in the Bible.  Keep that in mind as we continue.

 

Critical Tasks

 

What are the most critical tasks in understanding the Bible so that you can preach or teach with integrity?

For me, the most critical tasks in understanding the Bible in order to preach or teach it are:

1. Spend time often in Bible Study. I think this background task will build not only the skills to do Bible study but also the foundational knowledge to uphold and enrich our study for specific preaching and teaching.
2. Invite God into the process. Spend some time in prayer and read the passage that is the focus on the sermon or lesson devotionally, as we have done in class.  I think this not only brings God into our exploration of the passage, but also helps us to discern the message God wants us to share with our congregation or class.
3. Expand your reading. In working on the exegesis project for our class, I found my study was enriched by reading what came before and after my passage and what was in parallel Gospel stories. How does the passage connect to other passages in the Bible?
4. Research the passage itself. Learn about who the passage was written for, how others have interpreted it, for example.
5. Stop researching and write. It is so easy to get caught up in what we can read that others have written that we need to say when enough is enough.

Critical Methods

What do you understand about modern scholarship's "critical" methods?

Critical methods are the tools that modern scholars can use to read and deeply study scripture in a way that helps us to interpret what the original authors meant when they wrote the passages, how that was influenced by their cultures, sources, genre, and context. Critical methods provide a multifaceted means of understanding the scripture.

How can these methods help us in our biblical interpretation?

Each different critical method can provide a different perspective to understand the scripture.  Form criticism examines the genre of the text and the ideas important to the early church. Care must be taken when using this type of criticism to not loose sight of the fact that the passages were written to an eyewitness story about Jesus and not necessarily to respond to a current church issue.  Source criticism examines the sources of the scripture; did one Gospel serve as the source for another one? Redaction criticism examines the role of the writer as editor – how did the “editor” strengthen his message about Jesus through what was included in the Gospel and in what order it was presented. Literary criticism focuses on the Gospels as literature – either as only literature or as literature in the gith of history or canon. Reception criticism focuses on how the texts were read in the past. For example, I can imagine that knowing how a person in Corinth read and understood Paul’s letter to the Corinthians would help us to understand what Paul was trying to convey in the letter.  An in-depth study of Scripture should include more than one method if criticism so that a fuller and more accurate understanding (from different perspectives) is found.  (Source of information is Chapter Five of the Text)

What's the purpose?

I'm slowing working my way through the book Short Stories by Jesus by Amy-Jill Levine.  Slowly, not because of the quality of the book - it's wonderful - but because I only read about 10 minutes a day from it.  It is my morning devotional reading. 

Anyway, I found this gem last week:

She is quoting the Apocryphal  book, Fourth Maccabees.  Eliezer the lawyer is speaking, and he says that the Torah has invaluable merit: it "teaches us self-control, so that we master all pleasures and desire, and it also trains us in courage, so that we endure any suffering willingly; it instructs us in justice, so that in all our dealings we act impartially, and it teaches us piety, so that with proper reverence we worship the only living God (5.23-24).

You may agree or disagree with Eliezer.  This is, after all, his view of the purpose of the Torah (what we consider the first five books of the Hebrew Bible (aka for us, the Old Testament).  But the question is a good one.  What is the purpose of the Bible for you?  I don't mean why it exists - I mean, what purpose does it serve in your life? What difference does it make in the way you live, the courage you demonstrate, the fairness you offer, and your relationship with God?

The Art of Translation

One of the podcast I like to listen to is called "the Bible for Normal People."  The episode this week was an interview with Robert Alter called "The Art of Translating the Bible."

Have you ever thought of translation as art?  Well-crafted writing is art, so I can imagine that translating the written word from one language to another could be considered an art. 

Do you remember in the story of Samson (in Judges), Samson tells 30 men at a party that if they solve his riddle, he will buy them each a set of clothes? They finally coax the answer out of Samson's wife, so he loose the bet.  He goes to Ashkelon, a Philistine city, and kills 30 men, takes their clothes, and gives them to the 30 men at the party.

Or at least that's what most translations say.

But Alter talks about this in the podcast.  He says that the word for clothes used when the bet is made is slightly different than the word for clothes when Samson kills the 30 men.  Alter says if you translate it a little bit differently, then the meaning changes.  The second word that is translated a clothes is only used one other time in the Bible - in the telling of the war between the supporters of King Saul and of the (to be) King David.  It has to do with a warrior - and modern translators say that the word here is a piece of clothing.  But that isn't what warriors take when they slay a foe - they don't take clothes, they take armor.

Alter says that Samson doesn't kill 30 ordinary men - he kills 30 warriors.  And he brings back their armor.  

Think about the difference that makes in how we read the story.  The first way - killing 30 men and taking their clothes - makes Samson look like man who doesn't want to pay for 30 sets of clothes, so he kills men and takes their clothes instead.  If you think of it as 30 warriors with 30 sets of armor, imagine the different message that it sends to the 30 men at the party.  "I am Samson.  I can kill 30 WARRIORS just on my own."

Art.

Spouting Verses

A couple of weeks ago in worship, the lectionary reading was the temptation of Jesus. Jesus goes into the wilderness for 40 days, fasting.  The devil comes to him, and tempts him.  What was interesting to me that morning in worship was that for temptation, the devil used bible verses from the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament).

In a world where I hear so many people quoting Bible verses to make a point, this struck home with me.  I don’t think we are the devil when we quote scripture, but I think that story points us to a conclusion that is extremely important in our faith. The purpose of the Bible is not that it is to be used as a weapon. It isn’t to be used as an “instruction” manual, with verses lifted up as arrows.

So, what is the purpose of the Bible?

I'm reading a book called How the Bible Actually Works by Peter Enns.  He writes that the purpose of the Bible is to invite us to pursue a quest for wisdom.  This is how God designed the Bible; and don't you and I believe that God knew what he was doing?

If God knew the best kind of sacred writing we would need, and I believe that to be true, then what is God’s plan? His purpose for this writing? Peter Enns says that the pursuit of wisdom is God's Plan A.

Think about that the next time you are tempted to spout Bible verses in support of what you believe. Anita, in Sunday school, put it best today.  "Don't use the Bible like the drunk who uses light post for support instead of for illumination."

Holy, Perfect, and Clear

I'm currently reading Peter Enn's book, How the Bible Actually Works.  I picked it up because I very much enjoy (and learn from) his (with Jared Byas) podcast, The Bible for Normal People.  If you can follow that weirdly constructed sentence, then , go , now and subscribe to that podcast.

In the very beginning of the book, Enns writes, "The spiritual disconnection many people feel today stems precisely from expecting (or being told to expect) the Bible to be holy, perfect, and clear, while in fact after reading it they find it to be morally suspect, out of touch, confusing, and just plain weird.  As you read that sentence, what is your reaction? Are you thinking, "Yes, I know what he means?" or are you thinking "Sacrilege!  Why is she reading that book?"

I want to approach the Bible the way God intended for me to approach it.  I want to be prepared to hear the Word of God through it, and not what other people tell me I should hear.  I want to respect this gift we have from God and not misuse it.  

When I hear someone say that the earth is 6000 years old or so, because the Bible told him so, I cringe.  When I hear that a Southern Baptist Church can be removed from their convention by appointing a woman as senior pastor, because the Bible told them so, I cringe.   And when I hear that a loving gay couple is rejected because the Bible says their love is an abomination, I cringe.  And all of these actions are taken because people say the Bible is holy, perfect, and clear.

I believe the bible is holy.  I have never found the Bible to be clear.  Ever.  It is wonderfully complicated and contradictory.  And if it is perfect, it is perfect in its depth and wisdom, not in its infallibility. And there are those of you who have stopped reading now, and doubt my connection to God. That's OK.  I love  you anyway, because the Bible told me so. Which it does.

Enns talks about the Bible as a book of wisdom, leading us to God.  It is a book (or several books, stories, letters, poems, etc) that speak to us of God, and through which we can find God, and because of which God can reach us.  It is a book that leads us to an understanding of who God is.  

It is complicated and contradictory and lovely.  It is full of people's experiences of God.  It contains a depth that none of us have yet to completely understand or explore.  It is holy.

And for me, when we call it simple and clear, we disrespect it.  And when we use it to support our own beliefs instead of allowing to be a conduit of grace and a means to wisdom, to take the Lord's name in vain.

We all need to stop doing that.  

Sanctifying Grace: Suspend Belief

This is the fourth post in a series about finding sanctifying grace in the Bible instead of using it for our own purposes.  Some of the content of these posts is from the International Bible Series based on a lesson I taught at our Annual Conference this year.

This is a quote from Thomas Steagald:

Reading scripture, especially familiar scripture, calls us to “suspend belief,” set aside presumed clear and simple meaning, at least until the text should if it does, teach us that particular meaning again. Of course, it may not.”

We are so familiar with the passages of scripture that before we even start studying, we think we know what the passage is about. This quote calls us to suspend that belief – to open our hearts and minds to hear the scripture anew, and to allow God to lead us to whatever understanding we are called to hear.

We talked about parables in yesterday's post; they were told by Jesus in order to move the hearer into active thought – to question what they thought they knew. Parables can do the same for us if we allow them to, and can help us in the never ending job of discernment. Going back to William Barclay – he says that parables can reveal truth to those who want to see it, and it conceals truth from those who do not wish to see it.

I think that sometimes we are so entrenched in what we have been taught, in what we already think, that we are afraid to listen to God through the passage anew, because, heaven forbid, God might be saying something to us to challenge what we know, or to move us to a new, better, deeper understanding. But do we want that? If we don't, then I think we will never hear God in scripture - we will only hear ourselves.

In other words, a parable, or Bible study, can be means of grace – sanctifying grace – a way for God to transform us, and help us to grow – if we allow them to be.

Sanctifying Grace: Form

This is the third post in a series about finding sanctifying grace in the Bible instead of using it for our own purposes.  Some of the content of these posts is from the International Bible Series based on a lesson I taught at our Annual Conference this year.

 

Literary form is important. For example, if I read to you the poem by Maya Angelo called “I know why the caged bird sings” then, knowing it is poem, and that a poem has meaning beyond the words themselves, you would know its not really about the bird – it’s about the truth that the poem tells us. Bible study is the same. Bible text come to us in a literary form. There are lots of forms – sermon, genealogy, proverb, allegory, prayer, song. Knowing the literary form, we know know more about what the author was telling us.

If you were in English class, and the teacher asked you to write a paper based on an assigned reading, wouldn't knowing the literary form be important to your examination of the assignment? Would you write the same paper on Angelo's poem if you thought it was a historical document? We need to give the Bible the same respect we would provide to an English assignment.

To dig that concept down deeper, I'm going to focus on the literary form known as a parable. Parable literally means to “throw beside” or “to compare.” Jesus wasn’t the only person in the bible who told parables. Think back to Nathan, the prophet, who went to David and told him the story of a lamb – favorite pet of a farmer. The lamb grew up with the family – it was like another family member. A rich man comes and seizes the precious lamb. David is outraged until Nathan explains that he (David) is that rich man in his dealing with Bathsheba and her husband. A parable – a story that in and of itself may be not true – but it leads to truth. There is truth in it, and that is what is important.

CH Dodd, a new testament scholar, said this about parables: “At its simplest, the parable is a metaphor or simile drawn from nature or common life, arresting the hearer by its vividness or strangeness, and leaving the mind in sufficient doubt about its precise application to tease it into active thought.” I love that – “to tease our minds into active thought.”

William Barclay says that a parable begins with the everyday – with what people understand, and leads them to things they do not understand and to open their eyes to that which they did not see before.

Extrapolating from that example, we don't read a parable to learn what the farmer did. We read the parable to learn the message Jesus was telling those who were listening - the Truth. And then we ask God how that Truth can be applied in our own context and our own world.  

Now I'm going to walk on shakier ground, but if you've come this far, maybe you'll come a little farther with me. Think about the first chapters of Genesis. What is this literary form? Is it history? Or is it something else? If it is history, then the seven days are seven days, and there is no evolution, and the world is less that 5000 years old. But if these chapters are something other than history - perhaps origin stories - then what we can hear from them is that God was the God at the beginning, and that God created and loved all. We learn that we belong to God, and that we have been given dominion over the world, to care for it. The number of days isn't important. The Creator is. The Truth we read can be applied to the world we see around us, without us ignoring or rationalizing away the facts in front of us.

Literary form is important, and it can lead us to Truth.

Sanctifying Grace: Context

This is the second post in a series about finding sanctifying grace in the Bible instead of using it for our own purposes.  Some of the content of these posts is from the International Bible Series based on a lesson I taught at our Annual Conference this year.

1. I firmly believe that context is important.  If I said to you that the Cardinals battled the Pirates to the bitter end, you might make a guess as to what I was talking about. The truth is, I could be telling you a story about Roman priests fighting with actual pirates, or I could be relating the results of a baseball game to you. You don’t know if you don’t know the context. The same is true of Bible Study.

As you are reading a passage, ask yourself, or find out:

• To whom was the passage written? Was the author of the passage speaking to a particular issue in that culture?
• How does that setting "color" what has been written? For example, when reading about the food laws in the Old Testament, is it important to know about the people and their circumstances? I think it might be.
• What issues were being addressed in that audience? When Paul says that women shouldn't speak in worship and should go home and ask their husbands, what role does context play? Is he writing a law? Or is he speaking in a particular city to a particular group of people dealing with a particular issue?

In addition to the external context, think about where the scripture itself sits in The Bible.  So often we do not do this. We lift passages out of context and look at them as if nothing came before and nothing comes after.  If you read a parable, look at the chapter it is in. What was happening at the time? What other parables are near the one you are reading? How do those parables round out the message of your particular passage? Looking back at our previous list, knowing where the passage is placed in the Bible can help you understand who Jesus is speaking to, what issue he is addressing, and what else he has to say on the same topic.

Without context, we can really misinterpret scripture, and lifting a passage out of context is a dangerous thing to do.

Why be Careful with Scripture?

If you are reading this Blog, I imagine, although I do not know for certain, that you spend some time reading the Bible. Or that you are in church, and you hear sermons preached, based on scripture. I hope that you will agree with me that it is important to do either of those tasks carefully. I taught Sunday school at Annual Conference this year. As part of the lesson, I talked about this subject.  Since I so much believe that this is an important topic for all of us to consider, I'm going to use this week on the blog to expand on that part of the lesson. 

Why do we need to be careful with how we interpret scripture and apply it to our lives? We are not here to use the Bible to support what we believe, but instead to hear the living word of God as spoken to us through scirpture, and to allow that grace of us God to shape the way we believe. So many people in history have used the Bible to support un-God-like and unholy beliefs and have used the Bible to hurt people, to bring harm, and un-gracefilled judgment. Think of slave-holders who used the Bible to oppress the people they believed they owned. Think of those who used the Bible to prevent women from reaching their God-given potential or who used the Bible to force women to stay in physically or mentally harmful homes (and who still do). Think of those who use the Bible to say that those among us who are hungry or homeless deserve what they get and who should not be helped. 

How do we NOT do that? How do we read the gift that has been given to us as a way for God to speak to us? We'll explore that as we go.

 

Feel free to share you thoughts in the comments.