Speaker 1: Welcome to the commons cast. We're glad to have you here. We hope you find something meaningful in our teaching this week. Head to commons.church for more information.
Speaker 2: Last week, we started into a new series together, and it is called disarming the bible. And this is a series where we are attempting to tackle some pretty big ideas together. Last week, we talked about our definitional images of god. Today, we talk about inspiration versus inherency As a framework for reading the bible, next week, we'll talk about atonement theories, what's going on in the cross. And finally, we'll talk about How we process the violence in our scriptures.
So, yeah, there are a lot of big ideas to wrestle with here. But I do wanna say thank you for sticking with me last week on a fairly heady sermon. We covered a lot of ground, including the idea of god as ground of being. But to recap a few ideas here, we talked about how this phrase disarming the Bible can go in 2 very different directions. 1st, how reducing the Bible down to just a list of rules.
And a very tightly prescribed boundary for life is actually, In a lot of ways, what is disarming the scope of what Jesus wants to accomplish in us. And don't get me wrong. I understand the desire for rules. I remember at 16 years old, when I first got my driver's license by the way, if you wanna know how old I am, I am old enough that getting my driver's license at 16 was a really big deal. Apparently, nobody cares about that anymore.
And you know what? Good for you, Gen z. You guys are awesome. When I was 16, it was still a big deal. And I remember I got my license, and my parents wanted me to be safe, but they also wanted me to learn responsibility.
And so instead of giving me a hard curfew, they told me to make wise decisions. However, when I would make decisions that they did not think were wise, then we would have to have conversations about how my choices affected my schoolwork and my sisters And those around me, and I remember literally at one point just asking for a curfew. Give me a rule I can break like every other kid instead of all this conversation. Now this is not parenting advice. If your curfews are your thing, you do you.
But I do think that at some point, Faith has to be about leaving the curfew behind and actually learning to make better decisions. Because if we Keep holding on to the boundaries as if they were the point long after they have served their purpose. We might find ourselves in bed on time, but Probably not actually more loving people. And that's really the point of following Jesus, to be conformed to the likeness of Christ. Now, of course, that launched us into the 2nd part of the conversation, reflecting on the ways the Bible has been used as a weapon against certain people.
And so we talked about a couple things that are really important to keep in our minds as we read. The most important being, this idea that god is love. Now not loving as if god could choose love As a disposition or an affect, but love as the foundational nature of the divine. And there are certain scriptures that hint at this reality. We talked about first John 4 last week, but, really, this is a theological presupposition.
If god is Triune and if god is community, that means not only is god love, but god can only be love. See, god, unlike anything else in the universe, can love within god's self. God doesn't need an object to love, But that also means that things like wrath or anger or justice or compassion or mercy and holiness, as important as all of these are, They can never be definitional for god because they are meaningless within god. God has always been perfect love. God has not always had a need for, say, wrath or even for holiness.
Those ideas don't take shape Until there is a creation for god to interact with. And that means that while we need to take All of these different descriptions for god, seriously, they ultimately must remain subordinate to love in our imagination of who god is. God is love, and therefore, god can be compassionate toward us, Or god can be angry at our sin or god can be grieved by the hurt that we cause each other, but it's love that is always defining god's posture toward us, and that, as an assumed reality about the divine, will then shape everything we read in our Bibles. Today, we lean into the question of how to read the Bible well. 1st, let's pray.
God of love, who is love, who chooses love, who allows love to flow through all of your interactions with us. Might we slowly, steadily, truly come to understand this foundational reality? And as we do, As we come to trust in your goodness, might we then lean into your presence that surrounds us even now? May we seek to embody that loving presence in our relationships, in our friendships, in our marriages, with our kids, When we meet a stranger, when we pet a dog, when we sit alone, when we marvel at nature, may love guide us Always back to you. And then might that same love shape how we read your word And how we make sense of your story and how we find our place in it.
Right? That same love shape how we invite others to discover their place in that same story. In the strong name, the risen Christ we pray. Amen. K.
Today is all about how we read the bible, and we are going to cover The Last of Us, Good stories, all scripture and god breathed. Let's start with a question here. What makes a good story? Oh, right now, you may have heard about you may, in fact, actually be sick of hearing about this new HBO show, The Last of Us. People are talking about it, 1, because it's very good, 2, because it's based on a video game, and 3, I think here in Calgary, let's be honest, we're talking about it because it was filmed in Alberta.
And I know at least a couple people here in the commons community that were extras on the show, so that's pretty cool. Look for them. But if you are into zombie, although not technically zombie apocalypse shows, this one is for you. It's really good. I happen to be a fan of that kind of stuff.
I also happen to have played the video game the show was based on, so I was quite intrigued by this release. Now by the way, I love video games. I get very little time to play video games, but I am convinced that part of the reason I love a good game is because So much of my career is always perpetually unfinished. Being a pastor is about learning to become comfortable with loose ends. As soon as I finish writing 1 sermon, the next Sunday is coming.
I am always learning and rethinking ideas I thought were set, and My relationship with everyone here is always an ongoing evolving thing. So I will never finish anything in my career. I have made my peace with that. It is all just part of the beauty of life unfolding together. There's something really profound in that, And I actually love what I do precisely because of that.
However, it is sometimes nice to go home and start something I can actually finish And accomplish, you get a nice little digital trophy for, and then pack away and move on to the next thing. So there's video games as personal therapy, I suppose, but I think it's also why I tend to choose games that are often narrative driven and single player with a start and a middle and an end to them. And The Last of Us is one of those. It's a great story, great game. It's heartbreaking, so watch out, but But it's a story you get to walk through.
And by the way, if you watch the show, at least the 1st episode is almost beat for beat exactly what you playthrough in the video game. It's kinda neat to watch it back. But the point of all this is, narrative is profoundly shaping for us. And sometimes we have a particular form of narrative that we like and that we gravitate to, and so we start to confuse narrative with Form. This is why some people will tell you the book is always better, or 21 frames, 24 frames is the only way to watch a movie, or video games can't be art.
I think that's why I like The Last of Us. It pushes some of those boundaries because we know video games can be Found in TV shows can be better than movies. And not only that, none of this was actually based on any book IP. Now my point is not that you should go buy a PS 5. My point is that story is more important than the form it comes to us in.
A good book is better than a bad video game any day, but a good song can be better than a bad movie and tell a better story too. So what does that have to do with the Bible? Well, as we talked about last week, there was a way of reading the Bible as if it was just a rule book, A sort of index of situations and circumstances where you can look up whatever moment you find yourself in and Discover a comparable scenario and extrapolate a response for yourself. And I wanna be kind here Because while I do believe that the Bible has been sometimes intentionally weaponized against certain groups of people, I don't think the majority of people are doing anything like that. In fact, I think the way we read the Bible is often more related to our own insecurities than to Any aggressive attempt to police anyone else.
We all wanna know that we're safe. We want to know that we're on the right side of the line, and the easiest way to do that is to draw those lines very clearly. The problem is Once you start looking at the Bible as your source of lines and your rule book for life, you end up denaritivizing the story. Everything becomes flat. So a verse in Leviticus takes on equal weight to a teaching of Jesus, Or an ancient poem gets read the same way as an ethical treatise from Paul.
In fact, I had someone tell me Just this week that if I did not believe that Jonah was literally actually swallowed by a whale, then I have no basis for accepting the moral world of Jesus, Which is not only an absurd non sequitur, it's also particularly problematic when you realize that almost all of Jesus' teachings are Offered to us in the form of fictionalized stories designed to invite us toward eternal truth. So here's the thing. When you assign meaning to a text, you are deciding what genre you think you are reading. And, unfortunately, if you don't do that work Consciously, you will do it unconsciously, and that is what has happened to a lot of Western Christianity. We have heard things like the Bible is the word of god.
We have believed things like god is perfect, And therefore, we assume things about the form of the bible that it must speak in nonfalsifiable, objectively based transcultural language. And that's a genre, a genre that lines up well with our rulebook desires, but it is a genre that does not comport well with the complexity, or I would suggest the beauty of the biblical text. See, not only does reading Jonah's whale bound adventure as history To stretch the limits of believability, it also ignores the fact that that story itself exhibits all the hallmarks of an ancient subversive Comedy. A comedy where the prophet is the one running away from God, and the pagans are the ones working desperately to save him from a storm. A comedy where the man of god pouts and hates his enemies, but god still uses him to save them in spite of himself.
A comedy where the greatest enemy of Israel are the ones who demonstrate devotion to Yahweh, even their animals repent wearing sackcloth. To understand that it's a comedy does nothing to blunt the hard edge of the message. God loves those you hate. In fact, I might suggest that understanding the farcical nature of the story makes it hit home even harder because it helps it sneak past our defenses when we're forced to confront our bias so plainly evident in Jonah. By the way, we did a series on Jonah a few years ago.
You can find it in the archives. The larger point being, to read Jonah as historical to the diminishment of the theological is a mistake. Now whether Jonah happened or not, you can wrestle with that, but it has nothing to do with whether the story is true. And this is where the Bible starts to get really interesting for us. Because once we realize god is present in and through Every verse of the Bible and that there are different voices, authors, genres, and even perspectives speaking to us through the text, Then we can start to look for the larger narrative arc that drives the Bible forward.
This is why we started with The Last of Us. Not just because I wanted to talk about a really good video game, although maybe a bit of that go Alberta film industry. But, no, the reason The Last of Us can jump from a video game to HBO to fan fiction to sequels is because it's a good story. And the reason the Bible can continue to hold sway over 2000 years across countless cultures Through various eras and epochs and even large scale social transformations is because the Bible is the good story. And that means that we need to learn to read it as such.
See, a story moves. There's a beginning and a middle and an end, but it also has twists and turns. And, ultimately, a story reaches toward a climax, The point to which the story has been moving. And for Christians, the climax of scripture is Jesus. Everything we read in the bible is leading us to the Christ that is now god revealed.
But that means that while every verse is a true part of the story, not every verse carries equal weight once we see where the story was taking us. So I don't hold Ecclesiastes 10/19, which says, a feast is made for laughter, And wine makes life merry, and money is the answer for everything. That's in your bible, by the way. I don't hold that equally to Matthew 6/19 where Jesus says, don't store up for yourself treasure on earth, where moth and vermin destroy, where thieves break in and steal, For where your treasure is, there your heart will also be. On one level, those verses are clearly contradictory.
They are not saying the same thing. It's okay to acknowledge that. But in the context of Ecclesiastes where the teacher, Qohelet, is Sardonic in his lament over the unpredictable nature of life. I get it. I mean, I feel that.
Sometimes I too think money is the answer for everything. But in the light of Jesus, the divine now fully revealed, of course, I ultimately put my trust in the abundant generosity of god and Not my bank account. That's because the scriptures aren't flat. They are leading me somewhere, Which means I can listen and I can embrace all the voices in scripture trusting that together, god will guide me to Christ. See, to be honest with the bible, to take it seriously, is to acknowledge that not only does it speak in different genres and cultures and forms, It also speaks through different authors and voices as well, which is why it does not bother me To come across Paul saying something like, hey, guys.
This is just my opinion here, so take it with a grain of salt. But if a couple finds themself in a mixed Faith for relationship. Call me crazy, but I think they should stay together and work it out. I mean, this is a really interesting passage In 1st Corinthians 7 where Paul writes, to the rest, I say this, and I, not the lord, say, if any brother has a wife who is not a believer and She is willing to live with him. He must not divorce her.
Here in 1st Corinthians, he offers up his best advice Based on an outlier situation that presumably he can't find any scriptural precedent for, but he acknowledges, guys, this is just my best guess. And to be honest, if you've ever found Paul a little bit too much, this verse might make you like him a little bit more. But this is what we're faced with when we want to take the bible seriously, a collection of different genres that speak with different intent. Look at Jonah and the parables, writings that come from different context where they sometimes present contradictory ideas. Look at Ecclesiastes versus Jesus.
Writers themselves that interject their perspective and sometimes even name their opinion when they write, not the lord, but I. So how can any of this be inspired? How can all of it be god breathed as second Timothy so boldly claims? Well, let's jump over to that verse because I think it's actually quite helpful in understanding how we shape and read This is what it says. All scripture is god breathed and is useful for teaching, Rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness so that the servant of god may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.
Now couple things off the top here. First of all, this passage is absolutely not talking about this passage. Right? So what does the writer mean by all scripture? Well, the easiest, simplest explanation is that he's referring to the Hebrew scriptures.
Those are the scriptures that Jesus taught from. They were the basis for the early Christian movement. And while it is true By the time this letter was being written, there were some of the New Testament writings, particularly the writings of Paul that were being passed around, And they were considered authoritative. There is no new testament at this point in history. It's not until Athanasius In the late 4th century, that we get the 1st full list of the 27 books that are in our bibles today.
In fact, most of the gospels and, for example, the book of Revelation weren't even written until after Paul had died. So if Paul is writing this, he's clearly not talking about those books. They didn't even exist. Now to be fair, he's also probably not Talking about his own writings either given the fact that we've just seen, he is far more humble than we sometimes give him credit for. Ironically, perhaps, though, the best argument for this passage referring to parts of the new testament, at Least the writings of Paul is rooted in the idea that second Timothy is pseudoepigraphal.
It's a big word. It just means that it is a later writing By a student or a disciple of Paul writing in the spirit or the voice of Paul. Though it's hard for us to get our heads around, but this was a very common thing in antiquity. It was not considered deceptive like a forgery. It was a way to honor your teacher.
And it's possible this student Writing in the voice of their teacher, Paul, does intend to include Paul's writings when he says all scripture. But then you have to contend with the fact This letter is possibly written by someone other than who it claims to be written by, so pick your poison here. But look at what the passage actually says about all scripture. It is god breathed, and it is useful For teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training. Think of all the examples we've looked at today.
Jonah, Ecclesiastes, first Corinthians, do any of those fail to meet that criteria? Absolutely not. Every one of them is useful for teaching and shaping us. Every one of them has taught me something on my way to Jesus. So the question then is, what do we do with this phrase, god breathed?
Because often, This is the verse that will be used to argue for what is known as verbal plenary inspiration, And that is literally the idea that God spoke each word exactly as it was intended To the author who then wrote it down. And the idea here is that god breathe means god literally breathed out the words. This is what we see in something that's called the Chicago statement on biblical inerrancy. Now this is a document that was created in 1978. That's the year I was born, so not very long ago.
Depending on your perspective, I propose. Certainly not all that long ago in the light of the history of Christianity. But prior to 1978, the only doctrine of inerrancy Said that the scriptures were, quote, to be acknowledged as teaching solidly, faithfully, and without error regarding salvation. In other words, the bible can use myths and parables as we've seen. The bible can provide contextual To a commentary as we have observed, it offers us perspective and opinion as we've read, but it never fails to faithfully point us to Jesus.
That, by the way, is the historical orthodox definition of inerrancy. It's one I have no issue with. In fact, I embrace that completely. What happened is that in 1978, the Chicago statement was commissioned by a group of American evangelical leaders, and they changed that historical docu doctrine To a statement that read, being holy and verbally god given. Scripture is without error or fault in all of its teachings, No less in what it states about God's acts in creation or about the events of world history than in its witness to God's saving grace in individual lives.
See what they did? It is no longer enough to trust that the Bible reveals salvation perfectly in Jesus. You must now believe that the bible is the perfect record of world history as well. Now this debate Had largely erupted from earlier in the 20th century as geologists started making discoveries about the age of the earth. But the 1978 statement was crafted to repudiate earlier, more orthodox understandings of inerrancy that had shaped largely the church for our 1st 2000 years.
Now it's fine if you read the Bible that way. Many people do. But what most of us don't realize is that this framework for biblical Extending beyond salvation to things like the age of the earth or world history, that is only 45 years old. It is not how the church has historically talked about and understood the scriptures. So what then does god breathe mean if it doesn't mean divinely dictated?
Well, the Greek word here is theopneustos, and that is very literally god and breathed. So the translation is not bad. Those are the words, what it means. The question is, what does it hold for us? And there was a fascinating book that was released, in just 2021 by the scholar John Poirier.
Unfortunately, it is one of those university press academic books that speaks in a lot of technical jargon and costs way too much money to get ahold of. But The book is called The Invention of the Inspired Text, and it does this fascinating job of walking through all of the literature In the 1st few centuries of the church, looking at this word, theopneustos. What the book demonstrates is that god breathed was a very common adjective used in a lot of writings to mean life giving, As in, god breathed into the dust of Genesis and gave life to humanity. God breathed as in The dry bones of Ezekiel were breathed into and brought life back to Israel. Theopneustos was being used In 2nd Temple Judaism to speak of all the ways god's spirit brings life to us.
And here, the writer of first Timothy says scripture is now one more way that the spirit of god is present breathing life into our lungs every day when we open the bible and read. In other words, is not a technical description of how the scriptures were inspired. It is an affirmation of the fact that they are. All scripture is life giving. While scripture is useful for teaching, all scripture reveals to us the story of Jesus, and it is Jesus that we trust to lead us back to god.
That is what we are saying when we say alongside 2000 years of church history that the scriptures are inspired. But it's also what makes the scripture such a good story worthy of our fascination and excitement. It's why we wrestle with them. It's why we study and debate and listen, and we learn from each other when it comes to the scriptures. That's why we work really hard here at commons at crafting sermons and courses and classes, and we source a teaching team with Different perspectives and backgrounds and education to help us understand the scriptures.
It's why the very first page of your journal says we are fascinated with this complex and beautiful collection of text we call the scriptures, but it's also why we worship the inerrant word of god who is Jesus. See, the scriptures are what we trust to faithfully lead us to Christ, But the scriptures are not. They weren't intended to be a replacement for the Christ. The Bible is a story. It's a good story.
It's a long story. It's a human story about all the ways that we have worked to discover god all around us for eons. It's a story that covers different eras and authors and cultures and contexts. It's one that weaves its way through different nations and languages, through Different communities and different conflicts. It's one that faithfully leads us to the heart of faith we share with every believer who has ever called on the name of Jesus.
It's a story we can read with trust, childlike as it might be, that this book will lead us to life in the person we call Jesus, but it is far more than just an inerrant rule book on the shelf. It is a good and beautiful story with a perfect and holy ending. And it's that ending, the climax of the Christ that we put our trust in as followers of the way. Let's pray. God who speaks, who speaks through this collection of texts that have been written down Preserved and gathered and passed faithfully to us.
God who is present in the inspired text, Leading us back to your son, Jesus, who is the full revealed expression of divine love in human history. Right. We trust that as followers of the Way, the object of our worship is Jesus. This is who is alive and present today, Guiding us right now by your spirit, shaping how we read, how we love, how we walk through this life, How we interact with the people around us and how we do our best to wrestle together in community with everything that this text teaches us. God, might we bring our full minds to bear with thoughtfulness and intrigue and fascination Critical examination to peel back the layers of history and culture to reach deep into the core truth of what you share with us.
And might that journey, that work, that discovery always lead us back home to the Christ. God, might you shape us into the people that you imagine us to become, shaped in the likeness of your son. And may all of this inspire us to love the Bible even more than we already do. In the strong name of the risen Christ, we pray.