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Sermons from Commons Church. Intellectually honest. Spiritually passionate. Jesus at the centre. Since 2014.
In any given situation, one of those verses of holy scripture will be absolutely categorically wrong. That's not a problem with scripture. It can be a problem for us if our view of scripture doesn't have room for a conversation. We have also been in a series to kick off the new season though. It's called learning to listen.
Jeremy Duncan:We're gonna wrap it up today. But I kicked off that series at the start of September by talking about how we listen to our hearts. Since then, we've talked about listening to our neighbors and to strangers. Scott spoke to us about how we hear the voice of nature. And then last week, Bobby talked to us about learning to listen to our spiritual ancestors.
Jeremy Duncan:And I love the way that she framed this. That tradition, our ancestors, all the people who have brought us here to this moment, through their victories and sometimes through their failures, They're not weight holding us down. They are holding us together. And for that, she took us to this great passage in the book of Hebrews where the writer starts by laying out this long winding family tree that snakes its way throughout the biblical narrative. It's a section we sometimes call the hall of faith.
Jeremy Duncan:And it's this big sort of outpouring of gratitude for all of the heroes of faith that have built the story that brought us here. But then, right at the climax of it, the writer pulls the same trick that they keep doing all the way out throughout the book of Hebrews. In chapter one, the argument is the prophets were great, but you know what would be better? A son. And in chapter two, the argument is angels are cool, but you know what would be better?
Jeremy Duncan:A savior. And then argument keeps rolling throughout the book. Everything is designed to point to Jesus until we get to chapter 11, the hall of faith, and the writer now lists all of these incredible stories all throughout the Bible, only to say at the end of it, thing is all along, God actually had planned something better. And, the point there is to say, all of the individual stories that make up the Bible, they are part of a much larger story that is unfolding and ultimately pointing us to Jesus. That's the point.
Jeremy Duncan:Which means that these stories we read are part of our story. And, if we learn to embrace all of that, we can make sure that our story becomes a meaningful contribution to someone else's. Hebrews is making the argument for us that none of us get to where we want to be. None of us get to Jesus on our own. We are all part of a tradition, a lineage.
Jeremy Duncan:We all owe a debt to our spiritual ancestors, and we now get to be part of creating that kind of legacy for the people that we love to lean on. As Bobby said last week, where there's faith or grief or injustice, disillusionment, someone has already faced it and found a way through it, which means that none of us are ever really on our own. So, last week, we met our spiritual ancestors. This week, we're asking how do we listen to the book where their voices are written down for us? How we listen to scripture.
Jeremy Duncan:First, let's pray. Our God who speaks and our God who listens. We're grateful to be here together in this space built by so many hands with so much hope. And yet, surrounded by that same great cloud of witnesses, the ones who walked this road before us and wrote down what they heard along the way. As we open old words together, would you quiet the noise around us?
Jeremy Duncan:Perhaps still that noise within us for a moment just enough so that we might hear something new. Keep us from using your words to win our arguments, or to hide from the questions we're afraid to ask ourselves. But instead, draw us into the conversation that you have been having with your people for generations now. Breathe on old pages again. Breathe on us anew as we learn to listen all over again.
Jeremy Duncan:Might we find that you have been walking beside us for much longer than we have probably noticed. In the strong name, the risen Christ we pray. Amen. Today is about learning to listen to scripture, which to be fair is the kind of thing you would expect to talk about in church. But to do that, we're going to cover blue jays and debates, proverbs, and God's breath.
Jeremy Duncan:First though, quick story. Do you remember last year, around this time, when for a brief moment, Canadians cared about baseball? Right? Like, I'm pretty sure the playoffs are happening right now. Who's playing?
Jeremy Duncan:I really could not tell you. Last year though, very different story. I'll tell you what. I grew up in Toronto. Don't hold it against me.
Jeremy Duncan:But that means in '92, '93, when the Jays pulled off historic back to back World Series championship wins, I was 15 years old and right in the heart of it. Absolutely incredible. Have not watched a game of baseball since. Last year though, that mix of national pride and teenage nostalgia, a real and compelling underdog story, all of that created something pretty special. However, the best part of the whole playoff run last year, for me personally, without a doubt, was the fact that my wife, who generally does not watch a lot of sports, besides f one, which we watch together, I love you sweetheart.
Jeremy Duncan:Anyway, she got into the playoff run, and she started watching baseball. And she didn't really know anything about the sport or what was going on, and that meant she would ask me what was happening while we would watch the games. Questions about the players and the strategies, why a team was doing certain things. And look, I'll admit, I'm not a huge baseball fan. I don't know that much about it.
Jeremy Duncan:But you know what I am a big fan of? Explaining things. My wife is so generous. Like, I have this thing where I will discover something mildly interesting, and then I will learn everything about it. And someone has to hear about that, and that is my wife.
Jeremy Duncan:I'm like a junior high kid coming home with a fact they learned at school, and you need to know about this. The thing is last year during the playoff run, she was asking me questions that she actually wanted an answer to, and I was in my bag. It was glorious. I will never forget that. Let's go Blue Jays.
Jeremy Duncan:Thing is, there's more here than just a story about my idiosyncrasies. I think conversation, questions, answers, dialogue back and forth, I think that's always more compelling than a lecture. And, I think if we're open to it, there are better metaphors that can shape our engagement with scripture as well. In fact, I think the way that Jesus explains scripture for us is an invitation itself to rethink our relationship to it. And to start, I wanna go back to an odd little story at the end of the Gospel of Luke.
Jeremy Duncan:Interestingly, we started this series six weeks ago looking at a story called the transfiguration. A story where Jesus, in some mystical sense, looks different to his disciples for just a moment. Here, we've got another story about our odd inability to recognize Jesus at times. But it's right at the end of the gospel, and it starts post death, even post resurrection. In fact, right before this, in the first half of the chapter, it's the women, in particular Mary Magdalene, who returns to the 11 disciples and another group of disciples that are there waiting with news of the risen Christ.
Jeremy Duncan:Now, most of the disciples think that's crazy. This is nonsense. Peter though gets up, he runs to the tomb, he finds it empty. And, he's not sure what to do with that. And, we're left with that image of confusion when all of a sudden the scene shifts.
Jeremy Duncan:And, in verse 13, we read, now that same day two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem. Now, the two of them here refers back to the extended group of disciples that were with the 11 when Mary came back and told them about the empty tomb. So, these guys are not part of the starting lineup, but they are strong bench players. I'm gonna count that as another baseball reference today, so put it down. But, they are in the room with the disciples when Mary comes with news of resurrection.
Jeremy Duncan:So, give them credit for that. But then, at some point, after that, they decide to set out on this seven mile journey to a nearby village called Emmaus. And, as they walked, they were talking with each other about everything that had happened. But as they talked and discussed these things, Jesus himself came and walked along with them. They, however, were kept from recognizing him.
Jeremy Duncan:Now, we get no explanation for what that means or how that worked. Like, did Jesus get up out of the tomb, decide to shave his beard and cut his hair for once? I don't know. Is this some kind of spiritual blindness that prevents them from really seeing him? Maybe.
Jeremy Duncan:Maybe it's just a story about the idea that sometimes our brain won't let us see what our mind isn't ready to believe. I don't know. But, Jesus asked them, what are you discussing together as you walk along? And to that, they stood still, their faces downcast. Now, clearly, more to this story.
Jeremy Duncan:We'll get to that in a second. I do wanna pause here first. Because this translation of this verse feels a little too neat and tidy for me. The Greek word here that's attributed to Jesus is, And, absolutely, one of the common metaphorical uses of that word around the time of Jesus was to discuss or to debate. So, having Jesus say, what are you discussing is totally fine.
Jeremy Duncan:However, the literal root idea of that word is to take turns throwing something against the wall. Debate then is probably better than discuss here. Even that though doesn't quite get it. Because what Jesus actually says is, what words, what sayings are you throwing back and forth against each other here? And, what he's referring to is that these two disciples on the road to Emmaus, heartbroken and confused by what has happened, they are pulling out scriptures, and they're tossing them back and forth like a hot potato.
Jeremy Duncan:They're not talking to each other. They're not engaging with what scripture says. They're not trying to figure out where their experience fits in the story. They're not really listening at all. They're just tossing quotes back and forth.
Jeremy Duncan:Perhaps, looking for the one quote, the one line that will dull their cognitive dissonance just for a moment. And that is, I think, a real problem with how we are taught to use scripture in some of our traditions. It's not an entry point into a conversation. It's certainly not a dialogue. Scripture is what we pull out to put the debate to bed.
Jeremy Duncan:If I can quote more scripture than you, or if I can find a counterpoint scripture to the one that you use, if I can throw more scripture at the wall than you can, then I will win. That, of course, is neither how scripture works or even really how it comes to us. Look at this one. This is one of my favorite verses in the Bible. It's Proverbs twenty six four.
Jeremy Duncan:Do not answer a fool according to his folly or you yourself will be just like him. I read that every time I think about going to the comments section on the Internet. I'm like, okay. Proverbs 26. Then, of course, there is also the next verse.
Jeremy Duncan:Right? Verse five, you better answer a fool according to his folly or he will be wise in his own eyes. First off, I have never read a better explanation of Twitter than those two verses put together, like, precient really. But, those two verses are utterly meaningless if your intent is just to throw them back and forth at each other. The wisdom of scripture doesn't lie in verse four or in verse five.
Jeremy Duncan:It lies in reading them together and trying to figure out which one is true in any given moment. Now, look. That example, probably not all that scary. Right? Like, it's not particularly startling to think that we should apply proverbs contextually.
Jeremy Duncan:We get it. But what about when I say it like this? In any given situation, one of those verses of holy scripture will be absolutely categorically wrong. That's not a problem with scripture. It can be a problem for us if our view of scripture doesn't have room for a conversation.
Jeremy Duncan:And this is where one of the most frustratingly misused lines of scripture actually slowly transforms into one of my favorites. It's in second Timothy. And the writer says, all scripture is God breathed. It's 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 important off the top here.
Jeremy Duncan:First of all, this passage, clearly not talking about this passage. Right? So, what does the writer mean then by all scripture? The easiest, simplest, maybe truest explanation is that this refers to the Hebrew scriptures. What we sometimes call our Old Testament, just like the book of Proverbs for the record.
Jeremy Duncan:Those were the scriptures Jesus taught from. Those were the scriptures for the early Christian movement. So, well, it is true that by the time the letter of second Timothy was circulating, there certainly were some other New Testament writings available and being passed around. And in particular, the writings of Paul were starting to become considered authoritative in the church. There was no quote unquote New Testament the way we know it at this point.
Jeremy Duncan:It's actually not until a guy named Athanasius in the late fourth century that we get a full complete list of the 27 books that later would become our New Testament. Like most of the gospels, book of Revelation, for example, those aren't even written until well after Paul has died. Now, I'll say this. There is a fascinating little passage in the book of second Peter where the writer there says, I'll quote him, just as our dear brother Paul also wrote to you with the wisdom that God gave him. And he writes the same way in all of his letters, and his letters contain some things that are pretty hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort as they often do with the other scriptures.
Jeremy Duncan:First of all, I love that this writer just comes out and says, look, I don't know what he's talking about half the time either. But he also does seem to put Paul's writings on the level of scripture. So there is an emerging category called scripture that is uniquely Christian, a New Testament that's forming within the church. It might even be possible that the writer of second Timothy has that development in view when he writes this verse. But the all scripture that's referenced here is certainly not as neat and tidy as the 66 books of the Bible as we understand them today.
Jeremy Duncan:This passage in second Timothy is referring to something that is emerging. It's fluid. Even more important though, look at what the passage says about that scripture. It is God breathed, useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, training. Think about Proverbs 26.
Jeremy Duncan:Is that useful? Surprisingly useful for today. Yes. I would argue though the usefulness comes from wrestling with the contradiction itself. That's not a problem.
Jeremy Duncan:But, the question then becomes, okay, well then what do we mean when we say something like God breathed? Because some people have taken that to mean literally spoken by God as if scripture actually came from God's mouth at some point in history. There's a particular way of thinking about scripture as if God directly dictated it. People heard it. They simply wrote down what they heard.
Jeremy Duncan:Actually, not super common in church history. But, there is a slightly more nuanced version that we call verbal plenary inspiration. And that approach says, okay, God maybe didn't dictate it. God didn't override the personality of the writers. I mean, clearly, we can see different writing styles from different authors.
Jeremy Duncan:But God inspired every specific word, and therefore, we must read that every word is inerrant. That approach got codified in 1978 into something called the Chicago Statement on Inerrancy. And, it's a document that took claims about scripture farther, or maybe a better way to say it, is in a different direction than most of church history had gone before. Before Chicago, probably the clearest teaching about what God breathed had meant for the church came from a Vatican document called De Verbum. That literally means the word of God.
Jeremy Duncan:And, that paper had said, the books of scripture must be acknowledged as teaching solidly, faithfully, and without error the truth which God wanted for the sake of salvation. So, scripture never makes a mistake in revealing Jesus to us. The Chicago statement pushed it in a different direction, and they said, I'll quote it here, we deny that biblical inerrancy is limited to spiritual, religious, or redemptive themes. We further deny that scientific hypotheses about earth history can be used to overturn the teaching of scripture on creation or flood. Essentially, what's happening is that our view of God breathed is beginning to shift from useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, training, moving us into Christ likeness.
Jeremy Duncan:And it's now becoming absolutely categorically inerrant in all categories regardless of genre or scientific literacy or accumulated human knowledge. In other words, scripture is becoming less about a divine conversation meant to shape us and more about God's dictation toward us. So is that what God breathed meant? Well, the Greek word is Theopenustos. It's literally a compound word of God and breathed.
Jeremy Duncan:So translation is not bad. That's the word. But goat and breath are certainly not unexpected dance partners. In fact, the very word for spirit, in both Greek and Hebrew, by the way, is the word for breath. And we have foundational texts like Genesis two.
Jeremy Duncan:The Lord God formed a human from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being. Maybe Ezekiel 37, the prophet is speaking about the nation of Israel being restored. He says, there came a noise, a rattling sound, and the bones came together. Bone to bone, I looked, and there were tendons and flesh appearing on them. Skin covered them, but there was no breath in them.
Jeremy Duncan:So God said to me, prophesy to the breath. Prophesy and say to it, this is what the sovereign Lord says, come breathe the four winds and breathe into these slain that they may live again. And breath entered them. They came to life and stood to their feet. We even have Greek texts around the time of Jesus outside the Bible.
Jeremy Duncan:One in particular called the Sibylline Oracles. It talks about God breathed or life giving streams of water. Has references to the great father God of all God breathed things, meaning all living things. Point being, God breathed is a lot more than just God dictated. It means God gifted.
Jeremy Duncan:It means life giving. It means the word of God that lead us to the very way of God, is Jesus. That's what we mean when we say scriptures are God breathed. They give us life. They are useful to shape us.
Jeremy Duncan:They lead us back to Jesus. And so, back to our friends on this Emmaus Road, our disciples who are tossing scriptures at each other as if they're just dictation rather than conversation, our friends who just like us, when we are confused or frightened or dismayed and disillusioned, sometimes want to compress scripture down into a weapon to wield rather than an invitation to converse. What do they encounter on the road? Well, the very word of God that they have been missing out on. Jesus.
Jeremy Duncan:What God wanted to say to us, asked them, what are you discussing together as you walk along? And that that they stood still, their faces downcast. One of them named Cleop has asked him, are you the only one who's visiting Jerusalem who does not know the things that have happened in these days? By the way, the word they use for Jesus here literally is stranger. You could paraphrase this.
Jeremy Duncan:They're like, are you tourist? What's going on here? You don't know what's going on? We already in this series talked about God showing up in the face of a stranger. Here it is all over again.
Jeremy Duncan:But, he asks what things. Things about Jesus of Nazareth, they replied. He was a prophet, powerful in word and deed before God and all the people. But then, the chief priests and our rulers handed him over to be sentenced to death, and they crucified him. Now, the best line in the whole story, we had hoped he was the one to redeem Israel.
Jeremy Duncan:They don't know it yet. This is the most honest thing they have said anywhere on this road. This is... That is precisely how we should learn to listen to scripture. Not for the text that proves our point or wins our argument.
Jeremy Duncan:Not for more words that we can toss back and forth at each other, but for the story that affirms the hope that's in us. For what we want to believe about ourselves and the world. That's what we're listening for in scripture. And think about it. Here they are.
Jeremy Duncan:Their bones are dry. Their hope is gone. They have all of this scripture memorized. They have testimony of the women at their fingertips. All the pieces are right there, everything in the right place, and still, they can't hear any of it.
Jeremy Duncan:Why? Because there's no breath behind it. There's no life to animate it. The story is simply words on the page that have been dictated to them. And so, what does Jesus do?
Jeremy Duncan:He doesn't quote another verse at them. He starts with a question. What are you guys talking about? And then, when they answer, he asks another, what things have happened? And then, when they finally open up and they get to the empty tomb, not the facts of the week or their interpretation of scripture, but the confusion they're the fear that's in their heart in that moment, that's when Jesus begins to retell the story for them.
Jeremy Duncan:The story of his ancestors, beginning with Moses and the prophets, he explained to them what was said in the scriptures concerning himself. And then, when he's done with that, he plays it cool. He acts like he's gonna keep going. He waits for them to invite him to stay. And then at that moment, at their invitation, when they finally sit at the table together, Jesus breaks bread, offers them the story of scripture, not as a lecture, but as a living conversation with him.
Jeremy Duncan:And in that moment, their eyes were opened. They recognized him, and he disappeared from their sight. Now, first of all, I'll admit, I'm not sure what to do with that last line. I will say, Jesus knows how to make an exit. Good stuff.
Jeremy Duncan:But here's what really makes the story stick for me. And Jesus completely bypasses our desire to find the right scripture to answer everything. To win the argument and make our confusion disappear, he reframes our question as, can we trust that the whole long story of scripture, that all of human history is pointing us somewhere that's true? Not is it all factual and right and absolute, but can the story move us? Can it shape our imagination of what is possible in the world?
Jeremy Duncan:Can it restore our hope? Can that story make us better human beings? More kind, more open, more willing to listen to each other. Can scripture be more than right? Can it be useful to shape the people that we want to become?
Jeremy Duncan:Because that's what it means to listen to scripture. Are you becoming the person God wants you to be? It's not your views on this or that theological debate. It's are you becoming the person that God created you to be in the light of Christ? That's it.
Jeremy Duncan:And I think these guys here at the table, they they finally listened to that. Because right after this, we're told they get up from the table, their heart's burning, they say, and they start the same seven mile walk all the way back to Jerusalem in the middle of the night this time probably running. Because they're not arguing about scripture anymore. It's no longer words that have been dictated to them. It's now their story to tell.
Jeremy Duncan:They've had an encounter with the divine. And so these two men, dusty and disillusioned just a moment ago, now get to tell of the second encounter with the risen Christ in history. And that story keeps unfolding, and resurrection keeps leaking out into the world. It's unfinished, and it's unpolished, but it's now theirs. And it gets added to the story.
Jeremy Duncan:Somehow, that becomes part of our story we read today. Because this is what it means to listen to scripture. It's not just to read it or to memorize it, to know it so that you can pull it out and throw it back at someone else when you need to win an argument. As if that means it's done and dusted. It's to actually encounter the word of God that is Jesus in ways that actually change us for the better.
Jeremy Duncan:More hopeful, more life inside of us, more openness to listen to all the ways that God is speaking all around us all the time, absolutely in scripture, but also in a thousand voices that surround us all the time? Are we listening to scripture? Are we becoming the people God intends us to be? Let's pray. God, we are grateful for all the ways that we can listen.
Jeremy Duncan:That we can listen to our heart, and our neighbor, and our stranger. That we can see you and listen to you in nature, and in those who have come before, and in this text that you have saved for us. But, God, in all of that, may our listening not just focus on the words, and the details, and the facts, even as much as we might love the history, and the context, and all the study it takes to understand it well. But, may the focus of our intention be on the way that the story is shaping us, to become more like you. More kind, more generous, more open, more like the path that you have laid in front of us.
Jeremy Duncan:And so, the measure of our listening becomes not just our memory, but the steps that we take in the world. The path that we walk, and how we are drawn all the way back to your heart. May that kind of listening shape us today and this week. In the strong name, the risen Christ we pray. Amen.
Jeremy Duncan:Hey, Jeremy here, and thanks for listening. If you're intrigued by the work that we're doing at Commons, you can head to our website anytime, commons.church, for more information. You can find us on all of the socials at Commons Church, and you can subscribe to our YouTube channel where we're posting content regularly for the community. So thanks for tuning in. Have a great week.