Difficult passages, challenging questions
Why do you come to church? Why don’t you come to church? What
makes you cringe when a politician or “church person” says something that
doesn’t sound like God’s love? How do you feel when you hear people talk
about going to hell if you don’ believe or behave in a certain way? Do you
believe in hell? How do you feel when someone says Christianity isn’t the only
way to believe? How do you feel about the current changes being made to
women’s reproductive rights? Do you believe the government should tell
schools what books should be banned? Or what parts of history can and cannot be taught?
Should drag shows be banned? Not just for children but for anyone? (If we
want to keep children safe, why don’t we ban assault weapons that have killed
so many school children and staff?) Should the Ten Commandments be put up in
every classroom? (I wonder why no one is saying the Sermon on the Mount
should be put up in every classroom?) And I could go on and on with more
questions.
My last question is this: how would Jesus answer these questions? This is
not about politics. It is about how Jesus would answer these questions.
It’s about how Jesus wants us to live our lives. All of the issues I have
mentioned above are about treating people the way Jesus taught us to treat them. It’s about kindness, compassion, inclusiveness, tolerance, common sense, working
together. Being able to agree to disagree and work toward a compromise.
Answers to the above questions can have a significant impact on the future
way of life in our country. Often we hear the Bible quoted to support
someone’s belief. And, you can almost always find something in the Bible
to support almost anything you want. I began a series of Sunday messages that go back and look at some of the difficult teachings. I will be continuing this series in September.
As we seek the God of love and inclusion, compassion and kindness, in
scriptures, we will look at difficult passages and talk about an alternative way of
understanding these difficult passages. We will explore scripture through the understanding of Progressive Revelation, which can explain these difficult verses and stories. Sometimes we read verses and God sounds terrible, vindictive, and violent.
Other times, God is forgiving, loving, inclusive, and compassionate. We begin to
understand the Bible better when we remember that God never changes, but that
each generation, since the beginning of time, sheds more light on who God is.
Join us on Sunday mornings at 10:30 a.m.
Shalom,
Pastor Rosemary