Bible 101 – Salvaged Faith

Bible 101: Art, Science, History of Interpretation

Posted on February 10, 2019Leave a comment

Text: Luke 11: 27-28

Over these last few weeks in Bible 101, we have explored how our scriptures were put together, translated, and some of the creative tension that was baked into the text itself.
Today, our focus is on interpretation. Once we understand what a scripture meant in the time and place it was written, how do we then live and apply it today.
After all, Jesus said that blessed are those who hear God’s word and obey it, who put it into practice, who allow it to shape how they think and live.

There is part of me that wants to offer you six simple rules for interpretation.
To give you a set of guidelines to follow.
To say this is the United Methodist way of approaching scripture.
But the reality is, interpretation is messier than a list of how-to instructions.
It is as much an art as it is a science.
It is as much about the mystery of the Holy Spirit as it is about the rigid teachings of our ancestors.
And because of that, faithful United Methodists today disagree about how to read and apply scripture.

That was the struggle lifted up by our friend, Al Lockin, near the beginning of our Bible 101 series. What are we to make of our differences? How can we read the same text and come to such different conclusions?
When we hear the word, but our interpretation of scripture leads us to obey, to practice, to live out the teaching of Jesus in different ways, what do we do about it?
This particular question is so important for this moment in the life of our church, because in just two weeks, our denomination will hold a four-day conference in St. Louis. The reason we need to have this big meeting is because we don’t agree on how to interpret and live out the scriptures as they relate to LGBTQ+ persons. As I shared with you last summer during our series on A Way Forward, faithful Christians read the same six scriptures and come to different conclusions about what they mean for us today.
And while in some ways what we are debating in St. Louis is that interpretation, the deeper question, the bigger question is actually this: are we willing to continue to be a part of a church, of a community, of a denomination with people who disagree with us?

So today, I want to step back from the rules and guidelines of interpretation. I want to offer a reminder that confronting differences in how we live and apply scriptures is not something new.
In fact, scripture itself lifts up the reality that faithful people interpret things differently.
As we have shared these past few weeks, even the Torah itself, those first five books of scripture, hold within them contradictions and tensions and different interpretations of events.
Were there two of every kind of animal, or for some animals on Noah’s ark were there actually seven pairs? Well… it depends on if you are reading the interpretation of the priests or of the other oral traditions.
Our biblical canon even contains different historical accounts – in the books of Kings and Chronicles, we find different takes on the same events, told from different perspectives. It would be like holding in your hands two different histories on George Washington – one told from a military expert writing in the 1800s and the other from a modern day expert in leadership… you are going to get different stories… but its all about the same set of events.

When we get to the time of Jesus, the recognized and agreed upon texts of the Jewish faith were fairly established… but there were different schools of thoughts and ways of understanding what those texts meant and how we were called to live them out.
Earlier this week, I posted in our facebook group a video from Rob Bell that talks about what it meant to be a disciple in the time of Jesus.
While all children would have learned and would have memorized the torah… the first five books of scripture… after the age of ten, most children would finish their education and would go and learn their family trade.
But what Bell describes as “the best of the best of the best” would embark on a new phase of education.
They would go and apply to become a disciple of a particular rabbi whose teaching that student wanted to embody. One rabbi might look at a verse and say that this is what it means…. But a different rabbi from a different town might look at it slightly differently. And they would commit their life to learning from that rabbi.

One of the things that tends to happen, however, when you have different ways of interpreting God’s message is those differences can become institutionalized.
In the gospels, we see a number of schools of thought present… kind of like different denominations today.
The Pharisees held together the written law of the scriptures with an oral tradition of interpretation called the Talmud. They believed in an after life and that a messiah was coming to usher in a new age. Much of their practice was shaped not around the temple, but around gatherings in synagogues.
The Sadducees rejected that oral teaching and focused only on what was written in the law. And since there is no mention of an afterlife in the Torah, they didn’t believe in one. They also focused their practice around the Temple. A unique feature for a group that held close to a literal interpretation of their texts is that they were open to much of Greek thought and incorporated it into their teaching.
You’ll also find descriptions of the Essenes in this time. This was a sort of monastic movement with strict dietary laws and a commitment to celibacy. Their relationship to the written and oral law was often more spiritualized and we have discovered writings like the Dead Sea Scrolls from communities like the Essenes that show us very different ways of approaching the life of faith.

Much of our New Testament, aside from the gospels, was written by Paul – a Pharisee, taught by the Rabbi Gamaliel, who was a student of Hillel. One of the more fascinating things that I found as I was doing research for this message is that Hillel was known for his seven rules of interpretation… and many have worked to draw parallels between those seven rules and the writings of Paul and how Paul himself worked to interpret Jewish scriptures into early Christian teaching.

As the church began to be established, one of the things that the early Christian leaders did was to try to form a standard, a core set of beliefs that we all hold in common together. We call these creeds. For example, the apostle’s creed was not written by the apostles, but summarizes the core of that teaching. Let’s turn to page 881 and read aloud the traditional version together.

I believe in God, the Father Almighty,
maker of heaven and earth;
And in Jesus Christ his only Son, our Lord;
who was conceived by the Holy Spirit,
born of the Virgin Mary,
suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, dead, and buried;*
the third day he rose from the dead;
he ascended into heaven,
and sitteth at the right hand of God the Father Almighty;
from thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Spirit,
the holy catholic** church,
the communion of saints,
the forgiveness of sins,
the resurrection of the body,
and the life everlasting. Amen.

But as time has moved on from this time of creedal confessions, we have watched as time after time, our different ways of understanding God and the scriptures have created new schools of thought, and fractures and splinters and new denominations and movements… including the United Methodist Church.

In our core scripture for today, Jesus has been teaching the disciples and was casting out demons. Even in the midst of that miracle – there were different interpretations happening in the crowd around what was happening.
One woman finally shouts out – Blessed is the woman who gave birth to you!
I find this a really thing to shout out in this moment, but perhaps one of the reasons she felt the need to raise her voice is that in the midst of all of the conflict and chaos of interpretation, she wanted to affirm where Jesus was coming from.
She wanted to celebrate his particular brand… his line of thinking… the people who formed and taught and shaped the way he was approaching scripture.

What I find really fascinating here is that Jesus challenges her words… It’s those who hear God’s word and live it, obey it, put it into practice that are blessed.

Our work is not to focus on the people who formed us, or the rabbis we follow or the perspectives we belong to. Our job is not to get so stuck in one school of thought or to be focused on the past.
Our job is to take God’s word and live it out.
Our responsibility is to take ownership ourselves for how we put into practice the faith that has been handed down to us.
In fact, one of the core teachings of the United Methodist Church is that we believe it is the theological task of each and every single person not to regurgitate the work of others, but to engage with the scriptures and to wrestle with what they mean today.

In the past, we have talked about some of general framework in the United Methodist tradition for approaching scripture and applying it to faith today.
You’ve heard about the quadrilateral – scripture, tradition, reason, and experience.
But guess what… even faithful United Methodists don’t agree on THAT as a general framework… or how to apply it… or what to do when faced with disagreement between tradition and something like experience.

When we go back farther to the writings of John Wesley, I find some very helpful advice as we encounter our differences today.
One… he talked about being a man of one book… but he always had a number of other books in his hands…. Other translations of scripture… writings and teachings from history and tradition… wisdom from the natural sciences of his day… even a manual for how to heal people who were sick.
But over and over, he also reminded us that as we each engage in our work of interpretation, that personal responsibility, we are not called to do it alone. He formed people into groups of accountability. He reminded people of their call to be the church. And in various ways he reminded us that we are called to embrace humility and love and compassion when we are confronted with conflict in our interpretations.
As he wrote in his sermon on the Catholic Spirit “If your heart is as my heart, take my hand.”
In essentials unity, in non-essentials, liberty, in all things love.

Bible 101: Pulling Meat Out of a Text

Posted on February 3, 2019Leave a comment

Text: Hebrews 5:11-6:3, Revelation 3:15-16

The author of Hebrews doesn’t seem very nice.
The people they are writing to are called lazy.
They are compared with babies, needing milk instead of solid food.
And… the author is impatient because they aren’t sure the people have been listening at all.

Well, maybe I might snap just a little bit too if I have been trying to teach a community about the importance of faith and I realize I had to start all the way back at the beginning all over again.

In contrast, I have actually been really excited to get back to some of the basics about the bible with all of you. And I think that is because we never really do this kind of work together.
In fact, I was talking with some colleagues and aside from the small groups of people who attend actual bible studies, most of their congregations, like ours, have not really been taught biblical literacy.
We simply don’t challenge each other to read scripture in depth.
We haven’t wrestled with the contradictions in texts and what they mean.
And as pastors, we have not equipped you with the tools that you need to dive into the text.
That is our fault.
Not yours.
And over this last month, I have seen just how hungry you are to know more, to read more, and to understand more. So… I’m excited you are on this journey with me and I can’t wait to see where it continues to take us.

In these last few weeks, we have already covered a few things.
First, we acknowledged that the Bible is a complicated text, full of mystery. In its 66 books, we find history, testimony, letters, poetry, prophecy, law… and we should approach each part of the text recognizing that it is trying to do something different.
Then, we heard from one of our lay folks here at Immanuel, about the overarching message of the scriptures: to love God and to love our neighbor… and how that helps us when we encounter people with whom we disagree or on our own journey of faith.
In the past two weeks, I’ve shared with you about how the people who compiled and formed our canon of scripture intentionally left us a diversity of perspectives within the text. Four gospels all tell about Jesus, but emphasizing different things, in a different order. In this past week, we’ve read passages from 2 Kings and 2 Chronicles in our daily challenge and find the exact same story – but with different outcomes! The scriptures are not concerned with one right answer, but capturing a multitude of voices that all point to the bigger truths about God.
And last week, we talked a bit about translations – how the Bibles we read today might be different, but that inspiration of God has been carried through as each author was attempting to bring the message of God to a new people in a new place.

Today, we are going to dive a bit deeper into the meat of bible study. We’ve gone over some of the basics and so I want to give you some tools today to help you “press on towards maturity” as the author of Hebrews puts it. It’s time for some solid food!

First, I want to introduce you to the idea of exegesis.
The prefix (exe) relates to our English word exit… which we know as the way out. So when we use exegesis, we are working to pull meaning OUT of a text.
This is one of the basic building blocks of biblical interpretation. We want to figure out what the passage meant when it was written. It’s not always possible… but the more we research and learn, the more we discover.

Contrasting this is eisegesis.
Now, this is when you take meaning INTO a text. You don’t start from the text itself, but you start from what you know today and make assumptions based on modern understandings about what the text means.

Let’s dive into an example to show the difference.

These two verses are from a set of letters to seven different churches as a pat of the Revelation to John. These verses come from the letter to Laodicea:

“I know your works. You are neither cold nor hot. I wish that you were either cold or hot. So because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I’m about to spit you out of my mouth.” (3:15-16)

So first… and I’m going to need your help with this… what do we know about what it means to be hot in the context of our faith… in modern religious understandings?
(on fire for God, zealous, 100% committed, loving, justice filled)

What do you think it means to be cold spiritually?
(apathetic, dead, unloving, meh, no life)

And we understand lukewarm to be somewhere in the middle, right? So we might read into this text that the church is only partly committed to God… or who might go to church, but not be “on fire”. Right?

All of this makes sense in modern English. But what we are doing is bringing OUR understanding of the words into the text. It is eisegesis. And… we are left with the question… why would God prefer that we were either hot or cold? What would ever be good about cold? Wouldn’t lukewarm be better, or at least closer on the path to God than being cold?

If we use exegesis, if we go back to the text, back to the context, back to the location, we might learn something different.

Laodicea seems to be compared with hot and cold churches in this letter… so who might those churches be that they are unlike? If we turn to a map of the area and think about where and who the Laodiceans were, we might get some clues.

This city was actually part of a triad with Hierapolis and Colossae, in what is now modern day Turkey. In fact, when Paul writes to the Colossians, he specifically mentions these other two cities as a part of a little circuit that Tychicus, Epaphras, and others travel, supporting the people in all of those locations. The people know each other and they support and encourage one another.
But they were each unique places as well. The Colossians were supposed to pass their letter on the Laodiceans… AND they were supposed to pick up a letter Paul had written to that church and bring it back. Unfortunately, we don’t have a copy of that letter today.

Hieropolis was known for its hot springs and mineral baths. In fact, ancient Romans would travel to the city for health and healing.

Colossae on the other hand was located right on the river and it was known for its cool and refreshing water. There were also cold, freshwater springs in the city. It was a place where people escaped in warm days in order to find relief and refreshment.

But Laodicea had no natural source of water. All of the water for the city was piped in via an aqueduct and when it finally arrived, it wasn’t hot or cold, but lukewarm.

People traveled to Hieropolis for hot healing waters. They traveleld to Colossae for cold and refreshing relief.

But no one came to Laodicea for the water.
As Terance Espinoza writes, “Jesus wishes that they were useful, that they were either healing or refreshing to people.” (https://www.sagu.edu/thoughthub/exegesis-versus-eisegesis)

No one noticed them or would miss them if they were gone. They had figured out how to take care of themselves… but they weren’t in turn taking care of anyone else.

Now that is a church I recognize. Closed in. Focused on itself. If it disappeared from the face of the earth tomorrow, no one would know any different.

In this passage… being either hot or cold… healing or refreshing… being useful and making a difference is the goal.

And the Laodiceans were neither.
That is the difference when you work to pull meaning OUT of the text, instead of starting from where we are and looking backwards.
And friends, it isn’t easy work.
When you begin to chew on the meat of a text, here are some helpful questions to carry with you as you work to pull meaning out of it:
1) Who is the author?
2) When did they write the text?
3) What was life like at the time?
4) Who was their audience?
5) Why did they write to them?
6) What questions do you have?

And that might seem like a lot of questions and a lot of work, but also remember that we have at our fingertips today more resources and tools to do this kind of study than ever before.
Study bibles and commentaries can help by providing us with current scholarship and notes on the text. Our own church is full of these kind of study resources and you are always welcome to stop by and use them.
There are also million online resources with everything from Wikipedia to The Bible Project. I use BibleGateway.com to compare translations.

One source that I turn to almost every single week is called The Text This Week, or textweek.com. This particular resource is geared towards churches that use the lectionary, or the three year cycle of texts, but what I appreciate is that you can search by scripture and find a compilation of history, commentaries, and exegesis all in one place.

Above all, you don’t have to do this work alone! Those who are interested in studying scripture together will find that each can take a piece of the work. Or… you can utilize a resource together to dive deeply into a particular book of scripture or a topic.

Our goal, friends, is to not just be content to be spoon fed information… we each have the responsibility to engage with scripture ourselves.
We are called to press on to maturity.
We are called to take the foundation of knowledge we have been given and to move beyond just the basics.
I don’t promise easy answers.
But I do promise that you will be fed and nourished when you dive into the text and chew on it yourself. And I know that our faith is so much richer and more meaningful when we can pull out truth from the meat of our Bible and carry it with us into our daily lives.

Bible 101: From the Septuagint to the Message

Posted on January 27, 2019Leave a comment

Text: John 1:1-14, 2 Timothy 3:16-17

First question I have for all of you… how many of you felt like last week’s discussion of quantum mechanics and elephants was a tiny bit over your head?
That’s okay!
Each week we are going to explore a different way of approaching the bible and a different part of its history, so to make up for all of the science last week, I thought we might start this morning by playing a little game.

NAME THAT TRANSLATION!
I do not promise that you will get all of the answers right… but I do promise you will learn something in the process!!!

John 1:6-8 The Message (MSG)
6-8 There once was a man, his name John, sent by God to point out the way to the Life-Light. He came to show everyone where to look, who to believe in. John was not himself the Light; he was there to show the way to the Light.

This bible was created and translated by Eugene Peterson between 1993 and 2002. He went back to the original languages and his goal was not to translate word for word, but to get the sense of the phrases in the original text and convey the idea. This is an idiomatic translation – or translating phrases rather than words.

John 1:6-8 Wycliffe Bible (WYC)
6 A man was sent from God, to whom the name was John.
7 This man came into witnessing, that he should bear witnessing of the light, that all men should believe by him.
8 He was not that light, but that he should bear witnessing of the light.

The Wycliffe bible is a whole group of translations that were made in the 14th century into Middle English. Most Christians at this time only had access to scriptures through hearing them orally or through seeing verses in Latin. In some ways, his goal was the same as Peterson’s – to translate the bible into the common vernacular. They worked not from the original languages, but from the Latin version of scripture – the Vulgate.

John 1:6-8 Mounce Reverse-Interlinear New Testament (MOUNCE)
There came on the scene a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness to bear testimony about he light so that everyone might believe through him. He was not the light, but came to bear testimony about the light.

This version of the bible was created for people who wanted to study the bible and explore the original languages… but who didn’t actually know Greek! The purpose is to help teach a little bit of Greek at a time. A traditional “interlinear” bible would use the Greek word order and then show the English word for word correlary – but that makes the sentence structure hard to understand. So the Mounce version starts with the English sentence structure and then adds in the Greek words.

I will often use a version like this to discover what the Greek was and then I can go back and consult a Greek dictionary to see if there are other meanings or how it is used elsewhere in scripture.

John 1:6-8 King James Version (KJV)

6 There was a man sent from God, whose name was John.
7 The same came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all men through him might believe.
8 He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light.

The King James Version is a translation into English that took seven years from 1604-1611. King James oversaw the translation himself – giving instructions to make sure that this translation would capture the structure and polity of the Church of England. 47 scholars were used in the translation and they went back to the original languages for their translation, adapting them slightly with known Septuagint and Vulgate texts.

Fun fact: The English alphabet at the time had no J! So it was King Iames Bible which talked about Iesus Christ.

John 1:6-8 Common English Bible (CEB)
6 A man named John was sent from God. 7 He came as a witness to testify concerning the light, so that through him everyone would believe in the light. 8 He himself wasn’t the light, but his mission was to testify concerning the light.

This is a very new translation of the bible which is distributed by Abingdon Press, the United Methodist denominational publisher. The goal was to make the bible accessible for people today and easy to read, aiming for a seventh-grade reading level. They also wanted it to appeal broadly to many cultural contexts over 120 scholars from a variety of ethnic and cultural backgrounds. More than twenty-four denominations were involved in its work. The key feature is that instead of churchy and traditionally biblical words, you will find more seeker-friendly words.

In various letters,Paul writes to the young man, Timothy, whom he is mentoring in the faith. Along with advice and doctrine, one of the things he reminds him is that the scriptures help him to be wise and give him the words he needs to help others grow. He includes that famous line “every scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for showing mistakes, for correcting, and for training character, so that the person who belongs to God can be equipped to do everything that is good.” (2 Timothy 3:16-17)
We read that passage within our own biblical texts and we automatically apply that sentiment to the whole of scripture. This entire text has been inspired by God and it is useful for helping us understand who we are and whose we are.
One thing that often fails to cross our minds is that the Bible that Paul and Timothy were reading was very different than the ones we have in our hands today.
Early Christians spoke Greek – the language of the empire – and the scriptures that they would have been basing their teaching and writing from would have been a Greek version of the Hebrew scriptures known as the Septuagint.

When Alexander the Great conquered the Persian empire (which would have included Jerusalem and the people of Israel), Greek became the common tongue. He was known not only for conquering vast swaths of land, but he also collected books and scrolls for his library at Alexandria.
Seventy-two scholars were employed to translate the Torah, two hundred years before Christ, and it took them only seventy two days to recreate those first five books of the Hebrew Bible. The very name, Septuagint (LXX) comes from the seventy days and seventy people.
Tradition has it six scholars from each of the twelve tribes (or seventy two people) were each asked to do so independently… and independently recreated identical versions of the Torah.

Talk about inspired!
The authors of the New Testament frequently relied upon this Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures in their own writing, so it is likely that Paul and Timothy were referring to the Septuagint in their own discourse and as they were teaching others about the faith.
Christian father, Jerome, however, working around 400 years after Christ, instead turned back to the original Hebrew. His translation of the scriptures into Latin is known as the Vulgate and was used by others in their further translations into English.

But something I think we often don’t think about is how we got from there to here… how that inspiration of God works… and what it means when we open up our bibles and read vastly different things.
A couple of weeks ago, one of the passages that we were all invited to read as part of the Bible 101 challenge was a selection from Job 38.
In some of the final chapters, as God kind of puts Job in his place by rattling off a whole series of ways that God is superior and cosmic and knows everything from the time when eggs will hatch to the course of stars in the skies… some of us read about a gigantic hippopotamus… and others read about the behemoth. Some of us read about a huge alligator and others read about the Leviathan.
There is a world of difference between a hippopotamus and a mythic beast.
So what gives?

As we went through some of those various translations, one of the things that you may have heard is that the purpose of each of our translators is different.
Some are trying to give us a word for word exact replica into a new language… and if there isn’t an equivalent word, sometimes they just use the word from the original text.
Some are trying to merely get the sentiment of a phrase, with idiomatic translations and so they might try to say the same thing or explain the original phrase with more words in the process.
Others are trying to make the bible as accessible as possible… and to use words or concepts that are foreign to our ears like behemoth don’t help. They find the closest equivalent in English, in this case, and simply allow the meaning to change slightly.

It is always good to understand what the motivations might have been behind the translation of the bible YOU are using, because it might help you get a sense of how to approach that text. And when you read from a variety of translations, you get a fuller sense of how God has been speaking to people throughout time and place.
Because in the end, each author and translator began their work, inspired by God, in order to help bring to a new generation in a new time and place the messages of God.
While the exact words might differ and the phrases might not match, they are inspired to share what is “useful one way or another – showing us truth, exposing our rebellion, correcting our mistakes, training us to live God’s way. Through the Word we are put together and shaped up for the tasks God has for us.” (2 Timothy 3:16-17 MSG) Thanks be to God. Amen.

Bible 101: Unraveling the Mystery

Posted on January 6, 2019Leave a comment

Text: Ephesians 3:1-12 and Matthew 2:1-6

A group of astrologers looked up into the night sky and saw something that caught their eye.
A new star had appeared.
A king had been born.
Preparations for a journey to the west, towards Jerusalem, began.

Today, we find ourselves on the 12th day of Christmas, the Day of Epiphany.
This day reminds us that some of the first to recognize the good news of the birth of Christ were not religious leaders or rulers, but Gentiles from far off.
That star in the sky, that manifestation of light, drew them from their homes and set them on a journey to find the truth for themselves.
As Pope Leo the Great wrote in the fifth century,
“A start with new brilliance appeared to three wise men in the East” that “was brighter and more beautiful than others” attracting the “eyes and hearts of those looking on.” The determination of the magi to “follow the lead of this heavenly light” expressed a willingness to be “led by the splendor of grace to knowledge of the truth.” (As recounted by William J. Danaher Jr. – Feasting on the Word – Epiphany C)

A star shone in the sky.
Something had changed in the world.
And these magi, these wise men, these astrologers wanted to find out what it meant.

The story that we follow in the gospel of Matthew takes them to the doorstep of Herod in Jerusalem.
He listens intently to their story and his first response is to feel threatened.
He is the King of the Jews and as far as he knows, there is no child that has been born or that is expected within his court.
But there was prophecy about God’s anointed one, the Messiah, and so he calls together the religious experts of his court, the Sanhedrin, and to ask them what this might mean.
In turn, they turn to the scrolls of their faith… to the writings and teachings of their ancestors… to make sense out of this epiphany, this revelation, this new truth in the world.
They return with a few sentences of scripture that appear to speak about the Christ, from the prophet Micah and the history of 2 Samuel.
Herod sends the magi away with this information, to seek this child, but his intent is not worship or homage or truth… rather, he seeks to stop this revelation before it makes an impact on the world… HIS world.
And he will do everything in his power to stop it.

What we know is that while Herod turned his rage and fury upon the region and massacred all of the little ones who were under the age of two, he ultimately was unsuccessful.
The magi find the child, but are warned in a dream not to return and reveal the location.
Mary and Joseph and the Christ Child become aware of the danger posed to them and flee to the land of Egypt.
Jesus is saved, he grows up, and becomes an epiphany all of us:
He is the Truth.
He is the Light.
And because the Word was made flesh among us, everything has changed.

In Christ, in the good news, in this mysterious and awesome collection of texts, something new is happening in the world.
And, Paul writes, we have access to that truth.
God’s great Epiphany was not just something that happened long ago.
No, the mystery of God’s plan, the good news of God, is being revealed right here and right now through you and me, through this household of God, through the church present in the world.
Paul believes, as is evident in this selection from Ephesians, that through the church the wisdom of God is now being made known to the world.
What was begun in the promises to Abraham,
what has been confirmed through the prophets to the people of Israel,
what is now being revealed through the life of Jesus,
is that God has a plan to bless the whole world… and you and me are now part of that blessing.

Like Paul, like the religious scholars in Herod’s temple, like the astrologers from the east, we want to know what it all means.
We want to know how to make sense of the things that are happening all around us.
We want to know what difference it should make in our lives.
We want to know when we are supposed to drop everything and follow.
We want to know what is really and truly important enough that it will turn our world upside down.

Or… maybe we are afraid of precisely those things.
After all, as Flannery O’Conner paraphrased, “You shall know the truth, and the truth will make you odd.”
Or as another put it, “you shall know the truth, and the truth will set you free. But first it will make you miserable.”

I think sometimes we are content with ignorance because we don’t have to change.
We don’t want to dive into the truths of scripture, because we are afraid something we have always relied upon might be inaccurate or wrong.
Or perhaps, we are ashamed after a lifetime of being a part of the church of how little we know of these holy words.
This book…
This wonderful, holy, inspired collection of texts, is itself an Epiphany.
It is a revelation.
Every time we open its pages and allow the Holy Spirit to lead us, we discover new truths about who we are supposed to be and how we are supposed to live in this world.
And so as we start a new year, I want to invite you to let go of your fears.
Let go of your shame.
Let go of your hesitation.

Over the next seven weeks of this series, I want to invite us to be like those ancient astrologers.
They did not yet know what that star in the sky meant.
They were unaware of how that child would change the world… would change their world.
But they were curious.
They were interested.
And they opened themselves up to the possibility.
They didn’t stay at home and wonder, “what if?”
No!
They did the work.
They made the journey.
And they discovered something amazing.

That is what I want for each of us in this church over these next two months.
I want us to be curious.
I want us to ask lots of questions.
I want us to be open to new insights.
I want us to do the work of opening up this scripture and allowing it to be a part of our lives.

And here is what I promise you along the way…
Like Paul, who felt called to share the teachings of Christ with others, to help make plain the mystery, I promise to walk with you.
In the coming weeks, we’ll learn together about context and language and interpretation. We’ll dive into words like hermeneutic and exegesis. I’ll give you tools each week that will help you to better understand these texts and how they relate to one another.
And what I promise at the end of this journey is not that we will all be experts, but that we will know that in spite of our questions, in spite of all we have left to learn, in spite of the depths of the mystery that is before us… that God truly is with us and that God is present in these texts.
And… that God is present in this church.
And through you… and through me… God is going to change this world.
May it be so.
Amen.