Why messy Scriptures

I am often disgusted by the poor thinking I see coming from many Christians today. Christian radio, TV, books, magazines, and the like are often poorly thought through. The Bible is seen as one big answer book with every story and passage functioning much like a fable with a nice little moral at the end.

To counter this, I present Messy Scriptures. Don’t get me wrong. I believe that the Bible is the unique Word of God. I believe it is useful for teaching, correcting, rebuking, and encouraging. But the Bible presents many difficult and challenging issues if you read it slowly, carefully, and deliberately enough.

For those of us who grow up in the church (myself included) we forget what this book sounds like. We have heard the stories over and over in church. But we forget the moral dilemmas, the challenges, the R-rated Scriptures, the troubling behavior of the “heroes” which often goes unchecked and unchallenged in any real sense.

We have developed a lens with which we see Scripture through. I like chipping away at that lens. I like pointing out that lens. I like trying to remove the lens. And when you remove the lens, you sometimes find a mess. Messy Scriptures. Reading Scripture without a lens (well, at least a different one!).

This idea comes from many classes I enjoyed with Dr. Danny Carroll at Denver Seminary and from some ideas from Dr. Steven Sample’s book “The Contrarian’s Guide to Leadership”.

These readings will prove to be challenging to many, unorthodox maybe even heretical to some, scary to others, unprofitable to still others, but really fun to me! The readings are intended to push our thinking, to challenge our assumptions, to push the envelop, and to foster discussion.

Finally, I reserve the right to contradict and disagree with myself. This gives me freedom to push my thinking, challenge my assumptions, and push the envelop. After all, I’m trying to remove a lens I’ve worn for the better part of my life!