All in Public Bible Scholar

The Whirlwind and the Whisper

“ In times like this we have big questions. And sometimes we say careless things, like “God was watching out for me.” But what I know is that in tornadoes, the people in houses who didn’t get hit were praying. And the people who were in houses that did get hit were also praying. Times like these cause us to wonder where God is in the midst of tragedy. And that is exactly what the Book of Job is confronting – the capricious nature of life and loss. “

Our Common Story

“And now we are not divided by devices that are feeding us what we want to hear. We are gathered around the campfire again, and we are sharing in our common humanity, and we are living as a people in community. We have a story that we all share. And that, my friends, is a rare and sacred moment these days.”

It's 2020 and We Gotta Talk about Meat Sacrificed to Idols

“Now, I admit, I figured as I scanned through this letter a few weeks ago, that this would be a section we would kind of blow past. Who cares about the debate about whether we eat meat sacrificed to idols or not? It is a non-issue today. But as I prepared for this week’s lesson, I could not help but notice that if I substituted “wearing masks” for “eating meat sacrificed to idols”, we had an incredibly applicable passage of Scripture here.”

The System Counts on Your Exhaustion (or Your ADD)

My father was a plaintiff in a landmark civil rights case in Arkansas 25 years ago.

I always give people a minute to absorb that. Most of my friends have never seen my dad. He was a bit of a recluse, really all my life but definitely after the case. But in case you are looking at me and wondering, yes, he was a white man. And yes, he filed a racial discrimination suit. He was, as far as we could determine, the first person in Arkansas to file racial discrimination… due to association.”

Change Reaction

Then the one seated on the throne said, “Look! I’m making all things new.” He also said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.” (Revelation 21:5, CEB translation)

Uh, seriously, God! Do you have to make ALL things new?!?!?! What if I don’t want those words to be trustworthy and true? There are times when I don’t want things to change. I want things to stay old and familiar. Comfortable. Easy.

I Am Not Afraid

After I share these insights, person after person has asked me this question: “Has all this given you any insight into what will happen to us in May?” Then they sort of laugh, as if there was any chance that such a thing would be possible. And then I say, “Yes, it has. I am not worried.” That is usually when they look at me like I have lost my mind. And then they want to know why in the world I would say something like that. So here is why.

Temporarily Cained

“Pastors often bemoan how we struggle to get anyone to kneel at the altar and pray, and we know that at least in part that is because people don’t want to announce that they are weak and need help, or to start any rumors about their lives. Social media now exacerbates this pressure to always show a perfect selfie face and a Pinterest worthy house. But I would like to push against those false realities.”

Habit Forming

“We pass things down to our children. Or we do not pass them down. We form habits in our children. Or we break habits. We choose for them what happens with their faith, or what they have to overcome to have faith. We invite our children to stand on the pew next to us and sing hymns and recite creeds, or we send them out of the worship service to play games. We encourage them to put a portion of their allowance in the plate, or we put our hand up and shake our head no to the ushers. And then we bemoan that our children become adults who do not have a foundation of faith to stand on. But we never took the time to pass faith down.”