A mobile library whose stories should make us laugh and everything else
The Bible
I went into the Bookshop and headed as I do to the Religious section. I noticed a Brian McLaren book ‘Faith after Doubt’. I read the preface after which I was thinking “This book probably signals the significant change in Evangelical Christianity that I have observed over the past years.”
That change is allowing Evangelical Christians to express their passion for Jesus without barriers of beliefs particularly about sex and other faiths.
I then took some time out in the Library searching for further thoughts on Jonah. Our Christian Life Comunity is still contemplating Jonah so I was interested to see what else I could learn about him.
I came across the following webpage I was impressed with the animation.
I actually learned some things I never knew about Jonah. I hadn't realised he gets a mention in 2 Kings chapter 14 verses 23 -25 concerning a prophecy he made during the reign of King Jeroboam (the second). According to the video the prophet, Amos was a contemporary who also advised the King in this battle. This shows my lack of Biblical knowledge as I have never been able to place prophets within their time. I continue to think of the Bible as a chronology of events with time marked by the books which it is not.
This short video also reminded me that this is a story before anything else and literary devices are used to make it a good one. I hadn't thought of it as satire until it was said on the video. It threw a new light on my reading and also pointed the message back to me.
I then visited the shelves and came across Nadia Bolz-Weber book Shame-less. I have previously come across Nadia as she stands out as a Lutheran priest covered in tattoos.
Shameless is to Nadia what his 95 Theses were to Luther. She wants a sexual reformation within the church that is less bothered with sex and actually celebrates it.
Again I was bumping into that change that is occurring within Christianity.
If I am into something it is the Bible. Actually, if I am into something it is God, no if I am into something it is being a father. Perhaps I am into more than I thought. But yes the 66 books that make up that mobile library we refer to as the Bible holds a big interest in me.
In looking at these three places this morning I was reminded they are books telling a story, not theology. I would do well to remind myself to read the stories and leave aside the theology that has layered them.
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