Can't believe I'm posting something this irreverent-sounding, but this guy makes a great point. (David Hopwood on the church.wrecked.org site.) The Bible is a living, breathing work of art and truth, not a list of rules combined with a history textbook.
"The more I've got to know it the more I have discovered it's jokes, shocks, puns, wisecracks, pathos, horror, riddles, idiosyncrasies and subtleties."
OK, how about, stop being so serious about the Bible? Still not quite there...
I like to point this out to people who read stories like the woman at the well so sterile-ly. Come on! A single woman was hitting on a rabbi. Trying to make him uncomfortable. It was like a goth teen getting in a businessman's space just to see if she could rattle him. Of course, it ended up changing the woman's life. That's not "serious", that's miraculous! That's the power of Christ - power we actually have at our disposal. (Eph. 1) Much more interesting than a history textbook.The Bible is full of real stuff like this. That's one of the reasons I love it so much.
Now, of course we should take the Bible seriously. But maybe we just shouldn't be so serious - flat, emotionless, legalistic, angry, you get the picture - about it. It really misrepresents it. It's the living word of God. It's the greatest story ever told! And it's all true... Amazing.
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