Church Is Messy: Bonus Episode - Sunday School for Grown Ups Discussion

Church is Messy

In this bonus episode between seasons, Rick and Svea discuss large recurring themes in familiar Old Testament stories. A lot of the discussion revolves around the content of the Bible being so amazing and such a big deal, God communicated it in the best way possible for all communities, all generations, and all cultures with everything in these stories pointing us to Jesus, the Gospel, and life in him.

Topics in this Episode:

• 00:00 Intro
• 01:43 The ethos of the series: a deep dive into incredible, familiar, overlooked stories that are often perceived as childish.
• 02:38 The Bible stories we often share with kids were originally written by and for adults. They are great to share with kids, but they're not kids stories.
• 05:31 These stories aren't necessarily misunderstood, but they are often "under-understood"
• 09:49 Rick talks about his view of the Bible as a supernatural text written by literary genuses.
• 10:55 A lot of these old testament stories are about the nature of sin--humans choosing to do things their own way instead of God's way.
• 14:57 An individual's interpretation of a Bible text isn't the litmus test for trusting and believing the Bible. The litmus test is "do they want to understand and trust it (the Bible) whatever the truth is?"
• 15:51 Many times, parts of the Bible are read as more scientific than they really are. Genesis is historical narrative, not poetry, but it isn't necessarily an academic textbook.
• 16:20 We should take the Bible seriously, but that means we take everything seriously. Not everything is explainable, but all parts of the Bible should be taken as real.
• 27:08 The content of the Bible is so amazing and such a big deal, God communicated it in the best way possible for all communities, all generations, and all cultures.
• 33:26 Rick shares an example of communicating ideas across history: how would we communicate a cell phone to Moses? We might describe it like a little box you hold up and use to talk to someone far away--we wouldn't explain the invention of electricity, satellites, digital signals, silicon chips, microphones and speakers, batteries, etc. Can we think of Creation the same way?
• 36:41 Should we be concerned that the stories in Genesis were told elsewhere in earlier historical texts? Rick suggests that the author of Genesis used commonly known stories and told them from a theologically accurate perspective.
• 41:14 We should see the power, glory, wisdom, and majesty of God alongside the human condition in these stories MORE than the scientific details of the how.
• 42:16 We love certainty, whereas the Bible sometimes leaves details unclear. Still, the purposes and objectives of the Bible are sufficient for what we need.
• 45:55 Everything in these OT stories points us to Jesus, the Gospel, and life in him.