“We did not follow cleverly invented stories when we told you about the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses to his majesty.” 2 Peter 1:16

Since the time Christ came, stories, fables, fantasies - you name it - have been written about him and his life. Some still top the New York Times best sellers like Dan Brown’s The DaVinci Code. Personally, I love what Dr. James Howell writes about the popularity of the DaVinci Code.

“One thing we learn from it’s mind-boggling sales is modern readers have a taste for the sensational, the unheard of. Jesus was odd indeed, but not in the way that titillate our modern media fantasies. Jesus was odd, in fact, in ways that offend modern sensibilities.”

In a week where homemade bombs have exploded north of us and peaceful protests have turned violent south of us, we want to wrestle with the real Jesus of the New Testament as well as what this peace-maker, justice-lover, status quo-challenger, eternal forgiver is asking of us through the word penned on the 22 books of the New Testament over 1,900 years ago. Indeed some of his teaching, and certainly his living and dying, offends our sensibilities when we naturally want revenge or just feel like throwing in the towel. But that is exactly why we are called to spend time discerning what is true about Jesus and what of his teaching and life we should apply to our lives. We need another narrative and an alternative approach: one fueled on love that brings life for all.

A Question before you listen: What does it mean to you to have ONE God and only one God?

As we continue to wrestle with how to make sense of Scripture, we will dive deeply into the witness of the Old Testament in this sermon. The "Old" Testament is not at all old to the people, our Jewish brothers and sisters, who wrote and received it. Rather, it remains their lawbook, their history book, their prayer book, and more. And because we follow a rabbi who also claimed the one God of Israel, we want to seek and find what "new" thing thousand-year-old Scriptures have to say to us.

So read over these Scriptures, and ask yourself not only what does it mean to have one God but also what does it mean to be a chosen people, brought close by the one and only God?

What’s the Bible to you?

Don’t worry, I don’t ask that question as a litmus test of your faithfulness. Rather, I ask it as a tool of reflection. In your own experience, what has the Bible been to you?

Has it been inspiring and life-giving or confusing and even at times harmful? Has it been a tool of change or rubber stamp for the status-quo? Is it like an owner’s manual for anyone with faith, a great inspiring novel, or a helpful history annal? Or is it something different all together to you? (Feel free to e-mail me your thoughts at [email protected]).

The Bible can be and has been all these things - a tool and a weapon, a treasure chest and a sink-hole. We are going to look at what we know about the history of Scripture, various ways we can approach the Bible, and our personal relationships with the Word in this and the next two sermons. We will loosely follow Adam Hamilton’s book, MAKING SENSE OF THE BIBLE, and I encourage you to get it and read it.

In preparation for listening, ask yourself, “What’s it to me?” Personally, I think we often ask folks in the pews to make a lot of assumptions about Scripture without always diving deeply into this complicated, sometimes abused, and yet infinitely bountiful gift from God. So, I’m very excited to go there with you.

Here, we are tackling a difficult text from the Gospel of Luke, Luke 14:25-33. Read it, and you’ll see what I mean. Jesus challenges a large group of his followers to three conditions of what it means to be a disciple- you simply have to hate your family, bear a cross and give up all of your possessions. So, piece of cake, right? … What do we do with this passage of Scripture?!?

I am excited to wrestle with this text in worship with you all, and don’t let it scare you. Jesus does challenge us to a life that is not always comfortable or easy; but, his will is for us to live joyfully and abundantly in Christ and community.

During your Olmypic viewing, did you catch the Women’s 5000 meter race? In it, Abbey D’Agostino, from Team USA, and New Zealand’s Nikki Hamblin collide. Abbey immediately got up, but rather than running forward, she turned back and helped up Hamblin, “Come on, let’s finish the race.” Hamblin returned the favor a few minutes later when Abbey collapsed and though Abbey had to hobble the last mile on a torn meniscus, they both finished the race. Audiences around the world have been moved by the “sisterhood of sportsmanship” of these two women who had never met before that day.

This week in worship, we will use the Olympic Motto as our guide. It reads “Citius, Altius, Fortius” or “Faster, Higher, Stronger.” But the story of Abbey and Nikki is none of those. They were the slowest in their heat and ended the race injured and physically weak. So why has their story resonated with the world?

Because deep in our spirits, we know the holy beauty of helping one another finish the race, especially when we or someone else is weak, slow, or low. Or as Abbey explains in her interview, “All I know is that I got up and my first instinct was to turn around and say, ‘We got to finish this.’ I don’t think that was me. I think that was the Spirit of God within me.” Indeed, the Good News of God is that God helps us finish the race and cares deeply that we all enjoy the blessed reward of doing God’s work for one another. Although I so wish Ernie Dalton would be in the pews this Sunday, in some ways it’s the perfect sermon for a man who consistently helped many of us finish our race at hand.

I encourage you to spend some time in prayer asking God to help you see how God can use you specifically in the places where you feel weak or low.