Various Scripture - According to Jesus, the Bible is the authoritative, inspired, unbreakable word of God that all leads to Him. The Bible is also a word of man with a very complicated and human history. At the same time, the Bible is a unified but incredibly diverse work of literary artistry spanning many authors, genres, and tones. To encounter the Bible is like stepping into a gallery containing the transcendently beautiful, the shockingly ugly, and the fascinatingly complex all at once. The Bible itself and as a whole is an irreplaceable guide for thinking Christianly about the arts. A sermon by Cameron Heger. [Part 3 of our series "Looking the World to Grace: Art, Makers & the Christian Life"]

Questions for reflection: 1) What is your relationship to the Bible like right now? What aspects of it are life-giving? What aspects are challenging or discouraging? 2) How did Jesus himself view the Bible of HIs day (the Old Testament)? What role did it play in His life? 3) Talk about the significance of God using human partners to author His sacred Scripture with Him? 4) What does it mean to read the Bible "literarily"? How/when does this overlap with a "literal" reading? How does it distinguish itself? 5) What do you make of the especially bizarre, grotesque, or dark biblical passages? 6) How might some of these ideas help get us beyond boredom with the Bible? 7) How does the life, death, resurrection, and reign of Jesus anchor our relationship to the Bible?