The Woman Issue

In an ongoing effort to cause people to think differently I am now going to talk about something that has always been a personal struggle for me, women in ministry. And when I say personal struggle I mean that I was raised in a church setting that was/is more traditional and often viewed as backwards when it comes to women in ministry, and I always struggled with that. Part of the reason I struggled so mightily with it was because I had had great Sunday School teachers or other leaders who were women, but we couldn’t have a woman pastor? As well I heard some persuasive arguments for why a woman couldn’t be a pastor.

I recognize for some churches this is a non-issue, but for a lot it is still a big stumbling block. I also see woman as marginalized even in the marriage setting and I think how the church treats its woman is how the husbands in the church treat their wives.

This whole argument can really be broken down into two sides which are, complimentarian and egalitarian. People on the extremes will tell you that these two sides have nothing in common, don’t believe them. Being someone who was raised one way and sought another I see that each side has merit and flaws. If you have never heard these terms before, I’m sorry for making your life a little more complicated.

Let’s start with complimentarian. I want to highlight some notable figures that sit in these camps, and I believe this will help you discern which is best for you. Famous complimentarians include D.A. Carson, Wayne Grudem, Tim Keller, C.S. Lewis, John Piper, and John MacArthur to name drop a few. There are people out there that give this view point a bad rap, so I excluded them from my list. What does it mean to be a complimentarian? Well it’s all in the name. Men and women compliment each other, there are specific roles for each and never should the roles meet. Men are dads and women are moms for a basic example. The main problem I have with this is that it seems the restrictions are only on women. This view also holds to the classic ideas of marriage in that a women submit to her husband as per the teachings of Paul. Submission though is a tricky term, and has earned a bad reputation among even some evangelicals. I will talk about the idea of submission more later on. For now, let’s generalize and say complimentarians hold to a more strict man is the head ideal. This translates into the church as well, men should be the head of the church and women are submissive to that.It can be said that this view in its most basic form holds to traditional hierarchy. They would say scripture holds to this, and that it is also quite clear on the distinction between men and women. The nice thing about these people is they believe in order and tradition, they believe in a place for everything and everything has a place.

Egalitarians on the other hand believe in a level playing field. It comes from the French word Egal which means level. This view believes men and women are equal, that whatever men can do women can do and vice versa, except for that which biologically divides us. Some famous egalitarians are Shane Claiborne, Gordon Fee, Greg Boyd, Martin Luther King Jr., N.T. Wright, and Rachel Held Evans. This view does not seek to destroy distinction between gender, but rather to view gender as distinct from traditional gender roles. In the church setting these folks would be okay with a woman as the head of the church. They do not view men as the head of a family in the traditional sense but view marriage as a 50/50 relationship where each partner has equal say. Submission is viewed completely different, in that it should be mutual. They assert that scripture that refers to women is bound by society and culture. They would insist you examine the heart of the issue, not the words themselves. They suffer from a tendency to go to far I think, becoming almost too feminist and holding women in higher regard than men, and that’s not the point, it is about equality.

I do not think these ideas are mutually exclusive, you can easily blur the lines between them and pick and choose if you so desire. My descriptions are also basic and general, so please don’t think this sums up what either side thinks, if you are interested in more info on complimentarians consult this book, and egalitarians consult this book.

When I approach any issue like this these days I have to ask myself a few things. First, when I approach God one day and he asks me to recount what I have done what will I be proud to say, and what will shame me? Secondly, if scripture says one thing but culture has shifted, can or should scripture shift as well? And thirdly, what will help the Kingdom most?

First, I want to be able to tell God I did my best. I don’t think my best includes prohibiting women from speaking, teaching and leading people.

Second, and probably most controversially, I think scripture needs to shift with culture.This does not mean questioning the authority of scripture. All of us would be ready to admit that women don’t need to wear head coverings in church anymore, but think how dare she lead the congregation. It is a pick and choose theology, and is unacceptable. But if you examine the heart of scripture we begin to hear a different story. Women shouldn’t wear beads in their hair because that’s what prostitutes did. Essentially Paul is asking women to respect themselves and dress appropriately, don’t dress for guys, don’t dress for the occasion, dress for yourself and respect your body and image. When it comes to teaching and leading we again run into cultural issues. Then it was not okay for women to hold authority over men by cultural standards. Paul pushed the bounds by having them as deacons and coworkers and prophetesses. Jesus also was first revealed to women and was anointed king by a woman, so we can’t say the New Testament wasn’t progressive for its time. But this is a new time, and our faith is always calling us to be progressive, not regressive. Putting women back into the kitchen and out of the pulpit is regressive.

Third, the most good for the Kingdom includes every member of the body serving with their gifts. If a woman is a gifted speaker, give her a stage, if she is a gifted teacher, give her a classroom.

Now that I have said all that, there are some areas still that are tough to think about and that I think every church needs to reconcile. What does it mean to submit? Should women be the only submitters? Men are called to love their wives as Christ loved the church, what does that mean? True submission and love in marriage must be on some sort of mutual, and beneficial level. Woman are more than wives for our husbands, they are partners in a life long process of love and growth together in God. I think we need to begin to explore the idea of marriage, teaching and leading through the lenses of a progressive forward thinking church. One that loves scripture and holds it in the highest regard, but also understands its fluidity and context. I think every church has the potential to be advancing how culture and society treats the marginalized and outcast. Every husband and wife needs to discuss how they will run their house. Every church needs to admit we live in a world where women are respected as more than property, but as beautiful creations of God who have more to offer than motherhood. They have thoughts, ideas, and ways to take the church forward in the 21st century. These two sides need to realize neither is reading scripture wrong, they are reading it differently, and sometimes that’s okay.

The Gay Issue

So as promised here is my first thought provoking blog in my “The Issues” series. I wanted to tackle this one first because A) I think it is the largest issue facing the evangelical church right now that we aren’t immediately aware of, and B) I have thought a lot about it lately.

For me when it comes to homosexuality and the church I think I need to begin with what my relation to the issue is. I am straight and raised to believe that that is the only way to be. I come from what would be considered a staunch conservative background, meaning some people in my church wouldn’t even consider this an issue because the Bible is quite clear on it. But that is the very notion I want to challenge today. My upbringing had me denying homophobia on the grounds of love thy neighbour, but knowing that were I to actually meet someone who is gay that I would probably run and hide, or treat them as less than human. Truly one of my largest regrets in high school was not being more friendly toward an openly gay student. I would never say I, or other Christians stopped him from knowing Christ, but we certainly didn’t help.

For me, I don’t care where you come down on this issue, you could be “gay affirming” or believe that homosexuality is anti-biblical, the one thing I cannot stand is intolerance. There are extremists on either side of this discussion and I don’t care much for either of them. In fact one of the greatest articles I have ever read on this issue is from a blog by Rachel Held Evans, where she interviews an openly gay Christian. He runs an organization called Gay Christian Network and in the article talks about side A and side B reactions to gay Christians. Side A asserts that gay Christians are legit and biblical, that they can marry and that God affirms this. Side B asserts that they are gay Christians, but think that God does not affirm gay marriage and they choose to remain celibate. Both claims make known that being gay in not a choice. This is where I think every church should move towards. (Please read his interview)

One of the lines that we in the evangelical community have touted for a long time is, “homosexuality is a choice.” I no longer believe this lie. I do believe some men and woman are born with natural inclinations toward same gender attraction. Yes I said natural. Sexuality is more than just sex, it is about companionship and friendship. Same gender love is more than just sex. Those that are gay affirming would also be purity affirming and say that whether you are in a gay or straight relationship you need to save yourself for marriage, I can’t disagree with that. But to say that people who have an attraction to the same gender is just a choice is not understanding what attraction is. It is not a switch you can turn on and off. I think about the first girl I fell for and how my heart skipped a beat every time I saw her, and when I held her hand for the first time how it made me feel. Then I read a homosexual describe their first encounter in the same terms, it makes me realize it is something deep within them. It is something that we all experience as we grow up. Choice has nothing to do with it, it is not simply something you can turn off. Just as I can’t tell you to simply stop loving your girlfriend, or wife or husband, or to not have a crush on that girl or guy.

Many theologians have discussed passages in the Bible with regards to homosexuality and come down in different ways. It is the beautiful and terrible thing about our faith. It allows for tension, but that tension can also destroy. One good source on this is Jay Bakker in his book Fall to Grace.  He talks at length about how one can interpret specific passages, especially Romans 1. He is gay affirming and performs gay marriages at his church. I will make no judgments either way, that’s not why I am writing this, but I think it is important for conservative Christians to know that there is a Christian world out there that is big, doing good things, and thinks differently. If you see same gender love as biblical then you have wrestled with scripture and come to terms with it, and I think that’s great. I would ask anyone who takes a theological stand to do the same. That’s also why it’s great that people who have wrestled with scripture and decided same gender love is wrong. But it does not give you permission to insult, condemn, or hurt those who don’t agree with you on both sides.

This brings me to the church. How have we reacted? We say “love the sinner, hate the sin.” Can you see how damaging a statement that is if you realize the sin in questions is something the person believes to be at the core of who they are. All the church needs to say is “love”. I think you can be a church that does not support gay marriage and still welcoming of them into your community. I know that is where my church would/should be. We need to remember we are all under grace, whether you think homosexuality is biblical or not, Christ never came to condemn, he came to love. We need to practice that in deed in our churches. I am not entirely sure what the solution is, but I hope to be a part of it. The church has destroyed a lot of its good will that it should have with the marginalized in our world. We talk a big game of love and peace, but can’t stand to have a gay man sit beside us in the pew. It is devastating and unsustainable. We force things into the closet, we force people to neglect and reject parts of themselves because it might be considered taboo. Almost 100 years ago we forced prohibition in America because we thought a certain way about drinking. Now we are creating an “us and them” world with the homosexual community because we think a certain way about them.

At the same time I want to say to the gay Christian community that you need to understand that there are people who love and support you out there. But there are a lot who don’t, but might be wrestling with it and you need to be patient with them. Change doesn’t happen over night. As well making arguments like, “don’t I deserve to be happy?” won’t win you any friends. I could make the same claim for a million dollars. What you do deserve is to be loved in a community of believers by them, and most importantly by God. I want to say publicly I am sorry for the hurtful things I have said in the past, and I hope to demonstrate God’s love to every human being I encounter.

Church, let’s begin to change how we talk, let’s begin to change how we act and welcome and love people for who they are, not what they are. God created us all, and loves us all regardless of theological issues, so let’s try and do the same.

feedback: james.alan.brooks@gmail.com

The Issues

I’ve decided 2012 is a year where I am going to start talking about the issues in my heart and what has been forming in my mind over the past couple years. My next few blogs over the coming weeks and months will be ones where I tackle issues that I think face the church today and how the church is and should be responding. I am going to talk about my thoughts, but not necessarily my conclusions. Some of these topics can’t be wrapped up into nice little packages with a bow. However I can promise that I am open to your interpretation and thoughts on these issues.

Some issues I know for sure I will be addressing are:

- Homosexuality and the church
- Women in the church
- Process theology
- You, me and consumerism
- The ignored sin of gluttony
- A passionless church
- Hell, heaven and everything in between
- Why Love is the most important
- Missions

I know some of these topics are hot right now, like Hell thanks to Rob Bell. But at the same time they are the topics that persist through time. I need to talk about them, and I need to air them out to be able to think better about them. I hope if you’re reading this that you strongly consider your positions, or lack of positions on these topics. This past year I had to destroy everything I thought I knew about certain things in order to even be able to read it with an open mind.

I am already composing my first topic for discussion, and that is homosexuality and the church. Prepare for the roller coaster. Prepare for the unexpected.

Old Long Since

I was watching It’s a Wonderful Life over the Christmas break and as amazing as that movie is I realized it is a better New Year’s movie then a Christmas movie. The movie concludes with the classic song Auld Lang Syne, a song sung primarily at New Year’s now more than any other time of the year in North America. I decided to investigate what the song means and why we sing it at New Year’s.

My primary source was of course Wikipedia, you can read the article here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auld_Lang_Syne

This article talks about the origins and meanings and when and why it is sung in various cultures. What got me was what the intended meaning of the song is. You have to read between the lines a little, but essentially the song urges you to think of friends and times of old as you move forward. Hence why some graduation ceremonies will play this song. Also why George Bailey gets a rousing rendition of this song in It’s a Wonderful Life. He has just had an experience where he is forced to remember and recall all the good things, despite the bad, that he has done or been a part of.

The literal translation of Auld Lang Syne is Old Long Since, and can be thought of as saying “It’s been a while, but let me reflect on what’s happened, who I’ve met, and what I’ve done.” I like that. I like it for New Year’s.

2011 I will remember as a year of change for myself. I had what I call a revolution of biblical proportions. Meaning I revolutionized how I read the Bible, and how I think about ideas of theology and scripture. I am not a heretic, but I wanted to re-evaluate everything I thought I knew, basically stripping away all my Sunday School lessons until I had the bear bones, and begin to rebuild from there. I needed to reassert my belief in God, the Trinity, Christ, the Authority of Scripture and so on. It isn’t over, and it wasn’t always fun, but I will always remember 2011 for that.

I will also think of the people I met this year, or the people I reconnected with, or the people I lost touch with. It happens every year, and sometimes it’s painful and sometimes it’s natural. I like to think we come into each others lives like characters in a story, seemingly with no purpose, until there is a purpose. I like to think of life as a story, and I know this hotly contested by a lot of people, but it’s just my personality and how I see the world, I don’t think it’s for everyone. But I think there is a romantic idea in the world as a story and we are characters in each others stories coming in and out having a large or small effect.

Most of all 2011 is the year I found myself. This sounds horribly cliched, but it’s true. I went through a lot emotionally and spiritually this year, and it helped to restore lost confidence and to root my identity in Christ, where it should be. I am not perfect, nor would I ever claim to be, but I will claim to be more of who God made me to be then perhaps ever before in my life. This has brought about more passion and desire to do certain things, and be a part of certain things, and has also allowed me to begin to say no to things I really just don’t want or need to be a part of.

For old long since this year I reflect upon what has come and gone. Thankful to God, my friends & my family for what has been a memorable year. Here’s to many more!

“My Heart is ravisht with delight,
when thee I think upon;
All Grief and Sorrow takes the flight,
and speedily is gone;
The bright resemblance of thy Face,
so fills this, Heart of mine;
That Force nor Fate can me displease,
for Old long syne.”

Unrequited Love

I was talking to a friend about past relationships and how often times we neglect to see the one-sidedness of them. What I mean is when a relationship isn’t going well, or is maybe on its last legs, there will be one person giving more. This leads to all sorts of problems, such as stress, anger, self-doubt, and usually the end of the relationship. This is unrequited love, that is love that is not returned.

It got me to thinking about God and how we often don’t return his love. This isn’t a new idea, nor any great revelation other than I started to think of it more from his perspective. Personally knowing what it is like to be in a lopsided relationship helped me to realize what kind of torture it is to love someone, and pour your heart out to them, and get nothing back. God has done the same for us, he has poured himself out for us, he loves us with an unending love, and he constantly pursues us, and we neglect to return his love.

Makes me wonder does God get stressed out? Does he get angry because he demonstrates his love and we ignore it? Does he doubt his ability to love? Is it okay to ask that question?

Unrequited love is a dangerous thing for human beings, it destroys us in a lot of ways, but it also helps us to grow and benefit from past experience. What does it do to God? We may not know in this lifetime, but what I do know is he has more emotion and more vibrancy than we often think he does. He is explosive with his love for us. He is jealous for us! We were created in his image, and this makes me think we must experience something of what he does with un-returned love.

Flawed Perfection

I have been thinking about the idea of perfection lately and what that means to me as a flawed human, and a flawed Christian. We talk about striving for perfection, trying to attain some certain level of being where we do no wrong. Yet the more I think about our common understanding of perfection the more I realize it’s flawed.

Sorry I am going to get a little philosophical. Plato in his writings talk about the ideal of perfection. I believe he uses the example of a chair. He says that out there, somewhere beyond our world in a place of perfection there exists a perfect chair. All chairs here on earth are reflections of that, but imperfect in themselves. None can quite attain perfection. It sounds very Christian on a base level. God is perfect and out there, and we created in his image are poor reflections of that perfection. But as I began to think about this, the more it troubled me.

I used to joke with a friend of mine that one day we would find the Platonic cookie. The cookie that all other cookies strive to be like. The problem was he liked chocolate chip and I liked oatmeal raisin. Could there only be one Platonic cookie, or would there be several for every kind of cookie, and then beyond that, some people like their cookies soft, others crunchy, some like theirs warmed in an oven and others like theirs cooled. There cannot be one perfect cookie.

This concerned me, if perfection is so loose for cookies, can it be loose for God too?

I think the answer has to be yes and no. God isn’t more than one thing, but at the same time he is. His perfection lies in his love for man and his willingness to come down here and die for us. His perfection lies in his ability to do no wrong. But his perfection also lay in the fact that he comes to us differently and at different times, he appeals to us differently. Some need a loving father, others a saviour, and still others need a comforter. And maybe from time to time you need all three. God can be all things you need him to be, but he will never be what you want him to be.

When I think about perfection and what it means to me, it means loving my neighbour, it means loving God, it means being who people need me to be in order to serve them. But it doesn’t mean catering to someone’s every whim, it doesn’t mean giving into demands. It means love, in its truest, purest sense. The delight in the good of the other and of God.

More than Words

Good prose has the power to take us to other worlds. Lands where dragons can fly and spit fire, or planets where imagination is the only limitation. The written word can make us believe in things from the power of family to the power of the individual mind. Words move us to tears, make us laugh and can cause us to think things we never imagined possible. Likewise songs and music have the power to quell our innermost struggles and calm our spirits. Music can say so much without a word, and can move the biggest giants to become the smallest and humblest creatures. It can take us on an unapologetic roller coaster of emotion, it can cure our unsettled heart, or move from a place of complacency.

Yet words fail us.

I wish I could tell you how much my God means to me. I wish I could tell you every time I think about his grace my eyes start to burn with tears of joy, and thankfulness. I wish I could tell how when I look at the stars I am so humbled by how beautiful and vast creation is. I wish that there were words enough to tell you how important my faith is to me, and how God entered into my life and showed me a love I could never comprehend. And how that love has moved move me to see other people differently, it’s moved me to see the world differently. That his love is so big and undefinable, that just when I think I am beginning to comprehend it I realize I am looking about but one small section of a larger whole.

I wish I could tell you how my story would be so much different if I had never met this God, and that my life would be in ruins, gone, broken, destroyed.

I wish I could tell you that I think he loves you more then you’ll ever know, that he has the best in his giant heart for you. That all you need to do is trust him, and let go.

I wish I could tell you, but I can’t, my words aren’t enough.

I’ll just have to try and show you. Somehow.

This Grace Thing

I have never been the best at personal devotions, and never been really good at discipline. Sometimes for a few weeks I read in the morning, other times it is in the evening. It’s all over the place. Recently though, whether in my personal devos, or personal readings, I have been reading a lot about grace.

Right now I am reading a book called Galatians, some of you may have heard of it. I have read it countless times in church, camp, life, whatever and this time the message of grace is really hitting me. God’s grace is so cool and mysterious it has really caught me off guard this time. The one thing that has really caught me is the scandal that grace is.

God has a definition of justice, and perfection, and way back when it was screwed up, we did something bad and we became separated from him. He told us the punishment for this separation was a death spiritual and physical. The way to repay this debt was sacrifice, a sacrifice we could never pay. Instead of letting us wallow in our own destruction he decides himself to come down and die the death we all deserve. Think about that, he had no reason to do that! His love for us was so deep that he broke his own justice, he destroyed the rules he had set in place, he broke his own system. What a scandal!

God had every right to leave us, to start over, to forget about us. But he couldn’t do it, he couldn’t let us out of his heart, he couldn’t turn his back on us. Instead he decides to fix the problem and to allow himself to be broken and destroyed by us, the very ones who caused the problem. Accepting this grace thing has taken on new meaning for me, it is more then just a free ticket to eternal life. It is a pass to a life with the beloved, a life full of love, love for God and love for others. Grace is infectious, you just want other people to see this gift of love and life the way you do. But I still screw it up, I still manage to distort his love. And the amazing thing is that his grace glows even brighter in my disgrace.

I can’t help the joy inside me right now when I think about this grace. Part of me thinks if I knew nothing else of God, this would be enough. It would be enough to know that a God came down and sacrificed himself so that I might live a fulfilled life, a life of the beloved. Yet the more I learn of this God, and his grace the more struck I am but how awesome, and big, and full of emotion and love he is. His grace, his love for us shown in this free gift, is just one small window into who he is, and how much he has meant to me. And yet, it is one of the most amazing things I have ever felt, this grace thing and all it’s scandal.

First Love

A player steps up to the plate, he’s been there a thousand times before. It’s no different this time. He makes sure his gloves are tight, he adjusts his helmet then taps the plate with his black Cooper bat. He points it at the pitcher and then slowly brings it back up to his shoulder. He sees the pitcher look through him to the catcher. The pitcher is evaluating every pitch and shaking his head, finally he nods and the player gets ready to receive the first pitch. The ball comes in, straight down the middle, and for the first time ever the player freezes. As if in slow motion he watches the ball go by for strike one. He shakes his head and walks out of the batters box, he redoes he gloves, looks to the third base coach for any signs and then walks back into the box. The fans are loud, the noise deafening. The players mind begins to slow down and it’s as if he’s alone on the field. In the seconds it takes the pitcher to throw the ball he evaluates himself. He wonders how he got here, to this game, taking this pitch. There are runners on base anticipating everything he does, people dependent on him, but for what? Why play this game? Will it last forever, will it be important tomorrow? He then looks down the first base line and sees a kid, no older than 6, he sees the smile he has, he sees the glove on his hand. He sees his dad there with him, he sees the love. The second pitch comes in and he doesn’t even swing. The umpire yells strike two, but he barely hears him, his mind is racing. This is what he’s here for, not for the runs, not for the fame, but for that kid and for his father. Will this game matter tomorrow? To the player probably not, but to that kid, it may be the thing he talks about for weeks to come. The players thinks as he steps in and out of the batters box, he thinks about his first love. Does he still have his first love? Does he do it with all his heart because it matters, or because it is what he’s supposed to do? Is he true to that which made him love the game? He lines himself up again, but this time it is different. The pitcher nods, turns to stare down the runners and then delivers his pitch. The player watches it, with new interest, he sees the kid cheering, he sees the runners anticipating, he sees his first love, and he swings the bat, like he has never swung it before.

Sometimes I forget my first love, and sometimes I need to be reminded why I do what I do. It’s not usually the rituals of life that do it, it’s usually the people I interact with that remind me why I was, or am, or should be passionate. Never underestimate how your passion can affect someone.

Death of the Author

I have not been shy about admitting my love for movies, and I want it to be known that I listen to podcasts which review and talk about movies all the time, and I love it. There is a critical theory out there, which extends beyond movies to things like literature and even the fine arts, it is called death of the author. This theory poses the notion that in a work of art in any form the author can become irrelevant to the end product. Take for instance the Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis. You can find quite easily the quotes of him saying that he never intended Narnia to be religious or allegorical, but that he just wrote the stories. Now many years later we look on these books and dissect them and tear them apart from their original author intended meaning. We (the plural we of society) have brought more meaning to them then old Clive Staples intended. This is the death of the author, his views on his work no longer represent the sum of meaning in those works.

This got me to thinking, and I immediately had two thoughts jump to mind. Do Christians do this with Scripture, and if the answer is yes, then should we? and if the answer is no, then should we start?

The more I thought about the more I realized we killed the author of Scripture a long time ago, but we maintain that we didn’t and that he is still informing the reading and interpretation of scripture. The funny thing about the Bible is that it is one of a handful of religious texts in the world that was written by man, but claimed to be written by God. People throughout history have debated this idea and what it means. Asking very important questions like, how much influence did the human writers have? Did God guide their hand? Could the authors have ever been wrong? Could the authors have known their works would last for centuries? Did the authors know that people in a different world would read and interpret their actions for millenniums to come?

I’d like to visit Paul for a second. He wrote a large part of the Bible, and is the greatest contributor to the New Testament. He knew his words were being passed from church to church, and he even encouraged this behaviour. Peter says of Paul that his words are like Scripture, directly relating them to the Old Testament. So Paul would have been a dummy if he didn’t realize something special was happening with his letters. That being said though, did he know that 2000 years later we would still be reading them. My bet is not, especially since he, more than most, lived under the notion of Christ coming soon. So Paul’s words are to a world as foreign to us as another planet, are going to be hard to figure out. That’s why we have created such practices as hermeneutics and exegesis to make sure we properly read scripture.

The problem is the author is dead, literally and metaphorically. Paul isn’t here to tell us what he meant by this or that, and we’re only left to assume and read between the lines. This means with even our best knowledge of first century Jerusalem we’re playing a guessing game. I for one believe in the power of God to help us properly discern scripture, and that’s not really what I am getting at here. What I am getting at is that Paul’s words meant something then, and they mean something now, but are those two somethings the same? We easily jump on the band wagon of no gays in the church, woman can’t run churches, don’t get tattoos but we forget about ones like don’t wear braids in your hair and don’t eat red meat with the blood still in it. We killed the author so that we could take what we wanted. The thing is Paul was ok with that, he knew when he faded God would still be there, but then we proceeded to kill the second author. What I have been challenged to do is find out the meaning of the message. The power behind the sentiment. Paul told people to do, or not do things for reasons, not because those things in and of themselves were sinful, but because those things were a product of a sin. It is not very often that the action is the only sin, it is more often that the heart is wicked, and the sin results from an issue deep within.

Paul wanted to show us a way to live that included, not excluded. He above all knew the power of God’s love and grace. (For more on this read Fall to Grace by Jay Bakker). Paul was never about casting out the people that needed Jesus most, in fact he pushed the church to accept them, bring them into the family, his whole mission to the gentiles is evidence of this. It’s ok to kill Paul off and any other author for that matter, it’s not ok to kill God off. God’s love in Paul’s words is what needs to come through. It’s ok to doubt, question, wrestle with, and yell at God, in fact he welcomes it. Let’s try to move from a place of picking and choosing to embracing and wrestling. We need to be afraid of some of the things written in that book, because if the author is alive it means there is a whole lot we are ignoring. We need to live like the author is alive and well and at work in this world, to me it’s the only way the Bible has meaning.