“I wonder how you feel about the Bible? I know a lot of people who feel conflicted about it, somewhat wary of it, for having had the experience of turning to it for spiritual inspiration, or guidance, for good learning and direction, but instead finding themselves embroiled in tales of sibling rivalry, conflicts between neighbouring tribes or nations, with so much bloodletting and wholesale loss of life, and - worst of all, perhaps - finding there not a God of love and peace but a jealous, avenging God ever poised to wreak his wrath on the enemies of his people.
This is a real problem for us - for these scriptures are at the heart of our faith. So what are we to do with them? It’s a particular problem today because there are so many people in our society who would never entertain the idea of opening a Bible, because they’ve already heard about the horrors it contains.
If you, these days, hesitate to embrace the message of these scriptures, I’d like to encourage you: please don’t give up on them, instead take another look. For this collection of writings contains more than one story about God and us; these are texts in tension; scripture has a habit of subverting itself - and this act of subversion, well, we have another word for that. We call it the gospel. …”
- The story of Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch, expanded; in my talk today, The gospel subversion: turning slaughter to salvation.
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