Wednesday Word from Dr. Denny Clark: Spring Journey Group Reflection
"Not Everything Biblical is Christ-Like.”
“Study the Bible, BUT Follow Jesus.”
“Read the Bible through the Lens of Jesus.”
All that is right with the Church can be traced back to the Bible. However, all that is wrong with the Church can also be traced back to the Bible. It all depends on how people actually use the Bible. The statements above this paragraph underscore the approach necessary to prevent the Bible from being distorted and turned into a weapon that dehumanizes and destroys others – and ourselves. Jesus is our best clue to what God is like and to what we are called to become. Using Jesus as our Lens for looking at and interpreting the Bible is the key to using it properly.
Our latest 11-session Journey Group series wraps up this week. It has involved over 75 St. Thomas members either in small groups or as ‘individual adventurers’. Thank you to our facilitators and to ALL who have been involved! You have provided a way for St. Thomas to emerge from the constraints of Covid with new energy and a new sense of purpose.
We’ve been studying the first half of Daniel Erlander’s insightful, whimsical, playfully-illustrated book, Manna and Mercy, accompanied by a series of videos from South African pastor Alan Storey that provocatively highlight the contemporary relevance of Scripture for our lives and world. Erlander and Storey together focus on God’s inviting out-of-whack people like us to partner with God in mending our out-of-whack universe – a major theme running throughout the Bible. As St. Augustine observed, “Without God, we cannot. Without us, God will not.” Life doesn’t work properly unless we partner with God, with other people, and with the rest of Creation.
This round of Journey Groups has focused on the Christian ‘Old Testament’ – the Jewish Scriptures. The OT’s message is NOT in contrast to that of the New Testament, as some have problematically claimed. Instead, there is a consistency, an integrity, a wholeness that runs through the entire Bible when we understand it through the Lens of Jesus. Recognizing that will transform us! We will move into the second half of our Journey this Fall as we explore the New Testament, forming new groups after Labor Day. We hope you all will be part of that Journey!
Denny Clark, St. Thomas Parish Theologian
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