Spoiler Alert. I am not a Biblical literalist.

I tell people I take the Bible far too seriously to take it literally. There are many children’s books that have been written about the “Great Heros of the Bible.” It’s not fair to the kiddos. We grow up and we find out that those “great heroes” weren’t always so great. Like King David. God used him to do some important work, but he didn’t always do great stuff. In fact, he did some pretty awful stuff. I mean, Bathsheba? That is not a children’s story. And the baby dies in the end.

One of my most SMH bible stories is about Abraham bargaining to save Sodom and Gomorrah. He starts the bid at 50, 50 decent people, gets God down to 10. For 10 righteous people, there will be no fire and brimstone. There were not 10. God let Lot, his wife, and daughters escape. Presumably, they were worth saving because 1) the were related to Abraham, and 2) Lot did a good deed by saving a couple strangers (angels) from the locals, but would have gladly thrown his own daughters to the same wolves. After escaping Sodom, Lot’s wife is disobedient and turns into a pillar of salt. Soon after, the daughters take turns getting Lot drunk and get pregnant with their dad’s incest babies. As if Noah’s family didn’t do enough harm to the gene pool. But they were worth saving.

We give this book to children.

I am so happy to be serving a congregation where there are at least some people willing to sit and discuss the hard stuff in the Bible. What we discover is that the REALLY good news is all that much better for having read it in its historical, regional, literary, translated context along with other people who are doing their level best to follow Jesus.

When I hear people speaking disparagingly of the poor, displaced, oppressed, and repressed; and of that being the ways of God, it is nothing short of taking the Lord’s name in vain. Read Matthew 25. Who does Jesus judge? or bless? It is those who care for the “least of these.” Read the prophets. Make a list of things that God favors or does not favor? Wealthy oppressors do not come up in any of the “God-looks-favorably-upon” lists. In fact, they are the ones that are always critiqued.

Jesus calls out the self-righteous, insiders-only, folks who have no place in their lives for foreigners, non-believers, lepers, prostitutes, tax collectors, and the like.

I recently heard yet another conservative politician talk about people (community and country) turning away from “God’s ways” (implying that he did not) while affirming that in the end “God always wins.” These have become the talking points of the oppressive tyranny. “Taking the Lord’s Name in Vain” isn’t about what comes out of your mouth when you slam your hand in the car door – or an outburst of OMG. Though, those are easy to monitor and judge. It is about assuming that God sides with you, even when your words and actions contradict Jesus at every turn. To be so bold, it is about presuming that God follows you.

These talking points always have to do with a handful of things that a certain (large) group of Christians choose for their list of “worst sins.” You know what they are. As a child, I recall divorce being on that list. It was lifted. I will let you think about why it isn’t anymore. What if their talking points aren’t the things that God pays the most attention to? For instance, being LGBTQIA is certainly not in contradicion to any of the 10 commandments. Nor is it against Jesus’ command to love God and neighbor.

Unless you think your ways are God’s ways. Which is a slippery slope on the road to idolatry.

Have no other Gods? That’s the first of the 10 Commandments.* If I recall my Bible history correctly, God took that one pretty seriously. When Moses came down the mountain with the tablets God had carve with the Divine finger (it does not say which one), and discovered that while he was gone, the people had made a golden calf and started to worship it, Moses ended up smashing the first set of tablets as he came down the mountain. He took the calf that they had made,

burned it with fire, ground it to powder, scattered it on the water, and made the Israelites drink it.” (Exodus 32:20)

I believe that God does get ticked off. Sometimes, people think that churches like mine don’t take sin seriously. That is actually not true. Sin and evil are real problems in our world, and all around us. But sin is insidious. It isn’t always what the self-righteous are pointing us toward.

The saving Good News is that God, when God wanted to let the world know what HOLY looked like in the flesh, became incarnate (literally, “in the flesh) as Jesus. Born as an infant with no capacity to hurt or hate. Jesus lived love, taught love, healed in love, forgave in love, and IS LOVE. And when the self-righteous religious people and the powers of the Roman government combined forces and had him endure death by crucifixion. He did not call down fire and brimstone.

For some reason, God had determined that we, like Lot, are worth saving. That is called grace. Grace upon grace.

John 1 :1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ² He was in the beginning with God. ³ All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being ⁴ in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. ⁵ The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overtake it ^{. . . 14} And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth . . .  ¹⁶ From his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. 

*The Texas Senate (not yet the House) passed a bill this week (4/22/23) that would require all public schools to display the 10 Commandments. As a Christian, I take the 10 Commandments seriously as part of my life of faith. However, the first commandment against having any other gods, in a public school, would seem to really cross the separation of church/state line.