Yesterday I took part in a training day for Spring Harvest. A team of around 30 or so of us will be having the pleasure of looking after 500 young people aged 11-14 in the wonderful world that is Butlins, Minehead. My job for the week is grandly entitled "Bible Teacher", which means what? That I am suitably trained and able to teach young people what the Bible is all about? I think not - I have been trying to teach the Bible to young and old since the age of 13 and I sometimes feel like I know less, not more than when I started...I am realising that the Bible doesn't actually give all the answers (shock, horror!). It tells the story of the people of Israel, some poetry and excellent writing, the birth, life and death of Jesus and some letters that talk what happened in the 100 years or so after that original, amazing, life changing Easter Sunday.
What the Bible does is give us a context, a background, some difficult verses that people, much cleverer than me, have argued over for 2000 years and LOTS of stories. Jesus told lots of stories and although we think we know the meanings to most of those - look again and you might find something new. Jesus often told the story to the crowds and then gave the meaning to his followers - think about it. Jesus told stories to the masses and never told them what to do with those stories, he never explained the detail, he never made an altar call and he never asked you to sign up for a monthly Standing Order with Gift Aid..
So the challenge is can we tell stories and resist from giving all our oh-so-clever answers or are we happy just to tell the stories?
1 comment:
Thought provoking stuff there and a good question. I've been thinking the same thing about the gospel recently. Do we really believe the gospel has the power to change lives? If so, why don't we share it more often and more openly without dressing it up, explaining it away or getting embarrassed by it?
The scriptures speak for themselves, we just need to share them. Like you say, Jesus allowed the crowds to make up their own minds!
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