Buzz King: Grace & Joy thru Scripture

We look at one of the biggest complaints about the Bible: the brutal massacre of the Canaan people, ordered by God.  We take a historical perspective on the Bible, when, by whom, and how it was written.  We consider the Canaan story in this historical context.  We also look at a buddy of mine who got shot by a farmer with a shotgun.  Our goal is to figure out not just the reason for this violent story, but also who we, as Christians are today.

We look at a major issue in our society today: the insistence that people are either our allies, that they completely buy into our priorities and stand side by side with us as soldiers - or they must be considered enemies.  We consider a man whom I knew as a boy, a man who married a woman with 7 young children.  This man did not live that way.  He looked for the good in people.  He looked to improve himself.  He was a man of faith who walked in the Kingdom of God, and was not trapped in the Kingdom of this world.

We look at a story that was apparently inserted after the fact in the Gospel of John: the story of the adulterous woman.  We discover that it is a very complex, multi-faceted story that requires great study.  The Pharisees want to stone the woman to death.  Jesus writes in the dirt and mysteriously, the Pharisees slither away.  Why did they do this?  What are the various explanations for this passage?  Why should we be glad the story did make its way into the Gospel?  And where did the story originate, anyway?

When I was a young man working as a computer programmer in a subbasement office, I met a man who had been badly maimed by a grenade thrown in his tank in World War II.  He gave me a perspective of God and our dependence on God that is reflected in a very unusual Psalm - number 37.  This Psalm is very much in the Wisdom literature category.  It tells us just how God deals with those who do good and those who do evil - and therefore how we should live each day.

The opening of Hebrews tells us about the difference between Old Testament revelation and the revelation of Jesus Christ.  The Old Covenant was the ponderous War and Peace, but the New Covenant is the shortest of short stories - and one delivered not by a long series of human prophets, but by the Son of God himself.  We look at what that means for us today, in terms of our urgency to live as faithful people.  We consider practical things we can do to more fully live our faith today - to live a radiant faith today.

There is tremendous conflict in the Christian Church in the U.S. and in the world today.  We look at a letter called 3 John, the shortest book in the New Testament, by number of words, and we get a glimpse of conflict in the very early Church.  We see that even at the very beginning of the Church, conflict like we have today arose.  In the letter, we see a man named Diotrephes who is apparently the source of conflict, a man who, because of his anger and his impatience, is imitating evil. We look at this in the context of a conversation that I had with a man who wanted very much to make things right, to make it clear to people from his past that he was no longer a man who stirred up conflict...

The Didache is an Ancient Greek document that perhaps should have made its way into our Bible - but it didn't.  It could have been written as early as the year 50 A.D., and it might have been source material for one or more Gospel.  It was long lost - until it was rediscovered in the late 1800's.  We look at its content: the Didache (the "Teaching") tells us about the Way of Life and the Way of Death, as well as how to organize and maintain a healthy church.  It is tightly written and easy to read.  We consider its relevance today.

We return to the Book of Acts, and to a man who I spoke with, a man who was about to find out if he had cancer.  We look at a very powerful theme in the Book, but something that is often overlooked: our ability, if we accept the gift, to be baptized with the Holy Spirit.  We see what it did, not just to the Apostles and to Paul, but to ordinary volunteers who worked with the Great Evangelists.  We learn how our lives can be radically changed.
 

We study the Torah - and consider the often talked about issue of it teaming with ridiculous laws, such as not being allowed to wear clothing made of two different materials, like linen and wool.  In truth, we discover some very demanding - but valuable - laws, ones that push us way beyond the norms of our nation.  We see what it means to put some real teeth in the two great commandments of Jesus, to love God with all our hearts, minds, and souls, and to love our neighbor accordingly.

I recently met a man who was confronting a potentially terrifying biopsy result, but who knew that the Spirit was more powerful than any cancer.  We consider the often-forgotten Holy Spirit, whom very few Christians fully appreciate.  We look at the Spirit from the perspective of the Book of Acts.  We see how the spread of the faith from Jerusalem outward to almost the entire known world - the amazing spread of the faith to the Gentiles - was orchestrated not by the Apostles, not by Paul, but by the Holy Spirit.  

Tyrian purple dye, which was, in truth, purple snail snot, was extraordinarily valuable in the ancient world - worth three times its weight in gold, at a time when gold was extremely rare.  We look at our possessions today, things we highly value, and we ask: will they be the purple snail snot of the future?  And what about that other incredible valuable item, given to us by God...?

I once spoke with a woman who had been through at least three major medical journeys.  She felt a constant pull between Grace and fear in her life.  She desperately need Grace to win the battle within her.  We look at one way that has been used to categorize Grace: Prevenient, Justifying, and Sanctifying Grace.  Our goal isn't to memorize any particular way to structure the overall notion of Grace.  We want to understand what Grace does within us and how it impacts our lives.

A common complaint against the Bible, in particular, the resurrection story, is that the intense symbolism and numerology of the Bible tells us that it is fictional, that it couldn't possibly represent reality.  We look at the Easter story, at what is indeed a dramatic resurrection scene, and which introduces one of the most important phases of Jesus' ministry on Earth - and we look at God's story-writing.

We look at Jesus as he approaches the cross and as he is crucified.  He gives us two moral challenges, ones that for the world today, are incredibly important.  We look at these challenges offered by a dying Messiah.

Matthew focuses on Jesus as the Messiah promised in many Old Testament prophesies - and thus seems to be writing for Jews.  Luke focuses on Jesus as a prophet, seeming to address Gentiles.  We look at my Scout Master, who was blind, and who inspired me (many, many years later) to look at the Gospel of Luke and consider Jesus as our Prophet.  On Palm Sunday, we see just why this is so critical to do if we truly want to understand Jesus' special relationship to us as humans.