Yeah... But There's Some Crazy Stuff In There

Welcome/Series Intro

Thanks for praying! Glad to be back.

Kicked off a series last week: Skeptic’s Guide to the Bible

approach: not defensive, but open—for the skeptic/from the skeptic’s perspective (but also, us!)

last week: “full of errors.” This week:

START TV SLIDE

Skeptic’s Guide to the Bible

“Yeah, but… there’s a lot of crazy stuff in there.”

END TV SLIDE

Our Bubble

I grew up in a very Christian, very conservative house and family. By “Christian,” I mean church was a big deal to us. We went Sunday morning, Sunday night, and Wednesday night. The church also had a K-12 school that I attended, K-12. My parents were both very involved in both the church and school as employees and board members.

We memorized Scripture. We were taught about Jesus and what he did for us on the cross at a very young age. I “accepted Jesus as my personal Lord and Savior” (or, in our language at PLC, I “stepped across the faith line”) at a very young age and was baptized when I was 6 years old.

That’s what I mean when I say I was raised in a Christian household. You just couldn’t miss Christ.

But it was also pretty conservative—especially when it came to the Bible. Here’s what I mean by that:

We were taught that the Bible was God’s Word. As such, everything in it was there because God inspired it to be there. And because it was his Word, it was authoritative. What it said trumped whatever anyone or anything else said.

So, my world was pretty much that. My parents ran their house and family with those assumptions. My school rewarded and punished on the basis of those assumptions. And my church preached those assumptions.

And, just to be clear—because maybe you’re sensing there’s a pretty big “but...” around the next corner—just to be clear:

I am so, so grateful for how I was brought up. So much of my parents and church and school’s efforts are still, to this day, foundational in my life. I began to know and follow Jesus because of my mom, my dad, my pastors, and my teachers.

That being said (and here comes that “but”—kinda), it also was a pretty big bubble.

There weren’t a lot of other competing or different perspectives I was forced to encounter, or consider—or even listen to.

To be sure, I was made aware of them in the bubble—but was told that they are all mistaken, or misleading, or dangerous. So, beware!

Now, I’m standing before you today as a pastor who still believes much of what I was taught as a kid.

But I’m also standing before you today as someone who’s bubble was popped—and had to go through a pretty significant deconstruction to rebuild some of that foundation.

And as we work through this series, here’s what I’m wondering (and even what I’m a little afraid of):

I’m afraid that some of you might be in that same bubble.

I’ve told you that this weekend, we’re talking about this specific skepticism of there being some pretty “crazy” stuff in the Bible.

And there is.

I read the Bible all the way through every year. I use the Bible app on my phone, and do a plan on there by the Bible project.

Back in August, I was working my way through Ezekiel—one of the Old Testament books of the Bible.

But, you know, the Bible is God’s Word. He inspired it. Right?

So, here’s what God said to Ezekiel:

START TV SLIDE

Ezekiel 24:15-24 “The word of the Lord came to me: “Son of man, with one blow I am about to take away from you the delight of your eyes. Yet do not lament or weep or shed any tears. Groan quietly; do not mourn for the dead. Keep your turban fastened and your sandals on your feet; do not cover your mustache and beard or eat the customary food of mourners.” So I spoke to the people in the morning, and in the evening my wife died. The next morning I did as I had been commanded.

Then the people asked me, “Won’t you tell us what these things have to do with us? Why are you acting like this?” So I said to them, “The word of the Lord came to me: Say to the people of Israel, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: I am about to desecrate my sanctuary—the stronghold in which you take pride, the delight of your eyes, the object of your affection. The sons and daughters you left behind will fall by the sword. And you will do as I have done. You will not cover your mustache and beard or eat the customary food of mourners.

You will keep your turbans on your heads and your sandals on your feet. You will not mourn or weep but will waste away because of your sins and groan among yourselves. Ezekiel will be a sign to you; you will do just as he has done. When this happens, you will know that I am the Sovereign Lord.”

END TV SLIDE

So, just in case you got lost there, here’s the cliff notes version of what you just read:

Ezekiel is a prophet. He’s someone God chose to speak to directly and instructed to speak on his behalf.

Ezekiel is speaking to the people of Israel who, at that point, had begun to go into exile as they were being conquered by the Assyrians and a little later, Babylonians.

And what God told Ezekiel here was this:

I’m going to kill your wife. But you can’t mourn her.

And the reason you can’t mourn her is because I’m gonna make you and her a sermon illustration. Just like you will lose someone you love but don’t have time to mourn her, the people of Israel will lose a bunch of people they love but be immediately captured and carted off to some foreign land.

And when this happens, everyone will know that I’m God.

So… that’s in the Bible. Right?

God’s holy and inspired and authoritative Word. Correct?

This really happened. Ezekiel was a real person who had a real life who the real God killed as a sign to the people that they would be punished for their disobedience and that God was behind it all.

Join us for our upcoming series on Ezekiel. We’ll be passing out anxiety pills at every service.

Here’s the deal:

This is crazy—and this isn’t even the craziest. And there’s a bunch of crazy stuff like this all throughout the Bible.

And not just in the Old Testament, by the way.

Now, what do we do with all of this crazy stuff?

Well, if you’re in the bubble, and you’re trying to stay in the bubble, here’s what you do:

You ignore it.

Or you explain it away in some way.

But listen to me:

If you’re outside of the bubble—maybe you were in it at one time, or maybe you were never in it to begin with--

If you’re outside of the bubble, you know what you do?

You see it for what it actually is:

Terrifying. Unsettling. And confusing.

Really confusing.

I mean, get this: later on in Ezekiel—about 10 chapters or so ahead of where we just read—this same God tells Ezekiel to say this to the people of Israel:

START TV SLIDE

Ezekiel 36:24-32 “For I will take you out of the nations; I will gather you from all the countries and bring you back into your own land. I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.

Then you will live in the land I gave your ancestors; you will be my people, and I will be your God. I will save you from all your uncleanness. I will call for the grain and make it plentiful and will not bring famine upon you. I will increase the fruit of the trees and the crops of the field, so that you will no longer suffer disgrace among the nations because of famine. Then you will remember your evil ways and wicked deeds, and you will loathe yourselves for your sins and detestable practices. I want you to know that I am not doing this for your sake, declares the Sovereign Lord. Be ashamed and disgraced for your conduct, people of Israel!”

END TV SLIDE

So… the same God… kills the prophet’s wife… punishes an entire nation for their continued disobedience… but then promises that one day he’ll save them by changing them from the inside out? Why not just do that part now and give poor Ezekiel his wife back.

Make it make sense!

Listen:

When you’re in the bubble, stories like this in Ezekiel are kinda speed bumps on the way to more inspirational passages of Scripture. We kinda drive right over them and say, “Huh. That’s weird. Glad I didn’t live back then.” And we keep on cruising.

But when you’re not in the bubble, and you watch and listen as your church-going, Bible-believing, “God said it so that settles it” friend or family member remains completely unaffected by the utter terror and violence that this supposed loving God perpetrates on human beings, well...

It’s no wonder that we’re seeing people leave Christianity in droves.

Don’t miss this, now, or misunderstand what I’m saying:

That stuff in Ezekiel has been in there for a long time. It’s been in there for thousands of years. It’s been a part of the Jewish scriptures and Christian scriptures since there was a thing as “Scripture.”

I don’t think people are leaving the faith in record numbers because they’re waking up to what’s been in the Bible for millennia.

I think people are leaving the faith in droves because they don’t see people of faith wrestle at all with what’s in it.

In fact, we often do the opposite:

When we encounter someone who points out some of crazy stuff in the Bible, we go on the defensive.