Calvin and Hoops
Calvin and Hoops
One of the fun things about working with teenagers is that you can be playing basketball with them while simultaneously having a discussion about predestination vs free will. This actually happened to me last night. It was part of a larger conversation about the differences in Calvinist and Wesleyan theology that spanned a basketball game AND bled over into football. At one point in the conversation, this student asked “Well isn’t there evidence in the Bible for both?”. Yes. Yes there is.
The fact that this student stumbled upon is the bane of every theologians' existence: the Bible can be used to support a lot of different theologies. This is part of the reason why our current series "The Book" is so important, because it gets into some of the myths about the Bible. People from every Christian denomination are reading the same Bible (well, different translations of the same ancient texts) yet they still believe vastly different things. The other thing this student said that was way ahead of his age was “Well, doesn’t that mean that their theology isn’t wrong, just different?”
Uh...
And that’s where youth ministry breaks, or at least my ability to multitask sports and theology breaks. The short answer is yes, or no, or I don’t know. The long answer is getting a Sacred Theology Doctorate and coming to the same answers but for different reasons. With empirical reasoning it can be easy to say that if person A and person B believe differently about the same thing they can’t both be right. Either person A is right or person B is or they could both be wrong. The fun part is we can’t say for sure on a lot of things which person is actually right. But then you throw in God logic where Jesus is fully God and fully man yet part of a three in one trinity and you can get to the point where maybe they are both right.
Now that I’ve probably muddied up the waters too much, what are we supposed to do about this? Well the first and most important step is you should read your Bible, but that can’t be your only step.
There’s this thing called the Wesleyan Quadrilateral that is designed exactly for these kinds of situations. John Wesley, the leader of the Methodist movement, is the one who put this process together. He posited that theology and interpretation should be based on scripture, reason, experience, and tradition. This explains how people can look at the same book and get two different conclusions, because while the scripture doesn’t change our traditions, experiences, and reasoning can be different. It’s a process of hermeneutics and exegesis (Big Scary Words for trying to figure out what scripture actually meant for the original audience and how that applies to us today). This process is so important that there are entire classes on these things and it’s woven into any sermon or small group lesson that’s worth while. And while those words and the process can seem daunting, it’s something that anyone who wants to take the next step in their understanding of scripture should take.
What about me?
There are several good books out there that help people figure out the basics. The standard book is How To Read The Bible For All It’s Worth. There are others out there that might fit your level better. If you’ve never done any Bible study before, maybe start with The Bible for Dummies (sorry for the name, you are not dumb). Or if you really want a challenge, try working your way through New Testament Exegesis. These books, especially that last one, might bring up all sorts of questions. You might have to have the book open in one hand and the other hand typing things into google, but you can always talk to one of us on staff about it. Find other people who are interested in these things as well, get in a small group (or better yet talk to Faith about leading a small group because the best way to learn is to teach, right?)
Be blessed.
-Nathan
Nathan Persell serves as our Youth Director. When he's not leading devotions and playing basketball with teenagers, he enjoys disc golf and bike riding. Learn more about Nathan here.
Understandable
“Therefore, beloved, while you are waiting for these things, strive to be found by him at peace, without spot or blemish; and regard the patience of our Lord as salvation. So also our beloved brother Paul wrote to you according to the wisdom given him, speaking of this as he does in all his letters. There are some things in them hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other scriptures.
2 Peter 3:14–16 (NRSV)”
Context is everything.
Mark Twain is reported to have said, “It ain't those parts of the Bible that I can't understand that bother me, it is the parts that I do understand.” Twain was a noted critic of just about everything, including the Bible so the above quote was not a statement of faith.
Maybe you have even expressed something similar; I know I. have. There are many things in the Bible I do not understand. However, I know that if I dig into the context of Scripture, I can understand more than I do now, even if some of my questions remain.
The key word in that last sentence is “context.” New Testament scholar Ben Witherington has often said, “A text without a context is just a pretext for whatever you want it to say.” In other words, if we want to understand any passage of Scripture we must know the context of that passage.
Without knowing the context of a passage, we are likely to misunderstand what the author is trying to say. For those with a self-centered or evil bent, they can, as Peter said above, “twist [the Scriptures] to their own destruction, as they do the other scriptures.” If we are earnestly trying to understand, that understanding may elude us if we do not know the context.
But what is the context of a passage? On a very basic level, the context of a passage begins with the paragraph which contains the passage. The writers of Scripture did not write Scripture as a series of disconnected sentences, like a series of fortune cookie slips. They wrote books, letters, stories, parables, prayers and a host of other writings. Each of these types of writing had a beginning and middle and an end; they were never meant to be read in isolation.
Another level of context concerns the cultural context. The authors of Scripture wrote from a culture and to a culture. If we are to understand the message they wrote we must know something of that culture.
So what do we believe?
But even if we do not have access to cultural information, God has given us enough in Scripture to lead us to a relationship with him, know what pleases him and what he wants for our world. As our United Methodist Book of Discipline says,
We believe the Holy Bible, Old and New Testaments, reveals the Word of God so far as it is necessary for our salvation. It is to be received through the Holy Spirit as the true rule and guide for faith and practice (The Book of Discipline of The UMC 2016 ❡104).
And again:
As we open our minds and hearts to the Word of God through the words of human beings inspired by the Holy Spirit, faith is born and nourished, our understanding is deepened, and the possibilities for transforming the world become apparent to us (The Book of Discipline of The UMC 2016 ❡105).
So, let us come to God’s Word with an open mind and heart, let us seek to understand our mission in the world, and let us continue to search for answers to the things we do not understand.
Blessings!
-Alan
Click Here for this week's faith notes.
Alan Cassady serves as Senior Pastor at Navarre UMC, and has been at the church since 2011. When he's not preaching and teaching, he enjoys sci-fi movies and FSU Football. Read more about Alan here.
What's the Deal with Lent Anyway?
For many of us, Lent is a lost season in the church. I remember it as a kid in the Methodist Church as a time when people would talk about "giving up" strange things like chocolate or caffeine (who in their right mind would do either). But yet, I don't really remember much being said about Lent as a whole.
Mourn Before Death
It's a bit backwards, but Lent is actually a season of mourning for the church. It starts with Ash Wednesday. Many church have a special service where we put ashes on a person's forehead in the shape of a cross. Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of the 40 days (not counting Sundays) leading up to Easter.
I mentioned it's a bit backwards. You see, the church mourns before Christ's death, in anticipation of it. We know that on Good Friday we will "celebrate" Christ's death and that on Easter Sunday we will come together to rejoice in his resurrection. So that doesn't really leave much time for mourning. Therefore, the Christian church has historically from the very early days chosen to take time in remembrance of Christ's sacrifice to change pace in preparation for Good Friday and Easter Sunday.
The 40 days comes from the 40 days Jesus himself spent in the wilderness fasting after his baptism alone with God:
“After his baptism, as Jesus came up out of the water, the heavens were opened and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and settling on him. And a voice from heaven said, ‘This is my dearly loved Son, who brings me great joy.’ Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted there by the devil. For forty days and forty nights he fasted and became very hungry.”
The True Purpose
The reality is, we are supposed to change our pace of life during Lent. It's a time of year to us to purposefully stop and focus on all that God has done for us through Christ's sacrifice. It's a time to establish new spiritual habits (or disciplines) in our daily lives to deepen our relationship with God. The fasts are designed to slow down our lives and show us we need God.
As a church, we are going to be doing some things to help you change your pace during Lent. First, we will have an Ash Wednesday service. We are also going to offer a virtual study through email on prayer that will follow the model of the Lord's Prayer. It will be sent out every Friday. You can subscribe to the study below.
Blessings!
-Faith
Faith Parry serves as our Associate Pastor, and has been at the church since 2015. When she's not preaching and teaching, she enjoys documentaries and TV. Read more about Faith here.
Trustworthy
So we have the prophetic message more fully confirmed. You will do well to be attentive to this as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts. First of all you must understand this, that no prophecy of scripture is a matter of one’s own interpretation, because no prophecy ever came by human will, but men and women moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.
2 Peter 1:19–21 (NRSV)
Fake News
A new term has entered our vocabulary this election cycle – fake news. Earlier some of called things like this urban legends, but now it has evolved. Fake news is news that is extremely partisan politically and misleading or false. An expert in this area has documented more than 50 websites completed devoted to fake news.
This news gets posted to Facebook, and people share it without even checking to see if it is real. This phenomenon can lead a breakdown of trust in all news. When we see a headline in any of our social media feeds, how do we know it is true? It can also erode trust in other areas as well.
Some people see the books of Scripture in a cynical way. Some people think the writers of scripture were putting out the ancient form of fake news or propaganda. How do we push past the cynicism to trust the Scriptures as the early Christians did?
Trustworthy
Seeing the Scriptures as trustworthy starts with our trust of God. We believe God is completely trustworthy primarily because of the testimony of others. It may seem like circular reasoning, but you must start somewhere. Other people can tell us about God’s faithfulness in their lives, and that leads us to investigate things for ourselves. We turn to Scripture and find that other people had found God trustworthy, even when things did not turn out right for them or when God did not do what they expected.
As we begin to investigate further, we discover that the text of the Scriptures was transmitted carefully and accurately. We look at other evidence from history or archaeology which confirms many of the things we read in Scripture. When we trust the things we can verify, we can trust the message it conveys.
Much of the witness of the Scriptures comes to us through eye-witness testimony. People, like you and me, saw, heard, and experienced things they were not expecting. They wrote those things down so we could experience them as well.
Throughout the history of the church, people have read the words of Scripture, trusted the God those Scriptures and testified that their lives were changed for the better. And not just their lives, but the whole world!
Sure, some people misunderstood the message, perverted the message and used for selfish ends, but that doesn’t change the trustworthiness of the message itself – it, in fact, confirms it. How do we know people misunderstood, perverted, and used the Word for self-serving ends? Because of the Scriptures. We can compare the actions of those people with what we read in Scripture and know that they got it wrong, sometimes very wrong.
In worship this week we will look at the trustworthiness of our Scriptures and explore different ways to see that they are worthy of our trust.
Blessings,
Alan
Alan Cassady serves as Senior Pastor at Navarre UMC, and has been at the church since 2011. When he's not preaching and teaching, he enjoys sci-fi movies and FSU Football. Read more about Alan here.
Relevant
Out with the old?
Often I hear the question, “What does a book written 2,000 years ago have to do with me? It's a sentiment many people express about the Bible. They just can’t understand how something that old could be relevant to their lives today.
It's a valid concern. We don't want to blindly follow a text that is old and may not have anything to do with us.
That question, however, reveals a certain chronological snobbery. Many think newer things are better, just because they are new. J-Other disciplines would never dream of holding that attitude. The discoveries of physics, mathematics or history build on one another. Imagine what life would be like if we had to discover math, astronomy, physics of history all over again in every generation. We would never make any progress because we would always be re-inventing the wheel (sometimes literally).
The ancient Romans knew this well. As a general course, in areas such as religion and philosophy the Romans viewed with suspicion anything new. Some even rejected the Christian faith because was a new religion. They trusted the time-tested truths and rejected novel ideas.
As much as we would like to think that we are more evolved, sophisticated and enlightened, we are not significantly different from humans who lived 4,000 years ago. The same moral issues that plagued them, still plague us today. Notice the list of vices in this passage:
Do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived! Fornicators, idolaters, adulterers, male prostitutes, sodomites, thieves, the greedy, drunkards, revilers, robbers—none of these will inherit the kingdom of God. And this is what some of you used to be. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.
- 1 Corinthians 6:9–11
Do we still have problems with these issues? Of course - just turn on the evening news or browse the tabloids in your local supermarket. Would this be a better world if people refrained from those behaviors? Yes!
When it comes to the issues at the core of the human heart, the Bible is as relevant today as it was in the time of Moses or Jesus. What we need to do is find ways to apply its teachings to our lives.
Blessings!
-Alan
Alan Cassady serves as Senior Pastor at Navarre UMC, and has been at the church since 2011. When he's not preaching and teaching, he enjoys sci-fi movies and FSU Football. Read more about Alan here.