Since I was a high schooler I've been bugged by what is commonly called "pick and choose" when it comes to the Bible. 30 years later convinces me that (1) we all do this and (2) we need to talk about something underneath it all: HOW we pick and choose. I believe that Christians have always read the Bible carefully and have "discerned" how to live the Bible out in the world today. But this runs smack-dab into the face of perhaps the most common attitude that many Christians think they are using when it comes to "applying" the Bible. Here it is:
1. God says it.
2. I believe it.
3. That settles it.
In The Blue Parakeet
we address this entire issue of picking and choosing (what I'd prefer to call "adopting and adapting") and how it is that we have learned to apply the Bible. It is a process of discernment. I don't believe those three numbered points above are how we actually apply the Bible -- unless we want to use it has a hammer against someone else. This is how we apply the Bible most of the time: we see what the Bible says and we discern how to live it out. What we do is try to live out today what we see in the Bible -- and we need the guidance of the Spirit in the context of the community in order to do this right.
Take, for an example, footwashing. The text of John 13 clearly shows Jesus expected his followers to wash the feet of others. He didn't expect them just to do acts of service for one another. But, because of cultural shifts and the like, we "discern" from a specific act (footwashing) and a specific command (to wash feet) that the way to "apply" that today is to take a visitor's coat, offer them something to drink or eat, and usher them to a comfortable place in our home. That act of "discernment" is what our book explores.
I believe most application of the Bible works like this; I don't believe the above three points are how we apply the Bible most of the time.
To ask this question means we have to look at some very difficult passages, passages that we read and know deep inside that we don't practice that verse as it says, and I call these passages "blue parakeet" passages.
To ask this question means we have to look at some very difficult passages, passages that we read and know deep inside that we don't practice that verse as it says, and I call these passages "blue parakeet" passages.
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Peggy seems to be saying that our modern "discernment" sometimes ain't all it's cracked up to be.
Well, Bob ... I do think it takes lots of pondering to get to solid discernment -- and I tend to be open for regular updates to previously discerned issues. ;^)
Footwashing can be a powerful experience of grace and mercy and love. It can also be a dangerous experience of fawning over the privilege of washing leaders' feet. I wish it was more frequently and consistently practiced from the position of leaders to followers.... I think it has sometimes been overtaken by the example of the woman who washed Jesus' feet with her tears and dried them with her hair ... and I don't believe any of us should receive that kind of worship.
Just my two cents, of course....
Scot, this is a great post. I've already read the book once and am beginning it again... you've put words to a bit of my thinking, and you've given more mature thought and insight to this topic than I ever thought possible. Thank you!
It would be great to see this post blossom into an entire series of Blue Parakeet posts. Not So much the book itself, but handling various Blue Parakeet passages (and from the titles, perhaps that is your thinking?) IMO the only thing missing from the book is the companion, exhaustive commentary.
Scott, I've lurked your blog for awhile now with little, if any, comment. I read Parakeet last week and wanted to tell you how helpful and powerful it was to me. Thanks.
I acknowledge that we pick and choose. But it doesn't follow that we ought to. The book is full of bald assertions -- the Bible says we ought to do X, but we obviously shouldn't, so what are we to make of that. But what if God actually meant what he said?
For example, you make reference in the book to the fact that while the Bible calls homosexuality an abomination it also calls homosexuals to be stoned. But you complete avoid the question of why, if it was so serious to God then that it merited stoning, we ought to just say it doesn't matter to him now. (The same point, of course, applies to adultery and rebellion).
It's not so easy just to "discern" inconvenient passages away ... "discernment" can then very easily become a synonym for ignoring the parts of what God has said that we don't like -- the consequence being rejection of the very revelation that is the only means of salvation. Indeed, given that the human mind and will are depraved it's very likely that this is EXACTLY what will happen.
What if everything that we naturally believe is actually wrong and those inconvenient passages are actually exactly what God intended?
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