|Re|Form | Bible

---

Podcast

---

Last Sunday, we continued our ongoing conversation about a reformation
for Christianity, as a part of our on going |Re|Form series, leading up to
​the event with Brian McLaren in November! ​

In a past week, we looked to delve deeper into our understanding of Christianity’s sacred text: the Bible. Obviously, this was no easy task. We began examining our own understanding of this special book, and came to conclusions that our understandings of the Bible may really be our parents or our grandparents understandings, passed down throughout the years. This lead us to a conversation about how the message from the Bible has changed over time, not only within our individual and familial experiences of the text, but also institutionally; the Bible has changed based on which empire has had control of it. It is comprised of the accounts and translations of thousands of humans’ ideas and questions, all at different times and in different places throughout the world. This beautiful collection allows the Bible to shift within itself. Often, the Bible is viewed as a constitution or a strict list of provisions to adhere to. However, a constitution, by nature, cannot be self-contradictory, yet inconsistencies are common throughout the Bible. Perhaps then, the Bible is not a constitution, but rather a library. And what good would a library be if it were comprised of stores of the same information? Instead, maybe a good library, an inspired library, is a product of its authors’ inspirations? Perhaps, the Bible is the remaining collected library which holds some of the most important questions.
I have just started reading the Bible for the first time in my life. As I am reading, I find comfort in thinking of the Bible as an inspired library of questions, because it allows me to put myself within the text. Rather than reading for the “right” answers, which would certainly be discouraging based on which empire’s definition of “right” I used, I am invited into a conversation. A conversation that has spanned across centuries, which has solutions that have inspired more questions; questions that have inspired me and my curiosity now, today. |Re|Form looks to hold the interpretations of the Bible as important as the Bible itself. The interpretations of the Bible’s original authors, the interpretations of centuries of translations that have followed,  my interpretations as well as yours, and anyone else’s, because the message of the Bible is not for Christianity, but for humanity.