Living Literally -- FPC sermon excerpt
What would it be like to live by every rule in the Bible for an entire year?
Difficult? Demanding? Stressful? Confusing?
How about … wonderful?
A journalist named A.J. Jacobs has attempted to do it, and has written a book called The Year of Living Biblically. His goal was to take the Bible literally, do what it says, and see how it affected him. He started off as an agnostic, and after a year of living literally he now calls himself a “reverent agnostic.”
He started by reading the Bible for four straight weeks, five hours a day, and compiling a list of “every rule, every guideline, every suggestion, every nugget of advice” he found in both the Old and New Testaments. When he finished, he had a list that ran for 72 pages with more than 700 rules. Jacobs saw that many of the rules would be good for him — things like telling the truth, not coveting, not stealing, and loving neighbors. But he also found rules that are just plain illegal today, like killing magicians and sacrificing oxen.
Well, maybe the last one is okay if you call it “grilling.”
Trying to live as literally as possible, Jacobs grew his beard and hair to the point that he looked like Moses, Abraham or the Unabomber — depending on your point of view. Following Ecclesiastes, he dressed all in white (9:8); in accordance with Leviticus, he took care not to wear any clothing of mixed fibers (19:19); he let himself watch TV, but he avoided turning it on so he couldn’t be accused of making a graven image. He “stoned” an adulterer in the park, but since the Bible doesn’t specify how big the stones have to be, he just tossed pebbles at an adulterer on a park bench. He didn’t kill the man, he just annoyed him.
A.J. Jacobs tried to obey all the laws of the Bible, but he made an interesting discovery — you cannot avoid picking and choosing. Every one of us is, to some extent, a “cafeteria Christian,” making choices from the Bible’s spiritual salad bar. Even people who say they are biblical literalists have to ignore some of the Bible’s regulations. Otherwise, for example, a fan of the Tennessee Titans would get in trouble for breaking Exodus 23:13, “Do not invoke the names of other gods.”
So what are we supposed to do? For Jacobs, the most important lesson is this that there is nothing wrong with choosing. “Cafeterias aren’t bad,” he writes. “I’ve had some great meals at cafeterias. … The key is in choosing the right dishes. You need to pick the nurturing ones (compassion), the healthy ones (love thy neighbor), not the bitter ones.”
In Matthew 10:40-42, Jesus gives some advice about how we are supposed to live. In particular, he encourages us to receive visitors with hospitality — regardless of whether they are significant people such as prophets, or the less significant people that Jesus calls “little ones” (10:42).
The reason that this sharing of hospitality is so important is that there is an unbreakable bond between a master and his followers, between Jesus the master and those of us who follow him. Jesus says, “Whoever welcomes you welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me” (v. 40). The connection is drawn not only from us to Jesus (“Whoever welcomes you welcomes me”), but also from Jesus back to God (“whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me”). So living literally as a follower of Jesus is really not focused on obeying certain rules and regulations, but instead living in such a way that we remain connected to Jesus and to God.
Difficult? Demanding? Stressful? Confusing?
How about … wonderful?
A journalist named A.J. Jacobs has attempted to do it, and has written a book called The Year of Living Biblically. His goal was to take the Bible literally, do what it says, and see how it affected him. He started off as an agnostic, and after a year of living literally he now calls himself a “reverent agnostic.”
He started by reading the Bible for four straight weeks, five hours a day, and compiling a list of “every rule, every guideline, every suggestion, every nugget of advice” he found in both the Old and New Testaments. When he finished, he had a list that ran for 72 pages with more than 700 rules. Jacobs saw that many of the rules would be good for him — things like telling the truth, not coveting, not stealing, and loving neighbors. But he also found rules that are just plain illegal today, like killing magicians and sacrificing oxen.
Well, maybe the last one is okay if you call it “grilling.”
Trying to live as literally as possible, Jacobs grew his beard and hair to the point that he looked like Moses, Abraham or the Unabomber — depending on your point of view. Following Ecclesiastes, he dressed all in white (9:8); in accordance with Leviticus, he took care not to wear any clothing of mixed fibers (19:19); he let himself watch TV, but he avoided turning it on so he couldn’t be accused of making a graven image. He “stoned” an adulterer in the park, but since the Bible doesn’t specify how big the stones have to be, he just tossed pebbles at an adulterer on a park bench. He didn’t kill the man, he just annoyed him.
A.J. Jacobs tried to obey all the laws of the Bible, but he made an interesting discovery — you cannot avoid picking and choosing. Every one of us is, to some extent, a “cafeteria Christian,” making choices from the Bible’s spiritual salad bar. Even people who say they are biblical literalists have to ignore some of the Bible’s regulations. Otherwise, for example, a fan of the Tennessee Titans would get in trouble for breaking Exodus 23:13, “Do not invoke the names of other gods.”
So what are we supposed to do? For Jacobs, the most important lesson is this that there is nothing wrong with choosing. “Cafeterias aren’t bad,” he writes. “I’ve had some great meals at cafeterias. … The key is in choosing the right dishes. You need to pick the nurturing ones (compassion), the healthy ones (love thy neighbor), not the bitter ones.”
In Matthew 10:40-42, Jesus gives some advice about how we are supposed to live. In particular, he encourages us to receive visitors with hospitality — regardless of whether they are significant people such as prophets, or the less significant people that Jesus calls “little ones” (10:42).
The reason that this sharing of hospitality is so important is that there is an unbreakable bond between a master and his followers, between Jesus the master and those of us who follow him. Jesus says, “Whoever welcomes you welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me” (v. 40). The connection is drawn not only from us to Jesus (“Whoever welcomes you welcomes me”), but also from Jesus back to God (“whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me”). So living literally as a follower of Jesus is really not focused on obeying certain rules and regulations, but instead living in such a way that we remain connected to Jesus and to God.
posted by Henry Brinton | 6:32 AM
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