Exodus 16:2-15 Matthew 20:1-16 We have a bad habit of reading the Bible in all the wrong ways. We read stories as if they were instruction manuals when perhaps we should be seeing in them masterful paintings of what the world is like, what life is like. We read the epistles looking for universal truths instead of examples of how one particular community found a way to deal with their particular problem. We read the gospels looking for prescriptions for healing – take two of these and call me in the morning…but we come away feeling like our particular ailment can’t be found in the book. Or that the prescription just doesn’t work for us. We have a bad habit of looking for gifts in the Bible that God never even intended to give us. And so we say things like, “God helps those who help themselves. And you know God […]
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Why Are They Here?
Matthew 2:1-12 I don’t know if you ever think about why the books of the Bible are ordered the way they are. But I can tell you one reason Matthew is first in the New Testament. Matthew is first because– of all the gospels – it most clearly and directly links the story of Jesus with the prophets of the Old Testament. Matthew is constantly saying things like, “as it was written by the prophets,” and “this was to fulfill what had been spoken through the prophet.” Matthew connects all the dots. He tells us what we need to know. Yet, as pedantic as Matthew is sometimes, he is also full of surprises at other times. Take the genealogy in Chapter 1. To which you might say, “No thanks, I’m good. You can keep it.” Nobody reads the genealogies in the Bible. They’re boring. Nobody cares about all those names. […]
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