The Sunday of Complaining

And to back up, I do think it's important to tell y'all like how I read scripture today.

I am a person who still believes that all scripture is useful and that all of it is true.

And also that like, again, not trying to be slippery here.

We have to acknowledge that how we understand that truth content matters a lot by genre.

The truth of poetry isn't in taking metaphors literally, but in understanding like the human emotions that are going on.

The truth in creation stories may or may not be literal, but it's also about the nature of the relationship of God and humanity.

In all ways, I do think scripture is true, particularly about the relationship of people and God.

And one of the ways that I have learned to read scripture and to understand it is that it makes sense psychologically.

For me, scripture has to make sense psychologically.

It shows us as like very multifaceted humans, people who are curious and angry and helpful and anxious and vindictive and jealous and happy and kind and willing to shame each other and conflicted and capable of doubling down on the wrong decision.

Scripture is true when it comes to human psychology.

And if I'm reading it in a way that doesn't make sense for people, then I'm probably not reading it the right way.

So, that's one of my assumptions when I walk into understanding Scripture.

That there is so much we don't know about God.

There's so much we don't know about the ancient Near East.

But people are people, and we know a bit about them.

And approaching their experiences as they're written in Scripture with some non-judgmental eyes and trying to make sense of that has helped me breathe a lot of life into my own practice of reading Scripture, and particularly this.