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Looking Through New Lenses

“Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.”

September 17, 2023 • Pastor Beth Snarr • Psalm 119:89–105

With the help of the study, “Bible Stories for Grown Ups” by Pastor Josh Scott, this series will invite us to consider new and deeper meanings in Bible characters and events that may be very familiar and yet can also be disturbing and challenging. As people who embrace the scripture as “wonderful words of life”, how do these passages call us into deeper discipleship today? 


“We need grown-up lenses because these stories really weren’t written for children. They were written for grown-ups. They are nuanced and complicated, but doing the hard work of reading and interpreting them through these new lenses is worth it - it opens up new layers of understanding and possibility.” pg. xxi

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More from "Wonderful Words of Life" Sermon Series

Slow Cooker Faith

October 29, 2023 • Pastor Beth Snarr • Mark 8:22–26

With the help of the study, “Bible Stories for Grown Ups” by Pastor Josh Scott, this series will invite us to consider new and deeper meanings in Bible characters and events that may be very familiar and yet can also be disturbing and challenging. As people who embrace the scripture as “wonderful words of life”, how do these passages call us into deeper discipleship today?  “This story, the opening of a person’s eyes in stages, is the human experience. It is the way the journey works. It takes time. A lot of patience. Kindness toward ourselves and one another. Transformation is less a microwave and more a slow cooker.” pg. 113

Repent and Repair

October 22, 2023 • Dr. Harold Henderson • Luke 19:1–10

With the help of the study, “Bible Stories for Grown Ups” by Pastor Josh Scott, this series will invite us to consider new and deeper meanings in Bible characters and events that may be very familiar and yet can also be disturbing and challenging. As people who embrace the scripture as “wonderful words of life”, how do these passages call us into deeper discipleship today?  “Yes, Zacchaeus repents, but he also takes another step in the process: repentance leads to repair. Perhaps we could say that repentance and repair are two sides of the same coin. It’s not simple embracing different information in our brains, but it’s also allowing that new information to transform our hearts, which will lead to a different way of being in the world.” pg. 92

Use It or Lose It?

October 15, 2023 • Pastor Beth Snarr • Matthew 25:14–30

With the help of the study, “Bible Stories for Grown Ups” by Pastor Josh Scott, this series will invite us to consider new and deeper meanings in Bible characters and events that may be very familiar and yet can also be disturbing and challenging. As people who embrace the scripture as “wonderful words of life”, how do these passages call us into deeper discipleship today?  “Needless to say, I have come to realize that the standard interpretation of this parable - an interpretation I held and preached for many years - is just wrong. It paints a portrait of God as a punisher, as one deepens the suffering and injustice of the world. That is not the God Jesus knew. The more I dig into the context, both culturally and within Matthew’s Gospel, the more I think our interpretive lens for this story has been shaped by American values. It’s all about success, after all. To be faithful means to work hard and reap a reward. I don’t think this story by Jesus is affirming this lens. He’s actually challenging it.” pg. 69

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