Stories

During my first year in Seminary a professor asked me to supply preach at a Lutheran congregation in the Dutch Fork area of South Carolina where he was serving as the part-time interim pastor. After I agreed, he replied, Oh, and by the way, prepare a lesson for the adult Sunday school class as well. Anything you want to teach. Whatever you want. 

Well, since I had recently finished my first Hebrew scriptures (Old Testament) class, I thought I would teach the adult Sunday school class all the cool stuff I had learned about the opening two chapters of Genesis. So Sunday arrived and I shared with the class how Genesis begins with two completely independent creation stories—not one in two parts—two stories written by different authors at different times in different places and intended for different audiences. The first story, written later than the second, is an epic poem which beautifully describes God’s cosmic-sized creative activity…The second is a mythical story which draws the reader in close and reveals God as One who is intimately involved with the creation, especially the adam, (אדם) which is the Hebrew word meaning human or humanity. Then I explained how poems and myths, even though not factual, still contain truth. So, for example, even though Adam and Eve were not factually real people, in this mythical story they represented all of humanity… And so, the class went…

A couple of weeks later I ran into the professor on campus. With a grin on his face he told me of the outrage he had received from the adult Sunday school class members.   What are y’all teaching those young men at your seminary!?, they had exclaimed. Oh, and by the way, don’t send that young man to us again! 

Good thing I didn’t bring up evolution.

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The church has had trouble embracing the prophets of a new age, especially those announcing…new ways to think about God… 

— Franciscan Sister and Theologian Ilia Delio

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Are there ways you have been taught to think about God that you question or find troubling?

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Delio, Ilia. The Unbearable Wholeness of Being: God, Evolution, and the Power of Love (pp. 11-12). Kindle Edition. 

Church Photo by Kirk Cameron on Unsplash