If you take a few moments to reflect on your life thus far, what stories have shaped you? What stories give you comfort? What stories rouse you to action? What stories define you? Do you give the same responses to those questions now as you would have 10 or 20 or 30 years ago? What has changed? 

For some of us, especially those “raised” in Christianity (and even more especially for those raised in U.S. American Protestant Christianity), our responses to those questions will involve biblical stories. (Or at least some of us think our responses are supposed to involve biblical stories! And then will feel guilty if they don’t.) 

One of our texts for this week, the second letter to Timothy, contains one of the most hotly contested verses we have: “All scripture is inspired by God.” Oh, the millions of words spilled parsing that verse! But it does elicit some worthwhile queries, such as: 

• How do we understand the bible and what role does it play in our lives?
• What stories do we tell about scripture and how to use it (or abuse it)?
• How do we respond when the stories that shape our identity and the stories of scripture contradict each other?
• How might following Jesus open a different way to understand both the text we’ve inherited and the lives we are living here and now in the 21 century?
• Can we tell a better story and thus, together, imagine a better reality for ourselves and our neighbors? 

With that letter to Timothy and the Gospel of Luke as our guides, Pastor Dave will wrestle with those questions and more this Sunday, October 16th, in his sermon, “Tale as Old as Time.” 

Worship with us Sundays at 10:00am in person or online via our Woodridge UMC YouTube Channel. All are welcome!