Introduction

• Remember before the congregation the set-up of this sermon by recollecting preaching from 2 weeks ago.
• The basic set-up
  • Pastoring, like anything else, is but of a learned vocation.
  • That is to say that, like anything else, you’re going to make mistakes early on that aren’t so great.
  • That individual pattern tracks also more broadly within systems.
  • Priests, as a class, make mistakes in mass that effect the church in a negative way.
  • But there is always a wonderful corrective whenever this over-theologization of the church happens.
    • Return to the Bible and find “The Way.”
  • The Way is the next sermon series but I’m not there yet. We need to feel the burn, a little bit.
  • So, here’s my mistake, the DO OVER, I’d like to have.
    • My Call.
      • I had really grown spiritually through taking the 12 Steps and felt as though church was a good extension of it.
      • Further, I’d had some neat things happen in church.
      • But even though I felt called as a pastor, I didn’t much know the Bible.
      • Well, guess what? I started reading it and, like I always talk about, it ground me down.  I could never get through it.
        • That’s where my ministry dreams should’ve stopped, right?
          • I mean, if you’re not really into the Bible, should you really be a pastor?
            • Today, I think 100% no, you ABSOLUTELY need not only knowledge of it but it needs to be easily applied.
          • But there was a hack. A trick.  A workaround.
            • You just needed to know the theology.
          • Well, I’m a total egghead. I love philosophy and, thusly, theology.
            • I excelled.
            • But notice, I never got good at the Bible.
          • Into my life walks a woman named Beth – totally fictionalizing.
            • A WITCH who wants to know Jesus. The thing is, when we really sit down, something really humbling happens.
              • She knows the actual Bible far better than I do.
                • A self-professed witch had a superior understanding of the Bible.
                  • I should’ve quit. Didn’t.
                • I think about that woman a lot.
                  • Last time I checked on social media, she still seems pretty lost.
                    • I blew it because I didn’t know the Word.

Bridge – This dynamic though?  It isn’t just a Jason Bryant thing.  It’s a trend that happens repeatedly. Whenever the church becomes more theologically-centric and less Bibliocentric, the people get distanced from the Way.

Here’s an example of that which happened in real life which continues to hose the church and the world, robbing science of its needed counterpart – faith.

The Galileo Affair

- Using a rudimentary telescope, the man Galileo publishes “Starry Messenger,” in 1610 which supports a heliocentric understanding of our galaxy.

• The Catholic Church goes NUTS.

- Okay, so to get what happens historically, you need a few insights, things that happened first.

• First, on an ongoing basis starting in around 1300, continental Europe gets rocked by the Black Plague.
  • We’re talking overall death rates of around 40%. That’s 4/10 people wiped out.
  • But the death rate of the clergy is about 50 percentage points higher, around 90%.
    • This represents a brain drain the likes of which no reasonable organization could withstand.
      • But the church did, weakening ordination standards to the point where, if you had a pulse, you could be a priest.
        • The church becomes dogmatic and superstitious.
      • At the same time, an intellectual change had altered the Catholic church’s theology.
        • Summa Theologica by Thomas Aquinas
          • Rewired the church through the lens of Aristotle through the translations of Muslims, namely this guy Averroes.
            • That’s where we get purgatory, transubstantiation, a whole lot of non-Biblical stuff.
              • Why?
                • Aquinas loved Aristotle.
              • And you know what ARISTOTLE LOVED?
                • GEOCENTRISM
                  • The idea that everything in the cosmos revolved around earth.
                • But guess what isn’t true?
                  • Geocentrism
                  • You know what is?
                    • Heliocentrism
                  • The church gets it wrong, condemns Galileo.
                    • He almost gets burned at the stake EVEN THOUGH HE’S A JESUS FOLLOWER.
                      • That’s right? His love for science was fueled Biblically, not theologically.
                    • The Church and Science began their divorce that day.
                      • It gets amplified by Kant and later philosophers but, today, faith has no standing in science and that hurts us all.
                        • That’s a story for another day, though.

Bridge – What we need to focus on is adopting patterns and practices in life that lead us away from theologiocentrism and land us in Bibliocentrism, a Bible-centric.

Excursus – How to tell if you’re more theologiocentric.

• Do y’all remember that comedian Jeff Foxworthy?
  • You might be a redneck?
    • Funny stuff
  • Here’s what I want to show.
  • Simply put, you hold what you believe to be Biblical stances on what’s right and wrong, but you can’t articulate where in the Bible you’d find such things.
    • Like, if you’re going to really believe that the Bible supports some stance you take in the world BUT you don’t really know where in the Bible to turn to to defend that stance?
      • You may be theologiocentric.

Breaking the Curse

*  Building on solid rock.

• USE THE TIK TOK analogy.

Return to the passage from Scripture.

• Build on solid rock.

• Lectio Divina
  • An ancient practice that I just want to tell you about.

Lectio Divina

1. Read (Lectio):  Select a short passage from the Bible and read it slowly, multiple times, paying attention to any word or phrase that stands out to you.
2. Meditate (Meditatio):  Reflect on the text, pondering the meaning of the words or phrases that caught your attention.  Consider how they might apply to your current life situation.
3. Pray (Oratio):  Respond to the passage by praying from the heart.  This can involve asking God for guidance, expressing thanksgiving, or simply conversing with God about how the passage speaks to you.
4. Contemplate (Contemplatio):  Rest in God's presence, allowing the words of scripture to sink deeply into your heart and mind.  This step is less about active reflection and more about being still and knowing that He is God.
5. Action (Actio):  Conclude with a commitment to an action or change in your life inspired by your meditation and prayer.  This step grounds the spiritual insights gained through Lectio Divina in concrete, lived experience.