Two thoughts I posted to Twitter

These are two things I wrote on Twitter earlier today. Thought I would archive them here as well.

I'm a conservative in this respect: I think the scriptures give us an inside look at a moment in history when something new and amazing burst into existence. A flawed community composing a scandalous integration of rich and poor, slaves and slave-holders, and men and women from every ethnicity...all together, mingling as equals. This moment remains one of the most significant moments in history, and compels us to continually reach back for a better glimpse at what they saw...so that we might see the same thing, and transformation may burst into our world.

The scriptures are difficult, because we are not looking at some Platonic book of doctrines or commands, dropped from heaven to earth - but are looking at a gritty, real-world account of the struggles these radical communities were going through in trying to manage the monumental clash of all ends of the human spectrum, brought together at once. Whatever the scriptures are NOT, it remains that they ARE one of the most profound resources humanity has ever produced.