Lutherans believe the Bible is a “living word.” It continues to speak God’s word to us today, and God does not say the same thing to everyone. The word of God is both law and gospel—and sometimes it is both at once. Sometimes the very same passage of Scripture may serve to comfort the afflicted and to afflict the comfortable. When Jesus says, “the last will be first, and the first will be last” (Matthew 20:16), some people hear that as “good news”; others…not so much.
Bible stories often mean different things to different people.
This message is an excerpt from the Winter Bible study “Multiple meanings: Learning from other interpretations” by Mark Allan Powell in the January/February 2018 issue of Gather magazine. Please pray for the Women of the ELCA executive board that meets in Chicago today. Today we remember Anselm, bishop of Canterbury, who died in 1109.
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