I'm Andy Johnson. Welcome to the Church of Biblical
Sanity. Topic of today's Sunday sermon is Bat
Shit Crazy Rambling. An introduction about lamps
and light. First, if your spiritual path brings
you to a place where you're better able to nurture
yourself, others, and your community, I honor
your path. And if Christianity is the vehicle
that moves you closer to that place of universal
love and nurturing, I have nothing but respect.
And if your path is different, if it's Buddhism,
Islam, Judaism, first -person's tradition, I
honor that as well. Psalms 119, 105, your word
is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.
Biblical scripture is said to be the living word
of God. And if your path brings you to a place
where you harm yourself, your community, or others,
your spiritual path has some weeds and thorns.
If sown your seed among a rocky path, your path
has become dark. Your word is a lamp to my feet.
So let me provide a little Bible -based light
to your spiritual path. It's not right to beat,
bully, and kill. It's not right to take oil from
another country. It's not right to destroy the
planet we all live on. It's not right to take
Greenland because we need it. It's not right
to protect wealthy white men who raped young
women and were part of sex trafficking. It's
not right to falsely accuse your enemies because
you want revenge. And it's not right to deny
food and healthcare to so many when you have
so much. Part two, bat shit crazy. On my Facebook,
one of my Bible -believing, Jesus -loving conservative
Christian friends commented on an earlier talk.
They said, quote, do you really think that this
batshit crazy rambling will sway anyone to the
right side of all of this? Unquote. And it's
a very good question. I'm not trying to sway
anybody. I'm not trying to convince anybody of
anything. I realize Jesus could come back and
right across the sky and mile -high letters stop
abusing ICE. Stop using ICE to abuse and intimidate.
and some still wouldn't change their views on
things. Some would still insist it's part of
God's plan, to which they are privy. And that's
just the way of things. Now in Genesis, we're
told that we are made in the likeness of God.
Each of us has a bit of the likeness within us.
And I'm hoping my bat -shit crazy rambling will
touch some of the likeness tucked deep down inside
of some people. And perhaps the likeness will
start to talk. But I have no illusions or expectations.
The likeness calls us to do what we can. And
I'll go to marches and other events. I'll give
money to feed the hungry immigrants trapped in
their houses. And I'll do my Sunday sermons until
people get sick of me. I give it another week
or two because that's something I can do. Listen
to the likeness. The likeness calls us to do
what we can. And what ice is doing is evil and
wrong. There aren't two sides to this. The likeness
compels us to speak out against evil. Part three,
new wine and old wineskin. If you believe the
Bible to be the word of God, then the word becomes
a living document. Hebrews 412, for the word
of God is alive, and active, sharper than any
double -edged sword, it penetrates. Even to divide
in soul and spirit, joints and marrow, it judges
thoughts and attitudes of the heart. Alive and
active. To be alive is to grow and to change.
To be active is to cause change. So as a living
document, the word grows and changes. It says
different things to us at different points in
our lives versus take on new meanings, deeper
meanings. The living word speaks to the likeness
and the likeness speaks to us and we grow and
change if we're alive. In the book of Ephesians,
St. Paul tells us that we've been made alive
with Christ. And nothing that's alive stays the
same. To stay the same is to wither and die.
Which brings us to our verse of the day, Luke
5, 37 to 39. And no one puts new wine into old
wineskins. or else the new wine will burst the
wineskins and be spilled, and the wineskins will
be ruined. But new wine must be put into new
wineskins, and both are preserved. And Noah,
having drunk old wine, immediately desires new,
for he says, the old is better. You cannot put
new wine in an old wineskin. The wineskin is
our belief system. It's our way of seeing things.
You cannot grow and change. You cannot learn
new things and you cannot have new experiences
and go back to your old ways of thinking and
believing. You cannot put new wine in an old
wineskin. The wineskin will burst. Now when I
left Grantsburg, Wisconsin some 50 years ago,
I hadn't actually read the Bible. I believed
what people said in it. I had to believe other
people. My wineskin was pretty small. Couldn't
hold a lot. So 50 years ago, I started studying
biblical scripture. I read the Bible. I read
things about the Bible. I read things about other
religions. I had conversations and new experiences,
met new people, listened, reflected, and learned.
And many of these new things could not be contained
by my old wineskin. So I had options. Option
one would be to reject the experience, which
would be to discount all that I learned or say
it's evil or of the devil or some such thing.
Option two was to reject the wineskin, which
would be to reject my belief system. And option
three was to get a new wineskin, a bigger wineskin,
one that expands to accommodate all the new wine.
Now, many of my Bible -believing, Jesus -loving,
conservative Christian friends are faced with
similar options. New information that they're
seeing doesn't fit within their wineskin. Their
wineskins have become data resistant. They're
reading a dead Bible, not a living Bible. At
the direction of our president, they're seeing
good Americans do horrible things to our immigrant
neighbors. and this doesn't fit within their
wineskin. Now, they can't reject their wineskin,
so they discount the data. It's fake news. It's
half the story, they say. My Bible -believing,
Jesus -loving, conservative Christian friends,
pray to God to help them, to bless them, to protect
them, to do this and that. And they're so busy
telling God what to do, who to bless, who to
protect, that they don't listen. They can't hear
the likeness above all the prayer and praising.
And I imagine sometimes God wants to say, would
you just shut up and listen? Those sitting in
detention centers are hiding with their children
in basements. They're praying to God. We have
the likeness within us. Why aren't we helping
and protecting? The last part, rethink. And no
one having drunk old wine immediately desires
new, for he says the old is better. It's hard
to change the way you think about things. Is
my bat shit crazy rambling going to sway anybody?
Absolutely not. Paul had to be struck blind before
he became Saul. Saul had to be struck blind before
he became Paul. And very few of us have a road
to Damascus experience. But after seeing Renee
Goode and Alex Pretti murdered in cold blood,
I can't put that new wine back in an old wine
skin. I view the world a little differently.
I didn't think that sort of thing could happen
in our country. And after I see my conservative,
Jesus -loving, Bible -believing Christian friends
say nothing, I think of their religious path
a little differently. I'm not going to sway anybody,
but perhaps The likeness will speak. There are
travelers on the road, people, who've been beaten,
robbed, and left on the side of the road. Why
are you walking by? Stop the abuse. Stop ICE.