I'm Andy Johnson. Welcome to the Church of Biblical
Sanity. Topic of today's mini sermon is called
Twisted Scripture. Someone accused me of twisting
scripture to fit my political perspective. You
twist the meaning of scripture, they said, to
fit your political perspective. Now, I didn't
know that wanting to stop the bullying and the
beating, the imprisonment and killing was a political
perspective. I didn't know that wanting to feed
the hungry, attend to the sick and poor was a
political perspective. I've been accused of twisting
scripture, but what scripture was twisted? And
how did I twist it? And perhaps I might be provided
with a straightened version. If the new wine
does not fit into your old wine skin, you say
that the new wine twists biblical scripture and
you throw it out. So let me twist some scripture
at you. Psalms 51 .10 says, O God, and renew
a right spirit within me. A clean heart. The
heart is a metaphor for emotions and dispositions.
A disposition is a state of mind that creates
an inclination to think or act in certain ways.
And renewal speaks to transformation. The twisted
scriptures that I read cause for us to be disposed
to perceive, to react, to emote in ways that
nurture others, that nurture the self, that nurture
the community. We are disposed to take care of,
to be responsible for. Jesus and St. Paul had
much to say about the conditions of the heart.
So let me twist some more scripture at you. Jesus
said in Matthew 5 -8, the Beatitudes, blessed
are the pure and heart, for they shall see God.
The Gospels and the Epistles. call for us to
take care of each other, to be responsible for
each other. That person hiding in the basement
is trying to feed our family. They escaped from
conditions of poverty, lawlessness, and violence
to feed our children, to give our children a
better life. And if it were your son or daughter,
your husband or wife, your mother or father hiding
in the basement, would the conditions of your
heart change a little bit? Here's some more twisted
scripture for you. Matthew 12, 34, Jesus says,
you brood of vipers. How can you speak of good
when you are evil? For out of the abundance of
the heart, the mouth speaks. You, my fine conservative
Christian friends, you speak about the love of
Jesus, yet you would deny food to the hungry
and health care to the sick and poor. Who's twisting
scripture? Matthew 15, 18 to 20, Jesus says,
but what comes out of the mouth proceeds from
the heart. And this defiles a person, for out
of the heart comes evil thoughts, murder, adultery,
sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander.
These, Jesus says, are what defile a person.
Now, my fine conservative Christian friends,
you seem to focus a lot on adultery and sexual
immorality, making me wonder what's in your heart.
And you conveniently ignore all the Trump administration
is blatantly doing. The murder, the theft, the
false witness, and the slander. You don't seem
to get too worked up about these things. You
have selected umbrage. Matthew 5, 8, Jesus says
again, blessed are the pure in heart for they
will see God. You talk of law and order, of human
decency. Yet, you turn your backs on the girls
who are raped and trafficked, and you protect
the rich and powerful. You support Trump. You
do this by proxy. St. Paul tells us, put on your
new self. We've been made in the likeness of
God. And I would invite people of all faith traditions
and of no faith traditions to put on those new
self -suits and listen. Listen to the likeness.
Renew a right spirit within you. Be pure in heart
and see God. See God in the actions and the interactions.
of people.