If It’s Weird, Just Call It Weird

There are things in the Bible that are weird. Sometimes they’re weird because it’s written from and to a culture 2,000+ years ago and the practices of the day are foreign to us. Other times it’s weird because it’s truth that is no longer accepted, no longer believed, and that truth has become foreign to us. Other times it’s weird because it involves the supernatural, and that is, well, foreign to us.

So what do you do when you’re teaching the Bible and one of these weird things pops up?  
You call it weird.

A donkey talks? Admit it’s weird. Jesus spits in a blind man’s eyes? Call it weird. Peter encourages women not to let their sexiness come from their “braided hair”. Weird, and hysterical. Call it what it is. Paul says, “once I was stoned.” That’s funny. Mention it.

People ask all the time why our church is able to “reach” atheists and agnostics, people who are anti-church and anti-Bible. This is one of many reasons. Because when you’re speaking on the Bible, and there’s something weird, and you don’t act like it’s weird, every non-Bible believing, non-Christian is going to think, “Holy crap, you don’t even realize that’s weird, do you!?!” And so you HAVE TO point out that it’s weird. If you do, I keep listening. If you don’t, I tune you out and I don’t come back.