The Bible is a developing narrative, portraying the developing God-consciousness in human life. It moves beyond the tribal deity of some of its earlier parts to a universalism that defines God as both Love and Justice, and even calls us to love our enemies. The essential truths of the Bible, useful on all of our spiritual journeys, is that in creation God proclaims that all life is holy, in the Jesus story, the Bible asserts that all life is loved and that through the Holy Spirit, who is said to be "the Lord and giver of life," the Bible issues a call to each of us to be all that we can be. - John Shelby Spong

It has been almost 2 years since I started this blog. I enjoying browsing what has become an interesting collection of my thoughts on faith. It stimulates my thinking and reminds me of what I have found valuable in my faith journey. I get the free emails from Bishop Spong and liked his summary above wherein he answers a question on how to read the bible.

During the last Lenten season, I led a class at our church. There are too many other things going on for me to do it this year but I am attending one using the same series prepared by the Methodist church. After the first session, I do not find myself being stimulated or excited by the study though. I looked back and found the entry from January 26th last year and find my thoughts on lent similar this year.

I do not find Christ's sacrifice as "God's plan" compelling. I find it ridiculous that God set up this crucifixion so that we would have to accept Christ to have eternal life. To be fair, the leader of the class was not able to make it at the last minute and a substitute who does not usually teach was doing her best to lead the study. She could only recite what she learned in Sunday School. The rest of the class could do no better.