The Bank of Random Information

If you have been inside my office and looked on my bookshelf, you will notice a collection of objects.  Some of them are souvenirs from trips I have taken.  Other things are gifts that I have been given.  While some objects have sentimental value only, other objects I have kept because they are beautiful.  More than one has a story behind them.  But one thing is for sure: with one look at my bookshelf and you can tell that I enjoy collecting unique and odd things.  The same could be said about my brain: I have an odd collection of information that I have learned over the years.  Even as a child, I had a penchant for remembering odd facts, like that a hippopotamus’s sweat is blood-red and people have mistaken a sweating hippo for a bleeding one.  My mother used to tell me that I had a “bank of random information” that was liable to spit out a piece of trivia at any given moment.  I don’t always remember where I learn these facts… but I know that odd nuggets of information stick in my brain like a ketchup stain on a white shirt.

This “bank of random information” is my only explanation for the onslaught of odd facts in Sunday’s sermon.  In case you were wondering, here is an article that explains what a bacculum is and why the Hebrew might imply that Eve was made from one.  I’ll be honest with you all, I am not sure where I first heard this theory… it may have been in a seminary textbook, or it may have been from this book: The Uncensored Bible: The Bawdy and Naughty Bits of the Good Book.

What I do know is this: there is a lot more I could say about the first three chapters of Genesis.  In case you want to hear a longer discussion, here are the videos from our Tuesday morning Bible Study where we discuss many of these topics in greater detail:

• Genesis Overview: Click HERE
• Genesis 1: https://youtu.be/SSZ_g-0Vteo
• Genesis 2: https://youtu.be/Z2oei3VbC64
• Genesis 3: https://youtu.be/RkecUI_J3L0

With all of this contextual information that presents us with a slightly different narrative than we expect, it is fair to wonder, “How are we able to make sense of the story in scripture at all?”  Another way to ask this is, “Do I need a seminary degree to understand the Bible, or is my plain reading of the text enough?”  This question is at the core of what we will be discussing this coming Sunday - and the simple answer is… it’s complicated.

With two Sundays left in this series - strap in! - because there is a lot more random pieces of information heading your way!

Blessings,
Pastor Chris