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The Blue Parakeet: Understanding and Applying the Bible Today

In "The Blue Parakeet," Scot McKnight explores the challenges of reading and interpreting the Bible in today's context. He examines the adoption and adaptation of biblical practices, the different ways of reading the Bible, and the importance of understanding the Bible's story. This book provides valuable insights for Christians seeking to navigate the complexities of biblical interpretation.

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The Blue Parakeet: Understanding and Applying the Bible Today

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  1. Chapter 1 The Book and I

  2. Scot McKnight’s story Have you ever had an experience of desiring to read the Bible? What has confused you about the Bible and how Christians apply it?

  3. What Christians Say “We believe everything the Bible says, therefore, we practice whatever the Bible says!”

  4. What Christians Do Pick and choose or, in other words, adopt and adapt

  5. Examples of Adopting and Adapting • Sabbath: not doing something in the Bible • Tithing: morphing something in the Bible • Foot washing: timeless principle in the Bible • Charismatic gifts: that was then, this is now • Possessions: what is for today?

  6. The Big Question “How, then, are we to live out the Bible today?

  7. Chapter 2 The Birds and I

  8. Blue Parakeet Experiences Passages in the Bible or questions from people we encounter that startle or surprise us

  9. Responding to Blue Parakeets • Cage them • Ignore them • Run away from them • Observe and learn from them

  10. Three Main Ways to Read the Bible 1. Reading to retrieve 2. Reading through tradition 3. Reading with tradition

  11. 1. Reading to Retrieve I Going back to the Bible to retrieve ideas and practices for today • Retrieve it all • Retrieve the essence

  12. Retrieve it all • Women should be silent • Farmers should allow gleaning • We should wash each other’s feet

  13. Retrieve the essence Inser • Our culture now determines what is valuable from the Bible • Sometimes is not faithful enough to the Bible

  14. Those days, those ways God spoke in Moses’s days in Moses’s ways … God spoke in John’s days in John’s ways … God speaks in our days in our ways

  15. 2. Reading Through Tradition Reading the Bible for ourselves but not completely on our own–taking into account the tradition of interpretation • The Great Tradition • Traditionalism

  16. The Great Tradition How the church everywhere has always read the Bible

  17. Traditionalism We read the Bible We turn what we believe into a doctrinal statement We fossilize the decision We are bound to the tradition We read the Bible through this tradition Those who question our tradition are kicked out

  18. 3. Reading with Tradition Returning to retrieve PLUS Respecting the Great Tradition PLUS Renewing God’s words to us today

  19. Three words tell us how to read Story Listening Discerning

  20. Shortcut 1: Morsels of Law God is the Law-Giver We are the Obedient Ones We judge others

  21. Shortcut 2: Morsels of Blessings and Promises • Seeing the Bible as random sayings of blessing or promise that make us feel good • Divorces the story of the Bible from struggles and leaves Christians unprepared for suffering

  22. Shortcut 3: Mirror or Inkblot Making the Bible reflect us and our ideas, rather than our ideas being shaped by the Bible’s story

  23. Shortcut 4: Puzzles Putting together a systematic theology of our own invention rather than reading the Bible as a narrative

  24. Shortcut 5: Maestros Reading the Bible through the lens of one Maestro, such as Jesus or Paul, giving us only one chapter of the many-chaptered story of the Bible

  25. Alternative to Shortcuts Read the Bible as a STORY Enter into it as an adventure

  26. Chapter 4 It’s a Story with Power!

  27. Context is Key Who wrote this? When? Why? What did it mean to the original audience? How does it fit in the Bible’s Story?

  28. Leviticus 25:35-38 Says to not charge interest How do we apply it today? That was then, this is now

  29. Categorizing the Bible Lawbook? 340 Blessings and promises? 158 Maestro Jesus? 232.092 History of the Ancient World? 933

  30. God’s Story The Bible is God’s telling of history, the story of God’s people.

  31. Stephen Acts 7 Retells Israel’s story with Jesus as Messiah Stoned to death

  32. William Tyndale Translated the Bible to English in 1500s to tell the Bible’s Story to everyone Opposed by Roman Catholic Church leaders and burned at the stake

  33. The Maestros Jesus: Kingdom of God John: Eternal Life Paul: Church

  34. The Authors God used a variety of authors to give a variety of expressions to the Story They spoke in their days in their ways We need them all to tell the whole Story

  35. Wikistories “Open source” retellings of the Bible’s story Ex 15; Lev 26:3–13; Deut 6:20–24; 26:5–9; 29; 32; Josh 23:2–4; 24:2–13; 1 Sam 12:7–15; 1 Kings 8; 1 Chron 1–9; 16:8–36; Ezra 5:11–17; Neh 9:6–37; Ps 78; 105; 106; 135:8–12; 136; Is 5:1–7; Jer 2:2–9; Ez 16; 20; 23; Dan 9:1–27; Hab 3:1–16; Mt 1:1–17; Acts 7:2–50; 10:36–43; 13:17–41; Rom 9–11; 1 Cor 15:1–28; Heb 11; Rev 12:1–12, Rev 21–22

  36. Midrash The Jewish tradition of interpreting the Hebrew Scriptures

  37. Matthew 4:1-11 – Temptation of Jesus Quote the Bible at the devil when you are tempted? Jesus is the new Adam? Jesus is the new Moses or Israel?

  38. Review • The Bible is a Story • The Story is made up of a series of wiki-stories • The wiki-stories are held together by the Story • The only way to make sense of the blue parakeets is to set each in the context of the Bible’s Story

  39. Chapter 5 The Plot of the Wiki-Stories

  40. The Bible’s Story has: Plot (creation to consummation) Characters (God, people, world) Authors (Old and New Testament)

  41. The Two Non-Negotiables General Plot: creation of heaven and earth (Gen. 1-2) to creation of new heavens and new earth (Rev. 20-22) 2. Redemptive Benefits: What God does for God’s people

  42. The King and His Kingdom Story Chapter 1: Theocracy (Gen. 1 to 1 Sam. 8) Chapter 2: Monarchy (1 Sam. 8 to Mt. 1) Chapter 3: Christocracy (Mt. 1 to Rev. 22)

  43. The Gospel The gospel is the Christocracy chapter The gospel is the Story of Jesus as the culmination of the Story of Israel

  44. The Redemptive Benefits Story Main point: It’s about God, not us. It’s about the King who gives the benefits, not just about the benefits for us.

  45. Redemptive Benefits Story Plot 1. Creating Eikons: Designed for Oneness 2. Cracked Eikons: Distorting Oneness, Creating Otherness 3. Covenant Community: The Struggle for Oneness

  46. Redemptive Benefits Story Plot 4. Christ, the Perfect Eikon: Oneness Restored 5. Consummation: Oneness Forever

  47. Chapter 6 From Paper to Person

  48. Relationships What is my relationship to the Bible? What is my relationship to the GOD of the Bible?

  49. The Authority Approach God is revealed in the Bible. God’s Spirit inspired the human authors. Because God is always true, the Bible is inerrant. The Bible is our authority, and our response to the Bible must be submission.

  50. The Authority Approach The words aren’t wrong, but there is far more to reading the Bible than submitting to authority.

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