Do Your Research

I may have coined a new phrase in a recent sermon. I don't know if I'm the first person to use it, but as far as I know, I hadn't heard it before. My phrase was "don't go off half-cocked and totally cocky."
Maybe it'll catch on...

What I meant by that was it is really frustrating when someone gets a little bit of information, leaps to a conclusion, and then sticks to that conclusion. You remember Chicken Little? Versions of the story vary, but one of the earlier versions is that an acorn fell on Henny Penny's head, and from that Henny Penny concluded that the sky was falling. This meant the end of the world to Henny Penny, and she went around the barnyard telling everyone to take cover because the sky itself was caving in.

Here's how she went off half-cocked: Henny Penny didn't do any research, any checking to see if the terrible things she expected were actually happening. She didn't even look to see what had landed on her. She jumped to a conclusion. She really didn't even know what she was talking about. That's what I mean by half-cocked.

Here's how she went fully cocky: in light of any new information, any questioning, any possibility she might be wrong, Henny Penny stuck to her original conclusion. Nothing could change her mind. She knew the truth, and anyone who disagreed was foolish, stupid, or misinformed.

What a powerful story Chicken Little is. It is such a good glimpse into human nature as well. I should also add it is an insight into the way people read the bible. You probably knew I was going there, I'm a pastor, after all.

The bible is a rich and complex anthology of books about many different topics, including different types of literature (histories, laws, moralistic stories, proverbs, poetry, apocalypses, you get the point) written by any number of different people over the course of almost 2000 years. Trying to read the bible without understanding the culture of the time in which the words were written, the languages in which they were written, the people for whom they were written, the problems they were trying to solve or the issues they were trying to resolve by writing those words is difficult, if not impossible. And much of the information that we need to be sure what the authors meant is simply not available to us.

The bible does have an overall ethic, however. It stresses caring for one another and revering God. If something is not loving to a neighbor, it doesn't gel with the overall ethic of the bible. If something does not place God in the most important spot, it isn't of the bible.

Try to resist going off half-cocked and fully cocky when reading scripture or when listening to someone who wants to tell you what it says. Do your research. See what others are saying about a certain passage. Read different translations. Read commentaries. These tools have never been as available as they are now in the information age.

That will help keep us from jumping to conclusions. Being cocky about our conclusions is never in order. I have seen people--some pastors-- sarcastically dismissing others because they do not have the same interpretation on a passage or issue. Calling someone stupid or acting as if they are stupid is not biblical. Time and again Jesus showed us how to be humble even as we are being firm in our convictions. And remember, Jesus, who we look to as the number one most awesome human ever, allowed his mind to be changed in a conversation with a woman who he basically called a dog. Humility, research, mindfulness of other perspectives--these are the loving and Christian ways to handle disagreements over our sacred text.

At least, that's the view from where I'm standing...