Being Berean

Now the Berean Jews were of more noble character than those in Thessalonica, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true.
-Acts 17:11

On Sunday I was teaching on a passage in the Gospel of Luke where Jesus is (again) seen as a threat to those in power. A Pharisee who is hosting him for dinner (Luke 7:39) is repulsed by a "sinful" woman who enters and washes the feet of Jesus with her tears. He has a monologue in his head, judging the woman and deciding that Jesus cannot be a true prophet because he's letting this woman touch him. 

Jesus reads Simon's thoughts and interrupts him. "Simon, I have something to tell you." And the monologue becomes a dialogue, and Jesus moves the pharisee away from harmful religious beliefs, and challenges him to confront the truth. There's more to it than that, but for now that's enough. The key takeaway? Jesus turns internal monologues into dialogues--freeing us from false or judgmental narratives. 

In our discussion time after the message, a great insight was mentioned. Someone said that the way God often helps them move out of problematic internal monologues is through literal dialogue with others. This deep truth is worth exploring further, and it got me thinking about the ancient Bereans--here's why. 

In the book of Acts, we get a small reference to the folks who lived in the town of Berea (in Greece) as Paul and Silas are bringing the story of Jesus across Turkey and into Europe. We aren't told much about them at all. We simply know that 1) they had noble character, and 2) that their noble character was linked to the fact that as truth seekers, they searched the scriptures to see if what these missionaries were sharing was actually true. 

Growing up, what that meant to me and everyone else in my generation seemed quite clear: if you want to have the right character and figure out if something is true, you go flip through the Bible until you can find the chapter and verse with a passage that can confirm it. 

There's only one problem with this understanding of the Bereans: those fine folks didn't have Bibles. 

First off, absolutely nobody had their own copy of the scriptures in the first century. It would be another 1400 years before that even became an option. What they did have was a synagogue-- a community-- that held the writings. But you couldn't just borrow a scroll. They had to be read together. In community. 

Want to discover what's true? Gather at the synagogue, explore the story and character of God, and hash it out. 

This isn't a "you-need-to-go-to-church-more" pitch. It's an invitation to rediscover truth-seeking through the lens of community. We have all but lost this important practice, and our world is suffering more because of it. 

Right now, the US is facing a crisis of truth. Competing narratives and repeated outlandish claims (provably false) have blurred all of our perceptions of reality. Some argue relentlessly, while others passively accept what aligns with their preferred source of information (rarely unbiased). These can lead us away from careful examination (truth-seeking), which, according to the author of Acts, makes for a less-than-noble character.  

If information is all you're looking for, of course you can google things and it will get you somewhere. But God created us to be in dialogue with each other in order to discern what is real and true. When we have others that we can ask truly good questions with (not just rant), explore what the way of Jesus looks like with, and dialogue about life's complexities with, then we can be noble truth seekers. And of course, the same process is needed to counter the false stories we believe about ourselves. 

When we join with other humble truth seekers, then we can together "search the scriptures." What is the deep heart of God that we see in Jesus? How might it impact what I believe and the posture I believe it with? 
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Your story will help me understand. My story will help you understand. The stories from our neighbors and strangers will also illuminate our understandings. And the good questions we all ask will help us name the harmful and false monologues going on. And maybe we'll finally learn that consuming tweets, posts, and TikToks alone as we fall asleep is making us sick and really bad at discerning truth?! (Just kidding. We won't ever learn that, apparently.)

Who can you practice humble exploration together with this week as you seek to follow the real Jesus in a time of immense untruth? It's a noble task-- too noble to do alone. We were made for community. 

Jesus, protect me from isolation and half-truths this week. Lead me into dialogue, into faith, and into community. 

Peace,
Keith

*artwork taken from the cover of Seeking Truth Together, a Quaker book by Jack Powelson.