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Bern Leckie and Owen Lynch share thoughts and feelings about the first 21 chapters of the book of Ezekiel.
The vivid visions in this book are other-worldly and dreamlike, and as Ezekiel had been in Babylon, in exile from his home country for a few years, it might not be surprising to see visions of heavenly power which looked similar to the way his captors saw this.
But God seems to have added surprising twists, including his authority and radiant presence over all of the dark powers feared by people. Israel’s God was not defeated in the way people may have expected from his people’s fate, but had a purpose and plan which was yet to be seen and understood.
It’s easy to read these passages in isolation and form a dim, dark view of God, especially as the suffering described through Ezekiel’s words, pictures and actions would be brutal and shocking.
As with other prophets, there is hope to come later, but in the early parts of Ezekiel, there are also signs of what God wants the most and looks to restore - relationships in which people can share God’s vision and values, put love into practice, and work for justice and against everything which devalues life.
There are also signs that life in relationship with God may involve ongoing movement and developing understanding. Ezekiel’s words include fresh insight into some scripture people may have regarded differently, including “the sin of Sodom”, and we can also spot pictures which get developed later by Jesus, like the usefulness of a vine. Jesus moved people’s understanding along - should we expect to experience this too?
God’s presence was also on the move, tragically out of the temple of Jerusalem, but thankfully close to people wherever they were in exile. In the next part of our boxset, we continue through Ezekiel and find God’s power doing some incredible things. Listen along at your own pace at severnvineyard.org/bible.
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Bern Leckie and Owen Lynch share thoughts and feelings about chapter 44 to the end of Jeremiah and “Book 4” of the Psalms, 90 to 106.
It’s worth considering where the main point, or climax, is the book of Jeremiah. Hollywood stories have this near the end to keep our attention, but ancient stories often cover the main point nearer the middle. If the point of this book is at the end, it’s destruction and judgment. But there are reasons to think that God’s heart for restoration is the real heart of the story of Jeremiah.
One reason is that events towards the end are not told in chronological order - the order has been chosen for other reasons. Promoted and put closer to the centre than earlier events was God’s command to abandon slavery among Hebrews. Judah’s last king agreed but did not put this into practice. Could this have been featured as part of the book’s core message, that God was going to act to restore and empower people to live a new way of life, with his word and values on their hearts?
The central nature of this message, as well as the way it’s also followed up by Jesus, seems to elevate its importance, both to Jeremiah’s original listeners and to us.
Psalms 90 to 106 also give us insight into how people were inspired to connect with God and express pain and suffering, as well as praise and hope, during their exile from Jerusalem. At the heart of this collection, the encouragement to “sing a new song” and expect joy to be shouted from “all the earth” also suggests a hope for a future of restoration, not just of Israel but of everyone and everything.
In the next part of our boxset, we turn to the prophet Ezekiel whose prophecy was around the same time as Jeremiah, but whose style was very different. Listen along at your own pace at severnvineyard.org/bible.
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Bern Leckie and Owen Lynch share thoughts and feelings about chapters 23 to 43 of the biggest book in the Bible, Jeremiah.
What started as relentless sounding doom and gloom turns a corner here as hope is revealed, albeit at a traumatic time for God’s people.
One of the most popular prophecies for sharing and encouraging today comes from this part of the book of Jeremiah - God does know the plans he has to bring people hope and a future. But we need to understand what these were for the original listeners before we can grasp the power of this encouragement.
The warned destruction and forced exile came true, and while one false prophet offered encouragement that it would be very short, Jeremiah delivered a different word - that it would last beyond the listeners’ lifetimes, but they could find new life and look forward to their descendants finding more.
God’s plans were not to deliver instant relief, but to love, strengthen, reconnect and restore people over time, sometimes in new and surprising ways.
God’s ultimate aim is revealed here, for people to have his ways in their own hearts and minds, not just laws to follow but shared desires to love, strengthen, reconnect and restore where we are. This is easy to like as an idea, but hard to live in practice. Can we do it in our own strength, or do we need to let God work this out through us?
In the next part of our boxset, we complete Jeremiah and also listen to Psalms 90 to 106. Listen along at your own pace at severnvineyard.org/bible.
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Bern Leckie and Owen Lynch share thoughts and feelings about chapters 1 to 22 of the biggest book in the Bible, Jeremiah.
It starts at a time of change and uncertainty for God’s remaining people in the southern kingdom of Judah. The Assyrian empire to the north lost their last great leader, and with recent religious reforms under King Josiah, the Jews may have had good reasons to feel comfortable, justified and protected by God.
Jeremiah’s messages about how unhappy God was with their unfaithfulness to him and their covenant might then have come as a surprise, or just sounded wrong. But the words God gave to Jeremiah included lots of examples of how their worship, life and society had become corrupt and toxic.
Nobody wanted to hear, let alone agree with or follow, Jeremiah’s call to repentance. The ruin of Jerusalem had been warned about, but people were unwilling to believe it or reconnect with God to deal with it.
We can know and agree that God wants relationship more than religion for us, but repentance, ongoing learning and change are still hard. Bern and Owen reflect on examples from their lives, and discuss how we can know the directions God wants us to take.
In the next part of our boxset, we continue with Jeremiah and find, in the middle of tragedy for Judah, that God still has good plans and offers life-changing hope for the future. Listen along at your own pace at severnvineyard.org/bible.
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Bern Leckie and Owen Lynch share thoughts and feelings about a selection of letters in the New Testament from early church leaders.
The first followers of Jesus were suffering as they spread the news of God’s coming kingdom. They were not being equipped for armed struggle but to develop and mature in Christ-like character while overflowing with his Spirit and love.
From a distance, this sounds like something which can be calmly analysed to figure out how it works. But from the first Christians’ perspective, they were constantly learning from experience and having to work out what was happening, what was effective and helpful in their lives, and what to expect from God next.
The way they were learning, as well as the change they wanted to see in the world, might explain why these writers emphasised putting faith into practice.
Trying to turn their encouragements into laws, doctrines and rules might be harder to achieve than we think, however - some of the most prominent reforming theologians like Martin Luther and John Calvin made strenuous efforts, but were all their conclusions faithful to these writers’ intentions? If not, how can we know any better? And when we disagree among ourselves about things like this, is there any chance we can do this helpfully and lovingly?
In the next part of our boxset, we begin hearing from Jeremiah, one of the major prophets who brought word of how unfaithful God’s people had been, but also hope for a better future. Listen along at your own pace at severnvineyard.org/bible.
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Bern Leckie and Owen Lynch share thoughts and feelings about the second book of Chronicles from chapter 17 to the end.
The big theme seems to be what makes a good leader for God’s people. The best ones seemed to make a point of seeking God and doing what he commanded, and they also tended to support or help restore the temple in Jerusalem so that all people could find it possible to find God when they sought him.
But what does it really mean to seek God? While a religious system is at the heart of the social order being described, the stories in Chronicles might also point to a difference between following religious people or rules and finding the God we are seeking.
There is the amazing story of one king who heard from 400 prophets, but still had a sense that he had to keep seeking the truth from God. There is also a story of how religious rules broke down when another king called people to celebrate together. This prompts the question: is it God’s purpose for people to seek him to obey religious rules, or is the more the purpose of the rules to encourage people to seek God? If there is ever a clash, which does God prefer?
Owen and Bern share their experiences of seeking God and sometimes needing to change direction, or learn a new way of doing things, as a result.
They also discuss what Chronicles shows about faith and faithfulness, topics which will come up again next week as we look at letters by James, Peter, John and Jude. Listen along at your own pace at severnvineyard.org/bible.
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Bern Leckie and Owen Lynch share thoughts and feelings about Chronicles from book 1 chapter 22 to book 2 chapter 16.
It’s become very noticeable that this account of Israel’s history has a different perspective and purpose from other versions of the same stories in the Bible. Some people like David and Solomon look like better versions of themselves, but why?
Other books were probably written to warn Israel of the dangers of separating from God, but Chronicles seems written to encourage Israel about the benefits of getting back together. In particular, after the exile of God’s people, some felt the opportunity to regroup and rebuild in Jerusalem would bring about the restoration of the kingdom of God.
So this account remembers past glory. Who wouldn’t want to regain it? Hadn’t God promised that if his people turn and seek him, he will heal their land? (Bern has views on how we pray this prayer today, though…)
In the next part of our boxset, we finish Chronicles and look at what it says about some of the best and worst leaders. Listen along at your own pace at severnvineyard.org/bible.
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Bern Leckie and Owen Lynch share thoughts and feelings about the opening chapters 1 to 21 of the first book of Chronicles.
A bit like Deuteronomy, this book is a retelling of familiar stories from a different perspective, and this time the special purpose of the book might make it look like the Bible has contradictions within itself.
What if it does? Bern shares discomfort about this idea, coming from being told as a young adult about how to deal with people who said “the Bible is full of contradictions” and didn’t want to put faith in God.
Chronicles seems to show, however, that the people who agreed what should count as scripture were happy to bring together partisan and conflicting views which show how God moved different people at different times.
What does this mean for us? Do we need to rethink how we engage with the Bible and take lessons from it or quote fragments in our prayers and worship? Can we also grasp what it means for us to be part of God’s movement of people through history, and be ready to keep moving?
WARNING: inspired by ideas sparked in Chronicles, Owen and Bern’s discussion moves into other topics about how God engages with us, how we sometimes miss the point and try to adopt snapshots of someone else’s history as our own, and how we can experience God moving us into new life with a new perspective.
In the next part of our boxset, we continue Chronicles with a look at how Israel was inspired to remember the goodness of worshiping God together. Listen along at your own pace at severnvineyard.org/bible.
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Bern Leckie and Owen Lynch share thoughts and feelings about the final chapters of the books of Deuteronomy (20 to 34) and Proverbs (27 to 31).
In lots of ways, we might not appreciate the revision sections of old laws. There are lots of questions about how they were conceived, what they meant to people, and what - if anything - they might mean to us today. What can we gain from understanding them better?
Being outside the Jewish family and the covenant described in Deuteronomy, we don’t have a duty to follow its rules, but we can appreciate something about what God was doing. The social order created by this covenant helped to define people and create a sense that they could live and grow in relationships and trust.
We can still wonder how much of what this society practised would benefit us today, but it might be more helpful to see its formation as a signpost towards even better life in the future. Was “an eye for an eye” ever intended to encourage vengeance, or to limit it? And was it meant to be the final state of the life God wanted for people, or more of a step towards the ability to forgive and love enemies, as Jesus expected?
The ending of Proverbs might also create more questions than answers. The writer realises that they have not, in the end, learned wisdom. There is still much for them to learn. How important is it to recognise the depths of what we still don’t know, especially in relationships? Can seeing ourselves on a continuing journey help us gain from Proverbs’ final picture of ideal life as a source of hope and encouragement instead of an unrealistic burden?
In the next part of our boxset, we begin the book of Chronicles, another re-telling of familiar material from a different viewpoint which can help us understand God’s people and their history in more depth. Listen along at your own pace at severnvineyard.org/bible.
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Bern Leckie and Owen Lynch share thoughts and feelings about the first 19 chapters of the book of Deuteronomy.
This name means that it’s a repeat of the law described in the first few books of the Bible. Why is it there? The perspective isn’t quite the same as the first time this law was described, and seeing something from more than angle can make a huge difference to how we understand what it is, how it works and how it fits into people’s lives.
The Jewish law is part of a bigger social order which helps set people’s expectations of how to deal with each other and progress through life. Rules can be interpreted in different ways, so understanding how a society works turns out to be essential to know what a rule means to people - Bern has a good example from his recent holiday!
To understand Deuteronomy, it’s also useful to consider when, how and why it was written. Scholars’ views range from traditional - that it’s all from Moses exactly as presented - to more common current views that it was, at least partly, written or refined much later to help reform God’s people in a time of crisis. Can allowing for fresh interpretation like this strengthen our connection with God?
In next part of our boxset, we finish Deuteronomy and the final five chapters of Proverbs. Listen along at your own pace at severnvineyard.org/bible.
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Bern Leckie and Owen Lynch share thoughts and feelings about the New Testament letters to the Hebrews, the Thessalonians, Titus and Philemon.
What does faith look like for Jewish believers in Jesus as their promised anointed saviour? Hebrews is the name we give to a letter written to the first such believers, and it connects their inherited identity, stories and hopes with the new life they discovered in Christ.
It turned out that they now had the best possible prophet, priest and leader, who was not new but had been working since the creation of everything. Could it be true that their familiar religious structures were only shadows of what God was always wanting for them? If so, what would change for Jewish believers in Jesus? For example, what would it mean that Jesus replaced imperfect, temporary sacrifices with a perfect, eternal one? And what could everyone learn from the examples of faith that the writer drew from Jewish history to set high expectations for life following Christ?
Elsewhere, Paul’s instructions to churches and leaders reflected his understanding that Jesus was returning, perhaps very soon. But even if we knew this would happen tomorrow, how should we live today? Paul encouraged hope in Jesus’ return, but also investment in the life and communities people had. Could his understanding and application of this have changed over time, perhaps as his experience grew and his viewpoint changed? How can we best learn from his teaching, and what are the dangers of taking some of it out of context?
In next part of our boxset, we look back at some very familiar stories, re-told in a revised way and maybe showing some viewpoints we’ve not yet seen, through the book of Deuteronomy. Listen along at your own pace at severnvineyard.org/bible.
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Bern Leckie and Owen Lynch share thoughts and feelings about the final chapters of the book of Isaiah and Psalms 79 to 89, some of which reflect how people shared difficult experiences with God.
What does it mean to rely on God, and why is this important? Israel suffered through much of its history. While maintaining religious and legal systems which made it look and feel like they relied on God, the prophet Isaiah said they had really been relying on themselves, or on alliances with others, or on wealth or strength instead.
God would show them a different way of life through a suffering servant, someone totally reliant on God and, as we believe with hindsight, was also God in the flesh.
What sort of life would become possible because of this? Isaiah’s words held a mysterious hope for people who hadn’t yet encountered Jesus, and would also be a source of blessing and joy for people who believed God’s promise was fulfilled in him.
In next part of our boxset, we look at how some of the first Jewish believers in Jesus were encouraged to develop their faith in the letter to the Hebrews, as well as other letters written to the Thessalonians, Titus and Philemon. Listen along at your own pace at severnvineyard.org/bible.
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Bern Leckie and Owen Lynch share thoughts and feelings about the chapters 28 to 49 of the book of Isaiah.
When was the last time you thought about how amazing it is that people - including us - can hear from God? How can we know we hear from the real God, and don’t just replay our own ideas about life?
Isaiah gives lots of guidance on this to people who desperately needed to know the reality of God’s presence with them, love for them and hope for their future.
One way to measure this would be justice - life following things other than God ended up denying people’s access to this, but social justice would be achievable when people followed a way of life that God promised to reveal.
While people might have expected this way of life to be about recognisable strength, riches and powerful allies, Isaiah surprisingly prophesied that it would be more about service. Israel would learn how this works through a remarkable servant that God would raise up among them. In exile, Israel might have considered Daniel to be a leader like this, but did God have even greater plans, involving an even greater servant - God himself, revealed in Christ Jesus?
In next part of our boxset, we complete what Isaiah and his disciples shared with Israel about Israel’s future and God would change the world with them, and listen to Psalms 79 to 89. Listen along at your own pace at severnvineyard.org/bible.
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Bern Leckie and Owen Lynch share thoughts and feelings about the first 27 chapters of the book of Isaiah.
Can we imagine the horror and trauma of national exile? How would we feel and what would we do to try and feel better about ourselves and our future if it happened to us?
From a distance, we could look at Isaiah’s words of God’s judgement and correction to Israel as a history lesson we can easily grasp, but if that’s all we do, could we miss the point? And could we put ourselves in danger of repeating their mistakes?
According to Isaiah, God’s main desire was for social justice, and religious rules and practices were becoming part of the problem, not the solution. When we think and pray about how the world could or should be better, do we share God’s values as revealed here?
The vision God gave Isaiah for the better future he would bring about was promised to be surprising and new. Could listening and letting it reshape our vision also surprise us today, even if we’ve heard it before?
In next part of our boxset, we continue with Isaiah’s developing message as a new way of life is promised to emerge where life looked impossible chapters 28 to 49. Listen along at your own pace at severnvineyard.org/bible.
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Bern Leckie and Owen Lynch share thoughts and feelings about Paul’s guidance to the church in his letters 2 Corinthians, Philippians and Colossians.
Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians had been harsh, strict and apparently hurtful to some in that church in some ways, and in this follow-up, we get to see more of Paul’s heart - what did he really want for them? It looked like people had been arguing about who should have authority, and it might seem to us that Paul joined in this tussle for power, setting clear directives which might sound like instructions for us today too.
But was Paul really pushing for his own authority or trying to point everyone in the direction of a more certain foundation for life - Christ? If so, what did this look like for him, and what can we expect if we recognise and build on Christ as a foundation today? If we believe Paul that Christ is in everyone, should that change the way we treat other people, especially people who don’t yet believe in God?
There seems to be a mixture of messages about this in Paul’s letters. It can be hard to know how to put his teaching into practice. His views, assumptions, expectations and practices may have been works in progress. But could Paul’s direction to work things out together, with God-given love and a growing faith in Jesus, be any clearer?
In next part of our boxset, we go back to the story of Israel in the Old Testament and listen to what had corrupted society, its leadership and religion, why God’s people were suffering, but also what hope they could expect for the future from God’s viewpoint, shared through the prophet Isaiah, chapters 1 to 27. Listen along at your own pace at severnvineyard.org/bible.
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Bern Leckie and Owen Lynch share thoughts and feelings about the end of the story in the books of Kings, along with Psalms 73 to 78.
The big, tragic message of this part of the story is that God’s people ended up exiled from their promised land, and the main reason given for this was their turning away from God.
Looking at how this happened, there are some intriguing details which might give us insight into how these people reflected on their circumstances, their identity and what they thought they would need to do differently to regain healthy and sustainable life in God’s kingdom.
In a couple of instances, leaders who seemed like they were seeking God to a great extent made mistakes which led to downfall, either for them or their descendants. Is it easy to draw messages from this, like not to be as proud as Hezekiah or as half-hearted as Joash? Or is it reasonable to think that the original audience for these stories might have wondered how these leaders could have known what to do to be fully correct?
Bern and Owen consider the possibility that not knowing, and having to seek God and listen better as a result, might have been an important part of the message, and one that applies to us too.
In next part of our boxset, we’ll return to Paul’s letters in the New Testament to see how he guided the church in 2 Corinthians, Philippians and Colossians. Listen along at your own pace at severnvineyard.org/bible.
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Bern Leckie and Owen Lynch share thoughts and feelings about the middle of the story in the books of Kings.
History is often told in terms of leaders, what they did and how their power influenced the world, but in this part of a story of corrupt leadership, the focus moves to prophets Elijah and Elisha. They were given power from God to help ordinary, suffering people, and to demonstrate the importance of God’s power over all others powers.
A dramatic showdown between Elijah and the prophets of Baal, a foreign god, is commemorated in opera but would also be an incredible way to settle political differences if we could watch it today.
Elisha asked for double Elijah’s blessing, and the stories of his work among people sound practically Christlike to us. In fact, the people who saw Jesus would probably have reflected that he was a continuation, even a fulfilment, of what God was doing through Elisha.
The Holy Spirit flowed through him to heal and bless people outside of the Jewish family and faith community. What could that same Spirit, if we believe it flows through us, do to heal and bless our neighbours too?
In next part of our boxset, we’ll finish the story of Kings and look at the fall of God’s people into exile, as well as listening to how they shared their experiences with God in Psalms 73 to 78. Listen along at your own pace at severnvineyard.org/bible.
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Bern Leckie and Owen Lynch share thoughts and feelings about the first part of the book of Kings.
It can be hard to know what to make of these stories of life after King David. Characters like Solomon are awesome and sometimes live in ways we would love to have part of, but they are also complex and flawed. Drawing moral conclusions from what they say and do, and what happens to them, is usually tempting but often baffling and always needing to be done in the context of the larger stories being told.
One story with a recognisable pattern is Solomon’s fall, linked with the fall of Israel as a united kingdom, and eventually the fall of divided kingdoms into exile. Can we identify what caused the falls, and so grasp the message intended by the author?
Turning away from God is labelled as the main mistake, and while that might not sound surprising, the ways in which this was shown to happen, and the consequences for people who did this in different ways, might be shocking. This makes the book of Kings a dizzying listen, often hard to process, but also highly engaging and revealing of a need to seek God and not just people or things that look blessed.
In next part of our boxset, we’ll continue the story of Kings and see what prophets have to say and do as part of God’s intervention, not just with corrupt leadership, but with suffering people directly. Listen along at your own pace at severnvineyard.org/bible.
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Bern Leckie and Owen Lynch share thoughts and feelings about Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians and both of his letters to a young leader, Timothy.
After stressing to believers in Christ the importance of freedom from the law, why does Paul seem to be setting a lot of rules for the church in Corinth? Positioned at the intersection of lands and cultures, there were competing voices of authority in this early church, along with practices which failed to show the love Paul expected to see from growth and maturity they should have been developing in Christ.
We can learn a lot from what Paul writes, but it can be difficult for us to decide which of Paul’s teachings to adopt and which to leave as a result of the early church and their society being different from ours.
Could we have adopted our own unhealthy ways of looking at this, and is the “conservative vs liberal” paradigm an example of something we need to change? If so, what can we swap it for? What, if anything, could be a way of seeing the world and making judgements like this which brings us closer to Christ?
As many instructions as it contains, could the main focus of 1 Corinthians really be the expression of Christ’s work in and love for us? Paul’s famous passage about love, often quoted at weddings, is found here in the middle of his teaching about spiritual gifts and the power God provides to build people up. As our understanding grows, about God, his power and his world, should fixing rules be as important to us as learning how to adapt to others’ needs, change our plans and increase in love?
In next part of our boxset, we’ll return to the Old Testament story of Israel and see what happened after David in the first part of the book of Kings. Listen along at your own pace at severnvineyard.org/bible.
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Bern Leckie and Owen Lynch share thoughts and feelings about several “minor” prophets with major messages in the Old Testament, as well as Psalms 66 to 72.
We often think of the word “righteous” as quite religious or worthy in a traditional way, but when God’s prophets called people to righteousness, it looks like the major concern was how people were suffering because of a lack of social justice and people’s concern for each other. It turns out that God values people more than we do, and that without closeness to God, we find it hard to share God’s values and live with them as our own.
The prophet Jonah especially struggled with being asked to take a message from God to his enemies, not because he was afraid for his life, but because he didn’t want them to respond in a way that would bring them forgiveness. We might see this as a picture of how we or anyone might hear Jesus’ challenge, “Love your enemies.” This is hard, maybe impossible for us without God’s help.
So can we ever know what to do without constant direction from God? The prophet Micah brought assurance that we should already know the basic idea - “act justly, love mercy and walk humbly with your God”. This is harder to live in practice than to remember as a Bible verse, but can it give us a framework for a full, balanced life where we want to keep learning and growing in practical love?
In next part of our boxset, we’ll return to the New Testament and look at Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians and both of his letters to a young leader, Timothy. Listen along at your own pace at severnvineyard.org/bible.
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