Here is the conclusion of a poem shared by Brian Zahnd in his “Sinners in the Hands of a Loving God.”
(Thanks for referencing that work, Randy - I’m finding it very insightful, and a needed call back to Christ. Though I’m not done reading it yet, I’ll be curious what sorts of things in it provoked concern for you.)
…So understand the medium, and don’t try so hard to miss the point
Try to learn what matters and what doesn’t
It’s not where and when Job lived But what Job learned
In his painful odyssey and poetic theodicyIt’s not how many cubits of water you need to put Everest under a flood
But why the world was so dirty that it needed such a big bathTrying to find Noah’s ark Instead of trying to rid the world of violence
Really is an exercise in missing the point
Speaking of missing the point— It’s not did a snake talk? But what the d*mn thing said!
Because even though I’ve never met a talking snake I’ve sure had serpentine thoughts crawl through my head
Literalism is a kind of escapism By which you move out of the crosshairs of the probing question
But parable and metaphor have a way of knocking us to the floorProse-flattened literalism makes the story small, time-confined, and irrelevant
But poetry and allegory travel through time and space to get in our faceInert facts are easy enough to set on the shelf
But the Story well-told will haunt youAh, the Story well-told
That’s what is needed It’s time for the Story to bust out of the cage and take the stage
And demand a hearing once again It’s a STORY, I tell you!
And if you allow the Story to seep into your life
So that THE STORY begins to weave into your story
That’s when, at last, you’re reading the Bible right
Zahnd, Brian. Sinners in the Hands of a Loving God: The Scandalous Truth of the Very Good News (p. 75). The Crown Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.