Sometimes a strange visitor like a neighbor’s pet blue parakeet, an individual who speaks and acts in an unfamiliar way, or a different idea will insert itself into our lives quite unexpectedly. We may wish it would go away, facilitate its departure, or even ignore it, but we dare not try to cage it. North Park University professor Scot McKnight likens certain biblical passages to the blue parakeet he found in his backyard. How the sparrows in McKnight’s yard responded to the blue parakeet mimics how we often read and respond to the confusing and controversial verses we find in the Bible.
“How are we to live out the Bible today?” That is the big question all Christians must ultimately answer, says Scot McKnight. “Every one of us adapts the Bible to our culture. We adopt and adapt, pick and choose.” McKnight runs through a dozen or so specific biblical examples where serious and sincere believers have adopted and adapted differently—Sabbath, tithing, foot washing, charismatic gifts, surrendering possessions, capital punishment, war, and women in ministry, to name a few.
McKnight deals with the how and why of what we choose from the Bible to apply to today. He does so in such an entertaining, humble, and reasoned way that even the most stubborn “the-Bible-says-it-I-believe-it-that-settles-it” Christian can understand that even he or she selectively practices “what the Bible says.” McKnight examines the many methods people use to read the Bible–as a law book, book of promises, inkblots to personally interpret, or a puzzle to solve. “Until we learn to read the Bible as Story, we will not know how to get anything out of the Bible for daily living,” McKnight concludes.
God gave us the Bible in order to transform us, and He wants us to move the biblical principles into our relationships, character, and action. That process is called discernment. McKnight says that as we read the Bible and locate each item in its place in the Story, “we discern—through the Holy Spirit and in the context of our community of faith—a pattern of how to live the old way in a new day. Biblical principles are trans-cultural, but specific expressions are not.”
Paul himself is an example of how the people of the Bible read the Bible that they had—with discernment. Paul read the Bible as the gospel story, and that principle shaped everything he said and did. Paul’s ways (all things to all people) seem messy, contradictory, and chameleon-like to those who read the Bible seeking to retrieve biblical practices for application today. But, to those who understand that Paul submitted his every act and idea to the principle of what would further the gospel the most, Paul’s methods seem Spirit-led, congruous, and pertinent.
In his concise (230 pages) and well-organized book, McKnight uses metaphors, personal examples, stories from his students, and historical data to illustrate his points. One case study he uses throughout the book and in a special section in the last one hundred pages of The Blue Parakeet is “Women in Church Ministries.” McKnight looks at critical biblical passages that deal with this controversial topic following his advice on how to read the Bible.
Jesus was a “blue parakeet” to the people of his day, and the Bible itself is filled with “blue parakeet” verses. What happens when we encounter these passages in the Bible will determine how we read the Bible, and more importantly, how we live it.