The Gospel According to...Me!

I think we had this book when
I was a kid. Don't know if I read it.
I wonder if it's any good.

Boy, doesn't that sound sacrilegious!

Well I am in the middle of listening to an interview of Dominic Crossan on the main Homebrewed Christianity podcast, in which he posits that all four gospels were exactly as they are titled: "The Gospel According to..." In other words, each of the authors, none of which were eyewitnesses, wrote a gospel according to them, for their own particular audience and situation.

Well, I was out riding around, listening to that interview, when I got the idea to try and find a good Bible at the local bookstore. And I ended up buying a (bit pricey) Living Bible translation. And in the car, I opened randomly to the multiplication of the fishes and loaves. Here we go again. Another "miracle." Do I believe in all the miracles in the gospels? I don't know. Part of me does, and part of me doesn't. But the part of me that doesn't keeps wondering what good it is for me to read the Bible is if it's so full of irrational miracles (not to mention, all the violence, sexism, homophobia, etc.)

But then I remembered a moment in the interview where Tripp Fuller said he thinks modern Christians are consistently called to communicate the gospel as it is "according" to them. So I thought, why not read the gospels and expound upon them, as midrash, and in a fashion that would align more with my progressive principles. And that seemed like a perfect subject for a blog.

And another thing I like about it is I'm a REALLY big fan of the tradition of reinterpreting widely known myths and stories. Comic book writers do it all the time. And screenwriters. So why not do the same with the gospels. Nikos Kazantzakis did it in his novel "The Last Temptation of Christ." So why couldn't I?

Now I plan to start at the beginning, with Mark, since it was the first written. But just as a preview, how could I treat the multiplication of the loaves and fishes?

I heard of an interpretation years ago that said that much of the crowd had actually brought food. But they were instinctively adverse to sharing it. But somehow Jesus' prayer, or mere presence, inspired them to share their food with the rest of the crowd. So, as wonderful as that sounds, I couldn't take that approach.

So I thought of another way. Since many of the apostles were fishermen, maybe one of them had the idea to go down the mountain and do some quick fishing. And the some of the other disciples had the idea to run into town and buy some bread. And during both groups' pursuits, they became increasingly excited about this new way of thinking about the needs of other people...and putting this new way of thinking into action. And you also see them bonding a bit more.

(Well for the whole version, tune in later.)