Natalie's Grace Notes

  Friends, we’re in the last 2 weeks of Stump the Preacher 2025, sermons requested by y’all and then delivered by me. This week’s request was from our dear Fae, who wanted to know if heaven is really as scary as it is in the book of Revelation. Good question, Fae! And I get it. I read Revelation all the way through for the very first time when I was 12. It was the spring of 1999, and Y2K was coming. Remember that nonsense? It was an era where everyone was getting nutty because they were scared and they were being fed false information…and not for the last time. If you were a younger Christian then, you had Y2K fear mongering coming from the news, or your parents, in one ear, and then the Left Behind book series in the other ear, and we were getting kind of obsessed with this notion that the world might end. And of course, it didn’t, and we’re still here. Please remember that next time you get invited to a fear mongering parade. I read Revelation with my Sunday School teacher, who w...

  Friends, it’s another week of Stump the Preacher 2025, sermons requested by you and then researched and delivered by me. This week’s request came from our friend Terri, and she wanted to hear more about the ten commandments! Specifically, Terri had these questions: were these rules written just for the Hebrews, in their context, or are they general life advice? The answer to that question is “yes”, and you’re invited to stay to hear the rest! Terri was also curious about why the ten commandments are in the Bible in multiple different places, with different wording? Great questions, Terri! This is what Jesus meant when he advised us to love God with our whole MIND. Oh boy, the ten commandments. The very first time I ever preached on those was back in 2012, in my first pastoral appointment, back when I was a wee baby minister. Back then, I commended the flock I was preaching to on their incredible bravery in listening to a sermon on this topic. 13 years later, y’all are no less bra...

  Translating the Bible  Friends, after taking 2 weeks off, we’re back to Stump the Preacher 2025, sermons requested by you and then delivered by me. This week’s request comes to us from our friend Terri! She wanted to hear more about what went into translating the Bible. Good question, Terri! The first thing y’all need to understand about translating anything is that translating means loss. Loss of nuance, loss of turns of phrase, loss of voice, and loss of original intent. When you translate anything, even if it’s as simple as “Frere Jacques” from French to English, you have to make decisions on behalf of the original speaker, who often isn’t standing next to you to approve your choice. It’s hard work, and we owe the fact that the Bible is available in such a wealth of languages to the hard work, and tough decisions, made by many, many translators. It’s estimated that the Bible is available in 3,700 different languages. As I hope y’all know, the Bible did not originate from ...