Both sides want to flatten the narrative on the Phil Robertson story.

The trouble is we know too much about him and he keeps popping 3d on us.

One side says “Phil is a bigot who said hurtful things.”

Phil may be a bigot and he did say hurtful things.

The other side says “Phil is a courageous, straight talking man who said things that preachers don’t dare to say.”

Phil is courageous and he said a lot of things that people think but don’t say maybe for good reasons and maybe for not-so-good reasons. Lots of preachers say what Phil said. Lots of preachers don’t.

People are seldom as flat as a political agenda

Peering at Phil through the distorted lens of Duck Dynasty, the GQ piece and the little I Am Second video my take is that Phil is the kind of guy who will tell you exactly what he thinks of you, and the things you believe, and then probably give you the shirt off his back. I may be wrong, that’s my take on the guy.

Rod Dreher’s piece on him was one of the best things I’ve read in a long time. Dreher is a member of the Orthodox church. A some openly gay writers have also jumped to Phil’s defense (although not a defense of his words or beliefs). They too have refused to flatten the narrative.

The Bible is not a flat narrative

Many have pointed out that the quote Phil is in such hot water over was a quote from the Bible. Phil then becomes ammunition on both sides to see the Bible as a flat narrative. It isn’t.

In this morning’s sermon one of the texts I will touch on is Revelation 21:1-8.  Verse 1-7 are one of the most enriching, glorious and beautiful images of the Bible, and then verse 8 talks about the cowards, unbelievers, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, idolaters and liars being thrown into the lake of fire.

We may want to flatten the text by splitting the passage between 7 and 8. One looks like a wonderful, inclusive, transformational passage while the other looks like the kind of self-righteous moralism that people are complaining about in Phil Robertson’s words. When I look at that list of evil doers I’m certainly one of them and pretty much everyone I know is.

To unflatten the narrative we see that Jesus came to love on cowards (the Apostle Peter), unbelievers (Doubting Thomas), the vile (10 lepers Jesus healed), murderers (Apostle Paul) the sexually immoral (prostitutes, tax-collectors, King David), idolaters (pretty much everyone) and liars (yep, “everyone” says Dr. House and he’s probably right). We might as well throw bigots in too.

The mystery of the gospel is NOT that our sin destroys and condemns us. The mystery is that God saves us from our sin and from ourselves.

We may flatten out the story and then get rid of the lake of fire, and oh, how I would like to, but I don’t see that happening in the text nor in the world.

So we live with bigots who say hurtful things but also have a capacity to love, and the self-righteous found on both sides of the political argument. Into this fray Jesus unflattens the narrative and says “I will love my enemies and save sinners in ways that will not make sense to your flattened imaginations.” and he still does.