Clever Myths

By Jared Warner

Willow Creek Friends Church

February 15, 2026

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Bofya kusoma kwa Kiswahili

2 Peter 1:16–21 (ESV)

¹⁶ For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. ¹⁷ For when he received honor and glory from God the Father, and the voice was borne to him by the Majestic Glory, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased,” ¹⁸ we ourselves heard this very voice borne from heaven, for we were with him on the holy mountain. ¹⁹ And we have the prophetic word more fully confirmed, to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts, ²⁰ knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone’s own interpretation. ²¹ For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.

The letters written by Peter are not often used on a Sunday morning. At least not be me as I tend to focus on the gospels. And most of the letters that are included in scripture are referring to things that were occurring during the formative years of the church. These formative years were very important, and very strange. Unfortunately the historical record around this era are somewhat incomplete. We know that the apostles were writing about something, we know the general reasons as to why they were writing, but we often do not know what exactly they were writing about, or what that group might have been teaching that was in opposition to what we consider orthodox theology.

The past few weeks we have been listening to the testimony of Paul. He said that signs were often a stumbling block to those of Jewish spiritual heritage, and that to the Greeks the message of the Gospel was foolishness. We have some idea of what he was saying. We know people that demand signs. We know people that will say that if we have faith, we can force God’s hand into bending to our will. We know people that completely disregard any possibility of the miraculous because it is not natural. And we know people that will reject God because there is evil within the world.

These are the same arguments that Paul and Peter both faced in that apostolic age of the church. People want signs, people want answers, people want a reason to believe, and we feel obligated to providing that to them. We want to see God’s hand working within our lives.

But days have passed.

Moments have come and gone.

Peter wrote this letter, he wrote this not to one particular church, not to one known individual, but we know that he was writing it to provide some statement in reference to something going on within the church. I do not know if Peter was the actual first pope, but that is what tradition has taught, we do know that as the church became established he was often regarded as that one voice that bridged that gap between the Jews and that Gentiles. He was the unifier. And because he had this role, this role of trying to get both sides to work together, he was both respected and hated.

Paul said in one of his letters that he had told Simon to his face that he was wrong. He told him to his face. I want us to just imagine this for a moment. Peter the apostle that walked with Jesus, and Paul this punk kid that used to go around beating people up for professing Christ. Paul was saying that the Gentiles did not need to follow the complete Mosaic Law because even the Hebrews could not do it. And Peter in his role as unifier was like it would not be a terrible thing to just get circumcised to keep the peace. This is a scene that we see played out every single day. Where is it beneficial to compromise and where is it a detriment?

The church in those early days faced a great challenge. What is required? How can we stay true to God while not creating unnecessary burdens? Do the Gentiles need to become Jewish first, do the Jewish believers need to throw out their traditions? Do we form something completely new?

They met and prayed together. They sought the wisdom of God. Peter stood up within the council and said that God had given him a vision that we should not call anything common or unclean that God has made clean. And the church came to an understanding. Their understanding was that, God knows the heart, and made no distinction between Jew or Greek, and cleansed the hearts of those that have faith in him. And then James the leader among the Jewish faction of the disciples, stood and said, “Brothers, listen to me. Simeon has related how God first visited the Gentiles, to take from them a people for his name… Therefore my judgment is that we should not trouble those of the Gentiles who turn to God, but should write to them to abstain from the things polluted by idols, and from sexual immorality, and from what has been strangled, and from blood. For from ancient generations Moses has had in every city those who proclaim him, for he is read every Sabbath in the synagogues.” (Acts 15)

I want us to notice, Peter the one who God revealed an opening for all people, and James, Jesus’s brother and the leader of the Traditionalists came to an understanding. What is most important? Is it the following of the letter of the law or something else? I want us to look at the things mentioned for just a moment.

Food polluted by idols. Later Paul would say that it is fine to eat food that was given in the temples of these idols, but James and the council urged us to abstain. Is Paul rejecting the wisdom of the council? If we were to look at the reasoning Paul gave, he said that food is food. And that the gods that food is given to is not the true God, but if our eating of that food causes one of immaturity to fall away we should abstain. This nugget of wisdom is given not to give us a hard fast rule to follow but it is given for the encouragement of the community. From the dawn of the human age sin has been lurching at our doorway, and we need to resist it. And that resistance is not conforming to rules, but it is look out for our brothers and sisters. We should do all that we can to encourage them in the way they should go. We have liberty in Christ, but in our liberty are we providing someone with less maturity, less understanding or discernment to become trapped in the snares of sin? In our quest to do what is right are we throwing our brothers and sisters back to harm and darkness?

Sexual immorality. In recent years this has become a political flash point, in what conservatives like to call the culture war. I want us to again consider this from a perspective of the community. If we were to look at all the laws concerning human relationships, there is one common thread stretching throughout. There are some that would like to discredit scripture by saying that the bible commands a woman to marry someone that has assaulted her. Scripture does say this, and it does seem to be a terrible law, but I want us to take a step back. There is a reason for this law. The man in this instance has taken something from this woman. He has taken her future within that culture. He has removed from her an opportunity of security, a livelihood, and a family. The judgment is that he has one of two choices, he marries her or he dies. And if he chooses to marry her, this is the one instance where divorce is not an option. He must provide for her the rest of her life.

This on the surface seems harsh, but this teaching is again all about community. We are urged to treat those around us with dignity and respect. We are not to take advantage of them but commit to a lifestyle of mutual profit. We can get into the weeds as to what sexual immorality is but the council does not do this. They simply say abstain from it. If you are not ready to commit to a lifetime of self sacrifice for this individual then do not proceed, respect their body, and their future.

Then the council returns again to food. Abstain from the meat of a strangled animal. This is something that we might not understand, but the strangling of an animal was part of idolatry. And the point of this type of sacrifice was suffering. The council was urging the people of Christ to treat all of creation with respect. Not only the people we interact with but we should not cause undue suffering to anything created by God.

And the last item they encouraged us to abstain from, is blood. Blood was seen as the life force. If you lose blood you were dying, that is why in the law you were unclean. Your life was draining and death was overtaking your body. The blood of any being was considered sacred because it was their life, and for an animal to be considered kosher there was a procedure to handling the blood.

All of life belongs to God. Kosher cooking requires that as much blood as possible be removed from any meat, which is why we have kosher salt it is to draw the last amounts of blood from the meat. And what was to happen with this blood? It was given back to God. If you killed something in the wilderness you were to drain the blood and bury it. This is good because if you did not it would attract scavengers, but it was also there to remind you that all life is sacred. We should not take even the life of an animal without some hesitation, so when we take life we should praise and thank God for providing life for life.

To abstain from the eating of blood is two fold. In some cultic rituals they would consume the blood or the life force of something, to gain their life force. This is where the ideas surrounding vampires comes from, they are draining the life from their victim so that they can live forever. There were some ancient cults that believed if you consumed the blood of a lion you gained the strength of a lion. The second is that we do not control life only God is the true sustainer of life, so we give the blood back to God.

These were the teachings of the apostles. The teachings focused on two things, love God with all that you have and abstain from anything that distracts from God or gives you the idea that you can control God. And to enrich not detract from your community. Love your neighbor as yourself.

The church from that council in Jerusalem on used this wisdom to build the church. But soon the simplicity of that message began to twist. We began to take what was once a good illustration of a concept, and we codified it into some spiritual rite or sacrament. We see this with the Lord’s Supper of the Eucharist. Jesus took the bread and he broke it, saying, “this is my body broken for you.” He then took the cup of wine, and said, “This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.” It is a beautiful illustration of life given to sustain life. The elements were the very things that were found at every table for every meal. Jesus was telling them that He is the way, the truth, and the life. And we should remember this with every meal we eat, with every meal we share with those around us. But we have made that into a form of magic. There is teaching surrounding the Eucharist that will say as long as the body and blood of Christ is in your body you are immortal. That you will not get sick, that you will be protected from all harm, that you are without sin. We turned an illustration of unity, community, and sustenance into superstition and magic.

And Peter saw that this was happening at the very beginning of the church and he said, “For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty.”

The mythology that Peter speaks of are the teachings and the superstitions that we place onto the gospel. We believe that God hears our prayers, but we also believe that God hears our prays better if we are in a church building, or if we kneel, or if we do any number of things. Does the place we pray matter? No, but the place may allow our minds to clear so that we can become centered on Christ. We believe if we say certain words in a certain order that God is obligated to answer our prayers, but Jesus taught us that we do not know what we are saying and that the spirit will carry the true words to the Father.

Then these mythologies skew just a bit more. And leaders begin to take the words that they say as having equal weight as the words of Christ because they have the spirit within them. So they begin to speak words of prophecy, claiming that they have heard the voice of God, and that God is using them as a conduit of truth. What does Peter say about these? “Fro when he received honor and glory from God the Father, and the voice was borne to him by the Majestic Glory, ‘This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased,’ we ourselves heard this very voice borne from heaven, for we were with him on the holy mountain. And we have the prophetic word more fully confirmed, to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts, knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone’s own interpretation. For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.”

Does prophecy occur. Yes, absolutely yes. God does reveal wisdom and guidance today just as he did in the days of the apostles. We as Friends believe this to such a degree that we have made it part of our decision making process. We come together in our meetings for business. We have items that are of concern, some of these concerns might seem trivial, and others carry great weight. But we do not vote, instead we are to sit in silence, and in prayer, we are to ask one another clarifying questions, and provide honest answers. And then as we pray out of that silence a sense of the meeting rests upon us, and we know the will of God in that moment.

Is this some cleverly devised myth? Some might say so, but there is something to it. Notice that Peter says, “We ourselves heard this very voice borne from heaven.” He does not say, I did this or I heard the voice of God, he says we heard. He might be claiming apostolic authority but I tend to think that he is instead calling us to community. Words of prophecy are confirmed within community. It is confirmed in scripture, and among others seeking among us seeking the will of God. And then there is an internal test to apply. Where is this prophecy directed? Is it bringing the community to Christ or does it adhere to our personal preferences?

What color should we paint the Meetinghouse walls. We might think that this is something trivial, but in our decisions there is much to consider. If we paint them one color are we purposefully causing division within our community? If we purchase our paint from one company over another are we supporting our community or are we supporting a practice we find inhumane? These questions we might not consider, and at times we might not even care. But everything we do should be devoted to loving God and our Neighbor. If we purchase paint that was tested on animals, are we contributing to the suffering within our world? If we buy coffee that is not fair trade are we saying we support the exploitation of human labor as long as I can get my coffee cheap? If we do…

We have cleverly devised myths. We have a complex world that we cannot possibility have complete knowledge to navigate. But what is Peter teaching us. Earlier in his letter Peter writes.

“His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire. For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he is blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins. Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election, for if you practice these qualities you will never fall.”

Our focus, our faith traditions, and our actions should be focused on one thing and one thing only. We should love God with all that we have and all that we are, and love our neighbor as ourselves. We do this wherever we are with whoever is around us, because that is our community. We extend this to whoever we can because that is our mission.

So as we leave here today, I want us to consider how our actions are promoting this kind of love and faithfulness. If your political stance dictates one thing, how does Christ reflect in it. Is it a lamp shining in the darkness or is it something devised in the will of man? If our spouse upsets us are we upset because we are not getting what we think we deserve, or are we looking to see how we can increase their understanding of Gods love through our actions, and if you have caused them to become upset are you seeking to reconcile? If you are a student, are you rebelling against your parents’ teaching, are you causing hardship for your teachers, or by your actions are you shining a light into the darkness, giving them hope for the future and a reason to continue in faith? If you are a parent are your actions encouraging you children to walk with you as you follow Christ?

I could continue, but it all boils down to one thing. We can make clever myths, or we can live or lives. Peter says he and others saw this glory and he is sharing that. We have experienced things as well. We have lived our lives, we have suffered and have been released from bondage, we have been persecuted and we have persecuted others. We have lived, with and without Christ. But what drives you, what carries you along. Tell the world, encourage your community. And become a person, Loving God, Embracing the Holy Spirit, and living the love of Christ with others.

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