In the Shadow of Death (What to Say About Good Friday?)

How Do We Make Sense of the Bible?

Once more, we continue on in our series Questions for God. Today we turn our attention to the Bible. In 2008, a Harris Poll indicated that the Bible was the favorite book of Americans, but research that followed indicated an alarming rate of biblical illiteracy: only a small percentage of people could name the four gospels, or who preached the Sermon on the Mount. Still, the Bible is at the center of some of our most divisive debates today: evolution/creation, homosexuality; just as it was in generations past with issues like slavery and civil rights, ordination of women. Too often the information that we garner from the Bible resembles the sound bite methods by which we receive news: we look for a passage or two that supports what idea or belief we are thinking and then move on. It is very rare that we sit down and read an entire book of the Bible and let it speak to us. The Bible, and the ways it is used, has brought people into churches and sent others away; the biggest theological debates in Church today center on questions of how we read and interpret the Bible. It is a book that speaks to the heart and spirit right now, yet it is a book written thousands of years ago, in a different time, with a different worldview. For those who do attempt to read the Bible, I often hear feedback that it is difficult and hard for the average person to read. So, how do we make sense of the Bible? How do we read and use it in a meaningful way?

I begin with a certain assumption: the Bible is at the center of our faith. As Methodists, we follow John Wesley who taught that the Bible was the primary source of our faith knowledge. Yet, for Wesley, this did not mean we simply took the words of Scripture without question (we can’t just read and automatically understand), rather we have to think about their meaning through the lenses of tradition, our life experiences, and reason or common sense. Further, as the passage in Second Timothy states, “all scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, so that everyone who belongs to God may be proficient, equipped for every good work.” Scripture in this passage is referring to books of the Hebrew Bible (the New Testament did not yet exist-the Scriptures of Jesus and his earliest followers were the writings of the Hebrew Bible or the Old Testament). As it was for Jesus and the early Christians, these writings are important for awakening and developing that inner desire for God and helping to live out God’s love in a real and meaningful way.

I have learned to love the writings of the Bible. Over a long faith journey I have wrestled with the Bible, I have misunderstood the Bible, I have had my heart strangely warmed by the Bible, I have been empowered and strengthened by the Bible, I have been comforted and encouraged. Sometimes I have been left with a deep sense of mystery and learned that it is o.k. to say “I don’t know!” Sometimes I have felt unsettled and frustrated. Yet, I have grown to love the Bible and as I look back, it has shaped my faith more than anything else. In that Spirit, then, I share with you some of the truths that I have discovered about the Bible that have helped it come alive for me, ways that have helped the Bible make sense for me on this faith journey; I hope that they will be helpful to you.

The Bible is not a book, it is a library: The Bible is a collection of many books by different authors at different times, in different locations; there are different genres and styles. Just as you would not ask, “what does the library say about polar bears?” (the response would be, “this author says this…this other other says this….and so on) In the same way the different writers of the Bible will say different things about topics, it is best to understand each book or writer on their own terms: What does John mean by love? How does Paul understand faith? The bible is more of a library than a book and when we hear each writer on their own terms, we gain a deeper understanding of what they are trying to say to us.

The Bible is not a science book, but rather a book of theology: What I mean is that the Bible is more concerned with pointing us to God and God’s abiding presence in creation than in giving thorough scientific analysis. We have to be honest the books of the Bible were written in a different time, with very different world-views, there was not the scientific knowledge that we have today. The biblical writers assumed that the world was flat and that the sun rotated around the earth, it was the worldview of the day. Many people don’t realize that there are two different creation stories in the first few chapters of Genesis. Why not just one? While the details of each story are different, the point is the same, God created this world and God sustains His creation. The intent of the Bible is to point us to God, rather than offer scientific explanations. For those who would dismiss the Bible as not offering sound scientific theory, I would say that is not its aim, the same for those who dismiss science because it doesn't match the Bible. I believe the Bible rather than writing science wants us to take away a real sense that God is the one who creates and sustains, however that happens!

The Bible is the Word of God…..done through humans: This perhaps more than any other issue is at the center of debates today, what does it mean to proclaim that the Bible is the word of God? Does it mean that God wrote every word, took the author’s hands and penned the words? Were these just writings that humans conceived of and did on their own? Is there a middle ground? The monk Thomas Merton, in his little book Opening the Bible, once wrote that the claim of the Bible as word of God, “is not so much that it is to be blindly accepted because of God’s authority, but that it is recognized by its transforming and liberating power.” In essence the Bible contains God’s power to transform lives and that is what makes it powerful. Yet, if we look at the stories of the Bible, God often uses humans to accomplish divine purposes, even imperfect humans (Jacob and Joseph, Moses and Samuel, David and Solomon, Peter and Paul). The writer of Second Timothy, in our passage for today, puts it this way “all scripture is inspired by God”. It does not say dictated. God inspired and empowered human beings, with their faults and frailties, to write these words that would lead people to a deeper relationship with God.

Don’t lose sight of the BIG Picture: we have to be honest there are parts of the Bible that when taken in isolation becomes difficult to reconcile. In parts of the Old Testament we see a level of violence that seems completely at odds with the image of God revealed in Jesus. There are inconsistencies: the Bible contains four accounts of Jesus' life, sometimes they agree, sometimes they tell the story differently, or have events in a different order (interestingly in the second century, a Christian named Tatian aware of these issues condensed all four into one coherent Gospel and the church rejected it - they preferred the four diverse accounts.) People have used isolated passages to reinforce all sorts of prejudices and unjust social practices, to become almost fixated with sound-bites while missing the larger point. It is easy for us to become so bogged down looking at the trees that we miss the forest. John Wesley used to say there is a tenor or note that connects all of scripture...God's love. The overall story is about God’s inclusive and embracing love for his creation, even when it is not deserved and how God is always working to restore relationships. This is the God Jesus saw in Scripture, it is the one he revealed to us. This is the God we meet in the pages of the Bible when we step back and look at the big picture. Therefore all of scripture should be read in this light.

Not all things in the Bible are meant to be read literally: It is important to recognize that the Bible contains different genres or styles of writing: history, laws, poetry, narrative, practical advice… We read poetry different than we read instruction manuals, so when we pick up the Bible we have to know what we are reading. The poetic language of the Psalms is intended as symbolic in many cases…its imagery, not its historical accuracy, points us to deeper truths. (The classic line from Psalm 23 "the Lord is my shepherd" is a classic example). When Jesus taught he often used parables; tales that were not necessarily true historically, but made a moral, ethical or spiritual point (the focus was not on whether or not the story was factual, but the truth that it proclaimed). When you pick up the book of Revelation (perhaps the most misunderstood and misinterpreted book of the Bible because people miss this point) you encounter apocalyptic literature, a style of writing well known in the first century to include lots of symbols, images, and larger than life metaphors. It was meant to be symbolic. Further, literalism (or the modern belief that every word in scripture is to be interpreted literally, is a focus of the last 200 years). Early Christians believed the highest level of interpretation was to understand it spiritually, symbolically, or allegorically; not everything in scripture is intended to be read literally.

There is not just one interpretation: I think one of the great temptations of our day is to see our interpretation of the Bible as “the” interpretation, as if all others were impostors to true faith. There has never been just one interpretation of scripture: Jesus, in the Sermon on the Mount, was reinterpreting scriptures from the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament (in fact that is one of the things that got him in trouble with religious authorities, he was offering interpretations of the Law different from theirs); from the beginning early Christians debated the meaning of Jesus’ words, the scope of his mission, and the nature of his life. Martin Luther interpreted scripture different from John Wesley, who was different from Calvin (they had much in common, but they disagreed about much). The point is not that one is right and the other wrong; one good and the other bad. The point is that scripture is a living word in which God interacts with people and life. It stands to reason that we have different interpretations; we have different life experiences which means we read scripture through different lenses. The Bible is not intended as a book in which we will pick up once, memorize the answers and then put away. I believe we live in a daily relationship with the Bible….reading again and again…hearing old passages in new ways…gaining new insight, new understanding...learning new things as we listen to each other. The Bible is a living word!

We read with the spirit of Jesus: How do we interpret the Bible as more than what we want it to say? What are our boundaries? Another great temptation of our day is to read the Bible like a rule book; reading by its letter rather than by its spirit. The Apostle Paul warned of the danger of this when he says that we are ministers of a new covenant, “not one of letter but of spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.” The harm in focusing on the letter of scripture rather than the spirit is that we can pick and choose select passages that fit our agenda or beliefs and focus on those. Such was the case with defenders of slavery in the days leading up to the Civil War. They selected a few passages from the Bible to justify slavery and even made the argument it was the will of God; and looking at those passages alone, they had a point. Almost nobody, thankfully, follows such logic today. It was not enough just to read the letter, we have to consider the spirit. No, the boundary or the limit for us in interpreting the Bible is the spirit of Jesus. Do our interpretations reflect his heart, his love, his inclusive grace? If not we must question them. It is hard to imagine Jesus approving of slavery in the days leading up to the civil war. What would the spirit of Jesus lead us to say about the issues that people use the Bible to debate today? The letter kills, but the spirit gives life.

In closing, when I was growing up, I attended and graduated from a Catholic High School in Lakeland, Florida. Even though I was a Methodist, I was warmly welcomed and I grew in my faith over those years. I will never forget my first class in theology my tenth grade year. The teacher, an Episcopal Priest, took a Bible and threw it against the wall, as it fell to the ground we all sat wide eyed and a little afraid (maybe waiting for lighting to strike or the ceiling to fall in…but it didn’t). He then said, “that book means nothing”…..and he walked over picked it up and then said, “unless you take what is in here and put it in you.” As a minister, but even more as a Christian, the Bible has become the center of my faith. Yet, I have come to see over time this means more than just reading it or picking out a few passages that I like or agree with. It means living in a relationship with it, letting it speak deep things to my heart, wrestling with it, struggling, it means reading in a responsible and comprehensive way (not just confirming what I already believe or know). It means living out in my life the relationship that I find with the God I meet in these pages.

In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.