The Struggle for the Bible
Newman UMC – Judy Currier
November 23, 2008
In John Wesley’s day if you wanted to find an answer to some problem in your life you would open the Bible let your finger land on a scripture and then read it as the answer to your problem. I heard about a man who tried it one day. He jammed his finger on a verse, "and Judas went out and hung himself." "Oops! I’ll try again," he said. Another finger jammed to a verse "go thou and do likewise." "Darn! Three times is a charm." Another finger "what thou does do quickly." Taking your chances is usually far from enlightening. Hopefully we haven’t used the Bible like that for many years.
In the United Methodist Church calendar the Sunday before Advent we are called upon to focus on the bible. I like it because it says stop for a moment and remember our scriptures. Today is Bible Sunday. Did you get your Bible in the church in third or fourth grade and then go on to spend the year studying it? How much time have you devoted to studying this book we say governs our life? I am constantly dismayed over the amount of misinformation about the bible most Christians believe. But, today is a day for celebrating the Bible, not to make you feel guilty, but to encourage you to go find out for your self what really is in that book.
A couple of facts about our Bible must be understood. There isn’t one bible for Christianity. The Roman Catholics use the bible of the Jews that was popular among those who lived outside of Palestine. In Greek it was The Septuagint. It is the bible that Paul and all the apostles used.
About three hundred years later, the church met to establish the New Testament. By this time both were translated in the Latin that was regarded as the official bible for the church. But ordinary folk were not to read it, only the priests. The Orthodox church of Greece and Russia continue to use the Greek version. Now this version has the Apocrypha in it. It’s a collection the Jews of Palestine did not use, but those outside did.
It was not until the 16th Century that the Protestants, as they split from Rome, made the decision to use the Bible of the Jews of Palestine, as the Hebrew Bible, and the New Testament in Greek, the original language. This is how the bible we use came to be scripture for our church. It is important to remember that Scripture becomes Scripture because some church body says it is. Theoretically our church could add or subtract from our scriptures.
This does not mean that the decision was hasty or arbitrary. The texts chosen were used and tested and examined by many, long before the decisions were made. We now have collections of many texts that were not put into scripture that might have been. The Gospel of Thomas, The Gospel of Mary, or course I am a bit prejudiced toward the Gospel of Judith. These outside texts help us understand our bible better. I enjoy talking about the bible here at Newman because you have good serious bible study, and are a biblically literate congregation.
We really live in a wonderful time for the bible. In the past two centuries archeologists have recovered much from the biblical sites, some of which were buried and forgotten when Jesus was alive. Nova this week had an update on the finds as they relate to biblical history. It was excellent and if it is rebroadcast I recommend it.
We have become a good bit more sophisticated in using our bibles. One way to describe it is that we use a literary rather than a literal way. That means we take the writings as literature and respect the literary nature of the different kinds of writings. Many people say they take the Bible literally, but they really can’t. You may know who Dr. Laura is. She is a very conservative Christian who answers letters and phone calls on the radio from people. Recently I read a spoof of her program.
Dear Dr. Laura:
Thank you for doing so much to educate people regarding God’s law. I have learned a great deal from your show, and try to share that knowledge with as many people as I can. When someone tries to defend the homosexual lifestyle, for example, I simply remind them that Leviticus 18:22 clearly states it to be an abomination...end of debate.
I do need some advice from you, however, regarding some other elements of God’s Laws and how to follow them:
1. Leviticus 25:44 states that I may possess slaves, both male and female, provided they are purchased from neighboring nations. A friend of mine claims that this applies to Mexicans, but not Canadians. Can you clarify? Why can’t I own Canadians?
2. I have a neighbor who insists on working on the Sabbath. Exodus 35:2 clearly states he should be put to death, Am I morally obligated to kill him myself, or should I ask the police to do it?
3. I know from Lev. 11:6-8 that touching the skin of a dead pig makes me unclean, but may I still play football if I wear gloves?
4. Lev. 21:20 states that I may not approach the altar of God if I have a defect in my sight. I have to admit that I wear reading glasses. Does my vision have to be 20/20, or is there some wiggle-room here?
It can get quite ridiculous. I want to take you from this silliness, to a couple of profound moments in the biblical story that I carry with me, as the bible in my head rather than on the shelf.
Through the bible is a characteristic of God, that almost goes counter to what many believe the bible is all about. The standard wisdom, is that God is the answer to human problems. But look at how God creates answers. On the first appearance of God to humans in the bible, Adam and Eve are in the garden, and God walks into the garden. (You can tell this is a very early story because of the anthropomorphism) What does God do? God asks a question "Adam, where are you?" God comes asking a question. What does it mean to ask a question and what does it do to us?
Have you ever thought of God and the Questioner? For Job it was the most precious quality about God. Many greats of English lit regarded Job as the greatest poem ever written. Some unknown poet took an old prose story, which is now the first two chapters, and part of the last chapter, and cut it in two and inserted a poem in between. Others added to the poem. The whole book of Job tackles the main problem of faith. How is it that God, if good, permits so much suffering in the world, and especially permits the righteous to suffer. If you and I were designing a world, we would not make it the way it is. Good would prosper and evil would be punished. Job is a good man, and yet he suffers beyond measure.
You will find words to put to your moments of pain and suffering. The poem boxes the compass on pain. Not only the physical, but also the loneliness and sense of being cut off from God, and the fear. It is all there, with pathos and humor. Finally after his friends shut up and all is quiet God comes on the scene. You would expect God to come like a visiting physician. Sit down by the bedside and hold Job’s hand and say, how is the patient today. But NO, Look how God comes to Job.
God comes in a whirlwind. "Who is this who darkens counsel without knowledge? Gird up your loins like a man and I will question you and you will answer me." That is the last thing we would expect. And God then begins a litany of greatness. "Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?" On and on it goes, with question after question. Alone this section is a great poetic image of the majesty and greatness of God.
Samuel Terrian who taught at Union Seminary in New York asks us to examine, what is happening here. What does it mean to ask a question, a serious question? You have emotional problems and you go to a counselor. He or She will not give you a solution, but rather asks you to talk about it. They will ask questions. Why? Questions pull out of us something that is deep inside. It causes us to wake up inside. Answers can stifle and shut us down, Questions call us into life.
We as adults, listen almost as well as our kids do when we tell them something. If you want to teach, ask questions. With youth in the church we are not primarily teaching them facts, we are calling them as Christians to plan and organize their lives. We approach them with the big question, "what will you do with this life that’s been given to you?" The church is the one place where we talk about values and destiny. When it works right, we have the place and time to ask questions, and to be asked questions that focus on the lives we are living and constantly creating. There is a quality to a question that creates life in us.
Job knows this and in the end of the poem that is what is most important to him. He repeats the questions of God as precious. He holds them up as windows of awareness. Hear him:
(Job 42:1-6 NRSV) Then Job answered the LORD: {2} "I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted. {3} 'Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge?' Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know. {4} 'Hear, and I will speak; I will question you, and you declare to me.' {5} I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you; {6} therefore I despise myself, and repent in dust and ashes."
Through the questioning he knows God as never before. The last verse about repent in dust and ashes really means in our language "I now know who God is and who I am in the scheme of things." There are answers to faith in the church but we need to begin and cherish the questions that get us there.
I add that Jesus asks questions, or at least leaves us with the need to make answer. To Peter he did not say I am the messiah believe in me. He said, "Who do you say that I am?" His parables leave us with the need to finish them as we answer the question. "who was the neighbor," or "should the elder brother go and welcome the younger?"
Now, very quickly, one other sort of Question. What does it mean to be the chosen people? Christianity looks at itself as the new Israel. We feel chosen. In the Hebrew Bible the chosen-ness has no common meaning. For some it meant special and privileged. For Amos it meant that the people were chosen to be responsible to God and they were not. Here Amos speak for God: (Amos 3:2 NRSV) "You only have I known of all the families of the earth; therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities. "Huh? Say What? I am chosen so you will punish me? Yet, I can still hear my father saying to me, ‘I don’t care what the others children do, you are better than that, in our family this is the rule.’"
For the later writer in Isaiah to be chosen is to be a servant. Jesus seems to have selected this as his game plan. (Isa 49:6 NRSV) He says, "It is too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to restore the survivors of Israel; I will give you as a light to the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth." We are called to be a light to the nations. But implied in the call is that we are to be servants not masters. This sort of turns chosen-ness on its head.
Jesus did not emphasize belief. He understood our beliefs were imperfect and limited. Rather he said, "follow me." And then he says, "they who do my words are like one who builds on rock." It was in the doing comes the faith. And he had a final word on values and morality. No laws, only principles. Love, sharing, servant-hood. You know it. But the final word. "What more do you do?"
It’s in the Book!