How to Read the Bible

The Bible is a marvelous book, filled with all manner of ancient literature. The Good Book is actually a library containing stories and poems, ordinances and letters, aphorisms and songs, and through it all there runs a narrative thread that holds it all together. That thread is this – the Bible tells the story of God’s loving work to save a fallen world. In that thread we find adventure stories and parables, apocalyptic visions and fireside tales, history lessons and romance, tragedy and comedy. What a marvelous read!

Still, the Bible is also a battleground for misunderstanding. People fight over interpretations. Preachers pontificate on prejudiced perspectives. Sadly, these in-house (or should I say “inter-church”) battles lead a skeptical world to remain unconvinced of the Bible’s veracity and relevance. What’s a well-meaning Bible teacher to do?

I love the Bible, but I have often been frustrated by the great divide between the scholarship which was commonly accepted in seminary and the resistance to that scholarship in the local church. I have spent more than twenty-five years in the local church and I am still trying to bridge the divide between seminary and church.

At the risk of oversimplifying, the issue seems to be centered on the questions we ask of scripture. I find in the local church that questions are too often focused on the historicity of scripture, as in, “Where did Cain’s wife come from?” “Have they found the ark on Mt. Ararat?” Where can we find the inn of the Good Samaritan?” Most of these questions have at their root a desire to know “if it really happened or not.” The supposition is, if it happened then the Bible is trustworthy, and if it didn’t happen then the whole of scripture is called into question.

Interestingly, none of those questions ever came up in seminary, because there the questions were not so much about the historicity of scripture, but about the theology of scripture. What we assumed was that this Good Book was written, not to give us facts, but to teach us about God and God’s relationship with the creation, particularly men women. So the questions were more like, “What does the story of Adam and Eve tell us about the nature of sin?” “How does the flood story tell us about God’s attitude toward sin?” “In what way do the people of Israel in their wilderness wandering serve as a picture of the church today?” In these questions we then seek the kinds of answers the Bible was actually written to address. The authority of scripture was never called into question, but the authority was based less on historical accuracy than theological profundity.

Historical questions are important, of course, but they are secondary to the theological questions. And I don’t care if we do find out where Cain’s wife came from because that knowledge will not help me be a better disciple. But if I wrestle with the theological questions, then perhaps I’ll learn more about the nature of God, and gain greater understanding about my own human nature, and God’s desire to illumine the divine image in which I was made.

I’ll go out on a limb. Seems to me it doesn’t matter if God created in seven days or over the course of billions of years. What is important is the faith THAT God is the one who did the creating (and I might add, is still creating (Psalm 104)). In that case, we can accept the science that supports evolution while still affirming the faith story that teaches us WHO is the Creator, and that the creation is essentially a “good” gift of God for human beings to “till and keep,” as good stewards. You see what I’ve done here. I’ve arrived at answers based on theological questions rather than, “how did it happen” questions.

So, instead of asking, “Did this happen or not?” Why not ask, “What does this have to do with God in my life?” Seems to me you will get plenty of mileage out of that second question, regardless of what your opinion of the historicity might be.

John Wesley said that scripture contains “all things necessary for faith and practice.” I like that. It says that scripture doesn’t answer all our questions, only the ones that help us live more faithfully. I’ve never been satisfied with attempts to prove the events of scripture. They always seem to me a misguided attempt to make faith unnecessary. Instead, let’s ask what this story has to tell us that is true about our struggles to live authentically? And how does God offer grace, judgment, hope, correction, and most of all, compassion in the midst of our human condition?

Early on in my pre-seminary days I had the helpful guidance of a mentor, my Father, who helped me ask the right questions of scripture, and in the pages of the Bible I heard the ring of Truth. My prayer for my congregation, and my hope for the world, is that we all discover this Truth in the well-worn stories of our sacred canon.

“Sing them over again to me, wonderful words of life.
Let me more of their beauty see, wonderful words of life.
Words of life and beauty, teach me faith and duty.”
Beautiful words, wonderful words, wonderful words of life.”

Advent Hope and Metaphor

Advent means “arrival.” Christians celebrate Advent, the season before Christmas as a time to remember the arrival of Jesus, God in the flesh, born of a woman in Bethlehem. We also remember the coming of Jesus as a young man ushering in the kingdom in answer to the hope of the Hebrew prophets.

There is another “arrival” we anticipate during Advent – the arrival of Christ to bring God’s purposes to their final conclusion. Many call this the “Second” coming but scripture simply speaks of the parousia(the appearing) of Jesus. In any case, the Advent of Christ, in its many forms, is a reason for hope for Christians and for the world. God brings salvation in Christ.

There is so much confusion about what Christian hope really is. Some writers have written series of fictional novels based on their peculiar interpretations of hope (the Book of Revelation plays heavily into these novels). The cataclysmic visions in Revelation play out like some fantasy epic in these interpretations. My still, small voice says, “Don’t buy it.”

The flaw in these interpretations is the failure to recognize the nature of first century apocalyptic literature, and the refusal to acknowledge something we all should have learned in ninth grade English literature classes – the use of metaphor. Metaphor - the use of poetic language to seek to expand or deepen meaning. When scripture says (Psalm 18:15),

Then the channels of the sea were seen,
and the foundations of the world were laid bare
at your rebuke, O LORD,
at the blast of the breath of your nostrils.

are we to believe that God has a nose? I doubt it. This is what we mean by metaphor – poetic language to enhance our sense of what is happening.

Likewise, when the writer of Revelation is describing apocalyptic visions of riders on horses, bowls of wrath, and great dragons, we might picture something out of Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings trilogy. But for goodness sake remember that it is all metaphor.

The short story is this: God wins. This is our hope. And my guess is that the way God wins has less to do with the violence of Revelation (all metaphor) and everything to do with the life of Jesus (stark reality). What is clear from Revelation is the absolute victory of God. What we often overlook is that the one who sits on the throne is still the Lamb that was led to the slaughter. What I believe is that the Christian hope is fulfilled now and in the end through the Way of the Cross. We will never take the world by force, only by sacrifice. As long as we keep trying to claim Christian hope by any other way, it will continue to elude us.

Advent hope. For past, present AND future – it comes as a vulnerable baby in a manger. It comes as a fragile human being hung on a cross. And if you need more hope than God-made-flesh, don’t forget the resurrection. The resurrection is sufficient confirmation for us to believe in the hope that comes through the Way of the Cross. The resurrection is God’s way of saying, “See, my Son got it right.”

Bullying and Homosexuality

Paul writes about women and men “exchanging natural intercourse” for “unnatural,” and based on this text from Romans 1:26 and following, plus a couple of passages from Leviticus in the Old Testament, there is strong condemnation of homosexuality in many Christian churches. And there it is in the Bible in rather harsh language.

There are books that can be written on this subject and this is not going to be one. I simply want to offer a perspective that even if we take this Biblical view at face value and consider homosexuality to be a sin, this does not give anyone permission to bully another human being as has been in the news so much in recent days.

The United Methodist Church of which I am a preacher/pastor holds that homosexuality is “incompatible with Christian teaching,” but we also affirm that every person, regardless of sexual orientation is of “sacred worth.” Therefore, no person of sacred worth is to be degraded or condemned by another person. This may be a fine line to walk but I have not found it difficult in my life to treat people with love and respect just because they are sinners (by the way, everyone I know, including myself, is a sinner). We are all saved by grace through faith, rather than through bullying and intimidation.

For those who might wish that the United Methodist Church was a little more vocal in its critique of homosexuality I offer this sobering perspective – in the same passage from Romans, quoted above, Paul also condemns those who are “covetous (greedy), malicious, envious, . . . full of strife, deceit, craftiness, gossips, slanderers . . . insolent, haughty, boastful . . . rebellious toward parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless . . .”

I don’t know about you, but I find myself in that list. So, my perspective on homosexuality is tempered by my own problems. Jesus said something about taking the log out of one’s own eye before removing the speck from the eye of another.

Why don’t we all take a deep breath and try to observe the Golden Rule, and teach our children to do the same – Do unto others as you would have them do to you.