How Are We to Take the Bible Seriously?
Indianapolis First Friends Quaker Meeting
Pastor Bob Henry
February 26, 2023
Good morning, Friends and welcome to Light Reflections. This week we continue our Bible Gifting for our children and youth, and I have decided to continue my message from last week. The text this week is from Colossians 3:12-14 from the New Revised Standard Version.
Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.
On various occasions, I have had people ask me,
“Bob, how can you take the Bible seriously?”
And last week I alluded to several of the reasons they may ask this – things such as contradictions, myths, wrong history, confusing science, miracles, even the resurrection of Jesus. But as I prepare for my answer to that challenging question – I must first consider that the person I am talking with must NOT take the Bible too seriously – thus the reason for their asking.
And if I could take a moment to jump into their mind and unpack why they don’t take the Bible seriously, I am sure I would find at the root a problem with interpretation. Rob Bell in his book, “What is the Bible?” which I mentioned last week in part one of this series, says,
“First, the Bible has to be interpreted. When someone says they’re just doing what the Bible says to do, they didn’t greet you with a holy kiss, they’re probably wearing two kinds of fabric sewn together, and there’s a good chance they don’t have tassels sewn on the corners of their garments, all things commanded in the Bible. They don’t do those things because they don’t believe those commands are binding on them today. And they don’t believe that or practice those things because they’ve interpreted the Bible in a particular way. Or more likely, they’ve been influenced by someone who told them that is how the Bible is to be interpreted.”
Take a moment and ponder who it was that influenced you in your interpretation of the Bible?
Was it a parent, grandparent, distant relative, guardian, spouse?
Was it a teacher or a coach?
Was it a pastor or a Sunday School teacher?
Was it through a college course or in school?
I know for me; my interpretation of the Bible began in my home with my parents. Since attending church was very important to my family, my pastors and church also had a big influence on my interpretation. And at different steps along my life’s journey, I can name specific people who taught me how to interpret the Bible – some that I found easy to buy into and others I reluctantly questioned.
I remember in my undergrad college, dropping a class by a professor who I found outside of my comfort zone in how he interpreted scripture. Much of the reason was because my friends considered him a heretic and some were trying to get him fired. Ironically, today, I would probably consider myself much more progressive than that professor.
At times, my interpretation of the Bible evolved unexpectantly. When I was working at Huntington University, a fellow colleague invited me to attend a lecture at Goshen College. There I was to hear a new voice in Christianity at the time, Brian McLaren, speak on a topic that was very close to my heart – spiritual formation. I remember being challenged and changed when Brian stated,
Our interpretations reveal less about God or the Bible than they do about ourselves. They reveal what we want to defend, what we want to attack, what we want to ignore, what we're unwilling to question.
As a student of spiritual formation, one of my biggest hang-ups was my unwillingness to question what I believed - probably because many of the people who had a part in forming me spiritually, up to that point, had considered questioning – out of bounds.
The church I grew up in specifically taught me to defend one interpretation, attack other religious views, denominations, as well as faiths, and ultimately ignore them for the sake of my eternal soul. There was a deep-seated fear in me about questioning or possibly interpreting the Bible wrong.
But that lecture at Goshen College came at just the right time in my life. I needed to be challenged to engage the questions I was unwilling to face. That night a spark ignited in me, and over the coming years it would be fanned into an inner flame.
Or as Brian McLaren put it so well,
“Whatever ember of love for goodness flickers within us, however feeble or small… that's what the Spirit works with, until that spark glows warmer and brighter. From the tiniest beginning, our whole lives—our whole hearts, minds, souls, and strength—can be set aflame with love for God.”
Looking back, it is almost obvious how I would end up becoming a convinced Quaker.
So, this morning, I am going to be even more vulnerable about my experience and share with you my current approach to interpreting the Bible and taking it seriously.
Last week, I spoke about how I have evolved from looking at the Bible from a literal perspective. And that alone can be hugely problematic for some people, but as you will see as I explain my approach (much like Karl Barth once said), “I take it serious enough, to not read it literally.”
First, through three degrees in Christian Education and Spiritual Formation, many times reading through the Bible, and reading a plethora of Christian and Non-Christian writers on their views of the Bible, I have come to embrace a variety of views and perspectives. Kind of taking bits and pieces from many different places.
Two people and their books influenced me greatly in this direction - Quaker Richard Foster and his book “Streams of Living Water” and Brian McLaren’s “A Generous Orthodoxy” helped me process what I know like to call being a “Theological Mutt.”
Being raised Conservative Lutheran, then becoming an Anglican Priest, and spending some time among Mennonites before finally landing among Quakers – I am about as theologically a mutt as one can be. But there is strength in that as well. It has helped me both interpret and question things from multiple perspectives.
Secondly, one of the things I had to let go of early on was that God did not write the Bible. Just spending time reading the Bible with an open mind can help you see this.
Rather it was people like you and me - fallible human beings who were inspired by (not dictated to by) the Spirit of God. I think it was the artist in me that first realized this. When I paint a picture, or for that matter write a sermon, I believe there is an aspect of God’s Spirit inspiring my work. Or as Rob Bell put it so well in “What is the Bible?”,
“The Bible is not an argument. It is a record of human experience. The point is not to prove that it’s the word of God or it’s inspired or it’s whatever the current word is that people are using. The point is to enter into its stories with such intention and vitality that you find what it is that inspired people to write these books.”
Thirdly, as I mentioned last week, with all the inconsistencies and contradictions in the Bible, the numerous instances of questionable theology, the angry and wrathful pictures of God, the condoning of slavery, and even “ordering” rape and genocide, amazingly I am not quick to reject the Bible, but to actually look deeper and ask more questions.
Progressive Christian writer, Roger Woolsey said this should,
“…endear us to the Bible. Not because we agree with those passages, but because we recognize that they are fully human – they’re authentic, they’re down to earth, and they flat out convey the desperate and very real frustration, lament, and anger that are part of the human condition. The fact that such passages were allowed to be written into our holy scriptures are evidence of a mature people who realize that it’s best not to hide our dirty laundry or to deny our very real human feelings and passions. If the Bible were all about PR propaganda, they would have edited out those passages. We view those passages as exceptions to the over-arching message of the Bible of promoting unconditional love and the full inclusion and acceptance of all of God’s children.”
Fourthly, I read the Bible meditationally or prayerfully. Before becoming a Quaker and being introduced to Unprogrammed Worship or Waiting Worship, I was introduced to Lectio Divina – which means “divine reading” in Latin. It is a fitting name for this prayer practice of listening to Scripture with the ear of the heart.
Lectio Divina is a dialogue with God through Scripture that includes the whole self: thoughts, images, memories, desires, yet leaves you wrestling with the Spirit of God to interpret the meaning. Often when I am struggling with a text or how to present it in a sermon, I will spend time meditating on the scripture and allow the Spirit to enlighten me. Sometimes it will only be a word or short phrase that begins to speak to my condition and then begins to blossom.
This leads to the fifth way I approach interpretation. I have realized over the years (as I described last week with the example from Matthew about “If your right eye causes you to sin – tear it out and throw it away” that there is no “objective, one, right way” to interpret a passage.
Just by having conversations with fellow Quakers and Christians, it is clear that each individual person interprets the Bible through their own personal experiences, education, upbringing, socio-political context, sexual orientation, and much, much more.
Again, some would call this an extremely ecumenical approach, but it is necessary to fully see how the “Body of Christ” as a whole understands and interprets the Bible. It helps me shape my understanding and take into considerations things that I may have missed.
The same is true about different translations of the Bible. I know there are those who think Jesus actually used the King James Version – but all that, is their personal preference rising to the occasion. They probably like the Shakespearian Poetry or maybe they say, “It doesn’t sound right in any other version” – both are preferences.
I have a large collection of bibles. I don’t see any one as the “correct” translation. That is why I might use the New Revised Standard Version or the Message or the even a narrative version like “The Book of God” by Walter Wangrin Jr. Different versions help convey the message, highlight a concept or point, or even give us a context or ambiance that may be hard to comprehend.
I remember before the book “The Shack” was released, I was attending a Campus Ministry retreat in California and the speaker said, he just had been asked to read a draft from the book. As he shared about his experience, he said he was moved both by the biblical scholarship of the book, yet overshadowing that was something that many people were going to have a problem with. As we all leaned-in to hear of what it may be – he said, “William Paul Young presents God as a nurturing and loving black woman in The Shack.” There were literal gasps heard in the room.
Even though The Shack is not liked by everyone (what book is), I found this one concept of God being a nurturing and loving black woman causing me to see the scriptures in a different light. Actually, it was what inspired me to see Mary’s Magnificat as more of a slam poetry session by a young vulnerable person of color. It changed my way of seeing the Bible.
As well, I believe it is extremely important to take the time to read the scriptures in context – that means not utilizing them simply to make a point. Understanding Genesis chapter 1 as a poetry and not a literal re-telling of the events changes everything.
I remember, I had a professor once who before class posted around the room about 20 or so different creation stories from a variety of religions. None were marked as to where they came from. We were to read each of them and try and guess. What we began to notice was that some were in narrative/story format, others poetry, and some historical retelling.
It was clear that all the accounts had similarities – characters, events, order, god or divine figures, etc… So, what was the outcome of this exercise?
There was a clear empathy in the room that we were not alone in our understanding and that other religions may have something to say – or even had something already to say to help shape our narrative and what we believe.
Noticing the empathy in that exercise, I believe it is also key to employ a hermeneutic of compassion, love, and justice when interpreting and reading scripture (which I believe Jesus clearly utilized).
Roger Woosley describes a hermeneutic as “an interpretive lens” and “intentional filter.” To have an empathetic hermeneutic of love means we seek to see the forest for the trees and allows the spirit of the law to trump the letter of the law (again which Jesus modeled).
In many ways, Jesus was trying to help us learn how to interpret this world, the scriptures, even his life and example for our world, today. And for Jesus that meant at times rejecting certain scriptures, teachings, even theologies and seeking a more empathetic hermeneutic of love.
Or as the writer of our scriptures for this morning described what it meant to live as people made alive in Christ,
And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.
Well, I think that is enough for this week. To quickly recap…
· Embrace a variety of views and perspectives about scripture.
· Remember inspired but fallible human beings wrote the Bible.
· Look deeper and ask more questions.
· Try reading the Bible meditationally or prayerfully (or try Lectio Divina)
· Remember, there is no “objective, one, right way” to interpret scripture.
· Have conversations with others about what they think about the Bible – what I would call the ecumenical approach.
· Read from various versions and styles of scripture and always try to read in the original context, and…
· Adopt an empathetic hermeneutic of love like Jesus.
Next week, we will bring this conversation into another very important aspect – community!
Now, as we enter waiting worship, I ask you to ponder the following queries:
· Who is influencing my interpretation of the Bible?
· What might I need to let go of or hold on to in my interpretation?
· How might I employ a hermeneutic of compassion, love, and justice when interpreting and reading scripture?