A Theologically Progressive View of the Bible
Indianapolis First Friends Quaker Meeting
Pastor Bob Henry
March 12, 2023
I John 3:16-19 (New Revised Standard Version)
We know love by this, that he laid down his life for us—and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers and sisters. How does God’s love abide in anyone who has the world’s goods and sees a brother or sister in need and yet refuses help? Little children, let us love not in word or speech but in deed and truth. And by this we will know that we are from the truth and will reassure our hearts before him
As we continue this series on looking at the Bible, I wanted to take a moment and return to a past series titled, “To Be Thriving & Progressive Quakers in 2022” In the first sermon in that series I described our meeting as “Thriving and Progressive.” Thriving meaning “to grow or develop well or vigorously” and progressive meaning “happening or developing gradually or in stages – step by step.”
Over the last three Sundays I have explained how diverse our Quaker, and for that matter, the world’s understanding of the Bible is. I have tried to be vulnerable in sharing how I have come to understand the Bible. And how we, Quakers, embrace a more progressive view of our praxis and look at the Bible through more theologically progressive eyes than most of our Christian siblings.
This morning, I want to delve into what exactly in the Bible took me from a very conservative and fundamental view of the Bible to a Thriving and Progressive view that I believe as Quakers we embrace and live. Since I identify as a Thriving and Progressive Quaker, I believe there are some specific things that the Bible has taught me that speak to this understanding. And the reason I am sharing this today, is because as I have more and more conversations with each of you, I continue to find lots of pain in your faith stories. Many of you made a shift from your fundamental, ridged, conservative churches only to find yourself on a journey to a more welcoming, progressive, and loving branch of the Christian faith.
I too have been on this journey now for over 20+ years. I will be honest, at times, I have wanted to throw it all out the window and simply walk away from religion and the Bible. The damage has at times been too great to friends, to my family, and to myself.
And please understand, just because I am sharing a part of my story, today, this does not mean I have it all figured out or that spiritual abuse is not an ongoing part of being a pastor that I must deal with.
As a pastor, I am often asked questions about the Bible. And with any answer often comes reactions, responses, and accusations. I have been called a heretic, a liar, unsaved, unsavable, lacking faith, stupid, and even unworthy of being a pastor – and almost all of those were bestowed upon me because of how I tried to answer questions about the Bible.
So just to attempt to preach this series on the Bible is opening me up for critic, question, and disagreement. And I will be honest…I am willing to do this for the sake of us growing and wrestling with our faith – because I believe First Friends as a Meeting is better than some of the individual people, I have encountered in my 27 years of ministry. To wrestle with my faith is exactly how I came to my current progressive view of the Bible.
Benjamin L. Corey, a cultural anthropologist and public theologian, that I have found has a similar story to mine, says,
“We became Christian progressives because we read our Bibles, not because we put them away. It’s okay if you’re not there yet or if you never will be, but it’s important to understand the truth about how and why we arrived here.”
Corey then listed 10 things that he has learned from the Bible that has shaped his progressive understanding. Since they are so similar to my faith trajectory, I want to share them with you, only giving my own personal explanation of each and how Quakerism has grounded me in a progressive view of scripture and praxis of my Quaker faith. So, let’s begin…
1. The more I read my Bible, the more I realize that I don’t have it all together.
I started to read the Bible when I was young – in grade school, sometime. Back then, I was searching it for answers – where I would go if I died, what sins would get me in the most trouble, how much would God punish me if I was bad? It was clear growing up in the church, how I was to view scripture was with a lens that simply focused on sin and getting to heaven (oh, and a lot of guilt).
But as I continued to read the Bible over the years, I began to identify with many of the characters. I began to realize they too did not have everything figured out, they made mistakes, they doubted, they even failed, yet their lives were not all about punishment or consequences.
Instead, the more I read my Bible, the more I saw examples of love, tolerance, and learning to judge less – both my own situation and that of my neighbors. What I realized was the characters in the Bible were no different than you and me. They struggled with life in their day, much like I struggle in mine. They didn’t have it all together and God still used them. For example:
Abraham -Was old.
Elijah – Was suicidal.
Joseph – Was abused.
Job – Went bankrupt.
Moses – Had a speech impediment.
Gideon – Was afraid.
Samson – Was a womanizer.
Rahab – Was a prostitute.
The Samaritan Woman – Was Divorced.
Noah – Was a Drunk.
Jeremiah – Was young.
Jacob – Was a cheater.
David – Was a murderer.
Jonah – Ran from God.
Naomi – Was a widow.
Peter – Denied Christ
Martha – Worried about everything.
Zacchaeus – Was physically small and money hungry.
Paul – Was A Pharisee who persecuted Christians before becoming one himself.
The more I read my Bible the more I realized how flawed I am and how much I related to the characters – that is if I took the time to really see them and their stories - which in turn helps me see others more compassionately. And when I begin to see others as being just like me, the more I gravitate toward a trajectory of love, tolerance, and I am way less likely to pronounce judgment on someone.
2. The more I read my Bible, the more I develop humility.
If you take time to really look at the stories, characters, and life situations in the Bible, you begin to be humbled by what you read. Jesus’ life alone is overwhelming in regard to humility.
I will never forget my first time reading the Book of Philippians in a study with a group of friends at our church back when our oldest was a baby. I was moved to tears when I read:
5 In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:
6 Who, being in very nature God,
did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;
7 rather, he made himself nothing
by taking the very nature of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
8 And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
by becoming obedient to death—
even death on a cross!
The Apostle Paul says that we should view ourselves as walking examples of how patient God is with people who can’t get it together. The Bible teaches a humbling and equalizing servant nature – not an oppressive, dominant and domineering faith that puts people in their place and forces them to change. The change comes in our hearts and minds and is to assume a humble servant posture.
3. The more I read my Bible, the more I discover that justice for the poor and oppressed is at the heart of it.
Part of my doctoral dissertation I studied the concept of shalom (or peace) from Genesis to Revelation. As I began an almost year-long exploration I was overwhelmed with what all peace entailed.
As a historical peace church, Quakers, have done a lot of study on this. It was in this deep study that I realized justice for the poor and oppressed is not only at the heart of the Bible, but at the heart of bringing true peace to our world.
The commands to care for the poor and oppressed in our world are throughout the Bible, from the Old Testament to the end of the New. You cannot escape it or explain it away. If you read it, you must wrestle with what it is saying to you.
And to care for the poor and oppressed was not a matter of salvation for the purpose of getting them to heaven, but for the real meaning of the word salvation in the scriptures – to preserve or deliver them from harm, ruin, or loss. To give them hope for another day. To help them truly live and thrive in the present. I think we do a disservice when it is all about getting to heaven. And this leads directly to the next one…
4. The more I read my Bible, the more I realize “redistribution of wealth” was God’s idea.
Yes, it’s clearly in the Bible and the more you read the more you realize it was God’s idea. It all begins in the Old Testament with the years of Jubilee and restrictions on gleaning your garden more than once, a command from God that there should be “no poor among you,” and prophets who came to denounce the nation when the rich grew richer and the poor grew poorer.
“Redistribution of Wealth” is throughout the Bible, and some try and dismiss it, but it was a foundation that the early church built upon. That leads to the next point…
5. The more I read my Bible, the more I realize that the early Christians actually practiced this redistribution of wealth.
If you were listening last week to our scripture, it described the early developing church and addressed this directly:
All the believers were together and had everything in common. They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need.
The Bible goes on to point out that the early followers of Jesus rejected individual ownership and gave their wealth to leadership who in turn redistributed it according to need. There weren’t any mandatory drug testing programs, standardized tests, or pre-existing conditions - just assistance according to need.
Even though this probably seems radical today for many of us, including me, it makes me have to take a deep look at the Bible with much more progressive eyes – we need to admit that the early Christians were radical in how they lived and ministered.
Now, on to a very relevant point as we enter tax season…
6. The more I read my Bible, the more I realize Jesus taught we need to pay our taxes.
Jesus is often emphasizing the need to pay taxes. Today, we seem to have lost the why behind paying taxes. Even though I don’t like giving up the money, taxes provide revenue for federal, local, and state governments to fund essential services—from highways, police, justice, defense, and our education system—which are to benefit ALL citizens, who could not provide such services very effectively for themselves. I wish we could include healthcare to that list as well – because I consider it biblical.
In the Bible we see Jesus tell someone that he should “sell everything and give it to the poor” while also commanding us to pay our taxes. So, it looks like we’re not getting off the hook either way—we need to pay our taxes and give private charity. It’s not an either/or proposition.
Jesus was about finding ways to help all people in an equal manner. One big reason I believe Quaker’s value equality in ALL areas of life.
7. The more I read my Bible, the more I realize that God wants us to be people who are quick to show mercy.
The prophet Micah says that “loving mercy” is actually something God “requires” of us. Micah 6:8 reads:
He has shown you, O mortal, what is good.
And what does the Lord require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy
and to walk humbly with your God.
Jesus tells us that justice and mercy are the “more important” parts of God’s law. This means that when it comes to issues of justice, economics, poverty, the death penalty, etc., we should be quick to show mercy, first. It is much easier to punish or hurt someone than it is to embrace a compassionate, forgiving and merciful stance. But this is what the Bible has teaches us.
8. The more I read my Bible, the more I realize that God cares how we treat immigrants.
Whenever God lists people who he wants his children to take care of, immigrants make the cut. Ironically, immigrants in our day don’t look much different than in Jesus’ day.
I have been so pleased with your response over the last couple of years with the Afghan Refugees and more recently with Muhammad’s Family. These are just a couple of the ways I see us responding in a biblical manner to the heart of God.
Like I said last week, the church needs diversity to see the greater picture of God. After I left our celebratory luncheon for raising the funds for Muhammad’s Family a few weeks ago, I thought how what we had accomplished was a beautiful and biblical example of this.
9. The more I read my Bible, the more I realize that God will hold us accountable for how we care for the environment.
If you read the Bible carefully it is hard not to see that God’s original mandate for humanity was to care for creation. We were designed and called to be environmental conservationists before anything else. I am so pleased that Mary Blackburn has pulled back together our Creation Care Team and is reigniting this work in our midst.
Several years ago, I was given a “Green Bible.” In this version of scripture instead of Jesus’ words being in red letters, each time the scriptures spoke of something to do with our environment or stewardship of the earth the text was in green. I spent a full year utilizing that Bible for my daily devotions. There is so much in scripture about our environment and the importance and beauty of the earth that it must be included as essential to our faith and worship.
And probably the most important point…
10. The more I read my Bible, the more I realize that God isn’t judging us by whether or not we get all of our doctrines right. He’s judging us by whether or not we get the “love one another” part right.
As Benjamin L. Corey stated so well,
“This aspect wasn’t a major player in my faith before, but the more I read the Bible the more I realize that God is less concerned with us all sharing the same doctrines than God is heavily concerned with whether or not we love each other. In fact, Jesus said this would be the calling card of his followers -- that we love one another. The more I read my Bible, the more I want to defer my position or preference and instead side with what is in the best interest of others, because that’s the loving thing to do.”
Now that I have shared some of my person thoughts, I want to close my message with something John Pavlovitz wrote on one of my favorite and challenging blogs “Stuff that Needs to Be Said.” I think it will be clear why I am ending with John’s words, but his words could easily be mine. He says,
Every day I invariably end up in some form of the same conversation.
I encounter a more conservative Christian, who takes issue with my stance on the Bible or sexuality or sin or salvation or politics, and once they realize that I’m neither embarrassed of these stances nor easily moved from them—they offer a similar solution to the diagnosed “problem” of my Progressive theology:
“You should try reading the Bible and asking God to reveal the truth to you.”—as if these are things I’d never considered.
The words are sometimes delivered as unintended insult, other times as judgmental scolding, and still other times as a poorly concealed middle finger. Either way, there’s an inherent arrogance in the suggestion itself, assuming that unless the conclusions I’ve come to match their conclusions, I must not have done the work. I must be rebelling against God. I must be darkened in my understanding; clouded by the Devil—or maybe Rob Bell.
My reply is always the same: “Reading the Bible and praying over it—is precisely how I became Progressive.”
For more than forty years as a Christian and two decades as a pastor in the local church, I’ve lived with the Bible:
I’ve read it for inspiration and for information.
I’ve studied it in seminary and in small groups and in solitude.
I’ve done hundreds of Bible studies and sat through months of sermons.
I’ve taught it and preached it and reflected on it for hours upon hours upon hours.
I’ve sat with it in silence and prayed over the words, listening intently for the voice of God.
And all of this has yielded the faith perspective I have today. This has been my long, purposeful path to Progressive Christianity.
The more I excavated the Scriptures and reflected on what I’d learned, the more I felt a shift in my understanding. Little by little, through this continual process of study and prayer and living, I found myself unable to believe things I once believed. Old sureties became unstable and new things became my bedrock. Over time, I gradually but quite surely began to see the Bible differently, and it has led me to this place and to the convictions I now hold.
No longer some perfect, leather-bound divine transcript, dictated by God and downloaded into a few men’s heads or dropped from the sky—the Bible for me became an expansive library written by flawed, failing human beings at a particular place and time in the history of humanity, recording their experience of God as best they could comprehend it.
In that library I could find wisdom and meaning, and through those words I could seek God and understand humanity, and craft a working religion to live within. But I could also bring other things to bear upon this journey; things like Science and History, things like nature and community and other faith traditions—and yes, my personal experience living as a never-to-be-repeated human being.
This is the path of all people of faith, if they’re honest; however conservative or progressive their theology. And this is the point.
None of us has the market cornered on the Truth, and we all bring the same things to our study and prayer and to our religion—we bring ourselves. We bring the sum total of the families we’ve lived in and the place we were born and the faith tradition we were raised in. We carry the teachers and pastors and writers who inspired us, the experiences we’ve had, and even our specific personalities. In other words: we all find our way—in the way we find our way.
When a fundamentalist Christian instructs someone else to “read the Bible,” or “take it to prayer,” or to “ask God to reveal the truth to you,” they usually mean, “Do all of these things until you get it right—until you agree with me.” They are assuming their version of study and reflection are more valid than another’s.
And this is the beauty of Progressive Christianity: it doesn’t insist that others agree with it, it doesn’t claim superiority, and it holds its conclusions loosely. That doesn’t mean it has arrived at its present place impulsively, lazily, or ignorantly.
Quite the contrary. I’ve met thousands of Christians who hold more liberal positions on all sorts of topics, who didn’t begin that way. They have come to those positions after years or even decades of careful, prayerful, faithful exploration. They are as intelligent, invested, and earnestly seeking as their more orthodox brethren.
And this is perhaps the conservative Christian’s greatest challenge, which was fittingly, the same one the Pharisees faced in the Gospels: to believe that others could have a genuine, real, and beautiful experience of God that didn’t match their own.
People can read the Bible and pray and do everything they do as honestly and lovingly as they do it—and wind up believing differently.
Christian, the next time you’re tempted to flippantly tell someone who doesn’t share your religious convictions or mirror your theology, that they should “try reading the Bible and going to God,” it might be helpful to seek a humility about your own beliefs and a respect of theirs; to entertain the idea that maybe their reading of the Bible and their prayerful life surrounding it—are the very reason they now hold those beliefs.
Maybe they have studied and prayed and listened.
Maybe God has revealed the Truth to them.
Maybe God doesn’t need your consent to do that.
(“The Bible and Prayer” Won’t Fix My Progressive Theology—They Created it. - MAY 20, 2017 by John Pavlovitz)
So, now as we enter waiting worship. Take a moment to center down and consider the following queries:
· Has a teaching from the Bible positively or negatively impacted your spiritual growth?
· How might reading the Bible with more progressive eyes help me care for my neighbor?
· Do I struggle with people not believing the way I believe? And why?