While talking this week with a friend about this morning’s sermon, I was asked why we at Knox continue to carry the Bible into the church at the beginning of services – and carry it out at the end of worship. “Isn’t this a form of idol worshipping? Does the congregation really know what is happening here”, I was asked. Do we? Is it only to do with the fact that we are part of the Reformed Church, which places high value on all people having access to the Bible … or is there more to it than that?
Marcus Borg suggests that in the last half century “probably more Christians have left the church because of the Bible than for any other single reason”. They left, he proposes because “contemporary biblical literalism – with its emphasis on biblical infallibility, historical factuality, and moral and doctrinal absolutes” no longer made sense.[1]
American Bishop John Shelby Spong would agree. When he was asked why he thought people insisted on reading the bible literally – i.e. taking every word as a directive from God – Spong replied “We put an aura around the Bible that makes it very difficult to look at it any other way than as some mystical book that dropped from the sky. In some church processions, they walk in and somebody is holding the book on high as if it’s to be worshipped. We read from it and say “This is the word of the Lord” no matter what the [readings are]. You do that often enough and people don’t think that’s a book to be read. It’s an untouchable.
Also, [he went on] we publish the Bible in columns. No other book is published that way except encyclopedias, dictionaries, and telephone books. You don’t want to read those books, you go to them for authoritative answers and you don’t argue with the dictionary. If you’re playing Scrabble you go to the dictionary to settle the argument. We’ve encouraged people to think about the Bible as this kind of book, a source of authority, the final word, not to be debated. I think that helps people to think that it’s inappropriate to ask questions….I think the Bible is a great book and I think if we can get people to look at it properly and not use it as a weapon to enforce their prejudices we’d be making a major step forward.” [2]
So, let’s ask some questions; let’s break through the aura; let’s see if there are some ways to ‘look at it properly’. (and we’ll do more of that tomorrow night in the discussion group – to which you are all invited, even if you haven’t come to any of the others in the series)
I find Marcus Borg’s approach to the bible very helpful. He suggests a three-fold consideration: historical, metaphorical and sacramental.
First, historically: we do well to remember the bible is not just one book; it’s a collection of very different writings that have been produced by individuals from particular historical communities. It’s not written by God – but by people, like you and me. It tells how people and communities saw things – “above all it tells us how they saw their life with [and in] God. It contains their stories about God’s involvement in their lives, their laws and ethical teachings, their prayers and praises, their wisdom about how to live, and their hopes and dreams. It is not God’s witness to God…but their witness to God…
As a human product, the Bible is not ‘absolute truth’ or ‘God’s revealed truth’” but is related to particular situations and cultures – using the language and concepts of the culture. It “tells us how our spiritual ancestors saw things – not how God sees things.”
This is very evident in today’s first reading: a letter written by Paul to the church in Corinth: an actual letter, written in the first century by a real person to a community that lived and breathed – and argued (the kind of letter Dr Stuart might have written to our Knox ancestors, if he had taken a long trip away and while back in Scotland, discovered some others were undermining his authority here in Dunedin.) Paul writes, as Dr Stuart might, forcefully, defending his position as founding leader - and his teaching. And so, this letter opens with a strong argument against those who claim status because of their ‘wise teachings’. God, Paul argues, “has reversed the world’s polarities. Folly is wisdom and wisdom is folly; and the crucified messiah (1.23), the trembling apostle (2.3) and the socially misfit Corinthians (1.26-29) [are the ones who reflect] … and embody God’s true and saving wisdom.” [3]
In an historical approach, “the emphasis is not upon words inspired by God, but on people moved by their experience of the Spirit”. Rather than picking out a verse (as a word from God that we must obey) we take this experience of Paul and the Corinthian church and reflect on it: noting how - in all their humanness - they grappled with how to be the Body of Christ - in the midst of their squabbling and elitism. And as we consider this text, we seek understanding of how we might centre our lives on Christ in this historical moment and place; listening for what the Spirit is saying to the Church today.
Borg’s second approach to the Bible is metaphorical. “Metaphorical language”, he writes, “is a way of seeing. …The Bible can be thought of as a giant metaphor; a way of seeing the whole; a way of seeing God, ourselves, the divine-human relationship and the divine-world relationship. And the point is not to ‘believe’ in a metaphor – but to ‘see’ with it.” Some of us are uneasy with such an approach. “We ... tend to identify truth with factuality and [therefore] devalue metaphorical language. To a large extent, we have become tone-deaf to metaphor, often viewing it as ‘pretty’ language for something that could be said more directly.” But, not to see the Bible as metaphor, prevents us from getting anywhere near the profound truths there to be discovered. In today’s Gospel reading, we have a story of Jesus driving out the money changers in the temple – and it’s already metaphorical. There may well have been some such event in Jesus’ life – but, in the writing down decades after the event, the Johannine community is already demonstrating it has been reflecting on it through the light of what happened at Easter. They have seen the market-driven temple as a metaphor for the way Jesus was treated by his religious and political contemporaries. The community has been doing its theological work – which we need to continue. This is not about an event to be ‘believed in’ but rather the community is reminding itself of the indestructibility of the Body of Christ: in spite of abusive economics, in spite of church institutional corruption, in spite of even the crucifixion, the Body of Christ flourishes, because Godness is stronger than evil and corruption. If we limit ourselves to a consideration of the bible that is intent on proving historical facts, we are unlikely to be taken into the deep truths and insights which are there waiting to be discovered as we consider our own saturated-in-God lives today. As Borg puts it: “even when a text contains historical memory, its more-than-literal meaning matters most….” Even when there is no history involved (e.g. the stories of Adam and Eve, or Noah and the flood), as metaphorical narratives, they can be profoundly true, even though not literally factual.”
Borg’s final approach to the Bible is as sacrament. Today, with the symbols of bread and wine before us, that word sacrament is very much in our awareness. Bread and wine – the means whereby Christ becomes present to us. As we take the bread and the wine, these outward and visible signs open a door for us into the sacred, the holy, the mystery - what we call God. In the same way, Borg suggests the Bible - like the bread and wine, all very human products, mediate God’s Presence – which is always here – and there – and there. If we should take the time to listen, to study in community, to let this amazing treasure be broken open for us, we will hear the Spirit speaking to us through these ancient words – not telling us what to do, but inviting us to be transformed within the wisdom of God.
As the Bible is carried into this Church each Sunday, may we never lose sight of its human origin and its sacred function – offering us a way of seeing God and our life in God. And, as it is carried from the Church, luring and leading us into risky, transformed and flourishing life, may we follow with confidence that in engaging with its many texts, we are living faithfully as the Body of Christ here in 21st century Dunedin.
[1] Marcus Borg The Heart of Christianity 2003, p.43. This sermon depends heavily on and quotes extensively from Chapter 3 The Bible: the Heart of the Tradition”, pp 43-60.
[2] “The Bible is a Good Book, But God Didn’t Write It”
[3] Jouette M Bassler “Corinthians” in The women’s bible commentary Carol Newsom and Sharon Ringe eds.1992 p.321.
Thank you very much. I've learnt a lot.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you found it helpful! Tonight's discussion will explore some of the questions raised - 7pm in the Gathering Area. I hope to see you there.
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