Word of God, speak
[Another entry from my series for the church newsletter.]
It is for Christ's sake that we believe in the Scriptures, but it
is not for the Scriptures' sake that we believe in Christ.—Martin Luther
God is bigger than the bogeyman; He’s bigger
than Godzilla or the monsters on T.V.—Junior Asparagus of VeggieTales
One
of the first signs of parenthood is a tendency to conflate everything, and I do
mean everything, with children’s
media, developmental milestones and child-rearing practices. Meredith was 3 years old at the time of
the youth group’s first Lummi mission trip, and I had to restrain myself numerous times
(and, much to the kids’ amusement, failed to restrain myself many more times)
from spelling things that weren’t meant to be common knowledge. Um, they were high school
students. If d-i-n-n-e-r was
coming shortly they were heading for the dining hall, t-h-a-n-k-y-o-u. In a similar vein, when I think about
the ways we as humans tend to limit God to our narrow human perceptions…I come
up with Junior Asparagus.
Sorry.
On
a more learned note, see the above quotation from our Uncle Marty. It segues well into my preoccupation
for the month: the authority of Scripture. I came across a nifty synopsis of the Lutheran philosophy regarding
the Bible written by Diane Jacobson, director of the ELCA’s Book of Faith
initiative (www.bookoffaith.org).
She paints a picture of two “ditches.” One is fundamentalism—the Bible is true, and the only way
something can be true is if it is
“literally, factually true.” No
contradictions. No questioning. Take it or leave it.
The
other ditch accepts the fundamental argument—and opts to leave it. This is secularism. If the only way the Bible can be true
is for it to be literally, factually, scientifically true, and modern science
has demonstrated this not to be the case, then the Bible is as outdated as
flat-earth theory or doublets and hose as men’s wear.
Happily,
Jacobson offers us a place to stand between the ditches in the middle ground
Lutherans are so good at cultivating.
The Bible is the Word of
God—it is our Good News! It does contain the Truth. Big T. That does not
require us to believe in the way that fundamentalism would have us believe, but
it does bring us into a deep and rich relationship with the Word of God in all its
sustaining and life-giving power.
Here,
we are directed to the good ol’ ELCA Constitution, which I’m sure all of you
have read in detail (me neither).
Section 2.02, it turns out, “confesses Jesus Christ as
Lord and Savior and the Gospel as the power of God for the salvation of all who
believe.” Amen! Furthermore, there are three ways we
hear the Gospel—God’s Word:
1) in Jesus Christ, “the Word of God incarnate”;
2) in “the proclamation of God’s message to us as both Law and
Gospel”; and
3) in “the canonical Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments,” which
are “inspired by God’s spirit through their authors”—and speak to us by that
same Spirit.
In other words, above all
else the Word of God is relational. Jesus Christ came to Earth as the
Living Word. We are related to the
Word in a deeper and more profound way than words on a page—profoundly
meaningful though those are. In
relationship with Jesus we experience the Word.
We proclaim the Word
through our lives and our sharing of the Good News. This is not just the duty of the pastor; it’s the honor and
charge placed upon each of us.
When we proclaim the Law and Gospel* to
each other through our words and our actions we are the Word. Sometimes
we need Jesus with skin on. We are
that Jesus to each other.
Finally, the Word of God
comes alive through our careful and prayerful reading of the Scriptures. Jacobsen quotes the anonymous author
who once said “a Bible in the hand is worth two on the shelf!” A Bible on a shelf is a book; the words
of the Bible communicated through reading, silently or aloud, become the living
Word of God.
In short: through the
Bible, God speaks to us. Through
each other, God speaks to us.
Through Jesus, God speaks and desires to be in relationship with
us. The Bible helps us understand
all this. Thanks and praise to God
for this tremendous gift!
I'm going to have to paraphrase here because I don't remember he exact words, but Kate Braestrup said something really good about metaphor being the only way we can really tell the truth. The example she gave was that if said, "When Drew (her husband) died, my heart broke." she wouldn't really be telling the literal truth. But if she said, "When Drew died, my pulse rate quickened and my arteries dilated, etc. etc," she also wouldn't really be getting at the truth of what she experienced.
ReplyDeleteThe truth is not always exactly the same thing as the facts.
I really like that. (Not the event, of course, but the way she talks about truth--and your concluding sentence.)
ReplyDelete