BIBLE 101, part 1: Bible Basics
Genesis 1:1-2:3; James 1:17-25
June 7, 2009 - Rev. Janet Robertson Duggins
Some of you may be too young to remember much of this; others of you I’m sure remember much more than I do about the days when it was common to put women “on a pedestal.” Men were supposed to be chivalrous, protect us from rough or unpleasant things, and provide for us, so we could be free to be the gentle, civilizing influence in family and community life. They claimed this was all about respecting and honoring women, sometimes even that it meant women were really better than men. But the people who thought this way didn’t think women should get equal pay for equal work, or have the same legal rights as men. They regarded only a very few roles as suitable for women. They didn’t believe we could think, or lead, or do math, or preach, or understand politics, or handle money, or use tools. In short, this perspective tended not to see women as we really are, with a great variety of individual differences and inclinations, strengths and weaknesses. When, on occasion, a woman did stand out as an individual, more often than not she was dismissed …because she didn’t fit in to the picture of what women were supposed to be like. Well. If that’s respect, I think I’ll pass.
It seems to me that a lot of people do something very similar with the Bible. Many, many people revere the Bible. They honor it as “holy scripture,” call it the Word of God, and say they believe everything in it is true. They profess to follow its teachings and are sure the world would be better if everybody did. They love to hear the sound of its words because they associate them with holiness. They even get angry if someone appears to be questioning something in the Bible.
But an awful lot of those people are simply putting the Bible on a pedestal – not really seeing it for itself, as it is, not noticing the variety contained within its pages, not making an effort to really understand it … sometimes not even actually reading much of it at all. A closed Bible on a pedestal is still a closed Bible. And a closed Bible is not of any use at all.
I have to say though, in fairness, that some of those who dismiss the Bible as untrue or irrelevant don’t do much better. They may not like the ways some people use the Bible or the things they hear from those “put the Bible on a pedestal” folks, so they react negatively to the Bible itself on that basis… but they often are equally guilty of making assumptions about it without real knowledge.
Just as we can be gravely mistaken about people, when we don’t take the time to know them for themselves, we can easily misread – and misrepresent! - the Bible if we don’t make the effort to really understand it.
Jerry and I believe that all of us can do better than this.
Now, don’t worry, we’re not going to propose that every church member has to become a serious Bible scholar – memorize passages, cite chapter and verse, study commentaries, learn Greek.…. We know that isn’t the kind of spiritual practice that feeds everybody.
But we don’t see any reason why all of us can’t have enough understanding of the Bible to get it down off the pedestal, and feel comfortable opening it up and interacting with it – not with an “idea” of the Bible, with what’s really there.
Hence this sermon series, which we’ve called - sort of jokingly – Bible 101. It isn’t our intention to be simplistic, although some of you will certainly hear some things you already know. What we do hope to communicate is that the Bible is for all of us; whether you don’t know anything much about it or already know quite a lot, there is something to be discovered. Next week, I’ll talk more about ways of understanding or interpreting the Bible. Then in the following weeks we’ll look at some of the different kinds of writings that are in the Bible – and how they show us different truths about God and life and faith.
Today I’m just going to get us started with a little bit of background and with some thoughts about what it means to say that the Bible is the Word of God or inspired by God.
First, though, let me say that the goal here is not to stuff your heads full of information about the Bible. Knowledge isn’t the church’s main purpose, and it’s not primarily what the Bible is for. What we are about is extending the invitation to faith. And that’s how the Bible is meant to function, too.
It’s my belief – and my experience, also – that the Bible does that best when we approach it with some understanding, and a willingness to take it on its own terms… rather than treating it simply as icon or idol or symbol or magic answer book or secret code or anything else it isn’t.
To that end, it’s useful to grasp a few basic facts as to the nature of the Bible:
The word Bible means “book” (it comes from Greek) but it would be more accurate to call the Bible a library, or an anthology. The version we are most familiar with – which is considered “scripture” by most Christians around the world – has 66 books. It didn’t drop from heaven just like this, but came into being and was claimed as “scripture” by communities of faith through a process that occurred over many centuries and involved many people. The books of the Bible were written over a period of 1000+ years, in a variety of settings and circumstances, by an unknown number of different people, most of whose names we don’t know. Many parts of the Bible don’t actually have an “author” in the sense we think of an author, because they originated in oral traditions, passed on verbally from one generation to another before somebody eventually wrote them down.
In the Bible, there are stories, and words of songs and poems. There are instructions for religious observances and ethical teachings, letters and lists. There are records of the reigns of kings and impassioned speeches about the corruption of evil rulers. There is practical advice and there is abstract theological reflection.
All that is to say that there is no such thing as a single point of view we can call “THE Biblical perspective.” Sure, there is a kind of narrative arc - a big story – that we can discern. There are common themes and ideas that recur throughout. But part of seeing the Bible for itself is being aware of all this diversity and respecting the integrity of each individual part… not trying too hard to make it all “fit” neatly into a single perspective that seems consistent to us.
I used to think that it was necessary to do that. I was raised in a religious tradition that said the truth of the Bible was demonstrated by its being without inconsistencies or errors in any detail, including historical and scientific facts, as well as theological ideas. We put a lot of effort into trying to explain away the varied perspectives of the different Biblical books. The fear was that if any lack of consistency was recognized, we would no longer be able to regard the Bible as having truth or meaning. We couldn’t be confident that God speaks through it.
In fact, I’ve found that the opposite is true: The Bible is infinitely richer to me - much more alive and interesting and thought-provoking and powerful – when I am willing to let the different perspectives speak. And I’m more amazed at God speaking and working through so many different people in different times and circumstances.
I suppose that means I think a little differently now about what it means to speak of the Bible as “the Word of God.” Some may wonder: Should we even be saying that? I will put my cards on the table and say that I am comfortable saying, after a scripture reading, “This is the Word of the Lord” because I believe that God can and does speak to us through the words of the Bible. But I don’t mean to say that “the Word of God” is exactly equivalent to “the Bible.” The Bible itself doesn’t understand the meaning of “the Word of God” in that way.
In the Old Testament, the Word of God is a most important theme. It is all about God’s power. It’s completely opposite of any notion of “mere words”; When God speaks, it’s NEVER mere words – something happens. We saw that in Genesis 1, the story of the creation of the world. That chapter is a theological piece; it says something very definite about God: God only has to speak and things come into existence. God speaks to people, calls them, and thereby creates a nation. Later on, we read about “the Word of the Lord” coming to prophets… not just words, but the power to speak on God’s behalf. God’s Word is almost an extension of God’s self. In the New Testament when we read John’s gospel we find that JESUS is referred to as “the Word made flesh” - God “speaking” to the world again in a powerful, transformative, and self-revealing way. In the letters of Paul we read things like, “let the Word of Christ dwell in you….”
So let me urge you to keep in mind this idea: that the Word of God often comes to us through words, but it can’t be contained in words; it goes beyond the words to make God’s presence alive for us. If you want to say briefly what the overall theme or story of the Bible is, that would be it, really: God’s presence becoming known among God’s people. If we are reading and listening for knowledge or Bible trivia or rules or advice, we are missing the point. We are reading only dead words, and not hearing living scripture.
How is it possible for the Bible to be alive for us (and not just words written in ancient languages long ago?) That, I would say, is where “inspiration” comes in.
I believe that inspiration - “God’s spirit breathing life into the scriptures” - has to be understood as being about much more than forming the written words that became the Bible. Don’t we really have to see God’s Spirit as present and speaking through the whole process - inspiring the community where the stories were told and the songs were sung, inspiring the writers who began to write it down, guiding the scribes who copied the words to preserve them and pass them around, and more copyists after that, and then translators in different places and times, and even the readers, even us, as we read and try to understand. To me, this is the only understanding of inspiration that fits with the way we understand God as continually present and working in and among us.
Which brings me back to what it means to say that the Word of God comes to us through the Bible: it’s not about the words on the pages or what we assent to intellectually. It’s about the Spirit and power of God speaking to us, meeting us there, in our encounter with scripture, and through that encounter working in and among us, transforming, healing, teaching, guiding, inspiring us to love and follow Jesus and serve others. It’s not about history; it’s about the adventure of faith, our adventure, our faith – a journey on which the Bible can be our most lively companion.