On the Inspiration and Authority of the Bible: 2 Timothy 3:16-17; Luke 20:1-7

 

*This sermon was delivered at Albany Mennonite Church, September 14, 2014

When I say the word “authority,” what images come to mind? A cop with a night stick? A judge with a gavel? A teacher with a ruler? For many people authority means “authoritarian,” ruling with an iron fist. Authority has gotten a bad rap. In our age and culture we no longer respect someone who simply asserts their authority. We have recently seen in the news the abuse of judicial, educational, police, and male authority from African-American men being killed by the police to abusive husbands violently asserting their will upon their wives.

The same could be said of the term “authority” when used in reference to the Bible. It has gotten a bad name. We have seen the “authority” of the Bible used to justify slavery, submission of women, homophobia, violence, and war. NT scholar William Countryman calls this abuse of scriptural authority “biblical tyranny.” In such a context, is there any sense in which we can still speak of the “authority” of the Bible?

Some would say that the Bible is authoritative because it is inspired. The Bible is authoritative because its words are inspired by the Supreme authority of the universe, God. This view comes from a particular, or should I say “peculiar,” reading of 2 Timothy 3:16-17. The biblical text begins: All scripture is inspired by God. There it is in black and white. Every single scripture comes directly from God, as some might say. This text is the centerpiece of the doctrine known as “biblical inerrancy.” This teaching proposes that the Bible is infallible and without error because it is literally the words of God. And since God does not make errors, neither does the Bible. But, to use this text from Timothy to prove the Bible contains the infallible words of God raises numerous questions.

Let’s take a closer look at this brief text. First, focus your mental lens on the words “all scripture.” What is the scripture to which the author of Second Timothy is referring? Does it refer to our modern Protestant Bible with its 66 books divided into Old and New Testaments? Well, then what about the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox canon of scripture? They include the books of the Apocrypha. Are Sirach and Bel and the Dragon also the very words of God?

The fact is, our contemporary Bible didn’t exist at the time of the writing of this pastoral letter in the 1st century. The full canon of the Bible was not officially finalized until the 4^th century or some would even say the 16^th century. So, what books are included in “all scripture”? We know that the New Testament was not yet complete at the time 2 Timothy was written and at that time it was simply a letter, not scripture. Is 2 Timothy itself therefore excluded from “all scripture is inspired”?

The reference “all scripture” is no clearer even if it only includes the Hebrew Scriptures. Does “all scripture” mean the Torah, the Five Books of Moses?  Or is it the Tanakh, which includes the psalms, prophets and wisdom literature? Could Timothy be referring to the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures used by early Gentile Christians, which is somewhat different from the Tanakh? The Hebrew Bible canon was probably not fixed until the 2^nd century or much later. So then, what is “all scripture”? It would seem to be important to know exactly which scriptures were included and which were excluded if inspiration only applies to particular books.

Before it gets too complicated, maybe it’s time to turn to the word “inspired.” But, understanding what we mean by “inspiration” becomes just as complicated an issue as figuring out what “all scripture” means! Does inspiration refer to the Spirit’s influence on the writer, the product of that influence, that is, the book itself, or the reader and their reading of the scripture? What inspiration exactly means in 2 Timothy is not clear upon first reading.

What is the breadth of inspiration? Is it only about the final product of the written text? Modern biblical scholarship recognizes that stories and sayings of the Bible first circulated as oral tradition. Did God inspire and safeguard his words in this process of oral transmission? It may be new to many of us, but for over 150 years it has been recognized that the synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke) are similar (synoptic=see alike) and quite different from John. Matthew and Luke are dependent upon Mark, the earliest gospel, and also rely upon another source identified as Q (Quelle=source). If this is true, then the question is: Was this process of selecting, editing, and shaping these sources for their own audiences also inspired and safeguarded by God?

And in the end, wouldn’t it also be necessary to speak of the inspiration of the people involved and the long, contested process of collecting and canonizing the books finally considered scripture? Or how about the process of painstakingly hand copying the early manuscripts of the Bible, as well as the process of translating them into modern languages? Then, which interpretation of these texts should be considered inspired, because having inspired words without a particular meaning is pointless? And finally, we don’t approach interpretation with a blank slate. Every interpretation is couched in some church tradition or theology. Is this also an element to consider when searching for the meaning of the Bible as inspired? These are all questions I think one must seriously ponder as they consider what 2 Timothy means by saying that all scripture is inspired.

For many fundamentalists and some evangelicals inspiration means God dictated his very words to the writers, overriding their human inadequacies and cultural limitations.  For them God’s error-free words are in the original manuscripts of the Bible. The claim of inerrancy for the original manuscripts is problematic in that we have no original manuscripts of the Bible, only copies. Realizing that there are some errors present in the manuscripts we do have, some other Christians have proposed a modified form of inspiration that claims that there are no errors of substance or no errors of doctrine or no errors related to our salvation. 

Still other Christians understand inspiration to mean God inspired the ideas or theology of the Bible, while it is historically and culturally conditioned.  Others would say that the broad salvation history of the Bible is what is inspired. There are even those who would say the Bible is inspired in the same way all great literature is inspired. Some would go so far as to say that parts of the Bible are inspired by God, while other parts are not. Figuring out just how inspiration operates with the Bible is a difficult issue.

So, rather than trying to figure out how inspiration works, it might be helpful to look at the meaning of the word “inspiration.” In Greek the word is theopneustos, a combination of God and spirit or breath. It literally means “God-breathed.” Where do we find the image of God’s breath? Two prominent places are the creation of Adam and Ezekiel’s vision of a valley of dry bones. In Genesis God breathed into Adam and he became a living being. God gives life to humans. In Ezekiel’s vision God breathed life on a valley of bones, representing the gift of new life for the despondent and dying people of Israel. God breathes life on the dead.

In light of this meaning, let me suggest that rather than trying to figure out just how inspiration worked between God and the original writers, let us focus more on the impact of scripture as being God-breathed, that is, as God’s life-giving and life-renewing Word to God’s people. In this sense, those texts we recognize as bearing God’s Word to us, are those we consider scripture, as “inspired.” It is through the sacred texts of the church that God breathes life into and renews the people of God. It is the same breath that God breathed upon the original writers. Exactly how God was involved in the original writing is not fully clear.

But, what it means for us is much clearer. Through the words of scripture God breathes life upon those who inhale the Word of God. Scripture gives life to the Christian community. They fire our imaginations and inspire us to boldly follow Jesus in our world. Through scripture God breathes new life upon the dry bones of God’s people.

We can better see the inspiration of scripture in its function or its use. As your pastor Meghan has said "Scripture is known, by its own account, not so much by what it is as by what it does. We trust it first not because we've untangled its essense but because we've encountered its accomplishments." That is the point of the conclusion of our text. All scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, so that everyone who belongs to God may be proficient, equipped for every good work. Scripture is a companion for learning how to live a godly life. It shapes the believing community through teaching, correction, training for righteous living, so that the church may be prepared to live ethically, justly, and to do good works of kindness and compassion. Understood as how the Bible functions, inspiration has to do with God breathing resurrection life upon God’s people through these sacred texts.

If you thought the idea of inspiration of scripture was problematic, so is the idea of biblical authority. For some Christians the Bible carries an unquestioned, absolute, final authority. Recently I was approaching Albany in my car when I spotted a billboard that advertised this view of the Bible. It read: The Holy Bible, inspired, absolute, final. Those who produced the billboard further commented on this sign on their website:

This book reveals the mind of God…Its doctrines are holy, its precepts are binding, its histories are true, and its decisions are immutable.

In this view “authority” is similar to “authoritarian.” The Bible has a coercive authority and is to be obeyed without question. It is to be believed and obeyed absolutely in everything it says. We see evidence of this perspective of biblical authority in the daily news: Creation scientist claims the earth is 6,000 years old/ Conservative conference refuses to ordain women as pastors/ Spiritual advisor to this political party believes that everything in our society---the government, the judiciary, the economy, the family---should be governed by the Bible.

Daily we see the Bible being used and abused as the infallible, absolute, final authority. And some of the things that the Bible supposedly “authorizes” some Christians to do, like protest at funerals, practice racism, and spout homophobic nonsense, is not an authority I want to obey!

Maybe it’s because I grew up in the 60’s. Our generation’s motto was “Question authority!” But today, questioning authority is not just a part of the younger generation. It’s part of our culture. Recognition of the authority of parents, teachers, police, politicians, Supreme Court judges is no longer assumed, even though that authority may be forced upon people. In the same way, people will not recognize the authority of the Bible simply by declaring it to be so, even when it is announced in big, bold letters on a public billboard!  To recognize something as authoritative requires a certain kind of respect for the author behind the authority.

The Bible is not an authority in and of itself. Its authority is derivative or secondary. The Bible does not bear the same authority as God. New Testament scholar N.T. Wright puts it this way: “The authority of scripture is shorthand for God’s authority exercised through scripture.” God is the ultimate authority. God transcends the Bible. God is not limited to the story of God. The Bible testifies to the God who is beyond the Bible. Theologian Karl Barth once remarked about this view of the Bible as a witness to God, "A real witness is not identical with that to which it witnesses, but it sets it before us." The scripture is not itself God, that would make it an idol, a golden calf. That’s bibliolatry. Rather, scripture witnesses to God through the limitations of human words and culture. And through scripture we recognize the authority of God.  

When Jesus taught in the temple, the chief priests and elders wanted to know by what authority he did these things. Was his authority from God? As was often the case with these religious leaders, they probably were trying to spring a trap for him. Rather than answer directly, Jesus sets his own trap with a question: “Did the baptism of John come from heaven, or was it of human origin?” Snap! If they say John’s baptism is from heaven, then Jesus could say, “Then, why didn’t you believe him?” If they say his authority is of human origin, the people might stone them because they recognized God’s voice in John. So, the chief priests played it safe by saying “We do not know.” Jesus said, “Well then, I won’t tell you by what authority I am doing these things.”

The chief priests did not recognize the authority of God in the words and acts of Jesus, nor in those of John the Baptist. Their words did not bear authority for the chief priests because their words were not recognized and accepted as being from God. In the same way, for the Bible to be authoritative, it is first required that it be recognized and accepted as God’s Word to us.

For Christians God’s Word and authority are ultimately revealed in the person of Jesus Christ. The scriptures witness to Jesus the Christ and thus their authority is centered in his life, teachings, death, and resurrection. We recognize in Jesus the authority of God. For this reason Christ becomes the standard of biblical authority.  All scripture does not bear equal authority for Christians. Christ is the plumb line for the authority of particular biblical texts.

The Bible is authoritative to those who hear the voice of God through these texts and recognize the authority of God in their lives. In other words, Christian scripture is authoritative for the church, those who recognize the authority of Jesus Christ.

The very act of calling the Bible “scripture” is to recognize it as authoritative for the church. In and of itself the Bible is simply religious literature. To call the Bible scripture is to recognize that it is more than classic literature. To call the Bible scripture is to recognize its authority, not simply as individuals, but as the church. The church recognizes the authority of scripture because we recognize the authority of God. This may sound strange, but hear me out: There is no biblical authority outside the believing community.

Within his tribe an African tribal chief is well respected and considered an absolute authority. His word is truth and is to be followed. His word can mean life or death, inclusion or exclusion from the community. Take him out of his tribe and place him smack dab in the middle of New York City and his authority means nothing.  What he says will have no weight with passersby on the street. His authority is defined and understood within the context of his community. So, in like manner, the authority of scripture is defined and understood within the context of the believing community. It holds no authority for those who have not heard the voice of God within the church’s book.

You can’t mean that, pastor! The authority of the Bible, because it is God’s authority, is over everyone, regardless of whether or not it is acknowledged. But, does that really make any sense in the real world? How can the Bible be an authority to someone who does not acknowledge it and live by it? If that were the case, it would be a coercive authority. As we see in Jesus encounter with those who questioned his authority, he did not force his authority upon them. They had to recognize it on their own.

I believe it is more helpful to understand the authority of scripture in functional terms, by what they do. Scripture is authoritative for the church because it functions to shape the life and identity of the church. The texts that we call “scripture” are authoritative because in them we hear God’s Word and find them useful for teaching and instruction in order to shape our identity into the likeness of Christ.

So, recognizing the inspiration of scripture is not simply a matter of knowing exactly how God and the writers collaborated in the writing of our sacred texts. It may be more helpful to consider inspiration in terms of the impact of our sacred texts being God-breathed, life-giving, life-renewing to God’s people. And maybe we should think of the authority of scripture not so much as commanding obedience because it contains the exact words of God. Scripture’s authority is in their being the essential texts that tell us who we are and shape us into God’s people for our day and time. Their authority is in being the essential writings through which we hear the voice of God and the Word made flesh in Jesus.

To recognize the inspiration and authority of scripture is not simply a matter of what we believe, but how we let scripture inspire us and shape our lives as a community of faith. So, read it, study it, memorize it, wrestle with it, question it, argue with it, but make sure to allow its life-giving, life-renewing words to transform you and make you into God’s people. Only then will we write a new chapter in God’s story in our day and time; a continuing story that was first written down long ago by those inspired by God.

There is more light and truth yet to break forth from God’s Holy Word.

Word of God: Written, Spoken, Cosmic, Inner, Incarnate: Acts 4:31; John 5:39-40; Psalm 19:1-4; 1 Cor. 2:9-16; Hebrews 1:1-3

 

I grew up in a southern fundamentalist church tradition that believed that the Bible is the very Word of Gaawd, in capital letters. That was understood to mean that the Bible, preferably in the King James version, came to us unencumbered by human error, dictated by God into the minds of those who first penned its words. The “Word of God” was shorthand for the Bible. This idea was made visible when the preacher held up his large floppy, leather-bound Bible and said, “The Word of God says...” And those of us who listened knew he meant we must believe every word jot and tittle.

But, this notion of the Bible being the Word of God is not exclusive to fundamentalists. In liberal, mainline liturgical traditions you will hear the Bible read on a Sunday morning followed by the congregation antiphonally responding with this traditional litany: This is the Word of the Lord/Thanks be to God. Admittedly, the texts that are read are from a three year lectionary cycle, which does a bit of censoring, or should I say “editing,” of some of the more problematic biblical texts. That part of Psalm 137 about dashing babies’ heads against the rocks doesn’t seem to “cut the mustard.” Ironically, the lectionary also excludes these words from Revelation: “if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away that person’s share in the tree of life”? Holy Shibboleth, Batman! And an old voice echoes in my head, “You cain’t take anything away from the Word o’ Gaaawd!” But, is the Bible all we mean by the “Word of God”?

Understanding the meaning of the “Word of God” is key to placing the Bible in its broader context of God’s diverse and delightful forms of communication with humanity.

One of the primary forms by which God communicates with us is through the written Word. When we refer to the Bible as “the Word of God,” we mean something other than its words come directly from the mouth of God. The old self-assured saying, “God said it. I believe it. That settles it,” reflects this understanding of the Bible as the literal words of God. Everything in the Book, God said it. In this view the Word of God and the words of the Bible are equated.

Truthfully, the Word of God is a metaphor that refers to something much broader and deeper than the Bible. Like every statement about God the phrase, “Word of God,” is metaphorical and not literal language. As a metaphor, the “Word of God” has within it a creative tension by being both like and unlike that which it seeks to describe. God’s Word is both like and unlike human words. The metaphor “God’s Word” attempts to depict God’s communication with us as being like the way in which we communicate with one another. At the same time it is unlike human communication. Words are part of human speech that is created through our physicality; brain, breath, mouth, tongue, lips, and body. Words are audible. They are human creations used to communicate our inner thoughts with one another. Speech, voice, words, language are terms that represent this unique form of communication between humans. Words represent human interaction.

Since God is Spirit, metaphors like Word of God, God’s voice, God speaking, cannot be taken literally. God has no mouth or tongue with which to speak. God’s voice is not audible, though it may be depicted as such in scripture. And yet, we believe God communicates with humanity. The “Word of God” is a rich metaphor that points to the diverse forms of communication by which the unseen God reveals or communicates God’s self to us.

Scripture is one of those mediums of communication. God speaks through the scriptures. Again, this is a metaphor. As NT Scholar Marcus Borg says, “The Bible is the Word of God, not the words of God.” By that I think he means that the Bible is a conduit of God’s self-revelation, not the literal words of God. To understand the Bible as the literal Word of God is to destroy the metaphor and its creative tension between “like and unlike.” It also tends to destroy sound theology! The real danger with religious metaphors is to literalize them by forgetting the “unlike” part of the metaphor. This happens with such a metaphor as “God, our Father.” The very shock when hearing the metaphor “God, our Mother” indicates we have thought of “God, our Father” much too literally. Remember, God is not a male with a human body and…and…all those “things” that make a male and a father. God is like and unlike a human male and father. As well, God is like and unlike a human female and mother. The Bible as the Word of God is like and unlike the human Word.

To say that God speaks through scriptures means that God, the sacred Mystery of Being, communicates to us through the broken and beautiful stories, parables, texts, images and words in that collection of books we call “the Bible.” The Word of God rides upon the frail human words of the biblical texts. The divine Word is within and yet distinct from the human words. It is a transcendent Word alongside, beneath, and emerging through our common words. A Word different from and yet like our words.

In one sense, we might understand the Bible as Roman Catholics understand the sacraments. A sacrament is a symbol or ritual which mediates the divine presence to us. As a sacrament the holy Eucharist mediates the grace of God. Sacraments are not in and of themselves that grace, but its channel. Understood sacramentally, the Bible mediates to us the Word of God. Through partaking of the scriptures we receive the grace-full Word of God. Or we might think of the Bible as the finger in the story of Buddha pointing to the moon. The Buddha wanted his disciples to see the moon, not his finger. In the same way, the Buddha’s teachings pointed to the truth, but were not to be equated with it. So, the Bible is the finger that points to God. As the Word of God the Bible becomes a channel of God’s voice.

An elderly woman sits in her rocking chair wearing her blue apron. As she knits she looks out the window as the morning sun shines off the hood of the old Chevy her late husband used to work on, then stares off in space. He’s been gone only four months. The pain of her loss is palpable. She misses him fiercely and wishes she could join him. Family and friends come by less often. Her days are spent alone, lost in memories. How she longs to hear his voice, to be reassured by his presence. Depression often sets in like a cold morning fog. She picks up her husband’s worn leather Bible. It falls open to a passage he had underlined. Behold, I am with you always, even unto the end of the earth. The human words become a divine Word, a finger pointing to a deeper truth. An inner sun breaks through the fog in her heart.

Another form through which God communicates to us is the spoken Word. Before the Word was written, it was spoken. The written word of the Bible was produced within oral cultures. The greater majority of the populations within these biblical cultures were illiterate. Writing and reading were the privilege of a few of the upper class. The primary means of communication of the general population was by word of mouth. Even the written words of the Old Testament and Gospels were first circulated as oral tradition.

So, the Word of God, that is God’s self-revelation, came first through the spoken word. God speaks through the human voice.  The Bible itself witnesses to us that God’s Word came though the voices and words of prophets, sages, teachers, preachers, evangelists, and believers moved by the Holy Spirit. A familiar formula pronounced by the prophets was, “Thus says the Lord.” They spoke as if a mouthpiece of God. Through the human words of these messengers God’s voice was heard, while remaining human words.

Did not the prophetic words of Martin Luther King, Jr. sound like the voice of God for our day and time? In the midst of Jim Crow segregation and rampant racism he spoke a word that cut like a two edged sword to the heart and soul of our society. In King’s I Have a Dream speech he quotes the very words of the prophet Isaiah:  one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low. He intoned the hopes of an oppressed people longing for the day when the crooked road of racism would be straightened; the rough places of discrimination would be made smooth. A word from another time and context and from another human voice became the Word of God for us, here and now. Was it not God who was calling our nation to equality for all through Martin’s voice?

On a more common level, on a weekly basis preachers dare to take on the role of allowing their words to become the vehicle by which God communicates to the people. Their words may not have the power or tone of a Martin King, but they seek to speak the Word of God for our time and place. And preachers are not the only voices God uses to speak the Word. God can speak through  our own common voices as we each proclaim the good news of Christ, liberty to the captive, call for justice and equity, comfort the bereaved, teach the faithful, or share our faith. God’s voice rides upon our words.

Harold hadn’t been to church since he was a kid. After he left home for college, church was the last thing on his mind. He got married, settled into a small home in the suburbs with his new bride, and they had their first child, a son. When their son was about a year old they started thinking about his moral instruction.  Harold’s own childhood in the church came flooding back to him; weekly worship, Sunday School, church camps, Vacation Bible School. He remembered it as a good childhood experience. The orange and brown leaves were falling on the driveway as he pulled out to go to the local church that Sunday with his wife and son. After so many years away, Harold didn’t know what to expect.

They were warmly greeted by members as they were ushered to a pew. He fumbled with the bulletin and rubbed his son’s head as he lay on his lap. Some of the hymns were familiar from his youthful days. The robed preacher made his way to the pulpit for the sermon. He opened his Bible and stood there silent for a moment. For Harold it seemed an eternity. When the preacher spoke there was something about his voice, his tone, or was it his words that seemed to penetrate deep inside Harold? And when the preacher invited the listeners to renew their faith in God, Harold knew someone else was speaking through the preacher’s words. God speaks through the human voice.

God also communicates to us through the cosmic Word. No, I’m not talking about some hippie-dippie, New Age cosmic consciousness, man. Cosmic is that which pertains to the cosmos, the Greek word for world. We have all experienced the wonder and majesty of creation. The sunset paints the sky with a palette that pales Picasso. A lonely wolf cries on a moonlit desert night that makes the hair on the back of your neck stand up. A waterfall sprays the rock mountain like a white bridal veil at spring’s wedding. Bluebonnets babble on the hills as if bragging of their beauty. The scent of pine in the air makes you drunk on nature. The glimmering stars spangle the heavens with the jewelry of angels.

But, nature has no voice, or does it? The written Word has no tongue or mouth, but its voice can be heard in reading. Can we read nature? Some would say creation can be read and that it even has its own voice. The psalmist (19:1-3) believed that creation has a voice and words which witness to the glory of God:

The heavens are telling the glory of God; and the firmament proclaims his handiwork. Day to day pours forth speech, and night to night declares knowledge. There is no speech, nor are there words; their voice is not heard; yet their voice goes through all the earth, and their words to the end of the cosmos or world.

The psalmist goes on to talk about the law, or Torah, the central scriptures of the Hebrew people. Creation and scripture are voices through which God speaks.

The poet Gerard Manley Hopkins expressed the language of creation as God’s revelation in his poem God’s Grandeur. Creation is like an electrical current that flashes forth the power of God.

The world is charged with the grandeur of God.

It will flame out like shining from shook foil.

And in spite of human trampling and the stain of toil and trade, God, like a mother hen, incubates the world with the promise of rebirth.
 

Oh, morning, at the brown brink eastward, springs---

Because the Holy Ghost over the bent world broods
With warm breath and ah! Bright wings.

But, it doesn’t take a poet to recognize that God speaks through creation. In theology it is referred to as natural revelation. It is the common and natural revealing of God in all that surrounds us. In liturgy we sing it, as in one of our hymns: This is my Father’s world, and to my listening ear, All nature sings and round me rings the music of the spheres.

Then again, God communicates to us an inner Word.  As one who grew out of a context where the Bible was understood to be the very Word of God, I was delighted when I came upon this quote from Anabaptist Hans Denck: 

I value the Scriptures above all human treasures, but not as highly as the Word of God which is alive, strong (Heb. 4:12), eternal, and free. The Word of God is free from the elements of the world. It is God himself. It is Spirit and not letter, written with pen and paper, so that it can never be erased.

Denck makes a clear distinction between the scriptures and the Word of God. Scripture is written with pen and paper. The Word of God is free of those material elements. For Denck, and other spiritualist Anabaptists, the Word of God was both an inner Word and an outer Word. But, the scriptures were considered secondary to the inner Word, the living and active Word, the Word of the Spirit, the voice of God within.

Another Anabaptist in Bavaria wrote:

The Scriptures are merely the witness of the inner Word of God. A man can well be saved without the preaching or the reading of the Scriptures. (Otherwise, what should happen with those who are deaf or cannot read?) We understand God our Redeemer, not through the lifeless letter, but through the indwelling of Christ.

The Word of scripture is inanimate until it is given life through the voice of the Spirit within. God must speak to the heart for the Word to be a living Word. God speaks to the heart.

In the end, the ultimate Word of God is Jesus Christ, the incarnate Word. The prologue of John’s gospel begins:

In the beginning was the Word (logos). And the Word was with God and the Word was God. The Word became flesh (incarnate) and dwelled among us.

The language, speech, voice, word, God’s self-communication became human in the person of Yeshua ben Yoseph, Jesus of Nazareth. For the Christian the Word of God proclaimed in the life, teachings, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ is unparalleled. It is a Word that is clearer and more central to hearing God than the Bible, human speech, creation, and the inner voice. Christ is the measuring rod for the truthfulness and authenticity of the Word that comes through all of these channels. Jesus is the lens through which we read and understand the Bible. We do not preach our own wisdom, but proclaim with our voices the living and liberating Christ. Creation is subservient to the cosmic Christ, The Word through whom all things were made. The inner voice is judged by the Spirit of Christ. The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. Jesus Christ is the ultimate Word of God to humanity.

As the author of Hebrews puts it:

Long ago God spoke to our ancestors in many and various ways…but in these last days he has spoken to us by a Son…

Conclusion- So, the Word of God is not to be equated with the Bible. It is much broader than that. God communicates to us through the Bible, but also through the human voice, creation, the inner Word, and most essentially and definitively through Jesus Christ. That is not to say some of these channels of God’s self-communication are totally flawless and unobstructed. The Bible has its errors in transmission and ethically problematic texts. The human tongue is tangled and tainted and cannot be equated with God. Creation brings death and destruction as well as beauty and wonder. The inner voice can be self-centered or silent. Jesus Christ was a 1st century Mediterranean Jew separated from us by time, culture, religion, and worldview. Through the racket of human ego and error, class and culture, time and distance, it’s any wonder that we can hear God’s voice at all. And yet….

The trademark image of RCA Victor Records is of a dog sitting near a gramophone record player with his ear cocked to the side as if listening carefully. It was taken from a painting by English artist Francis Barraud. The fox terrier in the painting, named Nipper, was originally owned by the artist’s brother Mark. Mark died and his brother Frank inherited the dog, along with a belled phonograph and some recordings of Mark’s voice. When Frank would play the recordings of his brother’s voice, Nipper would come close, listen carefully, and recognize his master’s voice. Frank put the image to canvas, which eventually became RCA’s logo with the title His Master’s Voice.

God speaks to us across the pops and hisses, the warp and wobble, the distance and distractions that might distort or drown out the divine voice. And yet…. through written Bible, spoken language, wondrous creation, inner voice, and  most definitively through the earthly life of Jesus the Christ, the Master’s voice can still be heard.

There is more light and truth yet to break forth from God’s Holy Word.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Is Our God Still Too Small?

The trouble with many people today is that they have not found a God big enough for modern needs. While their experience of life has grown in a score of directions, and their mental horizons have been expanded to the point of bewilderment by world events and by scientific discoveries, their ideas of God have remained largely static. It is obviously impossible for an adult to worship the conception of God that exists in the mind of a child of Sunday-school age, unless he is prepared to deny his own experience of life.    J.B. Phillips, Your God is Too Small.

 

I first read J.B. Phillips book Your God is too Small back in the 70s. As a young Christian and student of the Bible Phillip’s book resonated with my experience of what I saw in many Christians’ narrow understanding of God. Phillips debunked a number of popular, but erroneous, images of God as ‘Resident Policeman,” “Parental Hangover,” and “God-in-a-Box.”  Even after more than 40 years since I read that book, I continue to be amazed at some rather narrow, but popular views floating around not only about God, but about the Spirit, Jesus, Scripture, and the church. If “our God is too small,” it is probably because our theology is too small.

It seems like many of us Christians need a bite size theology, a narrower and constricted theology that we can swallow; a happy pill to make us feel good. The immensity of our God and the earthshaking implications of our gospel have been shrunken down to a size where they can be placed in our front pockets for safe keeping.

God has become an old, white haired European man that looks and sounds like he grew up next door to us. The Spirit is not so much an uncontrollable, blazing fire as a small spark from the match we strike to warm our hearts every now and then. The Jewish Jesus, a revolutionary prophet that turned the world upside down has been turned into a middle class white American that jumps onto our particular political bandwagon. The Bible has become an infallible, devotional idol that reinforces our current worldviews and practices. The gospel has become a packaged formula that guarantees our ticket to heaven. And the church has become a comfy social club where “birds of a feather flock together.”

The tribalization of God turns God into a god of our people, our nation, our denomination, our religion. It is a “downsizing” of God that fits the divine into the box of the familiar and within the boundaries of our group identities.  This is the god of civil religion, the god “in whom we trust” on our dollar bills, who we invoke in nationalistic fervor, in war, and at baseball games with national anthems, and who we swear oaths to in secular courts. The god of our tribe is worshipped in churches that see themselves alone as the gatekeepers of the gospel, the right interpreters of Scripture, the true and holy church of God, or should we say “god.”

This is the god who was praised in segregated churches, who justified apartheid, and buttressed white supremacy.  This is the tribal god who excludes women from sharing their gifts in the pulpit and church and is called upon by those who curse small children crossing our borders fleeing violence and poverty. This shrunken god is trapped within our conservative or liberal perspectives and is willing to be used as a hammer against those who disagree with us. This tribal god is too small to transcend nation, culture, race, gender, and ideology. 

The bottling of the Spirit is an effort to keep the dynamic presence of God under our control. Pulitzer Prize winning writer Annie Dillard once described in Teaching a Stone to Talk our worship services as “children playing on the floor with chemistry sets mixing up a batch of TNT.” We have forgotten the power of the Spirit that we nonchalantly invoke on a Sunday morning. Dillard suggests we should all be wearing crash helmets!

Too often we enter the realm of the Spirit, particularly in worship, with the casualness of shopping at Walmart. Instead of taking our shoes off before the flaming presence of God’s Spirit, we, as it were, roast weenies on the dying embers of the spirit.  Our lack of expectancy, dependence on scripted worship, and general patterns of being unmoved from where we presently stand is evidence that we have bottled up the wind of the Spirit.

The domestication of Jesus has practically become a characteristic of American Christianity. The church has created a Jesus in its own image. Dr. Albert Schweitzer recognized the “strangeness of Jesus.” But, we have filtered out the oddness of someone from an ancient religion and culture with a different worldview in favor of either a divine figure floating above the earth or a “buddy Jesus” who thinks, believes, and acts just like our people. God forbid that we should portray Jesus as a black man, or take him at his word when he says things that run against our societal norms, like “It’s easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle….” Jesus is supposed to be one of us. He us supposed to support our political party, our ethical viewpoints, our lifestyles, and sit in our pews and go along with the consensus without disturbing our “peace.”

The taming of Scripture is an accepted practice in many of our churches. It starts with the instruction of our children in Sunday School. We take a story of the destruction of all humanity in an all-out apocalypse and turn it into a timid tale about a little thunderstorm, rainbows, and a floating zoo with the bobbing heads of giraffes sticking out the boat windows! As adults we still try to avoid those “texts of terror” that denigrate women, sidestep the implications of texts which justify slavery, whistle in the dark at apparent contradictions, and soften into pabulum the “hard sayings” of Jesus.

The rough places of the Bible are smoothed out and the valleys that depress us are lifted up, to borrow images from Isaiah. The strangeness of the Bible, like the strangeness of Jesus, is domesticated and tamed for consumption by white, middle class Americans. We have forgotten how to struggle with muscular texts of the Bible that seek to throw our faith into a headlock.  Our Bibles have become tame and limp. There is a need relearn how to wrestle, like Jacob, with the angels of these difficult texts until we receive a blessing.

The shrinking of the gospel can only lead to stunted Christians. Salvation has been shrink wrapped into a simple formula that can be encapsulated into four easy steps, printed on a tract and can be easily handed out to strangers like sugary candy. Forget about the ecological dimensions of the liberation of the cosmos. Never mind those people captive to capitalism, consumed by consumerism, and think only materialism matters. Sorry, but the gospel has nothing to say to racism, sexism, classism, ableism, homophobia, and xenophobia. It’s all about getting me and mine through the pearly gates when we die. And that’s the gospel truth?

The parochialization of the church happens when we lose sight of the universal body of believers. We are not the totality of the church. Our race and culture does not define the nature of the church. Our way of worshipping is not sacred and written in stone tablets. Our images of God and Christ and the church are not universal. The church in all its delightful diversity is the universal church. There is a reason Sunday morning has been called the most segregated hour of the week. We are still hung up on that idea that “birds of a feather flock together.” It has been baptized into an evangelism strategy! Seek those who are like you! Here’s the church and here’s the steeple and open the doors and see how much they are alike!

A theology as big as the gospel is not an easy one to swallow, even for myself. I would rather worship a manageable God that fits into my neat categories and conceptions. I would prefer a Spirit contained within comfortable expressions of a dignified religion. A Jesus who fits my social, religious, ethical, and political agenda is, in the words of the Doobie Brothers, “just alright with me.” My preference is for a Bible free of those problematic texts, embarrassing stories, and hard sayings. Give me a gospel that is simple and ready to plug into the wall socket of any context. And I’m just fine being around those who look and think like me, thank you very much.

Except, our God is bigger than that! Our gospel is cosmic! Our Spirit is a burning flame! Our Christ is universal! Our church is worldwide! If that doesn’t expand your mind, your heart, your theology, and your actions, then your God is still too small.

 

 

 

Yesterday I did a recorded interview with Evan Pollack for his Experience Drums website. It will included in his section called "Community Saints" about drummers bring wholeness to their communities through rhythm. I talk about my life in drumming and my work with Drumming for Peace.

I will make a post when the interview is on the website.

My 10 most Influential Theology Books

I limited my list of influential books to "theology" books (including biblical studies and homiletics) since a list that would include my interests in peace studies, literature, art, and music/drumming would be much too long. These books span four decades of reading and study and mark different degrees of shifts in my theological formation.

1. Worthy is the Lamb, Ray Summers

 

I read this book around 1974 not long after discerning a call to ministry and entering California Baptist University. It opened up an alternative eschatology (historical/amillenial) from my fundamentalist, premillennial indoctrination.

2. The Social Setting of Pauline Christianity, Gerd Thiessen

 

I spotted this book in a seminary friend's library around 1977 and had to read it. It opened up the world of the social-science approach to reading of biblical texts.

 

3. Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger

 

 

I came across this book after seminary and my eyes were opened to the enormous problem of hunger and the disparity of poverty and wealth. I led me to get involved in Project Understanding, a community-based social justice project in Ventura County, CA, and to do hunger education.

 

4. Thy Will Be Done: Praying the Our Father as a Subversive Activity, Michael Crosby

 

 

I was introduced to liberation theology in the early 80s by an atheist that worked with my wife, Iris. For some strange reason, he had an interest in the movement of liberation among Catholics in Latin America. This book, along with Gustavo Guttierez' classic Theology of Liberation, were a doorway into liberation theology and emancipatory readings of the Bible.

 

5. Black Theology of Liberation, James Cone

 

 

Being a pastor near Berkeley, CA I had access to the Graduate Theological Union bookstore, where I encountered more radical readings in the early 80s (I visited there recently and it had been closed for 5 years!). Cone's book was another dimension of liberation theology that connected me to issues of race and its impact on theological construction. I have to mention Delores Williams Sisters in the Wilderness as my later intro to womanist theology.

 

6. Sexism and God-Talk, Rosemary Radford Reuther

 

 

With a path opened into liberation theology in the early 80s, I stepped into feminist theology. This book was not my introduction to feminist theology. That was from a reading of Mary Daly's radical Beyond God the Father. What struck me about this book was its comprehensive look at traditional Christian theology through a new lens. A similar book for biblical study was Elizabeth Schussler Fiorenza's In Memory of Her.

 

6. Christianity and Revolution, Lowell Zuck

 

 

I was introduced to Anabaptism through the influence of James Wm. McClendon, Jr., an (ana)baptist theologian who was a member of a congregation in Alameda, CA where I was pastor (1983-87). He taught a class on Anabaptist history at the Episcopal Divinity School at GTU Berkeley. He used this book in his GTU class. The social justice elements of Anabaptists involved in the Peasant's War and their pacifism drew my attention. 

 

7. The Nature of Doctrine, George Lindbeck

 

 

Another book from one of Jim's classes at GTU that gave me a handle on understanding various approaches to theology was this seminal book by Lindbeck. It was my introduction to a cultural-linguistic approach and post-liberal theology, which I saw as having connections to Anabaptism.

 

8. Homiletic: Moves and Structures, David Buttrick

 

 

With my experience, study, and writing focused on homiletics, I had to include something on homiletics. I plowed through this massive book in the 90s. Although highly theoretical it also gave me a practical and structural way to approach constructing my sermons at that time.

 

9. Jesus and the Spiral of Violence, Richard Horsley

 

 

Horsley is one of my favorite socio-political readers of the Bible (along with my friend, Ched Myers). This book introduced me to his work by connecting the themes of peace, politics, and empire in biblical studies (an area I continue to delve into). Can't get enough of Horsley.

 

10. Asian Biblical Hermeneutics and Postcolonialism, R.S. Sugirthirajah

 

 

This book from 1998 was one of my first introductions to postcolonial theology and biblical studies. It was a move beyond liberation theology, a well I was deeply drinking from, and in some ways a critique of that project.

 

This list takes me up to near 2000. It is but a small slice of my readings, but reflects major influences on my present theology and hermeneutical interests.  

Getting ready for my first art show as a RAW artist for Spectrum on April 17, 7 pm at the Bassanova Ballroom, Portland, Oregon. I welcome sponsors to purchase a ticket at the site below.