I want to talk to you again today about one of the most dangerous books in
all of literary history. It has incited wars, violence, and deep division. It
has been used to justify slavery, racism, the oppression of women, and violence
against gays and lesbians. Arguments about its contents have divided families,
religions, and even nations. This book has caused some to be persecuted, others
to be excluded, and many to feel abused. Yet it remains at the center of our
most important legal and governmental rituals. I am talking about the Bible, of
course, the sword of the Lord!
I have heard people say, "Who cares what the Bible says?" Well, I
care what the Bible says, and so should you. Though we may not all agree about
what it says and how it should function as an authority, the church, in all of
its many manifestations through the centuries, has held on to the Bible as
"the Word of God."
The Bible carries the story of God’s engagement with humankind, the
history of salvation, and God’s self-disclosure to the world. It creates
the people of God called the church. It contains God’s demands for righteousness
and justice, and God’s offer of forgiveness and mercy. Most of all, it
has been the experience of the church through the centuries that when scripture
is read and studied, the very God who inspired it long ago is mysteriously
present and speaking in the here and now.
Many churches quite different from each other in theology and practice read the
same lectionary scripture texts each week because we agree at least on this one
thing: the Word of God belongs at the center of our worship. Not the prayers
where we tell God what God already knows and ought to do, not the music where
we praise God and feel good, not the sermon where one of us tells the rest of
us what he or she thinks God is saying, but the reading of scripture where God
speaks directly to us is the central moment of this hour. The Bible is not just
a word about God, but the living word of God to us today.
I understand why some people would want nevertheless to throw it away. Parts of
the Bible are really hard to understand. It shows a people in process. Parts of
the Bible are patriarchal and put women in their place, while other parts move
to the liberation and equality of women. Parts of the Bible legislate
violence as a means of discipline … while other parts liberate us from
that cycle of violence that creates more violence. The Bible has to be
interpreted with a discriminating, scholarly, God-guided humility. In the wrong
hands it can do great harm, and it has been in the wrong hands many a time.
Listen, just because somebody begins a sentence with "The Bible says"
doesn’t mean it’s true. The Bible may not be saying what they claim
it’s saying, and what they claim it’s
saying may not be all the Bible has to say on that particular subject. That
even goes for what I say the Bible says. I’m not saying you
shouldn’t bother to listen to me … just that it’s always wise
to get a second opinion. Your alternatives are not to be abused by the Bible or
to ignore it. There’s simply no better protection from the abusers of the
Word who take God’s name in vain than to read it, and study it, and know
it for yourself so you’ll know better when somebody says "The Bible
says."
A lot of people argue more about the Bible than actually read the Bible to see
what it has to say. A lot of people read only their favorite texts but ignore
the rest. A lot of people who’ve had the Bible used against them have
abandoned the scripture to those who want to use it against them, but that is a
serious mistake. Why should we surrender the Bible and the church and the language
of our faith, words like "Christian" and "holy" and
"born again" and so many others to those who want to redefine them
all as an instrument of control and abuse. They can’t take them from us; we
shouldn’t give them that power. It is up to us to define those words by
the way we use them, by the way we live. It is up to us to hear and live by the
scripture as God guides us. It’s
up to us to be a contradiction and countertestimony
to any who would use the Bible as a means to power instead of an invitation to
life.
I have issues, too, with the way the Bible has been used to abuse people. But
there may be a deeper reason the Bible bothers us, and we need to be honest
about that. As the author of Hebrews suggests in our epistle
reading today:
Indeed, the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged
sword, piercing until it divides soul from spirit, joints from marrow; it is
able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And
before (God) no creature is hidden, but all are naked and laid
bare to the eyes of the one to whom we must render an account (Heb
4:12-13).
Notice the author of Hebrews is not saying we should use the Bible as a sword
against others to attack and exclude and damage them. It isn’t our
sword. He is saying the Bible is a sword in God’s hands to confront us
with the naked truth about ourselves, which we all know, isn’t
always so pretty.
We don’t like to hear the simple truth that one day we will have to
account for our lives before God. We often excuse our poor choices and bad
behavior while blaming others for the way they behave towards us. We fabricate
a mental myth of our own self-righteousness. But the Bible doesn’t let us
off the hook. It nails us. It won’t let us lie to ourselves.
It reminds us we can’t hide anything from God. What bothers us about the
Bible is the way it reads us. It’s harder than having your life partner
tell you the things about yourself you don’t want to hear. It’s
harder than dealing with your issues in therapy. It’s harder than going
to the doctor to hear the truth about what’s wrong with you when
you’ve been telling yourself for years it was just an allergy. The Bible
is like the cartoon I saw in the New Yorker. "Sit down, Brad," a boss
is telling his employee from behind his desk. "I’ve got some
character-building news for you." We are like Cary Fellman's
poem, "Mirror."
My face in the mirror
Isn't wrinkled or drawn;
My house isn't dirty
The cobwebs are gone;
My garden looks lovely
And so does my lawn
I think I will never
Put my glasses back on.
You know what the Bible does? It holds up a mirror and makes us see ourselves
as we really are. First thing in the morning. No
makeup. No masks. No soft lighting. What are those bumps? Where did those lines
come from? I forgot about that scar. The Bible messes with us until we want to say, "Get out of my business, God. I don’t want
to face this. I can’t handle the truth!" So we take off our glasses.
Take the gospel reading today where Jesus confronts the rich man with his
attachment to wealth. He wants to follow Jesus. And he’s a good
guy…regularly attends synagogue, obeys the ten
commandments, always has, always will, probably well-liked by everybody
who knows him. But he can’t let go of the real god of his life. Jesus
knows his inner secret. He doesn’t own his wealth; it owns him. Then
Jesus says, "It’s easier for a camel to go through the eye of a
needle than for someone who is rich to enter the
Offensive, isn’t it? All over the place the Bible makes these cutting
remarks, and you don’t need to hear it from televangelists to get sliced
by its truth. All you have to do is read it for yourself.
I had a seminary professor that I really respected. He was all about congruence.
He said what matters most to us are relationships of trust and trust is based
on the congruence between "soul" and "role," the
inner life of a person and his or her outward behavior. What students want to
know about teachers, what congregations want to know about preachers, what
citizens want to know about their leaders is whether or not they can be trusted
to be true and real and honest. If not, they drop out of the relationship, quit
learning, quit listening, quit voting. But my
professor said that our society works so hard to make us build a wall between
our inner soul and our outer role that we eventually even lose touch ourselves
with what’s deep inside us. Then we live inauthentic, unreflected
lives out of touch with our deepest identity and values and truths. What
I’m saying today is that the Bible calls us to do our soul work. The Bible shows us our incongruence. The Bible reveals the beauty and the beast
that lie within us, and the Bible calls us to a community of trust where we can
be real before God and each other. So, why do we resist it … turn it into
a weapon against others or abandon it altogether, anything, anything but let it
show us the truth about ourselves?
We all know, sometimes we have to endure pain to be healed. And the cuts the
Bible makes are the surgery we need to be healed. We may not like the diagnosis,
but we can’t be saved from what’s killing us until we face the
truth about it. We can’t take hold of life until we let go of death.
First, we have to have the courage to face the truth. We have to have the sense
to take the cure instead of living with the lie that nothing’s really
wrong, and that everything will be fine if we just keep on going the way we’ve
been going. But we are often so wrapped in our denials and excuses and flimsy
self-justifications, sometimes the Bible has to use sharp words just to get our
attention.
As Frederich Buechner says,
The gospel is bad news before it is good
news. It is the news that man is a
sinner, to use the old word, that he is evil in the imagination of his heart, that when he looks in the mirror all
in a lather what he sees is at least eight parts chicken, phony, slob. That is
the tragedy. But it is also the news that he is loved anyway, cherished,
forgiven, bleeding to be sure, but also bled for.
The author of Hebrews puts it this way. Right after telling us the bad news
that the word of God will slice us open, lay us bare, cut us to pieces before
the God who holds us to account for what we’ve done with the one life we’ve
been given, he goes on to say:
Since, then, we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens,
Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast to our confession. For we do not have a
high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one
who in every respect has been tested1 as we are, yet without sin.
Let us therefore approach the throne of grace with boldness, so that we may
receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. (Heb 4:14-16)
That’s the good news. Jesus, our
eternal high priest, who knows what it’s like to be us, has offered
himself and so opened the way for us to approach the throne of God not
apologetically, not fearfully, but boldly, freely to find mercy and grace to
help in time of need.
If we have any sense, we are naturally afraid of God. We use the word
"awe" but the old word is "fear," and I think it is truer
to what we feel. God is other, mysterious, powerful
beyond our understanding. The one true God is dangerous to our wants and plans
and schemes. Nothing is hidden from God, but that doesn’t mean we
don’t try. So, as Hebrews says elsewhere, "It is a fearful thing
to fall into the hands of the living God" (Heb 10:31). But God has not
come to destroy. God wants to love. God wants to heal. Perhaps it’s being
healed we fear most.
Pastors are just the nurses in this picture. We’re here to hold your
hand, to remind you to take your medicine, to call the doctor when you’re
beyond our help. But it’s the Great Physician you really need. I want to
say today: don’t take the scalpel out of the Surgeon’s hands. Read
the Bible. Have the courage to see where
you need to be cut, what you need to let go of, and what you need to take hold
of instead. Have the sense to choose the hard way that leads to life with the
One who loves you enough to be painfully honest with you. The Bible is the Word
of God for the people of God. Thanks be to God!
May we pray?
Creator and Sustainer, God of the Universe, thank you for being available
to us for the living of our lives. Grant us the courage to hear your word, to
see ourselves as you see us, and to be congruent to your call. Teach us to be more available to you that we
might accomplish your purposes and embody your love. Help us to carry your invitation to everyone
living in denial, isolation, deprivation, or fear. Let us show them how wide
you have opened the doors to real life in Jesus' name. Amen.
Rev. Mary Anne Biggs, Pastor
Nekoosa United
Nekoosa