[This text is still formatted and edited for delivery as a sermon.]
Is scripture SACRED?
Is
the bible different for us from other literature; Shakespeare's plays, for
example; the books of other religions; Harry Potter?
Do
MIRACLES matter? The bible is full of miracles. Can we ignore them? What do we
make of them?
Whose
WORD is the bible? Is it human words? Is it God's word? How do we come to one
view or the other? Should we?
The
SACRED; MIRACLES; the WORD of God; three words to help us consider the place of
the bible in our lives and our church.
A
couple of weeks ago, we were visited by a family from a Mennonite Church in
Germany; the father stood up to convey a blessing from their home congregation;
it is a tradition they have; he wished to read to us a passage from the bible;
I do not recall the passage but do recall the moment; he knew the passage in
German, but as a courtesy, he would read it in English; he asked for an English
bible;
Some
of us held our breath, in slight apprehension, but soon enough a bible was
offered;
It
was a touching moment; this visitor and a member of our congregation
standing together in the middle of our sanctuary; standing together comparing
texts in English and German; just so this man could convey to us
blessings and gratitude that came not only from the bible, but from his heart.
SACRED:
this bible was sacred for two congregations; two congregations speaking
different languages, and yet finding they had a common tongue; two
congregations that found it not at all strange to share words thousands of
years old in a greeting from across the seas; to hold these words in reverence.
That
which we hold Sacred, has power in our lives; the Bible has power; now,
maybe for only a few; once, for many. Half a thousand years ago, the
bible had power to throw Europe into tumult and disorder; rightly or wrongly,
the name of Martin Luther has been attached to that moment; Martin Luther, the
iconic figure of protestantism; the champion of sola scriptura -
the notion that all matters of Christian faith and practice should be decided
by scripture; Luther wielded the bible as a sword in the theological
disputations of his day; attend to his words:
"How often must I scream at you thick ignorant papists
to come with Scripture?" "Scripture. Scripture. Scripture. Do you not
hear, you deaf goat and dumb ass?" "I will and must be subdued with
Scripture . . . not with uncertain life and doctrine of men, however holy they
may be".
POWER:
but not only power over Luther’s opponents; Power over Luther; Luther knew
this, and he submitted to it; recall his words: " I will and must be
subdued; I will and must be subdued, with Scripture; not with uncertain life;
not with the doctrine of men, however holy they may be; I must be subdued with
Scripture." If we hold something Sacred, we concede its power over us; Luther
held the Scriptures to be Sacred; in the midst of his aggression, his
screaming, was also submission; Luther could be subdued, he would and must be
subdued by that which he held Sacred - Scripture.
Here we
find a connection to Mennonite roots. Catholic mystics, such as Meister Eckhart
and Johannes Tauler, had popularized the notion of gelassenheit;
Martin Luther was shaped by this idea, and it became a very important to
Anabaptists; gelassenheit - a semi-mystical ideal of
spiritual submission; of yielding to, of being subdued by the work of God's
spirit. This ideal is manifested in certain a stance towards scripture; a
stance of receptivity. Not, primarily, of figuring out what scripture says;
not, primarily, of constructing a correct interpretive approach - collective
discernment, perhaps; but rather, by submitting to the possibility that the
spirit of God may work upon us through the Bible; may subdue us, through that
text.
MIRACLES:
the bible is full of them. The cosmos brought into being; life breathed into
clay; visitations by angels; seas parted, lights in the sky; the sun halted in
its course; giants slain; kings cleansed of leprosy; travellers swallowed and
spit up by great fish; prophecies made; empires brought low; lame men walking;
bleeding women healed; the blind given sight; the dead made alive and raised
up; a new heaven, a new earth; every tear wiped away.
What
do we do with these stories? Be warned: in our response to the possibility of
miracles we may be tempted; tempted to construct a world which we secretly hope
can get by without God.
The
rationalist will question. Fair enough. As it happens, that is my camp. If you
tell me a miracle happened, I will ask, "How do you know?" If you
tell me you have been healed by faith, I will suspect that really it was that
anti-biotic. Case by case, this is fine, but have I manufactured a new
rule for a world without God? An untested conviction that "Miracles don't
happen"? Have I forgotten that our hope and consolation rest on a much
greater miracle: God, and God's real and unswerving love for us? This is Materialism
over Miracle.
Or,
another approach. The mystic and poet seek the inner, the symbolic, the
metaphorical truth of these stories. Fair enough. Why should we not find
God in the mysterious depths of the human soul? But, have we banished God from
the world around us? Can we really ignore the possibility of a gritty salvation
worked out in flesh and blood? Does it make no difference to us whether Lazarus
lived again, because we really don't care about Lazarus - we care only
about the story, and the inner truth the story evokes? Perhaps then we seek no
more from God than we do from Lazarus - God becomes a story that evokes an
inner truth, but with no reality or import outside of our own telling. This is
Metaphor over Miracle.
Or
yet another way. The believer in things unseen will stand firm. There are more
things in heaven and earth than dreamt of in our philosophies. Fair enough.
Fortuitous events take place. Mysterious occurrences abound. Healing happens,
through prayer or the channeling of psychic energies. Presentiments,
inexplicable visions and special insights imbue everyday occurrences with
deep meaning. Accounts of near death experiences or perhaps recollections of
lives past instil confidence of life beyond mundane existence. But at what
point do we find ourselves pressing on spiritual buttons, and pulling on
psychic levers? Are we seeking a technology of the spirit, merely to master a
spiritual universe rather than a material one? Do we seek to grasp, to
comprehend and master things unseen, and forget to pray that God will master
us? Magic over Miracle.
If
not Materialism, if not Metaphor or Magic, what should we make of Miracles?
MIRACLES:
they are not ordinary. they are extraordinary. they signal a new event; a
change in the course of history and the so called natural order; they are a
revelation that the history and natural order we assumed was different than we
had thought. The hidden or perhaps not so hidden meaning of all the miracles of
the Old Testament and New is that God is real and that God is for us; despite
appearances, God is the most real thing there is; Their meaning is that a
reality without God, in which God is not real, and where God is not there for
us -- that is in fact, an unreality; the little miracles of the bible and our
lives all point to this great and foundational miracle; whether we believe it
or not, God is our reality; God desires our welfare and consolation; God will
accomplish our welfare and consolation.
How
do we know of this Miracle of God? Only if God tells us. Only when God tells
us. Only by God's Word, spoken in time. Only by God's Word, spoken in
human hearts. Only by God's Word, resonating in lives, events, histories;
failures, victories; births, deaths, sufferings; prayers, cries of grief, cries
of hope. God's Word, made flesh.
A
certain theologian once said:
God may speak to us through Russian Communism,
through a flute concerto, through a blossoming shrub or through a dead dog. We
shall do well to listen to him if he really does so.
So
why this book, the Bible? Why not another? Why not all books? Or perhaps we
should get to choose. Perhaps we each get to pick our favourite book as our own
bible. Maybe. Why not, if God so speaks. But this book, this Bible, has a
particular history. A history in two forms. First, it tells a history; a
history of the Word of God spoken to us. A history that claims God has spoken,
God speaks and God will speak, in the midst of humanity. In the midst of
humanity and to all humanity. This is the history that the Bible tells.
But, and this is important, the Bible not only tells a history, the Bible has a
history. The Bible not only tells a story, it is part of a story. In the words
of that same theologian:
The Word of God still happens today in the
Bible, and apart from this happening the Bible is not the Word of God, but a
book like other books.
What
sets the Bible apart? It is just this. The Bible just happens to be the one
book through which pretty well all Christian churches, past and present, claim
to have heard the Word of God; note the limits to this claim; it is not that
this is the only book through which the Word of God has spoken, although some
may say so; the claim is merely that, not only does the Bible tell the story of
the Word of God spoken to humans; to Moses, for example, as he stood before the
burning bush; the churches testify that the Word of God has spoken through the
Bible itself, actively and with authority; in other words, not only does the
bible tell us about the burning bush; the Bible has been a burning bush, through
which the Word of God has spoken to many, many people; to your grandmother,
perhaps, as she read from that book in her evening devotionals.
This
is to say, the Bible "has been" the Word of God, in the same sense
the burning bush was the Word of God. Can we say the Bible "is"
the Word of God. Not if the book just sits here, an object, solid and inert.
But some person may pick it up, leaf through it, read a passage, and find
the Word thrust upon her; that person may discover, to borrow a phrase from the
Letter to the Hebrews, that the Word of God is "living and active,
sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing until it divides soul from spirit .
. ." [Heb 4:12]; such a person may read a passage, and be seized by the
Word. Will the Bible be the Word of God for you, or for us, tomorrow? We
have no claim or control over that, but for thousands of years, seekers and
people of faith have picked up this particular book with hope that the Word
would speak to them and seize them, as it has for so many in times past.
The
Bible is the Word of God, when and as and if the Word speaks through
it.
The
Good News is that the Word is no dead letter, but living and active. The
miracle is that we did not find the Word -- it sought us out, God sought
us out, bringing not peace, but a sword, and yet sweet consolation as well. The
Word has spoken to us, has spoken for us, and
not all our doubts and questionings, not our dry times, not the mindsets,
ideologies and superstitions of our age, may keep it from speaking to us again;
speaking through a flute concerto, through a blossoming shrub, or through the
words of Scripture. We would do well to listen.
Veni
sancte spiritus - Holy Spirit, come upon us.
Amen
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