Reading the Bible Again
Reading the Bible Again
February 17, 2008
Douglas S. Long
Umstead Park United Church of Christ
 
My time this morning honors the group that has delved into, as a Lenten discipline recently, a study of Marcus Borg’s “Reading the Bible Again for the First Time.” You may wonder at the title of that book. How is it possible to read something again, for the first time?
I have a good example of how that happens.
I went out and bought a copy of Borg’s book about a month ago so I could join the study… I began reading it with great interest in some of Borg’s points, wishing I had encountered them earlier because they were so useful in explaining Biblical matters…. and then last week as Joi and I were talking in my office, she noticed the book on my desk and pointed out that I had a copy on my shelf as well.
I took the book down and saw my name written on the inside page... it was my book!... and realized I had indeed read it a few years ago because it is quite well marked up with underlines and comments in the columns.
I had been reading Borg’s book again… as if for the first time!
 
Perhaps that says more about my memory than anything else… but truthfully I do think it exemplifies how most of us encounter the Bible. We learn about it… read some stories… hear a sermon maybe… and some of it sticks and some of it doesn’t. We can read the same story ten years later and say, “Oh, that’s what that means!”
 
I printed the text Nicki read in the bulletin to help make a couple of points that might “stick” with us longer than others have, or perhaps we might see again for the first time.
 
The first is the opening section of The Gospel of Luke:
 
Luke 1:1-5
So many others have tried their hand at putting together a story of the wonderful harvest of Scripture and history that took place among us, using reports handed down by the original
eyewitnesses who served this Word with their very lives.
Since I have investigated all the reports in close detail, starting from the story's beginning, I decided to write it all out for you, most honorable Theophilus,
so you can know beyond the shadow of a doubt the reliability of what you were taught.
 
During the rule of Herod, King of Judea, there was a priest named Zechariah, who belonged to the priestly order of Abijah. His wife was a descendant of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth…
 
Notice how the author explains very clearly that this is one of many accounts, that he is not an eye witness, that this is a compilation of many reports handed down… and the writer is writing to, Theophilus… Theo- God-               philo- lover.. He is writing to the lovers of God.
So here is the story of Jesus, lovers of God… it begins when Herod was King, and an obscure priest names Zechariah and his wife Elizabeth…
The author we know as Luke begins the Gospel as he understands it.
Matthew told his version, and Mark his, and John his, and many of you realize others told theirs as well but their stories didn’t make it into the canon.
The Bible contains a plurality, a diversity, if you will, of authors.
 
The second passage I arbitrarily included helps me make a very different point. This is often quoted by biblical literalist to substantiate the veracity of scripture. II Timothy 3:16 “All scripture is inspired by God…”
 
2 Timothy 3:16-17
All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching the truth, rebuking error, correcting faults, and giving instruction for right living,
so that the person who serves God may be fully qualified and equipped to do every kind of good deed.
 
 
If a conversation emerges where a passage is question a fundamentalist often jumps to the front (I’ve seen it happen many times) and says “All scripture is inspired by God- II Timothy 3:16”
..which basically says, the Bible is true because it says it is.
But more problematic, and difficult to explain to the scripture-quoter, is that II Timothy was written before the Gospels were and that the scripture referred to in the “All Scripture is inspired” quote could not have referred to the NT at all because much of it had not been written much less compiled into one volume, a movement which coalesced centuries later.
Such knowledge can be unsettling if one holds a view of the Bible that claims it is perfect in every detail… the Words of God transcribed through puppet fingers and bestowed upon humanity…
This is expressed in different ways. I learned, as a child, the Bible was the inerrant, infallible Word of God (I had no idea what those words meant, but I learned that definition)
Maybe you’ve heard the “God said it. I believe it, that settles it” phrase… or more recently the articulation that B.I.B.L.E. is an acronym for Basic Instruction Before Leaving Earth.
 
I couldn’t disagree more. I think it’s much more about the here and now.
 
In fact, in trying to succinctly describe the Bible I’ve come up with a couple of definitions that are helpful to me, anyway. I’ll quickly list two and then use the rest of my time to explore a third explanation.
 
So here are more accurate definitions, I believe, of the Bible:
1)      The Bible is the word of God, filtered through human words and culture.
2)       Here is another …and this is directly from Borg: The Bible is not the word of God, but it is human words in response to God.
3)      …and yet a third: The Bible is a divine dialogue focused around this question:  Who is God?
 
“The Bible,” I’ve said this many times and in fact some of you have heard me say it and, in further fact, some of you may recognize parts of this message as something you’ve heard before … while others will be hearing it fresh … and still others will hear it, no doubt again, for the first time (Someone at the Coordinating Council Meeting this past week said I could preach the same two sermons every week because no one remembers what I say anyway. They went on to say that probably depressed me. “Actually,” I explained, “it’s quite the opposite. If I could get away with just having two sermons in my repertoire I could save a LOT of time!!!”)  
 
Back to the conversation at hand… The Bible is a conversation, a debate, a dialogue, about who God is. It is a sacred account of men and women struggling with the Divine. The images offered are not so much based on fact as they are faith.
 
The Bible is a dialogue about God.
 
Novices to the Bible assume that there is a chronological nature to it. What happens in the first chapters and books must have been written first, and an orderly progression follows. This is simply not correct. The book of Genesis, for example, was written far later than much of the rest of what we refer to as the Old Testament, or better, the Hebrew scriptures. Whereas other cultures may have preserved a more focused coherent view of deity, what we have, recorded in our scriptures, is a multiplicity of images…. And an eventual chaotic sort of progression in which, in general terms, a warrior God of one people eventually is understood to be more accurately a cosmic, compassionate God of all creation.
 
Now, outside the Biblical world view, there were plenty of competing ideas about God… and certainly the framers of the sacred texts we know as scripture were influenced by these as well. (We still are.) The dominant culture of much of the day… Persia/Babylonia explained God and the creation myth best through the epic of Gilgamesh… where the world is created from warring gods… the spilt entrails of one forming the stuff from which we have our being.
 
Is that God? Is that how we came to be?
A gifted Hebrew sage postulated the beginning of all time this way…
“In the beginning… when the world was wild and waste and without order… the spirit of God carefully hovered over it all… fashioned it into being… willed it, molded it, breathed into it… and it was good.”
 
Now folks… it goes without saying, but of course I’m saying it… that there was no one there ‘In the beginning’ with a pad and pencil taking notes so they could save the happenings for posterity. There was no reporter on the scene. What we have here is an incredibly poetic, marvelous faith-filled account of creation compiled by some gifted spirit so in touch with the spirit of God that the wonder of this creation is captured in the wonderful words of this account. Is it true?… More true than fact… It is foundational truth.
 
The scriptures come to us more as story.
“Tell me a story about God, Father. Tell me who God is, Mother. Rabbi, tell us of God. Tell us how God protected our ancestors. Tell us how God will protect us.”
 
So … right now, rather quickly, let’s look at some of the stories and what they say about God.
Let me offer three couplets of scripture. Six passages which speak of the knowledge of God… I have chosen them from the Hebrew Scriptures to avoid the common answer that the God of the Old Testament is supplanted by the God of the New. I would also indeed claim that Jesus brought a focused answer to the debate… but this morning I am not so much interested in answering the question as offering insights. There are dozens, scores, of such stories about “who God is” in this text.  I’ve picked out six.
I’m going to read them, one at a time, and then I’m going to ask you to help me, in a very general way, think about what they say of God.
Are you with me?
 
Hear each of these as if they are the only story you have about who God is… (and, in truth, you may be able to identify different religious groups as having bought more into one than the other.)
 
So listen to the Bible as a divine dialogue about who God is:
 
The First couplet: Genesis 3 and II Samuel 6.
 
Genesis 3:8-9             
When they heard the sound of God strolling in the garden in the evening breeze, the Man and his Wife hid in the trees of the garden, hid from God.
God called to the Man: "Where are you?"
 
What sort of image of god does this offer?
               Walking in the garden in the cool of the day
               God is just like us!
               God takes a stroll in the evening.
               We can talk to God as we talk to the person beside us.
               God is accessible, approachable, a ‘big’ us.
   Are you drawn to this image?
 
Now, II Samuel 6:6-7
 
A little context here. This in itself is a great simplification, but for the sake of continuing… After the deliverance from Egypt and during the wanderings in the desert, the Hebrews had taken the 10 Commandments and built a container, an ark, for them. It became known most popularly as the Ark of the Covenant. This ark was eventually associated with the very presence of God and by some was viewed as the place where God resides. The Ark became God… and was carried into battle… captured at times by the Philistines…. but always won back. The Ark became so holy, the holy of holies, that it’s importance and power was unrivaled. Hence, to approach the ark was to approach the very presence of God.
In this passage, the people of Israel are dancing their way into Jerusalem with the Ark at the center of their celebration… when the exuberance lends itself toward excess and the Ark begins to teeter…
When they came to the threshing floor of Nacon, the oxen stumbled, so Uzzah reached out and grabbed the Ark of God.
God blazed in anger against Uzzah and struck him hard because he had profaned the Ark. Uzzah died on the spot, right alongside the Ark.
So Uzzah touched the holy of holies and for that crime was struck down.
As opposed to God walking in the cool of the day, what image of God does this afford?
               Unapproachable
               Not human
               Holy beyond all imagination
               A God who would kill any who would seek a commonality
               God is to be worshipped, but in no way accessed in immediacy.
 
 
Here is a second set of images:
2 Samuel 24 and I Chronicles 21
…an interesting couple of passages.
 
They both record the same story and it’s not a particularly important story. It’s about a census, and trying to establish the number of Israelites… but listen to the beginning of each of the accounts…
 
2 Samuel 24:1-2     Yahweh (God) directs David to take the census…
Once again God's anger blazed out against Israel. He tested David by telling him, "Go and take a census of Israel and Judah."
So David gave orders to Joab and the army officers under him, "Canvass all the tribes of Israel, from Dan to Beersheba, and get a count of the population. I want to know the number."
Just a few verses after God directs David to take the census, God punishes David for doing so.
(It harkens back to hardening the heart of the Pharaoh … remember that account?)
Interestingly, the Chronicler (I Chronicles) tells the very same story but cleans it up. God wouldn’t be that inconsistent! So here's the way the story begins in Chronicles:
 
I Chronicles 21:1-2  
Now Satan entered the scene and seduced David into taking a census of Israel.
David gave orders to Joab and the army officers under him, "Canvass all the tribes of Israel, from Dan to Beersheba, and get a count of the population. I want to know the number."
 
Satan incites David to take the census….
Now which is it and why the switch?
(Some scholars argue that the whole evolution of the Satan figure is to rescue the nasty side of life from attributing it to God.)
Who is God?
Do you see the conversation going on here?
 
 
And let's look at a third couplet. Numbers 31 and Micah 6.
 
First, let’s look at Numbers.
The war God.
The Hebrews entering into the Promised Land. Interesting isn’t it... the Promised Land. I never once in my Sunday School years questioned why the Hebrews were allowed, actually encouraged to kill all the peoples who had lived in ‘the promised land’ while they had been absent for several generations. Think about it a moment. A clan of people leave because drought forces them out. A couple of hundred years later they return.
“It’s ours,” they say... “It was promised to us by a god you do not know.”
Ever wondered what the Philistine account of all this would look like?
I learned in church at a very early age to love God and hate the Philistines.
 
Hear this small portion of the account… This is what God ordered them to do. …what God asked of the faithful.
 
Numbers 31:7-19
They attacked Midian, just as God had commanded Moses, and killed every last man.
The People of Israel took the Midianite women and children captive and took all their animals and herds and goods as plunder.
They burned to the ground all the towns in which Midianites lived and also their tent camps.
They looted and plundered everything and everyone - stuff and people and animals.
They took it all - captives and booty and plunder - back to Moses and Eleazar the priest
(At least they saved the women and children, we say! Oops… read on.)
Moses was furious with the army officers - the commanders of thousands and commanders of hundreds - as they came back from the battlefield:
"What's this! You've let these women live!
Finish your job: kill all the boys. Kill every woman who has slept with a man.
(At least they honored the virgins, we say. But read on…)
The younger women who are virgins you can keep alive for yourselves.
 
   The war god
   Our god.
   No other peoples count because they are not this god’s peoples.
   What if this was the only account of God you had?
People, there are those who still worship THIS god as the primary manifestation of the Divine. It is the patriotic war God. It is a convenient and often used god for all who would build machines of war masquerading as keepers of peace. This god is not dead among us.
 
Hear though, the contrast in the prophet Micah. What is it that we are to be about? Who is God here?
 
Micah 6:6-8
How can I stand up before God and show proper respect to the high God? Should I bring an armload of offerings topped off with yearling calves?
Would God be impressed with thousands of rams, with buckets and barrels of olive oil? Would he be moved if I sacrificed my firstborn child, my precious baby, to cancel my sin?
But he's already made it plain how to live, what to do, what God is looking for in men and women. It's quite simple: Do what is fair and just to your neighbor, be compassionate and loyal in your love, And don't take yourself too seriously - take God seriously.
 
   What is it that God requires of you? But to do justice, and love mercy, and walk humbly with your God?
Do justice… for all peoples
Love mercy… not vengeance
Walk humbly.
Is this the same God that commands Moses to go back and take out the women and children too? I think not.
 
It is no wonder that Jesus was rejected by the church of his day. The answer that he gave to the question, who is God, was so off-center, so politically incorrect, so subversive to the ways of humanity, that there was little left to do but eliminate him.
 
Love your enemies?
Do good to those who hate you?
Go the extra mile?
Live as a servant?
Always forgive.
Always offer compassion.
Always embrace.
Always love.
 
Jesus.
 
So here we sit today. The Church. The ones who claim to follow the one who was right about God. We continue to struggle with what it all means. We continue our efforts at being faithful.
 
Who is God?
 
There is a wonderful hymn in the UCC hymnal… Deep In the Shadows of the Past. We will sing it in just a moment. It describes with wonderful imagery and truth the story of the Bible… which is the story of faithful dialogue about God. This God is mystery, continually revealed.
 
The account is clear. To know God is possible. To peg God closely… well, be careful there, they’ve killed the last few messengers who did that.                       
 
Amen.