I’M A LITTLE NERVOUS about a series of lessons I have to help teach in the next few weeks.
We’re calling the series “The B-I-B-L-E, yes that’s the book for me.”
It’s a four-week set of lessons. I teach two of them. The one that has me nervous is the first one.
I’ll be leading a discussion of highlights in the book Making Sense of the Bible: Rediscovering the Power of Scripture Today by Adam Hamilton. He’s pastor of the United Methodist Church of the Resurrection. It’s not only the largest Methodist church in the country, with over 18,000 members, it’s the church I attend.
Adam has some lively ideas in his book.
By lively, I’m thinking of a kid taking a bat to a hornet’s nest at a church picnic.
My class will be dissecting the hornets.
A hornet, in this case, is an idea with a stinger.
Whether folks consider the idea good or bad, it’s going to sting someone somewhere.
Here are a few excerpts from the book that I’ve highlighted for discussion.
See if you think they’ll sting.
- Do you think the scripture writers Moses, David, Matthew, and Paul were inspired to a greater degree or in a different way than we experience the inspiration and guidance of the Sprit as Christians today? …What differentiates their writing from ours is that they were closest to the events described….I am suggesting that the Spirit’s inspiration of the biblical writers was consistent with the way the Spirit inspires human beings today.
- None of the historic creeds of the church, those from the first five hundred years of the Christian faith, mention an infallible or inerrant Bible…and none begin with an affirmation of faith in the scriptures.
- …some things taught in scripture may not represent God’s character nor his will for us today, and perhaps never accurately captured God’s will.
- My point is that the Word of God by which all other words of God are measured must be the Word that was made flesh, Jesus Christ.
- If Jesus is our colander, we may question whether the passage from Leviticus [21:9, ordering a priest to burn to death his daughter if she becomes a prostitute] ever actually reflected God’s timeless will for humanity. [Adam notes that Jesus forgave a prostitute and told her to “Go in peace,” (Luke 7:50).]
- Even the apostles did not read the Bible from the perspective of “God (or the Bible) says it, I believe it, that settles it.” They were willing to debate how their Bible applied to new situations. [Adam points to the Jerusalem Council debates in Acts 15.]
Hornets are buzzing at the church picnic.
I love it when someone gets us to thinking about what we believe and why.
It’s unsettling to rethink our preconceived notions. I realize that. But it’s healthy.
The brain was one of God’s better ideas.
Interesting that you are posting this topic today. I do a morning prayer and meditation time, and the first thing I read out of is the Bible – a NKJ Version. I have been reading in the New Testament – beginning with Acts. I have found myself flipping past certain sections where it just seems like Paul is being downright judgmental and patriarchal. I have found those sections of his writings irritating, not inspiring, but I wonder if it is because my big fat ego is getting in the way of what God may want me to hear and understand? It’s not as though I only want to read the comfy parts of scripture about love and kindness, and skip over the parts that admonish me against gossiping, self-righteousness, or being judgmental. I am talking about those parts that tell women they need to shut up and sit down, that tacitly support slavery, and that preach on subjects Jesus never mentioned. Ah well. I will keep reading and ask for guidance- but to assume that human writers were infallible seems foolish to me….
Thanks Erin. The approach you’re using, which I suspect the author uses as well, is one that my generation never much considered. We thought pretty much what we were told to think. Which is why I’m thinking now.
The authors of the 66 books in the bible were’inspired’ by God to write, unlike you or me who write at our own decission.
Re the Levites and other OT commands, why were those commands given? The levites served in the temple before God, they were to be holier than the other tribes. The consquence of that was harsher puishments to those who fell below those standards.
I suggest reading a commentry on biblical customs.
Thanks, John. I think what the author is saying is that those customs don’t seem to belong on the same playing field as Jesus and that it’s hard to imagine Jesus signing off on an order like that. Instead of burning a prostitute, Jesus forgave one and sent her home.
I suppose the “Luke, take a letter” is not the only valid theory of biblical inspiration.
Cultural understanding of the period in which the writing occurred helps a lot in interpreting meaning. Thanks to almost daily discoveries, our cultural knowledge is expanding.
I belong to a group that declares that “we speak where the bible speaks and are silent where the bible is silent.” On the other hand, we have a tougher time being ambiguous where the bible is [seemingly] ambiguous. It may be psychological.
Hi, Debbie. I’m not sure I’d buy into the idea of not speaking where the Bible doesn’t speak. That presumes the Holy Spirit doesn’t speak. If God’s Spirit is within us, there’s a still, small voice at work guiding us, as Jesus promised the disciples the Spirit would do.
No you are right it is two different playing fields. On one there is a ‘holy’ nation, meant to be an example to the nations around them and on the other we have God fulfilling the law and changing the way we relate to God.
Remember Jesus parting comment, sin no more. The forgiveness was because no one was prepared in the face of Jesus’s rightousness to throw the first stone.
John, I’m not sure we can know the motive for the would-be stoners walking away. But I would doubt it would be because of Jesus’ righteousness. They didn’t like him much and didn’t seem to consider him righteous since he hung out with tax collectors and prostitutes, and had women in his entourage. They killed him for what they said was his unrighteousness and blasphemy.
Very difficult subject — one that I have wrestled with for many years, but I still have not found anything to shake my faith. I have wrestled with the Bible and I have been wrestling with Adam Hamilton’s “Wrestling With the Bible.” I respect Adam Hamilton very much and I like his approach and his heart is right.
One point I would like to correct, is that one of the major historical documents, “The Westminster Confession of Faith ” (Reformed and Presbyterian Statement of Faith 17th Century) does begin with the “Holy Scriptures,” but does not use all the buzzwords that is associated with modern Evangelicalism. Adam Hamilton is correct, most creeds begin with God, not the Scriptures!
Wayne, it’s especially tough because most of us have been taught all of our life something entirely different about the Bible. So an idea like this knocks us back on our heels and forces us to think it through. Or ignore it and move on down the road.
Being stung by hornets at a Sunday School Picnic when as an young elementary child following my brother and his friends around and one of the friends of my brother stepped in a rock as he stepped up from a creek and out came the hornets, How are you going to the keep the discussion down to one hour, knowing a little about your Sunday School Class?