The Bible has been given a reputation as one of the most quoted books in history. This blog is guilty of helping that along a little. My trouble with the quoting of it, however, is not a standard argument. The Bible says a lot of great things. It also says a lot of confusing and sometimes worrying things. What my concern with where I see a whole bunch of people are going is quite straight-forward. People have view points and find Bible verses to back it up. As an example, the Gospel of Mark is 16 chapters long with 678 verses, only one of which gives us an "atonement" theology of the passion narrative. That verse is Mark 10:45, when Jesus is telling his disciples how they should live in an upside-down world. That tells me that that book isn't really about "atonement" but about Jesus as a revolutionary, living an alternative "right-way-up" life and upsetting the people he had come to "save."
Wouldn't it be better if people stopped quoting scripture that supported their action plans, and started reading the Bible for it to inspire their action plans? That has been the trouble with so many church movements of the past, that decide "it's how it's always been done" and change is a word used for your own private spirituality happening at home, not an intrusive word you "new" churches seem to be discussing. It's the trouble with a lot of established churches, and even church movements, that when they are told that, perhaps, Martin Luther (the man responsible for the split of Catholic and Protestant) wasn't completely infallible. When he translated "salvation by faith" in Romans, he added "alone" so he could clarify what he was trying to argue in a Catholic run society. And down the line, that means confusion when the Bible doesn't say that explicitly. 
My annoyance isn't with salvation, though. Salvation is a wonderful thing, and we are saved by grace anyway, not faith, so that's fine. What is my pet-peeve, is that reading the Bible gives you one kind of theology that can never be totally clear cut, is always malleable, and it continues to tell you that Jesus is bigger than that anyway. I think I noticed my annoyance the most when I was given "The Doctrine of Scripture" as a lovely clear-cut manual. The paper/lecture involved a man quoting this verse out-of-context, followed by that verse out-of-context, and then jump between these two other verses out-of-context, with this man saying this about this man (out-of-context) and another man saying this about the Bible itself (apparently), and that was out-of-context too. My point being that in all of that I thought it would be much simpler for someone to say "I'm not convinced of the idea that the Bible is all God's word," to which the defense would simply ask "have you read it? You should. If you have keep reading it and it will change your life. If you haven't start as soon as you can for your own sake." I'm more convinced of the Bible's authority from reading it than from someone else telling me, and reasoning with me.
The word Aphorism means, basically, a proverb. As much as the Bible is full of the wonderful stuff from God, I've never been up for memorising scripture. I have one reason. I hate being told I'm wrong out-of-context. We can draw "atonement" theology from one verse in Mark, without realising Jesus' point was much more important than telling everyone he was going to die as a ransom. In fact, his dying as a ransom was a message that was illustrating his point from the argument it's a part of. Not many people know that because they jump to his insight into that cross without realising he probably only said it for readers a few thousand years later to have something to hold on, when he was saying something much greater to his disciples.
I come to my conclusion. I've gone off topical preaching, because all I've just described happens, and we don't get anywhere. We get stuck like a broken record on our vision and values, we get stuck in our own self-help Gospel, without reading a book as it's been written. We get bored of hearing the same things because no one tells us that the Bible is bigger than "20 Christian Basics" and we're left in the rubble of preaching through a book of the Bible because it's the "right thing to do" when we look for our topics in the Bible and leave the text where it always has been; black and white on a crumpled page. The church that makes assumptions of the body is the one that takes doctrines and topics in suitcases that they fail to unpack but merely throw around with corners catching people in odd places bruising all sorts of people. We need to realise that as a unified body, working together, to deal with the Bible is to share in it's story from creation to new creation, wrestle with it, dwell in it, live in it, and enjoy it as it's authority is found in Jesus, not in the words itself.
The word Aphorism means, basically, a proverb. As much as the Bible is full of the wonderful stuff from God, I've never been up for memorising scripture. I have one reason. I hate being told I'm wrong out-of-context. We can draw "atonement" theology from one verse in Mark, without realising Jesus' point was much more important than telling everyone he was going to die as a ransom. In fact, his dying as a ransom was a message that was illustrating his point from the argument it's a part of. Not many people know that because they jump to his insight into that cross without realising he probably only said it for readers a few thousand years later to have something to hold on, when he was saying something much greater to his disciples.
I come to my conclusion. I've gone off topical preaching, because all I've just described happens, and we don't get anywhere. We get stuck like a broken record on our vision and values, we get stuck in our own self-help Gospel, without reading a book as it's been written. We get bored of hearing the same things because no one tells us that the Bible is bigger than "20 Christian Basics" and we're left in the rubble of preaching through a book of the Bible because it's the "right thing to do" when we look for our topics in the Bible and leave the text where it always has been; black and white on a crumpled page. The church that makes assumptions of the body is the one that takes doctrines and topics in suitcases that they fail to unpack but merely throw around with corners catching people in odd places bruising all sorts of people. We need to realise that as a unified body, working together, to deal with the Bible is to share in it's story from creation to new creation, wrestle with it, dwell in it, live in it, and enjoy it as it's authority is found in Jesus, not in the words itself.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment