Psalm 119: 1-8, 129-144
December 31, 2006
The Apostle Paul wrote to his friend Timothy: “…from childhood you have known the sacred writings that are able to instruct you for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.”
(2 Timothy 3:15)
Like Timothy, my fascination with the Bible has grown since childhood. What is the power of the Bible, that it is a life and death matter for people?
My relationship with the Bible has grown over my life.
1. At first, it was an old book for another time and place. The stories didn’t seem to apply to me. I respected the faith of my teachers so, for their sake, I believed. Then I noticed the feelings and struggles of the Bible characters were some of the same feelings and struggles I was having. I paid attention.
2. Later, I noticed it had an uncanny way of answering the deepest questions of the human spirit. It had insights only recently discovered by the secular sciences. It had answers to psychological questions only recently discovered by psychologists. Natural scientists explained the complicated balance of the ecosystem which God had long ago declared “good” and asked us to care for. Recent discoveries about the danger of uncooked pork showed the basis for 3000-year-old commandments. I decided God must have written the Bible.
3. I found so many helpful guidelines to life. I decided the Bible had all the answers I would need, as long as I looked hard enough. What career should I prepare for? What people should I choose as friends? I used the parts of the Bible that made sense and skipped the parts that didn’t.
4. Later I noticed that people decided which words would become scripture. Hebrew people of faith, the New Testament church and later church councils chose which actions of God they would record, which stories and words of Jesus would be presented, what version of history would be included, what books would be in it. So the Bible was not written by God but by people of faith. God inspired those people, but did not write it without them. These are not the “words” of God but God comes to us through the words people chose. The real revelation of God is through people of faith, like me.
This means, without the church we would have no Jesus. I hear people say, “I want Jesus but not the church”, but there is no such thing.
5.The Bible is not a systematic theology or systematic history or systematic ethics manual or a textbook. It is letters and poems and pictures and obituaries and complaints and predictions and stories from various places and times and people in the family. The theologian Karl Barth called it a non-fictional novel. He says we read it looking for the plot.
To me it is more like a family record. A family scrapbook holds stories about people, poems, obituaries, newspaper articles, letters, photos, and souvenirs. It is not only a diary, not only a biography. It is not expected to be a complete, organized family record. But if we want to know an ancestor, it is better than an obituary. The Bible shows a God who relates personally. God is not a concept that needs explanation.
These parts of the Bible from varied times and places and authors had a common understanding of God. For me, this is one proof that God inspired this family scrapbook. The letters were written to a church of people in a specific time and place but contain a timeless message that calls us to action in another culture with just as much power.
A wonderful thing about the Bible for me is that it shows Jesus.
6. It is a collection of disconnected stories that came together for me in an orderly pattern when I visited the places where the events happened. I worshiped in the Bethlehem church that is today under siege. I walked where the followers of David hid from King Saul. I sat in the cave where Elijah prayed for rain. I stood on the rock where Jesus died. The string of events that was formerly disjointed is now connected. Seeing the geography of God’s action put it together for me.
7. I noticed paradoxes in the Bible. This at first seemed to be a weakness.
God is beyond us, a mystery. God is closer than our breath. Jesus is completely human. Jesus is completely God. Which is it? The Bible seemed to contradict itself. The Bible speaks of war. The Bible speaks of peace. Then I realized this was partly the genius of the Bible, that truth beyond words can only come through paradox. For example, in one place the Apostle Paul tells us not to have divisions among ourselves. Later in the same letter, he tells us to recognize differences in status, race and gender. Does this show a double standard? Does he contradict himself? No. It means the truth is in the mix of the two statements. Our small brains can only handle a part of the truth at a time. Now I use both the parts I understand and the parts I don’t, expecting that someday I will understand.
8. The Bible can’t be appreciated in parts but only the whole. When we want to apply it to life, we check how the God in the histories, the prophets, the gospel, the letters and the Revelation applies to life. Each part adds to the meaning of the others. When I preach “the Bible says” and quote from a verse, I can only do that if the verse is an example of what the whole Bible is saying on the subject. Biblical preaching is not quoting a bunch of verses; biblical preaching is conveying the intent of the whole Bible. For example, there is a verse about women keeping silent in church. But we don’t operate by one verse alone. The spirit of the whole Bible shows the value of the contributions of both genders in church.
The Bible shows God. It is a revelation of the truth of God. It is an account of the divine action in the world. It still is instructing me for salvation in fresh ways. No wonder the Psalm writer says “Your Word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.”
(Psalm 119: 105)