Why Bother with the Bible?

WESTMINSTER PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
January 27, 2013
Rev. Mark R. Miller
Nehemiah 8:1-3, 5-6, 8-10
“Why Bother with the Bible?”

     I don’t know what to tell you other than give you a bit of a witness.  What are we supposed to do with this book?  We call it an authority and a rule for faith and life.  But in our honest moments most of us cannot tell you what that means.  What we say and believe about this book will have a tremendous impact in our relationship with it.  So I am going to tell you a bit about my own journey.  Hopefully you will find it interesting and, I hope, may even be able to connect with it – hopefully it doesn’t drive you running for the hills.

            One of my first memories of the bible was of a little blue gift bible that was given to my parents when I was born.  I remember flipping through it – mostly the pictures.  One night, we were on our way home from church and it was raining.  I took that bible and held it over my head to keep my head from getting wet.  I got in trouble for that and wasn’t allowed to have the bible back for a long time.  So my first learning about the bible was that the book was special, different from other books and intended to be protected. 
     I also remember being deeply fascinated by the stories in the bible.  Particularly the stories about Jesus, baby Moses, and David and Goliath.  The pictures from another children’s bible still remain with me today.  So my early understanding was that it was a fascinating book with possible magical powers – though I never fully figured out what those powers were.
Then, my relationship with this book began to ossify.  Beyond bible school and Sunday school the bible, its stories, its way of viewing the world became fixed.  Or more like they were settled in a way that each story meant what it meant and the idea of interpretation seemed like heresy since every bible story had one meaning. 
            I was always a questioning child and so as I grew older and got into high school there was something about the settled nature of the bible and the stories that did not seem quite right.  I began to distrust some of the authority figures who told me what the bible meant.  This led me to spend time reading beyond the bounds of what was read on Sunday morning in church or in Sunday school.  (That is a dangerous thing… trust me…)  And then add to that, somewhere along the line I had learned that the bible was not actually written by King James - or even originally in English.  And one day in a very arrogant way I said that I would not fully believe what the bible said until I could read it in the original Greek and Hebrew.
            The truth was that I had come to the very educated belief that anyone who believed what the bible said was probably a fool.  Fortunately God was not finished with me yet and I found my way back around to the stories of Jesus.  Not to bore you with details of that part of the journey, let me say that I became very fundamentalist in my interpretation as I re-read a number of the stories of Jesus.  (hold up Black Bible).  It was during this period that this book began to be my constant companion.  I was a really pleasant person to be around – as long as you thought like me and believed like me… and of course liberal Christians were not really Christians… Indeed, God has quite a sense of humor.
            When I was living in Northern Ireland, a local pastor told me to go home and underline every instance of the words poor, widow and orphan and then come back and tell him what I found.  Using a concordance I did that in this blue bible.  And for the first time in my life I found out that I did not actually have a clue about the bible at all.  It turns out that God seems to get really angry when the rich hoard things and the poor suffer.  In fact, nations are destroyed when they do this… it happens on a couple of occasions.  I was shocked to find out that the bible I knew so well was a book that was completely foreign to me. 
            And then I went to seminary.  (Pull out your big bible and slam it down)  I found out everything I learned so far was wrong.  Or, that is the way I heard it, even if my professors never really said that.  I found out that we do not have the original manuscripts and that the scrolls we do have are often corrupted texts.  I learned that not all Christians use the same books of the bible.  I learned about the history, setting, style, background, and different ways of interpreting and I wrote papers just to prove my knowledge… LOTS of papers.
            And when the papers and the theologians and classroom discussions became too much I found that it all made a LOT more sense when I was doing something for other people.  I went back to the stories of Jesus and realized he spent a LOT of time with people on the margins of society.  So I spent time on the streets getting to know people who lived and survived on the streets of Atlanta.  I read the bible with homeless men and women and listen to them talk about how God was active and alive in the world.  I had deep theological conversations with men in homeless shelters and it was there that the Word of God written in the bible became alive for me in ways it never had before.  And that is where this pocket bible came in so handy.
            So why bother with the bible?  If you came hoping I would tell you why we can’t toss out the bible as an ancient relic, I won’t do it.  No amount of trying will convince you that is a bad idea if you are already flirting with it.  If you came worried I was going to question the inerrancy of the bible – too late.  But what I will say is this.
            The bible did not change at all from this bible to this bible. (go through the stack)  What changed?  Me, my understanding, my social location, my education, and the people with whom I read the bible.  What was the constant?  I actually kept reading it.  And what this taught me is that everyone has a lens a view and understanding of this bible –interpretation – your experience – your language - your economic status – your race – your gender – your sexual orientation - and even what high school you went to impacts your interpretation. 
            For those willing to take the bible on its own terms it has the power to bring life and transformation.  In the end it is an alien book.  When we assume to know what it is all about or become too familiar we only make ourselves look foolish.  In the end the bible is a witness written by human beings in community that have tried to convey their encounter with the divine.  We look to the life of Jesus to inform our interpretation and do so with humility.  And the next time someone says… “Well, the bible says”… your response can be… “Oh really…”  How is it changing you.. how is it changing the world around you… take it on its own terms…
 

Called to...

WESTMINSTER PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
January 13, 2013
Baptism of the Lord / Installation and Ordination of Officers
Rev. Mark R. Miller
Luke 3:15-17, 21-22

            Calling is a word that is rather troubling to me.  When we use that word it carries a heavy religious weight.  The language we use for church leadership is that of “calling.”  A church looking for a new pastor or a pastor looking for a new church is called, interestingly enough, the “call process.”  If we talk about a sense of biblical calling, we might think about the prophets who receive a call to proclaim God’s peace and justice.  There is also Paul who is said to have received a calling on the Damascus road.  And a little later on in the gospels Jesus will call disciples to come and follow.  Even in our passage this morning we even refer to the baptism of Jesus as Jesus’ call story.  So it seems that calling has something to do with a special mission for a few specially chosen few. 

But is this what we really believe about calling?  What is it that we believe about calling?  How is it that we are to understand this word?  In the reformed tradition, of which Presbyterians are a part, calling was something for all followers of Jesus.  Calling is not something reserved for session members, or preachers, or ministers of music, or seminary students.  Calling is not something reserved for the especially religious or those who are worthy.  Calling did not have to include a flash of light and the voice of God.  Though, for some, that could very well be the case.   

So if this is what calling is not, what is it?  In our tradition we place a high value on what is called, “the priesthood of all believers.”  This concept really turns the sense that only some are specially called on its head.  Despite having ruling elders, teaching elders, deacons, and people who are needed to fulfill all ministries inside and outside of the church; calling involves everyone who has been baptized.  This is why we say, “Your baptism is sufficient for your calling.”  In other words, everyone who has been baptized has been called.  However, this only answers the question of who, not the question “to what?”

As good Presbyterians we often want details.  We form committees, we create work groups, we love standards, and credentials.  The details are where we spend a lot of our time.  We crunch numbers and do not let spell check have the last word.  So when it comes to working out to what we have been called we get a bit, well, edgy.  We get edgy because calling cannot be reduced to a job description.  It cannot be reduced to a position on the session; it cannot be reduced to any particular job in the life of the church, or in society.  In truth, calling has little to do with those things at all.  So what is it then?

Calling is not really about a specific job, or task, or responsibility.  It is a way of life.  When Jesus says come and follow me he does not give each disciple a specific work to do.  Instead, Jesus shows them how to live their lives.  Jesus teaches them essential values on which to base their life.  And what are those values, what is a way of life built on hospitality, generosity, and no vengeance. 

Being called, means being called to enact these values in all areas of our lives.  It means that no matter what job, what work, what role, we are fulfilling, these values inform it all.