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“Whose Bible is it Anyway?”
II Timothy 3:10-17
A sermon preached by
the Rev. Douglas M. Donley
Welcome to
a new worship and program season at
The theme for our worship season at UBC will be “Whose Faith is it
Anyway?” Each Sunday, we will look at a word from
scripture and a word that challenges the scripture (either from the Bible, a
non-canonical book or even music). We will be challenged to live our faith with
integrity and meaning. You may well find
yourselves pushed to think about scripture or faithfulness in a new way.
Here’s what
worship the schedule looks like by season:
“Whose Gospel is it Anyway?”—September-November
“Whose Celebration is it Anyway?”—Advent/Christmas
“Whose Empire is it Anyway?”—Epiphany/Season
of Justice
“Whose Terror is it Anyway?”—Lent
“Whose Joy is it Anyway?”—Easter
“Whose Voice is it Anyway?”—Pentecost
Through it all, we hope you will be able to define, refine, claim or reclaim your faith.
But we
can’t approach any of this without first looking at this book (the Bible). “Whose faith is it Anyway”
has as one of its starting points the question of “Whose Bible is it anyway?”
I love the
Bible because in it I find direction when I am lost and comfort when I am
hurt. I am passionate about the
Bible. And you cannot get passionate
about something that you don’t love.
There are parts of the Bible which make me very angry, especially those
parts which have been used to put people down and keep people down. And as I read further into its pages, I see
that the Bible mirrors our own human frailties, our propensity toward evil and
our obsession with injustice. Perhaps it
is not the Bible which is the problem, but those of us who are not willing to
look at it closely enough and challenge its words and its meanings.
How do we approach our own dialogue
with the Bible?
What are our biases?
What are our roadblocks?
Which Bible do we follow?
Where do we
find authority in this world?
If we use
the term “Bible” loosely to refer to our most sacred text, what would that be
to you? What do you spend the most time
reading, watching, or listening to?
Is it
anything written by Alice Walker, Barbara Kingsolver or Amy Tan?
Is it the
Star Tribune or the Pioneer Press?
Is it Consumer Reports, Time or Newsweek?
It is
Sojourner’s or your favorite blogger?
Is it the
Disney Channel or John Stewart?
Is it the
next book on the syllabus?
Is it Rush
Limbaugh or Stephanie Miller or Ed Shultz?
Is it your portfolio?
Is it Chairman Mao’s little red book or Saul Alinsky’s “Rules for Radicals”?
It is
catalogues, circulars and junk mail?
Is it the latest
Youtube installment?
How about
your date book or palm pilot or blackberry?
I know I’m lost without mine and I often refer to t as my Bible.
The fact is
that we probably spend more time engrossed in those things than the Bible. Perhaps that tells us where our priorities
lie.
We tend to
define our moral, ethical, and social values around our “real” Bibles more than
we do in our family Bible which sits dust-covered on a shelf somewhere.
I’m only
saying what most of us know. The Bible
is probably not your most holy text. Whatever
your holy text is, you need to use it to make you a better person and it should
help you make sense of a confusing world.
It should also connect you to a larger movement of hope and mercy and
justice, otherwise it might not be holy writ.
Today’s scripture reading from 2
Timothy 3:16, 17 affirms that “ALL scripture is inspired by God and is
profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in
righteousness, that every person of God may be complete and equipped for every
good work.”
This sounds great. But what happens
when scripture contradicts itself? Did
Judas die by hanging himself, according to Matthew, or by having his innards
explode, as in John?
What if scripture says to do
violence to yourself or another?
Is the writer talking about all
scripture?
The letter of Timothy was a letter
after all long before it was scripture. Is a non-canonical “scripture” better
or worse than a canonical one?
How do we deal with all of these
voices out there that are in scripture?
While the writer of Timothy was talking
about the Hebrew Bible when he said, “scripture” he was also talking about the
original versions, not all of the mistranslations that we have today. He affirmed that it is important for us to
look at scripture, and not just some scripture, but all of scripture, for it
will prepare us for everything that we do and everything that we face in the
world.
But there is a right and a wrong
way to approach scripture.
One day, a
troubled man decided that he would go to the scriptures to find the solution to
his problems. He was not sure of the
direction his life should take and so he prayed long and hard to find an answer
in scripture. He said, “God I know you
will give me an answer.”
He opened
his Bible to Matthew 27:5 “And throwing down the pieces of silver in the
temple, Judas departed; and he hanged himself.”
Needless to
say, he was not satisfied with that answer.
So he prayed harder and opened up his Bible again. It landed on Luke
Again, he
closed his Bible in utter horror thinking that God was playing a nasty joke on
him. This time he opened up to John
13:27, “What you are going to do, do it quickly.”
I tell you
this humorous tale because it is the way that many of us approach Bible
Study. We take 1-verse texts out of
context and use or misuse them to our own gain or demise. .
I got
turned off by church and by church people proof-texting
things out of context. I saw church and
religion as a place where people could feel comfortable with their
prejudices. The reality is that I did
not read the entire Bible until I went to Seminary. I grew up in a generation where people became
Biblical illiterates, and computer literates.
But it was
through getting back into the Bible that I found focus for my life. I was energized to seek justice and hope and
love for a world bent upon destroying itself.
I found in the Bible encouragement, challenge and holy dialogue in the
guise of biblical contradictions.
When we
look at the Bible, recognizing its historical background, its context and its
purpose, asking questions of it, trying to figure out how its writings met the
needs of the time in which it was written and how its words speak to today’s
situation; when we read it with the Holy Spirit as a guide and the community as
a sounding board, then we find the word of God for our lives.
Okay, so
let’s say that we’re going to look at scripture. Which translation should we choose? Are they all good? Researchers and historians have found over
5000 ancient texts of the Bible written in Hebrew, Greek, Aramaic and
Coptic. None of them are identical!! The Bibles which we have today are at best,
a consensus of what most of those ancient scriptures have said. Some Bible will even give you a footnote to say,
that other ancient authorities leave off or add this or that verse. For the first 10-12 centuries of
Christianity, the priests were the only ones permitted to read the Bible. And even then it was in Latin. The 13th century invention of the
printing press brought the advent of Bibles in people’s hands. It was the seed of the reformation. For as people read the Bible for themselves,
they interpreted it differently than the church hierarchy did.
When we have the Bible in our
hands, we all have power. We also have
the possibility and responsibility to find the liberating word in its
pages. When we do so, then we connect
with the movements of people inspired by God to make positive change in
individual and collective lives. That’s
the liberating word of the Bible. But
liberating people isn’t always easy.
When
William Tyndale translated and printed the Bible from
Greek and Hebrew texts into English in the 1530’s, he was burned at the stake
for such insolence. Early Baptists and
other separatists were also executed for not towing the party line when it came
to Biblical interpretation.
King James had a bit more power
than Tyndale.
When his translation was published in 1611, it used 14 English
translations, the Latin Vulgate and Greek and Hebrew texts as its sources. For 250 years it was the authoritative Bible,
at least for Protestants. Even now, it
is revered and I cannot even think of reading the 23rd Psalm out of
any other translation.
But
language changed over the years. In
addition, discoveries of more ancient texts than were used in the King James
Version came to light as a result of archeology. The politics of Biblical translation reared
its ugly head, exposing for instance, the bias toward royalty in the King James
Version, the lack of inclusive language in any version, and the desire to make
more explicit the message of liberation in the scriptures. This past century has seen a dramatic
increase in the number and variety of biblical translations.
Now, these
translations come in two different forms.
One is
called a formal equivalence translation, which is very literal to the
Greek and Hebrew, even though idioms and phrasing cannot be translated
accurately. The King James Version, the
New English, and the New Revised Standard Version are examples of this. These are very good for Bible study.
The other
is called dynamic equivalence translations. These are the kind of translations which bend
over backward to make scripture readable, even by changing complete meanings of
the scripture. Examples of this are the
Good New Version, the Living Bible, The Message, The Jerusalem Bible and the
New International Version.
If you want
easy reading, use a dynamic translation, like the Message. If you want as accurate a translation as
possible, use a formal translation like the New Revised Standard. I like the New Revised Standard because it is
the most recent and also because it is the only translation which has made an
effort to clean up exclusive language.
But finding
the right version of the Bible won’t help you if don’t open it. This fall, we’ll look at the writers of the
Christian scriptures. Each week, we’ll
look at a different one. Next week,
we’ll look at Paul’s letters. Then,
we’ll start looking at the Gospels and the other books. I encourage you to read the Bible with
critical eyes, looking for what feeds you the most.
When you
read the scriptures, I encourage you to always look for the breakthrough of
God. Sometimes God even breaks through
the restrictive, proof-texted scriptures which have
been used and perhaps misused to put others down. God can also break through our prejudices,
our judgementalism, our
roadblocks to relationships and love.
Jesus
always sought to have us look at religion and evil with new eyes. Jesus always called us to a higher moral law,
even when that law broke down scriptural barriers. Hear this.
When Jesus saw that scriptural law got in the way of God’s moral law, he
opted for God’s moral law. We’ll see
this in a few weeks when we look at the Sermon on the Mount.
We must
have God’s moral law as our real Bible.
Most theologians say that that moral law is defined by the dialogue of
scripture, reason, tradition and experience.
We need to reclaim this dialogue so that we can follow the Bible of
God’s moral law.
We need to
take scripture and our faith serous enough to argue with the passages which we
find troubling. We also need to reclaim
that comfort and that sustenance which comes from God’s moral law alive in our
lives.
I hope that
you will turn to the Bible once again in whatever translation you have. I hope you will challenge yourself to read
more than just a few verses at a time.
Try reading a chapter a day. Give
yourself more than you can get on a Sunday morning, or better yet, use some of
the questions that have been raised during a sermon as a springboard for
further study.
Give yourself the gift of friendship with which to struggle. Attend then Bible study in the library at
But make a
choice which Bible you will follow. The
Bible of the world, the Bible of oppression or the Bible of God’s moral
law. It will change your life.
Whose Bible
is it? It’s our Bible. Because people have abused the Bible, we have
dismissed it. Or at least we have chosen
not to get into those arguments, and so we tend to look to other sources rather
than the Bible. That is all well and
good, but we shouldn’t see the Bible simply as an enemy. The Bible is also a major source of hope,
vision and sustenance. Let’s reclaim
that portion of the Bible.
Whose Bible is it anyway? It’s our Bible.