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Monday, April 04, 2005
The Good Book
The pope died as I was preparing a sermon on the Bible's role in our Presbyterian way of worship.
An interesting coincidence.
For his tradition and mine take sharp turns at just that intersection: where Bible Way meets Worship Boulevard.
Now, all Christians agree that Christ is the center of salvation history. In Jesus we see the fulfillment of the Hebrew scripture's prophetic hopes, and the Christian scriptures unfold his meaning in God's plan for the ages. So the Bible is our common source book for faith and faithful living.
But Catholics and Protestants follow two distinctly different Jewish worship traditions. Catholicism focuses on the Temple's system of prayerful sacrifice and penitence. Protestantism centers on the Synagogue's pattern of scriptural reflection and prayer.
When the Protestant Reformation broke out in 1500s Europe, the Latin liturgy and Bible were displaced by worship and Bible translations in everyday language. Church tradition's supreme authority was dismantled by the give-and-take of thoughtful Bible interpretation among the masses.
The bottom line for faith and faithful living, on Sunday morning and every day in between, is the Bible as God's word. What does it say? What does that mean? What difference does that make in how I think, believe, and behave?
The idea is not so much that you're free to read and understand the Bible for yourself; instead, reading it you sense that the Bible knows and understands you.
Mark Twain supposedly said, "It's not what I don't understand in the Bible that bothers me, but what I do understand!"
And W. C. Fields told someone he was reading the Bible very carefully to see if he could find a loophole.
It's an awesome book. A library, actually, of 66 different books written in about 2000 years by some 40 authors. And its one basic theme catches us by spiritual surprise -- the Good God knows us just the way we are, and loves us enough to help us become all we're meant to be. Jesus embodies the way that actually works.
You probably have dozens of questions, even arguments, at this point. Almost 2000 more years have passed since the Bible's last book was written. How relevant can it be, then, in today's world? What's binding truth, and what's time-bound practical sense?
I know. I know.
Yet I invite you to pick up any Gospel, watch Jesus closely and listen carefully to his words. At some point you'll feel as if your soul is being x-rayed. Known fully as you really are. Loved enough to be moved toward who you're meant to be.
posted by Jack Buckley at
3:37 PM
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