"Seven Habits of Discipleship: Bible Study"
Isa 55:1-0; Ps. 63:1-8; 1 Cor. 10:1-13; Luke 13:1-9
Dr. George R. Sinclair, Jr.
Pastor
March 7, 2010
A reader wrote to Billy Graham this week wondering if he was doing something wrong when he read the Bible. The reader made a New Year’s resolution to read some of the Bible every day, but grew discouraged and gave up. “I found some of it interesting,” the reader said in his letter to Graham, “but I really didn’t understand most of it, so I stopped. Was I doing something wrong?”
I liked Billy’s answer: “You’re not alone in finding the Bible difficult; many people have the same problem . . . many people do what you did: They start at the beginning and try reading the Bible straight through . . . it’s better to begin at the center—that is, with Jesus Christ.”
Dr. Graham was speaking theologically, not literally. Put your thumbs in the middle of the Bible and open it and generally you’ll hit the Psalms maybe Isaiah. Dr. Graham was talking about a different center—Jesus Christ. Anyway, I liked his answer: “Read a small portion [of the Bible] every day—perhaps only a few paragraphs. Ask God to help you understand what you’re about to read, and then read it carefully and thoughtfully. What does it tell us about God, or Jesus or God’s will? Then ask yourself, what is God teaching . . . and what difference it should make in your life.”
We study the Bible to meet God. Bible study is an act of listening, an act of obedience, submission, of death and resurrection. When we study the Bible we die and are born again so that we follow Jesus Christ.
So what is the Bible? And why do we need a book to be disciples? Can’t we just go straight to the source? Why does God need a book to conform us to his will? And besides, when we read the Bible aren’t we listening through someone else’s filter? Why should we privilege a 2,000, in some cases a 3,000 year old tradition? Were people in “Bible Times” better equipped to hear God? Was God somehow different in those days? Did God act differently, you know, parting the waters for the children of Abraham, sending plagues or walking on water, stilling storms, and, well, raising the dead? Was God more active in “Bible Times”? And the people, my goodness, were people in “Bible Times” more willing or better able to listen to God? Were those times somehow “simpler” and was God more immediate, discernable?
I must say that as a child, when I picked up our family Bible, I felt that way. The scenes in our family Bible were odd. You know how those old family Bibles were. They had pictures—classics depicting famous scenes from the Bible—Creation, The Flood, Daniel in the Lion’s Den, The Sermon on the Mount, Jesus walking on water, Jesus stilling the storm, Jesus in Gethsemane, Jesus on the Cross or Jesus risen and ascending to heaven. As a child, I studied those Bible pictures like pictures from Grimm’s Fairy Tales. They too produced a magical world: Snow White, Hansel and Gretel, Rapunzel, Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood, Rumplestiltskin. Those stories were no more and no less “fantastic” than Daniel in the Lion’s Den or Jesus multiplying fish and loaves.
Children grow up. We leave magical thinking behind. We get over childhood myths, legends, fairy tales, and yes, Bible stories. Aren’t they one and the same—fairy tales and Bible stories—dire warnings and happy endings to help boys and girls lead a moral life? The short answer is, “Well, No. They’re not the same.”
The Bible is not a fairy tale but, like fairy tales, Bible study requires suspended disbelief. The Bible asks us to hold our construal of reality in check, if only briefly, so that we enter the Bible’s world and perhaps, perhaps we are changed. We begin to see differently. Or rather we become different people. Bible study changes us. Bible study conforms us to Jesus Christ.
So, what is the Bible? In part, it is story. In part, it is myth. In part, it is legend. In part, history. Parts of the Bible are like reading someone’s mail—Paul’s letters for example. The epistles comprise more than half of the New Testament. When reading Paul, we’re reading someone’s mail, letters written not to us or for us, but letters written 2,000 years ago to churches in the Roman Empire. The same is true with the last book in the Bible. John’s revelation was not written for us but first for Christians living in Asia Minor toward the end of the first century.
A big swath of Scripture is a hymnbook, the Psalms or more properly—the Songs—were Israel’s hymns. Parts of the Bible are rules, law. Parts are poetry. Parts are gospel, a literary genre that didn’t exist until written. The four gospels have elements of history and elements of biography but they are more than history or biography. Some have described the gospels as “memory impressions,” others as “proclamation,” still others as “testimony.”
The Bible can be read as any other writing produced by humans. It can be put under a literary microscope and categorized, labeled, poked and prodded for type, authorship, history, etc. The Bible didn’t fall out of the sky. It was written by human beings and consequently, our fingerprints are found on every page. We need not apologize for the humanity of the Bible. It is a thoroughly human document, but one God uses to bring “salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.”
Before we go any further, let me be clear about one thing. Christian faith does not begin with the Bible. We don’t believe “in” the Bible. We believe “in,” or have faith in, God. Presbyterians do not begin with a theory about the Bible and then move to faith. We begin with God. God acts. God creates, sustains, judges, and ultimately redeems creation. That’s where we begin, with God and not with a theory about the Bible. We don’t start by proving the validity, veracity, authenticity or inspiration of the Bible and then say—“God is like this or God’s will is that. And we know it to be true because the Bible says so.” Rather; God acts, God reveals, God discloses his purposes and then we respond—we testify. The Bible is written testimony to the God who acts.
Presbyterians use a threefold explanation for what we mean by Word of God. The Word of God is living. It is proclaimed. It is written. Priority is given to the Living Word, to Jesus Christ who lives, dies, and is raised from the dead. Christians testify to a living Word. Preachers preach and proclaim a living Lord. The Bible is written testimony to the Living One proclaimed.
Let’s say my friend Lou takes a trip. Oh, I don’t know, let’s say Lou goes to the Redwood Forest. While there, Lou writes me a letter. “George, you should see the Redwood Forest. The trees are really cool. They’re really big, really tall. I even climbed one—three hundred feet. Can you believe it?”
Now, knowing Lou the way I do, that sounds about right. Lou would climb a three hundred foot tree and love every minute of it. He would use words like “cool” to describe the Redwood Forest. And, because he told me he was going to the Redwood Forest, I believe his letter. If I just got a letter out of the blue from a guy named Lou who told me he climbed a three hundred foot tree, I’d wonder what I was doing getting a letter from a guy named Lou and I would have serious doubts about him climbing a three hundred foot tree. Here’s my first point, my personal knowledge of Lou confirms the likelihood of Lou’s letter being authentic. Because I know Lou, his letter rings true. Tree climbing is entirely consistent with the Lou I know.
Here’s my second point, even if I accept Lou’s letter as authentic, accurate, truthful etc., I don’t confuse Lou with his letter. Yes, the letter sounds like Lou. And yes the letter gives me information about Lou. It may even inspire me to go to the Redwood Forest and climb a three hundred foot tree. But the letter is not Lou. The letter is testimony to Lou. The letter is about Lou and even written by Lou, but the letter is not Lou.
The Bible is God’s letter to us, the word of God written. We don’t worship the letter, we worship the Writer, which is not to say the Bible is unimportant, dispensable, or “just” a written word. God speaks through the Bible, uniquely so. The Bible is not “just” another voice alongside other equally sensitive or insightful voices. The Bible is unlike any other voice. We privilege it. It stands apart. It is sacred, inspired, holy. Why do we believe that? Again, not because we can prove it rationally or objectively or even desire to prove it rationally or objectively. That’s the great error of fundamentalism.
The fundamentalists want to prove the authority of the Bible first and then go on to speak about God. They put the cart before the horse. Credit them for taking the Bible seriously, but their theology is seriously flawed. They claim to privilege the Bible over reason, but in fact they privilege reason over inspiration, because they begin with their theories about the Bible’s truthfulness, its worthiness, inerrancy or inspiration.
Presbyterians and many other Christians begin elsewhere. We start with the living Lord, who inspires testimony. Before he ever writes a letter, we meet the living Lord. But the letter is very important. The letter introduces us to the Lord. The letter embodies the Lord’s word which is why Bible study is so critical to discipleship. The Lord is found “in” the Word. Yes, the Lord may be found in nature or in books, art, other people. God does not restrict himself to the Bible, but the Bible is God’s witness without parallel. As one of our confessions puts it, “we must test any word that comes to us from church, world, or inner experience by the Word of God in Scripture.”
Calvin compared the Bible to eye glasses. If I take my glasses off, you all look fuzzy. I can make out people in the balcony, but I’ve really got to work at it and I’ve got to have an idea of who I’m looking for in order to recognize them. With my glasses, I see perfectly or nearly so. Calvin’s point is that without the Bible, we don’t see clearly. Our vision of God is distorted, out of focus, dim. With the Bible, we see. But don’t take my word for it or Calvin’s. Meeting the God of the Bible is an act of submission, obedience, engagement. We read the Bible in order to obey. We obey in order to believe. We don’t see God from a distance. We can’t understand or know God at arm’s length. We only meet the living Lord by submitting to his Word. We study the Bible to be saved.
The Bible is the most dangerous book in the world, dangerous as in life-changing, dangerous as in life producing, justice-making. Of course it’s not magic. Somebody once asked me how to dispose of their Bible. I was a rookie minister and I got this call one day, “Pastor, how do I get rid of my Bible?” I thought that was the most peculiar question I’d ever heard. “I heard once,” the caller said, “that you’re supposed to burn your Bible first and then bury it. Do you think that would be all right?”
“Well, I guess . . .?”
The Bible is not a magic book. But it is sacred. It is inspired. And reading it will turn you upside down. But don’t take my word for it—take it up and read. Read it with others. Read it by yourself. But read it. And don’t just read it, live it. Live it till you have heart burn.
Remember those disciples on the Road to Emmaus. They had given up on God. They had given up on Jesus. They were on their way home, back to Emmaus. It’s Easter Sunday, late afternoon. A stranger joins them on the road, “What ya’ll talkin’ about?” They look at Jesus like he’s the biggest dope in the world, “You mean you don’t know what happened in Jerusalem?”
“Nope.”
So they tell him: “The things about Jesus. He was supposed to bring in the Kingdom of God. And we really thought he was going to, but he got himself killed and some women came back and told us a wild tale about angels and him being raised from the dead and, well, it was just too much. We had hoped he was the one to redeem Israel.”
Jesus is walking along with them, “Is that so. Unh huh. I see.” And then he says, “Oh, how foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe . . . then, beginning with Moses and the prophets, he interpreted to them the things about himself in all the scriptures.”
Toward evening the travelers arrive at Emmaus. Jesus walks on. They urge him to stay. He does. They break bread. Their eyes are opened and they recognize him. And then he vanishes. Jesus vanished from their sight. And they said to each other: “Were not our hearts burning within us while he was talking to us on the road, while he was opening the scriptures to us?”
The stranger on the road “opened” the scriptures. The stranger on the road was Jesus, the resurrected, living Lord, the one recognized in the breaking of bread and in Scripture read.
Take and read. It will give you heart burn, the kind that will set your life on fire. Take and read and meet the Living Lord who will never let you go. Amen.