Sermon for Sunday, March 2, 2008THE INERRANCY OF THE BIBLE8th in a series on Confronting the Controversies By Rev. Dr. Harvey C. Martz |
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Scripture: 2 Timothy 3:16 from the Good News Bible 16 All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching the truth, rebuking error, correcting faults, and giving instruction for right living, Several of our St. Andrew members had the unique opportunity this week to be at a gathering honoring the nine students who integrated Little Rock High school in 1957. This group had only been together a few times in the past fifty years since that historical event—one of those times was in 1999 when they were all awarded the Congressional Gold Medal for their courage and faithfulness. We saw some of the film footage from 1957 and we were very moved by the character they exhibited and the risks they took in facing extremely hostile crowds and enduring death threats to their families just for wanting to obtain a good education. For some of those students it was their Christian faith that helped them take those new and courageous steps—faith in a God who, in the words of Psalm 23, is our shepherd who walks with us even through the valley of the shadow of death. That Biblical faith was present for another student who took bold and risky steps of faith four years later when she was the first black student in her school in New Orleans. Ruby Bridges was six years old when she walked into her school each day through crowds of ugly mobs shouting curses at her and calling her names. She was asked how she could bear such hatred and she explained: The minister came to our house and he said. “God is watching and God won’t forget because he never does. He told me if I forgive the people and smile at them and pray for them, God will keep a good eye on everything.” (Quoted in “Failing America’s Faithful” by Kathleen Kennedy Townsend) “Forgive each other and pray for those who persecute you”. We could share some of our own stories of how some of those important verses and insights from scripture have provided help and guidance for us in difficult times: Jesus’ words from John’s gospel, I will never leave you or forsake you, or Paul’s words in Philippians, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. That need to know and have some verses and phrases in our hearts and our minds is one of the reasons we are so committed to Bible study here in this church and the fact that some 2000 of you have been in a 32 week Disciple Bible study over the past few years is a strong witness to how important we think it is to know and be grounded in our Book. Our emphasis on Bible study leads us to be misunderstood occasionally. Some people think that a church so committed to Bible study must believe in the literal inerrancy and infallibility of the Bible. We do not use those words because they are not in the Bible. The Bible is authoritative for us. I believe it is inspired and “God breathed” and useful for instruction and grounding and guiding people in the best life possible. But the words infallible and inerrant are not in the Bible and they are fairly recent words in the past 100 years or so to talk about the fact that the Bible is reliable and trustworthy and has authority in helping us find God and meet Jesus Christ and live an abundant life. They began to be used in the early 1900’s as a way to counter some of the scholarly research about the Bible that showed us the differences in some of the Bible stories and showed us how there were later additions to the original books by some scribes and copiers. Dr. Bart Ehrman has written about those differences in his books and when he is with us next week he will talk about the different portraits of Jesus depending on whether we are reading from the Gospel of Mark with a very human Jesus who gets angry with his disciples and says, Don’t you get it yet?—to the Jesus in Luke who has a deep concern and passion for the poor and the outcasts to the almost superman portrait of Jesus in the Gospel of John. The Bible is really not one book but is a library of 66 books written over a period of 1000 years. With all of its variety and differences (we will see one of the major examples of diversity next week when we look at the two different creation stories in Genesis 1-2), it still has authority for our spiritual lives—more so than any other piece of writing. Some folks have brought a black and white approach: if the Bible is not dictated by God word for word, then it must be useless and must be thrown out. It is either all or nothing for some folks who would call themselves literalists. They want to believe it was given to us just as it is word for word and if not, it has no authority. What we know from the serious study of the Bible over the last 300 years is that it does have variety and difference and it is the product of people writing about their experiences with God! And I believe that God has been uniquely involved in that process of helping those books come together so that we can encounter Christ and be changed for the better!! But there are parts of the Bible that are not the word of God for all time—parts of the Bible that reflect the dated science and the biases of a long gone time and are then corrected by measuring them against the person and teaching of Christ. We looked as some of those examples last week. Psalm 137 tells us to kill the children of our enemies. Passages in Leviticus prohibit us from eating shrimp. It can get worse. Parts of the Gospel of John have been misused over the centuries to blame Jewish persons for killing Jesus and to justify horrible acts of anti Semitism. Parts of letters in the New Testament attributed to Paul have been used to claim women are inferior and second class and should not have the right to vote—that was in the early twentieth century. It gets worse. One of the stories in Genesis about Noah has been misused to claim that persons of color have inherited the curse of one of Noah’s sons. Parts of letters attributed to Paul have been used to justify slavery because that line is in Colossians and Ephesians: slaves obey your master—quoted by racists in America in the times right before the civil war. You can read more about how the Bible has been misused and misunderstood in two of the basic books on our bookshelves that we always have available: “The Good Book” by Dr. Peter Gomes who is chaplain at Harvard University is a wonderful overview of the importance of the Bible and of the misuses of the Bible. Dr. Marcus Borg’s book, “Reading the Bible Again for the First Time” is a very basic text for people who say they would like to know more about the Bible but just don’t know where to start. His chapter on Revelation is one we recommended a couple of months ago and his chapter on Paul is one we have especially encouraged the 25 people traveling to Greece with us in October to get familiar with because it is the very best short overview of Paul I have ever seen. [By the way, we still so have a few openings on that pilgrimage to Greece and you can contact the church office for a brochure before we open the trip to others in our annual conference.] The Bible is written by people out of their deep personal encounters with God and with Jesus Christ. It contains variety and diversity. It has some parts that are more the word of culture than the word of God. And it does offer the eternal word of God for us in the person of Christ and in some words that we have cherished and committed to memory and lived by and staked our lives on like those nine teenagers did in their acts of courage and faith in 1957 in Little Rock. And like Ruby Bridges did later in New Orleans. Let’s get more personal: What are the stories and verses and passages of the Bible that convey God’s grace and mercy and guidance to you? Cindy Bates had our staff members identify those 18 months ago and they are in your bulletin today. What are your favorite stories and passages and verses? What are the stories that help you continue to encounter God? Perhaps one is Psalm 8 where the author praises God for the creation and reminds himself and us that God has created each of us just a little lower than the angels and that you and I are part of God’s wondrous creation. Perhaps it is the words of the 23rd Psalm where the Psalmist tells us that God is our shepherd who even provides strength and nourishment for us even in the presence of our enemies. Perhaps it is the story of the Giant Goliath who thought that his strength was greater than God and who was defeated by a fourteen year old with a slingshot. Perhaps it is Jesus’ story in Luke 15 about the father who had two sons and loved them both and even when the silly younger son took all of his money and left and wasted it and came back in shame and remorse, the father ran to meet him because what counts is that his son had come home. Or perhaps, if you are remembering or grieving the loss of someone or you are looking more intently at the brevity of life—your own life—it is Jesus’ words in John’s Gospel: I am going now to prepare a place for you and when I come again I will take you to myself that where I am you may be also. And even when I have gone I leave my peace with you. Perhaps the word of God comes most strongly to you in Romans 8: in all things God is able to work for God with those who love God. Those are some examples of why people have said that when we read this book, we are on holy ground, we are meeting God and we will find life at its best. Will you share with someone else today what those most important passages and stories and verses are for you right now in your personal spiritual journey? |
