Ladies,
on the scant chance that any of you might think I would be some kind of
‘prize’, let me dispel such nonsense by outing myself as a channel surfer. Yes, I hold the remote control in my hand and
flick away. I am told women find this
behavior to be incredibly annoying. I
channel surf for two reasons. First, I
find it challenging to pay attention to television for extended periods of
time, especially during commercials. And
second, there is some pretty fascinating content being broadcast on other stations. Nowhere is this more true than on the
Christian networks!
One
day I happened to surf into a program called “The Bible Bowl”. It was a game show of sorts that pitted
teenage teams against each other in a quiz show format of bible trivia. Each team had three members and there were
teams from three different churches. One
team, it appeared to me, might have struggled to answer the question who was
born in a manger. Clearly, their youth
minister and Christian Education director were in for a rough personnel review
at the end of the year. The second team appeared
to be confident in their knowledge that Noah built the ark, Moses parted the
Red Sea, and Paul wrote a lot of letters.
But the third team – ahhh – this team had done its homework. They knew their stuff! In fact, I wondered if they did anything else
in life but drill for bible trivia.
Within
a nanosecond of each question, one of their youth smacked down on the buzzer
and blurted out an answer. And I am not
talking about basic level bible here.
Question: “Name the daughters of Zelophahad.” Buzzzz! “Mahlah, Tirzah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Noah.” “Correct.
20 points. Next question: Who became king of Jerusalem at the age of
seven?” Buzzzz! “Joash!”
And so it went. I trust you can
imagine the look on the faces on the other two teams as obscure question after
obscure question got devoured by this one church’s walking, talking, teenage
biblical concordances. It was the kind
of television experience that encourages me to keep the remote close at hand!
It
strikes me that most Episcopalians know about the bible. We are familiar with some of its basic
stories and content. Most of us know
others who know the bible, perhaps not to the obsessive level of that
quiz team, but pretty darn close. We
know folks who can quote chapter and verse and in a matter of seconds can open
a bible to the exact passage they are looking to find. So there is knowing about the bible and there is knowing
the bible, but there is also third level.
It involves knowing how to use the bible. We see each level at work in today’s
readings.
Think
back to the first lesson. God speaks to
Adam and gives a command:
“You may freely
eat of every tree of the garden; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and
evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely
die.”
The
text plainly indicates that this word was given to Adam and to Adam alone.
The
scene shifts and now the crafty serpent is talking to Eve. Both are aware of what God said to Adam so
the implication is that Adam passed along what he had been told. The serpent: “Did God really say, ‘You shall
not eat from any tree in the garden?’”
It is a calculated distortion to see if Eve knows about God’s
word or if she knows God’s word. Notice her answer. She is partly right and partly wrong: “We may
eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, ‘You shall not eat
of the fruit of the tree that is in the middle of the garden, nor shall you
touch it, or you shall die.”
While
not touching the fruit God has told you not to eat makes sense, it was not what
God said. Did Adam add this to what he
told Eve or did Eve make it up on her own?
Either way, this difference between knowing God’s word and knowing
about God’s word opens the door for the crafty one to challenge the entire
notion. Eating the apple becomes the
greatest misuse of God’s word in Scripture.
And
then we have the Gospel reading. Three
times the crafty one tempts Jesus. Jesus
repels the first temptation to turn stone to bread by quoting Scripture. The devil sees an opportunity for a second
temptation - throw yourself from the pinnacle of the temple - and then makes
the case for doing so by quoting not one, but two passages of Scripture. The devil knows his bible! There is no doubt he could tear it up on that
quiz show. What the devil doesn’t know
is how to use the bible.
Now
when I say “use the bible”, of course I mean “use it in the right way”
(whatever that means). Most people who know
the bible well know how to use what they know. I knew a guy in college who really knew the bible and he could use what he knew to justify pretty much everything
he did. Do you remember the movie Oh
God staring George Burns? Well, my
college friend thought it was blasphemous so he cobbled together a couple of
verses from the bible taken from here and there as a pretense for setting off a
smoke bomb in a crowded movie theatre. I
hope you have never encountered a person that extreme, but I am confident each
of you knows someone who knows the bible and knows how to use what they
know.
I
am sure we could all tell a story about someone who used the bible in the wrong
way, but how would we describe what it looks like to use the bible in the ‘right’
way? Maybe the place to start is to
change the question. Perhaps the
question is not how we use the bible, but rather how does the bible use us?
Both
Paul and the author of the Letter to the Hebrews use the image of the bible as
being like a sword. This image in
particular gives rise to the idea of using the bible as if it is something we
command to affect an impact on others. I
knew a Korean seminary student who dreamed a putting together a bible study
using “just the right verses in just the right way” that it would reunite the
two Koreas. His was a vision in keeping
with the image of the bible as a sword.
At least he hoped for something positive. Others use the sword-like bible to cut their
adversaries to the quick. Their go-to
approach is to use the bible as a weapon that wields the message “I am right
and you are wrong and here is why”.
But
what if we shift the image from sword to scalpel? And what if we see ourselves not as the
surgeon but as the patient? How would we
see the bible differently in this light?
How would we see it if we understood it to be an instrument to open up
us (as it were) to affect our greatest healing; if we used it not to see what
we could do to others with it, but rather what we allowed it to work in us?
Or
what if we shifted to another image… Scripture as being bread? What if we thought of the reading the bible
as a way to nourish and nurture our lives?
What if its primary purpose was to give us strength for life’s journey?
Speaking
of life’s journey, that suggests another biblical image… Scripture as a
light. What if we understood the bible
as being like a lantern, a means to help us move forward in life when the path
seems dark and uncertain?
Or
what if we saw Scripture as being like a letter; perhaps a love letter from One
who has invested everything in us? Or
maybe like a letter from a parent who guides, corrects, chides, inspires,
teaches, and encourages us – all written from the perspective of One whose
connection to us can never be shaken.
Or
what if we saw Scripture as being like a shot of adrenaline… something that
energizes and motives us to move, to take action, when we see that things are
not as they should be?
Of
course, some words of Scripture cannot be sugar coated. Some of what it has to say is deeply critical
of our individual condition as well as the way our culture expresses its values
and concerns. From this perspective, are
we justified to use it as a sword; as a weapon that wrecks havoc on everyone
whose ways we find objectionable? There
are times in extreme when Christians must stand up, proclaim the Truth, and be
willing to suffer the consequences. But
most often we need to think of Scripture as a being like a beacon in the night that
illuminates not so much right and wrong as it points out danger while guiding
the way to safe passage.
Last
Wednesday, I spoke the words of the faith encouraging each one of us to observe
a holy Lent. One aspect of this calls on
us to read holy Scripture and to meditate upon it. This directive is meant to encourage us to participate
in a more intensive, more focused practice during these forty days. Certainly it is not the only time during the
year when we read the bible, but this is a time for us to grow from knowing about the bible toward knowing the bible, and from knowing
the bible to allowing the holy Scriptures to use us.
