An interesting article by the retired Methodist pastor Barbara Nixon appeared in The Albany Democrat-Herald newspaper of August 13, 2022. The article has the provocative heading "Why I don't quote the Bible." That isn't something that you expect to hear a pastor say. Please read the article before judging.
The sermon that I heard in church this morning was based on Luke 12:49-53. The priest began by admitting that this was one of the most difficult passages for her. She went on to preach an excellent sermon against Christian nationalism and the far-right, but she did not reconcile her views with the scripture reading. How do we understand the challenges of our times in light of Luke 12:49-53? How do we understand and experience scripture and build our lives on it? These are questions to struggle with, and I doubt anyone who is absolutely certain that they have the answers at hand. There can be a holiness in these struggles; let it happen.
Barbara Nixon's opening lines immediately engaged me:
There are some who understand the Bible to be the direct word of God — flawless in every way that could matter. There are others who say that God is not exactly the author, but those who did write it had a direct line to God as the source.
From both of these understandings comes the view that the Bible is authoritative and contains all God would have us know and believe in order to be saved.
I am among those who see Scripture differently in that the Bible offers many distinct views of God’s interactions with humanity, experienced by various people and recorded by still others, over extensive periods of time.
The Bible is my sacred text, but I do not read it as fact-based history. Rather, it offers insights and interpretations from various writers and editors about how God was experienced in another time and context. Only when carefully read can those understandings be good news in our time and context.
No comments:
Post a Comment