The Centrality of Scripture (Psalm 119:105-112; Genesis 7:6-10)

Many of us who grew up in a Disciples of Christ congregation are familiar with the phrase, “No creed but Christ, no book but the Bible.”  This motto implies that Jesus and scripture are central to our faith, and that other tests for membership are not.

And it’s true today.  When we have a question of faith, we turn to scripture, and to the witness it bears to Jesus.  The early leaders of our movement believed this was sufficient.  Creeds, statements of faith, and other writings were not to be used as tests of fellowship.

As we continue our “Pastor’s Class” in this season from Easter to Pentecost, we continue focusing on the principles of identity for the Disciples of Christ, and today’s principle of identity emphasizes the role of scripture. 

It says:

We hold the centrality of scripture, recognizing that each person has the freedom – and the responsibility – to study God’s Word within the community of the church.

Scripture is central to our faith.  It’s important to read scripture, to know it, to study it.  I don’t think anyone here would argue that.

So let me offer you some tools to help you do just that, tools to help you carry out your responsibility to study God’s Word.

I have enjoyed watching the TV show COSMOS with Neil DeGrasse Tyson these past couple of months.  Last week, the show briefly mentioned the Babylonian Epic of Gilgamesh, one of the oldest stories known to exist.  With parts of it written down 18 centuries before Christ, it is older than the Bible.

Among the stories told in the Epic of Gilgamesh is the story of a great flood that covered the earth, and a wise man – Utnapishtim – who was instructed by the gods to build an ark to rescue his family and animals.

Jews and Christians watching the show no doubt noticed the similarity to the story of Noah.  Some may even have thought that the show got it wrong, got things mixed up somehow, mistaking Utnapishtim for Noah. 

But the truth is that the story of a great flood is one of the world’s most ancient stories, shared by a number of religions. 

Back when I was a student and I first learned that some of the stories that we think are unique to the Bible are actually much older than the Bible – that the Bible took these ancient stories and adapted them to fit its own narrative – I wasn’t quite ready for it.

Having been a Christian all my life, and having heard the story of Noah – Noah, not Utnapishtim! ­– since I was a little child, I felt a sense of ownership regarding these stories.  As a Christian, they were, well, mine.  They belonged to me and my people.  As a Christian, I felt I could take these stories – that I had the right – to put them in a box, carry them around, and do what I wanted with them.  And anyone who tried to tell me that these stories didn’t belong to Christianity, that they were, in fact, much bigger and much older, well… they were just wrong! 

But they weren’t. 

The story of Utnapishtim and the great flood was written down a thousand years before it was retold in the book of Genesis.  It is one of the oldest writings of human civilization.

At the time, this was a challenging thing for me to learn.  But today, learning things like this excites me.  Knowing that I can’t place stories like this and carry them around, is actually amazing.  It’s wonderful.  It’s awe-inspiring.  This story, and stories like it, are bigger than I am.  They’re even bigger than my Christian faith.  The church cannot put these stories into a box and claim ownership of them, and I most certainly cannot.

A lot of Christians try to take ownership of the stories of scipture.  In the same way, they try to take ownership of God.  They’ll put God in a box and carry that box around with them.  Their box defines who God is.  Their box defines how the ancient stories should be interpreted.  Their box allows them to control God and control scripture.

But if God can be controlled, then God is not really God.  The one who controls God has become more powerful than God, and therefore has become a god himself.

We cannot contain God in a box of our own making.  We cannot contain the ancient stories in a box that we built.  We cannot contain Truth (with a capital ‘T’) in a box.

And what is the Truth that is contained in a story like the story of the Great Flood?  The waters symbolize chaos and destruction, and yet, through that chaos and destruction, humanity prevails.  Life goes on.

That is a powerful truth.

Does that truth depend on whether the protagonist is named Noah or Utnapishtim?

No.

In the Babylonian Epic of Gilgamesh, the gods are so frightened by the flood that they ascend to heaven and cower like dogs.  The Biblical writers re-wrote the story to show a God who is in control.  Then again, the Biblical story of the great flood is actually two different versions of the story mushed together.  This is obvious to anyone who reads it.  The story jumps back and forth, and even contains contradictions, saying that seven of each clean animal came onto the ark, then saying just a few verses later that only two of each animal came onto the ark.  Why the contradiction?  Because it’s two different versions of the story combined into one.

Further truth that this ancient story is bigger than any one version of it.

On the show COSMOS, Neil DeGrasse Tyson mentioned that there were times in earth’s history when an asteroid of such enormous size crashed into earth, making earth uninhabitable for all life.  (This was long before humans or other mammals were present.)  And yet the ginormous impact of that asteroid blasted fragments of rock into space, fragments which carried microscopic forms of life with them.  These lifeforms survived millions of years on those rocks before they came back to earth as meteorites; and when they did, they re-introduced life on earth, so that, despite the total destruction caused by the giant asteroid, life on earth continued.

That in itself is kind of a Noah’s Ark story, is it not?  Life on earth is destroyed, and yet some of that life is safely carried by an ark in the form of a meteor, which returns to earth when it is safe for life to begin again.

It all kind of blows one’s mind, doesn’t it?

So, for me, scripture has become a sort of window into a world that is much bigger than the window itself.  Without the window I could not see that new world.  But it would be a mistake to think that the window itself is that world or somehow contains that new world. 

And yet, that is how many people do interpret scripture.  They think that the whole world that is Truth is somehow contained on the pages of scripture.  Scripture becomes a box in which Truth is contained.

For me, it’s the other way around.  Truth is much bigger.  God is much bigger.  Bigger than I can imagine.  And scripture is but a window into that world, an opening through which I can catch but a glimpse of God or a glimpse of Truth. 

Moses once asked to see God, but God said it would be too much.  What human could possibly see all that God is?  What human could possibly know all of God, all of Truth?  It’s too much.

But God did allow Moses just a glimpse.  God told Moses to stand in a cleft of rock, a gap or opening in the rock, and God would walk by … but as God walked by, God would cover Moses with God’s hand until God had passed, and then once God had passed, Moses could look and see only a glimpse of God’s backside; but God’s face certainly could not be seen.

I always laugh at this story.  If you take it literally, what does Moses get to see?  God’s butt!  And if I were one who interprets scripture literally, I suppose I’d have to, at some point, examine God’s butt – I’m speaking metaphorically now – and what exactly does it mean that Moses could only see God’s butt as God passed by?

I don’t think that’s the right way to interpret this story.

Moses has to hide in the cleft of the rock; that limits what Moses can see.  Moses can see something; but it is impossible for him to grasp everything. 

It kind of reminds me of Plato’s Cave.  In that story, people are locked in a cave and can’t even see out of the cave, but can only see shadows on the wall of the cave.  The meaning is similar.  There is so much more to reality, to Truth, than we can grasp or understand.  But we can graps and understand something.  A shadow.  A glimpse.  A passing image.

Scripture helps us do that.

And for that reason, scripture is central to our faith.  Scripture is a light to our path, as the psalmist says.

Scripture is not the path, and we cannot see the whole path.  But scripture does illuminate just that part of the path that is in front of us.  Just a glimpse. It is a light unto our feet.

The lamp does not contain the path.  Scripture does not contain truth.  It is not a box that confines.  Some people stare at the lamp as if it were everything … and they end up stumbling because their eyes are on the lamp and not the path.

God’s word is a lamp unto my path.  It guides me.  But it itself is not the path.

To me, that makes the stories of scripture all that much more powerful and meaningful.  These stories are not limited by my own interpretations.  They are not limited by the restraints I may try to place upon them.  They do not contain all the truth that there is, but instead point to a truth that is even greater and much bigger than any words can contain.

Isn’t that exciting!

The final part of the principle of identity says that we study God’s word within a community of faith. Well, why do we need the community?  Why don’t we just read it on our own?

Let’s go back to the window analogy.  Say you and I are in a room with a window.  We both look through the window, but because we stand in different spots, what we see out the window is slightly different.  Maybe you see a tree.  Maybe I can’t see the tree, but from where I’m standing, I can see a distant house…  I could insist that you stand where I’m standing, so that your view of the world matches mine…

Or, we could share with each other what we see through the window, each of us, from our own perspective.  If we do that, we gain a bigger picture of the world outside, a greater awareness and understanding than either of us could have achieved on our own.

I used to be afraid of what others saw through the window; afraid that it wouldn’t match what I saw. 

But now I realize that what others see through the window only adds to my own understanding.  They can see things from their perspective that I can’t see from mine. For this reason I keep an open mind.

Many seminaries these days are good at teaching students to appreciate these varying perspectives.  I had lessons and even whole classes on theology from different perspectives: theology from a hispanic perspective, from an African-American perspective, from a feminist perspective, from a gay and lesbian perspective, and so on.  Each perspective adds to one’s understanding of the truth.

So the more involved you are in a community of faith, and the more diverse that community is, the greater your understanding will be.

Which is one of the reasons this congregation is such a blessing to me!

Looking Through (Psalm 119:105-112)

Some of you noticed last week that I have a new pair of glasses, and a few of you even made a comment about them.  Well, I have a story about that to tell you.

My previous pair of glasses, I had for eight or maybe ten years.  For several years now I had been saying it was time to get some new glasses, but I kept putting it off.  So when I finally went to get them, it was a big deal.

It helped that I found an online coupon for a small optometry shop in Long Beach that took over a hundred dollars off the price of a pair of glasses.  So after a visit to my optometrist, I grabbed my coupon, headed to the shop and began picking out some frames.

It wasn’t a big shop; the person working there told me it was a “boutique” store.  Whatever; I was getting over a hundred dollars off, so I was determined to find something I liked.

Well, I didn’t.  But there was a pair that Ginger liked; and the store employee agreed that they looked perfect on me.  There really wasn’t anything else in the store I liked, so I said okay, fine.

The employee started punching numbers into the calculator.  After figuring the frames, the lenses, and the various coatings, I learned that my total cost would be $745.  After the discount.

Turns out that the only frames in the store that I liked even a little were also one of the most expensive frames in the store.

By that point, my head was in a haze, and my thinking was kind of fuzzy.  Shopping does that to me.  Even if it’s just for a pair of glasses.  I looked at Ginger; she nodded her head.  I looked at the employee, who was also nodding her head.   And so then I nodded my head.  And then I was told I’d get a call in about a week, when the glasses were ready. 

And I left.

That night, I couldn’t sleep.  I was restless.  My thoughts kept me awake.  $745 for a pair of glasses?  It had been so long since I bought my last pair, I wondered if all glasses were that expensive these days.  Surely not.  And I wasn’t even particularly excited about the frames. 

Yes, they were high-end designer frames, very nicely made, but they weren’t me.  For $745, shouldn’t I at least be really excited by them?  There’s a lot that I could be doing with that $745, a lot that I’d rather be doing with my money than paying for a pair of overpriced glasses.

I think of every dollar I spend as my life energy, since it was my life energy that I exchanged, through my work, in order to receive that dollar.  Did I really want to spend $745 worth of my life energy for something that I wasn’t really all that excited about?  Wouldn’t it be better to spend that kind of money on things that are more in line with the things I value, the things that give meaning to my life, things that will help me live richly toward God.

Hey, it’s a stewardship sermon, you knew I had to go there…

Finally, late that night, after what seemed like hours of keeping both myself and Ginger awake, I was able to go to sleep, but only after I had made the decision to call the shop first thing in the morning and see if I could cancel my order.

Please understand that what I’m saying here applies specifically to me.  You see, it wasn’t worth it to me to pay $745 for a designer pair of glasses.  Maybe for you, it is; we all have our luxuries, our indulgences. 

But for me, I just could not convince myself that any pair of glasses is worth $745.  Surely I could find a pair for half that much, and perhaps even a pair that I liked better. 

After all, the point of glasses, I realized, wasn’t to be looked at; the point of glasses was to be looked through.  All the extra money that those glasses cost did nothing to help the glasses achieve their purpose.  All that extra money did nothing to help improve the way one looks at the world through the lenses.  All they did was change how people look at the glasses themselves. 

But looking at glasses isn’t really the point of glasses.  That’s not their purpose.  Their purpose is to have someone look through them, and see the world.

The glasses I’m wearing today cost less than half – much less than half – of what those other glasses cost.  And guess what?  I can see you all just fine.  And I still have an unused coupon for the “boutique” glasses shop.  It’s good for another month.  Let me know if you’re interested, because I won’t be using it.

Well, all these thoughts about glasses and how they are made to be looked through and not at reminded me of something I read long ago in a book by Justo González titled, Mañana.

Justo González talks about the purpose of scripture.  He wrote that “the purpose of our common study of Scripture is not so much to interpret it as to allow it to interpret us and our situation.  The interpretation of Scripture is important,… but the final purpose of such interpretation is not to understand the Bible better.  It is rather to understand ourselves better in light of the Word of God, and to discover what obedience requires of us.”

Then González makes reference to the portion of Psalm 119 we heard this morning.  “’Thy word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path,’ says the Psalmist.  Travelers who carry a lamp take care that it shines properly and that its lenses are clean; but if in the middle of their trek in the dark they become overly preoccupied with their lamp, looking at it instead of at the path, they will soon lose their way.  The lamp is a means to an end, not an end in itself.  To look at the lamp as if it were the path can only lead to disaster.”

Now I don’t know what it is with kids and flashlights, but if you’ve spent a lot of time counseling kids at camp like I have, you know that kids like to shine their flashlights at night.  Boy, do they like to shine their flashlights!  They like to shine them around.  They like to shine them in your eyes.  But the light is not fulfilling its purpose of helping you see if it’s shined directly in your eyes.  Quite the opposite. 

And a lot of people treat scripture the same way.  They shine the scripture right in your eyes, instead of using scripture to help illuminate your path.  Focusing on the scripture itself is like focusing one’s attention on the frames of one’s glasses, rather than using the glasses to help bring the world into focus.

“Thy word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.”

I don’t know if you are aware of it or not, but a controversy developed last week over an ad by Dr. Pepper.  The ad shows three figures in the evolution of humanity;  the first, an ape-like man, walks along on all fours.  The second, slightly more upright, is shown discovering Dr. Pepper.  The third is a fully upright man walking along, drinking from a can of Dr. Pepper.

Well, some Christian groups have complained and called for a boycott of Dr. Pepper for its pro-evolution, anti-creationism ad.  I don’t know how it is that their faith is threatened by an ad for soda, but in my opinion, they are looking a little too hard at the light, and not focusing on the path.

I don’t think that’s a problem for the Dalai Lama.  He uses Buddhism to help him see the path, to find his way on the journey of life, in the same way that he usually looks at the world through a pair of glasses.  Strangely enough, he’s not wearing his glasses in a photograph that’s been widely shared on the internet, in which he appears next to a quote of his that says:  “If science proves that some belief of Buddhism is wrong, Buddhism will have to change.”

That’s using faith properly.  That’s looking through the glasses, not at them.  That’s using the light to illuminate the path.

A lot of people today get caught up in this same dilemma when it comes to money.  They live for money.  They’re number one goal is to acquire money.  It’s the purpose of their life.  Money is what they live for.

Well, the purpose of life is not money.  Using scripture to shed some light on this, we read in various places that the love of money is the root of evil, that money should never become one’s master, because you can’t serve two masters.

However, that’s not to say that money itself can’t be useful.  Money, in and of itself, is not evil.  An obsession with money, a love of money: that’s what’s bad. 

Money can, in fact, help you achieve your purpose in life.  Money can help you find what is worth living for.  Money is a tool that can be used for a greater purpose.

But if money itself becomes your purpose – then you’ve got it backwards.  Then you’re looking at the frames and not through the lenses.  Then you’re staring into the light, instead of using the light to illuminate your path.

I said a few minutes ago that I think of money as my life energy.  I work for so many hours, exchanging my life energy for money; converting my life energy into money-form, in the same way that water can be converted from a liquid into a solid through freezing.  I work, and my life energy is converted from physical energy and labor into dollars and cents.

For someone who works at $15 an hour, for example, every time they spend $15, they are spending one hour of their life.

So when I spend my money, I’m spending my life.  Every dollar I hand over is my life.

So it’s very important to me that I spend my life on things that are aligned with my values, things that bring meaning and purpose to my life.

And that does not include a pair of overpriced designer frames.  Spending too much of my life on things like that, things that don’t correspond to my values, keeps me awake at night.

That’s the major problem with how we look at economics.  News reports concerning the economy always consider an increase in wealth as if increasing wealth is the goal, the purpose. 

It’s not.  At least, not as far as I’m concerned.  The ultimate goal and purpose is happiness.  It’s a fulfilling life, an enjoyable life, for the greatest number of people.  It’s a life of satisfaction, contentment, peace and security.  Isn’t that what we’re really hoping economic growth will bring us?

The truth is that, despite living in the wealthiest nation in earth’s history, we Americans are not very happy.  The richer we get materially, the less satisfied we are with life.  Studies have shown this.  Which leads one to wonder:  what is the point of economic growth?  What is the point of acquiring wealth?

Those whose focus is on wealth and growth as the ultimate goals in life have it all backward.  They are looking at the frames instead of through the lenses.  They are staring at the light instead of using it to illuminate the path.

The thing to do is to figure out what your life purpose is.  What are you living for?  What do you feel called to live for?  What are your values? 

If you’re going to be giving your life away every time you spend your money, what is it that’s worth your life?

I don’t know about you, but this is why I support the church.  It is a struggle; I’ve had to learn and grow, just like many of you.  At first I tried writing a check to the church once a month, but it just seemed like so much money to me, that it was hard.  So now I write a check every week.

And although my own giving level is far from where I’d like it to be, and far less than what I suspect many of you give, I do what I can to get it to where I’d like to be.  This summer, I increased what I give to the church by ten percent, and when I fill out my pledge card, I intend to include another ten percent increase for 2013. Hopefully I’ll eventually get to where I want to be, spending more of my money on things I value.

Why?  Because I believe in the ministry of this church.  What this congregation does is worth me giving my life to. 

And never, not once, have I lost sleep at night because I gave to the church.