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Sunday August 17, 2008: "We Call Ourselves Disciples: People of the Book" 2 Timothy 3:14 - 4:5 |
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Location: Blogs Brad's BlogBrad's Sermons |
 | | Posted by: Brad Miller | 8/18/2008 12:47 PM | When Paul wrote the words to Timothy that we just heard, he might just as well have been writing to us. It is powerful advice that Paul passes on, and it is advice that can benefit us, just as it surely benefited Timothy those many, many years ago.
It is simple advice: remember what you have been taught and never forget the importance of the source of what you have been taught: the Holy Scriptures. Paul describes all scripture as inspired by God and always useful for the people of God undertaking God’s work. Then he goes on to explain just exactly why it is so important to hold fast to the ancient scriptures, as well as the Gospel of Jesus Christ. At the heart of the argument is the fact that people don’t always want to hear tough messages, difficult instruction. Too often we hear what we want to hear. But Paul is firm: hold fast to the teachings of scripture so that God’s kingdom might be realized on earth, so that God’s work might move forward.
In the context of this sermon series exploring our faith traditions, this is a really interesting passage. By it’s very existence it raises questions that have been raised for some 200 years by the founders and members of this movement we call the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). They are questions about the nature of the Bible and it’s use. Here in this passage we see the importance of holy scripture defined, which is one aspect of the questions surrounding our Bible. There are other questions: Questions about the Bible as an inspired work of God. Questions about the authority of the Bible.
But this passage also gives us an example of the power of the Bible as a living document. One of the first things that jumps out at me in this scripture is something I said at the very beginning of the sermon: “Paul could have just as easily been writing to us.” The message was important to Timothy and the people of his time. The message is just as important to us today. How does that happen? How can a document written close to 2000 years ago have so much to say to us today? For me, it is this idea of the Bible as a living document that sets it apart from other writings of the same era. It is history, and more. It is poetry, and more. It is instruction, and more. It is wise advice, and more. It is law and more. It is prophecy, and more. It speaks to us today, and that makes it so much more than simply a collection of great writings.
This passage contains the seeds to explore the importance of the Bible to our faith heritage. From the early days of the movement and the writings of Barton Stone and Alexander Campbell to modern day Disciples scholars like Eugene Boring and Fred Craddock, the importance of the Bible to our faith journey has been a topic of great discussion.
The acknowledged founders of our denominations, Campbell and Stone, writing and preaching in the early 19th century were both fairly orthodox in their view of the Bible. Since they had both been trained as Presbyterian ministers, the Westminster Confession clearly had an influence in their way of thinking about the Bible.
The Westminster confession says this concerning the Bible: “The whole counsel of God concerning all things necessary is either expressly written down in the Scripture, or by good and necessary consequence maybe be deduced from Scripture.”
Barton Stone took the earliest, strong stance on this precept. He believed strongly that this statement of the confession was correct and used it to argue against the rest of the confession! Why have a creed when all the answers you need are in the Bible? And if they aren’t there “expressly”, Stone accepted wholeheartedly the idea that all matters could be resolved through interpreting the overall tone and message of the scriptures. This notion of deducing all necessary things was more strongly held by Stone than some preachers of his day, though. Not all were as comfortable with interpretation of scriptural precepts as they were with the seeming straightforward directions or instructions that clearly existed in the Bible.
An example of this would be an understanding of what the 10 commandments mean as compared to understanding what heaven is. The 10 commandments are straightforward: thou shall not, thou shall, thou will not, thou will. It is straightforward instruction that you either follow, or you don’t. But what about what heaven is like? Different prophets give glimpses, Paul speaks of a heavenly banquet, the book of Revelation gives us some oddly veiled references. But what is heaven? Well, we can come to an understanding that heaven is God’s domain, where all things are made new, where we will celebrate together, even if it is not specifically spelled out anywhere directly.
This kind of interpretation, this deduction of heaven as a place of beauty and comfort, comes from our understanding of God’s message that is contained in the Bible, even if a description of heaven is not specifically drawn.
Alexander Campbell, for one, had a little more difficult time, at least initially, in dealing with this notion of deduction or interpretation. He also had some particular ideas about which parts of the Bible were most important.
First, as to interpretation of the scriptures, early Campbell writings lead us to believe that he shied away from too much interpretation. His oft quoted line, “When the Bible speaks, we speak. When the Bible is silent, we are silent” is indicative of an understanding that the Bible deals with all the important matters facing humanity and if a matter is not in the Bible, we need not concern ourselves with it.
Second, as to his view of the makeup of the Holy Bible, Campbell was a New Testament man all the way. Like Stone, he believed that the Bible was clearly inspired by God, but while he believed that the Bible surely contained the Word of God, the Word of God was not evenly distributed across all the biblical texts! In his “Sermon on the Law” in 1816, he declared that all scripture that narrated events before Pentecost - including the gospels - had no authority for Christians. Christians were to follow only the practices authorized from the Book of Acts through the Revelation of John. He believed that the New Testament functioned very well as a sort of constitution for the church to follow. It was at the heart of his notion of “The Restoration Movement”, that is, the church acting as an agent to “restore” the New Testament church in modern times.
Over time, Campbell’s stance on interpretation of scripture softened somewhat, but never did he fully embrace the notion of Biblical interpretation that Barton Stone personified.
Stone believed in the importance of all believers reading their Bibles, asking questions, discussing and coming to their own interpretation of Biblical truth. He believed that this was of the utmost importance to a movement that had rejected human creeds. If they did not have a creed to give direction to belief, where else would they go? The Bible, of course. And if they were to fully utilize the Bible, they needed to read it, engage it, question it, and interpret it. Stone was far ahead of his time, and indeed, far ahead of where many, many people are today who argue that the Bible is straightforward truth without need of interpretation. Stone fought hard against the folk who declared, “The Bible says it. I believe it. That settles it.” It is not that he disbelieved what the Bible says directly, it is more that he understood that there were some things in the Bible that just were not that direct and easy to understand. In those cases the power of interpretation within the faith community is of paramount importance.
Throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, controversies abounded surrounding Biblical interpretation and authority, and someone from the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) could be found involved in all of them!
During and following the civil war, there was a fairly large split in the denomination concerning the interpretation of scripture as it pertained to the issue of slavery. Many congregations broke away from the movement to become independent churches.
In the early 20th century, a huge disagreement arose concerning the “infallibility” of scripture. While the whole issue is extremely complicated, the basic question came up because of a question raised by Isaac Errett, editor of the Christian Standard: “…have we in the inspired scriptures an infallible guide? Are the scriptures absolutely free from error?” Another way to ask this question is “Are the scriptures divinely inspired human writings, or are they truly divine writings given to humans?”
This question was so fiercely fought that in 1920, a large number of congregations broke away from the main part of the movement to found what is now called the Churches of Christ.
In 1986, Myron Taylor expressed what is a strong view among Disciple scholars when he wrote that it isn’t the document that is infallible, but the message that is infallible: the infallible message of God’s grace and salvation.
Today, the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) is characterized by diverse views of scripture. This fits with our emphasis on the importance of the freedom and responsibility of each individual to interpret scripture by his or her own conscience.
In 1995, a panel of Disciples scholars came up with this statement concerning the Bible: “We love the Bible and take it seriously, but we do not demand a uniform approach to Scripture. We believe the Bible bears decisive witness to the gospel of the LIVING God.”
A ministerial colleague of mine hates this statement. He thinks it shows that these scholars were not willing to take a stand on the proper understanding of Biblical authority and interpretation. Well, first of all, I don’t think he fully grasps the Disciple way. We believe in religious freedom. We value the input from lots of different perspectives. And second of all, I think this IS a strong stand and reflects a very important understanding of Biblical authority and interpretation.
First, this statement expresses our love of the Bible for all that it means to us. Second, it acknowledges that we all need different things from the scripture and so, different approaches will only serve to further our community understanding of the power of scripture. And finally, it acknowledges that the Bible is a LIVING document designed to help us become ever closer to the LIVING God. This takes us out of the realm of scholarship and academics and orthodoxy and into the reality of the human struggle.
The Bible is ALIVE! Just as Paul wrote to Timothy, Paul writes to us. Just as Jesus preached to the multitudes, Jesus preaches to us. Just as Moses encountered God on the mountaintop, we too, experience the presence of God.
Can you explain this? I can’t. It is part of our Disciple DNA that we accept the divine inspiration of the scriptures, and for me, the fact that I am moved when I read these words, the fact that I find comfort and direction and instruction and guidance in these ancient texts absolutely amazes me. It is not about exact interpretation, or method of interpretation, or adherence to orthodoxy or whether it is fallible or infallible that keeps me coming back. What keeps me coming back is that it is ALIVE! It is new and fresh and important to my daily life. Every day.
Which leads me to one final question: how are we to use the bible today?
Well, first, we have to read it. I’m not sure how to gauge this, but I keep hearing that we don’t read the Bible like people in the past. I think it is probably true. We don’t seem to know the Bible like past generations did. And we should.
Second, we have to think about what we read. What does it mean that Paul tells us to proclaim the message? How am I to live out my persistent proclamation? How am I to convince and encourage? Am I really up to rebuking folks?
Third, when we disagree with something in the Bible, we ought to find someone to discuss it with. Your Sunday school class, a friend, an elder or minister of the church. Maybe someone has some insight to help you understand, or maybe, someone else shares that same problem with the scripture and needs to work it through. It is through all of us bringing our questions, our insights, our revelations, our surprises, our experience of the living God through this living document that we come closer and closer to understanding and living out our role in what Paul describes to Timothy: “…so that everyone who belongs to God maybe be proficient, equipped for every good work.”
When was the last time you read your Bible, really read it? When was the last time you were comforted by your reading of the Bible? When was the last time you were perplexed by reading the Bible? When was the last time you were emboldened by reading the Bible? When was the last time you shared your questions about the Bible with a friend?
The Bible is an important part of our faith. Contained in it’s pages is part of God’s revealed truth. It can affect us all. It can have an impact on us.
But only if we actually read it.
Last week we talked about the special responsibility of living out our faith in the absence of a denominational statement of beliefs. The Bible is our benchmark, our bulwark, our strength. In it’s pages, the saving grace of God is revealed and celebrated. If we don’t read our Bible, if we don’t make an effort to know our Bible, if we don’t use our Bible to help guide us as we seek God’s revealed grace in our daily lives, we will not be properly equipped to do God’s work.
Our history is full of stories of people who believed fervently in the Bible and it’s power. They didn’t always agree with each other, but they knew it was important enough to argue about, to fight over, to take a stand. Because God’s work requires our best.
What’s our story? God’s work awaits.
Let us pray: Loving God, open our hearts that we might find your revealed truth in your Holy Scriptures, as well as in this room, in your creation, and in our dealings with our brothers and sisters in the world, today, tomorrow and always. Amen.
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