Towards Sunday, Feb 21, 2016 (Second in Lent)

Theme:  Christianity is not a Religion of the Book

Readings:
Psalm 119:9-16 (Your word, God, is delightful to me because it directs me to the greater goal of pure and good living)
Psalm 19  (All the cosmos is like a book, directing us beyond ourselves to marvel at the wonder and mystery of God)

Summary of chapter 2 of Douglas John Hall's "What Christianity Is Not" 

In the public mind and in many North American churches today, “Christianity” and being “a true Christian” is seen as an ability to quote the Bible about issues, and a willingness to place the literal words of the Bible above other authorities like science.  And “while conservative Christianity in North America has expressed itself in increasingly biblicistic terms, the more liberal churches of the old Protestant mainline seem to have left the playing field.”   

But “classical Protestantism does not ask us to believe in the Bible.  The Bible itself does not ask us to believe in it!  It asks us to believe in God…” 

In classical Christian thought the Word of God appears in three “forms” – the word preached (sermons), the word written (the Bible), and the Word incarnate (Jesus); and the greatest of these is the Word incarnate.   

The first two (sermons and the Bible) are provisional pointers – good gifts of a provident God, to help us for the time being to encounter the third.  And the third (Jesus) is a mystery beyond our complete grasp and understanding; even though we know and follow him, we do not own or control him. 

So … it is important to study and know and reflect on the Bible in order to be drawn by it into the fuller mystery of God – but not just to be able to know and quote the Bible in all its literal parts. 

Reflections

Does it seem to you that conservative Christians “know their Bible” better than liberal Christians?  Better than we do?  How do you feel about your “knowledge” of the Bible?

How is listening to the Bible as a trusted guide to the mystery of God, different from believing in the Bible as a book of truths to be followed? 

What parts of the Bible especially help you to know God? 

What ways of reading or studying the Bible help draw you into relationship with God or into openness to God?  Are you part of any Bible study or discussion group that helps you be drawn into openness to God?   

Have you been in the past?

 

Would you like to be?