How To Read the Bible - iii. How Do I Understand It? (Hebrews 4:12-14)
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In reading and studying the Bible, we are served well by an awareness of the lenses that stand between us and the words on the page.
Lenses like:
- Culture (Who wrote it and when? What did the world look like to them and how has it changed?)
- Genre (What kind of writing is it? Should it be taken literally, or figuratively? Is it prose or artistic?)
- Context. (What ideas are connected to what I'm reading? What movement or story is it part of?)
And the lens of: Cohesion.
The Bible holds together. It is one great big whole.
The Bible is such an ancient book that it’s easy for people to, from a distance, say, “Oh, it's so old! How can it be relevant?”
Just because something is ancient does not necessarily mean it's outdated. Just like the fact that something is outdated doesn't mean it's old. (Anybody remember dvd's?)
To be old does not mean to be defeated by time. Just because it's old doesn't mean that it's going to be replaced by something better. The Bible is old—has been continued and carried through history—because it is always, and always has been, and always will be relevant and important. It tells us our story: where we begin, how we carry on, how we end, and how we begin anew.
The challenge of reading the Bible through the lens of cohesion is that sometimes we lose the plot. We've seen this even in our own recent Canadian history.
I was doing some somewhat depressing reading this week on this topic.
About how Scripture has been used to justify slavery. People who owned slaves would point to verses in the Bible and say, “Oh, look! Ham was “marked” by God (Genesis 9) because he was inferior. That ‘mark’ was inherited by his sons. That ‘mark’ must have been something visible. Some people have black skin. That blackness must be a ‘mark.’ So that means that they must be inferior. Therefore, the Bible says we can have slaves.” (I just wanna wash my brain out when I read stuff like that.)
I was also reading this week about something I hadn't heard of before. It was called Die Botschaft Gottes, a German translation of the Bible. Last week we talked a little bit about Martin Luther’s German translation, but in the 1930s and ‘40s, the Nazis decided they didn't like Martin Luther's version, and they were going to edit their own. They removed from the New Testament all positive references to Jewishness.
Jesus went to the synagogue on the sabbath. Mark 1:21
The Nazis were like, “Nope. That makes Jesus sound Jewish. Scratching that out.”
More recently, we've seen politicians misquoting Scripture to suggest that empathy is a bad thing. That we should only always look out for our own people. "Us first." Using the Bible to justify their own failings.
Sometimes people will couch these things in terms of good intentions. “Well, we just want to help the little Indigenous children learn to read and write. Aren't we nice people?” OK, well, no, that's not actually what you were doing. You were hurting people because of your bad theology.
We lose the plot way too easily. We forget when we're reading the Scripture to listen for the Spirit in the text. We look at the Bible and we say:
- Oh, look. This verse says that some people are ‘marked.’ I'm not, so I'm a superior person.
- This verse says God wants me to be rich, so gimme.
- This verse says that if I have enough faith I will be healed. So if you're still sick, it must be your own fault.
- This verse says you have no right to tell me how to live.
- This verse says “Vengeance is Mine, sayeth the Lord.” Well, if God wants vengeance, I’m happy to deliver it for Him.
- This verse says I'm right and you're wrong.
- The equal and infinite value of all human beings,
- The equal brokenness of all human beings,
- Our equal accountability for lifting each other up, putting others first.
When we do read the Bible through the lens of cohesion, reading it as our own story from Genesis through Revelation, and when we do that honestly, we find in those pages our true selves. We find that every single one of us is a slave and a consumer. Every single one of us is a victim and an exploiter. Every single one of us is sinning and sinned against. Every single one of us is a person who God died to save.
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So how do we read this book? When I wake up tomorrow morning and I open up my reading plan on my phone and I read the recommended selections of Scripture for today, what do I do with those words on the page? How do I get them from the page to my heart and my mind?
Here are some pro tips for reading the Bible:
Pro tip #1. Listen for the Spirit in the text. This book, these pages... His idea. This isn't something that people came up with. This was God’s plan. This is His gift to us. His presence is on those pages. He's listening and He's speaking to us, even in (and especially in) the difficult bits.
Pro tip #2. Read with respect for the human writers. These are the words of skilled, intelligent, and anointed men and women. Most of them did not choose this work. The work chose them. Their choice was simply to say yes, and to be faithful.
Pro tip #3. Take your time. Reread if you need to reread. I do have a reading plan on my phone. I am currently on #72 out of 95, on my reading plan that is entitled ‘Summer Challenge 2022.’ Because I will reread. I will spend several days on the same passage because I know that it's not getting in there, and I need to stay in this one place, and spend time with this idea and this passage of Scripture.
Pro tip #4. Share the journey. Don't try to do this all on your own. There are lots of other people on the same path. People with the same questions, the same struggles. This book is not intended to be lived alone. It is intended to be shared and studied in community.
Pro tip #5. Read with a humble curiosity. Ask yourself questions. Not “How is this story about me,” but “Where do I fit into this story?” Not “What does this verse mean to me,” but “What does this verse mean? And how might I respond?” Not “How does the big story fit into my culture and what I want to accomplish?” but “How does the Spirit in the text speak to the spirit of this age?"
Because we live where we live. Me—today—in my culture. I hear the questions that people are asking. I see the things that people are seeking. I see the ways they go looking for them and how sometimes that does not end well.
Three things that in my culture, people are looking for, and that I'm looking for as well. Things that I can find in the pages of Scripture.
First, people in our culture are looking for leadership we can respect. That is true in the Church, and beyond. I think we've all had enough of scandals. I think we've all had enough of greed and self importance. I think we are all looking for the adults in the room. Who can we actually depend on? We are looking for a leader who puts the needs of their people before their own self-interest. For a leader who cares and serves. For, in fact, what the writers of the Bible call “a King.”
Second, we're looking for something honest. We're looking for something dependable, something that we can trust, something that we don't have to look at 6 times, trying figure out whether it is AI generated, or real. Something that's not spun for political gain. Something that's not redacted to serve and to protect the interests of people in power who want to hang on to power. We're looking for something that we can rely on. We are looking for what the writers of the Bible call “the Truth.”
Finally, we are looking for connectedness. To other people. To our world, this beautiful planet of which we are a part. We're looking for connection to something greater than ourselves. Something beyond superficial conversation. We’re looking for the deep truth of being ‘us together.’ We’re looking for what the writers of the Bible call “Family.”
And as we read the Bible honestly, as we read it with lenses that help us to find our way through the obstacles to the good stuff underneath the surface....
We find a King.
We find Truth.
We find Family.
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