Christianity 101: Taking the Bible Seriously But Not Literally

In 1895, at a meeting of pastors, a remarkable thing happened that change the course of Christianity for the 21^st century.  Now this wasn’t something surprising, as Darwin’s famous publication of Origin of Species in 1859 had already begun the movement of church leaders to begin wondering how they might interact with a society that was now seeking scientific conclusions.  What they begun were a set of 5 statements though that begun the dilution of the church down a road it now lies on.

1) inerrancy of scripture
2) virgin birth/deity of Christ
3) substitutionary atonement
4)bodily resurrection
5)bodily second coming

            For us, the most important of these at least tonight is the infallibility of scripture.  It said that every single piece of the Bible had to be correct. But there are major problems with this perspective that we have to consider as Christians.  If we have a bible that is infallible, if it is completely correct, well, how do we explain our scriptures today.

Genesis

            Most of you have read in the book of Genesis the story of Creation.  And perhaps you could sum it up for me here (anyone….)  There’s only one problem with this summation…. as what happens when we play out the Christmas story, the stories of two different stories are blended into one.

            Let’s consider Genesis 1.  IN Genesis 1, there is a creation that happens in 6 days.  The light and the darkness are separated, the land and the water are separated, and all the things of the earth are created in a seven day period.  Each day ends with the statement that it “was good” and finally the “adam” was created on the 6^th day and on the 7^th day God rested… and it was good.

            BUT then, then there’s more.  typically we think that God makes the earth and THEN the story of the garden of eden is the first stanza of the new world. But the truth is that it is entirely different from that.  Instead, this is in itself another creation story.  How do we tell.  Well, first, the adam is made first, naming the animals.  IN the first creation story, the human one is made LAST.  This is quite a big deal for some people (maybe not for you).  And the problem becomes that these two stories ultimately don’t match up.  The first story is one of a distant God, where the very thought becomes the action.  God decides, and it happens… but from a distance.  In this second story, the God we find is in intimate God, one who actually walks and talks with the human ones and perhaps most profoundly “breathes” the life into the adam.  The breath of God is breathed into the life of the human one.  We find none of this in the first book.

A cultural Dissonance?

            Throughout history, stories have shaped our culture, our way of life.  We are told stories from early in our childhood that inspire us, that transform our way of thinking.  But we always come to realize how true and yet how imaginary they are.  Consider a movie called Big Fish.  You probably have never seen it, but it’s about a guy whose father is dieing.  And his relationship is strained and whenever he talked to his father, the stories are elaborate, they are almost absurdly.  But what he comes to find our at the end of his father’s life is the truth in those words, yet knows they can’t be actually literal in their way of being.  It’s like the native American storyteller always says, now I don’t know if it happened this way, but it’s true.

The Truth is in the story

            When someone tells you a story, you should know there is a little bias.  You should realize that there are always other sides to the story.  And we look to uncover the truth, because as a society we have become scientific.  But sometimes, the story behind the story is what matters the most.  It’s not about the reality of the story.  Walter Bruegemann, a very famous theologican who is still alive today says that the Bible is an Act of Faithful Imagination.  It is an act of faithful imagination that we might act faithfully through our imagination of how God would call us to be… but it’s imagination that doesn’t sell itself to literalism.  It is rooted in memory but always leads towards new possibilities. To realize that God probably didn’t create the world in seven equally 24 hour days is one thing, but to imagine that the story was written to help explain how we are here is another.

            The story of faith ultimately includes some imagination.  We are faithful to know that God has redeemed us, has shown us love over and over and over again.  Do we think that everything that happened in the Bible happened in this exact way as it is written…and that the words, transcribed centuries after the events, translated from ancient Hebrew to Aramaic, From Ancient Greek to Latin, From Latin to German, from German to French and Old English and Norwegian and finally from Greek, German, and Latin into English, and then to American, and then again into Chinese and Korean and Japanese and Russian…. Do you think figured out every word… do you think we might be better to think that maybe the reality is the stories might not have happened in the way we were told, but that they might be true because of the inner meaning.

Releasing ourselves from ourselves.

            For many of us, Christianity is very difficult.  Maybe it’s the sense of a hateful God. But maybe it’s because the literal interpretation of the Bible has made so little sense to us that we question whether any of it could mean anything for our lives. But when we are released from that burdon,  instead changing ourselves over to an understanding where the Bible is a lens through which we see God, not the all knowing and literal and infallible never changing always interpreted version of the Bible, then we free ourselves to come into greater relationship with the one who creates us and sustains us through this Book.

            If the Bible is our source, is our center, then it must be a lens that lends itself to discussion, not a rigid piece of paper to be idolized and left with no hope for the future.  The United church of Christ, or the UCC, I believe has this one down.  There logo is a comma, it means, don’t put a period where this is a comma… God is still speaking…and the Bible for us is still relevant, because when we release it from it’s rigidity, we find that it becomes a powerful place for us to consider our lives our hopes, our world around us…. IF we can release it….

End

So let us begin again to look at the Bible with new eyes.  Let us use our minds as much as we try to use our hearts to interpret these holy scriptures.  And let us see them as Holy, as changing, as metaphor and story.  We are the community.  And while we don’t know it every story happens in the Bible just as it was told, we do know the story is true nonetheless.