As is often the case, I have heard and read things over the last week that are coming together in a common theme. God must have something to say to me and I’m feeling led to share in case it’s something that others can also benefit from hearing. The message began resonating upon hearing a Children’s Sermon a week ago, has been reinforced as I have been reading a couple of books this week and has come full circle as I listened to a word from the pulpit this past Sunday. All of this is related to the lens that we view the scripture through and how it affects our hearing and understanding.
The Children’s Message was delivered a week ago by a retired Presbyterian pastor, Russ Ward, who worships at the church where I grew up in Sanford. As is often the case after hearing a well-given Children’s Message, we could have said the Benediction and gotten in the potluck line early! Rev. Ward took off his glasses and talked with the children about the fact that he wears glasses because he needs them to read and to see more clearly. He said that when he is reading the Bible, when he comes to difficult passages, and especially the ones that we often find ourselves arguing about, we need to wear our “Jesus glasses”, viewing the scripture through the lens of Jesus and the ways that Jesus taught us to view the world and treat other people.
This week while driving I’ve been listening to Eugene Peterson’s “Eat This Book: A Conversation in the Art of Spiritual Reading” where we are reminded that how we read the Bible is as important as that we read it. We must read the scripture formatively. As Jesus told the earliest disciples “When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth…he will take what is mine and declare it to you” [John 16:13-15; also 14:16; 16:7-8]. We are warned that “The danger in all reading is that words be twisted into propaganda or reduced to information, mere tools and data. We silence the living voice and reduce words to what we can use for
convenience and profit.”
We need to remember that God had many secretaries. There were a vast number of translators, and the Word of God began in Greek, Aramaic and Hebrew. Many stories were passed along orally for a long time before recorded, and since then they have undergone many translations. The Bible is filled with many genres and the context and audience that the original message was delivered to MUST be considered. To take the Bible literally without all of these considerations is unenlightened and irresponsible.
Another book that I am reading is titled “Midrash: Reading the Bible with Question Marks” by Sandy Eisenberg Sasso. We are reminded that “Whereas modern biblical scholarship sees the Bible as a human document, written and edited in various stages, the rabbis assumed that the Torah was divinely revealed and therefore contained eternal, perfect truths, both evident and hidden meanings that required ongoing elucidation… (the rabbis) believed it was possible for one text to contain multiple meanings… Hasidism taught that revelation was not a once-and-for-all event.”
This Sunday’s message was offered by our fresh out of Div school new Associate Pastor, Tyler Muller-Yoder, at my home church, St. Francis UMC in Cary. Tyler preached on Mark 10:46-52 where Jesus heals a blind man named Bartimaeus. We were reminded that the setting and context of where we are when we are reading the scripture might bring a different perspective and he challenged us that perhaps the earliest disciples who were with Jesus that day were the ones who had blind spots that needed to be removed.
If those earliest disciples who traveled with Jesus had blind spots that needed to be removed, and if a seasoned pastor needs a reminder of reading the text by wearing his Jesus glasses, we can probably all learn from this wisdom.
Please join me in the following prayer:
“Lord, help us to approach our reading of the Bible through the lens of Jesus and with an openness to being led by the Holy Spirit as we attempt to hear what the Word has to say to us today. Help us to recognize our blind spots and to allow them to be removed by you. In Jesus’ name, we pray, Amen.”
Peace y’all,
If you would like to print or share this edition of Claire…ification,
you are encouraged to use this pdf:
Claire – Viewing Scripture through the Lens of Jesus
To read past editions – you are encouraged to follow this link:
https://capitaldistrictnc.org/claire-ificaton/
