Text: Luke 11: 27-28<\/p>\n
Over these last few weeks in Bible 101, we have explored how our scriptures were put together, translated, and some of the creative tension that was baked into the text itself.
\nToday, our focus is on interpretation. Once we understand what a scripture meant in the time and place it was written, how do we then live and apply it today.
\nAfter all, Jesus said that blessed are those who hear God\u2019s word and obey it, who put it into practice, who allow it to shape how they think and live.<\/p>\n
There is part of me that wants to offer you six simple rules for interpretation.
\nTo give you a set of guidelines to follow.
\nTo say this is the United Methodist way of approaching scripture.
\nBut the reality is, interpretation is messier than a list of how-to instructions.
\nIt is as much an art as it is a science.
\nIt is as much about the mystery of the Holy Spirit as it is about the rigid teachings of our ancestors.
\nAnd because of that, faithful United Methodists today disagree about how to read and apply scripture.<\/p>\n
That was the struggle lifted up by our friend, Al Lockin, near the beginning of our Bible 101 series. What are we to make of our differences? How can we read the same text and come to such different conclusions?
\nWhen we hear the word, but our interpretation of scripture leads us to obey, to practice, to live out the teaching of Jesus in different ways, what do we do about it?
\nThis particular question is so important for this moment in the life of our church, because in just two weeks, our denomination will hold a four-day conference in St. Louis. The reason we need to have this big meeting is because we don\u2019t agree on how to interpret and live out the scriptures as they relate to LGBTQ+ persons. As I shared with you last summer during our series on A Way Forward, faithful Christians read the same six scriptures and come to different conclusions about what they mean for us today.
\nAnd while in some ways what we are debating in St. Louis is that interpretation, the deeper question, the bigger question is actually this: are we willing to continue to be a part of a church, of a community, of a denomination with people who disagree with us?<\/p>\n
So today, I want to step back from the rules and guidelines of interpretation. I want to offer a reminder that confronting differences in how we live and apply scriptures is not something new.
\nIn fact, scripture itself lifts up the reality that faithful people interpret things differently.
\nAs we have shared these past few weeks, even the Torah itself, those first five books of scripture, hold within them contradictions and tensions and different interpretations of events.
\nWere there two of every kind of animal, or for some animals on Noah\u2019s ark were there actually seven pairs? Well\u2026 it depends on if you are reading the interpretation of the priests or of the other oral traditions.
\nOur biblical canon even contains different historical accounts \u2013 in the books of Kings and Chronicles, we find different takes on the same events, told from different perspectives. It would be like holding in your hands two different histories on George Washington \u2013 one told from a military expert writing in the 1800s and the other from a modern day expert in leadership\u2026 you are going to get different stories\u2026 but its all about the same set of events.<\/p>\n
When we get to the time of Jesus, the recognized and agreed upon texts of the Jewish faith were fairly established\u2026 but there were different schools of thoughts and ways of understanding what those texts meant and how we were called to live them out.
\nEarlier this week, I posted in our facebook group a video from Rob Bell that talks about what it meant to be a disciple in the time of Jesus.
\nWhile all children would have learned and would have memorized the torah\u2026 the first five books of scripture\u2026 after the age of ten, most children would finish their education and would go and learn their family trade.
\nBut what Bell describes as \u201cthe best of the best of the best\u201d would embark on a new phase of education.
\nThey would go and apply to become a disciple of a particular rabbi whose teaching that student wanted to embody. One rabbi might look at a verse and say that this is what it means\u2026. But a different rabbi from a different town might look at it slightly differently. And they would commit their life to learning from that rabbi.<\/p>\n
One of the things that tends to happen, however, when you have different ways of interpreting God\u2019s message is those differences can become institutionalized.
\nIn the gospels, we see a number of schools of thought present\u2026 kind of like different denominations today.
\nThe Pharisees held together the written law of the scriptures with an oral tradition of interpretation called the Talmud. They believed in an after life and that a messiah was coming to usher in a new age. Much of their practice was shaped not around the temple, but around gatherings in synagogues.
\nThe Sadducees rejected that oral teaching and focused only on what was written in the law. And since there is no mention of an afterlife in the Torah, they didn\u2019t believe in one. They also focused their practice around the Temple. A unique feature for a group that held close to a literal interpretation of their texts is that they were open to much of Greek thought and incorporated it into their teaching.
\nYou\u2019ll also find descriptions of the Essenes in this time. This was a sort of monastic movement with strict dietary laws and a commitment to celibacy. Their relationship to the written and oral law was often more spiritualized and we have discovered writings like the Dead Sea Scrolls from communities like the Essenes that show us very different ways of approaching the life of faith.<\/p>\n
Much of our New Testament, aside from the gospels, was written by Paul \u2013 a Pharisee, taught by the Rabbi Gamaliel, who was a student of Hillel. One of the more fascinating things that I found as I was doing research for this message is that Hillel was known for his seven rules of interpretation\u2026 and many have worked to draw parallels between those seven rules and the writings of Paul and how Paul himself worked to interpret Jewish scriptures into early Christian teaching.<\/p>\n
As the church began to be established, one of the things that the early Christian leaders did was to try to form a standard, a core set of beliefs that we all hold in common together. We call these creeds. For example, the apostle\u2019s creed was not written by the apostles, but summarizes the core of that teaching. Let\u2019s turn to page 881 and read aloud the traditional version together.<\/p>\n
I believe in God, the Father Almighty,
\nmaker of heaven and earth;
\nAnd in Jesus Christ his only Son, our Lord;
\nwho was conceived by the Holy Spirit,
\nborn of the Virgin Mary,
\nsuffered under Pontius Pilate,
\nwas crucified, dead, and buried;*
\nthe third day he rose from the dead;
\nhe ascended into heaven,
\nand sitteth at the right hand of God the Father Almighty;
\nfrom thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead.
\nI believe in the Holy Spirit,
\nthe holy catholic** church,
\nthe communion of saints,
\nthe forgiveness of sins,
\nthe resurrection of the body,
\nand the life everlasting. Amen.<\/p><\/blockquote>\nBut as time has moved on from this time of creedal confessions, we have watched as time after time, our different ways of understanding God and the scriptures have created new schools of thought, and fractures and splinters and new denominations and movements\u2026 including the United Methodist Church.<\/p>\n
In our core scripture for today, Jesus has been teaching the disciples and was casting out demons. Even in the midst of that miracle \u2013 there were different interpretations happening in the crowd around what was happening.
\nOne woman finally shouts out \u2013 Blessed is the woman who gave birth to you!
\nI find this a really thing to shout out in this moment, but perhaps one of the reasons she felt the need to raise her voice is that in the midst of all of the conflict and chaos of interpretation, she wanted to affirm where Jesus was coming from.
\nShe wanted to celebrate his particular brand\u2026 his line of thinking\u2026 the people who formed and taught and shaped the way he was approaching scripture.<\/p>\nWhat I find really fascinating here is that Jesus challenges her words\u2026 It\u2019s those who hear God\u2019s word and live it, obey it, put it into practice that are blessed.<\/p>\n
Our work is not to focus on the people who formed us, or the rabbis we follow or the perspectives we belong to. Our job is not to get so stuck in one school of thought or to be focused on the past.
\nOur job is to take God\u2019s word and live it out.
\nOur responsibility is to take ownership ourselves for how we put into practice the faith that has been handed down to us.
\nIn fact, one of the core teachings of the United Methodist Church is that we believe it is the theological task of each and every single person not to regurgitate the work of others, but to engage with the scriptures and to wrestle with what they mean today.<\/p>\nIn the past, we have talked about some of general framework in the United Methodist tradition for approaching scripture and applying it to faith today.
\nYou\u2019ve heard about the quadrilateral \u2013 scripture, tradition, reason, and experience.
\nBut guess what\u2026 even faithful United Methodists don\u2019t agree on THAT as a general framework\u2026 or how to apply it\u2026 or what to do when faced with disagreement between tradition and something like experience.<\/p>\nWhen we go back farther to the writings of John Wesley, I find some very helpful advice as we encounter our differences today.
\nOne\u2026 he talked about being a man of one book\u2026 but he always had a number of other books in his hands\u2026. Other translations of scripture\u2026 writings and teachings from history and tradition\u2026 wisdom from the natural sciences of his day\u2026 even a manual for how to heal people who were sick.
\nBut over and over, he also reminded us that as we each engage in our work of interpretation, that personal responsibility, we are not called to do it alone. He formed people into groups of accountability. He reminded people of their call to be the church. And in various ways he reminded us that we are called to embrace humility and love and compassion when we are confronted with conflict in our interpretations.
\nAs he wrote in his sermon on the Catholic Spirit \u201cIf your heart is as my heart, take my hand.\u201d
\nIn essentials unity, in non-essentials, liberty, in all things love.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Text: Luke 11: 27-28 Over these last few weeks in Bible 101, we have explored how our scriptures were put together, translated, and some of the creative tension that was baked into the text itself. Today, our focus is on interpretation. Once we understand what a scripture meant in the time and place it was…<\/span><\/p>\n