SERMON: Rescuing the Bible

Rev. Tom Capo

January 11, 2004

Reading: Rescuing the Bible by Rev. John A. Buehrens

Rather when faced with [the] legends and miracle stories [of the Bible], we would do better to ask, “What was the purpose of this story? What deeper insights was it intended to convey?”

After all, human experiences within history demand metaphors that transcend that history in order to interpret what we have experienced. In the Biblical tradition, God is, at the very least, the ultimate such metaphor. We may be agnostics about God and skeptics about the actual historicity of events like the exodus from Egypt or the resurrection of Jesus. These, too, may partake of metaphor. But to understand the Bible requires that we try to understand, at the very least, what it is in human experience that brought forth such transcendent metaphors as creation, liberation, and resurrection.

In other words, you don’t need to believe in the God of the Bible to understand its stories. You don’t even need to believe that the Bible is consistent in its image of God; it isn’t. Neither are we human beings. At times, the Bible’s images of God seem tragic, oppressive, punitive, cruel, or destructive. So are we. We violate our covenants with one another and with God, who both judges our failings and constantly offers what the Hebrew Bible calls hesed—steadfast, enduring love. Ultimately, we finite human beings are forced to try to understand “God” as best we are able—either as the transcendent reality within the history we live or as ultimate metaphor. The Bible can help either way. All it requires is that we recognize that those who created and repeated its sacred stories had only their experience of history and only metaphors available with which to understand their own experiences and that of their forebearers.

Sermon

When I first became a Unitarian Universalist, most UU’s wouldn’t use the word God, Lord, grace, sin, or salvation; and only rarely was the Bible quoted from or even referred to in any sermon. Even now there are ministers within our denomination who refuse to use the Bible, and there are some laypersons who become very agitated when the Bible is used in a worship services. Unitarian Universalists turn to all other scriptures and traditions for inspiration or spiritual growth; however, for some the Bible is difficult to accept.

Sometimes within UU congregations, it is difficult to let the Biblical scripture land on rich soil. Some UU’s have had the experience of being manipulated by or threatened eternal damnation by persons using the Bible; and when they hear this scripture, it falls on dry ground, and they are unable to listen to it. Some UU’s have had the experience of finding some meaning in the Bible when they were children, but then their questions about its inconsistencies were left unanswered. So the message might touch them briefly, but it quickly withers, meaningless to them. When UU’s take the time to really listen, they can find much value in this scripture; it can take root, grow and yield much spiritual meaning. As we look at the Bible, we might gain from it if we understand that “human experience within history demands metaphors that transcend that history in order to interpret what we have experienced.”

I am not going to review every book of the Hebrew or Christian Bible; in this sermon, for ease of speech, I will refer to both of these writings--the Jewish and Christian Bible--as the Bible, I am not trying to maximize one of these Bibles at the expense of the other. What I hope to do is to whet our taste for the rich meal that waits if we study these scriptures. My hope is that each of us will take the time after today's worship service to read with depth these books to look for bigger pictures and deeper meanings.

English writer Jeanette Winterson writes, “The Bible writers didn’t care that they were bunching together sequences some of which were historical, some preposterous, and some downright manipulative. Faithful recording was not their business; faith was.” I realize there are many miraculous, mythical events and many inconsistencies in the Bible. This kind of writing is similar to that of other religions. The God Vishnu in the Bhagavad-Gita, stopping time during a war to talk with a soldier is one example of mythical events within religious scripture. And certainly the Bible has many inconsistencies, both historical as well as within its many myths. One example is the stories of Genesis, the first of which says that man and woman were simultaneously created in the image of God; while the second story of Genesis, has woman being created out of the rib of man.

I realize that the Bible can be, and has been, used to justify many positions or causes. Some of these positions or causes were very destructive—the Crusades are a perfect example. I also realize the Bible is patriarchal in its writing and has been used to suppress women. God being referred to as a male throughout many of the books of the Bible only served to reinforce this suppression.

The Bible needs to be read through the eyes of one who understands that this book was written by people of faith for people of faith to use to deepen their spiritual beliefs. Its many metaphors, myths and writings can only touch us if we open ourselves to them. One Unitarian Universalist who is encouraging UU’s to open this book again is Rev. John Buehrens. Buehrens is the past president of the Unitarian Universalist Association.

Buehrens recently wrote Understanding the Bible, along with a companion RE curriculum, to encourage us UU’s to look at many writings within the Bible to find deeper understanding. Buehrens explores some alternative understandings of the Bible for us skeptics, seekers, and religious liberals.

There are two books that hold some significance for me, and as such, that I want to expose us to. These Biblical books are Exodus and Job, both of which have had effects on many people, and even many cultures and political movements. Exodus is the story of the Israelites escaping their slavery in Egypt. This book was foundational in the changing of attitudes of American slaves, giving many of them hope and encouragement in escaping the south before the Civil War. This book was foundational in the development of the attitudes of the poor in Central American during the 1950’s and 60’s, giving them hope that their lives could change; Exodus also gave hope to the African Americans during the Civil Rights movement, and to women during the struggle for woman’s suffrage. The theology based on Exodus that was foundational to these movements is known as Liberation Theology.

Liberation theology, while based on the book of Exodus, is culturally relevant and cannot be separated from its socio-economic and political contexts. One of the central premises of Liberation theology is the rich and privileged have exploited the poor and powerless, causing their suffering. In response, God chooses the side of the poor and powerless in their struggle for liberation. Human salvation or liberation is not relegated to the afterlife; this theology promotes a worldly salvation, a liberation in the present.

A Salvadoran woman who believed in this Liberation Theology said: “This book of God is subversive because it turns the tortilla over, because it throws down the order of kings and empires and puts the poor on top…This book taught us that we, the poor, are the preferred ones of God, that God wants the poor to stop being poor and that God calls us to work to change things.”

While we may or may not agree with the theology of God choosing the side of the poor and powerless in their struggle for liberation, there is spiritual depth within this theology and this Biblical book which might be meaningful to us. The belief that salvation or liberation, however we might define them, is worldly and present-centered is understandable to most UU’s. Many UU’s might even believe that the divine within us calls us to work for social justice and social reform.

The story of the Exodus of the Israelites not only speaks to countries, movements, and social justice, it can also speak to our personal struggles with emotional and spiritual growth. Buehrens writes of Exodus: “Wherever you live, it is probably Egypt. There is a better place, a world more fair, full of promise and hope. The way to it is through the wilderness. There is no other way to get from here to there except by the hard way, being tested as we go.” Most of us have had the experience of feeling stuck emotionally or spiritually. We want to change; we know we can change and grow. But we might be afraid of that process of growth—that time in the wilderness that we will have to face. We realize that during our time in the wilderness we will face challenges, sometimes very difficult challenges, in order to get to the Promised Land.

Working with my psychotherapy patients, I have seen people struggle through this process time and time again. Sometimes they lose hope, not unlike the Israelites who lost faith in their God when Moses went up Mount Sinai to receive the Ten Commandments. The Israelites created a golden calf idol to worship to regain their hope that everything would work out for them. While my patients don’t create golden idols, sometimes they look for hope in all the wrong places. I have eating disordered clients who find hope in weight loss. They have to come to the realization that recovering from their eating disorder is a process of life change, not of external appearance. This process will only take place if they are willing to face their wilderness, and challenge the many issues that lie in wait for them inside. The hope they must find, the promised-land, comes from trusting themselves to live life fully without relying on the false idol of beauty.

Another book that is a personal favorite of mine is Job. Job starts out with God and Satan wagering on whether a person of faith would continue to have faith in God if he or she were suffering terrible losses. So God gives Satan power to ruin the life of one of God’s staunchest believers, Job. Job loses his livestock, family, servants, and health. During Job’s suffering, three friends try to console him, but in essence they suggest to Job that he must have done something wrong to deserve such misery. Job maintains his faith, but does spend much of the book questioning God’s reasons for doing these things to him. Buehrens suggests: “Our response to Job is to say that it’s a mistake to understand God in terms of absolute goodness, or goodness defined in human terms. But I would say, along with many other modern theologians, that what is most useful in the tensions of the book is the suggestion it holds that it is a mistake to define God only in terms of absolute control over history, or absolute power. The Bible as a whole seems interested not in God as absolute, but as relational; not as static, but as dynamic, not as impassive, but as affected by what we humans do well or ill or leave undone.” The people of Israel and some people today understand God in absolute terms. The prophets and some of the writers of the Bible understood that there were certainly problems with an omniscient and omnipotent God; one particular problem with this concept of an omnipotent God is that if God controlled all things, and God loved all creation, then why is there evil and suffering in the world? A dynamic, relational God certainly makes more sense to me. Process theology, which suggests that God and all life are in a process of becoming and are affected by one another, can be understood through Biblical reading, if we take the time to look a little deeper.

As commentary to the book of Job, Buehrens goes on to struggle with why do bad things happen, why is there suffering in our world. He suggests there is suffering “for a variety of reasons: because there is randomness; because there are the sins of others and those we ourselves are implicated in; because there are costs in overcoming evil with good. Our spiritual task is to sort out the strands. The knots are complex. But finding the proper responses to our frustrations, to human suffering and evil is a major theme in the Bible. In short, [the Bible] is full of wisdom.” The book of Job is part of the wisdom literature of the Bible, but I also agree with Buehrens that the Bible is full of wisdom, particularly relating to how humans face suffering and evil.

The Bible does acknowledge the many struggles that humans face. There are stories of people struggling with desire, conflict, poverty, judging others, manipulating others, and even trying to point out the evils that they see in their community. Perhaps this is the most difficult struggle, to try and confront the evils that we see in our world. Buehrens writes: “we should recognize that confronting evil will never be popular or without cost. Even serving the moral possibilities within us can bring its own kind of suffering. The prophets get stoned, rejected, or crucified. There is suffering that come to those who seek to overcome evil with good. And the best response to suffering, which comes in the course of truly serving one’s moral calling, can only be the higher virtues: faith, hope and authentic love.”

This Biblical message certainly resonates with me as a Unitarian Universalist. As UU’s we often are called to confront the evils we see in our world. Many UU’s are involved in the anti-war movement; many UU’s are involved in the gay rights movement; and historically UU’s--like Theodore Parker’s diligent work as an abolitionist--have been involved in social justice and social reform. And as UU’s we affirm the moral calling of the higher virtues, including the transformative power of authentic love; we even say each week here at Spindletop that love is the doctrine of our church.

I realize reading the Bible can be difficult. For some of us, getting through all the patriarchal, monotheistic, anthropomorphic religious language can be challenging. But if we can put aside the many abuses of this book and our own emotional issues with it, we might find some myths, metaphors and poetry that might resonate with some of the issues we face in our lives. We might be able to find books within the Bible that motivate us to seek social justice and social reform. We might find come to understand suffering and evil in a new light. We might find a concept of divinity that is broader and process-driven, a concept of a God that might be meaningful to us.

As Unitarian Universalists, we must be open to spiritually significant literature. If we close ourselves off from the Bible, for whatever reason, we may miss something that may be transformative in our lives. Some of our Living Traditions, which are part of the Unitarian Universalist statement of Principles and Purposes, call to us as we re-enter our study of Biblical literature. Our Living Traditions draw from many sources—Jewish and Christian teachings which call us to respond to God’s love by loving our neighbors as ourselves; words and deeds of prophetic women and men which challenge us to confront powers and structures of evil with justice, compassion, and the transforming power of love; and wisdom from the world’s religions which inspires us in our ethical and spiritual life. Our traditions call to us to explore Biblical literature to look for the bigger message and deeper meaning in these myths, metaphors and writings. As we open the pages of the Bible, let this word of spirit serve as a seed within our loam that we may bear so rich a yield as brings a harvest home.