Biblical texts: Nehemiah 8: 1-8; Luke 4:14-21
Have you noticed that Martin Luther
King, Jr. has lately been speaking from beyond the grave? Have you watched his transformation from a human
being situated in a particular moment in time to a totem carried in support of
any cause? People from all political
persuasions used last Monday’s national holiday to claim that Rev. King would
support their positions on today’s issues if he were still alive. Even though
the first ever Gun Appreciation Day received support from a white supremacist
group, its founder, Larry Ward, apparently channeled MLK in a televised
interview to assure us that our nation’s most famous proponent of nonviolent
activism would support in death an issue he never endorsed during his life.[i]
Martin Luther King, a flesh and
blood leader who took courageous stands on various issues of his day, has
become an icon: the image of something or someone who represents what is sacred
to us. He has become a totem: a people's
identifying and inspiring picture,
statue, slogan to carry with them into action. When we hold an icon with love
for what it represents and with hopes for its power to help and heal, then we
use it responsibly. When we hold that icon with an expectation that its power
will accrue to us, we use it irresponsibly.
I suppose it’s inevitable that some
who never marched in a civil rights demonstration—never felt the point of a
bayonet, as has our own Jerry Pogue—will seek moral stature by merely
mentioning the name of Dr. King. It’s as
predictable as it is ironic that King’s words would eventually be quoted to
shore up almost any argument. The cross
of Christ has certainly been carried into arguments and actions that are at “cross
purposes” with Christ’s intentions. The
Bible, too, has been used more as an icon than as living words.
In other words, co-opting Martin
Luther King is not so different from co-opting the Bible, which has been used for
centuries to support every imaginable ideology, opinion, prejudice, and
product. Quoting King—like quoting the
King James—is sometimes more about our agenda than God’s.
I learned this week that Mobile is
the 13th “most Bible-minded city” in the country. What in the world could that mean? An article
in Friday’s Press-Register hints we
earned that illustrious title not because so many of us are skilled in
interpreting the Bible or living out its loving principles--but because those
surveyed professed to reading the Bible regularly and “believing in [the
Bible’s] accuracy” (read: inerrancy). I’d like to suggest different
measures for being “bible-minded.”[ii]
Just as some quote King without
understanding nonviolent protest, others quote the King James without
understanding anything about the people and cultures who wrote the Bible. I often hear people say that So-and-So really
knows the Bible because she can quote so many scriptures. I’m not sure that’s what it means to know the
Bible. Reading is more than calling
words. I suggest the “bibleminded” awards go to those who care about biblical
interpretation—and those who can live in ways that honor the God of the Bible.
Of course, even literalists interpret, whether they recognize it or not. But I
suggest we invite others (from past centuries and today, members of this faith
community and our broader culture) into the work of biblical interpretation,
which both requires and produces a faith community.[iii]
We return to today’s Hebrew Bible and
Gospel lessons to see examples of the Bible itself being read interpretively
and communally:
Biblical reading is, like all
reading, a complex act of interpretation. That was true even in Nehemiah’s
day. Ezra and all the priests were there
to help the people interpret what was being read to them. Not just any interpretation is valid. Notice the emphasis on the need for help in
understanding the scriptures:
“Also . . . the
Levites helped the people to understand the law, while the people remained in
their places. 8So they read from the book, from the law of God, with
interpretation. They gave the sense, so that the people understood the
reading” (Nehemiah 8: 7-8).
When reading the book of Nehemiah, you
don’t have to know that Ezra is interpreting scripture to a people just released
from traumatizing Babylonian captivity in order for you to appreciate their
eagerness to hear scripture. But Bible-minded people benefit from knowing the context
of the words and that the Bible comes from multiple cultures with histories and
values different from our own. Bible-minded people understand there are
conflicting theologies within the Bible—which is a collection of books, not a
book. Bible-minded people best use
the collection’s poems, myths, sayings, and laws by recognizing they were
written by human beings—not the hand of God.
Some voices in the Bible get things wrong. But Bible-minded people should also know that for centuries people have
experienced God in these words and thus we deem them sacred.
Lest I seem to make reading the
Bible too academic, I’ll emphasize that interpreting the Bible requires both a
scholar’s mind and a poet’s sensibilities.
We sometimes forget the Bible is largely a poetic work filled with song
lyrics and vivid imagery and figurative language we mistakenly try to convert into
prose.
The following poem about poetry
offers a helpful approach to the Bible. The speaker of this poem is a teacher
lamenting the way his students read poetry.[iv]
I ask them to take a poem
and hold it up to the light
like a color slide
or press an ear against its hive.
I say drop a mouse into a poem
and watch him probe his way out.
or walk inside the poem’s room
and feel the walls for a light switch.
I want them to waterski
across the surface of a poem
waving at the author’s name on the shore.
But all they want to do
is tie the poem to a chair with rope
and torture a confession out of it.
They begin beating it with a hose
to find out what it really means.
Hear that poem a second time as I
replace the words “a poem” with “the Bible”:
I ask them to take the Bible
and hold it up to the light
like a color slide
or press an ear against its hive.
I say drop a mouse into the Bible
and watch him probe his way out.
or walk inside the Bible’s room
and feel the walls for a light switch.
I want them to waterski
across the surface of the Bible
waving at the author’s name on the shore.
But all they want to do
is tie the Bible to a chair with rope
and torture a confession out of it.
They begin beating it with a hose
to find out what it really means.
Let the Bible be a poem for us and about us.
Bible-minded folks might also do well
not only to read more interpretively but also to know that biblical
interpretation is a communal act. In
fact, I can’t think of any scripture that encourages private Bible
reading. One reason the Bible assumes
scriptures are read communally and liturgically is that literacy was rare in
the ancient world and scrolls were rarer.
Few people could have read the scrolls on their own. But maybe
understanding scripture actually requires fellow readers or hearers—even today. Both the priest Ezra and the rabbi Jesus read
scripture aloud to a worshiping congregation, and the congregation participated
in the meaning-making. Notice how Ezra’s
congregation reacted dramatically as a unit:
they attended to the Torah reading for hours that day —from morning to
midday; they responded with exclamations of “amen, amen” and they began to
understand together—men and women alike—as the Levites passed among them in something
like peer tutoring sessions. If you read farther into chapter 8, you’ll see the
entire crowd weeping with emotion and rejoicing over the words they’ve come to
understand not just in their heads but in their very being.
Likewise, Jesus commenced his
ministry by returning to his hometown of Nazareth and reading aloud from the
scroll of Isaiah to all those gathered in the synagogue, says Luke. Again, we
see that a scripture holds within it a scripture. We read a scripture about Ezra reading a
scripture. We read a scripture about Jesus reading a scripture. Thus the layers of engagement with sacred
texts stack up like Russian dolls containing more and more dolls, commentary
upon commentary upon commentary in a conversation that goes on for centuries.
People of faith understand that the Spirit of Wisdom is the prompter and guide
of these conversations.
Jesus, coming out of a Jewish love
of the Torah, announces his ministry by reading from the Prophet Isaiah in a congregational setting. He owns those familiar words in a way that deeply affects an entire
congregation, according to Luke. After
his reading, a stunned silence grips the gathered as Jesus methodically “rolled
up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down” (Luke 4:20). But
even after he was seated, “the eyes of all in the synagogue remained fixed on
him” (4:21). All were swept up in this
experience. All were galvanized around the
read Word. This was a communal epiphany.
Then their concerted gaze seemed to
call forth something more from Jesus.
The reading was over. He was back
in his “pew.” But the congregation knew
Jesus had something to add. Like a unanimous
vote, their united stare elicited this simple sermon after the reading: “Today
this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing” (Luke 4:21). Ah! HE will
bring relief to the poor, the oppressed, the blind, the captives! With that one
sentence Jesus took upon himself the messianic mantle . . . after the
faith community helped bring it forth.
Bible reading can be divisive or
bonding, and sometimes when it’s the most upsetting it has the most potential
for healing.
Though you and I may not have been counted among the Bible-minded
of our city, let us use our minds when we read the Bible. And use our hearts. Let us try not to hold up the Bible as an
idolatrous totem; let us try to hold it within ourselves and our community.
Let’s not tie the Bible to a chair with rope
and torture a confession out of it nor beat it with a hose
to find out what it really means.
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I suggest we try reading the Bible
interpretively, not literally; and communally, not just individually—led by the
Spirit that moves among us.
Let us pray: O God of the Bible, let
the Bible read us, hold us, struggle with us, form us, fuse us as a
congregation. Amen
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