Why read the Bible...

How to approach the Bible?

For some the Bible is a book where each word has been dictated by God irrespective and independently of the human hand, which acts simply as the means for the divine command to be written. The Bible becomes literally the words uttered by God. 

For others, the Bible is a just book like any other. It may be  a particularly interesting anthology of ancient texts and is of genuine historical interest particularly given the sociological implications of their formative impact on so many societies - that is, they have had a significant impact in the past but the insights are now surpassed by greater learning and understanding. These texts are only enlightening in a retrospective dimension.

Very often these are the only two possibilities put forward and the debate becomes polarised between them. This means that rather than engaging with what the text actually says these two perspectives are forced onto the reading of the Bible and the meaning of the words get lost  in the argument.

I would like to offer a different place to start when approaching the Bible. I suggest that the Bible is best understood as testimony and has been captured by many people in many forms. What do I mean by testimony? A testimony is an account of an experience. If you see a crime, if you're part of the experience of that event you are called to give your testimony in court - to give an account of what you have experienced.

The Bible is a collation of different experiences of God in human history. Some of these experiences are captured in story form, some in legal writings, some in poems, letters, some in visions, prayers and songs.

But what makes these captured experiences so special is that they all point to in a particular direction and that direction comes to a single person - Jesus Christ.

This underlying consistency of direction finds its fulfilment in this particular person at a particular time. And this is truly amazing when you consider that there are dozens of authors, there is a time span of at least 1500 years between when these stories start and when the last words are added to the writings, yet they come together.

The Word of God - the revelation of who God is, is not these words (the Bible) But The Word - the message of the living person - Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the Word of God and these written words direct us to Him.

So. these written words are the experiences of people, priests, prophets, poets and kings who experienced God and captured in words what they experienced. These experiences have a commonality - a touch stone of Orthodox spiritual experience and what this book offers is an experience of God that will lead us to Jesus. 

The same Spirit that  gave the writers their experiences works through these words to draw us to be part of the same movement of God.

These experiences - the knowledge and understanding of the nature God, the certainty of His spiritual presence, are offered to you and me. 

When we read these words and we experience the same underlying Spirit, our eyes are opened to who we are in God's sight and where we are heading. 

We see that sin and brokenness are not held against us, but are part of a process of becoming God's own sons and daughters. 

We experience how far we are from what we could be, what we will be and how we often fail to accept life as the gift God intends it to be - just like the people who wrote these words. And we experience the transforming power of the Spirit changing our desires and leading us into a new way of thinking and living that increasingly makes old mean, fearful ways unbearable.

The effect of these written words is to draw us into a relationship with the Living Word and through that relationship into our eternal destiny with God. Even to begin to grasp how wonderful this future will be, our imaginations need to be broadened by the words of vision and poetry in this book.

Blind Bartimeus says to Jesus, "I want so see" - and Jesus says,"your faith (your open trust in me) has made you whole". 

So, experience that wholeness. The real and miraculous opening of his eyes is a living metaphor for the power of God opening our spiritual eyes. And this has to be personal and real to us. Jesus says, "it's the truth you know that sets you free." 

Not someone else’s experience - not a concept or an idea - but your experience of God that releases you into the hope and power of God's vision for your life and beyond.

When that happens – facilitated by these words and God’s Spirit - when our spiritual eyes are open, the experiences of those who wrote these words become our experiences. We know what they mean because we share our experience of the underlying work of God's Spirit in our lives. 

This library of stories becomes our personal history - our story.

So, my advice? Get reading. Treat yourself to a new Bible - a good contemporary translation like the NIV or the NRSV and read it again. 

Click here for a suggested reading plan and here for an on-line Bible and get reading.

Truth and Traditions

Mark 7:1-13 (For reading click here)

I remember a conversation I had once with a quite senior clergyman who was talking about what the Church has to offer. His response was, "We will always have our traditions." Is this really what Jesus came to do? To set up traditions to be followed?

It seems from this passage that Jesus came to do something different. So what is the spiritual danger in placing so much importance in tradition and what is it that Jesus wants us to do?

There are several spiritual dangers in focusing on traditions above all else. Firstly they can become something we hide behind. So long as we are carrying out the right rituals, saying the right words and behaving in public in the way everyone is used to and recognises we can feel confident about ourselves. But we can do these things without God. Jesus calls us to open up our real selves deep down to God's Spirit, to hear Him, feel Him and respond to His word and direction. He calls us to wrestle with ourselves before Him and be changed. He calls us to grow up and on, not to stay where we are. At times, rituals form a very important part of this, but there is a danger that if we put traditions before relationship we create ourselves somewhere to hide. I worked for a man who ran a sales force, many years ago. He refused to give his salesmen desks because he said that if they have them they will sit at them! If they don't have anything to hide behind they will have to go and talk to people and get selling! Traditions can become a safety blanket that we hide behind.

Secondly, rituals and traditions always end up being organised in such a way that there are roles for different people. Some of these roles appear more important than others. The danger with this is that having a public role of apparent importance nurtures pride. Pride is folly and is always followed by a fall! It is easy, too easy to believe our own PR! Humility before God - an awareness of our need for Him is essential to being in a place where we can hear and serve Him.

So Jesus calls us to grow in our relationship with God - to become more in tune with what pleases Him and to be changed by His Love into the likeness of our role-model, Jesus. If tradition, ritual and routine nurture this - great - but we must never confuse the means with the ultimate ends.

The Stairway to Heaven

Proverbs 9 and Mark 5:35-end (click here and here for the readings)

Although am 45 very soon, there is still a part of me that remembers what it is like to be a wild student. I remember the time of being able to make immediate decisions to do daft things - normally involving too much alcohol and staying awake far too late and laughing far too loudly. I remember the kind of abandonment based on the idea that there were no consequences to my decisions. I felt untouchable, totally free from responsibility.

I can remember too the day I gave up my job to travel for a while. Again the sense of freedom was amazing - no ties, just what I owned on my back and the cash in my pocket and lots of empty time to fill.

These times were great in their way. But the truth is that I after a while I got bored. The emptiness of the diary became an emptiness of purpose and I began to hunger for something of worth to do. I can remember seeing people who seemed to have chosen this uncommitted "freedom" as a way of life. I found them frightening. Most often they looked quite haggard - self indulgence had become their means of filling the empty hours. It looked and felt like they had fallen in to a trap. This is the same trap the the writer of Proverbs is warning us against.

The famous Led Zeppelin song "Stairway to Heaven" has the line:

"There are 2 paths you can go down but in the long run

There's still time to change the road you're on"

I think this is a dangerous fallacy. The reality is that the choices we make day by day shape who we are and become. It gets harder and harder to change as we rehearse day in and day out the choices we make. I am thankful for the freedom I enjoyed but I am more thankful that it left with a quest for meaning and purpose - I am thankful that after a while such things became boring because without that experience it would have been harder for me to try to search for the truth. I am thankful that God in His Graciousness did not let go but kept within me a hunger for something more, something that can be only be found in Him.

I still feel that urge for freedom within, but I hope that I have learned that it cannot be satisfied with the next indulgence or new time-filler. I pray that I have learned that true freedom is the freedom to want more of God without fear, because in Him there is always more to grow into.

The ladder into Heaven

Genesis 28:10-19 and John 1:43-51 (Click here and here for readings)

'And all the families of the earth shall be blessed in you and your offspring".

Amazing words! Spoken to a man in a wilderness over 3,000 years ago and still being remembered and understood today. The words are in contrast to the personal blessing promised to Jacob - of a land and a family - and Jacob receives a vision alongside these personal promises to enable the greater promise to be understood.

It is put simply as this - from the line of Jacob (Israel) the way to Heaven will be opened. God reconfirms to Jacob, as he had to Abraham, that it is through his line that humanity will find its way to Heaven opened and the Heavenly accessible here on Earth.

Jesus, in the reading from John, claims this promise as fulfilled in Him. Right here at the beginning of John's Gospel, Jesus explains what He has come to do. He understands the expectations of the Israelite Nathanael (Bartholomew) who Jesus understands to be patriotic and seeking the liberation of his land through a worldly Messianic and military leader. But Jesus points him beyond these immediate earthly concerns to the greater promise that all families will be blessed in Him. Their eternal, heavenly future is being made known and available.

This eternal heavenly future is to be made available through Jesus Himself. The ladder we need to climb to Heaven is Jesus himself. He has opened up the way to Heaven for us and God's promise is fulfilled.

Our God of blessing, who cares for our needs in this world has always the greater eternal blessing in mind as He hears our prayers.

Competition vs co-operation

Proverbs 3:27 - 4:19 and Mark 4:21-34 (For texts click here and here)

We are rapidly getting used to the idea that a market economy underpinned by a capitalist philosophy is the only sensible solution to meeting the needs of the human race. It seems to work well for many people, generating wealth and harnessing the aggressive and competitive side of human nature and steering it into the direction of understanding each others needs through enlightened self-interest. But we have seen that there needs to be significant controls around this market melee if the worst, most selfish instincts of human nature are not to ruin life for everyone. These 'controls' must be rooted in a higher philosophy, a greater ideal of what it is to be human. If these 'controls' stem from this higher ideology what is it? How do we express it?

Our readings today both point towards this greater paradigm of human understanding. Proverbs calls this greater perspective and understanding "wisdom". The wisdom described here is relational, it is all about not acting in isolation for yourself. Help your neighbour when you can - don't withhold help - co-operate! In families, listen to each other and respect the wisdom of those with greater life experience and hear their wisdom.

Jesus teaches about the fulfilment of this human ideal in the Kingdom of God, a way of being that fulfills human potential both in their relationships with each other and their relationship with God. There is a humility before God that accepts and lives in gratitude for the gift of life - not seeking to pin down or control but enjoying and celebrating the blessing of life. He describes this way of living and being as a tiny seed that will grow to be the largest of all trees and calls upon the image of the tree as a self-less life-support system for the creatures that live in it. Again, the picture has the feeling of sharing and generosity of giving and receiving, not competing and beating. It progresses from survival of the fittest to care and love for everyone and everything because of their intrinsic value.

There is a far greater ideal, a richer wisdom underpinning human existence than the buy and sell of a capitalist economy and the sooner we realise that the market is a useful tool and not our master the sooner we can harness the co-operative power of relationships and take another step towards the Kingdom of God.

Living through the tantrums

Mark 3:19 - end (For text click here)

Anyone who has ever raised children will understand that there comes an age when the relationship begins to change. When they are younger, they seek your advice on everything, they want your company and they listen to what you say - sometimes they even try to put the advice into practice. The help and care is offered and received.

Then, most often, the relationship changes. As the child becomes a young adult and the need for independence grows the advice is not sought so keenly - in fact, very often the attention and advice is actively shunned at times. The care and love is still there, still being offered - but for a time the young person cannot receive it like they once did. Hopefully, this is a phase that everyone grows through, learning to listen to each other until we reach a state where openness is restored and love and care, advice and wisdom can again be exchanged.

In this morning's reading, Jesus is saying that this is how it is with God and us - offering and receiving forgiveness. Jesus is in the midst of teaching and healing. People are receiving forgiveness and wholeness through Him. Those who are open to what is happening are being greatly blessed by God and are being freed from their old demons. But the free way in which people are experiencing the love of God offends many of the religious people of the day; that Jesus dares to pronounce this forgiveness and healing shocks them in the insecurity of their own relationship with God; the changed lives that are the result of this ministry has become evidence that needs undermining. Unfortunately for them, this means that they are closed to the new relationship that God is offering - like difficult teenagers, they are closing their spiritual eyes and ears to what is going and refusing to believe that God is so warm and loving. While their minds are closed to what the Holy Spirit is doing, they cannot receive for themselves the gifts that He is offering - they cannot receive the forgiveness and new life they lead. They remain trapped in their unforgiven state without the power to change and without the knowledge of forgiveness. If this blasphemy (this statement of falsehood against the God) continues they will not be able to receive from God what they need. Like parents dealing with teenagers through a difficult phase, God's love, care and offer of forgiveness remain, but cannot be received.

We all have our tantrums still. In the face of so much love we all fail at times to believe that God really forgives, accepts and renews us. But He does.

Wisdom in practice - dealing with success

Proverbs 1 and Mark 3 (For texts click here and here)

In this passage in Mark, Jesus is beginning to become increasingly popular and needs to find ways of dealing with His success. His miraculous works have drawn great crowds to Him and there is so much desperate need around Him that He needs to plan howthe needs are met nd the teaching can happen. In this passage He deals with this "success" in three ways.

Firstly, he takes precautions for Himself, His disciples and those who come to find healing that the ministry can continue in an orderly way. He does not allow the situation to get out of control or degenerate into a scrum. He organises for a boat to be made available. This, of course, also ensures that the message He has to deliver will be heard.

Secondly, He tries to ensure that the expectations of the people, who seek political freedom through conflict, are managed down. As the evils spirits leave those who are being healed, they acclaim Jesus as the Son of God and although this is of course true, I wonder whether or not they are stirring things up to try and distract Jesus and off rail his Kingdom Ministry through earthly expectations. He recognises their game and does not fall for it.

Thirdly, He shares the ministry and the work as soon as He can. He withdraws to a mountain and appoints the twelve with whom He shares His authority for the work He is doing. He multiplies the blessings that God is pouring out by multiplying those who can administer them.

This is wisdom in practice. An understanding of the work that God has called Jesus to do, a wise discernment of the pitfalls and a vision for seeing it grow. Mark captures the simple clarity of the thinking. Wisdom in hindsight always looks so simple; but of course, the trick is to see it in the midst of the potential mayhem!