As I often say, I love the Bible; in fact, I love reading all kinds of Holy Scripture. The Bible is the beginning of faith formation and should be taken very seriously. I also do not take Scripture literally, and neither did Jesus or the Apostle Paul. Recently, I got a comment from someone I do not know chastising me for this idea. He was shocked that I wrote that people matter more than Scripture. Jesus changed the Hebrew Scriptures on a number of occasions and behaved in ways that went against some of the rules. Paul removed the need for circumcision for those who did not want it, which caused a tremendous rift in the offshoot from Judaism that Jesus began. After all, the covenant of Abraham is a rock-solid part of the faith. The final commandment – some would say the only commandment – that Jesus left us with is to love one another the way He loves us.
This, however, is not the case with a lot of people of faith. They point to passages that condemn something and take it for a ride, while ignoring other passages as, in their words, no longer necessary. I am amazed that they can’t see the hypocrisy of this – if you believe that all Scripture is without error, you have to live that way. You have to keep people enslaved – you have to stop wearing blended cloth – you have to leave the outside 10% of your fields standing for the traveler or immigrant to glean – and you have to welcome the undocumented immigrant into your land. Jesus loved people more than Scripture – too many people love Scripture more than people – or Jesus, for that matter.
We can’t have it both ways; we either take the Bible seriously, but not literally – which leads to a lot of personal interpretation and chaos – or we take the Bible literally and go crazy trying to figure out how to stone a sinner to death while not murdering them. 2 Timothy 3: 16-17 tells us, “All scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, so that everyone who belongs to God may be proficient, equipped for every good work.” Nothing there about perfection, just usefulness. Scripture exists, mostly, for us to learn to do good, not evil. Jesus understood that completely. I think I will just listen to Him.
Prayer – Holy God, You have created life to be cherished and loved. May we learn to do that. Amen. Today’s art is “Creation 2” by Daniel Heller.