Dr. David D. Young
July 22, 2007
Isaiah 55: 6-13
Galatians 3: 23-29
"How Big Is Your Bible?"

(David holds up the Bible.)

This book, the Bible that we turn to for guidance in the Christian faith has influenced more people throughout history than any other. Though if you were a young person today – you might think it was the Harry Potter books!

Could you imagine being in the advertising business and your assignment was the Bible? You could make some most remarkable statements:

"Now in over it’s 100,000th printing…has headed the best seller list for over 400 years." – and that would not be exaggerating.

As for endorsements your only problem would be deciding whom to quote:

"Best gift God ever gave to us." – Abraham Lincoln
"Through its pages, as through a window divinely opened, all can look into the stillness of eternity." – Thomas Carlyle
"An invaluable and inexhaustible mine of knowledge and virtue." – John Quincy Adams
"It finds me at greater depths of my being than any other book." – Samuel Taylor Coleridge
"I find more sure marks of authenticity in the Bible than in any profane history, whatever." – Sir Isaac Newton
"A knowledge of the Bible without a college course is more valuable than a college course without a knowledge of the Bible." – William Lyon Phelp

Needless to say, the list could go on.

A remarkable book when we think of the breadth of its sweep throughout history along with the impact it has had in shaping each of our lives. Well, the question I want to raise this morning (as you may have already guessed) is:

"How Big is Your Bible?"

I mentioned General Synod this past June, and one of the keynote speakers we were privileged to hear was Peter Gomes. Peter Gomes has written a book entitled, The Good Book, I commend it to your reading. It’s about, of course, the Good Book, the Bible. And in his book he talks about it in many different ways but he says, and he said in his speech in Hartford a few weeks ago, the Bible is the church’s book and we need to reclaim it. In his book he talks about how for too many people the Bible is simply an acquaintance, like somebody you sort of know, enough to say hello to and have a friendly surface level conversation with. But not a good friend and we need to make the Bible a good friend. It was his talk in Hartford and this notion about reclaiming the book that caused me to think of this intriguing idea about the Bible. It got me thinking about how big is our Bible?

There are some people who believe there is only one way to read and interpret the Bible – theirs! And yet there are others who are so loose in their understanding – that anything goes.

On the one side you have those who stress the inerrancy of scripture, the literal meaning only and who would want to know if you believe in the "literalness" of God’s word before whether or not you believe in Jesus Christ. On the other side you have those who are quick to point out the contradictions in scripture (which there are) and therefore not take it very seriously and thus pass off the literalists in their naiveté.

In some rather whimsical lines, Kathleen Hously, expresses this perspective well,

"Directions for Reading the Bible"

First, bring with you lifetime of preconceived notions. They should be so embedded that their only manifestation is an uneasiness among foreigners.

Next, chose those passages with which you can agree. Label the rest as history. Say the writer was a product of his time and lacks relevance.

Finally, do not become immersed in this book. It can be utterly disruptive. But taken selectively it can be made to fit, giving consolation when consolation is due.

It is like a field near my house in which grows a beautiful rose surrounded by stinging nettle I admire its blossoms from a distance. Inside, plastic roses suffice.

And to the other side we need to hear these words from Father Robert Capon in an interview with the Wittenburg Door Magazine,

"What is Scripture?"

Scripture is a book written by people and if it is an inspired book, then it should be inspired as a book is inspired. It will follow the rules of a book. Therefore it will contain literal statements, metaphors, etc. And words have their rules, but to say that only one little tiny set of rules, namely, literal straight-line one-meaning interpretation is possible is totally crazy.

The key then is not whether a person is a literalist – but rather does he or she take scripture seriously. Perhaps another way to say it is, that it doesn’t really matter (all that much) whether you are a literalist or a liberal, or whether you’re left, right, high, low or middle – the key is being open.

For you see, if you can control God’s word and know it completely you’re operating in a closed system. And both left and right on the theological spectrum have tried to control God’s word to validate their perspective.

But God defies being boxed in. This is part of what makes preaching so difficult – for we cannot presume to think we speak "The Word" – all we can do is speak words that point to the word of God.

Our church is broad in its belief system and that can be very frustrating when we have all these different viewpoints and ways of coming to things – especially the scriptures, but its also adds a richness to our conversation. If we were all uniform and all thought exactly the same way when it comes to scripture – I think that would be dreadfully boring and limiting.

Thus, William Sloan Coffin, Jr., the past Senior Minister of Riverside Church in New York City can say in his book, The Courage to Love,

"It is a mistake to sharpen our minds by narrowing them. It is a mistake to look to the Bible to close a discussion; the Bible seeks to open one."

And so comes the question, "How Big is Your Bible?"

It seems clear to me that we need to deal with all of the scriptures – the obscure passages along with the familiar, the contradictory passages along with the difficult ones. As Mark Twain said,

"Many people are troubled about the scriptures which are…hard to understand. I am most troubled about those which I can understand!"

How Big Is Your Bible?

Leo Rosten in his book, The Joys of Yiddish, tells about,

"A little boy who came home from studying the Torah. "What did you learn today?" asked his father.

"Oh, the teacher told us the story about General Moses. How General Moses was leading all the Jews out of Egypt with General Pharaoh’s Egyptians hot on their trail. And there was the Red Sea in front of Moses, so he dropped an atomic bomb! Bang! So the waters parted, the Jews got across, and the Egyptians were all drowned."

"Is that what he told you?" gasped the father. The boy shrugged. "Nope, but if I told it to you the way he did, Pop, you’d never believe it.""

If we are open in our approach to scripture we will recognize the mystery of God – that there are many things which are inexplicable – like the crossing of the Red Sea.

"I would rather live in a world where my life is surrounded by mystery than live in a world so small that my mind could comprehend it."

So, said one of the great preachers of Riverside Church – the late Harry Emerson Fosdick.

Imagine standing out on the beach at Tod’s Point at 10:00 at night – in awe under the sky – looking at the stars – and the beauty of the universe. While sailing with a friend one day, Albert Einstein looked up at the skies and said,

"We know nothing about it at all. Our knowledge is but the knowledge of schoolchildren." "Do you think that we shall ever probe the secret?" asked a friend. "Possibly," he said. "We shall know a little more than we do now. But the real nature of things – that we shall never know, never."

Let’s turn to our text for a moment.

"For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways, say the Lord, for as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts."

In his wisdom, Isaiah understands that we are bounded by mystery. Being bound by mystery is considerably different from being bound by a system of control of the law.

The Apostle Paul picks up on the mystery in our Galatians text,

"Now before faith came, we were confined under the law, kept under restraint until faith should be revealed. So that the law was our custodian until Christ came, that we might be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a custodian; for in Christ Jesus you are all sons and daughter of God, through faith. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus."

We are freed by grace. We are freed by God’s goodness directed freely toward us in Christ. And so our identity as God’s sons and daughters frees us from the law, from past stereotypes, from the things that box us in. Whenever faith is alive Christ is building his body.

"The grace of God," said Henry Wieman, "is the good which God puts into each concrete situation over and above all that we can do or plan or even imagine." To which we could add – and such was the case in Jesus Christ. Grace is God’s first word and his last word. For recall those familiar words of John 1:1,

"In the beginning was the word and the word was with God."

We are bounded by mystery, and we are freed by grace.

"For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and return not thither but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes forth from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and prosper in the thing for which I sent it." – God’s Word!

"How Big is Your Bible?"

Is it big enough to see all people of all places as children of God and yet focused enough to see that it is through Christ that we experience the mystery of grace?

Is it big enough to know that every single person of every single faith of every single country upon this globe is a child of God? No greater – no lesser than yourself.

Is it big enough to be read over and over again with new freshness and insight?

Is it big enough to be open-minded – to open a discussion – to be open and affirming as we declare ourselves to be as a church?

Is it big enough to let go of every grudge, resentment and hurt that you could possibly be harboring toward anyone?

Is it big enough to forgive everyone?

Is it big enough to love your enemy – those who have done harm to you – those who have hurt you? It’s a tall order.

Is it big enough to point beyond itself saying, "Pay attention to God and not to me?"

How Big is Your Bible?

I can tell you that I will be asking myself that question today and in the days ahead and I hope you will, too. Thanks be to God this day for the gift of his holy word and the truth of its message – that we are bounded by mystery and freed by grace!

Amen!