David Lose talks about four approaches to Scripture that can be helpful to keep in mind before you open the thin pages of your Bible with its tiny print. The first approach is the one we are taught and caught as kids, Scripture as the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Lose calls this, “chain link” approach to scripture. We know that a chain is only as strong as its weakest link, so we tend to think that if we question Jesus’ healing story, then the whole structure will come crashing and crumbling down. Or, if we yank the thread on virgin birth, the whole sweater will unravel. First, that is putting a lot of pressure on ourselves. It is like Smokey the Bear saying, “Only you can prevent fire forests” and thinking every night we need to go out to the woods with a bucket of water. Second, I am not convinced the entire Christian faith rests on just one verse. As faithful people, we have a patron saint Thomas who wanted to see for himself the resurrection of Jesus, which I think we all wear Thomas’ sandals on deeply desiring and encountering new life. Further, Jesus didn’t seem too offended by Thomas asking and in fact showed him the scars ~ which would have many my stomach queasy! A chain link approach to scripture is where every story must be equally and unequivocally true.
Second, you can have the Thomas Jefferson approach to scripture. Jefferson is famous for having cut out stories from scripture he didn’t like, particularly miracles. While I have seen Jefferson’s Bible, and I am not sure that anyone anointed me to be the editor of the Gospels. My concern with this approach is that it is an over-correction to the chain link approach. It is almost as if we are saying, “If I don’t like it, I don’t have to deal with it. I deserve to have it my way. Thus sayth the Gospel of Burger King.” To be sure, there is a lot in scripture I wrestle with, get frustrated by and flummoxed. But sometimes rather than dismissing a passage or clinging to it so tightly I put fingernail marks in it, I want to hold it and be curious with it.
Third is the concentric circle approach. This says, “Okay, I really like what Jesus said about God’s love so I will put that at the center. And any story that supports it goes close to the center, and any story that deviates from one message goes far out there. In fact, I try to fling it as far away as Pluto!” I think this is where most of us are at. We listen to a story and then rate it on a scale of: “Agrees with my theology/understanding/makes me comfortable…. to…Nice try, God, but I am not buying it.” The concern is that do we ever let a passage of scripture challenge us, stretch us, change us? Or do we skim the surface, make a quick judgment call to either keep or toss. It is the Marie Kondo approach to Scripture, does this passage bring me joy? If not, then I can give this one away and can be a bit like the Jefferson approach above. There are passages of Scripture that should be surrounded by yellow caution tape and danger signs. There are texts of terror. As C.S. Lewis said, the Bible is an adult book written for adults. And there are themes and threads that are not always helpful or healthy, especially if we are not in a good place.
Finally, Lose says, is to approach Scripture as a witness. What we read in the Gospels are testimonies of faith. In fact, there are four attempts to tell the biography and backstory of Jesus to people in ways that move us, shape us, and send us. The four find places of harmony and moments of disagreement. Just as if you have four UCC members in a room, you will have five opinions or ways of seeing the world (that was a joke). Scripture allows for diversity and contradiction and has human fingerprints all over it.
Look back at the word you wrote yesterday to describe and define Scripture. Do any of your words fall into the four categories above? Is there a fifth or sixth category you see leaping from your page of words? I pray that the above has been helpful and you will hold onto this not only today, but especially when we dive into the Gospels starting in a few weeks.
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