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THE PLAIN TRUTH OF SCRIPTUREa sermon for nearly-the-end of the season after Pentecost Blessed Lord, who caused all holy Scriptures to be written for our learning: “ALL holy Scriptures?” Can we really learn something from ALL Holy Scriptures? And if so, what is it and how is it we can learn? I want to reflect with you today on one of the Scripture passages we have been given. I’m going to do that reflecting by way of the collect for the day. Collects are prayers that are supposed to help us collect up all our prayers, in light of our appointed Scriptures. And this collect, which we have just prayed a second time, is a prayer upon which reflection may also be helpful. Joan Fleming, chaplain at Princeton University, gives us an historical summary of this prayer. She reminds us that the “read, mark, learn and inwardly digest” collect was composed for the first Book of Common Prayer in 1549. Introduced by King Edward VI, who had a very Protestant upbringing, it reflects his zeal for the English Reformation. “The watchword of the reformers was Sola Scriptura [‘Only Scripture’], a reaction against the tight…control the medieval Catholic Church…exercised in all matters pertaining to salvation, especially in controlling not only access (to)…but also interpretation of the Bible. “Read between the lines of this Collect and you see that the Reformation,” Chaplain Fleming suggests, “was in fact a revolution. In a few short decades the medieval Church’s monopoly on the means of salvation had been shattered…The Protestant reformers (insisted) that individual Christians could be trusted to handle the Word of God independently; to “read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest” the Scriptures for themselves” (“How Anglicans 'Read, Mark, Learn, and Inwardly Digest'”, a sermon given at The Episcopal Church at Princeton University Chapel, November 13, 2005). Nearly half a millennium later, I suggest that it is still dangerous to keepers of the status quo for ordinary people to read the Bible for themselves. I also believe that it is at our peril (and often at the peril we cause to others) when we simply read Holy Scripture without learning more about what we are reading. For example, literal renderings of simple phrases like “slaves be subject to your masters” and “wives be subject to your husbands” have been misused to justify outright discrimination, hatred and violence toward African Americans and women. We might think we are way beyond discrimination. Aren’t racism and sexism things of the past? Why, just look at our process this year in electing both an Episcopal bishop in Maryland and a president of the United States! As a white, married, ordained man, I am a person who has been given privilege and power. I have learned, from my privileged, powerful perspective, that I can and do easily make assumptions that get me into trouble. I remember a time when I served in a parish as a seminarian. A woman came to me during a service of the laying on of hands for healing and asked me to pray for her. Then she asked me to pray for the men of the world who had damaged her soul over the years by the ways they had mistreated her as a woman. That day, I literally did not know how to pray or what to do. Today, I pray that I have made some progress since then as a human being and as a Christian, progress in listening to and learning from women and people of color and people who happen to be gay or lesbian and anyone who is different from me. As a white man, my lens on life, how I see the world, is different from that of women and people of color and others who do not have the privileges I enjoy. And when I declare my lens, my way to be the only way to see the world or others or even Holy Writ, I am, plain and simple, a sinner. So here’s the passage from today’s reading of Holy Scripture that was written for MY learning, MY understanding as a straight, white, ordained man. It’s the first verse of our first reading, from the book of Judges: “The Israelites again did what was evil in the sight of the Lord” (4:1). This is not, I have come to believe, as simple a phrase to understand as it may seem. It does not mean, “Those bad Israelites! They just kept on sinning. And today, they still won’t accept Jesus, our Messiah. I guess they must be doomed to hell.” Unfortunately, that’s what some Christians believe. Unfortunately, that condemns Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebekah, Jacob, Leah and Rachel to eternal damnation. The Israelites again did what was evil in the sight of the Lord. What DOES that simple sentence mean? And how do we find out? What if we were to read the rest of that verse? What if we actually read all seven verses? That’s what the folks who created our lectionary, the method we use to hear our lections or lessons each Sunday, have chosen for us. Every three years we now hear these first seven verses from Judges 4 – unless the preacher wants to preach on the other Old Testament text appointed, one from Zephaniah. Today’s text about Deborah, the only woman judge in the book of Judges, is new for many of us, since, just a few years ago, we Episcopalians adopted the Revised Common Lectionary, now used in most mainline Christian churches. Today, we have these verses, part of a larger story about Deborah. And that’s part of an even larger story about the Judges, those twelve leaders of Israel who lived after the deaths of Moses and Joshua, who helped the Israelites move from tribalism to monarchy. We heard a passage from Joshua last week. Today, one from Judges. Next Sunday we hear a part of the prophecy of Ezekiel. How, you might ask, can we possibly learn, mark and inwardly digest the Bible, as our prayer asks God to help us do, when we get a few verses here and a few there? How, indeed. My beloved wife, who was raised a Southern Baptist, knows her Bible far better than I do. This week she said, “You might need to re-read the whole book of Judges if you’re going to preach on that text.” That’s 21 chapters. But guess what? She was right. There is no way I could begin to understand the first sentence of today’s seven verses without understanding more about the whole story . . Here’s what I learned THIS time I read the Bible. If I want to know stories about Biblical women, I need to read the book of Judges. I knew about Samson and Gideon. I thought I knew the story of Ehud, referenced at the end of that first verse. But what about Deborah, Delilah and Jael? Or all those unnamed women – one who smashes the skull of Abimelech (9:22-57); another whose father Jephthah sacrifices her (11:29-40); a third, a Levite’s wife, whose battered body parts are sent all over Israel (19:1-30)? None of those stories is light, bedtime reading. Those horrible tales are among stories named by Biblical scholar Phyllis Trible as the “Texts of Terror.” Why are we not surprised that these X-rated stories from Judges – tales of rape, murder and other terrible crimes against women – never make it into our G-rated Sunday lectionary? “The Israelites again did what was evil in the sight of the Lord.” When we read all of Judges, we find that phrase six times (2:11, 3:12, 4:1, 6:1, 10:6, 13:1). It must be important if it’s repeated that often. But what does it really mean? Does it simply mean all those times the Israelites worshiped other gods, the sin mentioned most often in Judges? Or might it mean something more? The themes of war-time violence and death spill out from the pages of the book of Judges. Those themes are not new to us in the 21 st century. We live in times of trouble and terror. And it is easy for us, even as Christians, to think that we can simply find new justification, in these old texts from the Bible, for more war and more violence. But…what if? What if we have been mis-reading, mis-understanding these texts? What if the plain truth of Scripture, as some would describe the Bible, is that the truth is just not as plain as it seems? What if the message of the book of Judges is NOT to go and do likewise? What if the message of Judges is to listen to the stories about the women, not just the ones about the men? What if the message of Judges is actually a description of us, the “new Israel,” as Christians have sometimes been called? And what if the message of Jesus, the Savior of the world, the One we follow, the One whom we believe is the way and the truth and the life, what if Jesus is telling us NOT to conquer others? What if Jesus is teaching us something else, through parables and stories and teachings – teachings that are, if we are honest, never plain and often confusing, like today’s parable about talents: what sense does it possibly make right now to “invest your money with the bankers”? What if Jesus is telling us NOT to go and do like the men in the book of Judges? What if Christ’s death on the cross is NOT to keep doing likewise, NOT to keep damaging the bodies and souls of those who have no power or privilege, in the name of Christ? What if Jesus is telling us to respect the dignity of women, children, people of color, people who are different from us? What if being more like Jesus, what if loving the powerless, what if doing justice and showing mercy is how we are to “embrace…the blessed hope of everlasting life”? I have a confession and a challenge. My confession is that it was hard and even painful to read Judges again. But I needed to do it. And I needed help. My challenge is this: will you join me? Will you make a commitment to read, mark, learn and inwardly digest the Bible? We have some new home fellowship groups, where folks can gather for prayer and Bible study. What other kinds of Bible study, Episcopalian-style, might we create together in the new year? Let us pray. Blessed Lord, who caused all holy Scriptures to be written for our learning: Grant us so to hear them, read, mark, learn and inwardly digest them, that we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life, which you have given us in our Savior Jesus Christ: who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. AMEN. The Rev. Thomas A. Momberg |
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