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Psalm 119:105-106 NRSV Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. I have sworn an oath and confirmed it, to observe your righteous ordinances.

2 Timothy 3:16-17 NRSV 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.

Let us pray. Come, Holy Spirit, Heavenly Dove; descend on us, reveal your love. Word of God and inward light, wake our spirits; clear our sight. Surround us now with all your glory; speak through me that sacred story. Take my lips and make them bold. Take hearts and minds and make them whole. Stir in us that sacred flame; then send us forth to spread your name. Amen.

I love the scriptures! And do you know what? I want each one of you, and each person I meet, to love them as much as I do, and maybe even more.

Yet, as one writer said, “Sometimes I feel a little bit like the guy who is trying to introduce his buddy to a girl I know. And the introduction isn’t going well at all. It’s not because the two of them are incompatible. No! I told my buddy that the girl is gorgeous, brilliant, deep, has a sense of humor, is passionate and warm and accepting, and is personable and charming. I said she is perfect for you! And so they met!”

“It’s not that I stretched the truth about the girl. She is everything I said, and more. But she can be a little bit shy and she doesn’t go around spilling her heart to just anyone. And the truth is, she loves poetry and loves to talk about history. She loves to tell stories and she is deep into theology. But you have to know the right kinds of questions to ask because until then, she seems just a little bit aloof. And although she is beautiful to anyone’s standards, she dresses a little oddly being from the Middle East. And I never mentioned her accent, and my buddy found her difficult to understand.” (McLaren)

That’s how I often feel when I talk about the Bible to other people.

One person said it like this: “You know, Rick, I try to read the Bible, but sometimes it just confuses me. Don’t get me wrong. There are some parts that are beautiful, but there are also some parts that I just don’t understand. Like when God tells the Israelites to kill all the men and women and children. What’s that about? And then there’s the way that women were treated. And I don’t know what to take literally and what not to take literally. You tell me this is the Word of God. I just don’t get it.”

Have you ever felt that way? Maybe you have tried to read the Bible and you come across passages in scripture that trouble you. Or you have a friend who is trying to read scripture and is finding it perplexing and sometimes, even disturbing.

Adam Hamilton (who I know a lot of you are reading for various Sunday School classes) says that our struggles with scripture tend to usually come in three different ways. He says some people point to what is called factual errors and internal inconsistencies.

Now, I know there are some Christians, and maybe some of us in this room, that have a view of the Bible that doesn’t allow for that. Or who maybe say, “I don’t really want to think about that. I don’t see any factual errors or internal inconsistencies in scripture.” Yet, you can find them.

For example: In 2 Kings 8:26, we are told that Ahaziah became king of Israel when he was 22 years old, but in Chronicles, which parallels Kings, in 2 Chronicles 22:2, we are told that Ahaziah was 42 when he became king. So, you might want to ask, “What in the world difference does it matter whether he was 22 or 42?” And for a lot of people like me, it really doesn’t matter. But for some people who have the idea that every verse has to be perfect and consistent, that is a problem...and they go to great lengths either to explain it or explain it away.

But there is another example that is far more significant. That is the gospel writers’ accounts of the resurrection of Jesus. When it comes to the resurrection story, one writer says that on Easter morning, the women came to the tomb and the stone was covering the opening and an angel came and rolled the stone away and sat on the stone. And there were some guards that were there and they were terrified by what had happened, and they fainted.

Another gospel says that when the women arrived, the stone was already rolled away and there was not one angel, but two angels, and there weren’t any guards at all.

A third account says that only Mary Magdalene came to the tomb. No other women are mentioned and the stone is already rolled away. She leaves, and then she comes back and there are two angels inside the tomb.

Now, which is it?

Well, I think of it in this way: If you have several friends that witness the same event, do you think they are going to tell the story in exactly the same way? I think that what happens is that each of us sees and hears and tells stories in a little different way based upon our experience and our perspective and the point of view that we have...the point that we are trying to make.

We have four different writers sharing the story a few decades after the resurrection experience and so what I do is I acknowledge the differences that are there, but what I try to do is look for the message behind the differences. What I hear is this: The stone was rolled away, the tomb was empty, and there were some messengers who were there who told them that Jesus was not dead anymore, but was alive.

As I hear it, that is the point of all of the stories of the resurrection. But you have to have a view of scripture that allows you to acknowledge the differences and so you look for the point of the story rather than getting hung up in the differences.

Then, second, there are some people who struggle with scripture because of what might be called accepted oppressive cultural practices that they find in the Bible.

Two examples people point to are the acceptance of slavery and the second-class treatment of women. We see those things over and over again in scripture. We can be reading along and we come across something that’s being done that by our modern standards would be considered totally wrong. We want the Bible to tell us that those things aren’t right. Instead, we find some of those oppressive practices merely being reported or accepted, and not condemned.

Then, a third criticism about the Bible has to do with what we might call immoral or unthinkable commands.

You’re reading along in Joshua, the story of Israel conquering Canaan, and you hear the people understanding God to be telling them to kill every man, woman and child. Today we’d consider that a war crime, but in scripture, this horror is attributed to God. We read this and think: how could God approve of that?

Now let me, as best as I can, from my perspective...who I am...try to unpack some of that.

Here’s what I think is important to see! First, there are around 23,000 verses in Hebrew scripture and the things that I’ve just been talking about occurred in about 200 of those verses. So, there are about 22,800 verses of scripture that picture God as merciful, as just, as a shepherd who cares for the sheep, as one who liberates God’s people from bondage, as the one who casts sin as far away as the east is from the west, and the one who loves children even though they ignore him and turn away.

But at the very core of my way of looking at scripture is that I see all of scripture as the unfolding drama of men and women discovering more and more about God. And as they seek God, as they listen to God and live in covenant with God and walk with God, and as they receive God’s continuing revelation, I see a progressive deepening of their understanding of God. And the more they understand of God, the more they come to understand themselves.

What do I mean by that?

A couple of months ago we studied the story of Abraham. Abraham grew up in a culture that believed in many gods...not one, but many gods. Yet, one day God says to Abraham, “I want you to know something, something wonderful. Abraham, there aren’t many gods; there’s really just one of me, just me.” So Abraham begins to believe in one God. A watershed moment in spiritual history. And Abraham demonstrates this great faith and trust as he goes to a new land simply because God told him to. We see his faith of sheer obedience. He’s figured out something that is going to absolutely change the spiritual landscape of the world. But when he gets to Egypt, Pharaoh says, “Hey Abraham, that woman with you...she’s pretty. Is she your wife?” And Abraham doesn’t understand that it’s wrong to say that his wife is his sister in order to save his own skin. So he says, “She’s my sister; take her; she’s yours.”

God has to step in and fix the mess that Abraham causes. There’s a lot Abraham doesn’t understand…which is why 400 years later, God sends Moses and Moses makes things even clearer; giving 613 laws and ten commands. Abraham didn’t have the Ten Commandments, but they get clearer through Moses. He knew about loving God and the implications of that for how people live in community. Then, you fast-forward 400-500 years and you have the prophets come along. They say that God wants more than just your sacrifices, that God is looking for mercy and justice and that God wants your heart to be right. Suddenly, things become even clearer.

Then, we come to the time of Jesus! In him, God’s Word came not just through another human being, but in Jesus, the Word became flesh and lived among us. When we see Jesus, we have our clearest picture of God. We are able to see things about God more clearly than ever before, which is why Jesus is the lens through which I understand all of scripture -- the Old Testament and the New Testament. If there’s something in scripture in the Old Testament or the writings of Paul that doesn’t line up with Jesus, I look at Jesus and I say, “He’s the clearer picture.”

For me, it’s kind of like the glasses that I wear. Without my glasses, you are just a blur. I go to Dr. Ralph Hamilton who is an ophthalmologist, and he puts a device in front of my face and asks me to look into it. At first, everything is a blur. Then, he moves some dials around and asks, “Is this clearer, or is this?” Then, he moves something else, and he asks, “How about this, or this?” Each time he does this, my vision gets a little clearer and a little sharper and into focus…so that when he’s finished, I have as close to 20/20 vision as possible.

This is how I see the Bible. Those who lived in ancient times heard from God. But they saw God in a way that was shaped by the lens of their culture and by their experience, but gradually their focus became clearer and clearer. I think we have to allow people to live in their own time and in their culture even if what they see seems strange to us. And we cannot expect them to understand the way of Christ before Christ came. But by the same token, I know that I can never fully understand Jesus apart from Judiasm and the Hebrew scriptures because Jesus grew up a faithful Jew and was shaped by that history and by those scriptures.

Now, I know it is not a perfect solution to the troubling texts or baffling parts of the Bible. And I know this approach has its flaws!

We should never use it to disregard or discount Hebrew scripture or discount Judaism or fall into the trap of Marcion. Marcion was an early Christian heretic who said there were two different gods…the Old Testament god and the New Testament god…the Old Testament god was mean and the New Testament god was nice. I don’t think that’s the answer. I see it all as an unfolding drama of discovery.

Now, some people ask: if there are some things that aren’t as clear or some things in scripture that are culturally bound, how can we say that we can trust anything in the Bible? That’s why for some people words like inerrancy and infallibility are so important. They protect your faith from this kind of question. The thought is that there’s a slippery slope…if we’re allowed to question some things, then where do you stop? Aren’t we liable to throw out the whole Bible? Unfortunately, some have done that.

But here’s what I would say: Two Sundays ago I preached a sermon on Disappointment with God. In the middle of that message, I used an illustration to try to talk about some of the things that I believe God doesn’t cause, and one of those things was the mass murders at Virginia Tech. In at least one service, I said that 22 people were killed. That was incorrect! It wasn’t 22; it was 32. I was wrong!

But here’s what I want to ask you! Because I was wrong and said 22 instead of 32, does that discredit everything that I said in that message? Or more importantly, because I said 22 instead of 32, does that discredit everything that I’ve ever said in all my sermons for the last 9½ years? Or is it possible that God still speaks sometimes through what I say in spite of my errors? Some of you told me that that message touched your heart and made sense, even in spite of my mistake.

In the same way, does it change the power of scripture whether Ahaziah was 22 or 42…or whether there was one angel or two angels or whether the stone was rolled away before or after the women got there? (Hamilton)

Whenever I read scripture, I begin by accepting the idea that God wants to speak to me through the Bible. That’s at the very heart of the Holy Spirit prayer I begin with each Sunday, and the prayer that I pray daily as I prepare for preaching: Come, Holy Spirit, Heavenly Dove. Descend on me, reveal your love. Word of God and inward light, wake my spirit; clear my sight. Surround me now with all your glory. Speak to me that sacred story....

And it is a sacred story...a great love story...a love story of romance between God and humanity. It is also the story of the experience of our fellow spiritual travelers through the centuries. It’s the story of the children of God struggling to be the family of God! And for our spiritual health and development, we need to know the story, we need to learn from where they got it right; we need to benefit from their experiences and their mistakes. We need all of that inspiration, all of that correction and all of the direction that God gives to us in scripture. (McLaren)

So, I challenge you to open up the scriptures and take the time to read it. If you feel like you don’t have the tools yet, get involved in Sunday School, or Disciple Bible Study, or one of the special classes that are being offered because we need to marinate our minds, saturate our souls, and let the truths of the scriptures seep into our pores and shape how we live and how we think. It will comfort you in your pain…challenge you in your selfishness…and remind you of how much we are loved and it will never let you forget how great are the grace and forgiveness of God.

But it is a bigger story than just God’s response to our personal need. It is the story of God’s dream for the world, a grand dream that you or I would not even have imagined were it not for this book.

I think about how many years ago, Jane and I were about to enter an antique shop when she pulled me aside. I had our son in a contraption suspended from my back and Chris was about a year old. Jane said, “Maybe you’d better stay outside with him. I’ve been in this place and I’ve seen the price tags. They have some very valuable pieces in there. They have signs that say, ‘If you break it, you’ve bought it.’” I said, “I think I’ll be able to handle a one-year-old boy for a few minutes.” Jane said, “Fine, but I want it understood that if he breaks something, it will come out of your allowance for the next 20 years.” I’m really glad they had an installment plan!

Now, the point of that is this: from scripture, we understand that every day we walk through God’s shop and we’re kind of clumsy and we think we can do it all ourselves. We don’t notice that we are brushing up against objects of incalculable worth to God -- whether driving down the expressway or working at the office, attending class or watching TV news. On each person is a price tag that so often we don’t see, but it always says the same thing: Worth the life of my son. You have never looked into the eyes of a human being for whom Jesus did not die. What if that shaped every conversation, each encounter, and even our times of impatience, anger and selfishness? What if we approached that with the recognition that we are looking into the eyes of someone for whom Christ died? (Ortberg)

The truth of scripture is that every person matters that much to Him. And as a result, He’s out to create a new community in which everyone is welcome, every life has inestimable worth, a community where no one is ever a “nobody,” a community that understands that the world is made better not through political power or force or coercion, but through service…seeking to create community where the servant life is the highest calling.

And how would we know that…how would you envision that…apart from the Bible?

Yes, at times, you’ll come across something in scripture that will confuse and disturb and baffle you.

But I think Mark Twain said it best: It’s not the parts of the Bible that I don't understand that disturb me most…it’s the parts that I do understand.

Are we living up to what we know…what is clear and compelling? It’s obvious that what is most important in our life is for us to love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength and to love our neighbors as ourselves. Nothing more central...nothing more powerful or profound than that. I can only imagine how much better we would be...how much better the world would be...if we spent the rest of our lives concentrating on that one simple clear message!

The Bible: a gift of God, a means of grace, a lamp to our feet, and a light for our path.

Let us pray. O God, we give you thanks today that your call and claim have been laid upon us through your Word. We ask now that you would blend word and flesh and spirit in such a way that we would give our lives to you, that we would hear your claim afresh each day, so that we might be shaped to do every good thing it is that you want done in your world. For we pray in Jesus’ name, Amen.

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Endnotes: This sermon based, in part, upon material from the following sources:

1. Adam Hamilton, “The Bible’s Disturbing Passages”
2. Brian McLaren, Adventures in Missing the Point
3. Brian McLaren, Finding Faith
4. John Ortberg, “Generations: Would You Like Another Family?”
5. David Stern, Jewish New Testament Commentary
6. N. T. Wright, Simply Christian