Custodians of the Sacred Scriptures

Don Friesen
October 21, 2007
Ottawa Mennonite Church

www.ottawamennonite.ca

In early 1940 the British and their allies sent a force of some 350,000 men into the low countries of Europe to stem the tide of the German advance into France, Belgium and Holland. Caught in a brilliant pincer movement by the German forces, the beleaguered British Expeditionary Force was pushed back to the beaches of the small Belgian town of Dunkirk. To everyone's surprise the Germans stopped and took time to regroup. As England and the world waited for what appeared to be the certain annihilation of 350,000 men, a three-word message came from the besieged army at Dunkirk. It read, "But if not."– three words that galvanized the British people! Within hours thousands crossed the English Channel in boats of every description to rescue the trapped soldiers, at the risk of their own lives from enemy fire, if not from the Channel itself. The evacuation of the Allied forces was underway, in what historians refer to as "the miracle of Dunkirk."

It's even more of a miracle from the perspective of today, for the cryptic message, "But if not..." was a biblical reference, a reference to the Old Testament book of Daniel, where Daniel and his friends, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego chose death rather than worship an image of the pagan king. Standing before King Nebuchadnezzer's fiery furnace, they declared with great courage, "...our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the furnace of blazing fire and out of your hand, O king, ...but if not, be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods and we will not worship the golden statue that you have set up." (Daniel 3:17-18) The British people recognized the biblical reference and understood its message – that even if the soldiers were not rescued, they would stand strong! (Charles Colson, "Reversing Biblical Memory Loss: The language of faith doesn't have to become a foreign tongue," Christianity Today, August 6, 2001; David J. Knowles, "The ‘Miracle' of Dunkirk," BBC News, May 30, 2000)

A Lament for the Loss of Biblical literacy

It seems a miracle, by today's standards, that the general public would recognize a cryptic biblical allusion, not to mention grasping its meaning. When American President George W. Bush delivered his inaugural address six years ago, a CBS editorial director (Dick Meyer) and veteran political commentator, said, "There were a few phrases in the speech I just didn't get. One was, ‘When we see that wounded traveller on the road to Jericho, we will not pass to the other side.'" (Frederica Mathewes-Green, "Your World: Psalm 23 and All That," Christianity Today, February 7, 2000)

Likewise, the esteemed Harper's magazine recently carried an essay in which the writer asserted that the Bible touts the importance of faith, hope, and love, in Psalm 23! A bad mistake on the part of the writer, but it passed right by the editors, proofreaders, and fact-checkers employed by the magazine! (Frederica Mathewes-Green)

The Washington Post, wanting, perhaps, to appeal to the Bible belt, urged people to make Christmas special by "reading Mark or Luke's birth narrative at home." The Gospel of Mark, however, does not have a birth narrative! (Frederica Mathewes-Green)

Some of you will remember the 1980s anthem, "We Are the World". It was produced and conducted by Quincy Jones and recorded by an impressive collection of popular musicians to raise money for famine relief in Ethiopia. Unfortunately, one of the lines in the song refers to God turning stone to bread! That was one of the temptations Jesus faced in the wilderness, but the Gospels tell us that Jesus refused to turn stones into bread. Not one of the composers, instrumentalists, singers, or technicians caught the mistake. (Frederica Mathewes-Green)

It is hard not to lament the loss of biblical literacy. It's even more lamentable when biblical illiteracy infects the Church. Several years ago a congregation presented Bibles to its third-graders – something we'll do next Sunday to sixth-graders – and the pastor gave the children a pop quiz. He called out the names of three books, and asked the kids to identify which books are not found in the Bible. He called out the first list of names: the Gospel of John, the Gospel of Paul, and the Gospel of Stewart. The adults laughed and even the kids knew that there was no Gospel of Stewart in the Bible. As for the Gospel of Paul, however, they claimed a great familiarity with it. He tried another three: Habbakuk, Chewbacca, and Pistachio. This time the children laughed. They thought that all three were made up! (Lillian Daniel, "I Love to Tell the Story to Those Who Know It Least," Christianity Today, August 9, 1999)

Timothy and the Case of the Itchy Ears!

There may be various reasons for the loss of biblical literacy, but the Apostle Paul would not be surprised by it. He suggested to his young protege, Timothy, that "the time is coming when people will not put up with sound doctrine, but having itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own desires, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander away to myths." (2 Timothy 4:3-4) Or, as another translation renders it, "the time will come when (people) will not stand wholesome teaching, but will follow their own fancy and gather a crowd of teachers to tickle their ears." (2 Timothy 4:3, NEB)

Paul's comments remind me of the story of the preacher who wanted desperately to scratch the itchy ears of his congregation. New to the congregation, he preached his first sermon on gambling, only to be told that one-third of his congregation raised race horses. So the next Sunday he preached about the ill effects of tobacco, only to be told that many people in his congregation grew tobacco for a living. So it went for several Sundays, until the preacher, searching for a topic that would not make the ears of his parishioners burn, spoke on "The Sin of Fishing in the Territorial Waters of a Foreign Nation," this to a congregation located in Kentucky!

The Apostle Paul, without knowing it, was describing the modern consumer's approach to religion. Walk into any bookstore and you will find esoteric religious texts once known only to a privileged few. Their myriad truths are now available for the avid consumer to read and re-combine at will. In a time when we assemble our own investment portfolios and cancer therapies, why not our religious beliefs as well?

Jeremiah Creedon, senior editor of the Utne Reader magazine, tells the story of Anne-Marie, a friend of his who founded a new religious faith – with only one member – her. Her beliefs are drawn from many sources, some ancient, some new. Anne-Marie is one of many modern North Americans who cultivate highly personal forms of worship. Some call it "pastiche spirituality" and the possible variations are endless. Our society abounds with these private belief systems, each tailored to fit the believer's individual needs. It's the new mix-and-match approach to faith, what Creedon also refers to as "designer religion," "customized Christianity," the "cafeteria approach" to religion, "spiritual dilettantes" sampling the sensations at the Divine Deli! (Jeremiah Creedon, "God with a Million Faces," Utne Reader, July/August, 1998)

The consumer approach to faith traditions dovetails nicely with the privatized attitude toward spiritual belief and practice popular in the West. Almost two centuries ago Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) wrote in his journal: "Make your own Bible. Select and collect all the words and sentences that in your reading have been to you like the blast of triumph out of Shakespeare, Seneca, Moses, John and Paul." (Journals, July 21, 1836)

Timothy's congregational tasks

The Apostle Paul is rather dismissive of those who leave the traditions of their forebears to assemble their own canons of authority, and his advice to Timothy is: Stay the course! "Continue in what you have learned and firmly believed," says Paul, "knowing from whom you learned it, and how from childhood you have known the sacred writings that are able to instruct you for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. 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." (2 Timothy 3:14-17)

We are not told what the specific problem in Timothy's congregation was, but Paul contends that in times of danger it's important to have secure foundations. Paul's solution is to call Timothy back to basics. Paul appeals to tradition, which doesn't really appeal to modern minds. Tradition is often disdained. Many see the old as a tyrant that we must depose. Some dismiss tradition as a rosy portrait of the past developed by those who benefit when things remain the same. Satirist Stephen Cobert announced his tongue-in-cheek candidacy for the American presidency this week, suggesting that at a fork in the road we go neither left nor right, but backward! "Doesn't this thing have a reverse gear?" he asks. "Let's back this country up to a time before there were forks in the road – or even roads. Or forks, for that matter. I want to return to a simpler America when we ate our meat off the end of a sharpened stick." ("A Mock Columnist, Amok," The New York Times, October 14, 2007)

Some appeals to tradition are suspect, to be sure, and no thinking Christian wants to return to some fossilised set of rules, but to refuse to listen to the past simply reduces us to the tyranny of those who happen to be alive at the present moment! Part of discerning the will of God is acknowledging our solidarity with those who have gone before us, allowing their voice into our discernment, and one of the best ways to do that is to listen to the writings they have passed down from generation to generation. They were passed down because many generations found them to be bearers of God's wisdom and spirit.

The word Paul used when he said that all scripture is inspired by God means "God-breathed". The Sacred Writings, in other words, are alive with the life-force of God. We hear in the biblical stories echoes of our own stories and as we listen again and again we find ourselves being drawn into God's story. Our stories and God's story become woven together as we immerse ourselves in the Scriptures. That's why we read the Scriptures in our worship. That's why we pray that the words and phrases in the Scriptures will take root in the secret places of our hearts and bear much fruit to God's glory. We stand in a long line of faithful people who generation after generation found the biblical stories to be the words of eternal life – words alive with the life-force of God, words that keep us on track and shape us and equip us for lives of justice, mercy and peace.

We Have Been Entrusted with the Gift of Sacred Scripture

The Church has been entrusted with this gift. We are entrusted with the gift of Sacred Scripture. It's a gift we should impress upon our children. We, and they, should be able to recognize the biblical lexicon in our culture and literature. For example, many of the expressions we use in our everyday language stem from the biblical language – expressions like the "writing on the wall" (Daniel 5:5), "all things are possible" (Mark 10:27), and the "apple of one's eye" (Deuteronomy 32:10); expressions like the "Good Samaritan" (Luke 10), "by the skin of his teeth" (Job 19:20), and "feet of clay" (Daniel 2:33).

The gift of the Sacred Scriptures has left us with many profound, memorable, and uplifting passages – passages like the twenty-third psalm; passages from Isaiah, like those wonderful words from Isaiah 40: "Those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint." (Isaiah 40:31)

The biblical lexicon is deeply embedded in our literary tradition. Our literature abounds with lyrical praise of the Scriptures. George Herbert (1593-1633) wrote:

"Oh that I knew how all thy lights combine,
And the configurations of their glorie!
...
Such are thy secrets, which my life makes good,
And comments on thee: for in ev'rything
Thy words do finde me out, & parallels bring
And in another make me understood.
Starres are poore books, & oftentimes do misse:
This book of starres lights to eternal blisse."

("The Holy Scriptures," cited in David Jeffrey, Dictionary of Biblical Tradition in English Literature, page 87)