is sacred but needs to be interpreted and describes how God has related to particular people over time and God's activity for the sake of all people and the whole of creation. It is very important to our understanding, but has often been used in very un-loving ways. Jesus is the "logos," the "Word of God" as St. John describes Him in the fir...st chapter of his Gospel. The concept of the "logos" is the belief that Jesus was the Word of God, the instrument through which everything was created as God spoke it all into being. Jesus is the "logos" as He is also God Himself.
There are a lot of people I know with opposing opinions and beliefs. I love them all, but sometimes people have gone out of their way to champion their opinions and beliefs to the extent that it feels like a kind of oppression. Most of the time, the "oppression" has been in the form of really being insulting about what I have written or they get nasty and judgmental about groups of people I feel connected to or with whom I agree. I have even felt oppressed to the point where I have felt the need to "unfriend" them even though I still love them and care about them.
Sometimes I feel the need to write about what I believe even though I know I can never change the minds of certain people even when I try to explain why I feel the way I do about the rights of gay people . . . or about how each person's decisions to commit sins can sometimes lead to other even more difficult decisions . . . or that we are not to condemn anyone, but trust that whatever each person believes or does is between that person and God Who is Love.
To me, that kind of entrenchment is a very sad thing about our society these days. Instead of looking for ways we can work together for everyone's sake, there is so much divisiveness, anger and often nastiness.
Often there is a focus on what it says in the Bible as the Word of God and belief in its inerrancy. But the Bible always needs to be interpreted, and even if you read it in the original languages of Hebrew and Greek, you can only understand what it says if you take into consideration historical, cultural and temporal factors. The love of God is eternal and unchanging, but people have not always understood that God has interacted with people in different ways as time goes on and according to the conditions of cultural backgrounds.
Also, I believe that only the Holy Spirit can give us the understanding we truly need when we read the Bible. And Jesus changed a lot because He is the culmination of prophecy and revealed God to people in ways that those who lived before He became incarnate could not possibly know. Because of His sacrifice on the Cross, all the scriptural directives about sacrifices in the Hebrew Bible were no longer necessary. After Jesus' Resurrection, the Holy Spirit brought about other changes to the ways people interacted with God as well.
For example, in the earliest days of the lives of Jesus' followers after His Resurrection, the Holy Spirit revealed to Peter that the traditional Jewish dietary customs set down in the Hebrew Bible were no longer valid. Many parts of the Old Testament have been rejected as time has gone on, and those who believe that
The Bible is not the Word of God -- it is a sacred record about God's activity and relationships between certain individuals, between the Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Children of Israel, Job, the prophets, Jesus and His disciples and many others -- including gentiles like King Nebuchadnezzar and the Syrian general Naaman. I understand that what Jesus taught and how the Holy Spirit reveals Jesus to us is more important than focusing only the narration of the Bible. It should not be made an idol.
The Bible is very important and it is sacred. But if reading it or believing in something that is written in it is used to rationalize an unloving practice or activity, it is very sad. People have used belief in the Bible to rationalize slavery, to prosecute non-believers and to persecute certain people in many ways. All of that is anathema to the fullness of God's love in Jesus Christ. Whenever people of certain denominations or nationalities have used the Bible to hurt other people, it is in the least very sad. Sometimes it has been heinous.
Often people think they are being faithful to God in special ways when they are judging, condemning and oppressing others. Their self-righteousness is like a shield for them and they do not recognize their cruelty, or if they do recognize the possibility that they are being cruel, they have decided that God requires that cruelty even though God's mercy is greater than His righteousness.
If that were not true, God would never have become incarnate in Jesus Christ in order to deliver people from their sins and redeem creation. God's mercy makes all the difference, and it is rooted in God's love and understanding. Certainly we are all sins and have fallen short of the Glory of God as St. Paul write in his letter the the Roman believers in Jesus Christ. But Jesus told his beloved disciples -- and all of us that He gave them (and all of us) a new commandment -- to love one another as He loved them.
How did Jesus love them? As God does:
-- with empathy,
-- without judging them or condemning them,
-- unconditionally.
-- completely, extravagantly, eternally.
-- by healing them, helping them, delivering them from whatever was keeping them from being accepted by people in their society.
With God's help, by the power of the Holy Spirit we can also love people the way Jesus does. I keep praying that we will all work together actively to share God's love in Christ and not to use the Bible to perpetuate marginalization of and prejudice against people.
There are a lot of people I know with opposing opinions and beliefs. I love them all, but sometimes people have gone out of their way to champion their opinions and beliefs to the extent that it feels like a kind of oppression. Most of the time, the "oppression" has been in the form of really being insulting about what I have written or they get nasty and judgmental about groups of people I feel connected to or with whom I agree. I have even felt oppressed to the point where I have felt the need to "unfriend" them even though I still love them and care about them.
Sometimes I feel the need to write about what I believe even though I know I can never change the minds of certain people even when I try to explain why I feel the way I do about the rights of gay people . . . or about how each person's decisions to commit sins can sometimes lead to other even more difficult decisions . . . or that we are not to condemn anyone, but trust that whatever each person believes or does is between that person and God Who is Love.
To me, that kind of entrenchment is a very sad thing about our society these days. Instead of looking for ways we can work together for everyone's sake, there is so much divisiveness, anger and often nastiness.
Often there is a focus on what it says in the Bible as the Word of God and belief in its inerrancy. But the Bible always needs to be interpreted, and even if you read it in the original languages of Hebrew and Greek, you can only understand what it says if you take into consideration historical, cultural and temporal factors. The love of God is eternal and unchanging, but people have not always understood that God has interacted with people in different ways as time goes on and according to the conditions of cultural backgrounds.
Also, I believe that only the Holy Spirit can give us the understanding we truly need when we read the Bible. And Jesus changed a lot because He is the culmination of prophecy and revealed God to people in ways that those who lived before He became incarnate could not possibly know. Because of His sacrifice on the Cross, all the scriptural directives about sacrifices in the Hebrew Bible were no longer necessary. After Jesus' Resurrection, the Holy Spirit brought about other changes to the ways people interacted with God as well.
For example, in the earliest days of the lives of Jesus' followers after His Resurrection, the Holy Spirit revealed to Peter that the traditional Jewish dietary customs set down in the Hebrew Bible were no longer valid. Many parts of the Old Testament have been rejected as time has gone on, and those who believe that
The Bible is not the Word of God -- it is a sacred record about God's activity and relationships between certain individuals, between the Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Children of Israel, Job, the prophets, Jesus and His disciples and many others -- including gentiles like King Nebuchadnezzar and the Syrian general Naaman. I understand that what Jesus taught and how the Holy Spirit reveals Jesus to us is more important than focusing only the narration of the Bible. It should not be made an idol.
The Bible is very important and it is sacred. But if reading it or believing in something that is written in it is used to rationalize an unloving practice or activity, it is very sad. People have used belief in the Bible to rationalize slavery, to prosecute non-believers and to persecute certain people in many ways. All of that is anathema to the fullness of God's love in Jesus Christ. Whenever people of certain denominations or nationalities have used the Bible to hurt other people, it is in the least very sad. Sometimes it has been heinous.
Often people think they are being faithful to God in special ways when they are judging, condemning and oppressing others. Their self-righteousness is like a shield for them and they do not recognize their cruelty, or if they do recognize the possibility that they are being cruel, they have decided that God requires that cruelty even though God's mercy is greater than His righteousness.
If that were not true, God would never have become incarnate in Jesus Christ in order to deliver people from their sins and redeem creation. God's mercy makes all the difference, and it is rooted in God's love and understanding. Certainly we are all sins and have fallen short of the Glory of God as St. Paul write in his letter the the Roman believers in Jesus Christ. But Jesus told his beloved disciples -- and all of us that He gave them (and all of us) a new commandment -- to love one another as He loved them.
How did Jesus love them? As God does:
-- with empathy,
-- without judging them or condemning them,
-- unconditionally.
-- completely, extravagantly, eternally.
-- by healing them, helping them, delivering them from whatever was keeping them from being accepted by people in their society.
With God's help, by the power of the Holy Spirit we can also love people the way Jesus does. I keep praying that we will all work together actively to share God's love in Christ and not to use the Bible to perpetuate marginalization of and prejudice against people.
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