Bibliolatry and John 1

Reading the opening verses of John's gospel, I am reminded how incredible the incarnation is. That is just how amazing it is that in Jesus is what a life full of God looks like - Jesus is God incarnate.

As great as the Bible is, let us be very clear, the Bible is not the greatest revelation of God. John is very clear that the greatest way we know God is not through scriptures but through the Word made flesh (aka - Jesus).

The UMC has a tradition of holding the scriptures as one of the four corners of the quadrilateral. You may have heard it before that the UMC "does" theology using scripture, tradition, experience and reason. But again, for clarity sake, these four sources, even if they are combined, are not even close to being on par with the Word made flesh.

So while we read the Word, let us not be confused. John is not talking about the written words on a page. John is not talking about the Bible. John in not talking about any scripture at all. John is talking about Jesus Christ.

We do not worship the Bible. We worship Christ, whom we understand to be the Word made flesh.

In our efforts to better understand Jesus, let us not forget that the Bible is but a finger pointing to the moon that is Christ. Do not confuse the finger with the beauty and complexity of the moon.

Church as Revelation

It is often misunderstood, even by Christians, that the Bible contains the words of God.  It does not.  The bible is however contains the word of God, but the bible doesn't contain the exact words of God.

When Christians talk about the word of god, let us also be clear that we at not talking about the words on the page in the bible.  The word of god is made known in the life of Jesus Christ. The bible is one way we access the word of god (AKA Jesus).  Therefore the bible contains the Word of God.  We can access the Word by way of the Bible.

Additionally, since the Word of god no longer is enfleshed among us in the form of Jesus, god called the church to be the body of Christ.  You and I are the body of Christ today.  Just like the bible is used to access the Word of god, so too the church is used to access the Word of god.

Do you see where this is going???

If Christ is the greatest revelation of god known to the world, and the church is now the body of Christ then the church is as revelatory of the nature of god as the bible.

The church is as revelatory as the bible because both give access to the Word of god.

This should scare you a little bit.

It is easy to only see the bible as the source of access to the Word because that keeps the Church off the hook.  When we take seriously the idea that Christ is made known in the church as Christ is also made known in the scriptures, then our behavior is changed.  We are transformed.

When we buy into the idea of Sola scriptura as access to god then we are saying that god is done working.  God is no longer active and moving today.

So while the church may fail at exposing the word of god at times, I wonder what it might look like if the church too seriously the idea that we are called to be the body of Christ.  Are we willing to be that revelatory?

Matthew 17 thoughts

Matthew 17 has a little story here that came up in Bible study on Sunday.



I have noted about the symbolism in the Bible of fishing before.  And I think the case can be made for this text as well.  But here is some more to chew on.


Rome forces people to pay the temple tax.  That is Rome makes people they want to pay to pay the temple tax.  If you were the son of the emperor or a really good friend or a political ally, you did not pay this tax (sound like today's situation in many ways?!)  So Jesus pays the tax.  But the thing about it is that Jesus does not use his own money to pay the tax.   He uses a fish.  


Here is the thing.


If Jesus pays the tax, then he is siding with the Roman opposition in that he is giving them money.  This is something that the Zealots do not agree with.  If he refuses to pay the tax, which would be what the Zealots would love, he sides with the Zealots.  Instead Jesus gets Peter to pluck a fish from the pond.  


The Hebrew Bible uses the idea of plucking fish from the sea or pond as a way of describing to others that God will pluck the rich and powerful from their place of comfort if they are not responsive to the needs of the poor.  For Jesus to send Peter to pluck a fish means Jesus told Peter to go and confront a rich unjust person and get them to repent of their unjust ways.  


When the tax is paid by a rich person for a poor person then you have the beginnings of a new social order.  


This new social order is not only just in the Biblical sense (that is a fair distribution of goods and services), but it also becomes the cornerstone of a new Kingdom.  


If the rich and the poor all have access to the temple, if rich and poor have access to education, if the rich and poor have access to the powers that be then we are talking about no more distinctions between the rich and poor.  


Jesus does not side with the Zealots and refuse the tax.  Jesus does not side with Rome and pays the tax.


Jesus gets a rich person who was a "fish" and transforms this person in order to allow a new Kingdom to emerge.  


Can you imagine that?  Someone paying another person's taxes.  


That sounds a bit crazy.  That sounds a bit like something only Jesus would think of.