Replacing the Whole Blessing Thing

One of the joys of being a clergy person is that clergy are invited into people’s lives to bless things. We bless animals, babies, homes, and even cars. I have been asked to bless all sorts of jewelry and grown ups at weddings. Each Sunday we bless the congregation as the worship ends and the service begins.

Of all the things that I have been asked to bless there is a common element to them all. The things that we bless are whole. They are complete. They are finished. I have not blessed a broken bone. I have not blessed a crack in a house. I have not blessed a ring that is missing a stone.

The only exception to the “bless what is whole” rule is communion.

It is incredible to me that Jesus blesses bread and wine and then instantly breaks and pours it out. Can you imagine blessing a house then immediately breaking a window? Each communion we replace the “bless what is whole” rule with “bless what is broken” rule.

For all the times we feel less than whole. For all the people who are treated less than whole. Jesus blesses you. Not in your wholeness. You are blessed in the brokenness.

What sort of God is this that intentionally blesses the broken?

"We Christians are a Bunch of Scheming Swindlers".

Photo by Samuel Zeller on Unsplash

The matter is quite simple. The bible is very easy to understand. But we Christians are a bunch of scheming swindlers. We pretend to be unable to understand it because we know very well that the minute we understand, we are obliged to act accordingly. Take any words in the New Testament and forget everything except pledging yourself to act accordingly. My God, you will say, if I do that my whole life will be ruined. How would I ever get on in the world? Herein lies the real place of Christian scholarship. Christian scholarship is the Church’s prodigious invention to defend itself against the Bible, to ensure that we can continue to be good Christians without the Bible coming too close. Oh, priceless scholarship, what would we do without you? Dreadful it is to fall into the hands of the living God. Yes it is even dreadful to be alone with the New Testament.
--Søren Kierkegaard (Taken from Dr. Richard Beck)

To read Kierkegaard’s words might lead one to conclude that we ought to read the Bible literally. Even Kierkegaard would disagree. Rather, the call of Kierkegaard is the critique to read the Bible then use various rationalizations to avoid the ways we are convinced by the Truth and Love of the Good News. Time and time again we read about how God recklessly forgives. We find justifications to measure forgiveness. We hear Jesus place a priority on accepting the “others” the authorities rejected, we prioritize our own acceptance.

We are all able to cite the Bible to justify our current positions and feelings. We are less able to cite the Bible to challenge or critique our current positions. And when we do find scripture that challenges us, we are clever enough to cast it aside.

Sell all your possessions? Pick up the cross? Welcome the widow, orphan and sojourner? Keep the Sabbath? Prioritize love at the expense of truth?

Instead, I find myself saying, “The Bible is so cryptic and difficult to understand.”

Taking the Bible Literally and not Literarily

The Bible is not so much a book as it is a collection of books. This may be common in our approach, however there are times we forget. And like many collections of books that reside on a book self, the Bible has a number of different types or genres of books. There are books of poetry. There are books of sermons. There are letters and the genre called “apocalyptic.” These different types of books require a different set of eyes to read. For instance, if you sit down to read a children’s book (say the Giving Tree) you are going to view this book differently than if were to sit and read a murder mystery. Each genre requires a different set of eyes, and yet we often read the Bible with the same and single set of eyes.

The Bible is many books not one. Photo by Dmitrij Paskevic on Unsplash

To put it another way, too often we take the Bible literally when we should be taking it literarily.   

Even though there is a journey and exploration in both types of books, we do not read “Oh The Places You Will God” as a travel guide. Just because the Bible has some moral or ethical guidelines, does not mean that the Bible is to be read as “Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth.” We need to take seriously the literarily role of the Bible or we will be able to quote the Bible but not live Biblical lives.

The Bible can be difficult to understand, not because we are moronic but that we often approach it like a “users guide” when it is much more than that. Here is a simple example to consider.

It makes sense to read the story of creation in Genesis first. It is at the beginning of the Bible and it is about the creation of the universe. Sophisticated readers will see that Genesis 1 is a poem and read it as a poem and not as modern science. We approach Genesis 1 with the eyes of poetry and not the eyes of historical fact.

What about a slightly more complicated example?

The stories of God liberating the enslaved people through Moses and company were not written down until the 5th centuries BCE. The Exodus story is written down at the time when the people of God were conquered by the Babylonians and sent into exile. Who cares? It matters because the story of Exodus is set at a time prior to the Babylonian exile but is speaking to the people who are in exile. The Exodus is a story set in the past but is speaking to and about the present.

If you have ever read Science-Fiction you get this. Science-Fiction is set in the future, but is addressing questions and the situation of the present. We do not watch or read Star Wars as what the future really looks like, but rather we use the story of Star Wars to address or raise the current questions.

The Bible is full of beauty, wonder and love, so lets stop taking it literally and consider it literarily.