Some
years ago, for some reason I since have forgotten, I chose to honor the season
of Lent, not by giving something up; but rather, by taking something on: doing
something to deepen my spirituality or to increase my serving effectiveness,
etc.
This
year I’m taking on the reading, journaling and assimilating of a book (new to
me) by Derek Flood, Disarming Scripture (Metanoia Books, 2014).
Its provocative sub-title is “Cherry-Picking Liberals, Violence-Loving
Conservatives, and Why We All Need to Learn to Read the Bible like Jesus Did.” [Nothing like offending both ends of the
spectrum before the reader has even opened the book!]
Flood
opens like this:
“Christians have long sought to
reconcile the loving God they encounter in the New Testament with the violent
and angry depictions of God in the pages of the Old Testament. On the one hand,
Jesus tells us to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us (Matt
5:44). On the other hand, we read in the Law of Moses the divine command for
God’s people to ‘show them no mercy’ (Deut 7:2) and ‘kill everything that
breathes’ (Deut 20:16). Although it may be hard for us to face, such glaring
contrasts found within the canon of Scripture are hard to overlook.”
Hard
to overlook, indeed! My first serious crisis of faith was a direct result of
that same kind of what appeared to be absolute contradictions in the Bible. Flood
continues:
“Does the Bible describe a God of love or a God of
genocide? How are we to reconcile that the apparent answer to this question is
that it describes both? As a people of faith, we need to face the sobering fact
that some parts of our Bible command us to love our enemies, while other parts
command mercilessly slaughtering them.”
And
then he adds a footnote:
“It’s important to note that this
contrast is not simply between what Christians refer to as the New and Old
Testaments. The Hebrew Bible itself contains both message of compassion and
mercy, as well as other passages like the ones above that promote the polar
opposite. Similarly, as we will see in later chapters, the New Testament has
been used to justify slavery and state violence. So the answer is not as simple
as rejecting the Old and focusing on the New, but will require us to go deeper.”
At
this point Flood has my absolute attention; and I’m still on page 1! He
promises that the book will attempt to wrestle honestly “with these questions
from a perspective of faith, with the ultimate goal of understanding how Jesus’
reading of Scripture led him to a message of radical forgiveness and enemy
love, and how adopting his way of reading Scripture can allow us to faithfully
confront religious violence as well, rather than seeking either to justify it
or explain it away.”
I
honestly don’t think I’ve ever tried, intentionally or even consciously, to use
Scripture to justify or rationalize any form of violence. On the other hand, I’ve
never been able to accept the notion that the Bible is self-contradictory. So,
here is how I’ve dealt with (or attempted to deal with) apparent contradictions
in the Bible.
I
believe God is a self-revealing being, and that humanity is capable of
perceiving and assimilating such revelation. But humanity is incomplete [many
would say humanity is sinful, meaning broken or flawed or even evil. There are
multiple words in the original biblical languages we translate, “sin.” My
understanding of sin, based those multiple words in the Bible’s original
languages, is that it means incomplete or separated.] Incomplete humanity is not capable of
comprehending the full revelation of God (at least, not all at once)[1], but is capable of a
growing understanding based upon the cumulative witness of those who have gone
before and who, within the community of faith, have shared their understanding.
In
many cases, even when violence is commanded, the action called for is a
progression away from a more savage to a less savage violence. If you were to lay out the commands of God
along a time-line, I think you would observe a consistent movement from the
primitive, brutal savagery of the early bronze (Neolithic) age, and toward the
more compassionate teachings of Jesus.
I
believe the witness of Scripture is honest and does not try to rationalize or
sugar-coat the brutality that earlier generations assumed to be the will of
God. Those earlier generations were being faithful within the context of their
God-understanding, and those who recorded their stories were also faithful and
honest in their reporting.
And
I further believe that the self-revelation of God continues today, and will
continue for as long as there is a human race. With each passing generation our
understanding of God’s love and grace grows more and more comprehensive,
embracing and including an ever-wider spectrum of humanity.
But
even with 20/20 hindsight and even with the perspective gained by standing on
the shoulders of previous generations, I have difficulty even imagining a broader
expression of divine love than is expressed in Jesus’ command to “love your
enemies.”
I’m
anxious to see where Derek Flood’s writing will lead me. I’d love for someone
else to read it and dialogue with me along the way.
In
any case, during Lent I’ll share my responses and insights in this blog—for any
who are interested.
That’s
the way I see it through the flawed glass that is my world view.
Together in the Walk,
Jim
[1] For example, at
Sinai, when the Lord descended upon the mountain, a cloud covered the mountain,
such that the people could not “see” God (Exodus 19 – 20). Moses was not
permitted a full vision of God, but only a partial one (Exodus 33:19-20).
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