Interpreting Scripture
Sermon by Rev. Mary Alice Mulligan, Ph.D.
Scripture: Matthew 10: 24-39
Open and Affirming Sunday reminds us of our commitment to extravagant welcome, regardless of sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression, no matter who walks in the door. But our commitment comes from a shared discussion of scripture where we turn on the light of solid scholarship and a wide range of interpretive voices. Because of our denomination’s commitment to biblical scholarship and the unconditional love of God, our national gathering, the UCC General Synod in 1985 encouraged congregations to welcome gay, lesbian, and bisexual persons into the full life of the church. Congregations and conferences were open to hearing divergent ideas but were unwilling to accept mere opinion based on personal readings of passages cherry-picked from a biased position. We still need to investigate broad scholarship, not restrictive, because we know the Bible does not speak with a singular voice about many topics, so of course we want to hear good research and then discuss together to make decisions about the faith. Today we’ll look into general biblical interpretation, but next week we will dig deeper into some of the passages that womanists, feminists, and queer scholars call “Clobber passages,” passages from the Bible which people use to beat up people who do not look or act like them. Passages they use to clobber others. But first, let’s think through how we read any scripture. Take for instance today’s lections.
Jeremiah 20:7-11
O Lord, you have enticed me, and I was enticed; you have overpowered me, and you have prevailed. I have become a laughingstock all day long; everyone mocks me. For whenever I speak, I must cry out, I must shout, “Violence and destruction!” For the word of the Lord has become for me a reproach and derision all day long. If I say, “I will not mention him, or speak any more in his name,” then within me there is something like a burning fire shut up in my bones; I am weary with holding it in, and I cannot. For I hear many whispering: “Terror is all around! Denounce him! Let us denounce him!” All my close friends are watching for me to stumble. “Perhaps he can be enticed, and we can prevail against him, and take our revenge on him.” But the Lord is with me like a dread warrior; therefore my persecutors will stumble, and they will not prevail. They will be greatly shamed, for they will not succeed. Their eternal dishonor will never be forgotten. O Lord of hosts, you test the righteous, you see the heart and the mind; let me see your retribution upon them, for to you I have committed my cause. Sing to the Lord; praise the Lord! For he has delivered the life of the needy from the hands of evildoers.
Matthew 10:34-37
“A disciple is not above the teacher, nor a slave above the master; it is enough for the disciple to be like the teacher, and the slave like the master. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebul, how much more will they malign those of his household! “So have no fear of them; for nothing is covered up that will not be uncovered, and nothing secret that will not become known. What I say to you in the dark, tell in the light; and what you hear whispered, proclaim from the housetops. Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell. Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. And even the hairs of your head are all counted. So do not be afraid; you are of more value than many sparrows. “Everyone therefore who acknowledges me before others, I also will acknowledge before my Father in heaven; but whoever denies me before others, I also will deny before my Father in heaven. “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; and one’s foes will be members of one’s own household. Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever does not take up the cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Those who find their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.
Remember the conversation, when a young woman says to her friend, “I’m really beginning to understand the Bible.” And he answers, “You are? How did you do that?” She replies, “I’ve started to read it.” Certainly, reading the Bible is a key first step to understanding it, but the more we read the more we realize: the way is murky. Comprehending scripture is not as easy as we wish it were. The Bible is important to us, but it is not simple.
Whenever we read scripture, we interpret. As words enter our minds, we are trying to figure out what they mean. Even though we have scholarly English translations of ancient texts, we are still left with the need to translate them again into ideas that make sense in our day and age. Just notice today’s worship passages. When something is read in worship, we each begin to think about the text – in what context we had heard it before; whether we could put the episode into the fuller biblical story; and what difference these ideas make in our lives. Anytime we think about what we are hearing, we are interpreting. And if we claim a text has particular authority for us, the interpretation becomes simultaneously more important and more difficult.
Interpreting what we read in the grocery store tabloids doesn’t really matter; but when we read our religious Holy Texts, the interpretation becomes weighty. How we interpret what is written matters. Theologian David Tracy says: “[I]n order for a classic document that is timeless to be timely, it must be interpreted.” (1) Easy to say, but difficult for any of us to be certain about the interpretation. At Christmas we say Jesus is born, the Prince of Peace. And today we hear where Jesus says, “I have not come to bring peace…I am setting family members at each other’s throats.” Even if we didn’t notice the problem as we read it at first, each of us could be working to make sense of the sentences now. We might even go back to reread the printed verses above. Could Jesus really mean if we aren’t warring with our family members about our commitment to Jesus, we are not worthy of him? Ouch. Difficult work. But the truth is, anytime we read scripture we are attempting to make sense of it. We interpret as we hear the Bible.
So we need other voices. We benefit from hearing other interpretations which can challenge or enlighten our own. Reading ideas from people who are quite different from us can be most helpful because the more voices we hear, the more of God’s voice we hear, too.
Probably many of us are aware, there are thousands of variations in ancient texts; and still words translators are unsure of. Although we have many translations, new versions of the Bible keep being published. And every year, publishing houses put out almost uncountable commentaries on the books of the Bible.
Which is actually great. We need scholars from widely diverse backgrounds, working from all different disciplines to cast many lights on scripture. We can easily see women might hear something men might not in a particular passage. Someone who grew up poor might hear something different from someone who has always been well-off. So, imagine the different interpretive keys for Jews, immigrants, African Americans, unemployed teens, second generation Asian Americans, Christians, First Nations people. As long as the work is based in solid scholarship, our understanding is enriched by each interpretation, since God is the source of every person and culture. An evangelical theologian explains, Scripture “is both God’s self-witness and a human witness to divine revelation in history…It has a divine ground but a human form.” (2) So ongoing interpretation is crucial.
Although next week we will look deeper into a couple of the tough passages, let’s look at the passage from Jeremiah. Most of us would hear Jeremiah crying out, seemingly distressed by his prophetic call. LORD Yahweh has enticed him and God has prevailed. When his friends try to draw him away, the writer uses the same words: “Perhaps he can be enticed and we can prevail…” But of course, they cannot. Jeremiah believes God tests the righteous, brings punishment on the unrighteous, and is therefore worthy of praise. On first read, perhaps quite a simple passage. But we can ask some hard questions which cast peculiar lights on it. Obviously, the entire question of Yahweh’s being a God of retribution is a tough one. But what does it mean if God is a “like a dread warrior” even to Jeremiah?
The most difficult piece for some interpretations of this passage comes at the start when it seems God is almost courting Jeremiah. Someone I talked with this week said the enticing and prevailing language at first sounded romantic, but then triggered for her. She heard more than a helplessness as God forces Jeremiah into his vocation. Scholars are clear the Hebrew has undercurrents of sexual seduction and even rape. What are we to make of this image of God? No wonder Jeremiah feels like there is fire shut up in his bones. However, remember that just because Jeremiah felt that God was forcing him into compliance, that does not necessarily make God a rapist. But it does point out the difficulty of unpacking scripture. When such language is used, we cannot just toss it aside. We have to work. People who claim the Bible is easy to understand are wrong. Only with solid scholarship, good interpretive tools, and hearing diverse interpretive voices will the messages in the Bible continue to unfold. The more voices we listen to, the more of God we will grapple with and eventually comprehend. We need lots of voices.
Then we can witness with confidence. If we have done the research, when someone challenges a belief we hold, we can defend our position. The people who reject our theological stances can often argue for their position. We need to be able to do the same thing, but from better scholarship. It isn’t enough to say, “Well we disagree.”
As an Open and Affirming congregation, we need to be able to defend our commitment to affirming who each person is regardless of gender identity or expression or sexual orientation. So, a basic investigation of scripture will show the word often translated as “homosexual” for instance could not have occurred in the original Hebrew or Greek scriptures, because the notion is modern. Of course, sex between people of the same gender happened in ancient times (with great regularity apparently), but the idea of sexual “orientation” is more modern. The very few passages which seem to address same sex sexual behavior are probably more likely addressing gender roles than sexual behavior, (3) but a bit more on that next week.
Sadly, churches seem quite ready to go to war over same-sex behavior (which has a tiny handful of passages), but not over food issues (about which there are lots and lots of passages in both testaments), or much more central to the faith: money and possession (which have a huge number of passages and which Jesus actually addressed, in fact more than any other topic).
As Christians, an ongoing task is to keep listening, reading, and thinking about what God is trying to communicate with us about all of life. And then share it. Remember, in the 16th century, Martin Luther caused a crisis in the church when he witnessed to his dramatic reinterpretation of “salvation” using scripture. His reading of Romans, that we are saved by grace through faith, changed the theology of Christianity. Grace saves people, not how many confessions, or indulgences, or disciplines people undertake. Just Grace.
If Luther can do it in the 16th century, then our witness can matter, too, perhaps gigantically. Importantly, we admit we don’t have all the answers, but when we discuss our positions together, we can make an important witness. So, the ongoing, extravagant welcome you, St. Andrew people extend to all, matters. Keep saying it; keep living it. No matter who anyone is or what they have done in their life, they are welcome here, because God’s acceptance is unconditional, so ours is too. Witness to it with confidence.
When we are open to hear what people have to say about biblical texts, scholars and common people, ancient voices and contemporary, our own interpretations broaden. We hear more clearly the Word of God (the voice of Jesus some might say) coming through to us, which helps re-shape our faith over and over. And allows us to witness to the unconditional love of God extended to all.
1 David Tracy, The Analogical Imagination (1981), quoted in Walter Brueggemann, “Biblical Authority and the Church’s Task of Interpretation,” in Prism: A Theological Forum for the United Church of Christ, vol. 1, Spring 1986, 13.
2 Donald Bloesch, “An Evangelical Perspective on Authority,” in Prism, vol. 1, 9.
3 Ken Stone, “What the Homosexuality Debates Really Say about the Bible,” in Out of the Shadows into the Light: Christianity and Homosexuality, ed. Miguel De La Torre (Chalice, 2009), 36-37.