I have asked myself, from time to time, why the Bible endures. Why does this ancient text, with its naïve cosmology that imagines the earth as a flat disk with hell beneath our feet and heaven somewhere above the firmament, still capture its readers as true? Why do more than a billion people in the 21st century embrace this text as sacred when it endorses sexism and tribalism and glorifies ethnic cleansing and the slaughter of innocent non-combatant women and children?
The more traditionally pious among you are no doubt answering me that we treasure the text because it is God’s Word. Yes, but even those of us who call this text God’s Word cannot for a moment believe that it was whispered by God into the ears of the biblical authors. In truth, even those of us who declare it to be Word of the Lord with liturgical regularity do not trust its every word as a safe guide to what is moral and good. In fact, God is often portrayed in such a way that, if it we really believed that God was like that, we would turn in shocked revulsion from such a deity.
So, if the Bible is unreliable scientifically and often fabricates its history, if it lapses into a theology that is repugnant and at odds with itself, why do we continue to read it and revere it?
I raise the question because I count myself among the Bible’s critics and yet I too believe the truth of God and humanity is revealed in its pages. Certainly, one of the ways we can continue to uphold this text in the post-modern world is that we read it within a community filled with the Holy Spirit that guides and guards its interpretation. We do not read it literally or uncritically. We read it in light of the totality of the text, allowing the great over-arching themes to hold sway over the elements that seem unworthy of the best sentiments the Bible teaches. We also read it in light of the current reality in which we stand; surely this is what we mean when we say, “God is still speaking.”
All that being said, the reason I treasure the sacred text is that it includes stories that are not flat, one-dimensional fairy tales or morality plays. It tells stories filled with fear and selfishness, jealousy and despair, and love and hope. They often are not pretty stories. They are often historically unreliable, but they are true stories. The Bible, despite all its problems, gives its faithful readers a lens through which we may look to discover who we are and who God is.
Prayer: God of wisdom and light, speak to your servants as we listen to hear our own stories revealed in the sacred text you have entrusted to us. Amen.