Bible: The Easiest and the Toughest Book

I find myself coming back to the Bible again and again as a concept. It is already an integrated part of my vocation and personal worship. As a pastor, the preaching of the Word is at the centerpiece of the ministry I carry out. As a Christian, personal devotional reading and meditation are the ways to get the Spirit flowing in my life and to simply get through the day sometimes.

But that is my bible, my relationship with the bible. I agree with the broad statements that there is a general lack of knowledge about what is in the bible, simply as a central literary work to our American cultural experience. That is a regrettable flaw in the core knowledge of our educational system. Then that general lack of knowledge extends to our religious use of God’s Word as the central message of our churches. No longer are we simply talking about the common reference points in our American cultural experience, but we are talking about ignorance of God’s saving message to us of Jesus Christ. That has tragic consequences for a nation that considers itself Christian.

If I am not the basic receptacle of biblical teaching, but my pastor is, or my leader is, or that person who sounds so nice on the television or the internet is, then how they define faith is how I will.

If someone tells me that if I believe enough, I will become prosperous and fulfill the American dream, I will grab hold. . . if they say the bible tells me so.

If someone singles out ‘those’ people as the harbingers of evil; fascists in my grandparent’s generation, communists in my parent’s generation, homosexuals in my generation, “PEOPLE X” in the next generation; I will hate ‘those’ people too. . . if they say the bible tells me so.

If someone tells me the poor are not to be pandered to, not to be charity cases to the government, that the homeless just don’t do enough, that such people are just too lazy, I’ll buy that. . . if they say the bible tells me so.

But I can tell you, as a preacher, as a pastor, as a ‘rigorously trained, academically oriented’ theologian, that is not the bible I know.