The Comma

When, for our “I Wonder as I Wander” summer preaching series, the question was asked “Aren’t we just picking what we want to believe from the Bible?” I was intrigued.  As soon as I begin to answer, I find that I am  touching my deepest assumptions about truth.  What, if anything, lies beyond my own consciousness?  How do I connect with it?  (Of course you who are reading this who, I believe, do indeed exist beyond my consciousness may already be wondering what on earth I’m talking about.  I hope you keep reading.)

When I went off to seminary, over thirty five years ago now, I held a very objective view of “truth.”  Not only did I believe that Truth existed pretty much completely outside myself, I also believed that Truth was “revealed” in the Bible.  I believed my life task was to discover what that Truth was and to follow it to the letter.  I believed that if I did not do that, I was putting my very soul at risk.   Of course I felt sorry for folks who did not have access to the Bible, or for people who misunderstood it and so were in trouble with God, but I figured I would let God sort all that out.  I would just study hard enough to stay on God’s good side.

For example, I believed that the Bible taught that to be a Christian one must be baptized.  As a believer.  By immersion.  That was True.  And that belief worked fine at the Baptist seminary I was attending in Louisville, Kentucky.  Though they did not teach that baptism was essential for salvation, they at least taught that believer’s baptism by immersion was an important expression of one’s Christianity, which I figured was close enough. 

Then I took a class at the Presbyterian seminary across the road.  Not only were there good, non-immersed Presbyterians there who sure seemed like Christians to me, there were also four young men studying to be Catholic priests who had come over from St. Meinrad’s in Indiana to take the same class.  I experienced a crisis of faith.  At the time, it was seriously frightening.  I did not know then, at age 22, that a “crisis” of faith can be a very positive thing.  It can be the sign, in fact, of a growing faith. 

As I came to see  that very good, sincere, and in fact brilliant people could arrive at very different conclusions about what the Bible teaches, I realized that my life’s quest to “get it right” was doomed to failure.  And as I came to see, much later,  that very good, sincere, and in fact brilliant people could actually find Truth in scripture other than the Bible (like, say, the Koran), or even outside the rubric of faith, I had to re-examine my whole understanding of who God is, and how I connect with God.  I did not know it at the time, but in that seminary class long ago, I was taking my first steps toward the United Church of Christ and their deep belief in a still-speaking God, who is beyond my knowing, and who I connect with not through the strength of my own understanding, but by grace. 

Along that line, let me say that I have watched with interest as congress has wrestled with this question in a slightly different way in their confirmation conversations with Judge Sonia Sotomayor.  She has been asked over and over if she will apply the Law without regard for her own feelings or experience.  As if anyone can do that.  In fact, I think there is great danger in the assumption that anyone can achieve complete objectivity in the search for truth.  That stance, at its most extreme, allows us to ignore our own unexamined presuppositions (prejudices) and limitations, and gives us permission to ignore the voices that disagree with us.  And the problem I see in the uproar over Judge Sotomayor, I also see in those who think they know exactly what the Bible is saying, and are eager to make others comply with their version of it.

I still look to the Bible for the stories that shape my faith.  And I still “pick and choose,” just like I always have.  The difference is that long ago, I assumed I was not picking and choosing, but simply “studying.”  Now, I try to pay attention to what is behind my picking and choosing.  When I listen to the words of Scripture, I know that I am listening for the Word of God, and in doing that I have found that the words open up to me (and I open up to them) in ways that let them reach to my very soul.