'I can do nothing on my own. As I hear, I judge; and my judgment is just, because I seek to do not my own will but the will of him who sent me. 'If I testify about myself, my testimony is not true. There is another who testifies on my behalf, and I know that his testimony to me is true. You sent messengers to John, and he testified to the truth. Not that I accept such human testimony, but I say these things so that you may be saved. He was a burning and shining lamp, and you were willing to rejoice for a while in his light. But I have a testimony greater than John's. The works that the Father has given me to complete, the very works that I am doing, testify on my behalf that the Father has sent me. And the Father who sent me has himself testified on my behalf. You have never heard his voice or seen his form, and you do not have his word abiding in you, because you do not believe him whom he has sent. 'You search the scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that testify on my behalf. Yet you refuse to come to me to have life. I do not accept glory from human beings. But I know that you do not have the love of God in you. I have come in my Father's name, and you do not accept me; if another comes in his own name, you will accept him. How can you believe when you accept glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the one who alone is God? Do not think that I will accuse you before the Father; your accuser is Moses, on whom you have set your hope. If you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote about me. But if you do not believe what he wrote, how will you believe what I say?'
I really appreciate the words from Forward Day by Day for today's meditation.
Many Christians read the Bible the wrong way. We read not so much to find God as to find support for our notions about God. Rather than learn a solid theology from the Bible, we use the Bible to defend a theology we have already devised.
And sometimes we commit an even more grievous error. We see the revelation of God as something God wrote in a book rather than as something God did in history. We make a big mistake when we view the Bible as God’s revelation: it is the record of God’s revelation.
Jesus said that the scriptures “testify in my behalf.” Let us join the psalmist and sing, “And in the temple of the Lord all are crying, ‘Glory!’ ” (Psalm 29). (1994)
Is the revelation in the book or in the events which the book records? Plainly it could not be in the book unless it is first in the events. And this is the witness of the book itself; for the prophets, who claimed that the word of the Lord came to them, were largely occupied in reading the lessons of history to the people whose history it was. Living by faith in the personal and living God, they saw his hand in all that affected the people with whom they were concerned. —William Temple.
I am thinking quite a bit about this kind of thing as I continue to read and hear many of the insulting remarks from right wing extremists after the Senate vote to repeal Don't Ask, Don't Tell this past Saturday. Comments such as those of Bryan Fischer of the American Family Association who said that "The Military is forever feminized." His remarks not only continue the cruel spiritual and socially violent rhetoric towards lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, questioning and queer individuals, but also women. They continue to suggest that the feminine is somehow lesser, weaker and less worthy or equal rights and justice. That it is okay to continue laws that are unequal towards women and LGBT people. Because there is always the men and the heterosexuals who must continue to benefit at the expense of women and LGBTQ people. Such comments continue because of a belief in the Bible as the "Infallible Word of God." As Bishop Gene Robinson so correctly states in his book In the Eye of the Storm, to place the words of Scripture above the Incarnate Word of God that is Jesus the Christ is "an act of idolatry." (See page 22).
The Christmas event that we are about to remember this coming Saturday was an actual event that took place. What was written in the Bible was written there because God came to all humankind as one like us in God's perfect revelation in Jesus the Christ. The desert blooms and the dry rivers have water not because of what is written down some where, but because God has done something so incredibly wonderful that all the wonder of the world cannot contain the joy at what God did. When Jesus came to us on that Christmas Night darkness was turned into light and sadness gave way to joy. What was written down was what others witnessed, and yet even for right wing extremists determined to keep certain types of people or groups of people weak and oppressed, while others benefit the event might as well not even happened. It is easier to use the Name of Jesus Christ to justify scapegoating and prejudice. I seem to remember King Herod doing the same thing when he slaughtered the Holy Innocents because of his fear that someone weaker than him, just might take his place and power away from him.
The Jesus event that we are preparing for this Advent is one in which there is no scapegoating and there is no excuse for prejudice or violence. God has become one like us in the midst of all our uncertainties and all of our messiness to tell us that God is here with us no matter who we are or what we are facing. The Baby Jesus came into the world and no sooner did he arrive did people in high places of power want to remove him as soon as possible. Jesus came to love people differently and to demonstrate that no person on God's green earth is unloved nor undervalued by God. We know all of this not just because of what is written in the Bible. We know this to be true because of how God has continued to converse and intervene in human history and Church tradition. Even when the Church and society still misses the mark on our obligation to recognize the goodness of God's creative and redemptive love in all persons, God still interacts with us by the power of the Holy Spirit to work to change and redirect our stubborn and fragile human hearts.
As we look to God's grace and mercy during the remainder of this Advent Season leading into Christmas may we be open to what God in Jesus by the Holy Spirit wishes to do in and through our lives. May we take some time to sit in the quietness of our hearts and minds to welcome the Christ Child and to make room for God's Holy Spirit to convert our hearts and make the world a less violent place for all who suffer from oppression, injustice, disease and death.
Purify our conscience, Almighty God, by your daily visitation, that your Son Jesus Christ, at his coming, may find in us a mansion prepared for himself; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen. (Collect for the Fourth Sunday of Advent, Book of Common Prayer, page 212).
O God, the creator and preserver of all humankind, we humbly beseech you for all sorts and conditions of humankind; that you would be pleased to make your ways known unto them, your saving health unto all nations. More especially we pray for your holy Church universal; that it may be so guided and governed by your good Spirit, that all who profess and call themselves Christians may be led into the way of truth, and hold the faith in unity of spirit, in the bond of peace, and in righteousness of life. Finally, we commend to your fatherly goodness all those who are in any ways afflicted or distressed, in mind, body, or estate; that it may please you to comfort and relieve them according to their several necessities, giving them patience under their sufferings, and a happy issue out of all their afflictions. And this we beg for Jesus Christ's sake. Amen. (Prayer for All Sorts and Conditions, Book of Common Prayer, page 814).
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