If you were present in worship on Sunday, December 9, you heard my view that the Bible offers more than one way to understand
the end of the world as we know it.
Rather than a single narrative about how God will destroy the earth and
its inhabitants, the different voices of the Bible offer a variety of
perspectives that do not necessarily fit together like the pieces of a single
puzzle. Some images are all gloom and
destruction for everyone; others portend punishment only for those opposed to
the work of God. Some images of the end
in scripture make sharp distinctions between those whom their author(s)
consider good and evil; while others depict a time when “the lion shall lay
down with the lamb” or all nations shall share a giant banquet together.
It’s not just the end which
scripture views through multiple perspectives but also the beginning and everywhere
in between. At the beginning of Genesis,
we get not one but two different creation stories—and other stories of creation
pop up now and then elsewhere in scripture.
If we ever bother to read through the Bible, we find more than one
version of the Exodus stories, the Ten Commandments, the Israelites’ return to
the Promised Land, the reigns of King David and King Solomon and so on. The further we read in the Bible the less we
are surprised by multiple versions of a story and the more we are surprised
when there is only one.
This multiform view of God’s
activity in the world comes into stark relief at Christmas time. Although our Christmas pageants and services
often mash up the shepherds gathered around the Bethlehem manger and the Wise
Men from the East and all the other elements of Jesus’ birth together into one
narrative, they actually come from different stories with different
details. Matthew contains the Wise Men
and tells about Jesus’ birth from Joseph’s perspective. Luke tells about the shepherds and the manger
and offers Mary’s perspective. John
gives us nothing about the baby Jesus and instead describes the Word made
flesh. Mark just fast forwards to Jesus
as an adult with no concern at all for where Jesus came from.
Libraries of books have been written
to reconcile the different narratives and theologies within scripture. When it comes to the Gospels, church leaders
in the first few centuries of the church wrestled with whether to keep more than
one Gospel in the Bible or to somehow combine them all into one story about
Jesus. Ultimately they chose to go with
four (they could have gone with more!), because Matthew, Mark, Luke and John
were each already too popular in different parts of the church. I’m thankful they chose to live with multiple
stories rather than forcing the issue.
When it comes to scripture (or theology for that matter), we are only
troubled by multiple points of view when we expect to find only one. If we approach the Bible as a single story
written by a single author rather than a collection of writings written by
different authors in different times, cultures and languages, then we are
troubled and must insist on conformity where none exists. Yet, if we can live with the ambiguity of
multiple points of view existing side by side in dialogue with one another, a
whole world of depth and meaning are possible.
In church as well, we can enforce
conformity or live with diversity. We
can insist that our views of God and the world fit within the confines of a
particular tradition or follow the proscriptions of a particular pastor or
other church authority, or we can allow for different points of view to be in
dialogue with one another. When it comes
to scripture or theology, we can opt for monologue or dialogue. I much prefer the latter. It can be scary sometimes to live with the
tension that comes from a lack of certainty, but the abuses which come from
those who claim to possess absolute certainty are more frightening still.
This Christmas season, as visitors
encounter our church community and come for reasons that may not even be clear
to them, we can offer then an invitation to dialogue rather than a chance to
listen to a monologue. We can welcome
them to join their voices with our voices as we seek to grow in our
relationship with God together. Not
everyone is looking for such a dialogue; some come looking for a kind of
uniformity we cannot provide, but I believe many more come wondering if a
church exists that will accept them along with their particular beliefs and
doubts. This Christmas let’s learn from
our Bibles and celebrate our various stories of what God has done in our
lives. Rather than viewing different
stories as a threat, we can experience the many ways God comes to us as a
blessing.
Grace and Peace,
Chase
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