Scripture And Modern Life

FRI., MAY 24, 1991, 6:12 AM
FARM, STUDY

On your breakfast table rests a brown-covered book titled The Holy Bible. This is the story of creation, of re-creation, of My relationship with a chosen people, and of My coming into the earth as Jesus. My life was short by most standards, but four gospel stories are the basis for remembering what I said and did. In an historical sense I was executed for a trumped-up offense. In reality I gave My life in order that sin might not hinder the lives of future humans… including you. Then I raised up Paul to help the disciples establish the Church as My Body, and, finally, I gave John some visions of the future, which show that I have a sense of fun and humor.

It now is roughly 4,000 years from the story of Abraham to the story of Bob Russell, a Farm in Southern Illinois, and the First Presbyterian Church of Carbondale. These Holy Scriptures are mystical in that they have such relevance for an era quite different from the Biblical one. And yet these Scriptures are also the account of a time and place in which no present day Christian lived (or at least remembered with accuracy). The Scriptures are Truth, but it often is difficult to discern that Truth as it is tied up in cultural patterns different from those of your time in this place.

For example, Biblical culture was patriarchal. Therefore, My “official” disciples were all male, the writers and leaders were male, and I even had Paul declare in one of his letters that women should not speak in church. Your culture pushes toward equality of the sexes, and in your church women are expected to take leadership positions and certainly to speak out. Nancy preached an award-winning sermon, with a strong focus on women as vital to the faith, from Biblical times to the present.

Yet other parts of My present Body accept this male dominance of Biblical times as Truth, and continue to perpetuate patriarchy. So how can you discern what is Truth that should be perpetuated and what is to be rejected as simply customs of an earlier time which no longer apply? I can give you no easy answer. I am with those who make liberal interpretations of Scripture. I also am with those who hold to the “letter” of particular Scriptural passages. And, of course, I am with the many, betwixt and between, who compromise in different ways on different issues.

What does “Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy” mean in a culture when some must work on Sunday to maintain their living style? What is “work” that should not be done on the Sabbath? And is Sunday, the first day of the week according to your modern calendar, as good a Sabbath as Saturday, the seventh day?

Are there foods that still should not be eaten? Should males be circumcised? Are alcoholic beverages a gift or a curse… or both? Is abortion a sin and capital punishment not? Should divorce and remarriage be accepted as a normal part of modern life? Should homosexuals of both sexes be accepted as just another God-created minority? Should pregnancies be prevented by the implantation of hormones? And how many more questions of this sort could I pose… and not answer.

You see yourself as a liberal conservative, looking to the Scriptures for truth but feeling that truth must be reinterpreted for each culture, in each era. And, with you, I seem to encourage such a position. You functioned well with the group in Cuba… and also with the Walk to Emmaus group… and yet you knew you weren’t completely comfortable in either. You hope that your Church will adopt the majority proposal on sexuality, but you feel sure that it will not.