Jesus the Rock

At the lunchtime service at Inverness Cathedral one day last week, Father Mel Langille told a joke. It was the day in the Church Calendar when Richard Hooker, a hugely influential churchman and theologian in the 16^th century is remembered.

Said Mel: ‘Roman Catholics see the Pope as the source of authority, Protestants the Bible, while to Episcopalians the final source of authority is….’ ‘God, I hope,’ interjected a voice from the congregation. But Mel concluded ‘the last vicar!’

He was reminding us how much important individuals in our lives can shape our thinking about what we believe and how we live as Christians – and how we interpret the Bible.

Back in the 1950s and 60s, I grew up in a church where the Bible was regarded as the one source of authority, uniquely inspired by God. It was to be taken literally, except for obvious figures of speech. Adam and Eve were unquestionably real people. The Bible contained all we need to know about God, all the guidance in living we could ever require.

I was comfortable with this, believing and defending this viewpoint. The Bible must not be questioned.  But as the years passed, I realised that my thinking had been shaped, not by the last vicar, but by those I looked up to in churches and in the wider evangelical community.

I discovered different interpretations of Bible teaching on some fundamental issues. I became concerned about, for example the extensive violence in parts of the Old Testament, some of it sanctioned by God, and the fact that I was expected to accept as literally true events which in any other book would be read as myth.

I also began to realise how big and incomprehensible must be the God whose energy lies behind the universe, and how words and symbols and events in a book can only point to, and not define God.

I felt the tension of seeing these things while at the same time trying to hold on to the inherited view of the Bible, until I realised that it’s OK to ask endless questions about the Bible, and OK too not to know many of the answers.

I’ve come to see the Bible as a very human book in which God is present as God is present in our lives – it is not a perfect book, any more than we are perfect. There is a growing sense as the Bible progresses of who God really is.

There has never been a time when the words and stories of the Bible have not spoken to me and blessed me. But I still feel at times a residual guilt at having abandoned the more fundamentalist approach, and a strange fear as I read the Bible of seeing yet more evidence of its humanness.

Last week, Father Mel continued by explaining the four sources of authority in the Anglican tradition – Scripture, Reason, Tradition and, some add,  Experience. This spoke to me powerfully, for it affirmed my questioning approach to the Bible. It sets you free to think, to reason, to learn from what others – both inside and outside your own tradition – have thought, and to measure your understanding of the Bible against what you see around you.

Very few people take the Bible as literally as I thought I was expected to. Even those basing their thinking on the Bible alone use reason to understand the Bible’s cultural context and apply its teaching in 21^st century culture. Thinking is shaped by great figures of the Protestant Reformation such as John Calvin.

And experience does shape interpretation: for example seeing God blessing the ministry of women has challenged many who believed women should not lead; and despite Jesus’ prohibition of divorce, reflection on grace and forgiveness and new beginnings has moved many churches to accept the remarriage of divorced people.

But with my many questions about the Bible where am I to take my stand? What source of authority helps me live well and with conviction?

I believe God spoke into and through the lives of the Bible writers. But in Jesus God did more than simply speak. In Jesus God came among us. In his teaching and miracles; his life, death and resurrection; his love and compassion; his fierce commitment to justice; his grace and continuing presence, God speaks to us, challenging and empowering us to reflect God’s reality.

The voice from the pews during Mel’s story last week was right – God is our ultimate authority, God revealed in the life and teaching of Jesus.

I have many questions about Jesus, just as I do about the Bible. But it is the voice of Jesus which helps me evaluate all other ideas, all other teaching. Jesus is the Rock on which I stand.

(Christian Viewpoint column from the Highland News dated 13th November 2014)