As we continue to experience the Word of the Lord together, Let us Pray. Loving, forgiving God, whose strength enables us to stand against the temptations we face and whose judgment discerns our deepest motives, empower us by your Word to embody the spirit of Christ in our relations with one another, and in our care for all people, that oppression may end, desperate needs be met, and mercy be extended to all your children. We seek to know you more, to love you more, to serve you more. As we strive to do so, enable us to not take the easy route or easy answer, which does not lead to knowing you more, loving you more, or serving you more. Use this time now to help us grow. Speak Lord, your servants are listening. If these words are not Your Word, may they be forgotten and come to naught. But if they be Thy Word, may they adhere to our hearts, forever transforming us from glory into glory, into the creatures you would have us be, Thou who art our Rock and Redeemer, Amen.

This is the last sermon in the Stewarding of the Protestant Tradition Series. I hope you have found hope in them. I hope they have been a source for starting discussion with your family, your friends, other folks in here, and that such discussion has prompted introspection and growth. Two weeks ago, the two topics were about the extreme importance of Christ, but that Christ is not the only being in the trinity, and the second, that God’s grace trumps our religious determinism. Last week, the Protestant Traditions touched upon were the Dialectical Character or Nature of Theology, and that Faith seeks Understanding. And this week, we discuss the theology of the Bible and then the fact that a life of faith involves dialogue with doubt.

So, hear now The Word of the Lord as it comes to us in these three letters, first from Timothy, and then from Peter, and then to the Hebrews. Listen. 2 Timothy 3.16-17. The Word of the Lord…Thanks be to God. I Peter 1.24-25. The Word of the Lord…Thanks be to God. Hebrews 11.1-3. The Grass withers, the Flower falls, but the Word of the Lord endures forever…Thanks be to God.

As discussed earlier, ours is a theology that is dialectical, complex. We understand that because we understand the Bible to be dialectical and complex. Now, when we speak of a sound theology of the Bible, we want you to have read it, or even better, be reading it. Most of the problems with theology of the Bible comes from the fact that people haven’t really read it. If I were to ask for a show of hands of folks who have read the whole thing, every single sentence my suspicion is that the average congregation would have less than 5% of the people raise a hand. While many protestants, 59% of Americans in fact, read the Bible at least on occasion, [2] we tend to go to the same passages over and again, and make the Bible into a greatest hits selection, where we ignore the sections we don’t know or like.

This is a great history of how God has interacted with the human race. It is full of nuance and subtlety, intricate details and broad scopes. It is more complex than a simple “If it’s in the Bible, then I believe it.” We have long believed that it is important to read the whole thing, and that scripture interprets scripture. Which is to say, instead of proof-texting the Bible, using it as a way to validate your ideology, it is supposed to be understood as a book of the whole. The whole thing is what is important. If you only read the Epistle of James, and don’t also read Philippians, then you are being both literal and illiterate. Scripture interprets scripture, and you can’t do that well until you are familiar with the Bible as a whole.

What we have historically believed, and what we still hold as true, is that the Bible was written in a certain manner. Which is to say, that there are 3 schools of thought as to how the Bible was written. The first is that God put the writers in a trance, made them write exactly and only what they were supposed to write, and then viola, we have the Bible. This leads to the view of the inerrancy of Scripture, since it was essentially written by God through the hands of the entranced humans. The second view of how scripture came to be is that humans saw what went on, and just wrote about it. Therefore the Bible is good because it is about God, but is flawed because it is from human perspective, written only by the hands of humans. In this view, scripture is open to serious flaw, because it is the exclusive work of humans. The third view of scripture and how it came to be is this; Called & Inspired by God, humans wrote a history about God and creation. Because it is inspired by God, scripture is a special thing. Because humans are involved, scripture is flawed. This is obviously the middle ground. Human writers of scripture were not put to sleep and hand manipulated into writing the words that are recorded, but it wasn’t alone that they did the work. God played a part, but not at the expense of human freedom, and therefore human flaw. The third view is the one that Protestants have historically held, especially Presbyterian Protestants. We believe it is closest to God’s very nature, as is revealed by the Bible itself. When God is active in our world, God does not over-ride human freedom, and therefore human error.

It is Calvin who wrote about general revelation and special revelation. Which is his way of saying how God reveals the truth about the nature of the Triune Creator, Redeemer, Sustainer, three in one, to humanity. General revelation is that we can find God in all sorts of things. I have found God in the delivery room, at the foot of a lake in the mountains that never fully unfreezes all year long, in the beauty of a sunset, in the whispered words, “Daddy, I love you,” in the words spoken almost 10 years ago, “I Melissa take you Matt…”, in the vast intricacy of the human body, with its opposable thumbs and miles enough of veins and arteries to travel to the moon and back, in the care of the people of God as they reach out with meals and/or cards in times of need, in all sorts of places, those and many more. I’m sure you have a long list too. But all of it together doesn’t cover what I have learned about God, or how I have found God as I have in the Bible. Calvin called the Bible Special Revelation, because while we can sense God in all sorts of general manners, the Inspired Word of God teaches us much more specifically about who God is, and opens the door further into how we experience God. So, the Bible is special revelation, but not the only revelation. Everywhere you look, if you look right, you can see the fingerprints of God. When it comes to being involved in the world, God is guilty as charged. So, it stands to reason, that God can be found in the delivery room, the mountain top, and even on the subway, and in traffic on 285. You’ve just got to open your eyes.

So, we want you to read the Bible. Most of the people who take it literally don’t actually read it. In fact, about 15 years ago I sat with a good friend in college who was assured that the Bible was to be taken literally. We used to debate it back and forth. Then one day he said this, “You know, as the Bible says, God helps those who help themselves.” To which I said, “You know, the Bible doesn’t say that.” “Sure it does.” “Okay,” I said, “I’ll give you a thousand bucks if you ever find that in the Bible.” He’s still looking, and I’m still not worried. We are against literalism, which by the way has been the way people have used the Bible to endorse slavery, the holocaust, and segregation, to name a few. We are also against illiteracy. Read it. You will find special revelation therein, and learn much about God.

The last thing that makes us Protestant in our theology is this. A life of faith involves dialogue with doubt. There are those that will tell you true belief has no room for doubt. But faith is a relational concept. Faith is another word for trust, trust in. It is different than belief. Real faith is a reaching beyond one’s grasp, which by definition if done well, will come into contact with doubt. Faith has an element of certainty, and an element of uncertainty. “Uncertainty and doubt are consequences of the risk of faith. Paul Tillich used to say that he felt his mission was to bring faith to the faithless and doubt to the faithful! …(Faith) is to question received dogma and to work out one’s own salvation.”[3] Faith is not mere belief, it is a process. If doubt isn’t involved, then the process hasn’t gone far enough yet. But it will. “Faith without doubt is dead.”[4] Mainly because it means a life without risk for God. “To take risks is the safest thing for a Christian to do. The sturdiest faith comes out of a struggle with doubt. One thing I know for sure: in the business of living one must live not by certainties but by visions, risks and passion.”[5]

Is this a more easily accomplished manner of living? By no means. But it is a deeper way of living, one that will put life in touch with God. (To Whiteboard).

So, to wrap it up. These six things are part of what we have brought to the table. They are the theologies that we have given to the world, that we continue to hold true. These are the truth that we are responsible for keeping alive, so that the world does not loose them.

1. We have a triune God, not Christ alone. We are Christo-centric not Christo-monistic.

2. The Priority of Grace trumps our Religious Determinism. Ephesians 2.8, “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God…”

3. There is a dialectical character of theology. We deal with living realities, both humanity and a living God. Life isn’t simple, theology can’t be.

4. Faith seeks understanding. We must maintain vigilance to keep the mystery and search for theology.

5. We believe in the Bible, as special revelation. But it is not to go to literalism or to illiteracy.

6. And lastly, the Life of Faith involves dialogue with doubt.

This is who we are, and what we have to offer. Let us keep our duty and be good Stewards of the Tradition. Amen.