This past Sunday’s worship began our new sermon series on how we read our Bibles. Because of the holiday, this Sermon Note is more of a follow-up to the Worship experience. We also published a list of resources to plan a regular time of reading the Bible. Find it here.
In beginning this series, we first discussed the primary—and opposing—ways that people generally seem to read sacred text. Those who would identify as Fundamentalist or Conservative Evangelical generally affirm a Biblical inerrancy while those who identify as Moderate-to-Liberal Christians often have a more nuanced (and often less articulated) view.
It is important to remember that the idea of Biblical inerrancy is relatively new, beginning 2-3 generations after the Reformation. The Anchor Bible Dictionary (New York: Doubleday, 1992) includes an article identifying the earliest known proponent of this “dictation” theory of inspiration as the Lutheran Johann Quenstedt (1617-1688), though this theory is significantly different from Luther himself.
We then looked at the early creation stories from the book of Genesis. Rather than reading these literally (as critiqued by early theologians like Origen of Alexandria (184-253) in De Principiis), we instead sought deeper meaning of the story as poetry, hymn, or myth (don’t think that these are pejorative or diminutive!). When we read the Bible as a Sacrament—something holy that draws us deeper into relationship with God—we make ourselves available to its transforming work.
Indeed, God’s creative work at the beginning of the universe cannot be seen as a singular event. God’s creativity continues, and recognizing that we are all connected as creation deeply affirms our relationship with our Creator.
John 1:1-14
In the beginning was the Word
and the Word was with God
and the Word was God.
2 The Word was with God in the beginning.
3 Everything came into being through the Word,
and without the Word
nothing came into being.
What came into being
4 through the Word was life,
and the life was the light for all people.
5 The light shines in the darkness,
and the darkness doesn’t extinguish the light.6 A man named John was sent from God. 7 He came as a witness to testify concerning the light, so that through him everyone would believe in the light. 8 He himself wasn’t the light, but his mission was to testify concerning the light.
9 The true light that shines on all people
was coming into the world.
10 The light was in the world,
and the world came into being through the light,
but the world didn’t recognize the light.
11 The light came to his own people,
and his own people didn’t welcome him.
12 But those who did welcome him,
those who believed in his name,
he authorized to become God’s children,
13 born not from blood
nor from human desire or passion,
but born from God.
14 The Word became flesh
and made his home among us.
We have seen his glory,
glory like that of a father’s only son,
full of grace and truth.
Genesis 1:1-5
When God began to create the heavens and the earth— 2 the earth was without shape or form, it was dark over the deep sea, and God’s wind swept over the waters— 3 God said, “Let there be light.” And so light appeared. 4 God saw how good the light was. God separated the light from the darkness. 5 God named the light Day and the darkness Night.
There was evening and there was morning: the first day.
Consider these questions:
- When is a time that you felt an experience of spirituality and/or God (or however you name the Divine)?
- How have you felt inspired by the Scriptures? What happened? What were the circumstances?
- Think of your earliest memories of your faith life and/or reading the Bible. How were you taught to understand the creation stories? If you did not grow up learning these stories as in Genesis, what were you taught about the beginning of the world/universe?
- How have you understood the Creation stories? Has this changed over time? How do you understand them now? How does science inform this perspective?
- Does the approach we applied to the creation stories help you to grow in your faith? Or do you feel as though it hinders your faith? Why?