Spiritual Hiccups - The Authority of Scripture

Our local paper, The Columbus Dispatch, has an article this morning on the split occurring in the Lutheran Church as more conservative congregations break off from the ELCA to form a new denomination.  Such a story is hardly surprising.  We Presbyterians have our own, similar movements.  But just once when I read about such things, I would like to hear someone say, "We disagree over the meaning of Scripture, and so it seems best to stop fighting over that and form separate groups."  But instead the quotes normally read like the one in today's article.  Explaining that the split was over bigger issues that gay/lesbian ordination, a spokesperson for the new NALC said, "Also at play is a misunderstanding of what authority - Scripture or 'the mood of the times' - should guide the church."

In today's reading from Acts, we are in the middle of the account explaining how Peter comes to understand that distinctions of clean and unclean do not matter for those following Christ.  While many current Christians are unaware of it, welcoming Gentiles into what was a Jewish faith community caused serious divisions in the early Christian movement.  Jewish Christians continued to follow Torah, and saw no reason for Gentile converts to do otherwise.  Those who would become part of the Jesus movement would need to become Jews, with males being circumcised, women undergoing a ritual cleansing, and both observing the dietary laws.

But the Apostle Paul saw things differently.  He championed the view that emerges in the Acts story about Cornelius.  Those Gentiles who accepted Jesus' gospel were to be baptized and welcomed into the faith as Gentiles.  The old distinctions were gone.  Problem was, the Jewish Christians claimed to have Scripture (which at that time meant what we call the Old Testament) on their side.  The division in the early Church was severe, and many believe that Jewish Christians orchestrated the arrest and eventual execution of Paul.  And I have little doubt that these Jewish Christians were certain that they were following the authority of Scripture, unlike this crazy Paul who was coming up with all these wild innovations that threatened their deeply held faith.  In other words, they followed the plain truth of Scripture while Paul perverted it.

Interestingly, similar arguments were used 150 years ago in defense of slavery.  Many theologians and church people, both north and south, were convinced that slavery was sanctioned and supported by the Bible.  Thomas Cobb, one of the founders of the University of Georgia Law School wrote in large letters on his home when SC seceded from the Union, "Resistance To Abolition Is Obedience to God." 

In the novel Nellie Norton: or, Southern Slavery and the Bible, (written by a Protestant clergyman and published in 1864) the title character is a young, naive New England girl who believes slavery to be a cruel abomination.  But on a visit to Savannah with her mother, through encounters with slaves and discussions with Southerners, she comes to realize how wrong she has been.  After all, as the pro-slavery people she meet point out, "The Bible is a pro-slavery Bible and God is a pro-slavery God."  Also, "The North must give up the Bible and religion or adopt our views of slavery."

And there it is, the same tired argument.  Those who disagree with me have thrown out the Bible.  To borrow from the Lutheran bishop quoted in my local paper, they have traded the authority of Scripture for the "mood of the times."

Sometimes I think it no small miracle that the Christian faith survives and thrives.  How many times have people of deep faith been found to be standing squarely in opposition to God?  And apparently they have had good company all the way back to the very first generation of Jesus followers.

Sometimes I wonder if we haven't gotten this Bible thing completely wrong.  Rather than trying the follow the Bible, maybe we would be better served if we simply tried to catch a glimpse of the God hinted at by all the various stories, rules, songs, and accounts.  Maybe we would be much better off if we quit trying to find support for our views, and simply tried to get to know Jesus a little better.  Maybe if we spent more of our time trying to know Jesus more deeply, trying to draw nearer to him, we'd all be a lot less sure that we know exactly what he'd say about every hot button issue of the day.

Click here to learn more about the Daily Lectionary.