'Journey' has always been an important word in the life of our community.
Sometimes our journey together is difficult and sometimes it's easier
but there is always a sense amongst us that we've been called together
to walk a journey into the mystery that is God. We have a sense that
it's only in walking the journey that we come to know the answers
to the questions we ask deep within ourselves. Questions about life
and purpose and meaning and the answers are not tidy ones nor are
they head answers. They are answers which are felt at gut level and
which help us walk the next stage of our journey.
The Scriptures are a beautiful reflection on walking that journey.
They're a record of what it meant for one people to walk their journey
into God and somehow their journey reflects our journey. As we read
the poems and stories and epic tales that make up the Bible we see
in Israel's story a pattern emerging, the same pattern that every
one goes through when we set out on the journey of faith, the ebb
and flow of relationship. Just as the people of Israel experienced
the overwhelming love of God and at other times wandered around unable
to believe in it so too there are stages in our lives, in which we
learn to listen more fully and see more clearly the truth that God
loves us and wants us to experience deep inner freedom.
If you're not on a journey with God and into God it will be difficult
to understand the primary call the Scriptures give to grow in trust
and listening. We'll simply get caught up in questions that don't
matter. Did such a person exist? How did such a thing happen? Why
do Matthew Mark and Luke tell similar stories in different ways?
The question that you never ask about the Scriptures is "Did
it happen?" but rather "What does it mean?" It's always
interesting to reflect on the question what is truth in the Bible?
The author's of the various books aren't interested in our narrow,
western, twentieth century understanding of the word truth, which
is usually a sterile one-dimensional interpretation. Truth in the
Scriptures is far deeper than mere facts. Truth is about helping people
understand the reality behind the fact and so the basic fact is secondary
to that purpose and can be used or not used as the case may be.
The author's aren't interested in "Did it happen" but "Why
did it happen ". That is far more important. They want us to
reflect on what it's saying to us about life or what is it saying
to us about love or what is it saying about reality? The author's
certainly aren't interested in whether they've got all their details
right but in what does it mean for us now?
There are two words in Greek that mean time. The first is "chronos"
which is indicative of a time line e.g. I was born in.... then I....
then I... The writers in the Bible are really not interested in that
sort of time line even though so many of us think they are. The second
word is "Kairos" which means the significance of the moment
and it's that which matters to the ancient authors.
If you simply read the Bible at the level of 'chronos' and see it
in terms of an historical treatise you're heading for a fall and one
of two things can happen. We become fundamentalist or we reject it
out of hand. Fundamentalism refuses to listen to what the author was
really saying and what was really intended to be said to their communities
and imposes on the documents an understanding of truth that the writers
never had.
If you read the Scriptures asking the right questions then maybe
you'll begin to get a foothold into what they're about. People are
often worried that if they start to really study the Scriptures and
look at what the scholars say or don't say that it will shatter their
faith. If it does that then maybe the question has to be asked 'What
is my faith based on?' If you're on a journey of trying to listen
and trust you'll begin to understand it.
Our faith is not in the words of the Bible. Our faith is in the person
of the Lord who is revealing himself to us. He is the word calling
us into personal relationship. What we're called to be is a bit like
Jacob's wrestling with the angel (Genesis 32:23-33) It's only when
that happens when there's that sort of personal involvement do we
come face to face with the mystery that's God, the God who made sense
of the journey the people of Israel undertook and who makes sense
of our journey.
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