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How
to Read the Bible
May
19-20, 2007
Luke
24:46-53
Walter
Brueggerman, one of the great scriptural minds of our time,
admits that he learned the most important thing about the
bible in the first year of his seminary training. There his
professor told the class, “If you want to know what the bible
means, you must read with the bible in one hand and the newspaper
in the other.” This insight tells us that God speaks to us
not simply through the words of the bible, but how those words
interact with the newspaper, with the real events in our world
and in our lives.
Sometimes
we think that the truth of God is hidden in the words of the
scriptures, and we have to find it, like finding a pearl in
an oyster or our keys at the bottom of our purse. But the
word of God is much more dynamic than that. It might be best
seen as a sound, as a vibration, as an echo moving through
the ages. We are able to hear that sound and catch that vibration
because we can identify similar echoes in the lives that we
live. This is what keeps the scriptures alive. It is what
saves them from becoming a dead word, a historical fossil.
The truth of the scriptures is always unfolding, fresh and
alive, as it interconnects with the experiences of our lives.
Jesus
used this dynamic sense of the scriptures in today's gospel.
Luke tells us that Jesus opened the minds of the disciples
so that they could understand the scriptures. Jesus said,
“It is written that the Messiah is to suffer and be raised
from the dead on the third day.” Now the problem with Jesus'
words is this: you can read the scriptures as long as you
want, but you will not find anywhere in the Old Testament
where it is written that the messiah had to suffer or that
the messiah would be raised up on the third day. So why does
Jesus say that it is written there? Because he understood
that you have to read the bible and the newspaper together.
The meaning of the scriptures is discovered when it is read
through contemporary events. For Jesus those contemporary
events were the glorious good news of his death and resurrection.
Therefore, Jesus, in light of his own suffering and passion,
read the prophet Isaiah and understood that the suffering
servant in that text was referring to him. In light of his
glorious resurrection, Jesus was able to see that all the
promises to Israel for a Savior were fulfilled in his resurrection.
The
good news is that Jesus has given us the Spirit, so that we
can understand the bible in this same way.
I
think many Catholics feel inadequate when it comes to reading
the bible. They do not know the names of all of Paul's letters
or the chapter and verse in which famous sayings of Jesus
can be found. But we do not understand the bible only by understanding
the text. We can also begin to understand the bible by understanding
God's actions in our life. We can read the chapter and verse
of our own lives as God's grace unfolds in our midst. When
we come to recognize the wonder of a newly born daughter or
son or grandchild, we understand some of the wonder that Mary
felt by the manger in Bethlehem and why the scriptures say
that she treasured all of those things in her heart. When
we have to struggle with a family problem or a rejection by
somebody we love, we understand the pain that Jesus felt during
his passion and identify with his struggle to still believe
that God would be faithful. When we win a battle with cancer
or find new life in a relationship that we long ago thought
was dead, we see the faithfulness of God that the women discovered
at the tomb on Easter morning.
Now
do not get me wrong. I think it is valuable and important
to study the bible, to read a book, to take a class, to join
a bible study group. But to understand the bible you do not
need to begin in a classroom. You can begin by examining the
texture of your own lives. So let's begin. Let's begin today.
Let's ask the Spirit of God to show us how God is acting in
our lives, blessing us, protecting us, leading us. And once
we can claim that action of God written in our lives, we will
be able to catch the vibrations and the echoes of that same
love and power in the words of the scriptures. And then we
will be able to proclaim without any doubt: “God is great,
and I understand the meaning of the bible.”
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