St Peter & Paul 15^th June 2008 Interpreting the Bible – on the occasion of a Flower Festival

Isaiah 55 & Matthew 6: 25 - 33

Co-operation . . . . As we look at the flower arrangements here today – for which "thank you to those who have spent many hours here and in preparation" – co-operation is a word which springs to my mind.

There's the response - given by a gardener who had made a beautiful garden - to a comment about how wonderful God was to have created such beauty.

"Ah – but you should have seen it before I started to give God a hand!"

A garden left to its own devices quickly becomes overgrown and loses its ordered beauty, and yet without the miracle of flowers, we would have nothing with which to work.

Co-operation – we are co-workers with God and when we find the right way to use God's gifts, then scenes of great beauty become possible.

The idea that God has given humankind the task of drawing out God's created beauty and bringing order to the world is found in the Bible. Right at the start, the story of the Garden of Eden expresses the belief that we humans are given that responsibility. A responsibility which extends not only to the way we bring out the inherent beauty of God's creation – but also the inner beauty which lies in people, encouraging each other to use our gifts for good.

The question arises as to whether we have any guidance in bringing order and beauty to life. In our attempts to become beautiful people, living in beautiful communities, we have the Bible, the condensed wisdom of over 1000 years of reflection on God's ways in the world.

We have the 10 commandments.

We have passages such as today's from Isaiah which encourages us to find where God is in the world (Seek the Lord while he may be found) so that we find the things of true value which money cannot buy.

We have Jesus' advice about loving enemies, turning the other cheek, seeking justice, forgiving each other, all of it summed up in the two greatest commandments – Love God with all your heart and soul and mind and strength: and love your neighbour as yourself.

And if all the Bible's advice was along those lines, we would be clear about the guidance (even if we do find it hard to follow)

But there are other instructions which cause us to scratch our heads in wonder. The Law in Leviticus , for example, tells us how to ensure that our children obey us - by taking disobedient sons out of the town and stoning them to death!

Stoning is also required for those who commit adultery and we are warned against eating shellfish or wearing garments made of more than one kind of thread. In the psalms, we are considered blessed if, should our country be invaded by a foreign power, we find those foreigners' babies and beat them to death!

Blindly following the rules and customs of the Bible would lead to a very harsh society which brings back the death penalty for some odd things, allows polygamy (and, arguably, even sleeping with your employees), but prevents re-marriage after divorce. It would also prevent the ordination of women (in fact all the women here would be wearing hats and forbidden from speaking!) and we would still be encouraging slavery.

It's all very confusing. How do we decide which of the Bible's commands are good for us and which we would do well to ignore?

It's a big question – and one which is exercising the Anglican Church at the moment. Next month, the General Synod of the Church of England will debate again whether women should be bishops; and later in the same month, Bishops from all over the world will gather for the Lambeth Conference and debate whether the Bible allows faithful and stable relationships between two people of the same sex – something which the law in this country permits but which the church, in it's official position, still refuses to recognise.

How do we decide? Do we, as some suggest is happening, allow society's norms to water down the teaching of Christianity, gradually giving in until we have nothing left which is distinctive and counter-cultural? Do we pick and choose the bits of the Bible we like according to our own prejudices . . . ?

Or is there a yardstick by which we can decide?

Perhaps by asking not only 'What does the Bible say about such and such?' – but 'WHY does the Bible say it?' – we might begin to find such a yardstick.

One of the themes which flows throughout the Bible is the hope of building beautiful communities in which we make beautiful, constructive relationships; where forgiveness is the name of the game – love, harmony, justice for all, sharing resources – these things take over from greed, resentment, self-seeking. So that a yardstick for asking WHY in relation to a particular instruction is:-

Does this build constructive, mutually beneficial relationships?

Or does it destroy relationships and harmonious living?

And then we might discover that a particular form of behaviour in the Bible's time was thought to destroy harmonious living – but in fact the opposite is be true today. St Paul's command that women should wear hats to church is one such example. It's OK, we say, to ignore that bit, because it was based on the culture of the time when women coming to church without covering their heads could mean that the local community mistook the church for an extension to the local brothel – because only the prostitutes went about without any covering over their heads.

We don't get confused like that today!

And so we are left with having to think it our for ourselves – and it's not always easy. A clear book of instructions which was simple to follow (and I mean simple rather than easy because loving your enemy may be a simple instruction - but is never easy to do), such a clear book would be very attractive to many. We wouldn't have to think very hard – just obey.

But the Bible is not a book of instructions – it is the record of one people's experience of coming to terms with living God's way. It is full of examples of how they got it wrong, as well as moving moments of getting it right. And the clear aim is to encourage constructive, loving, stable relationships which will lead to healthy communities where differences are seen as enriching and where people live at peace with one another.

The Bible doesn't let us off having to think. We cannot use the Bible as a defense for unthinking behaviour. On the contrary, we are challenged to ask searching questions about the context in which it was written – and then allow it to speak to us in our new context so that it still leads us to build good relationships.

In this parish, we have been doing just that in relation to the big questions about homosexuality – we had an excellent talk from Dr Chris O'Neill in April (copies of his talk are available) and we need to go on providing opportunities for debate so that we can get behind the surface of the Bible's words.

Our clergy team are committed to providing opportunities for such debate and, if you would value an opportunity to take a fresh look at this subject, please do speak to any of us.

The Bible makes it clear that God's love is for everyone and so we are challenged to proclaim a gospel which opens the possibility for all people to be part of God's community of love.

Then we will truly be co-workers with God, making the good things which God has given available to all.