of their lives; if any are faint of heart they might want to exit immediately. Then I write one word on the board: “Change!” That is the most threatening and challenging word in our language. It is the most feared because we usually see it as what happens beyond control in our lives and in our world; change is seldom viewed as something we intentionally decide to do in specific ways in order to have better lives, better relationships, and better churches.
I have tried to acknowledge the sources for the many truths that fill this book but I have avoided technical terms and complicated explanations. A person once critiqued my sermon to a member of my congregation with, “Your pastor is a scholar.” I don’t think he intended it to be a compliment and I don’t think he was correct. I consider myself to be forever learning and (hopefully) forever growing. A concept in vogue when I was a seminary student was to view the pastor as “the theologian in residence.” I understand this to mean: “The work of the pastor is to help people understand the life-giving logic of the gospel of Jesus Christ in the totality of their lives.”3 If that what it means to be a scholar, so be it.
As always, I invite you to disagree, to make your comments in the margins of the book, and even send me an email (which I will answer) if you have a particular axe to grind. Allow me to rephrase the saying that begins this preface: “Older at just the right time and the place to begin to understand some of the undergirding truths of existence that I feel confident enough to share with you, not in the spirit of judgment or superiority, but with the keen awareness that we are all in this thing together and are meant to help each other in whatever ways we can.” Of course, I continue to work on incorporating the wisdom truths into my daily living and in my working with congregations.
You will notice that I have listed the Scripture references under the heading of “The Biblical Witness.” I could have titled the sections “Biblical Wisdom.” I much prefer this to the talk about biblical principles, the Bible as rules for life or our answer book. Rules and answers sound too much like quick-fixes and easy solutions. If the Bible is basically one of principles, rules, and answers it amazes me how diverse are the principles, rules, and answers that sincere seekers find there. The real problem is once these are “discovered,” it is simply a matter of imposing them on everyone else.
“The Bible says it, I believe it, that settles it” often works itself out in dogmatism, isolationism, judgmentalism, and, at its worst, terrorism. Defenders of the Bible always view themselves as defenders of the truth and, ultimately, as defenders of God. They almost never see themselves as defenders of their particular interpretations of Scripture.
The history of biblical interpretation brings the realization that the same texts have been seen in different ways. We continue to overlook how the prevailing culture affects biblical interpretation. Our own Civil War found sincere ministers preaching texts that plainly defended slavery. Few today would use those texts in defense of the owning and subjugating of any race. Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin questioned the prevalent idea about the self-interpreting power of the Bible.4
Galileo, often called the “father of modern physics,” did not enjoy such acclaim during his lifetime. A literal reading of the Bible tells us that the sun moves, not the earth (Psalm 93:1; 96:10; 104:5; 1 Chronicles 16:30b; Ecclesiastes 1:4-5). The earth is seen in all places as the center of the “universe.” To suggest the movement of the earth around the sun was biblical heresy. In 1632, Galileo published (with papal permission) Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems, but was ordered to stand trial for heresy in 1633. He was convicted and spent the remainder of his life under house arrest. It was 359 years before injustice was acknowledged. “In 1758, the general prohibition against heliocentrism was removed.On October 31, 1992, Pope John Paul II expressed regret for how the Galileo affair had been handled.”5
Our revised interpretations acknowledge both the cultural context of earlier interpretations as well as the cultural context of the biblical writings. The creation account in Genesis is unique among such early accounts. In contrast to warring self-centered gods who create for their benefit, Genesis proclaims the covenant making God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob to be the author of all that is. And it is pronounced good. There is no concern about the how of creation; the focus is on the Who of creation. In regards to slavery, the New Testament world is not about the importation and dehumanization of one particular race. Slavery cut across all races and was the result of many circumstances. Some estimates put the number of slaves in ancient Rome at seventy percent. Many of these slaves were highly educated with varying levels of responsibility. The New Testament writers did not want the new Way in Jesus Christ to be viewed as a revolutionary movement. The biblical admonitions are calls to live exemplary, redemptive lives in order to further the witness of the gospel. Nowhere does any passage address the kind of slavery that reared its ugly head in early American history.
How did we come to change our minds about what the texts (about slavery) actually said? What caused our churches to change course? Somehow, I think it has something to do with affirming the primacy of Jesus Christ as God’s Word over and against any word or selection of words as “the Word.”6
The one who said, “You will know the truth and the truth will make you free,” also said, “I am the truth.” What does it mean that truth is a person? What does it mean when we are told that the Word became flesh and dwelt among us? That the Word is first all of a person before it is a book? That we are called to acknowledge the living Word that comes before the written Word? My principle for biblical interpretation is that we interpret all Scripture by the highest revelation we have, Jesus Christ. This is what the book of Hebrews is all about. The highest and clearest revelation of who God is and what he expects from us is most clearly revealed in his Son. It doesn’t solve all the problems of many perplexing passages of Scripture but it lets us know where to begin.
1 Tad Tuleja, Quirky Quotations (New York: Galahad Books, 1992), 172.
2 Rick Fields, Chop Wood Carry Water (Los Angeles: Jeremy P. Tarcher, 1984), 21.
3 Ronald E. Vallet, Stewards of the Gospel (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans, 2011), 3.
4 Ibid, 58.
5 Ibid, 77.
6 Ibid, 63.
Introduction
Why Do We Continue to Spend So Much Time Rearranging the Deck Chairs?
The Biblical Witness:
Then the Lord said to Moses, “Why do you cry out to me? Tell the Israelites to go forward.” (Exodus 14:15).
This day I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live…. (Deuteronomy 30:19, NLT)
1 Contemporary Observations:Repair in the road is no longer helpful if we are headed in the wrong direction.7Resistance to change is a consistent reality in congregations.8Tacoma, age 9, in a letter to her Pastor: “I think more people would come to church if you moved it to Disneyland.”9
2 Living on the Basis of What IsThe title for this introduction comes from a popular adage (some have called it a parable) based on the sinking of the Titanic on April 15, 1912, after striking an iceberg at 11:40 p.m. the night before. Walter Lord’s A Night to Remember (1955) remains the definitive work that would have been almost unbelievable if he had written it as a
