WHAT ARE WE DOING HERE?
Part 2: Understanding the Bible

Dr. Richard J. Henderson May 15, 2005

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II Timothy 3:14-17
Acts 2:1-21

Introduction

We continue our series today on the meanings of worship. Last week we talked about worship being for God and looked at the paradox that when we truly worship God, our own lives are enriched. Today we look at a crucial part of worship: the scriptures and how we interpret them in worship.

There are different ways to approach understanding the Bible. Each approach can be helpful, and each has drawbacks and dangers. Because the Bible is at the heart of our faith, it's important how we understand it. It can easily be misunderstood. Like the young child who was asked to draw a picture of the nativity in her Sunday school class. When she was done, she showed it to her teacher. She had Mary, Joseph, and baby Jesus in the manger, and an obese man standing beside them. The teacher asked who the big man was. "Oh, that's Round John Virgin."

I would like you to think with me about the Bible and the best way we can learn from it in worship.

I

One way to understand the Bible is to take a topic, then, go through the Bible and pull out verses that relate to that theme. For example, we might choose the topic of concern for the poor. By searching all of the verses that relate to concern for the poor, we quickly see that it is a major theme. The Old Testament teaches concern for the poor from begin to end. In the New Testament, we find it in the teaching of Jesus and the practice of early Christian church. There's been a lot of talk recently about values, especially Christian moral values, and it is clear that concern for poor people is a major Christian value, and yet virtually nothing has been said about the issue of poverty.

The strength of the topical approach to the Bible is that it demonstrates the breadth of the Bible's teaching.

II

The weakness of this approach is that verses can be taken out of context and used to say what they don't really mean. It's called "prooftexting" when you use a verse for proof in your argument. Sometimes in prooftexting, people use a verse even if it doesn't apply.

For example, we could take the theme "Hate" and look up all the verses with the word in it. In doing that we can understand the different ways in which the Bible deals with the issue of hate.

But if we are trying to build a case one way or another about hate, we may use some of those verses, but leave out ones that don't say what we want, or say the opposite of what we want.

In The Purpose Driven Life, Rick Warren uses this topical method. In fact, his book has eight pages of footnotes, almost all of them Bible references (from fifteen different translations or paraphrases). As I read the book, I checked most of the footnotes. Sometimes the reference didn't apply to the point he was making when you read that verse in its context. In one instance he said, "God says..." and then the quotation was from Paul's writing to the Philippians. I'm sure Paul would be flattered, but Paul of all people knew he wasn't God.

Prooftexting is dangerous, because it can be misused. I could easily preach a sermon on why slavery is acceptable and moral according to the Bible! By carefully picking quotations from the Old Testament and New Testament, I could make the case for slavery.

Obviously, it isn't morally acceptable to the Bible, but by picking verses and by using verses out of context it can sound like it is.

Another danger is that people take a short verse and use it to say far more than it really says. They add meaning that isn't there. When I was a young man, I heard a pastor preach a whole sermon on the sin of women wearing men's clothing! He had a passage from the Bible, but he made it say what he wanted it to say.

II

Another way to understand the Bible in worship is to read an extended passage, understand it in depth, and then apply that passage to our lives today. With this method, we see the richness of the text beyond what a short verse says. Here the text is studied in context, and its meaning applied to life.

For example, look at the scripture we read today about the Pentecost experiences. There are dozens of things we can learn from this passage, but let's just take one example. The passage tells us that in this experience people gathered from all over the known world. Luke is careful to list where they came from: Parthian, Medes...everywhere. Then an amazing thing happens - people who speak all different languages hear the disciples speaking in their own native tongue. All the people with different languages hear in their own language.

Thinking about this, we remember the Tower of Babel in Old Testament. Proud people were trying to build a tower to heaven to get to God. God sees this and stops them by giving them all different languages. Work stops and people are driven apart because they can't talk to each other anymore. God confuses their language.

At Pentecost God does just the opposite. People with foreign languages all hear disciples in their own language. At Pentecost God brings people together to understand each other and to be united. Part of what Pentecost means is understanding and people being united. Divisions are taken away at the birth of the church. By looking at a passage in depth, we find a richness of meaning that can't be found by pulling out a verse here and there.

IV

Another important point in understanding scripture in worship is that we need to hear what Jesus said, but also pay attention to what he did. Much of what we learn about our faith comes from what Jesus did in his life. Jesus not only taught us, he showed us.

Last Sunday, we read about the woman at the well. Jesus rests by a well while the disciples go into town for supplies. A woman comes to the well and she and Jesus talk. That certainly doesn't seem like any big deal to us. In Jesus day, it was a radical action. Women weren't allowed to speak to a man. The rules were very clear, and everybody knew it. This passage says, the disciples "were astonished that he was speaking with a woman, but no one said, 'why are you speaking with her.'" Jesus even shocks his disciples.

Jesus saw her as a person, not as someone's property, not as an object, but as a person of value. Interestingly, she goes from there to become a preacher - she tells everyone what Jesus has said to her.

Jesus didn't say women are equal and important and valuable - but then again he showed us in how he acted and how he treated women. Remember, in the account of Martha and Mary, Mary sits at Jesus feet while he teaches, and Martha works preparing food? Women were never allowed to sit at the feet of a rabbi and learn. It was forbidden, but Jesus allowed it...for a reason.

We learn our faith not just from Jesus' words, but from Jesus' actions as well.

Conclusion

A critical part of our worship is scripture. It makes a difference how we approach the Bible. It's important that we hear the gospel in context and that we plumb the depths of its meaning. We also hear the Bible as well as see what it is telling us.

Amen.

©Richard J. Henderson 2005