What is the Bible For?
Rev. Alison Longstaff, July 4th, 2010
Church of the Good Shepherd
Adapted from a paper for Inese Radzins, STHS-3780.SP09, TCR
Written May 21, 2009, adapted July1, 2010
Psalm 30; John 1: 1-5; TCR 235
I’m guessing that not a few of us have wished in exasperation that the Bible wasn’t quite so odd and archaic. It can be very hard to explain to the unchurched what (if any) value it has, let alone what value there might be in spending precious time reading it. Especially in this scientific day and age, when the mystical side of life is routinely dismissed and devalued, it can be hard to explain what value lies in the Bible at all.
What is the Bible for? We can say it is God’s Word. We can say it is God’s travel guide for this paradoxical life, but do we really know how and in what way the Bible serves its purpose, more than providing a basis for weekly morality lessons? In Swedenborgian circles, we believe it has an internal meaning, but does that really change how much time the average person spends reading it? What, exactly, is the Bible for?
The Bible, the Word of God, the Sacred Scriptures---these are some of the names of this ancient collection of stories which have been cobbled together and edited and re-edited over the centuries. Even Christians can’t agree what books really belong in the Bible nor into what order they should be sorted. All Christians will agree that this thing that we call the Bible is sacred. However, how we hold it as sacred is another problem altogether. Increasingly, Christians today seem to be going one of two ways with this holy collection of books---either we view the written words as entirely infallibly literally true, or we supposedly “pick and choose”: ignoring the boring, distasteful, and puzzling parts while digging deep into the rich old stories and parables.
Since this congregation and denomination do not fall into the literalist camp, we tend toward the second option. Truth be told, I believe we have found a third way, but more on that some other day. Regardless, whole chunks of the Bible are almost never read by anyone anymore, except by the most devout readers or advanced Biblical scholars.
Looking at some of these ignored sections, it is small wonder!
Genesis 5: 18-24 And Jared lived an hundred sixty and two years, and he begat Enoch: And Jared lived after he begat Enoch eight hundred years, and begat sons and daughters: And all the days of Jared were nine hundred sixty and two years: and he died. And Enoch lived sixty and five years, and begat Methuselah: And Enoch walked with God after he begat Methuselah three hundred years, and begat sons and daughters: And all the days of Enoch were three hundred sixty and five years: And Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him.
Cue the crickets.
But the thing is, this is great stuff! How do I know? Well ... experience.
Okay. Think of someone you know and love well, someone whose outward appearance isn’t up to Hollywood’s standards, but whose inner character delights you. Let’s call this person “Cory” since that could be male or female. When you speak of Cory, you might say, “Oh, he’s awesome!” or “I love her. She’s so great!” Because of this, a friend meeting Cory for the first time might expect to meet someone with greatness tattooed on the forehead. Instead, surprised to find Cory ordinary or even eccentric in appearance might make them wonder what you were so excited about.
Or perhaps you yourself, after hearing glowing reports about some great person (we’ll call this person “Pat”) feel mystified by Pat’s unremarkable or even odd outward appearance. “This is Pat?” you might say inside yourself. “THE “Pat?” Really?”
Hasn’t this happened to you? The reality is that all of us, until we know the insides of a person, tend to judge by the outsides. First impressions are rarely the same as last impressions. But once we do know a person’s insides, we tend to forget the outsides, instead seeing their whole selves through the eyes of love.
So believe me, the same way that we can learn to love a human friend who comes in unusual physical packaging, we can learn to love the Word. The Sacred Scripture, much of it written over 2000 years ago, does indeed come in strange packaging. But to love it, we must get past appearances. We must get to know the magical, life-giving soul within its unusual packaging. How do we do this? The same way we do with any new friend. We spend time with it and we learn about it. So, meet the Bible:
Leviticus 14:34-40 When ye be come into the land of Canaan, which I give to you for a possession, and I put the plague of leprosy in a house of the land of your possession; And he that owneth the house shall come and tell the priest, saying, “It seemeth to me there is as it were a plague in the house:” Then the priest shall command that they empty the house, before the priest go into it to see the plague, that all that is in the house be not made unclean : and afterward the priest shall go in to see the house: And he shall look on the plague, and, behold, if the plague be in the walls of the house with hollow strakes, greenish or reddish, which in sight are lower than the wall; Then the priest shall go out of the house to the door of the house, and shut up the house seven days: And the priest shall come again the seventh day, and shall look : and, behold, if the plague be spread in the walls of the house; Then the priest shall command that they take away the stones in which the plague is, and they shall cast them into an unclean place without the city:
Yup. Laws about leprosy in a house. Try preaching a sermon on that! (Actually, Swedenborgians have all sorts of resources that allow us to preach a fascinating sermon on that. Hint: it is about healthy and unhealthy structural elements in a person’s belief system, and about how to determine if the crumbling and weakening is simply evidence of surface problems that can be renovated or a sign that the whole house---attitude, outlook, interpretation---is unstable and unfit and needs to come down. Cool, eh?)
But back to my point, it takes practice and education to learn to see through the strangeness in the Bible, but it is well worth the time it may take!
Now, tell the truth, how many of you have a habit of reading the Bible (almost) every day?
How many have ever read the entire thing, cover to cover?
If you do or have done either of these, pat yourself on the back! You have done a good thing, according to Swedenborg. If you haven’t, don’t worry yourself, you are in good company. We all have many things we are dealing with, and most of us have not realised just what encountering these sacred texts, either through listening to or reading them ourselves, can actually do for our souls. But not just for our own souls, when anyone reads the Sacred Scriptures, whether they know the internal sense or not, they contribute to the well-being of all of heaven. I repeat, when anyone reads any part of the Sacred Scriptures, whether they know the internal meaning or not, they contribute to the well-being of all of heaven.
So says Swedenborg, anyway:
I have been allowed to perceive that when I read the Word in its earthly meaning, communication is established with the heavens, at one time with one community, at another time with another. The words which I understand in their earthly meaning are understood by the spiritual angels in their spiritual meaning and by the celestial (highest) angels in their celestial meaning, and this instantaneously. I have observed and felt this communication some thousands of times. These direct experiences have shown me that the Word in its earthly meaning provides a marvelous way of being closer to the Lord and connected with the angels in heaven. True Christianity §235
It’s as simple as that. Simply reading the Word connects our spirits with heaven and invites the Lord to come closer. Memorizing parts or verses can actually give us spiritual touchstones or amulets of comfort which we can pull out of our memories and recite to ourselves in the midst of hard times. And if we are so lucky as to have time to really learn some of the correspondences in the Word in detail, we can begin to unearth revelations upon revelations of meaning. It’s really cool! Light shines even onto the dark and mystical stories of the Apocalypse, transforming those threatening tales into a love story of tremendous beauty. Even in the Apocalypse, behind the dire prophecies, we find the story of the Lord as the Lover and Bridegroom, and each one of us as the beloved or bride. God woos us, and we respond. God, like a prince or knight in an ancient fairy tale comes to rescue us, from monsters, beasts, and seven-headed dragons. The process of getting to our happy ending---which is heaven, which is a state of true happiness based on true personal integrity and loving-kindness---can feel pretty dire and hopeless sometimes. This is represented in the book of Revelation by all the frightening drama and prophecies of doom. But it is the story of how human life tends to go, not how it will go at some time in the future. We are already living through these dramatic events in our personal lives. This is God’s word of comfort saying, “I see that it will sometimes feel like the sky is falling, but you will be okay. I know that it will sometimes look like your every hope for the future is going to be devoured by dark circumstances beyond your control, but fear not! There is no reality or power outside of my love; and all of the drama will be transformed into peace, welcome, safety, and home. Just hang in there. Trust me.”
I need to wrap this up. There is so much more to say! But I close today’s message by saying again: Swedenborg tells us that whether we understand correspondences or not, simply reading the Sacred Scriptures for ourselves or listening to someone else read them feeds our souls. It provides a connection with God, and nourishes the angels in heaven. Even if we are reading a long list of who begat who, or a list of building materials in cubits, or what to do with a stray ox on the Sabbath, every word---every verb, every noun---contains deep spiritual gems that nourish the angels and connect us all with God. We don’t have to know what vitamins and minerals are in each bite of food for it to be able to nourish our bodies, and Swedenborg is telling us that we don’t have to understand the spiritual sense of the Word for it to be feeding our spirits.
If you aren’t in the habit, consider starting a small practice of tossing a crumb or two to the angels each day. Each verse is associated with a different society in heaven, so even if you spend time with only one verse, the connection is happening and joy is being communicated.
In some magical way, the Bible is the very presence of God with us. It is a lifeline of communication with all the spirits of heaven. Yet it is cloaked in a mystical, magical packaging of ancient stories, so humble and plain as to appear to the uneducated eye as uninteresting as a common stable. The stories can be appealing, like the sweet smell of hay, as warm as the collective heat of stable animals, or as off-putting and distasteful as the by-products of those animals. All the while it is the Word of God and God with us. How paradoxical.
Come, spend more time in that stable, it is where God is born in you.
I promise you, if you take the time to really get to know this remarkable book, you will find your life transforming and healing in subtle, remarkable ways.
So, what is the Bible for? Why don’t you tell me in a few months? I’d like to hear how it goes.
Psalm 30
1 I will extol you, O Lord, for you have drawn me up, and did not let my foes rejoice over me. 2 O Lord my God, I cried to you for help, and you have healed me. 3 O Lord, you brought up my soul from Sheol, restored me to life from among those gone down to the Pit. 4 Sing praises to the Lord, O you his faithful ones, and give thanks to his holy name. 5 For his anger is but for a moment; his favor is for a lifetime. Weeping may linger for the night, but joy comes with the morning. 6 As for me, I said in my prosperity, "I shall never be moved." 7 By your favor, O Lord, you had established me as a strong mountain; you hid your face; I was dismayed. 8 To you, O Lord, I cried, and to the Lord I made supplication: 9 "What profit is there in my death, if I go down to the Pit? Will the dust praise you? Will it tell of your faithfulness? 10 Hear, O Lord, and be gracious to me! O Lord, be my helper!" 11 You have turned my mourning into dancing; you have taken off my sackcloth and clothed me with joy, 12 so that my soul may praise you and not be silent. O Lord my God, I will give thanks to you forever.
John 1:1-5
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. 4 In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. 5 And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.
True Christianity §235 "I have been allowed to perceive that when I read the Word in its earthly meaning, communication with the heavens is established, at one time with one community there, at another time with another. The words which I understand in their earthly sense are understood by the spiritual angels in their spiritual sense, and by the celestial angels in their celestial sense, and this too upon the instant. Since I have perceived this communication some thousands of times, I have no doubt left concerning it. These direct experiences have enabled me to know that the Word in its earthly meaning provides a Divine means of being connected with the Lord and associated with the angels in heaven."
