Is the Bible an Instruction Manual?
Service of Worship
Eastern Parkway United Methodist
Church
September 5, 2021
Rev. Natalie Bowerman, Pastor
Prelude
Greeting
and Announcements
Mission
Statement: We are a faith community striving to be, to nurture, and to send
forth disciples of Jesus Christ.
Call to
worship
We can trust God.
God is like the mountain: rock solid.
God loves all the people:
the poor, the disabled, the outcast, the stranger.
We can depend on God.
God feeds the hungry, heals the sick,
and restores relationships.
Praise our Loving God.
Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah.
Hymn 592:
When the Church of Jesus
When the
Church of Jesus
Shuts its
outer door,
Lest the
roar of traffic
Drown the
voice of prayer:
May our
prayers, Lord, make us
Ten times
more aware
That the world
we banish
Is our
Christian care.
If our
hearts are lifted
Where
devotion soars
High above
this hungry
Suffering
world of ours:
Lest our
hymns should drug us
To forget
its needs,
Forge our
Christian worship
Into
Christian deeds.
Lest the
gifts we offer,
Money,
talents, time,
Serve to
salve our conscience
To our
secret shame:
Lord,
reprove, inspire us
By the way
you give;
Teach us,
dying Savior,
How true
Christians live.
Prayer of
Confession
Love Divine, we confess that staying faithful to you feels so hard
some days. We want to understand your great plans for us and this world, and we
don’t always know where to turn, or how to interpret what you’ve given us. Help
us to see your Word, read your Word, and feel your Word all around us. Amen.
Assurance
Hear the Good News:
Jesus is our Rabbi, our most Faithful Teacher, and he will never give up on
reaching us with his Truth. Abide in his love, and in him. Amen.
Matthew 5: 17-20
17 “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets;
I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. 18 For
truly I tell you, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter,
not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until
everything is accomplished. 19 Therefore anyone who
sets aside one of the least of these commands and teaches others
accordingly will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever
practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of
heaven. 20 For I tell you that unless your
righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you
will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.
A Message
“The Bible as Instruction Manual”
When I was in
college my chaplain told me a story about a man who was really struggling. He
had to make a huge decision and he had no idea what to do. But he was a
faithful man, and he loved to read the Bible. He’d been taught in Sunday School
since he was very young that if he was having a hard time all he had to do was
open up his Bible and read, and the answers would come to him. So he decided,
Here goes, I’m just going to open up my Bible, and whatever it says, that’s
what I’m going to do.
The first verse he
landed on was from the book of Genesis, chapter 9, verse 21: “And then Noah
drank a bunch of wine, got really drunk, and passed out naked in his tent.”
The man flipped to
another page, hoping the next verse would explain the first and make the way
forward clear. He came to the Gospel according to Luke, chapter 10, verse 37b: “Go
thou and do likewise.”
Is this a
responsible way to read scripture? To take it so literally as a road map for a
life well lived that all we have to do is crack the Bible open, read it, and do
what it says? That’s precisely the topic of today’s sermon, this next
installment of “Stump the Preacher 2021”, a topic requested this time by our friend
David. More specifically, David asked: Is the Bible an instruction manual for
Christians? Is it a book that goes beyond general mores and attitudes about the
world and God’s people and, indeed, directs our every move and decision? Is the
Bible our number one source of day to day advice, a collection of answers to
every one of life’s questions? What does the Bible itself say about that? What
does the United Methodist Church teach about that? What did Jesus teach about
that? If we go with that perspective on the Bible what do we gain in our faith
life? What might the people around us, who witness our faith, stand to gain
from that perspective? And…what do we stand to lose if we read the Bible that
way?
Unlike some of the
other “Stump the Preacher” topics from this season, I didn’t go into this
sermon automatically knowing which verses of scripture I’d use. I had so many
to choose from, so many that might shed light on this topic, that I didn’t know
where to start. The first place my heart went to was Psalm 119: 105, which says
“Your Word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path.” Words that certainly
convey that the Bible empowers the decisions and choices we make in this life,
but that don’t necessarily teach that that Bible tells you what shirt you should
wear today or what you should eat for breakfast. But then my brain drifted over
to the Pentateuch, to the books that lay out the Law of Moses, books that delineated
extremely specific rules for living, including what you should wear and eat. Leviticus
19: 19 says “Keep my decrees. Do not mate different kinds of animals. Do not
plant your field with two kinds of seed. Do not wear clothing woven of two
kinds of material.” But if we want to read the Bible this way, in the way that
it tells us every single step we take is subject to scriptural support, the
problems are obvious. I mean, unless you’re up to some really weird stuff at a
farm I’m guessing you’re good with the animal mating bit. But how many of you
gardening enthusiasts can say you use your whole yard for just one plant? And
how many of you can swear you’ve never worn anything that was polyester-cotton
blend? If the Bible dictates every single rule for living, then we’re all
breaking the rules every single day. And that could induce more than enough
guilt if we were just talking about those polyester-cotton blend socks I wore
yesterday. But when we get into the deeper questions of life, questions that
get our blood pressure up, questions for which we don’t all agree on the
answers, then there’s a ton at stake if the Bible is interpreted through the
narrow lens of “instruction manual”. What about my sister who got divorced? What
about my friend who’s gay? What about my classmate who needed an abortion? If
we have an instruction manual, and the manual says they broke a rule, then how
do we make space for them at the Table?
Despite the pitfalls,
the idea that the Bible in our handbook that tells us how to live each day is a
popular one, and one that brings people tremendous comfort. It wasn’t hard to
find material from our friends in the faith who think this way. The picture
that I put on the front of this week’s bulletin captures that belief system the
best, and breaks down the word “Bible” as if it’s an acronym:
Basic
Instructions
Before
Leaving
Earth
I intentionally put
a viewpoint right on the cover of the bulletin that I don’t completely agree
with for a few reasons. We could learn a lot from people we disagree with. When
we sit with another person’s perspective we learn a lot about why we believe
what we do, and we walk away stronger in our own faith. Standing in another
person’s shoes is also the only way we learn empathy, and if we don’t learn empathy
then we can’t possibly understand our neighbors enough to be the hands and feet
of Christ for them. And even though “basic instructions before leaving earth”
sounds awfully corny in my ear, I admit I walked around for years wearing a
locket that had a picture of a frog in it, because a Sunday School teacher
taught me that “frog” stands for “forever rely on God”, and I liked that a lot
so I kept that message with me. Sometimes the simple, even the trite, can be
just what we need. Sometimes God serves up our faith with a side of cheese.
This perspective,
that the Bible is our life’s instruction manual, goes far beyond corny
evangelical memes. This is essentially the perspective that I was taught
growing up. My Sunday school teachers told me that there wasn’t a topic that
the Bible doesn’t address, no matter what was going on I could find an answer
in scripture. Moreover, when I got older my youth group leaders told me to
start with the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 5-7. They said, memorize those chapter
numbers, you’ll find it all there. Though I no longer completely agree with
that notion, it is indeed within the Sermon on the Mount that we’ll find advice
to address today’s question, and we’ll get to that in a minute.
This perspective is
espoused by lots of religious leaders, in churches both relatively local and
far away. Most significantly, though, and to give you some important history, this
perspective that the Bible is our life’s instruction manual was one of the most
strongly held beliefs of President Ronald Reagan, and whether you agree with
this idea or not it took deep root in our country’s cultural expression of traditional
Christian faith in large part because of him. In both of Reagan’s swearing-in
ceremonies, in 1981 and 1985, he took his oath of office with his right hand on
a King James translation of the Bible, one that was a beloved family heirloom
and that used to belong to his mother Nelle. In both ceremonies he has the
Bible open to 2 Chronicles 7: 14, which reads:
If my people, who
are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my
face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from
heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.[1]
The way that Reagan
brought faith out of the private sphere of the home and into the public sphere
of political discourse was still unprecedented in our Nation until his
administration. He based his campaign on bringing the country back to “traditional
values” and had few qualms about making his faith part of the conversation. Shortly
after his second inauguration in 1985, following his landslide election victory
and arguably at the height of his popularity and influence, Reagan said at a
press conference: “The Bible contains an answer for just about everything and
every problem that confronts us, and I wonder sometimes why we don’t recognize
the one book that could solve a lot of problems for us.”[2] I don’t completely agree,
I find this read of the Bible far too confining. But you can easily understand
how this perspective became so popular, and so comforting, after the President
of the United States voiced it, and at a time when the Cold War was finally
nearing an end and the economy was booming. It’s a recurrent note in the
symphony of our faith story: If it worked for us once, maybe it will work for
us forever.
Of all the many,
many scriptural verses that may have supported this week’s preacher-stumping
topic, the ones I actually went with are words of Jesus that come from the
Sermon on the Mount. These verses come right before Jesus starts quoting a
bunch of super familiar rules from the Pentateuch and turns them on their
heads: You have heard that it was said to those of ancient times “you shall not
murder”…But I say to you that if you are angry with a brother or sister, you
will be liable to judgment.[3] You have heard that it was
said, “you shall not commit adultery.” But I say to you that everyone who looks
at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart.[4] Anticipating the worry his
disciples would feel when they heard Jesus start cutting apart their laws,
Jesus started by assuring them that he didn’t come to abolish the Law, he came
to fulfill it. He wanted to teach us how to obey God better than we ever had. There
were two aspects of the Law that were the most important to Jesus: being a
loving teacher of the Law to others, and doing a better job of showing God’s
compassion to your neighbor than the legalistic and often hypocritical
Pharisees were doing. Like with a lot of questions we might ask Jesus, he doesn’t
answer this one, about whether we should read the Bible like an instruction
manual, directly. He says, yes and no. Every word of scripture is precious to
God, every word is vital, every word will be fulfilled. The Bible tells us how
to live, how to love, how to serve, and how to make choices that our Creator
wants us to make. In that sense, yes, the Bible reads a bit like an instruction
manual. The problem with that interpretation, that Jesus warns us about, happens
when we take such a close read of the Bible, looking to confirm its every word
in this world, that we fail to see the forest for the trees. If reading the
Bible like an instruction manual gives you over to strict biblical literalism,
and literalism gives you over to legalism, and legalism makes you pick apart
what in your own life and in the lives of others is “Christian” or “unchristian”,
you’re very seriously missing the entire point. Teach the Word with love for
one another, and act on the Word with compassion. Love God, and love your
neighbor. Those are the instructions. If you think because you’re so good at
memorizing rules that you never break them, think again, dear friend. None of
us perfectly obey the Manual. We’re all here reading these words just to try to
get a little closer to Jesus today.
A friend of mine
named JJ Warren tweeted a few months ago that he essentially rejects this idea
that the Bible is an instruction manual. Some of you may know JJ, or at least
his name. If you’ve been to Annual Conference session you’ve definitely heard
him approach the microphone. He made quite the splash when he addressed the
floor during the 2019 Special General Conference Session. And these days he’s
wrapping up his seminary studies at Boston U and hoping to get ordained by the
UMC. I really dig his perspective, and his voice is one you don’t need to necessarily
agree with, but you need to hear. He said this about the role the Bible should
have in our lives:
The Bible is a story
book, not an instruction manual.
Stories shape us,
but they’re not limited to one interpretation of how we ought to be shaped or
who we ought to be shaped into. Stories guide us, but they never force. Stories
inspire, manuals dictate.
Stories are powerful.[5]
Read the Bible in
this way, the way Jesus lovingly guided us toward. Read the Bible not so much
as an instruction manual but as an anthology of family stories, stories from
our Foremothers and Forefathers. Stories about people who loved God very much, and
wanted everyone else to see God’s love. Sometimes our ancestors in the Bible made
tremendous strides, experienced victories, and did amazing things that we
should celebrate and emulate. Sometimes our ancestors made horrible mistakes,
turned from God, and hurt one another. We should read with reverence and learn.
For its part, the
United Methodist Church has famously maintained that, as we make our choices in
this life, scripture is a primary source of wisdom, but it’s informed and
brought to life by reason, tradition, and experience. This is the best place
from which to approach those hard questions I brought up before. We should take
what we find in scripture very seriously, but then we should fill in our
perspective based on what’s worked for us in the past, how the Church has
approached things, and what our head and heart tell us. The answers still may
never be as clear as we’d like, but if you’re still stumped on what to do, go
with love. You’ll never stray from the will of Christ if you love.
So, what’s the
final answer here? Is the Bible a step by step rule book for how to be a good
Christian? Perhaps not. Can you find wisdom dripping like nectar from every
word contained within? Yes. But we won’t find it by reading haphazardly, like
the man from that story. You’ll find it by reading through the lens of Jesus,
teaching through the voice of love, and serving with a soul of compassion.
Go thou and do
likewise.
Amen.
Hymn 2152: Change My Heart, O God
Change my heart oh God
Make it ever true
Change my heart oh God
May I be like You
Change my heart oh
God
Make it ever true
Change my heart oh God
May I be like You
You are the potter
I am the clay
Mold me and make me
This is what I pray
Change my heart oh
God
Make it ever true
Change my heart oh God
May I be like You
Offering, doxology, and prayer of dedication
Time of Prayer and Lord’s Prayer
God of all work,
who created for six days and rested on the seventh, bless all who work to
create things of beauty and things of utility from the elements that you made
from nothing. Divine Redeemer, direct and teach all who repair and renew what
has been broken and what no longer works as it should. Bless those who care for
people who cannot care for themselves.
Healing Spirit, inspire
with loving wisdom those who counsel any who have lost their way and are
seeking new direction and are having trouble getting it all together.
Head of the church,
so enable your body to respond with fidelity to all that you command that your
work may proceed with little interruption and the goals you have set be
achieved in our community and our world, which is really yours.
Governor of
governors, bring a fuller measure of justice to our world, that the rights of
all may be protected, from childhood to old age, from the simplest worker to
the most responsible manager, male and female, all created in your image.
Free us from any
activity that is a detriment to ourselves and to others. Grant us all joy in
our work that we may have satisfaction in knowing that what we do makes a
difference for good, benefitting our common life.
God our Creator,
you have created people who go out to their work and to their labor until the
evening. We rejoice in both our vocation and our retirement. The rest at the
end of the day is sweeter after a day of good work. The retirement at the end
of years is satisfying when we can look back at what our work has helped to
accomplish.
We celebrate the
rest you have prepared for the people of God. We rejoice in the memory of those
who rest from their labor, and their good works follow them to heaven by your
gracious acceptance in Jesus Christ. May we not work for the food that
perishes, but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man
will give. So by your earthly sacraments prepare us for the heavenly rest,
through Jesus Christ, who finished his work, to whom with you and the Holy
spirit be all glory and praise, time without end. Amen.
Our Father, Mother,
Creator God, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy Kingdom come, thy
will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread,
and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who have trespassed against
us. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the
Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory forever. Amen.
The Lord’s Supper
The Lord be with
you.
And also with you.
Lift up your hearts. .
We lift them up to the Lord.
Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.
It is right to give our thanks and praise.
It is right, and a good
and joyful thing,
always and everywhere to give thanks to you,
Father Almighty (almighty God), creator of heaven and earth.
You formed us in your image and breathed into us the breath of life.
When we turned away, and our love failed, your love remained steadfast.
You delivered us from captivity, made covenant to be our sovereign God,
and spoke to us through your prophets, who looked for that day
when justice shall roll down like waters
and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream,
when nation shall not lift up sword against nation,
neither shall they learn war anymore.
And so, with your
people on earth and all the company of heaven
we praise your name and join their unending hymn:
Holy, holy, holy Lord, God of power and might,
heaven and earth are full of your glory. Hosanna in the highest.
Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest.
Holy are you, and
blessed is your Son Jesus Christ.
Your Spirit anointed him to preach good news to the poor,
to proclaim release to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind,
to set at liberty those who are oppressed,
and to announce that the time had come
when you would save your people.
He healed the sick, fed the hungry, and ate with sinners.
By the baptism of his suffering, death, and resurrection
you gave birth to your Church,
delivered us from slavery to sin and death,
and made with us a new covenant by water and the Spirit.
At his ascension you exalted him
to sit and reign with you at your right hand.
On the night in
which he gave himself up for us, he took bread,
gave thanks to you, broke the bread, gave it to his disciples, and said:
"Take, eat; this is my body which is given for you.
Do this in remembrance of me."
When the supper was
over he took the cup,
gave thanks to you, gave it to his disciples, and said:
"Drink from this, all of you; this is my blood of the new covenant,
poured out for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins.
Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me."
And so, in
remembrance of these your mighty acts in Jesus Christ,
we offer ourselves in praise and thanksgiving
as a holy and living sacrifice, in union with Christ's offering for us,
as we proclaim the mystery of faith.
Christ has died; Christ is risen; Christ will come again.
Pour out your Holy
Spirit on us gathered here,
and on these gifts of bread and wine.
Make them be for us the body and blood of Christ,
that we may be for the world the body of Christ, redeemed by his blood.
By your Spirit make
us one with Christ,
one with each other, and one in ministry to all the world,
until Christ comes in final victory, and we feast at his heavenly banquet.
Through your Son
Jesus Christ, with the Holy Spirit in your holy Church,
all honor and glory is yours, almighty Father (God), now and for ever.
Amen.
Hymn 581: Lord, Whose Love Through Humble Service
1 Lord, whose love
in humble service
bore the weight of human need,
who upon the cross, forsaken,
worked your mercy’s perfect deed:
we, your servants, bring the worship
not of voice alone, but heart;
consecrating to your purpose
ev’ry gift which you impart.
2 Still your children wander homeless;
still the hungry cry for bread;
still the captives long for freedom;
still in grief we mourn our dead.
As you, Lord, in deep compassion
healed the sick and freed the soul,
by your Spirit send your power
to our world to make it whole.
3 As we worship, grant us vision,
till your love’s revealing light
in its height and depth and greatness
dawns upon our quickened sight,
making known the needs and burdens
your compassion bids us bear,
stirring us to ardent service,
your abundant life to share.
4 Called by worship to your service,
forth in your dear name we go,
to the child, the youth, the aged,
love in living deeds to show;
hope and health, good will and comfort,
counsel, aid and peace we give,
that your servants, Lord, in freedom
may your mercy know and live.
Benediction
As you have been
fed, go to feed the hungry.
As you have been set free, go to set free the imprisoned.
As you have been received – give.
As you have heard – proclaim.
And the blessing which you have received
from the Creator, Christ, and Holy Spirit
be always with you. Amen.
Postlude
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