Christ, the Word of God, will lead and guide you deeper into God’s way through the Scriptures (but you’ll have to open the Bible to get that going!)
Pr. Joseph G. Crippen
The feast of St. Luke, Evangelist
Texts: Luke 1:1-4, 24:44-53
Beloved in Christ, grace to you, and peace in the name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen
How do you know that you understand God’s will and God’s ways?
More to the point: how do we know we’re interpreting Scripture correctly as we look at the world today and our role in it, and hear such divergent views from people who all call themselves Christian?
Many of us remember a time when disagreement between Christians was chiefly about doctrinal questions. Catholics arguing with Lutherans over the Eucharist, debates between Christians about the atonement, even denominational splits over questions of justification or other theologies.
But in recent years, certainly on the questions surrounding human sexuality, but now in this past decade over a vast number of things, our differences with other Christians seem more centered on how we live in the world. The despair we feel is profound, when we hear Christians trumpeting hate speech, advocating vigilante attacks on women, cheering on government agents who, without proper legal procedure or process, brutally snatch neighbors from the streets, even kill them. And the bloodthirstiness of Christians supporting war and violence against other nations and against our own citizens based on their theological positions. Disagreeing over a doctrine of faith seems like a pleasant diversion in comparison.
But how do we know we’re right? Can you be confident that your sense of God’s justice and mercy for all people, your abhorrence of so much Christian rhetoric heard in these days, is true to Scripture? Christians with whom we profoundly disagree also argue they’re following Scripture.
What Luke would tell you is simple. Do your homework.
Luke is unique among the Evangelists in giving a purpose statement for his writing.
In the first four verses of his Gospel, Luke says his intent was to write a “well-ordered account” for his friend Theophilus, so he might understand with certainty the words “in which [he had] been instructed.”
Luke’s writing this not for someone who hasn’t heard but for a believer already instructed in the faith who needs to deepen their understanding. And since the name “Theophilus” could mean an actual person Luke knows, or mean what it says, “lover of God,” Luke is writing to you and to me today.
We’ve been instructed in the faith. You know the basics of God’s story, from the Hebrew people through Jesus and the early Church. But Luke believes we’re never done learning. A firmer grasp, a deeper certainty, is always the goal. So as we question our understanding about the way we are called to be Christ in the world, Luke says, “Dig deeper and keep learning.” And let’s assume Luke won’t be offended if we extend the deeper dig into the whole of the Bible.
Because the written Word of God comprises many more books than just Luke’s two.
I heard Biblical scholar Elizabeth Achtemeier once say at a conference that Christians are unique among any who study the books of what we call Scripture. We’re the only ones, she said, who call it all “a Bible.” We don’t see 66 separate books. We say we have just one book holding all within.
So we don’t read Jeremiah solely in his context. We read Jeremiah while talking with the apostle Paul. We read 1 Samuel with Jesus’ words in our minds and heart. Scripture speaks to Scripture That’s a key part of how we deepen our understanding.
This means we don’t take one verse and build our whole theology and way of life off of it. We read each verse, each chapter, in dialog with the whole of Scripture, from Genesis to Revelation. If parts seem to confuse, or live in conflict with each other, we hold that in tension. I’ve lived in some of those tensions for years before receiving God’s insight on what they might mean.
This also means that since Scripture points primarily to God’s work in Christ and what that means for the world, we read all Scripture in the presence of the risen Christ. If there seem to be conflicts of ideas or confusing things in Scripture, it is Christ who will resolve them. However anyone understands what the Triune God is doing in Jesus, the Christ, shapes how they read everything else.
Here’s an example. When we read of Joshua’s conquest of Canaan and the genocide and total war waged by God’s people, claiming God’s command, we are shocked and horrified. Because Christ Jesus whom we know and love has taught us that God’s way is peacemaking, love of enemies, forgiving of persecuters, because of the risen Christ and his teachings, we have to say Joshua’s genocide wasn’t God’s will.
But all of this assumes you and I are actually reading the Bible regularly.
Interpreting difficult passages, understanding more deeply what God is saying in Scripture is hard enough. To do that without reading those Scriptures makes it impossible.
One of the greatest gifts Martin Luther gave the Western Church is the demand to translate Scripture into the vernacular, so that everyone who could read could read the Bible. He wanted Heinrich and Hildegard to be able to do what Luke wanted Theophilus to do: deepen their understanding of God’s Word.
But having a Bible in German makes no difference if Hildegard and Heinrich never pick it up and read it. You and I have the blessing of multiple English translations of Scripture. There are good study Bibles available. Nothing keeps any of us from having a deep familiarity with God’s written word. You can read alone, or study with members of your faith community, and learn and deepen. But to do that, you have to actually open your Bible and read. Often.
And when you do, it is the true Word of God, Christ Jesus, who will guide you.
That’s the second gift Luke gives you today.
Luke says that in the forty days after Jesus rose from the dead until he ascended, he “opened” his followers’ “minds to understand the Scriptures.” So, the risen Christ shapes your reading of Scripture by word and example, as we considered with Joshua. The more you understand Christ’s teaching, his call to love God and neighbor, his self-giving, sacrificial love for you and the universe, and let that shape how you read, the more the Scriptures make sense to you, from beginning to end. Trust me, it’s an amazing thing to discover and learn.
But even more, it is Christ’s Spirit in you that opens your mind to understand the Scriptures, as Luke says, to see how God’s written Word shapes and guides you. It is Christ who deepens your understanding, firms up your grasp of God’s good will. Trust that. Let that be both your promise and your prayer.
And there is a point to all this, Luke says.
Jesus opened their minds to Scripture so that those women and men who followed him would become witnesses to what God is doing. When you know the heart of Christ, are shaped by it through your reading of Scripture, from the prophets’ calls to living lives of justice and mercy to Jesus’ command to care for your neighbor as if you were caring for him, whether hungry, thirsty, naked, sick, in prison, or a stranger, your life becomes a witness to God’s love in Christ. You live in that justice, in that mercy, in that grace to all in need.
That’s how you can be confident you’re reading Scripture aright. When you more and more are shaped by the Spirit into the love of God for all people and for the creation that you read and find over and over in Scripture. When your heart is changed into one that forgives, one that seeks reconciliation, one that is willing to lose for the sake of another, you can be more and more confident that your path is the path Christ has set before you.
And with God’s help, you will witness by your life and love to all who know you, just as Jesus wants.
In the name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen
