A Word from Pastor Lisa: The Bible
Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.
—Psalm 119:105 (NRSV)
I started reading the Bible after lying about it. In middle school, I went on a mission trip with friends. At the end of a long day, my friend Julia cracked open the Good Book.
“What are you doing?” I asked her.
“Reading my Bible,” she replied. “Don’t you?”
Truth was, I had never opened it outside of Sunday School. Not wanting to seem uncool, I lied: “Of course I do.” When I got home, I felt so guilty that I figured I’d better start reading it. So I turned my red Good News Bible to the first chapter in Matthew and plunged into the stories. I spent the next eight years carefully working through the rest of the Bible with the church and youth ministry as my guide.
Ever since then, I’ve been passionate about the stories of our faith and the ways they form us. When I was a youth intern in college, the students jokingly called me, “Bible girl.” In seminary, I learned enough Hebrew and Greek to be dangerous but not always helpful. I consider the exploration of Scripture for sermons, studies, and devotions to be one of the most sacred tasks of my week. I deeply love the stories of our faith.
While I’m a fan of the Bible, I also realize how dangerous our holy scriptures can be. The Bible is easily manipulated as a sword, bludgeon, or prop to justify behavior contrary to love of God and neighbor. This week I was appalled when police fired tear gas and rubber bullets on peaceful protestors in Washington, D.C., to make way for the president to walk over to St. John’s Church and hold a Bible for a photo op. As our beloved former pastor Rev. Dr. Phil Amerson tweeted, “Some use the Bible like a drunk uses a lamp post, more for support than for illumination.”
That photo with the Bible was all over my news feed, representing more about power and control than piety and justice. Even though I’m still angry, I’ve reflected more deeply on my own relationship to Scripture. For centuries, Scripture has been wielded by the church and by governments to support economic oppression, discrimination, racial inequality, violence, war, slavery, genocide, xenophobia, sexism, patriarchy, and most recently, homophobia. If I’m honest, as a white American woman of economic privilege, I have benefitted from many of these. I have received opportunities that were handed to me. I currently get a paycheck from a church in a denomination that uses Scripture as a prop to oppress people who are LGBTQIA+.
Before I join the outrage over misusing the Bible, I need to look first into my own life. I need to confess my complicity in the manipulation of Scripture in ways that benefit me. Most of all, I need to keep digging into the Word of God so that it might illuminate for me a more loving, more generous, and more just path for all people.
Questions for reflection:
What’s your relationship like with the Bible?
Why do you read it? Why do you avoid it?
How have you been oppressed by Scripture? How have you benefitted from its manipulation?
How do we read and understand God’s Word in such a way that it brings abundant life for all?