Before the world was coming to its end in the year 2000, remember when it was quite commonplace to see someone holding a big sign in the football stadium forthrightly proclaiming “JOHN 3:16”? Most folk could easily fill in the blank beginning with…for God so loved the world…etc. The real implication was that if you did not know Jesus, it’s adios!
The whole idea of the bible is derived from the Greek word for books, and it is full of many “books”. Books are divided into chapters, and chapters into verses. Regard for this book of books varies from the die-hard “The Bible says it; I believe it; case closed” to “who thought up this unbelievable stuff”?
To contribute to the confusion, I thought it might be somewhat ungodly to give it a go here in the blogosphere and to write like I was writing bible verses to add gravitas to these words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart. There’s no leather cover or golden edges, and I will not speak in red. We’ll call this book Stumbling Over Stardust…or SOS for short. [That’s the same for Song of Solomon, so don’t get confused]. This issue is the 28th one, so we will call this…
Stumbling Over Stardust, Chapter 28 ₁When I was a kid, bible verses were the cat’s meow in Sunday School. ₂We had to memorize them and then use them to answer the roll call. Of course, everybody’s favorite verse was “Jesus wept.” ₃It was so memorable. First one called used that one, and the rest of us scrambled for the favorite leftovers.
₄I threw a kink in the system one Presbyterian sabbath morning by quoting some obscure ditty from the KJV: “Let love be without dissimulation, abhor that which is evil; cleave to that which is good.” [Romans 12:9] ₅A silent pall fell over the class; they were either mystified, mortified or horrified that I had dare use an unknown five-syllable word from scripture along with verbs like “abhor” and “cleave” in order to account from my presence.
₆Using any other version of the bible was frowned upon, but had I been able to I could have quoted from the RSV – “Let love be genuine; hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good” – but it would have been far less confounding and mysterious.
₇Holy writ has been so overly misused that’s it’s hard to remember what the writers’ had in mind to begin with. ₈Some Presbyterians thought and taught that God Himself [or Herself…that’s another chapter] wrote these words while holy men sedated by the spirit were mere conduits for these final scripture verses. ₉Having grown up as a naive Sunday schooler who blindly learned so many verses “by heart”, I was blown away when I took a college course utilizing the form critical method of understanding scriptures and translated this stuff from the original languages in seminary.
₁₀When all of the convictions and confinements of the Bible were put in their proper places, this book of books became at last the Good Book I had imagined and worshiped. ₁₁It’s quite a relief not to have to speak in verses or live by John 3:16 alone. ₁₂And I’m free to understand that the ordinary men and women who wrote all those books and chapters and verses were ordinary people whose lives were committed to making sure these old, old stories kept going through ordinary people like us.
You can take my word for it: this isn’t necessarily the word of God. Thanks be to God.