Whose Bible Is It?

I will never forget the Sunday morning I made the near fatal mistake of placing my Bible on the floor next to my chair on the stage from which I would soon preach. It was almost time for the Lord’s Supper and there was no place to put my Bible, so I casually placed it on the floor. I had no intention to be disrespectful of Scripture, but apparently I gave that impression. Someone came to me and whispered in my ear, “We don’t put the Bible on the floor here.”

Admittedly I was in a foreign land and knew little of the cultural expectations associated with owning a Bible. I quickly picked it up and all was forgiven. I’m guessing half the audience was thinking, “those arrogant Americans, don’t they know the Bible shouldn’t be put on the floor!” We can get pretty possessive about the Bible!

A part of the hoopla over the Noah movie right now reflects that sense of ownership. “These are our stories and no Hollywood screen writer can fool with it.”  While I get that some of that sentiment is born of our respect for Scripture, the truth remains that these stories belong to God and His church, not any of us as individuals. And if the standard is something like “unless you interpret it exactly right, don’t touch it,” that puts the Bible out of reach for me – and I’m guessing most folks.

One of my favorite theologians is Stanley Hauerwas. In his book, Unleashing the Scriptures, he notes that because “North American Christians” tend to read Scripture as democrats who get to vote on what it says, it “should be taken away from North American Christians.” I often make the chapter where he says that required reading in my class on interpreting the Scripture. As you can imagine, there is quite a bit of antagonism generated about that comment! Ultimately Hauerwas argues that the Bible belongs to the church, not any individual believer. But Hauerwas would argue that our overly individualistic spirit in Western culture makes us ill fit to interpret Scripture.

Most days I would disagree with Hauerwas – we shouldn’t take Scripture away from believers. I’ve spent a good portion of my life encouraging others to be more disciplined readers of Scripture. Some days, I must admit, I wonder if he might not be on to something! The Bible and its interpretation is a community event more than an individual exercise in the democratic process. Am I to think that no community of faith in the two thousand years of church history has understood something about Scripture that can help me? Or for that matter, should I think that no one among the followers of Jesus I know best could contribute to my understanding of what God intended His Word to teach me?

But the more evangelical world of faith around me is filled with “What this means to me . . .” as though God intended the words of Scripture to be a personal message to whoever “me” is. My interpretation classes generally aren’t all that thrilled when I insist that the first question is not “what does this mean to me?” but “what did the author intend the original readers of the text to understand as its meaning?” In other words, the Bible wasn’t written to “us,” but, when properly understood, it can speak powerfully to us by way of its original readers.

Could that be why Paul includes among his lists of spiritual gifts such skills as pastors, teachers, prophets, and the like? This is not to suggest that the Bible doesn’t speak to us – but it is to suggest that there is a reason God put that grey matter between our ears – and we ought to use it!

Had you asked me while I was growing up what the Noah story was all about, I might have said something like “God likes zoos.” I think I remember a word or two about God’s saving Noah and his family, but mostly I remember the animals. My observation about this story is that is still primarily what gets taught in Bible studies, Sunday School classes, and other such opportunities. Especially is that true when the audience is children.

I haven’t seen the Noah movie yet – but will in a few weeks. But based on the reviews I’ve seen and read I am going to hazard a guess and suggest it probably isn’t all that faithful to the very brief and limited narrative about Noah in Genesis. Just a wild guess. But what I was taught as a kid growing up in church wasn’t exactly faithful to the story either. In either case, I don’t have the right story. Is one case worse than the other?

What my Sunday School class did accomplish was interest in the Noah story, and in the context of God’s community of faithful followers, I’ve come to know a lot more about Noah than I did as a kid. And, quite frankly, had to “unlearn” some of what I was taught. Thank God I didn’t get stuck in the individualism of thinking “I already know that story.”

So the current movie can do at least one positive thing for believers – it has started a cultural conversation that gives us opportunities to join. I have never seen a movie about a biblical story that gets it right. Even the wildly popular among believers Passion of the Christ takes some pretty serious liberty with the story as told by Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. No offense to Charlton Heston, so did The Ten Commandments. But those movies, like Noah, gave believers – the community of faith – an opportunity for a conversation that we might not have had without them.

I can’t remember the last time someone asked me a question about Noah – that is, until about a week ago. But now it seems that the word Noah is part of lots of conversations. 

I’m not a movie critic, so after I’ve seen it, I won’t have much to say about the dialog, visual effects, and the like. But I’m thinking I would love to have conversations about the real story and what Scripture – Scripture that belongs to the church, not me – has to say about the story and its meaning.