This sermon was given by Rev. Judith Campbell on November 7, 2004 at Stevens Memorial Chapel.

 

A Unitarian  Universalist Looks at the Bible

I  think probably almost every person here knows the story of the three little pigs. “I’ll huff and I’ll puff…and I’ll blow your house in”…But is it really just about two lazy pigs and one industrious one and methods of  building construction, or does it have a deeper meaning?  Of course it does, as do all myths and fables. They teach as well as entertain. The pig story tell us to work hard, don’t build your house (or your life) of straw or sticks, but work carefully and use good materials, and you will keep the wolf/evil from your door.  It is the essence of the protestant work ethic. It tells us our safety and well being is up to us. 

 

Several of you have asked me to address the subject of the bible.  That kind of question is rather like asking how high is up. Or, what exactly is eternity?  From there, the questions multiply: which bible might I address, and what issues or points of view: religious, historical, literary, pro, anti, feminist, liberation and so on.  There is a very long and deeply researched and sometimes murderously debated list of categories of biblical opinion and research, often beginning with which translation or which translations of the many existing translations of the original books of the bible are the most accurate.

 

It is not a new debate.

 

For many of us growing up in more dogmatic and/or Christian creedal traditions coming of age in the sixties and the seventies meant challenging just about everything we were raised with.  Include in that, organized religions for which the words of the bible were the very foundation of the faith itself and the ritual of the Sunday service.  The bible itself became a symbol of oppressive, patriarchal, sexist thinking, and its fabled stories were seen as archaic, demeaning to women and scientifically impossible. 

 

Before, and much more so since, the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls in Nag Hammadi in 1946, theologians, biblical scholars and religious historians have opened the books of the bible to ever wider and deeper variations in interpretation and scrutiny.   Which one is the most authentic or accurate? What is accurate? Does it agree with the established canon or challenge it? Which brings us back to - point of view.

 

On the one hand, we have in the Hebrew Bible, a collection of books containing Jewish history, law, poetry and prophesy and fable, describing a vengeful exacting God who was a reflection of the ancient Near East culture and civilization.  He tolerated polygamy, slavery, murder and infanticide as long as he was seen and worshiped as the one true God.  After the birth of Jesus, we have the Christian Scripture, or New Testament, containing the Gospel, or the good news, that no, on second thought, God is really all loving and forgiving and merciful. (Which is exactly the way the Q’uran describes Allah.) But, to prove how loving and merciful he is towards we flawed and sinful humans, he offers, in the tradition of Abraham and Isaac, his incarnate son Jesus as a living sacrifice to atone for our ever present sins.

 

I had trouble with that in the early fifties of the last century, and I do now. In my thinking, a loving dad does not kill or sacrifice his kid for any reason whatsoever.  But that is my theology, and it is not for me to disparage or mock the beliefs of others.  As a Unitarian Universalist, I can choose to disagree, but my religious ethic says I may not mock or belittle the beliefs and practices of others.

 

In both the Hebrew and Christian scriptures, humans are viewed as weak, prone to falling away from the faith and in need of constant chastisement and saving from the sins of themselves, and their fathers which are being constantly rested upon them. It presents a very negative view of humans and life in general. It is no wonder that so many of us baptized and confirmed Christians got mad or were disillusioned, and kicked over the traces that held us in bonds of guilt, picked up our marbles and left the so- called mainline denominations and Bible far behind. Several of us left for more liberal religions, and others just left; and they stayed gone with good reason.

 

Yet, many of us still remember with fondness and comfort the words of the bible readings and stories of our childhood.  How many of us still love and are comforted by the eternal words of the twenty third psalm.  …. “The lord is my Shepherd….I shall not want…”?  I can’t tell you how many Unitarian Universalists ask for this to be read at memorial services or at graveside committal services. We grew to dislike what it represented, and yet, we desperately miss the security and comfort it offered.

 

The words to meditate upon in today’s order of service come from the Book of Ecclesiastes, the last book in the editions of the Hebrew Bible most of us grew up with.  They are almost as familiar as the 23rd Psalm, and just as universal in their message. They too are often requested at funerals and at weddings.  “To everything there is a season, and a time and a purpose under heaven”. 

 

Maybe for some Unitarian Universalists perhaps the time has come to reconsider the bible not as religious authority but more as we would revisit any major and historic literary work . Not for the divine facts, but for the human truths.

 

Whether we like it or not, the bible is a major part of the foundation and framework of our western cultural thinking and literature. The universal truths found in the stories of the bible are clothed in myth and fable, but they address the most human and basic of our impulses and the bigger questions of life’s meaning. And in various guises, like the stories and myths of ancient Greece, they are ever present in underlying themes of most of our literature, great art, music and poetry, not to mention our legal system and our UU ethical code. An educated person without at least a passing knowledge of the bible is simply not going to experience the full depth and texture of much of our art, literature and music, not to mention the foundation of our legal system.

 

The bible is full of myths and stories that speak to and reflect the human condition and offer a moral or a lesson or teach us about the nature of the God that the people of the times in which it was set down created for themselves.

 

David was little and weak, but he had faith, and with God on his side, he took up 5 smooth stones and with his little slingshot felled the mighty and evil Goliath. And with his victory the faithful held sway against the non-believers.

 

I would like to read that story to you using the new revised standard version. And then, in the old tradition of Protestant and Jewish religious commentary and preaching look into it beyond the words and see what I find there today, because tomorrow, I will likely find something completely different.                                 

                        I Samuel 17:1-11,  31-33, 37-50

 

The quick obvious lesson is that faith can move mountains, and bring down giants.  Goliath rattled his sabres, blustered and mocked David and Saul and all of his army for sending a skinny kid against his might.  David was even too small for the armor.  But David had God. He had no doubt that God would see him through.  But - here is the part that is so wonderful - If David knew that God was going to win anyway, why not just point a finger or something and zap them all away.   No, first of all, such is not the stuff of a good story around a campfire, which is where many of these started.  David knew his strengths.  He had felled wild animals with his little sling shot.  He wanted to show them that with the trust he had in his human skill, and the belief that he had been called by God to this task, he could make the mighty fall.

 

And he did, with a smooth stone.  But if he could do it with one, and he knew he could, why did he pick up five?  He was human; humans sometimes miss the mark.  He was human, not stupid.  He picked up a few more just in case.  He was prudent.  But he only used one, and nothing is said about what he did with the others. 

 

For me the metaphor of the five smooth stones is a way to look at those personal articles of faith or talismans of power with which we take on the giants of our own lives, adverse giants and good giants.  Winning the lottery and falling in love would certainly be good giants, but they are life changing. What personal strengths, what kinds of smooth stones, would we need to deal with the changes such things would bring about?

 

Illness, or accident or a threat to our personal safety are bad giants.  When we face adversity, we gather our strengths and muster what we can to face or overcome it. Or in some cases, just to survive with it.  What are the stones we gather in those circumstances?  For some it is a faith in God, for others it is faith in the power of community, or the power of love to cast out fear or the ability to gather information and do research.

 

This is a partial listing.

 

We all have our own smooth stones.  Only the numbers vary. When you go home today, in a quiet moment, think about what yours are, and where they are.  What sustains you in times of stress, good or bad.  What gets you through a crisis.  What works when nothing else does.

 

David only used one of the five he selected, but he knew needed more than one.

 

It’s good to know what your stones are and where you keep them.