On Sunday I attended an early-morning ecumenical Christian service on the beach in Cape Cod. The minister introduced the scripture passage by saying that she was reading the version of the Lord's Prayer found in Luke instead of Matthew because it is thought to be the more original version. She finished the scripture passage by saying the traditional words: "The Word of God." This anecdote illuminates the central yet complex role of scripture in religious communities. The minister was reminding us simultaneously that sacred texts such as the Christian Gospel are complicated, even while affirming scripture to be essential to our spiritual experience, ethical wisdom and faith in the Divine.
All religious traditions have sacred stories that establish their understanding of the nature of the universe and each person's place within it. Passing these stories from generation to generation is central to the making and maintaining of a religious meaning and tradition. Most religions, either from inception or along the way, produce written texts to which followers turn for worldview, strictures, and wisdom for living life. It is our relationship to these texts that makes them sacred, or scripture. By calling a text or texts "scripture," we are saying that the text has a special relationship not only to us personally, and to our community, but also to the Divine or Truth.
Scripture differs among religious traditions. Hinduism, for example, has central texts that have been elevated, such as the Bhagavad Gita, but there is no single canon agreed upon by all adherents. Indigenous religions may have written texts, but the power of the sacred story is still in the oral tradition of passing them from one generation to the next. Other traditions, especially the tellingly named "religions of the book" -- Judaism, Christianity, and Islam -- have written texts that have themselves become imbued with divinity; this might especially be said about the Qur'an. Understanding the complex relationship between a religious tradition and its sacred text is foundational to understanding the tradition itself.
Ascribing to a text sacred power and insight into the Divine is the definition of scripture. Yet there are very different ways of understanding how scripture actually carries Divine power or can be understood as God's word. For instance, we can take scripture seriously without taking it literally. Taking scripture seriously means going beneath a superficial literal reading and understanding that we will find the deeper wisdom and guidance in the text when we recognize its history, complexity and that it contains many different ways of conveying its message. We are born with hearts, spirits and brains, and we need to use all of them when approaching scripture. Taking scripture seriously means acknowledging that there are texts that have been used in dangerous and harmful ways to subjugate women, legitimate violence against gays and lesbians, foster suspicion of other religious traditions, commit violence, and support barbarous ancient practices such as slavery. Taking scripture seriously means trying to understand what the original authors intended and, through literary, linguistic, or historical criticisms, either redeeming these texts from modern misinterpretations or, in the most extreme cases, condemning them.
That being said, religious scripture has been the world's most influential cultural guardian and transmitter of aesthetic vision, existential wisdom, ethical instruction, and knowledge of God, what the theologian Tillich described as Ultimate Concerns. Scripture endures because billions of people from different religious traditions have looked to it and found comfort in times of hardship, wisdom in times of confusion, ethics in times of selfishness, beauty among shadows, and faith in times of doubt.
One of the most effective forms of prayer and meditation comes through reflection upon scripture -- and while reading scripture on our own is edifying, it is even better to approach scripture together with a group to learn from the ways in which others understand the same passage. Likewise, it is enlightening to listen to or read the reflections of religious leaders who have thought about the deep meaning of a passage of scripture. To that end, Huffington Post Religion is starting a scripture commentary series that will bring together leading voices from different religious traditions to offer their wisdom on selected religious passages. Next month we will have Muslim commentaries for Ramadan, and in September Jewish commentaries for the High Holidays. This week we are starting with commentaries on the Gospel by Rev. Jim Wallis, Dr. Serene Jones, Dr. Emilie Townes, Sister Joan Chittister, and Rev. James Martin, S.J. They will all be offering their meditations on the same passage from Matthew 7: 24-27, in which Jesus says:
24Everyone then who hears these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on rock. 25The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on rock. 26And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not act on them will be like a foolish man who built his house on sand. 27The rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell -- and great was its fall!
In this time of economic and social uncertainty, we hope that the scriptural commentaries this week and in the months to come will comfort you if you are in need, challenge you if you are too comfortable, and inspire in you a sense of the Divine presence in your own life and throughout the world.
Scripture - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Religious text - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
I like very much your distinction between taking scripture literally versus taking it seriously. The passage from Matthew is said in the context of what's known as 'the beatitudes' - or the 'be attitudes' - attitudes towards being. The symbols of the rock speak to me of the Word, the truth of life and the rains are like the testing of the Holy Spirit in its diverse ways. If we are centred in the truth of who we really are, we don't crumble and fall when the trials and tribulations of life come upon us.
The Biblical account of Jonah in the book of the same name is both true and literal. We can know that it is true, is based on the very Scripture that this conference's launch was based on, the words of Jesus, the Christ, as recorded in Matthew 7:24-27, where He compared those who
heard and acted in faith in His word, from those who don't, to those who build a house upon a rock, and those who build upon sand.
What were Jesus' words relevant to the Biblical account of Jonah?
[Matthew 12:39-40 KJV]
(39) But he answered and said unto them, An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas:
(40) For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale's belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.
To not believe in the literal account of Jonah, is to not believe the stated words of the LORD Jesus, who presented the event as fact. This is not an imposition of faith, it is a logical conclusion.
One cannot take the His words "too serious(ly)" --ms
"Jesus spoke to the multitudes in parables, and he was not speaking to them without a parable, so that what was spoken by through the prophet might be fulfilled, saying, 'I will open my mouth in parables, I will utter things hidden since the foundation of the world" (Mtt 13:34-35, Psa 78:1-4).
Why would he speak in parables?
"The knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but not to them. Whoever has will be given more, and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him. This is why I speak to them in parables:
Though seeing, they do not see; though hearing, they do not hear or understand." (Mtt 13, 10-17)
For me believing in Jesus, and in the scriptures for that matter, means believing in the truth of stories, not always what they tell.
If you are a person who has decided that you would like to hear, what the Bible has to say about life, and to examine it for yourself, then here is one way to do so- by listening to what (in my opinion) is excellent Bible teaching, from a non-denominational position, in mp3 format, by someone qualified to do so.
Quickstart: http://www.thruthebible.org/site/c.irLMKXPGLsF/b.4104233/k.BFE1/MP3_Download_of_5Year_Series.htm (I wish both that the link was shorter, and that I did not have to go to work each day.)
Who is the man, you ask? His name is J. Vernon McGee (1904-1988), and he hosted a radio program entitled "Through the Bible" where he covered the entire content of the Bible over a 5-year period. At the above link, you can download any part or the entire program.
What is interesting to me, about J. Vernon McGee's teaching, is that he waited until *after completing an approximate 40 year career as a Pastor of several church assemblies, to produce this series. It is the *wisdom that he gained over that experience, and throughout life, that accompanies his faithful teaching of God's word, the Bible, that is the basis of my recommendation of his mp3 files to you.
I have personally studied the Bible from age 19 (currently "39 and holdin'") yet have gained much from these insights. --ms
Have a question? Please ask.
"That lust for power seems to care nothing for religion or irreligion."
The human element is always the key to whether something will be used for good or evil. Take the human out of the equation, then everything would sit dormant, collecting dust. We have only ourselves to blame when something goes awry, and yet we never want to take the responsibility when it does.
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Perhaps, but it should also be kept in perspective. There are those who believe that we should live our entire lives based on those scriptures, and it is just not practical, nor is it wise.
http://www.theinterviewwithgod.com/popup-frame.html
http://marilee.us/desiderata.html
My research indicates the book of Matthew was written BEFORE the book of Luke.
There are many possible explanations of the difference in wording, one is why should anyone assume that Jesus only uttered the Lord's prayer once as though it is a strict formula?
They are based, it's thought, on what's called the Q source which is missing as well as eyewitness accounts and oral "history" in the group they were written for.
If, by reliability you're talking what we now conceive of as accurate history then they aren't because the evangelists (and no one else) had heard of that kind of history when they were written. They were, and are, an attempt to explain this strange, charasmatic rabbi from Nazerth (of all places) , who challenged the primacy of the Pharisees and their adherence to the Law as the be all of Judiasm rather than the spirit of it, in turn challenging the Temple itself and the Sanhedrin the centre of Jewish/Hebrew power of the day. All while preaching and working non violenty. In turn this man was executed by Roman authoritity.
Unbelievably he was conisidered the Messiah by his followers, dominated as the were by women and comon people. He was certainly no warrior which is what was being expected.
Reliable, yes. Though I put no importance on which prayer is better.
'If a man has a stubborn and rebellious son who will not listen to the voice of his father..'...or his mother.'...even when they punish him.'...his father and mother must take hold of him and bring him to the elders at the gate of his town.''They shall say to the elders, "This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious. He will not obey us. He is a glutton and a drunkard."''All the men of the town must then stone him to death. You must banish this evil from among you.'
Deuteronomy 13:6-8
'If your brother, or your son or daughter, or your beloved wife tries to secretly entice you, telling you to go and worship other gods, gods of people living near you, or far from you, or anywhere on earth, do not listen to him.'You must kill them. Show them no pity. And your hand must strike the first blow.'Then the hands of all the people. You shall stone them to death.'
This journey of transformation, guided by Love, from inner slavery to spiritual enlightenment, has been called "Persephone's Return to Olympus", "The Return to the Promised Land", "The Quest for the Holy Grail", and many other names.
I have come to the conclusion that religion is one of the most dangerous paths to follow. Anybody can believe anything they want and quote scripture to back them up.
Scripture was used to justify slavery.
It was used to justify the subjugation of women.
It is today used to justify discrimination against gays.
Satan himself quoted scripture, at the Temptation of Christ, after 40 days in the wilderness.
Discernment, however, is easy. One need merely ask...does this or that piece of scripture teach me how to love my neighbor?
If not, reject it!
These are words to live by. Thanks!
"does this or that piece of scripture teach me how to have eternal life?"
I have come to the conclusion that religion is one of the most dangerous paths to follow. Anybody can believe anything they want and quote scripture to back them up. Crazy-ass sh*t!
ahh, you've probably heard it before ;)