"How To Determine When the Bible Is the Word of God -- And When It Isn't!" March 26, 2006 Lent 4

(First read the texts for this sermon:Numbers 21:4-9; Ephesians 2:1-10; John 3:14-21)

When I played baseball, I always had a hard time hitting the low and away curve ball. Well, the lectionary pitches a curve ball at us this morning!
You may know that the three Scripture readings each Sunday come from something called the Revised Common Lectionary. It’s a wonderful witness to cooperation among Christian denominations. These same passages are being read this morning in nearly all Lutheran, Roman Catholic, Episcopalian, Presbyterian and United Methodist churches in America.

Among the three texts we have this morning, we read a weird passage from the book of Numbers, which includes the bizarre incident of a bronze serpent raised up on a pole. This reading from Numbers has been chosen for today because the reading from John refers to that peculiar incident. (Otherwise, we’d be able to entirely ignore this passage from Numbers!) But let’s begin with that reading. In fact, I’m going to take advantage of the low and away curve ball that the lectionary is throwing at us, to offer some classically Lutheran teaching: of how to determine when the Bible is the Word of God – and when it isn’t!

The passage from Numbers is from the wild narrative of Moses leading God’s people through the wilderness. They have escaped from slavery in Egypt, but their wanderings are lasting 40 years! Do you remember the story?

As it turns out, the people of Israel are a bunch of whiners and complainers! You just have to laugh at them! Listen:

The people spoke against God and against Moses, "Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we detest this miserable food." What? Is there no food? Or is it that they don’t like the food that God is providing for them?

Well, you know that the latter is true, because God is providing them with daily bread, while they journey through the wilderness. According to the story, God becomes angry at their self-centeredness, and this is what God does: Then the Lord sent poisonous serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that many Israelites died(!)

Well, that would get the attention of self-centered, whining people, wouldn’t it? Here’s how the story proceeds: The people came to Moses and said, "We have sinned by speaking against the Lord and against you; pray to the Lord to take away the serpents from us." So Moses prayed for the people. And the Lord said to Moses, "Make a poisonous serpent, and set it on a pole; and everyone who is bitten shall look at it and live." So Moses made a serpent of bronze, and put it upon a pole; and whenever a serpent bit someone, that person would look at the serpent of bronze and live.

Well. Is this passage Word of God? Then the Lord sent poisonous serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that many Israelites died. Is this the way God is? Would God would do something like this? (To sharpen the question, when you get home, read the whole section in the book of Numbers, chapters 20-21. There you will see descriptions of Holy War that rival anything we accuse Muslims of taking seriously in the Qu’ran!) In our Bible, is Holy War teaching Word of God? Is this the way God is?

Nearly every time our political and military leaders use God’s name to support their actions they present a God who is that way! And here’s the thing: there are plenty of passages in the Bible that can be quoted to support the view that, for instance, the death of more than 30,000 Iraqis is God-pleasing.

But here is the classic Lutheran teaching. To interpret the Bible, it is necessary to have a center, a criterion for interpretation, because the Bible says so many contradictory things. From that center, then, the Bible can correct itself. The center of interpretation is used to determine when a passage in the Bible is Word and God – and when it is not.

What is the center for interpretation? Of course, it is Jesus the Christ. Indeed, more classic Lutheran teaching: the Word of God is Jesus. The Bible is Word of God only where it witnesses to Jesus – to what Jesus did and said, as he embodied God in human flesh. Luther used an image from the birth story of Jesus to express this. Luther wrote that the Bible is the cradle wherein the Christ child is laid.

So, to use this morning’s reading from Numbers as an example: God does not send poisonous snakes to bite and kill people. That cannot be reconciled with what Jesus said and did, as he embodied God in human flesh. We know who God is, through the revelation of Jesus. God does not send snakes or plagues or hurricanes or tsunamis or AIDS. Death does not please God.

What is from God? Life is from God. Eternal life is from God. Salvation is from God. And it is pure gift! Listen again to some of this morning’s reading in John, including the reference to the bizarre incident in Numbers:

And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.”


And, hear again verses from this morning’s reading in Ephesians:

All of us once … were by nature children of wrath, like everyone else. But God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ – by grace you have been saved – and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God – not the result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life.

What I have been reading to you is Word of God. Why? Because it witnesses to what Jesus said and did, as he embodied God in human flesh. Do you see how to use this center, Jesus the Christ, the Word of God, in reading and interpreting the Bible?

Now. Is there evil in the world? Of course there is! Are there people who do evil things? Of course there are! The gospel writer of John attests that that graphically, using the images of light and darkness. According to the gospel of John, Jesus is the light that has come into the world (John 1:7-9), and, as we read this morning, For all who do evil hate the light and do not come to the light, so that their deeds may not be exposed.

Jesus time and time again confronted evil. But remember his model, which reveals what God is like. Be very, very skeptical of those who support violence by quoting from the Bible and claiming that they are speaking Word of God. Because that contradicts what Jesus did and said, when he embodied God in human flesh.

Lent is the season of the church year when you and I are especially conscious of our need to return to God, because we remember that we are damned, if left to our own devices. But, as we return, the cross of Christ frees us from anxiety over that! The cross makes it clear that all is gift from God, all is grace; and then, response from us, in love and joy! Hear again this Scripture, this Word of God:

But God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ – by grace you have been saved – and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God – not the result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life.

In the name of God, who is Father and Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.


Pastor Andy Ballentine
St. Stephen Lutheran Church
Williamsburg, Virginia