"...and I approved this message."

It occurred to me this week that churches send messages just like politicians do -- and the messages are just as diverse! So my sermon this week focuses on how to evaluate what different churches say. Hint -- it has to do with Bible interpretation. If you choose to read the sermon, I'd like to know if this was helpful to you.

“…and I approved this message.”

Are you as tired of hearing this as I am? I’m sure you know that I’m referring to the tagline that accompanies many of the political advertisements that appear on television. “I’m John Q. Politician, and I approved this message.” If I had a nickel for every time I have heard that line during the last several months, I could retire comfortably right now.

It’s interesting, isn’t it, how the two presidential candidates can analyze the situation of our country so differently. Both Mr. Romney and Mr. Obama live here in the United States; both are educated, intelligent men; and I believe that both of them have the best interests of the country at heart. But they present vastly different messages. They can’t agree on what is wrong with our country, why our country is in trouble, or how to best correct the situation. Why, if a little green man from Mars were to hear their two messages taken out of context, he might think that they were talking about two different countries!

We can say the very same thing about the messages that churches proclaim. Churches aren’t talking about politics, of course, but about what the Bible says. But churches differ in their messages about the Bible just like politicians differ about their view of our country. Churches don’t agree on what is wrong with the world, why the world is in trouble, or how to best correct the situation. Some churches say one thing, and some churches say something else. It all rests on their interpretation of what the Bible says. If you consider the variety of messages that churches proclaim, you might wonder if we’re all reading the same Bible!

Most churches proclaim that God calls us to freedom, growth, and a deepening of compassion for our fellow humans. They might differ in the details, but their core message is the same. My own congregation proclaims that “whoever you are and wherever you are on life’s journey, you’re welcome here” – and we mean it! We base our faith on our belief that God is loving, merciful, and forgiving. But not all churches feel that way. Some are rigid and exclusive. They warn that eternal punishment from a God of wrath awaits those who don’t believe exactly the way that they do. Their message of hellfire and damnation sometimes seems to be more suited to a Halloween house of horror than it is to a house of God.

The most infamous example is probably the Westboro Baptist Church. Members of this congregation protest regularly at the funerals of military men and women who were killed in the line of duty. They claim that God is punishing our nation for its culture of tolerance and diversity. They base their beliefs on a handful of passages from the Old Testament claiming that certain practices are “abominations” that are offensive to God. They warn that unless our country changes its ways, God will continue to slaughter our men and women who are defending us.

Some social analysts are concerned that this kind of message might be promoting a subculture of hate in our country. According to Marilyn Sewell’s online blog in the October 19 Huffington Post, there were 6,628 hate crimes reported in 2010. 47% of these were race-related, 20% were religious in nature, 19% targeted sexual orientation, and 13% involved ethnicity or national origin. We can’t blame these crimes on any one type of Christian message or style of Bible interpretation. But no one can deny that some Christians are so sure that their own Bible interpretation is the right one, that they become unloving at the least and downright destructive at worst. And like the members of Westboro Church, they base their actions on what they read in the Bible. But it’s worth remembering that the Bible has been used to justify all kinds of social practices that we now condemn as unjust. Slavery, child abuse, and the belief that women are somehow less than human have all been justified by focusing on a few verses in scripture, and ignoring many others.

So, what’s my point? My point is that all Christians need to know how to read and interpret the Bible for themselves. Otherwise, we can easily be led astray by churches whose interpretation of the Bible is narrow and exclusive. Unfortunately, though, many Christians don’t even read the Bible, let alone know how to interpret what they read! So this morning, I offer you three principles of how to interpret what you read in the Bible. They’re very basic principles, and they’re not difficult at all. You don’t have to be a pastor to use them.

The first principle is that Jesus is the “lens” through which we interpret scripture. We all believe that Jesus is God’s Word made flesh. If that is really the case, then we should interpret scripture based on the teaching and example of Jesus. This morning, you heard Luke’s account of what Jesus said in the synagogue at the beginning of his ministry: “This morning, this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.” (Luke 4:14-21) In other words, “Listen up, folks! Isaiah was talking about me!” Jesus is the fulfillment of all Old Testament scripture, the Word (capital W) to which all the other words (small w) point.  And Jesus reinterpreted Old Testament teaching to focus not on the letter of the law, but on its spirit. Do you remember what Jesus said is the heart of the law? Love God, and love our neighbor as ourselves. That’s the central message of scripture, both the Old and the New Testament.

And that brings me to the next principle of Bible interpretation. We have to be able to tell the difference between a representative text and a proof-text. A representative text is a verse (or verses) that represent much of what is in the Bible. For example, “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want” is echoed over and over and over again in scripture. So is “God is love,” and “God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son.” God’s love and care for us is a theme that threads its way through all the pages of scripture, from the first days of creation in Genesis to the appearance of the New Jerusalem in Revelation. A proof-text is something completely different. A proof-text is a text that is used to prove a particular belief, even if that belief never shows up again in the rest of scripture! Here’s an example of a proof-text. This text is from Deuteronomy. “If someone has a stubborn and rebellious son who will not obey his father and mother, who does not heed them when they discipline him, then his father and his mother shall take hold of him and bring him out to the elders of his town at the gate of that place. They shall say to the elders of his town, ‘This son of mine is stubborn and rebellious. He will not obey us. He is a glutton and a drunkard.’ Then all the men of the town shall stone him to death. So you shall purge the evil from your midst; and all Israel will hear and be afraid.” Should we follow that law? Of course not! How did Jesus treat children? Jesus loved children! And the most notorious stubborn, rebellious child of all – the Prodigal Son – wasn’t stoned, but welcomed home with open arms! But someone could easily start a cult that teaches that children should be stoned if they misbehave. After all – it’s in the Bible!

Finally – and this is the most difficult of the three principles – we need to know what the Bible actually says. After all, that’s really the only way to know whether a Bible text is a representative text or a proof-text. And knowing what the Bible says requires lots of reading and lots of thinking. It requires that we understand that the Bible speaks not with one voice but with many. We have to be ready to read what’s really there, not what we expect to find. The Bible can be comforting and reassuring, but it can also be very challenging. But in-depth Bible study just might turn out to be the most rewarding work you’ll ever do. After all, if we’re going to base our Christian message on the Bible, maybe we should know what we’re talking about!

In the end, our goal in studying the Bible isn’t to be more “right” than the church next door. It isn’t to be able to answer all the questions in the Bible category of Jeopardy. It isn’t even to brag about how much we learned at the last Bible study lesson. Our goal is simply to be able to proclaim the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Our goal is to proclaim the good news, not the bad news. Our goal is to share God’s love, not God’s wrath; to proclaim God’s forgiveness, not God’s punishment; to rejoice in God’s salvation, not threaten God’s condemnation. Our goal is to be so true to the gospel of Jesus Christ that God listens to what we are saying and responds proudly and joyfully, “I approve that message!”