In the Second Hour Sunday elective group that is studying the book, Divine Gravity, by Meghan Larissa Good, she makes two really important assertions: First, she writes, “Jesus is the authoritative lens through which God is seen and the Bible is interpreted (p.47).” Wonderful! I agree completely! The challenge then, of course, is actually to do the work of reading and interpreting the scripture. Pastor Meghan reflects on how the Reformation of the 1500s was an attempt to recenter authority in the scriptures, and she goes on to write (still on p. 47), “A reformation that centers on Scripture perhaps inevitably leads to a reformation that centers on Jesus…”
This is precisely why we have said that one of our three discipleship values at Blooming Glen is: “We rely on the Bible as our guide for faith and life.” Without the Bible, we don’t know much of anything about Jesus. Imagining a Christianity without scripture is a little bit like imagining Harry Potter without the seven books JK Rowling wrote. Our faith without our Bible is like trying to imagine Aslan without the writings of C.S. Lewis or being on the journey with Frodo Baggins without the writings of JRR Tolkien. Without our paying deep attention to the narrative story contained in the Bible, we Christians are not much more than your local service club – maybe we can do some good in the world, but there won’t be any real transformation.
Pastor Meghan also challenges us when she claims that the Jesus we know through scripture is authoritative in our life. To say this, is, in my opinion, to tackle our time’s two great ideologies. Individualism – which suggests that we are each the moral center and pinnacle of our own universe without ultimate accountability to any other authority structure but ourselves and concerned solely with one’s own interests. The second ideology of our era, collectivism, suggests that all social behavior ought to be and is ultimately dependent on some sort of group solidarity. To say the Jesus we know through scripture is authoritative in life is to radically cut through the noise made by every stripe of politician, economist, and social critic.
And the only way to challenge the ideologies (and idolatries) of our strange, new world is to rely on the Bible…because it is the only tool in our faith that points us to Jesus, our ever-present Savior, Teacher, Friend, and Lord.
So, let’s go, church (reading and relying on the Bible as the ultimate story of God’s amazing grace through Jesus)!
Pastor Jeff
jeff@bgmc.net
P.S. Monday, December 23 is the final listening breakfast at A&N for 2024. We’ll resume meeting for breakfast on January 6 at 7:30am. Our next Friday afternoon coffee and conversation will be Friday, January 3, at 3:30pm, at the Broad Street Grind. Lord willing, see you there!