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“The Word of God, for the People of God,” Rev. Jason-Paul Channels, 9/20/15

“The Word of God, for the People of God”
A sermon preached at
Heart of the Rockies Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)
Fort Collins, CO
by the Rev. Jason-Paul Channels
September 20, 2015
Luke 4: 16-22

Isaiah 61:1-6
The spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me;
he has sent me to bring good news to the oppressed, to bind up the broken-hearted,
to proclaim liberty to the captives, and release to the prisoners;
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour, and the day of vengeance of our God;
to comfort all who mourn; to provide for those who mourn in Zion—
to give them a garland instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning,
the mantle of praise instead of a faint spirit.
They will be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, to display his glory.
They shall build up the ancient ruins, they shall raise up the former devastations;
they shall repair the ruined cities, the devastations of many generations.
Strangers shall stand and feed your flocks, foreigners shall till your land and dress your vines;
but you shall be called priests of the Lord, you shall be named ministers of our God;
you shall enjoy the wealth of the nations, and in their riches you shall glory.
Luke 4:16-22
When he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, as was his custom. He stood up to read, and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written:
‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me
to bring good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives
and recovery of sight to the blind,
to let the oppressed go free,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.’
And he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. The eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. Then he began to say to them, ‘Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.’ All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his mouth. They said, ‘Is not this Joseph’s son?’

As a movement, from the very beginning, what became the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) has been plagued by a struggle to articulate what it is that makes them distinctive…which is not necessarily a problem when you are a unity movement but is once you have become a denomination. In the early years it was easier to demonstrate and to share what made members of the Christian Church and those who called themselves Disciples, distinctive because they were clearly an alternative to (and in some ways in opposition to) the other religious practices around them. As Melissa shared last week the resistance to communion testing, the practice of believer’s baptism and the not-universal but widely shared practice of recognizing people’s baptisms were marks of distinction.

I think that it is harder today to explain to people what one BELIEVES about their faith because the wonderings are less about theological or liturgical practices of faith and more about what their church believes about SOCIAL topics. There have been periods in the life of the American church that we have been faced with this scenario (slavery, prohibition, civil rights movement) but it seems today that it is even more pronounced. People ask about faith in the context of abortion, role of women, LGBT issues and same-sex marriage, ecumenism, issues of public religion, environmental concerns, and the place and role of science. But throughout history we as Christians have been called not share our faith as comments on the social issues of our time but statements of salvation and timeless proclamation of the Good News of Jesus Christ.

As we continue in the next few weeks to look at what are some of the marks of our faith tradition we have a mixture of more theological and more practical distinctions. Today’s exploration of the role of Scripture is on more of the theological end of that spectrum. It might be helpful as a way to narrow down what is a HUGE topic of Scripture is to think about what we will explore today as how we identify and prioritize the Bible as a source of direction, teaching, inspiration and challenge for our faith lives.

Our denomination puts an emphasis on the Bible because it is one of the ways that we understand and proclaim Jesus Christ most fully. And if we have “no creed but Christ” then that is a kind of an important source. As Mark Toulouse writes :
Because they lived in the midst of a cultural crisis in authority, nineteenth-century Disciples faced a particularly strong temptation to misuse the Bible. In a culture where all authorities are suspect, and where an individual’s rights are primary, it would be easy to use the Bible to assert personal biases and establish personal agendas. Early Disciples leadership was aware of this temptation. And they acted to ward it off. Their antidote consisted of at least three interrelated focuses, [there were rights and limitations attached to private interpretations of scripture, interpretation must follow general rules of interpretation and it is important to be clear about Disciples assumptions about the Bible].

First and foremost, founding Disciples were, like most Christians around them, committed to the divine inspiration of scripture. The Bible represented God’s message to humanity…Disciples strongly asserted the authoritative nature of the Bible. People could depend upon the Bible to tell them the truth about themselves. In its pages, they could discover the key to understanding not only their past but their present and future as well. The Bible stood as the one place the Christian, and the church, could turn to discover God’s will. While all authorities around them might crumble, the Bible remained dependable.

…They turned to the Bible to discover the precise wording of all doctrines to be believed , and all matters of practice and structure for the church. [Channels: Their attempt to return the church to the form it was in the New Testament faced a problem when one considers the realities of translation and reproducing texts, not to mention the entire process of deciding what made the Biblical canon. But during the lifetime of Barton Stone Historical Criticism was just being developed in Germany and the debate is still open if he was aware of]…

This helps explain the early Disciples belief that individual Christians who were willing to approach the Bible without bias would arrive at a common interpretation of all the necessary aspects of Christian existence. Upon this belief the Disciples hope for unity were based [a topic we will cover on October 4]. [They believed that]… any reasonable, right-thinking individual could open the pages of the Bible and, regarding at least the matters pertaining to human salvation and the governance of the church, arrive at a clear undisputed understanding with which other reasonable people would agree.

…Disciples did recognize, however, that scriptural “declarations”–those passages usually connected with a “thus sayith the Lord”–often led to “inferences.” This second stage of Biblical interpretation could be rather cloudy at best…Early nineteenth-century Disciples claimed that only the former ought to be binding on the Christian and the Church

We obviously are no longer in the 19th century. But many of these early beliefs are what still influence and direct our current proclamations about the role and function of Scripture. There have been some times when this has been a problem. Our two most divisive splits have been around the role of Historical Criticism and the inerrancy of scripture which led most directly to the Churches of Christ movement, and secondly the role of instruments in worship not mentioned in the Bible (also a mark of the Church of Christ Non-Instrumental.

But how do we understand Scripture today and what difference does it really make? I’m pretty sure on a gorgeous day like this one you all would prefer I not fully answer that during the sermon. If you are wondering what all that might mean I invite you to join us for Sunday School in the modular immediately following worship to explore a little more, and the join us on Wednesday morning from 10-11:30 when Dr. Eric Smith, Disciples pastor and New Testament professor at Illiff Theological School, leads us in our The Faith We Share class. And I invite you to join our Monday Study that starts tomorrow and runs till Thanksgiving where we will explore Dr. Ron Allen’s book A Faith of Your Own: Naming What You Really Believe.

But for the sake of clarity and so you can leave with at least a little nugget of practical application to chew on this week I invite you to think back to our two texts this morning. You may have noticed between the two readings today that as Jesus is quoting from Isaiah 61, and he stops mid sentence. Listen again to what Isaiah says in chapter 61:

The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me,
because the Lord has anointed me
to bring good news to the poor;
he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim liberty to the captives,
and the opening of the prison to those who are bound;
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor,
and the day of vengeance of our God;

The phrase “and the day of vengeance of our God” is excluded from Jesus’ reading of the scripture.

For me this is not a problem because a) I believe that Scripture is humanities best effort at recording the revelation of God, b) my understanding of scripture has a place for inconsistencies, and c) I hold the role of Christ to be to challenge the previous understandings of God’s relationship to humanity found in the overarching message of the New Testament and specifically verses like John 3:17: “For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.” A passage that shows the distinct Good News that Jesus was proclaiming. That the difference of the Old Covenant and the New Covenant centers on the role of salvation verses vengeance.

This is but an example of the ways that as members of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) our lack of creedal confession and our emphasis on space for disagreement and interpretation in matters that are non-essential. Our famous slogan IN ESSENTIALS UNITY, IN NON-ESSENTIALS DIVERSITY AND IN ALL THINGS CHARITY reminds us that we must be attentive to and dig into scripture not just assume that each thing we read stands on its own and can be pulled out and used as a definitive discussion-ending argument or as a weapon against another.

That way, when we encounter these types of scriptures they cause us to ask ourselves is there any significance to the fact that Jesus stopped mid-sentence? Were those in attendance that day waiting with baited breath for Jesus to read the next phrase and then astonished when he didn’t? Did it change the meaning of the text he was reading? Is the coming of Christ all about God’s favor, and not at all about God’s vengeance? If so, does that impact how we preach and how we teach? Are Hellfire and Brimstone sermons out of line? Is condemnation and vengeance Good News?

None of these can be answered if we first do not answer the question “What is Scripture?” Beyond just the liturgical response of The Word of God, for the People of God. So Good Luck! Keep at it! And call Melissa if you have any questions!