The Trouble with People and the Bible

There are reasons we do what we do here.
I have heard it, from time to time, that people don’t like it that I talk about politics or about race in America. I know that many people think that religion ought never to talk about anything but Jesus.
But the Jesus I have studied was a participant in and a critic of the political system in which he lived. Jesus got in trouble, and ultimately lost his life, because he dared challenge the injustice the political system propagated.
Liberation theology has its basis in interpreting the Bible as a book which supported justice, but many people reject that interpretation. Were we to put James Cone and Glenn Beck in the same room to talk about liberation theology and its validity, fireworks would fly.
There are so many ways to interpret important documents, and that is a problem. Those who are oppressed interpret both the Bible and the United States Constitution, for example, far differently from those of the privileged class. Heterosexuals interpret the Bible differently than do homosexuals; men interpret the Bible differently than do women, and the Constitution, it seems, is consistently interpreted in a way which supports people in power.
At the end of the day, though, we all have to go inside ourselves and ask God to reveal God’s self to us. Is God on the side of the downtrodden and oppressed, or is that just someone’s opinion? Did God ordain the American brand of slavery, and did God intend for black people to be mistreated by nearly everyone who is not black? Is God good all the time, to and for all people, or is God snob, liking some people better than others because of their skin color or social class?
When another way of looking at scriptures is presented, many people get offended and say that said interpretation is “revisionist,” yet, surely God knew that His people would interpret the words in that sacred text to fit themselves. We humans are always trying to say God is on our side, instead of living our lives so that God can clearly see that we are on His side.
As long as there is injustice in this world based on class and color and sexual orientation and ethnicity and any other reason, I will continue to preach that it is not right, not of God or from God. At the end of the day, you see, I believe in a loving, yet stern God who makes us accountable for how we treat each other. I have ingested the words that Jesus said, “How can you say you love God, whom you have not seen, when you do not love your brother, whom you do see?”
I believe that God, the Father, and Jesus, his son, are against oppression in any shape, way or form. I believe that God the Father, and Jesus, his son, want us to practice loving those whom we don’t necessarily like, and practicing forgiveness, no matter how difficult. There may be many ways of interpreting the Bible, but in the end, there seems to me a theme that runs throughout the Bible, and that is, “all have fallen short of the glory of God.” This God, it seems, loves “all” whom he has created, and we are to do the same.
I may be wrong. We may all be. There really might be just ONE way to interpret the Bible, and we’ve all missed it. God may be shaking his head at everything that everyone is saying, has said, and is teaching, but I have no way of knowing that. I know that I incline my ear toward God and I give what I believe God tells me – as does everyone else who teaches and preaches.
So, in this house, you’ll keep getting these lessons of and from the Bible from a perspective which may be different from the perspective you’ve had before. I hope that in spite of the difference there is room for you to grow and to get closer to God than you ever have before.
Have a good week!
Pastor Smith