schizophrenia of worship vs. work week

Men’s Tuesday morning Bible study, May 22, 2012

<>Paul’s letter to the Corinthians: These are the answers, but what were the questions he was responding to? Since his words appear in the Bible we give special weight to them, but unlike the prophets and other Wisdom Books, The Laws, The Histories and so forth in the OT; and unlike the words attributed to Jesus, these writings of Paul are less directly part of God the creator. Instead his words are closer to our own: we strive and proclaim, we praise and give thanks, we fellowship and guide one another. In this sense these epistles and other elements of the Bible are more like a workbook than a holy object of veneration and instruction. In other words, rather than to take the attitude that the Bible is composed of sacred pages of uniform truth value and origins, instead we should adopt a position in which we are free to wrestle with the meanings and actively interrogate the messages. The uses of the Bible are living and suited to each generation, as well as fitting to each person’s chapter of life. While the word does not change, what each person and each historical moment brings to the text will affect the meanings understood. So we should not put the Bible on a pedestal. Rather, we should wear it out by repeated use. It is not meant to be honored only. Instead it is meant to be consulted and questioned; it is meant to live in our daily relationships with believers and with strangers. We are Paul in the sense that we, too, have the interests of our fellow Christians in mind. We, too, should declare and pronounce the message. It is not enough that we quote or refer to it. Moreover we must own it and author our own meanings from its unchanging message.

<>Segregating spiritual and worldly lives. Perhaps there never was a seamless oneness of secular and sacred habits and awareness. Before science and technology gave mass consumers a feeling of mastery and omniscience, the line between worldly and supernatural divinity was blurred and not confined to moments of life crisis or the cycle of holy days. But in our time the lines seem rigid and impermeable. And within one’s own biographical lifecourse, not everyone has opportunity or motivation to walk a spiritual path. Among those who do, will the majority or the few break down this wall that separates the dominion of God from the dominion of Caesar? Surely there seems to be a set of parallel splits: (1) one’s heart vs. one’s external responsibilities and ambitions, (2) one’s private concerns vs. one’s public persona, (3) Sabbath/Sunday vs. the other days.