Ask the Pastor 2 - "Mo' Worthy Scripture?"

My last Ask the Pastor question, as submitted on a recent Sunday morning for my particular take... and hopefully as a discussion starter:

"Are any books of the Bible considered more worthy or more important than others?"

Great question. Lots of possible answers. Here's what strikes me right out of the blocks.

YES. Throughout history some books of the Bible have been considered more worthy or more important than others. First, that's how we came to have our Christian Bible in the first place. Through use, discussion and discernment the ancient Jewish leaders winnowed down possible texts into what became something of a canon of Hebrew Scriptures. Also, several "Apocryphal/Deuterocanonical" books are included in some Christian Bibles, but not others (Tobit, Judith, additions to Esther, Wisdom of Solomon, Ecclesiasticus, Baruch, Letter of Jeremiah, additions to Daniel [Prayer of Azariah and the Song of the Three Jews, Susanna and Bel and the Dragon], 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th Maccabees, 1 and 2 Esdras, Prayer of Manasseh, and Psalm 151).

In the New Testament, there was a centuries-long fight over what to include. Revelation was highly disputed, as were some others. Some sects wanted to eliminate most or all of what we now call the Old Testament. Some wanted only one Gospel.

Martin Luther once called the book of Jude "an epistle of straw." Thomas Jefferson edited his own version of the Gospels to save the ethical teachings of Jesus from the "artificial vestments in which they have been muffled by priests, who have travestied them into various forms as instruments of riches and power for themselves."

This is simply to suggest that the Bible is a LIBRARY (Greek: Biblios) of books of multiple eras, outlooks and intentions. It is meant to be studied, prayed over, discussed, weighed and lived in.

When I first entered seminary, my main Bible was a New Internation Version pew Bible given to me by a Lutheran pastor. I highlighted verses that particularly resonated with me. When I picked it up years later I was astounded at some of my choices, as I missed entire pericopes that were suddenly vital to me. Go figure. At different times, different verses jump off the page for us.

Right now I am working on a book on Moses, so the Pentateuch (the first five books of the Bible, attributed to Moses) and especially Exodus are most important to me now. With that, I would mix in Isaiah (m' favorite Prophet), John's Gospel, Acts and Romans. Philippians and Jonah are regular stops for me, too. Ask me again next month, and I'll probably have a different list for you.

In short, I think every section of the library we call the Bible is worthy of extended, repeated visits. But, hey, Hosea and Revelation aren't really speaking to me at the moment. What's speaking to you right now? That's what's most important...

We Are Stardust

An extension of the Mom's Day sermon, here is the cogent quote from the great Alan Watts that I mentioned yesterday.

Most of us have the sensation that "I myself" is a separate center of feeling and action, living inside and bounded by the physical body -- a center which "confronts" an "external" world of people and things, making contact through the senses with a universe both alien and strange. Everyday figures of speech reflect this illusion. "I came into this world." "You must FACE reality." "The conquest of nature."

This feeling of being lonely and very temporary visitors in the universe is in flat contradiction to everything known about man (and all other living organisms) in the sciences. We do not "come into" this world; we come OUT of it, as leaves from a tree. As the ocean "waves," so the universe "peoples." Every individual is an expression of the whole realm of nature, a unique action of the total universe. This fact is rarely, if ever, experienced by most individuals. Even those who know it to be true in theory do not sense or feel it, but continue to be aware of themselves as isolated "egos" inside bags of skin. -- Alan Watts, The Book On the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are, (c) 1966.

We spend precious little time reflecting on the fact that we are built of stuff that was present at some Big Bang/Let-There-Be-Light moment millions of millenia ago. All that material substance is just passing through, and will one day be residing in blades of grass, garden dirt, rain drops and, perhaps, some other sentient beings. Parts of us will no doubt sail into space to land who knows where...

Right now at this "point" in "history," matter has manifested in your shape, size and sentience. The universe has temporarily brought forth YOU. How should you spend your l'il blip of existence?

(Hint: The least you could do is call your mother...)