As I reflect on my journey with Jesus, my commitment to follow him has grown, but one particular teaching impressed upon me in my youth and perpetuated by the church ever since has restricted me.  I have come to the conviction that teaching that “the Bible is the Word of God and truthful in all its writings” has served as a roadblock to prevent the church from becoming the culture changing force which Jesus imagined.   

  Using the Bible as literal, divine truth enabled the architects of an organization they called ‘church’, to control the people of the land and even the emperors who ruled over them.  The church leaders control was absolute because they could find and interpret some words of the bible as giving them their authority.  With few exceptions, I was immersed in that understanding in the education I received in preparation for my ministry. 

In my biblical study in preparation for teaching and preparing for sermons, I did come into contact with words of scripture which were unsupported by any historical records and those which defied human realities as I knew them.  Almost all of the so called ‘miracles’ would fall into this category.   I can no longer believe many of the doctrines which describe Jesus and are in the Creeds of the church: A virgin birth, a divine/human being who is truly human, Jesus physical resurrection from death after three days, and a certainty about life after death where we celebrate reunion with family and friends.  Thus the dilemma: My inability to accept what the bible says vs. believing the bible as the word of God.  Biblical scholars have in recent years offered a solution.  If we stop trying to “believe” the bible and focus on how we should “read” the bible, we not only solve a problem but we discover in its stories the faith insights of ancient people inspiring our own faith life.  

  What Christians call the Old Testament consists of faith stories using images of God to call into being and nurture a people to become a nation, Israel.  There are moments of victory and glory in which the stories credit the activity of their God and there are wrenching stories of defeat and pain which are described as caused by disobedience of the people.  The stories are simple, dramatic and often exaggerated, easy to remember and retell in an oral society, and powerful motivators calling people to faithfulness to God, 

  The New Testament is about the life and death of Jesus and the building of church communities.  We must begin with the fact that there is no written report on the activities of Jesus during his lifetime.  What we have in the bible are interpretations of Jesus by individuals steeped in the Jewish faith of the old testament and who searched the Old Testament for passages which could perhaps predict what Jesus’ mission was to be.  This was the basis the early followers of Jesus and writers of the New Testament used to explain the tragic death of Jesus.  The result being our New Testament message that Jesus was the promised future king who would bring Israel to greatness again.  BUT, since Israel was ruled by Rome at this time and since Rome destroyed the temple and scattered the Jewish people, any hope for nationhood was gone.  The followers of Jesus found comfort in understanding Jesus’ death as a perfect sacrifice for human sin.  The death of Jesus was so powerful that it appeased God to love all humanity and to forgive all who come to Jesus.  As I mentioned earlier, the leaders of the church found this message useful to control the masses through many centuries. 

Since the early followers of Jesus interpreted Jesus’ life to meet their spiritual and societal circumstances, we should do the same using the gospels as a resource for clues about Jesus’ earthly life. 

21^st Century individuals have great insights in many areas of our world and universe.  We have a lot of knowledge about the relationship between cause and effect.  With our much greater human population, we are having trouble learning to love one another and to live together.  We have devastated the earth, consumed its resources and put the earth in a survival crisis.  What can we learn from Jesus’ earthly life? 

We need to put aside the emphasis on Jesus’ divinity and how the writers of the gospels enhanced his human activities with miraculous stories. We can identify some aspects of Jesus’ activity that seem significant in his life.  Jesus was attracted to John the Baptizer’s message of repentance and forgiveness.  I conclude from this that Jesus was not from a privileged class but was one who felt left out.  Losers in society who have a conversion experience often become driven believers.  This seems to have been Jesus’ experience as he was attracted to John’s preaching and baptism.  Jesus’ baptism is described as a transforming moment and he is driven to a deserted area, where he empties himself to God and is captured by God’s spirit.  He announces his mission to bring God’s agenda of love and justice to earth—to bring the reign of God to earth. 

His teaching recorded in the gospels and his engagement with the poor and outcasts show us the way.  He challenges   political and religious leaders to change their oppressive ways and act justly.  And that is what I see as his challenge to us.  We are called to empty ourselves of those ambitions to advance by using and destroying others and the earth itself.  We are called to love: to love the life we have now, to love and care for others and everything in this  world on which human life depends.  The church’s mission should shift from worshipping a divine being, to equipping followers of Jesus to be the people of God who bring God’s reign of love to this earth.