the word and the Word

“You search the scriptures because you think in them you have eternal life; and it is they that testify on my behalf. Yet you refuse to come to me to have life.” (John 5:39-40, NRSV)

“You have your heads in your Bibles constantly because you think you’ll find eternal life there. But you miss the forest for the trees. These scriptures are all about me! And here I am, standing right before you, and you aren’t willing to receive from me the life you say you want.” (The Message)

Recently the comment came again in the midst of a vigorous give and take with a friend as we wrestled with a theological issue on which we disagree. It’s that shut down word when we’ve had enough, and she had had enough, looked at me and said in a dismissive tone, “Well, I’m going to stick with the bible.”

The comment is unfair, I think, because it makes the assumption of course that I am NOT sticking with the bible. It is arrogant, I think, because it’s preachy, saying that “I know what the bible says, and by the way, you don’t.” It is dismissive, I think, serving to just end any ongoing discussion. And, I want to argue most importantly, it is dangerous, because it puts the bible in the place of Jesus. The comment replaces Jesus as the standard for faith, doctrine, and conduct with the bible.

I know, I know that they are deeply connected. I get it. But they are not the same. There is the word (small w) and the Word (Jesus Christ, the Word made flesh). Reflect deeply on Jesus words above, who has just come through Samaria where he met the woman at the well. He’s back home in Cana, on the western shore of the Galilee Sea, and he’s in trouble, because word has spread that back in Jerusalem he healed a man on the sabbath. Now he’s home, and his family and friends are in an accusative mood. And according to the Law, according to the scripture, they are right in their indictment of him, because healing on the sabbath is work, and that’s strictly forbidden. To this Jesus says, “My Father is still working, and I am still working.” In essence, the people say to him, “Well, we’re going to stick with the bible.”

The words above are Jesus’ response to them. Read them, and read them again! His words and actions fly in the face of much of what scripture has to say — take for instance, talking to, touching and eating with a Samaritan woman, and staying in the neighborhood a few days. Will we “stick with the bible” — that expressly forbids all these actions — or “stick with Jesus”?

Please don’t get me wrong! I’m not arguing in any way that the word and the Word are opposites, and neither am I advocating for an understanding of scripture that is not chocked full of authority. the Bible is and will always be our book. But there is an order to things, as Jesus makes clear. The bible is not our source of life , but leads us to the Source, who is Jesus. So it is more appropriate for us to teach and form ourselves to say “I’ll stick with Jesus”.

This whole issue of the word and the Word is THE issue at the heart of most of our conflicts and schism in the Church, as we discern the issues of the day, most recently inclusion (or not). It’s quite easy to find and form a biblical view for a clear line of exclusion. At the same time, reading the gospels and following Jesus, and even more importantly, finding our new life in Jesus, inclusion of all categories of outsiders is the heart of the gospel. what to do?

Maybe the best way to say it is that the bible is authoritative but Jesus is the authority. Scripture testifies on his behalf.

What do you think?

Love From Here

Peter Hawkinson

Faithfulness and Time

Psalm 100:5 “For the Lord is good and His love endures forever; His faithfulness continues through all generations.“

They started yesterday. The workers arrived early to begin demolishing the two huge boilers that have served us well, kept us warm day by day, week after week, season after season, year after year since they were first turned on in 1963. That’s 60 years!

These inanimate machines have me thinking about faithfulness, and how faithfulness is attached to time. It’s a steady quality, dependable, trustworthy, reliable — and those things take time, which gives us repeated experiences which create trust in the present moment (or not!). Faithfulness is no blind draw, but a proven value with a track record we can trust.

I’m remembering Verna Fogel for her faithfulness. Verna taught our little ones for over 60 years. She got down on the floor with us, wrote notes of encouragement to kids and parents, and ordered her life, really, around what she knew to be her own call to minister the love of Jesus. She started something and stuck with it, week by week, year after year, for decades. Her loving presence was steady, dependable, trustworthy and reliable, so much so that we can’t help but call that space near the door to the parking lot “Miss Verna’s room” even though she left us for glory nine years ago. It was the combination of time, lengthy time with diligent, passionate, focused teaching that is Verna’s legacy. In her own family, Son Steve gathered our junior-highers (with dunkin donuts every week!) for decades himself, and now his son Eric does the same, faithfully. And Marilynn is about all things choir, following after her dad, Ollie… Helpful and servant-hearted in so many ways, over so many years.

Verna would often and repeatedly say to me, with Ollie smiling quietly at her side, “Just tell us about Jesus!”

Taking her example then, Verna’s life and ministry reflected a faithfulness finding it’s origin in the God of steadfast love, a love that takes shape and proves faithful over time and forms others for the same. When we sing to God “Great is Thy Faithfulness” we locate that faithfulness in time and in real history: “Summer and winter and springtime and harvest…a peace that endureth…strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow…morning by morning new mercies I see, all I have needed thy hand hath provided…” Time. And prior experience in that time, in that relationship.

I’m sure that faithfulness is underrated, because it’s not as flashy as other attributes. It’s more steady, coming to life in every season, and through the years. I wonder too in our modern culture of instant gratification and rapid change if it’s also overlooked. Our way of life these days almost won’t allow us a Miss Verna kind of “sticktoitiveness” that forms a faithful life, where we plant our lives down into God’s vineyard and get to work and stay at it in the same community for half a century. Whether in work or in church, we’re on the move. And there’s good things about that too!

I’m told that next week our new furnaces (plural) will arrive. They will be smaller and much more efficient. I only hope too that they will serve us faithfully for the next sixty years. And I’m thankful for life, and the power of the present even challenging moment when saturated with hope and trust in God’s faithfulness. It’s a gift! And a lifestyle I want to pursue for the rest of my days.

Thanks be to God!

PETER HAWKINSON

(This blog is dedicated to the memory of Verna and Ollie Fogel, and their son Steve, and in celebration of the ways their family continue faithfully to love and serve Winnetka Covenant Church!)

Faithfulness and Time

Psalm 100:5 “For the Lord is good and His love endures forever; His faithfulness continues through all generations.“

They started yesterday. The workers arrived early to begin demolishing the two huge boilers that have served us well, kept us warm day by day, week after week, season after season, year after year since they were first turned on in 1963. That’s 60 years!

These inanimate machines have me thinking about faithfulness, and how faithfulness is attached to time. It’s a steady quality, dependable, trustworthy, reliable — and those things take time, which gives us repeated experiences which create trust in the present moment (or not!). Faithfulness is no blind draw, but a proven value with a track record we can trust.

I’m remembering Verna Fogel for her faithfulness. Verna taught our little ones for over 60 years. She got down on the floor with us, wrote notes of encouragement to kids and parents, and ordered her life, really, around what she knew to be her own call to minister the love of Jesus. She started something and stuck with it, week by week, year after year, for decades. Her loving presence was steady, dependable, trustworthy and reliable, so much so that we can’t help but call that space near the door to the parking lot “Miss Verna’s room” even though she left us for glory nine years ago. It was the combination of time, lengthy time with diligent, passionate, focused teaching that is Verna’s legacy. In her own family, Son Steve gathered our junior-highers (with dunkin donuts every week!) for decades himself, and now his son Eric does the same, faithfully. And Marilynn is about all things choir, following after her dad, Ollie… Helpful and servant-hearted in so many ways, over so many years.

Verna would often and repeatedly say to me, with Ollie smiling quietly at her side, “Just tell us about Jesus!”

Taking her example then, Verna’s life and ministry reflected a faithfulness finding it’s origin in the God of steadfast love, a love that takes shape and proves faithful over time and forms others for the same. When we sing to God “Great is Thy Faithfulness” we locate that faithfulness in time and in real history: “Summer and winter and springtime and harvest…a peace that endureth…strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow…morning by morning new mercies I see, all I have needed thy hand hath provided…” Time. And prior experience in that time, in that relationship.

I’m sure that faithfulness is underrated, because it’s not as flashy as other attributes. It’s more steady, coming to life in every season, and through the years. I wonder too in our modern culture of instant gratification and rapid change if it’s also overlooked. Our way of life these days almost won’t allow us a Miss Verna kind of “sticktoitiveness” that forms a faithful life, where we plant our lives down into God’s vineyard and get to work and stay at it in the same community for half a century. Whether in work or in church, we’re on the move. And there’s good things about that too!

I’m told that next week our new furnaces (plural) will arrive. They will be smaller and much more efficient. I only hope too that they will serve us faithfully for the next sixty years. And I’m thankful for life, and the power of the present even challenging moment when saturated with hope and trust in God’s faithfulness. It’s a gift! And a lifestyle I want to pursue for the rest of my days.

Thanks be to God!

PETER HAWKINSON

(This blog is dedicated to the memory of Verna and Ollie Fogel, and their son Steve, and in celebration of the ways their family continue faithfully to love and serve Winnetka Covenant Church!)