Sermon for February 24, 2008
I'd like to start this sermon off -- just as we typically start off our Presbyterian worship services -- with a confession. Don't worry, I'm not exactly expecting an assurance of forgiveness.
The confession is this: I'm not a biblical literalist. I do value the Bible a great deal, and like the Presbyterian church, I affirm that it is the "unique and authoritative witness to Jesus Christ in the church universal" (that's a mouthful), but that doesn't mean I see the bible as an exhaustive encyclopedia, a perfectly accurate history textbook, an up-to-date road map, or an infallible instruction manual. I know there are many people out there see the bible as all these things, and if they find that perspective useful, who am I to say they are wrong? -- all I can say is that for myself, I don't share that perspective. And I'm not so sure it was the perspective of the ancient Hebrews who first recorded some of the oldest books of the bible, either.
They certainly didn't share our modern obsession with history, observable fact, the scientific method, and objective truth. These are contributions from Greek and Roman culture, and later from the French Age of Enlightenment.
It's true that Genealogy was important to the Ancient Hebrews, because they valued connection and shared heritage (which is not exactly the same as our concept of "history"). They also valued stories, because stories passed down from generation to generation were the primary method of teaching and preserving important moral values.
I think the ancient Hebrews would have found puzzling some of our modern speculation over "where the garden of Eden actually was" or "How did Adam and Eve alone populate an entire world" or "did Noah really fit every single species in the Ark?" They might have looked at us, rolled their eyes, and said: "You're missing the point."
Now don't misunderstand me here: I'm not saying, "the stories in the Bible are all made up and they're not true." That would be missing the point as well. The earliest stories in the Bible, including today's scripture passage, make up what anthropologists recognize as Judeo-Christian Mythology. A myth, contrary to popular misunderstanding, is not something that is "fake" or "untrue." A myth is simply a story (and all cultures have them) that is so old it is unverifiable one way or another. It cannot be proven true, but it cannot be proven false. It's purpose is to explain the origins of a people, to convey their understanding of the universe, and pass on their collected wisdom to their children. And so the "truth" of the ancient Bible stories lies in the wisdom we can glean from them.
Unfortunately, our 21st century minds have a real hard time getting past the mere surface-level concept of a man hitting a rock with a stick in the middle of the desert, because God told him to, and producing enough water for two million people? Ok...let's be careful not to miss the point, here.
