Terms of Engagement

I.        Vows of Affirmation

“We devote our daily life to God, and to serving our neighbors as images of God”

6. I will daily read the Scriptures and meditate on the witness of Jesus Christ.

Why this messy holy book? So many different voices, so many different genres, so many different pictures of God. For Christian people who believe Jesus calls us to a peacemaking discipleship that is always nonviolent, the Bible doesn’t always seem to yield a message in line with that calling. So why search for God in this messy book (anthology, really)?

Pastor Barbara Brown Taylor describes untidy scripture,  “God’s story has its own twists and turns, its own chapters of rage and repentance along with some magnificent cruelties, but it is above all the story of a God who does not break promises, a God who entered into covenant with humankind and who remains loyal to that bond, no matter what we may think of its terms…That is the God who walks toward me in the Bible…The Bible is the book in which the terms of that relationship are explored” (The Preaching Life, 53)

Our central confession is that Jesus—not anyone or anything else—is our Lord, our ruling authority. And when we see that Jesus himself was profoundly shaped by the Hebrew scriptures and that the earliest Christians searched those same texts trying to figure out what God had done through Jesus and how to order their lives accordingly, we are compelled to do likewise. In their example we see the pages of the Bible as the best way to discover God’s reconciling ways shown in Jesus. 

But in today’s world the reliability of God’s true story in scripture has been challenged in many ways. As people of faith we continue to read the Bible but are not always so sure what parts of our lives it should be allowed to shape. In the realm of peacemaking, for instance, we have wondered if perhaps universal human rights or psycho-social theories or “religion” broadly understood are better foundations for our nonviolence.

In the end we need to choose which foundations will form us. And even if we don’t conciously choose, we will be formed by some set of stories.  Respected Christian Old Testament scholar Walter Brueggemann reminds us, “There are no textless people. Everyone has a text, known or unknown. It may be hidden from us, powerful and authoritative, even if unrecognized.” Brueggeman says it may be a philosophical or political text,

“Or it may be a very local text, like ‘My Dad always said.’ Or it may be a narrative construal of an old ecstasy or old hurt…That old happening has become a text that powers and shapes one’s life. Most of our texts are hidden and uncriticized…We are learning the hard way that when the church scuttles its text, other texts readily intrude. We cannot tolerate textlessness very long. So now we have on our hands in the church alien texts that sound authoritative, texts of secular humanism, texts of free-market advocacy, … texts of individual subjectivity, all of which are idolatrous texts that are pitiful when constrasted with the dense, rich playfulness of our [biblical] text.” (The Word Militant: Preaching a Decentering Word, 41-42)

 As we seek to be shaped by God revealed in Jesus, we commit to the Bible as our guide in today’s vow of nonviolence: “I will daily read the Scriptures and meditate on the witness of Jesus Christ.”

For Reflection and Action:

Take several chapters from one of the Gospels as your meditation in scripture today.

1.  Name your uncertainties about scripture as a primary access to God.  Now, name as many of the reasons as possible for why you trust scripture as your guide. 
2. What are the stories and “texts” that form you (and your peacemaking)?  What texts and stories does your church follow? 
3. What would you describe as your guiding principles (and how are they shaped by scripture, church tradition, worship, personal experience, human rights, democracy, family stories, news, documentaries, movies)?

Prayer Focus (“Lord, you sometimes speak” from Hymnal: A Worship Book #594)

1) Lord, you sometimes speak in wonders,

unmistakable and clear;

mighty signs to prove your presence,
 overcoming doubt and fear.

 O Lord, you sometimes speak in wonders.  

2) Lord, you sometimes speak in whispers,
still and small and scarcely heard;

only those who want to listen
catch the all-important word.

O Lord, you sometimes speak in whispers.  

3) Lord, you sometimes speak in silence,
through our loud and noisy day.  

We can know and trust you better
when we quietly wait and pray.
O Lord, you sometimes speak in silence.  

4) Lord, you surely speak in scripture –

words that summon from the page,

shown and taught us by your Spirit
with fresh light for every age.

O Lord, you surely speak in scripture.  

  
5) Lord, you always speak in Jesus,

always new yet still the same.  

Teach us now more of our Savior;

make our lives display his name.  

O Lord, you  always speak in Jesus.