MetaCatholic

I clearly touched a nerve and said what others were also thinking with yesterday’s post The Bible doesn’t say. Among the responses the one I found most interesting and sympathetically challenging was Sean the Baptist’s. He asks:

My question here relates, I guess, to the ways in which we might creatively relate the provisional senses of language that Doug calls for here, with the proclamatory dimensions of preaching in particular. In the end I think the preacher has a responsibility to say ‘this is what the Bible is saying…’. If this is modified to read ‘this is what I think the Bible is saying’ - does the preaching lose its rhetorical power?

Now I can’t exactly vouch for what I say in practice, since I don’t write, record or transcribe my sermons. I suspect that there are times when I have said (and probably will say) a sentence beginning “the BIble says …”.

However, it stands as one of many ways of phrasing things. I will also introduce sentences with (and this is not an exhaustive list)

• Matthew says …
• Luke seems to be teaching us …
• Chronicles gives us an alternative way of looking at …
• The story of Jonah seems to be aimed at …
• John presents a Jesus who …
• A main thrust of scripture seems to be …
• How do we discern the word of the Lord in …
• The gospels teach …
• The church proclaims …

Now in the context of many such statements, I think that “the Bible says …” is much less likely to be understood as a claim to reading without interpretation, because I encourage my congregation to think along with me around and with the scriptures, rather than simply tell them what to think about them.

I rather agree with Tim’s comment that we can’t (of course) always qualify our statements out of existence. But too many preachers leave the impression that there is no qualification, interpretation, disagreement, or any other option open, far less any thinking engagement needed. “The Bible says …” mentality remains one to be resisted, even if we sometimes employ the phrase. Interpretation needs to come out of the preacher’s closet.