Word and Flesh

The fact is, I don't put a lot of stock in the Bible. On the whole, it's 2000 years old and doesn't apply much to us today. Finding the value in this text takes time, work and more brains than I can often muster. But my problem is not with the text itself, but with the clout that one book holds. Because the book begins with creation, and ends with rapture, it's all too finalized. The mistake is that the Bible, which should be more focused on questions than answers, has too clear a beginning and ending. There's no room for mystery, no room to strech your arms, no room for that great question, or even defiant shout of "We really don't know what's going on!"

With that I charge the Nicene Council with high treason against religious thought. The Nicene Council long long ago decided that it was about time we sat down and figured out just what the word of god should look like. They had a stack of written works about Jesus, or at least loosely connected to him, and decided to put it all together. And hence we have the Bible. It kind of makes the whole "divine inspiration" thought pretty weak. I have trouble believing that even god could combat the group-think of a bunch of stuffy, dead religious dudes.

But by putting such an emphasis on these selected texts, we put a stopper on the idea that anything that has come since then could be sacred. Even the most liberal of Christians emphasize the Bible before other written works.

The Bible at a basic level is a collection of writing by people who struggled with god, spirituality and their own existance. The trouble is we closed the door to anyone who came along afterwards. We essentially decided that the spiritual struggles of people who died 2000 years ago are more important than anyone who came afterwards.

Hebrew and Christian scripture has a concept of "The Word." We've all heard the phrase "the word became flesh." The word, in this concept, is not Jesus, it's not the clout of religious scripture, it is a living and breathing and changing thing. I had a professor try to explain it, and as he did he pantomimed it as if he was holding a pulsing heart in his hand. A church in the northwest wisely posted on their website "The word became flesh, not book." What this all says to me is that the word is not dead, it continues to grow and change. People continue to struggle with god, and continue to think, write and talk. That's the word.

I want the idea that the Bible ended to be abolished. There should not be a bible, but a library, filled with books and thinkers. I want to give spiritual authority to anyone who thinks about these things. I want it understood that none of the authors of the Bible possessed anything that we do not possess today.

I heard a sermon once in which the preacher said that if we are arguing over whether Mary was a virgin or not, or whether the birth of Jesus as it was told really happened, we're missing the point. The point of Christmas, he said, was the humility and the humanity of God. I think this applies here. The authority of thought and word is in our hands. It's ours, we have the right to speak with conviction about belief. It's the humanity of God, and it's valid, even moreso than the Bible, because it is being said now.

*insert the sound of Aaron stepping off his soapbox here*

sidenote: My brother and I will be on the air Thursday at 4 a.m. We'll be playing the best music of 2005 for two hours. We're going to try and record the show and post it here once we can figure out how. Stop by and listen. Just click on the KWVA link on the sidebar of this site.

another sidenote: My friend just introduced me to Degrassi:The Next Generation. My life is in fact complete. Old characters have returned as teachers, and a few even spawned new characters who are attending the school (That's right folks, it's Joey P. Jeremiah. The "P" is for "parent.") Oh the drama! Within just a few episodes of the series my man Joey is saving his dead wife's son (that's Joey W. Jeremiah. The "W" is for "widower") from an abusive father (that's Joey I. Jeremiah, the "I" is for "intervention"). Be still my quickly beating heart.