Meddling

Christians often say they want their clergy to preach the Bible and when he or she attempts to preach from the Bible, they say he or she has gone from preaching the Gospel to the practice of meddling.  This statement implies that somehow or another the Bible can yield “right” or “good” or “true” or “ultimate” answers on every subject which apply to everyone. 

What, for example, does the Bible say about wealth?  It says many things.  What did Jesus say to the rich young ruler and what did he mean when he suggested that it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than it is for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven?  Does anyone really believe that?  It goes against the grain.  Don’t we think the rich are fortunate and smart and lucky (otherwise why aren’t they poor?) Don’t we all want to be rich enough to live comfortably? We certainly don’t think of the rich as sinful people. They  are just ordinary people of means (like you and me) living comfortably.  Yes, just like you and me, who are also “rich.”

The point is that the Bible does not give “right” or “ultimate” answers on any issue.  What the Bible does do, through its history, stories, teachings, prophets, teachers, and Jesus, is to help us live “humanly”—and in “community.”  The Bible dares us to become more fully human.

The Bible, for example, helps us see the obvious disparity in living between one man having a billion dollars and a billion people having scarcely one dollar.  This disparity is irreconcilable with the biblical ethic which assumes “that human beings are brothers and sisters, living together on the same borrowed earth, and trying to love one another for the mutual benefit of doing so.”

The Bible, then, has much more to do with “meddling” in your life and practical affairs than it does with having “right” or “good” or “true” or “ultimate” answers on every subject that can be applied to every person and every situation.    

I remember an impoverished parishioner in West Virginia refusing to sing “Take my silver and my gold; not a mite would I withhold…” in the second verse of the hymn, “Take My Life, And Let It Be.”   He said he was willing to give all else, but he needed every little bit of “silver and gold" he had—and he and his family really did need it—all of it!