One day, my father sent me to town to pick up a load
of lumber and other supplies for a shed we were building. Everything Pops wanted was on a written list
that he gave me.
I drove into
the lumber yard, handed the list to the warehouse manager, and said, “Buford
sent me to get this stuff for the shed we’re building.”
The manager read the list silently and barked instructions
to his crew. All loaded up, the manager
read Pops’s list back to me, pointing to the items on the truck. It was all there, just like he read it.
When I got home, Pops met me outside. He looked into
the bed of the truck and went off! I don’t
remember which part of the order was wrong, but something was not what he’d
asked for.
I quickly----very quickly---- explained how this fiasco
could not possibly be my fault since I had handed his list to the warehouse
manager who confirmed every item on the list before I left the lumberyard.
Pops led me into the house. I stood sweating in the center of the living
room while he called the lumberyard, got the manager and interrogated him. Through the pounding of my pulse in my ears,
all I made out clearly was, “I don’t care how YOU would build a shed. It’s not your shed I’m building. I know what I want for my own shed. Next time just send what I put on the damn
paper!”
Pops hung up the phone, and then he went off on me.
After a long, long, long profanity-laden
lecture/tirade/verbal whooping, Pops
looked at me and growled, “This time. When you get out there, you read my list for
yourself. Don’t let them change my instructions
and don’t you bring back anything less, anything more, or anything other than
what I. WROTE. DOWN.”
God sent us written instructions by the prophets and apostles. But we
the Church, the earthly managers of His kingdom, have gotten into the habit of
looking at God’s written instructions and saying, “That’s not how I would build
a world. That’s not what I’d prohibit in
a democratic society. That’s not what I
would require of people if I were the head of the body.”
So, even though we can plainly see what’s written on
the paper, we change the directions.
We reform and revise Biblical truth because deep
down we don’t think that God really knows what He’s doing.
God says, “Keep these 10 commandments.”
We say, “You only need 3 or 4 of those.”
God say, “Jesus is the only way to salvation.”
We say, “There are many paths to Heaven.”
God says, “Be holy.”
We say, “Sin responsibly.”
We change up the truth because we think that our
plans make more sense than His.
And that’s the real problem. The reason why so many Christians (including
an increasing number of Christian clergy and theologians) reject the inerrancy
or reliability of the Bible is that deep down, in a place they don’t talk about
or admit exists, a lot of Christians are afraid that the canonized Bible
actually IS the Word of God. We’re
afraid that Scripture accurately relates the words that God breathed into the
ears of His chosen prophets and apostles because the instructions God sent are
not the way WE would build a world.
We’re afraid that the Bible is accurate and God is
wrong.
We’re idiots.
It really doesn’t matter how you or I would
construct a plan of salvation. The Bible
does not describe OUR plan.
It really doesn’t matter if you or I think charity, forgiveness,
humility, hospitality, service, self-sacrifice, and personal holiness are all necessary
for being part of a church. It’s not OUR
church. It’s God’s church and God put
those items on His list.
Matthew 25: 44 “Then
they also will answer Him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry or thirsty
or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to You?’ 45 Then
He will answer them, saying, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did not
do it to one of the least of
these, you did not do it to
Me.’
Mark 11: 25
“And whenever you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone, forgive
him, that your Father in heaven may also forgive you your trespasses. 26 But
if you do not forgive, neither will your Father in heaven forgive your
trespasses.”
James 1: 27 Pure
and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and
widows in their trouble, and to
keep oneself unspotted from the world.
Our job as Christians is not to load up the church
with the stuff we think ought to be on God’s list. Our job is to thoughtfully read
the instructions for ourselves and make sure that we do what’s on the paper!
The manager in the lumberyard had intentionally misread
the instructions. That was his
fault. But, I was at fault, too.
I had access to the same written words as the
manager, but I didn’t read them for myself.
Even though the manager had the
training and the title, I was supposed to check behind him based on my father’s
list.
I was supposed to say, “Pastor, that was a wonderful
sermon, but you said something that didn’t sound quite right. Would you sit down with me and explain from
the Bible why you said ________?”
I was supposed to say, “Reverend, I read something
in the Bible that I don’t agree with. I
know that it’s true because it’s in God’s Word, but I’m still conflicted about it. Will you show me the other scriptures that
talk about this and help me study and pray to a place of understanding?”
The leader of the house and I were supposed to have dialogue the way the
Apostle Philip had dialogue with an Ethiopian visitor in Acts chapter 8.
Acts 8: 30 So Philip
ran to him, and heard him reading the prophet Isaiah, and said, “Do you
understand what you are reading?”
31 And he said, “How
can I, unless someone guides me?” And he asked Philip to come up and sit with
him.
At the lumberyard, it was easier and faster for me
to just let the manager do all the work and then take his word for what my
father’s words were.
It’s always easier and simpler to just believe whatever
the nearest or most comforting preacher tells you. But if he/she loads you up with the wrong
stuff, YOU are still the one who has to bring your wrong life back to your
Father.
And yes, some of our Father’s instructions are hard sayings. Sometimes we wonder Who can understand it? (John 6: 60)
Doesn’t change your responsibility one bit. We are each responsible for our individual
handling, mishandling, or neglect of God’s Word.
The Apostle Peter said that his beloved brother Paul had written some things hard to understand, which untaught and unstable people
twist to their own destruction, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures. (2 Peter 3: 16)
Didn’t change the church’s responsibility to engage
those difficult passages and ask the difficult questions.
The first questions we have to ask is not whether or
not we trust the Bible. The question
is: Do we trust God?
When the Word of God says what we would not have
said, do we conclude that God made a mistake?
Or, do we accept that God knows what the crap He’s
doing, and we ought to just do what’s on the paper?
If we answer that question correctly, then we can
engage every other question about Scripture with a sense of hope.
The Bible is valid and reliable, because God is
valid and reliable. We trust that
Scripture has come down to us with integrity because God has watched over the
transmission of Scripture through the ages and delivered it to us the way He
wants it to be delivered.
How is that possible when human beings are so
fallible and prone to mistranslation?
Because we trust that God is smarter than we
are.
And if you don’t believe that, then that’s why you
can’t believe the Bible.
Isaiah 55: 8 “For My
thoughts are not your thoughts,
Nor are
your ways My ways,” says the Lord.
9 “For as the heavens are higher than the
earth,
So are My ways higher than your ways,
And My thoughts than your thoughts.
---Anderson
T. Graves II is a writer, community organizer
and consultant for education, ministry, and rural leadership development.
Rev. Anderson T. Graves II is pastor of
Hall Memorial CME Church in Montgomery, Alabama, executive director of the
Substance Abuse Youth Networking Organization
(SAYNO) and director of rural leadership development for
the National Institute for Human Development (
NIHD).
If this message helps or touches you, please help
support this ministry. Send a donation of any amount by check or money order.
Mail all contributions to :
Hall Memorial CME Church
541 Seibles Road
Montgomery, AL 36116
