Growing up, I always heard the Bible talked about as a window to the Heavens,
a telescope for viewing and studying God,
or even more than this,
the Bible was a love letter from God to us.
This read of the Bible still feels very static and one-way to me,
as though the book’s sole purpose is for God to reach out to us
with unquestionable truths recorded in ink for our guidance thousands of years later.
In addition to completely overlooking the complex history of translation and transcription which has shaped the Bible as we know it today,
this reading also misjudges us as readers;
it implies we can be perfectly objective receivers of the eternal and almighty,
but humans are not known for our objectivity.
So yeah, the telescope, window, and love letter analogies aren’t that helpful,
but what if the Bible is really a mirror?
People have this amazing tendency to project ourselves into the literature we read, the films we watch, and even the art we view. We’re drawn to characters with whom we sympathize, and we always pull out moral messages relevant to our lives. Two different viewers can have completely different takes on the symbolism of Pablo Picasso’s Guernica or the music of Patti Smith or the end of Inception; in the same vein, two different preachers can write completely different sermons based on the same passage of scripture.
So instead of assuming we’re objective recipients of God’s words,
what if we acknowledge (and even lean into) the reality of our subjectivity?
What if we admit we read ourselves and our current cultural moment into the Bible?
How might this change the way we interact with this sacred book and the world we inhabit?
You will always find what you’re looking for when you open the Bible:
If you’re looking for love, you’ll find it.
If you’re looking for hatred, you’ll find it.
If you’re looking for advice, you’ll find it.
If you’re looking for judgment against your neighbor, you’ll find it.
This doesn’t happen because the Bible is somehow magic,
but because it reflects our own thoughts back to us,
perhaps better than any other text.
So what are you reading when you open the pages of a Bible,
and what does that say about what you’re looking for?
Careful now, you are about to pull out that card at the base of the house that will make is collapse. When I realized the points you make here, I likewise realized that I could no longer be an Evangelical. The conquest narrative in the Hebrew scriptures forces us to choose between an understanding that God is capable of violent disregard of innocent life of the other in favor of the chosen or that victors always write the histories and “God told me to” is a pretty strong excuse. I have come to view the Bible as a human story about our search for God. It shows human flaws, but also shows an earnest desire to grow. I agree that it is indeed a mirror, that we find what we look for. That, in fact, is why I feel strongly that it must be read in community. Now, the danger there is when that community becomes an echo chamber and falls for the gnostic temptation to claim that there is only one way to interpret the message and all you need to do is pray about it and you will come to see it their way. This faith journey is a messy business where a little humility goes a long way.