Interpreting and Interpreted

When I was growing up, my family lived in Southern California. However, my father's family lived in and around Lubbock, TX. So, we made frequent treks back to Texas. When we arrived at my grandparents’ house, I could hear my grandmother say something like, “Could someone carry me to Piggly Wiggly?  I’m fixin’ to shop for sweet milk and light bread.”  I would say, to myself, “What did my Granny Kelley just say?”  Several thoughts occurred to me:

  • Toto, we’re not in California anymore.

  • Our family is separated by a common language.

  • I need an interpreter!

As I mentioned in my last post, interpretation is not an option, interpreting it well is.  When we confront a “foreign” language, a foreign culture, and complex contexts, we can use help. If I needed help just in going from California to Texas, how much more does this apply to reading the Bible.

Let’s imagine that we’re confident in the interpretation of a passage of Scripture. What’s next?  Too often, the next step has been debating with those whose interpretation is different.  Maybe, at some point, we need to contend in love, but this should not be next.  Perhaps, we feel ready to teach a class or even preach a sermon on this passage, but we are not.  Yes, we may have interpreted the text, but have we allowed it to interpret us?

Our church family is entering the ancient Christian tradition of Lent and doing so by reading Scripture.  These passages are not given to us, so that we can condemn others, or virtue signal to them that we are holy.  They are God’s gracious challenges to be read to “correct, rebuke and encourage” us, before we point them to others.  The reading for today is an example.  Joel sends the Word of God to people facing devastation by a locust invasion.  Their future food supply was in doubt, now what were they to do?

Joel 2:12 “Even now,” declares the Lord,
    “return to me with all your heart,
    with fasting and weeping and mourning.”
13 Rend your heart
    and not your garments.
Return to the Lord your God,
    for he is gracious and compassionate,
slow to anger and abounding in love,
    and he relents from sending calamity. (NIV)

We, too, face crises ahead and may ask what we are to do?  If we let this passage interpret us, we (not others) will return to the LORD in genuine repentance. We will not settle for our version of the performance art of tearing our clothes.  Instead, you and I will be cut to the heart, and take heart in the Lord’s gracious, loving, goodness.  We will do this if we let God’s Word interpret us. 

The writer of the lengthy sermon we call Hebrews, sees the possibility of his fellow disciples, like the exodus generation, turning away from the Lord.  He calls on them to submit to the Word of God, which includes the Old Testament, apostolic teaching, and especially the living Word of Jesus.

Hebrews 4:12 For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. 13 Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account. (NIV)

Here, the Word is not a sword wielded against others, but God’s healing scalpel used in open-heart surgery—our hearts.  That is, it interprets us for our good.

As in my last blog, let me speak of the Holy Spirit.  The Word is living and active, not because it is printed on paper, but because God still breathes through it.  If we are open and our hearts soft, the Holy Spirit directs the scalpel of the Word, forming Christ within us—“…filled with Thy Spirit, ‘till all shall see, Christ only, always, living in me.”