"Fundamentalist Blubockers?"

Guest Sermon Series

Rev. Robert D. Shofner, Jr

St. John's UCC Boonville Indiana

            I believe that the Bible is the inerrant Word of God, which means I believe it is perfectly accurate in its present form.  Many of my colleagues, when they hear me say that, accuse me of being a fundamentalist.  I am not.  Fundamentalists believe that the Bible is to be taken literally at all times.  But that is another BluBlocker (remember those?).  The Bible is a divine library filled with history, law, poetry, songs, stories, letters, parables, drama, philosophy, sermons – and more.  We don’t want to take every word literally.

            The truth is, the fundamentalist who claims he or she does so is lying.  Just ask her if she takes Psalm 18:2 literally, “The Lord is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer.”  Does he really think God is a “rock,” or does he think the word “rock” is metaphorical?  She will answer metaphorical, which proves she is not a true literalist. 

            Like all of us, fundamentalists make their decisions about what is literal and what is not based on their own biases.  Classic example: the Bible commands people to “Greet one another with a holy kiss” (Romans 16:16).  Simple enough, right?  Doesn’t seem to be metaphorical.  If fundamentalists take the Bible literally, why not just obey it?  Sure, it would seem weird at first, but eventually we would get used to men kissing other men, women kissing other women.  We could replace the handshake and hug with kissing after church!  Maybe that could be a witnessing tool!  “Oh yeah.  That St. John’s Church … they really believe the Bible.  It’s so cool!  They kiss each other all the time, praise the Lord!”  Hey, it’s God’s command from His inerrant Word, right?  But I can almost guarantee that many will argue that texts like these need to be filtered through the context of the culture in which they were written. 

            But wait a minute!  How can one justify ignoring the commands of certain texts, appealing to the cultural context, while demanding others be obeyed without using the same analysis?  BluBlockers. 

            This is a huge problem in our churches, both so-called conservative and liberal.  Too many on both sides of the aisle refuse to acknowledge that human pretensions, biases, cultures, and prejudices impact our ability to interpret and understand Scripture.  This is why one needs to humbly and suspiciously approach the Bible.  Readers must cultivate humility in their hearts and be suspicious of their own penchant to wear BluBlockers.  They need to acknowledge that a literal reading of the Bible can be a dangerous oversimplification.  The same is true with those who hold a purely metaphorical reading.  The true meaning of a biblical text is often more complicated to unearth. 

            Christ followers want to be more like a guy I once knew by the name of Jerry.  Jerry was color blind.  He told me that anytime he picked out his own clothes, people stared.  When he drove, he had to be extra careful because he couldn’t tell the difference between a red light and a green light, other than its position on the pole.  I was surprised to learn that.  When I remarked how well he concealed his challenge, he said, “That’s because I don’t trust myself.  If I did, you would have known it the day you met me – I would have been the one dressed like a clown.  But I learned early on that if I don’t ask for help, I’m in trouble.”

            More people in our churches should admit they need help when it comes to negotiating scripture.

            J.I. Packer writes: “[In] approach[ing] scripture with minds already formed by the mass of accepted opinions and viewpoints with which we have come into contact, in both the Church and the world . . . It is easy to be unaware that it has happened; it is hard even to begin to realize how profoundly tradition in this sense has molded us. . . . We may never assume the complete rightness of our own established ways of thought and practice and excuse ourselves the duty of testing and reforming them.” 

            Christians should be very suspicious of their understanding of the Scriptures.  This is especially true when reading prophetic segments.  For example, if you think God directed Bible prophecy toward Americans more than Libyans, Afghans, or Sudanese, the end-times verses will read differently to you.  But if you are a Christian from the Sudan (many of whom are currently having their property seized and their children taken from them), you may think the great tribulation is taking place now and that you have already met the armies of the antichrist.

            Among the most popular topics among evangelicals is the subject of the end-times or last days.  Talk about the return of Jesus Christ often gets people motivated to serve.  But that kind of motivation isn’t healthy when people get excited about the return of Christ based on current events that are interpreted inappropriately.

            In 1988 a booklet came out titled 88 Reasons Why the Rapture Will Be in 1988.  Tens of thousands of sincere believers bought that little book and made it central to their lives.  People I knew where passing the book out to relatives, friends, coworkers and neighbors.  They slapped bumper stickers on their cars reading: Warning: In case of Rapture, this car will be unoccupied.  The booklet created quite a stir.  I had been around the block quite a few times by 1988, so I wasn’t nearly as taken with the idea.  I remember telling those I pastored at the time, “Don’t get too excited.  Jesus said no one would know the exact time or hour of his return!  I hate to pop your end-times bubble, but I have some plans for 1989.”

            When Jesus didn’t come back, the author came out with another work with a title of 89 Reasons Why the Rapture Will Be in 1989.  It didn’t sell nearly as well.  People who got all jacked up from the first book were disappointed and embarrassed after Jesus didn’t return in 1988.  Some even slipped away from the Lord.  Why?  Talking about Jesus’ return the way Chicken Little talked about the falling sky always yields less-than-favorable results.

            Instead of forcing obscure texts onto modern news stories, wouldn’t it be better to spend energy trying to inspire people to long for Christ’s return?

            When we read the New Testament, we get the idea that the early church expected Jesus to return at any moment – and that was 2,000 years ago!  Why would those Christians talk about the return of Jesus in a way that suggested it could happen at any moment?  The answer may be found in Paul’s comment that God rewards those “who have longed for his appearing” (2 Timothy 4:8).  God wants His children to think about, dream about, and long for the return of Jesus Christ.

            Honestly, until recently, I hardly ever did that.  There were too many things to get done … ministry, family, fun.  But as I’ve gotten older, and have learned many hard lessons, and have mourned with those who have mourned, and rejoiced with those who have rejoiced, and have read and studied scripture and many books … now I long for Christ’s return … because I want to see His face … I want to go home. 

            Before He left, Jesus said, “Do not let your hearts be troubled.  I am going … to prepare a place for you. … I will come back and take you to be with Me that you also may be where I am” (John 14:1).  Listen.  This planet, in its fallen state, is not our home.  At best, it’s just a motel room.  Longing for the return of Jesus needs to be based on the truth that He has made a home for believers and is coming to get them – not based on some prophecy expert’s dubious revelation.  It is said of the saints of old, “they were longing for a better country – a heavenly one.  Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them” (Hebrews 11:16). 

Go ahead and peek through that set of BluBlockers!  Personally, I hope it’s an improved version of San Diego! 

Now, let’s talk about good BluBlockers.  Jesus wore several pairs.  And we’d have a much more positive impact on the world if we wore the same lenses Jesus did.  One of Jesus’ pair of BluBlockers saw the goodness of God everywhere.  When He looked at things like the sunshine or rain, He saw God’s goodness.  When speaking about God’s incautious goodness to humanity He said, “Your Father in heaven … causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous” (Matthew 5:45). 

Another good pair of BluBlockers we should wear is knowing that God’s love is everywhere.  God is lovingly chasing us even when there is no good reason to do so.  When the Psalmist caught a glimpse of the love and favor God had for him, he cried, “This is too much, too wonderful – I can’t take it all in!”  (Psalm 139:17).  And neither can we.

God’s love may resemble the natural kindness and love that families and couples share; but it plunges far deeper, and it is way more unconditional and deathless.  This kind of love is so “out of the box” for human understanding that Paul prayed his friends would have the “power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is (Ephesians 3:18).  It takes “power to understand” God’s love and grace toward us; God has to help us see it.

I totally get how some think all this is too good to be true.  How can God be so reckless about giving to us when we are so good at being so bad?  But that is exactly what God is like.  We matter to Him, and there’s nothing we can do to alter that.  Now that’s a sweet pair of BluBlockers!

One of my favorite BluBlockers is knowing that God made each of us on purpose.  The Bible says that before time – in eternity – God imagined every individual.  This means He manipulated the odds through history to make sure we got here.  Scripture asserts that God started from the first humans and chose the “times set” for each of us to appear in history and the “exact places” where we would be born (Acts 17:26).  The psalmist declared, “All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be” (Psalm 139:16).  To God, this isn’t a world of the “survival of the fittest” – it is a world for the predestined.  He picked us.  And He has a plan for us.  This means we were a forethought in God’s mind, we are not here by chance, and, in a very real way, we are a dream come true for God.  This also means that the other people in our world – whether they agree with us about God or not – are likewise here by design.

Scripture goes so far to say God managed our growth while we were in our mother’s womb (Psalm 139:13) – our physicality and unique blend of personality were created on purpose.  We were chosen to show up on this planet.  The Christian story claims you and I are not accidents; we are on-purpose beings that God placed in the world as unique characters in His unfolding story.  Walking through life looking out this pair of BluBlockers will change the tone of our lives and impact how we live and how we feel about ourselves … and others.

If we approached the world with these good BluBlockers on, not only would our own views be better, but those who encounter us would have a much clearer picture of who God really is.

To wrap this up …

I learned over 40 years of riding a motorcycle to drive suspiciously.  I watch the road.  I am suspicious that other drivers may run over me, so I drive defensively.  Likewise, when I read the Bible, I am suspicious that I have biases (some I’m not even aware of), so I try to be humble and watchful.

Christians need to challenge one another’s BluBlockers – to question things more; to use common sense; to point out how opinions predispose us to judgments and how prejudice, closed-mindedness, and bigotry invariably produce destructive BluBlockers.  I always go to DEFCON whenever I hear a friend say, “The Lord showed me that this verse means …” or, “It says in the Bible …” and then precedes to tell me something that doesn’t stand up against common sense or historical and informed interpretation of Scripture.  More often than not, it isn’t the Lord at all – it’s the person’s own destructive pair of “I have unique insights” BluBlockers.

History is full of examples of people using biblical texts to justify the denigration or persecution or disenfranchising of others – all while considering themselves to be true bearers of the uncompromised “Word of God.”  Watch out!  Always approach Scripture with the awareness that you are wearing BluBlockers.  If you do so, you will have a great shot at keeping out of the land of weirdness and finding the “endurance and the encouragement of the Scriptures” (Romans 15:4) that bring us hope.

Let’s pray.

Heavenly Father, thank You for Your Word which reveals all truth.  We ask that You humble our hearts that we may admit to wearing our own pair of BluBlockers.  Enable our minds to clearly see.  Convict us of our sin whenever we fall into prejudices, arrogance, and demeaning behavior toward others.  Help us to live knowing and loving You, and loving our neighbors as we love ourselves.  Let our light shine so as not to blind others, but to reveal Your glory to them.

And the people said, “Amen.”