Today's Scripture Reading (August 1, 2024): Revelation 22
In the early days of ministry, I
decided to take a Sunday and preach the "Sermon on the Mount." The
sermon is found in Matthew 5-7, and the idea was that I would memorize those
three chapters of the Bible and preach the words at the Sunday Worship
experiences just as they are in the Bible, nothing added or removed. Because I
wanted to sound a little different from the everyday words the people were
reading from their Bibles, I decided against memorizing the sermon in either of
the two most common translations in the church: the New International Version
or the King James Version. Instead, I chose to preach the words from Eugene
Peterson's "The Message." It would give the sermon a different, hopefully
fresh, feel.
And so, I worked that week just
memorizing the words. I worked on the inflection of my voice; I openly wondered
what Jesus might have sounded like as he preached the words 2000 years ago. Then,
I got up to speak that Sunday morning and asked the people to put their Bibles
and notepads away and just listen to the words as if they were hearing them for
the first time.
At the time, the church I attended
had two morning worship experiences, and I remember watching people scrambling
to find their notepads as I spoke in the first service. I admit I wanted to
stop and tell them that all of this was in the Bible; I wasn't saying anything
new.
After that first service, I was
walking through the foyer when I heard the first of a few complaints about the
service. The comment was, "I thought the Bible said that we weren't
supposed to add or take away from what the Bible says." I admit I smiled
and thought that maybe I needed to do some teaching on the difference between
the various translations and adding or removing things from the Bible.
More than that, the comment in
Revelation really does not apply to the whole Bible but rather just to the book
of Revelation. The idea of adding and removing books of the Bible was an
activity that the early church leaders routinely did as they tried to come up
with what we know now as the New Testament and the Tanakh or Hebrew Bible. Faith
leaders in the first three and half centuries after the death and resurrection
of Jesus conversed on which books should be included and which should be
excluded. And that conversation has never really stopped. Martin Luther
(1483-1546) made a passionate argument for removing the "Letter of James,"
calling it an "Epistle of Straw." Today, biblical experts often
discuss the books they may like or don't like or even their strength within our
biblical Canon.
But Revelation needs to stand as it
is. We will have disagreements about interpreting John's words, but we shouldn't
add or take away from them. John saw the vision, and we learn from his
experiences and even get to argue about what he saw and heard.
Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Genesis
1
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