Trinity Sunday, Year A

May 18, 2008

    Reading Difficult Texts with the God of
    Love and Peace

We all read Bible passages in the light of our own experiences, concerns and locations in society. It is not surprising that interpretations of the Bible which seem life-giving to some readers will be experienced by other readers as harmful or oppressive. What about these passages that are used to speak of the concept of the Trinity?

This week's lectionary Bible passages:

Genesis 1:1-2:4a; Psalm 8; 2 Corinthians 13:11-13; Matthew 28:16-20

“Despite the desire of some Christians to marginalize those who are different, our faith calls us to embrace the diversity of our personhood created by God and celebrate it.”

Bentley
de Bardelaben

“People often are unable to see ‘the goodness of all creation’ because of our narrow view of what it means to be human and our doctrines of sin, God and humanity."

Valerie
Bridgeman Davis

“By affirming that we, too, are part of God’s ‘good creation,’ lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people of faith begin to take responsibility for fostering love and peace throughout creation."

Ken Stone

“When we creep in the direction of believing that we absolutely know God, Christ, and the Holy Spirit, we have not only limited the Trinity, but also sown the seeds of hostility and elitism.  We need to be reminded of the powerful, mysterious and surprising ways that the Trinity continues to work among all creation."

Holly Toensing

	How should people of faith approach biblical passages that have been used for harmful purposes?

We all read Bible passages in the light of our own experiences, concerns and locations in society.  Thus, it is not surprising that interpretations of the Bible which seem life-giving to some readers will be experienced by others as harmful or oppressive.  In a diverse world, disagreements about biblical interpretation are to some degree inevitable.

However, it is important to remember that, even in the earliest years of Christianity, people of faith did not always see eye to eye.  In the diverse Corinthian church, disagreements among the Corinthians led not to healthy debate but rather to factionalism and competition for leadership. 

Writing to those Corinthians in 2 Corinthians 13:11-13, Paul indicates that Christians who worship “the God of love and peace” should attempt to “live in peace.”  Paul’s admonition to his readers may offer one guideline for reading the Bible in our own diverse communities.  We may not always “agree with one another,” as Paul hoped.  However, we can certainly struggle to articulate our disagreements in a spirit of love and peace and read biblical texts in ways that contribute to a life of peace.

	What does it mean to read biblical passages as testimony about the God whom Paul called “the God of love and peace”?

If the Genesis creation account is read as a story about the same “God of love and peace” that Paul referred to in his letter to the Corinthians, we may find ourselves highlighting different elements of the text than do readers who promote a God of judgment and hierarchy.  The Genesis passage was probably written by exiles from Judah, living in a “foreign land” (Psalm 137:4) under Babylonian imperial powers.  These exiles found the assertion that Israel’s God created the cosmos to be a source of encouragement and resistance.  Even while facing difficult circumstances, they wrote that “everything” which their God created “was very good” (Genesis 1:31).  Reading this potentially inclusive statement in our own time, we may wish to emphasize its affirmation that all human beings, regardless of race, gender, nationality, sexual practice or other differences, belong to God’s “good” creation.  Indeed, even other creatures, such as the animals created with humans on the sixth day, assume a larger significance when we affirm with God that “everything” God created “was very good.” 

Of course, we can never eliminate the use of Scripture as a tool for prejudice and oppression.  But on Trinity Sunday, when Christians affirm that the “Holy Spirit” which Paul associates with community (2 Corinthians 13:13) is the same Spirit of God that moved over the waters at the beginning of creation (Genesis 1:1), we do well to find in Bible passages a reminder of God’s desire to extend shalom – God’s wholeness and peace – to all parts of that creation.  Perhaps even the statement of Jesus in Matthew 28:16-20 can be reread in such a light.  Instead of justifying modern Western missionary expansion, it might be reinterpreted as an affirmation that the Creator, the Redeemer and the Sustainer are with us whenever and wherever we work to realize God’s love and peace, among all nations and throughout the earth.