From the Pastor
On the Sunday of Labor Day weekend, the same weekend as our church Family Camp at Camp Cazadero, attendance at the worship service was not exactly overwhelming. It was one of those days when you could have fired a cannon in the sanctuary and no one would have been injured. I preached that morning on a text from the Gospel of Mark.
Perhaps it was the small crowd, the holiday weekend, people were more relaxed or there was more time to talk with me after church. Whatever the reason, a number of people wanted to comment on the sermon. And not only to comment, but also share their own interpretation of the morning’s text – Mark 7: 24-30. At least a half-dozen people had an opinion of the scripture which was different than the one I had presented in the sermon, and they wanted to share their thoughts with me. Could they have been suggesting that my truth was not the only truth? Imagine that! Quite a fascinating morning.
At least six different interpretations of the same text. I thought it was wonderful that people were taking the text and sermon so seriously. Clearly people were grappling with the meaning of the words for them and their lives. But I was also reminded once again of the richness of this book, really a collection of books, we call the Bible. I know that people outside the church – and many of us in the church – wonder at times why we take this ancient text so seriously – study it, preach about it, talk about it, even allow it to shape our lives. On that Sunday I saw why. When we take the time to wrestle with it, it has a way of taking us deeper into our lives and into our faith. Even familiar texts have a way of speaking to us in new and unexpected ways. More often than not, it seems that we don’t read it as much as it reads us, and opens us to a whole new world.
An itinerant Jew from Nazareth has an encounter with a woman and 2000 years later we talk about it still. Let’s keep talking and listening and grappling and struggling with his words. Because he certainly is not through with us.
Gene
