U is for Understanding Scripture Part 2

In the previous post we noted several ways of understanding Scripture (the "U" in Public Ministry is for understanding Scripture). Scripture is important to becoming a Public Ministry community of faith because Scripture is a record of God’s relationship with the poor, the oppressed, the marginalized, the powerless. There is hardly a piece of Scripture that does not show God’s small ones calling for help or the world’s powerful ones being humbled.

Take a look at a couple of those canticles in the Gospel of Luke. Mary’s Song goes

I'm bursting with God-news;
I'm dancing the song of my Savior God.
God took one good look at me, and look what happened—
I'm the most fortunate woman on earth!
What God has done for me will never be forgotten,
the God whose very name is holy, set apart from all others.
His mercy flows in wave after wave
on those who are in awe before him.
He bared his arm and showed his strength,
scattered the bluffing braggarts.
He knocked tyrants off their high horses,
pulled victims out of the mud.
The starving poor sat down to a banquet;
the callous rich were left out in the cold.
He embraced his chosen child, Israel;
he remembered and piled on the mercies, piled them high.
It's exactly what he promised,
beginning with Abraham and right up to now.

And then look at the song that Zachariah sang at the birth of the Baptizer:

Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel;
he came and set his people free.
He set the power of salvation in the center of our lives,
and in the very house of David his servant,
Just as he promised long ago
through the preaching of his holy prophets:
Deliverance from our enemies
and every hateful hand;
Mercy to our fathers,
as he remembers to do what he said he'd do,
What he swore to our father Abraham—
a clean rescue from the enemy camp,
So we can worship him without a care in the world,
made holy before him as long as we live.

And you, my child, "Prophet of the Highest,"
will go ahead of the Master to prepare his ways,
Present the offer of salvation to his people,
the forgiveness of their sins.
Through the heartfelt mercies of our God,
God's Sunrise will break in upon us,
Shining on those in the darkness,
those sitting in the shadow of death,
Then showing us the way, one foot at a time,
down the path of peace.

These two songs serve as a bridge between the Hebrew Scriptures (the Old Testament) and the New Testament. And both speak to the work of God among the poor and powerless. And to God’s undoing the ways of violence and greed. And Public Ministry is working with God, where God works, with the people God is working with.

God scattered the bluffing braggarts,
knocked tyrants off their high horses,
the callous rich were left out in the cold.

God pulled victims out of the mud,
the starving poor sat down to a banquet,
God came and set his people free,
deliverance from our enemies and every hateful hand,
a clean rescue from the enemy camp.

God's Sunrise will break in upon us,
shining on those in the darkness,
those sitting in the shadow of death,
then showing us the path of peace.

But we must read the Scriptures with some suspicion about how we have traditionally understood it. It has become a vehicle for the status quo. It has been understood to be about right belief and being good. Take, for example, the word righteousness. Most of the time this word is given a “moral” understanding. But it is better understood as “justice.”

Approaching the Scriptures with the Suspicion in SPECS is one way. Reading the Scriptures with a “second naiveté” is another way we can avoid falling into the “same old, same old” trap.