I am listening to a young man try to explain the value of the Bible, church and community to an older couple in the booth next to me. He is doing a valiant job despite the fact that the couple is more interested in the newborn baby in the arms of his wife then what he is trying to explain.

There is a great sense of politeness. Culture is exceedingly polite as we church types continue to frantically try to explain the value of Christ and the Bible in and for the world…but they are not really listening. In some way we have become quaint, like some old world custom that somehow managed to cross the ocean and, while intriguing, is only as valuable as the jewelry and art it can inspire.

So it took about 60 to 100 years but the western church has found itself solidly in the midst of existentialism. Questions abound and they all begin with W – What is? Why is? Where is? etc. We have begun to wonder not only if we are but if we ever really were.

Questions are good things there is no doubt about it whether they are ever answered or not. The struggle the church has found itself in though is having to exist in a culture that rightfully asks why it should even bother. There are many approaches to such suspicions – some have fallen into the trap of consumer culture by trying to win the world over with ridiculous promises of healing, health, wealth and well-being. It is the theological equivalent of taking Christ for a makeover –

“Look Jesus (do you mind if I call you Jesus?) the thing is you lack pizzazz. Don’t get me wrong you have a fantastic message for the most part but the kids these days (and the adults before them) just don’t connect with you…we’re thinking new hair, new outfit, maybe a flashier entourage (I mean fishermen and prostitutes? Really?). Just trust us Jesus, by the time we’re done with you the world won’t recognize you.”

So you have health and wealth ministries dressing up Jesus like a cross between Donald Trump and a plastic surgeon while other churches stand up and offer severe critique. The irony of course is that these other churches have fallen into the same trap only they sell Christ as the ultimate program instead – he is robed in classes, seminars, schools, committees, and curricula, ad infinitum, ad nauseum. The only thing he isn’t is personal.

Still others have long ago given up on whether Christ is attractive to the world and have hidden him behind stone bushels – walls of the church and stolid 17th century theology – impregnable to all but the most persistent.

Some have sought to appeal along gender lines, this gives us Jesus the Linebacker; Jesus the Soldier; Jesus the Bear Wrestling, Night Howling, Put-His-Wife-In-Her-Place-If-He-Had-A-Wife-But-Don’t-Ask-Me-Why-He Didn’t-Have-A-Wife-And-Hung-Out-With-12-Other-Guys kind of guy. In short nauseating.

Part of the problem is our unwillingness to present Christ naked to the world. To present him for who he is; who he claimed to be; without the obscuring cloaks we throw over him in an effort to clean him up and/or make him more acceptable to various people and cultures.

We seek to take that which is not of the world and define it according to our own terms – be they gender or cultural or ecological or economic or social or some-such other as it arises.

I can hear you nodding along (some of you) and thinking – “that’s right, what we need is a Jesus of the Bible who spoke the King’s English dammit!” and while I sympathize with the desire this fails to see something of critical importance which is almost always overlooked.

I believe the Bible is a revelation of God’s perfect truth, inerrant in it’s original texts…I really do (stop choking on your coffee, I REALLY believe this and no this does not mean I believe in unicorns and leprachauns etc (although I would like to)).

The problem of course is that many people fail to see that, while God’s truth is inerrant, the medium through which God chose to reveal said truth is deeply flawed.

Get off the floor.

I mean it. There is a serious flaw in the Bible and that flaw is the language.

God is perfect. Christ is the incarnation of God and the only perfect example of humanity. We on the other hand are not. I hope I do not have to spend a lot of time trying to prove to you that humanity is imperfect. I mean – look out the window, turn on a T.V. or simply tune to the most handy news website. We are not perfect. We have never been perfect.

Language is a human construct. Not only are human constructs flawed and imperfect our attempt to understand said constructs are also imperfect. Do you sense the exponential tangent this is heading down? The primary issue of understanding is the nature of communication. Anyone who has been in any sort of relationship knows what I am talking about – we have a hard time understanding each other when we are standing in front of one-another using our indoor voices and simple vocabulary (and still it usually breaks down). How much more challenging do you think it is for us to attempt to understand a series of Godly inspired writings encoded between 2000-6,000 years ago? Written in at least three ancient languages? Following oral tradition? By several different people? Several different filters through which God’s perfect inspiration must pass, guided by God’s Holy Spirit but left ultimately in the hands of people like you…people like me.

Frightening.

Still before we haul God into the dock (to steal a phrase) and put God on trial for being foolish enough to entrust God’s perfect will and Word to people like us we should know that God had good reasons for doing so and they make sense.

Some who have come to understand the flawed nature of language and human interpretation have given up on even bothering with scripture and have moved into a dark and depressing realm that is ultimately alone or selfishly bacchanal in nature but does not have to be – there is another option.

In order to best understand scripture one must first know that God’s choosing to reveal God’s perfect will in such a form is in keeping with God’s nature. That is to say God tends to be contextual, working within the context of creation and culture rather than expecting creation and culture to make the leap to God.

This is a good and praiseworthy thing because by now we should understand that we cannot make such a leap to God and require God to lean in, as it were, and lift us up.

So in keeping with God’s character God extends truth and perfection to us through the Word and through Christ and what is required of us is simple humility. Before the word, expressed to us as it is in a language filled with broken humanity, we must, before all else be humble and seek after God’s spirit for some level of understanding….all the while knowing we will NEVER (all caps bold) fully grasp it.

While I say simple humility it is often the most difficult thing to grasp for us. I can say without a doubt that I am wildly, rabidly prideful and with virtually no humility. Humility is simple only in the sense that it requires letting go, dying…dying to self and to the things of the world.

“When Christ calls a man,” wrote Dietrich Bonhoeffer, “He bids him come and die.” (See The Cost of Discipleship and don’t be silly – he meant women too).

Humility requires this kind of death. With humility one can take the Word and move into the world in a way that does not beat the living crap out of people in the process.

This is because no matter how you read your Bible humility always requires that you question whether you really understand it. No matter what direction you feel the Bible calls you in humility constantly requires you to check with God and your fellow travelers for course corrections (read community here). Just when you think the Bible calls you to execute someone or judge them humility requires of you the deep and questing prayer that might speak to your heart and say “when in doubt LOVE” and since humility will always keep us in a state of doubt we must therefore always be in a state of LOVE.

Imagine the state of relationships if humility were the bedrock foundation of them. Imagine the state of Biblical understanding if humility were the bedrock foundation of it. Imagine the state of our churches if humility were the bedrock foundation of them.

The Bible is flawed because we are flawed. The Bible is flawed because our nature requires it to be and God knows this.

There is a danger is assuming you understand something PERFECTLY…the danger is that that thing becomes dead and inflexible and remarkably like the letter of the law…petrified and without its spirit. Certainty, however much we crave it, is dangerous. Certainty leads to the illusion of power and power, illusion or not always corrupts.

With humility comes trust. Humility will require us to admit we do not know the answer to some very difficult questions and this will require of us trust that God will guide…that God always guides. Humility and trust always force us to admit that not only will we not perfectly understand God’s perfect Word but that we must surround ourselves with others who are differently gifted so that, together, we can come to better understand it and then – more importantly, act out a humble understanding as a servant to the world around us – this is church, a group of people seeking the elusive quality of humility and trust so that they can better serve and love the world around them.

It is the kind of trust that says “if we can raise $10 million for a new church building than we can give it all away to the poor instead and see what God will do with that” and that is damned compelling to a cynical world tired of its own evil.

Thank God for the Word and the flaws of the languages it is in; the flawed people who interpret and translate for us…for without those flaws we may become certain and in certainty we would most certainly find our own doom.

“Humble yourselves before the Lord and God will lift you up” – James 4:10