Who Speaks for God?

Robert Traer

Scripture Readings: Luke 18:9-14, Joel 2:23-32

God’s view of who the good guys are and who the bad guys are may be different than ours. That’s what we learn from the story of the Pharisee and the tax collector in the gospel of Luke. The Pharisee is a religious man, who lives by the rules and gives generously to his religious community. The tax collector is a sinner, and he knows it. Yet, the gospel tells us, God favors the tax collector over the Pharisee, because the tax collector has humbled himself before God.

In the reading from Joel we are reminded that this same God has not always sided with the people of Israel. For years "the swarming locust" and "the hopper, the destroyer, and the cutter" have eaten the crops of the people, yet God calls these "my great army, which I sent against you." But now, God says through the prophet, there will be abundant rain and the "threshing floors" of the people "shall be full of grain." Furthermore, Joel prophesies that the people will praise "the name of the LORD our God, who has dealt wondrously" with them. Then, God says through the prophet, "I will pour out my spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy." And "everyone who calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved."

When we read this passage from Joel, we do not believe we are reading words of God that were simply written down by the prophet. We do not believe God sent the locusts to eat the crops of the people, and we do not believe God sent the rain that later gave them a bountiful harvest. Instead, we believe Joel wrote this prophecy to express his belief that God is the source of every event experienced by the people of Israel, the bad as well as the good. He may well have been inspired, but we are not certain that his inspiration came from God.

When we read the New Testament, we also question its authority. Did Jesus really say what is attributed to him? The New Testament is clearly the witness of the church. But is it only that?

Who speaks God? And how are we to know?

Catholics and Protestants have different ways of trying to answer this question. Catholics trace the authority of the Pope back to Peter, who in the gospel of Matthew receives from Jesus the keys to the kingdom of heaven (Mt. 16:18-19). The charge given Peter in verse 19 ("whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven") is taken as authority for the church, by means of the Pope, to act on behalf of God. Church doctrine, at least concerning faith and morals, is thus declared to be inerrant or infallible, because it is linked directly to the apostolic authority and teaching of Peter.

Protestants ground the authority of the Bible on 2 Timothy 3:16-17, which asserts that: "All scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, so that everyone who belongs to God may be proficient, equipped for every good work." Some Protestants argue that the Greek word translated as "inspired" means "God-breathed," and thus that all scripture is the inerrant or infallible word of God. The word "scripture" is taken to refer to the Bible read by Protestants, which uses translations of the Hebrew canon for the Old Testament and thus excludes the books of the Apocrypha (which were in the Septuagint and are, therefore, included in Roman Catholic Bibles).

Both Catholics and Protestants make assumptions that are questionable, when we read the Bible as the witness of the early church. Catholics assume that Jesus actually spoke the words in Mt. 16:18-19 giving authority to Peter, even though this commission is not verified in the other New Testament gospels or elsewhere in the New Testament. Protestants assume that 2 Timothy 3:16-17 is giving authority to the Bible they read, rather than expressing the more obvious meaning that Paul finds the scripture he reads (the Septuagint, the Greek version of the Hebrew Bible) to be "useful for teaching."

Catholics subordinate the interpretation of scripture to the authority of the church, whereas Protestants claim to obey only the authority of scripture. Yet, Catholics have overlooked the fragmentation of authority in the early church, revealed in the New Testament by the conflict between Peter and Paul and by the role of James, the brother of Jesus, who succeeds Peter as head of the church in Jerusalem. (Gal. 2-3, Acts 15 and 21) Protestants tend to quote verses from the Bible, as if texts can be understood as the literal words of God and do not need to be interpreted contextually within the New Testament witness of the first century churches.

Reading the Bible, using literary and historical methods, challenges the use of texts by both Catholics and Protestants as proof of divine sanction for their teachings. Seeing the gospels as literary compositions, implies that the words attributed to Jesus are not necessarily historical but instead represent diverse understandings within the first century churches. Moreover, conflicts among the churches revealed in the New Testament confirm its human authorship and undermine claims of its divine authority.

Once the Bible is read critically, can anyone speak for God? When we read the Bible as literature, which we find inspiring and are open to receiving as inspired, we must speak only of God, and perhaps to God, but not for God. In worship, Bible study and prayer we can inquire about God's will, as we understand it in scripture and in the witness of the church, and we can seek the grace of God to live more faithfully. However, our witness to God must be marked by the humble confession that we do not speak for God, but for ourselves and for our church.

We will never know if Jesus actually said, "all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, but all who humble themselves will be exalted." (Lk. 18:14) Yet, in faith, we may embrace this teaching, as the word of God for us. The church proclaims that scripture can guide us to this faith, and that living this faith will bring us closer to the God we know in Christ. We are here, in faith, because we trust in this witness of the church — through its scripture, its worship, and its caring community. Amen.

 28 October 2001