‘If we buy a Bible and claim it ‘mine’, we claim ownership and with ownership comes the belied that we can do what we like with what we own’ says todays Advent thought.

I have been mulling over the accuracy of this statement throughout the day. It is true that we can use the Bible to say what we wish it to say. Indeed in the past, and even currently, the Bible has been used to justify sexism, abuse of a marital partner or child, refusal of medicine or birth control, condemnation of sexuality.

I remember earlier in the year I had the privilege of being part of the congregation in Westminster Abbey at a service to commemorate the end of the slave trade. One of the the things I find most shocking about that horrible abuse of humanity is that mainstream church and government were able to justify such a trade by using the Bible.

That is shocking!
It’s hard to believe how they read that from the words on those pages.
It’s hard to believe how they could think a Jesus of compassion, love, with a preferential for the poor, would ever condone such an act.
But they did.

As I sat in Westminster Abbey I began to wonder how the Christians for the future would view us. What would they be amazed by? What would they be shocked by? Would they look back on us and ask ‘how on earth did they allow that to happen and justify it with the Bible?’

‘Do we use the Bible to oppress, or do we use the Bible to liberate?‘ asks Bodenheim. The problem is if we let the Bible be the only voice of God we hear we limit God again. The Bible is what God has said in the past and it is important for today, but God also continues to speak today and indeed for the future. Listening to just one aspect of God’s voice allows the abuses of history to repeat themselves and occur in our age.

If the Bible does not point us toward God, but instead speaks for God, then it has become our god. (Bodenheim)