Streams of Living Water

One challenge facing all of us is the temptation to "simplistic" answers. We want life to be 'consistent' and have 'easy answers'. This is especially true of religious faith. Although I hear people claim that Christianity is not a religion (and the way their definitions work they have a point), it still has common features to religion. One example is when people refer to the Bible as "an answer book" or "an instruction manual." It is a nice image and it does try to make a helpful point, but as I read the daily readings it is not so clear that one has simply to read and follow the instructions.

For example, in our OT selection we are reading about the transitition from King David to King Solomon. Having studied Samuel and Kings the last year I am pretty familiar with the story. It is not particularly edifying. It is full of cut throat politics (literally) and human foibles. Much of it is not appropriate to small children (innocent adults!). Based on my two Bible study groups last year (some 50-70 people), it produced as much confusion as clarity. Why is that?

To use an analogy, the Bible is a river (or ocean). Like most bodies of water (especially living water) it looks like a whole. Standing at the shore of a body of water, like the banks of the Mississippi, one surveys it and thinks "that is a river," or "this is the Gulf" or "the ocean" and it appears to be "one" thing. In reality, if you dive in, you discover quickly it is a composition. There are numerous currents and streams, and a wide variety of temperatures. In places it swirls and creates suction. There are places where it gets colder or warmer. Some parts are carrying debris, while others are more clear. Anyone who has been on a shore knows what I mean. Waves crash violently in one spot, while it is calm ten feet away. We stand in a warm spot, then move to the left a step and are shocked by the drop of temperature.

The Bible is a composite of many 'streams' all combined in a great body of water. There are places where the purity of the Scriptures carry along "debris." Sometimes the "temperature" changes, things which we encounter as, if not contradictions, at least inconsistencies, or mysteries. I read one of those yesterday. Paul stands before Agrippa at his trial. At one point he says that he is obedient to a heavenly vision (of Jesus) and he is merely telling Jew and Greek "that they should repent and turn to God and do deeds consistent with repentance." What about Grace and salvation by faith? what is Paul (and/or Luke) up to here? That statement is one of the currents, or streams, of the Bible. It is the "do the right thing" current. It is associated with Torah. There is another current, the grace current. I guess to use my analogy, the grace stream is warm, while the 'obedience/Torah/morality/works/do" current is cold. It wakes us up and takes our breath. Both streams are part of the whole body of living water. It is probably not helpful to say "only" about any particular stream in the wider body of water. (It is simpler, but it is not accurate!) It is helpful to be clear about what is debris being carried in the water and what is the water (that is where science, for example, comes in).

I often wish things were clearer and easier. I also know that part of that is my laziness and lack of faith. God is not a thing. He is the source of LIVING WATER, and the Bible is (a major) part of that revelation. We also know that God is communicating to us through nature, other people, and the processes of our own minds. It is pretty complex. But as we swim through the different parts of the body of water we find each one provides its own delights and each one teaches its own lessons.