"Help the words we use not become too many or too confusing. Our faith, Holy One, is in you and not in any words or in any teaching. We just want these words to open us up to you and to your Spirit among us."(R. Rohr "Radical Grace" p. 290)
One of the first Bible studies I ever led as a priest, was almost hijacked by a man who wanted to argue that only the King James Version of the Bible was Holy. We went back and forth as I tried to explain to him that while the language of the KJV was certainly poetic and beautiful in many cases it was no more "holy" than any other translation that the other folks had brought to them.
What he couldn't get his mind around was that a Bible becomes "holy" when it reveals God to you, not whether it's in poetic language, seventies slang or even in the original Hebrew or Greek.
The Bible for me is the medium by which I can understand how the God that I believe in has acted in the past, is alive to me in the present, and can continue to lead me and guide me into the future.
For me, I believed in God before I read the Bible. Now that is not true for everyone. I have read the Bible and it has deepened my understanding and my relationship with God, but it was not the first door.
Sometimes we can get lost in our pious platitudes, our long winded prayers, and are too large for scrabble theological words. And if those become a barrier for others to encounter the presence of God in their life, then we need to rethink.
Words are very powerful and can bring great meaning to our lives. They can also be something to hide behind when we're actually afraid of what we're talking about.
Blessings,
Ed
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