Volume 6, Issue 7, March 1997

BIBLICAL TRUTHS

Much of the Bible's truth is to be found in its myths and stories. Biblical myths are dramatic teaching stories told in symbolic language which demand a decision and a committment. We may call these stories myth-symbols. We must make sense of these stories in everyday experience. We may call such interpretations event-symbols.

An example is the New Testament story of Jesus feeding the five thousand. The dramatic story of Jesus taking a boy's small lunch and mysteriously making it multiply so as to feed a crowd of five thousand people is the myth-symbol.

In reality a much smaller crowd could follow Jesus and his disciples to the wilderness area to talk and picnic. Having children with them they would have packed lunches. When asked what they had to eat they were inspired by Jesus' teaching and the boy's generosity to all share their lunches. Like a pot-luck church supper there was food enough for all with some left over. Here we have the event-symbol.

The meaning of the teaching for us is obvious. When we share and support one another all are cared for. The question facing us is just how to do this.

Allow me another illustration. Last year I was invited to a church in a nearby city to speak on youth justice. The morning congregation was composed mainly of seniors. I felt they were not empathetic to my topic. The children and youth people listened with interest.

After the service as I returned to my car in the parking lot a well-dressed, middle-aged woman approached me. She said they found few young people attending their services, especially needy kids off the street. She asked me if I could tell her what she could do to interest and help such young people to come to church. I asked her if she would be willing to dress in her everyday clothes and sneakers and come to church and sit in the back pew with them? She looked at me aghast and walked away.

Do you see a relationship to this occurrence, this event-symbol, with the myth-symbol of the gospel story of the Rich Young Ruler? I hope the woman I met above has thought this out and found a way for her and her friends to participate in the challenge of the gospel to do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with their God (Micah 6:8).

A fact of our lives is that we can't live a faith we don't know and we can't know a faith we don't live. The most important thing we do is the manner in which we spend our lives. We can use our imagination for life-enhancing.

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"Religion NOW" is published in limited edition by the Rev. Ross E. Readhead, B.A., B.D., Certificate of Corrections, McMaster University, in the interest of furthering knowledge and participation in religion. Dialogue is invited and welcomed.