What if a prophet had the courage to forbid us to read the Bible? What if the prophet required that we bring all our Bibles to a mountain and turn them in?
Then, while we all kneel together on the mountain, the prophet prays this prayer: "God, please take back this book. We are not fit to read it. It only makes us proud, self-righteous, unhappy, and divisive. We aren't ready for it."
Not the best prayer? Maybe not. But an honest prayer.
We're distant cousins to the farmers who lost their income and investments because Jesus spoiled their herds of pigs with demons. The pigs plunged to their death off a cliff. And the farmers begged Jesus to "leave our neighborhood." We can't handle raw truth.
The matter is simple. The Bible is God's love letter to us. It's as easy to understand as any letter between two lovers. But we're schemers. We don't want to understand it.
Deep inside ourselves we know that if we understand what Papa-God says to us then we're obligated to obey it. And we know if we obey what God says our lives will never be the same. We're ruined!
So, we reinvent what the Bible says. We soften it. We reinterpret it. We're dishonest with the message. Wouldn't we be more honest to store it?
Of course, there is another way: "My heart is set on keeping your decrees to the very end" Ps. 119:112.
* a thought taken from the spiritual writings of Kierkegaard
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