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Preface

“Too soon old, too late smart” (based on the Pennsylvania Dutch saying: “Ve grow too soon olt and too late schmart”)1 was foreign to my understanding in the early years. When we are young there is a strong temptation to think we have forever to accomplish our goals, or at least a very long time. A popular song when I was growing up was “It’s Later than You Think.” My twist on that would be: “The future got here much sooner than I expected.” It always does. It hardly seems possible that I am in the second half of my seventieth decade. It is a shock to discover where old people come from – they come from us! But it’s not all bad news.

“Too late smart” is too harsh a judgment. There are some things we come to understand, view differently, and simply accept only when we have had sufficient life experiences that enable us to gain a better/different perspective on things. I do believe that I have lived into some “smarts” that were not possible for me in the early years. The wise counsel of teachers and mentors I now understand with greater clarity; many things that we often complain they didn’t teach us in college or seminary we now know they did – we simply didn’t have the context of experience in which to see and hear them. That is also why the re-reading of books, especially the Scriptures, is so valuable. We are able to find things we never knew were there because we have lived into a different life-context. We don’t berate ourselves for what we didn’t see earlier; we simply weren’t ready. I have found the familiar quote to be true: “When the pupil is ready, the teacher will come.” I have also found Esalen’s Law to be true: “You always teach others what you most need to learn yourself.”2

One of the major “smarts” I have lived into is the realization of just how vast is the ocean of truth and how very limited is my knowledge and understanding. In the land of smarts, I acknowledge I’m still in the undergraduate program. Paul confesses, “We know in part” (I Corinthians 13:9) and perhaps it takes some living to realize this is our ongoing confession. But there were some things he did know and I do believe I have lived into some truths that seem to me basic for all of us in this journey called life. It is a little bit of wisdom I have acquired the hard way (my usual learning stance) and I even have the bruises and scars to prove it. My life has been lived in pastorates which have been my training ground. I could have titled this book “Church Truths” even though they are applicable to all of life – both personally and in community relationships.

One of my critics charged that my books are written in a conversational manner, more for the ear than for the eye. That is correct. When I am writing, I think of someone seated across from me as I attempt to talk about the things in life with which we all struggle. One of my high school English teachers once commented on a book she was reading that made her “spit cotton.” A seminary preaching professor told us it was all right to impress classmates with our oratorical skills, knowledge of Hebrew and Greek, and deep theological insights (all of which were actually in short supply), but that when we stepped into the pulpit on Sunday morning our duty was to convey in clear and easily understood language the message of the text. Many of the things discussed in this book are to be found in weightier texts; my goal is to introduce a wide variety of survival (and thriving!) skills for churches that most will never encounter in general reading.

I invite you into conversation with me as I talk about some of the things I have learned in over fifty years of pastoral ministry. As I continue my work as an intentional interim minister and church consultant, I am amazed at how many congregations function on the basis of comforting illusions. Since the lessons I have learned are equally applicable to individuals, families, and all other relationships, the applications often seem quite threatening and the level of resistance quite high. In workshops, I frequently begin with a warning that I am going to write on the board a word that will shake all of them to the very foundation of their lives; if any are faint of heart they might want to exit immediately. Then I write one word on the board: “Change!” That is the most threatening and challenging word in our language. It is the most feared because we usually see it as what happens beyond control in our lives and in our world; change is seldom viewed as something we intentionally decide to do in specific ways in order to have better lives, better relationships, and better churches.

I have tried to acknowledge the sources for the many truths that fill this book but I have avoided technical terms and complicated explanations. A person once critiqued my sermon to a member of my congregation with, “Your pastor is a scholar.” I don’t think he intended it to be a compliment and I don’t think he was correct. I consider myself to be forever learning and (hopefully) forever growing. A concept in vogue when I was a seminary student was to view the pastor as “the theologian in residence.” I understand this to mean: “The work of the pastor is to help people understand the life-giving logic of the gospel of Jesus Christ in the totality of their lives.”3 If that what it means to be a scholar, so be it.

As always, I invite you to disagree, to make your comments in the margins of the book, and even send me an email (which I will answer) if you have a particular axe to grind. Allow me to rephrase the saying that begins this preface: “Older at just the right time and the place to begin to understand some of the undergirding truths of existence that I feel confident enough to share with you, not in the spirit of judgment or superiority, but with the keen awareness that we are all in this thing together and are meant to help each other in whatever ways we can.” Of course, I continue to work on incorporating the wisdom truths into my daily living and in my working with congregations.

You will notice that I have listed the Scripture references under the heading of “The Biblical Witness.” I could have titled the sections “Biblical Wisdom.” I much prefer this to the talk about biblical principles, the Bible as rules for life or our answer book. Rules and answers sound too much like quick-fixes and easy solutions. If the Bible is basically one of principles, rules, and answers it amazes me how diverse are the principles, rules, and answers that sincere seekers find there. The real problem is once these are “discovered,” it is simply a matter of imposing them on everyone else.

“The Bible says it, I believe it, that settles it” often works itself out in dogmatism, isolationism, judgmentalism, and, at its worst, terrorism. Defenders of the Bible always view themselves as defenders of the truth and, ultimately, as defenders of God. They almost never see themselves as defenders of their particular interpretations of Scripture.

The history of biblical interpretation brings the realization that the same texts have been seen in different ways. We continue to overlook how the prevailing culture affects biblical interpretation. Our own Civil War found sincere ministers preaching texts that plainly defended slavery. Few today would use those texts in defense of the owning and subjugating of any race. Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin questioned the prevalent idea about the self-interpreting power of the Bible.4

Galileo, often called the “father of modern physics,” did not enjoy such acclaim during his lifetime. A literal reading of the Bible tells us that the sun moves, not the earth (Psalm 93:1; 96:10; 104:5; 1 Chronicles 16:30b; Ecclesiastes 1:4-5). The earth is seen in all places as the center of the “universe.” To suggest the movement of the earth around the sun was biblical heresy. In 1632, Galileo published (with papal permission) Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems, but was ordered to stand trial for heresy in 1633. He was convicted and spent the remainder of his life under house arrest. It was 359 years before injustice was acknowledged. “In 1758, the general prohibition against heliocentrism was removed.On October 31, 1992, Pope John Paul II expressed regret for how the Galileo affair had been handled.”5

Our revised interpretations acknowledge both the cultural context of earlier interpretations as well as the cultural context of the biblical writings. The creation account in Genesis is unique among such early accounts. In contrast to warring self-centered gods who create for their benefit, Genesis proclaims the covenant making God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob to be the author of all that is. And it is pronounced good. There is no concern about the how of creation; the focus is on the Who of creation. In regards to slavery, the New Testament world is not about the importation and dehumanization of one particular race. Slavery cut across all races and was the result of many circumstances. Some estimates put the number of slaves in ancient Rome at seventy percent. Many of these slaves were highly educated with varying levels of responsibility. The New Testament writers did not want the new Way in Jesus Christ to be viewed as a revolutionary movement. The biblical admonitions are calls to live exemplary, redemptive lives in order to further the witness of the gospel. Nowhere does any passage address the kind of slavery that reared its ugly head in early American history.

How did we come to change our minds about what the texts (about slavery) actually said? What caused our churches to change course? Somehow, I think it has something to do with affirming the primacy of Jesus Christ as God’s Word over and against any word or selection of words as “the Word.”6

The one who said, “You will know the truth and the truth will make you free,” also said, “I am the truth.” What does it mean that truth is a person? What does it mean when we are told that the Word became flesh and dwelt among us? That the Word is first all of a person before it is a book? That we are called to acknowledge the living Word that comes before the written Word? My principle for biblical interpretation is that we interpret all Scripture by the highest revelation we have, Jesus Christ. This is what the book of Hebrews is all about. The highest and clearest revelation of who God is and what he expects from us is most clearly revealed in his Son. It doesn’t solve all the problems of many perplexing passages of Scripture but it lets us know where to begin.

1 Tad Tuleja, Quirky Quotations (New York: Galahad Books, 1992), 172.

2 Rick Fields, Chop Wood Carry Water (Los Angeles: Jeremy P. Tarcher, 1984), 21.

3 Ronald E. Vallet, Stewards of the Gospel (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans, 2011), 3.

4 Ibid, 58.

5 Ibid, 77.

6 Ibid, 63.