Reading car bumper stickers can be an entertaining past time. From places people have traveled like Ocean City, Disney or Cape Cod to candidates they are supporting to theological presuppositions; bumper stickers can share a glimpse of something about a person. Have you seen the bumper sticker, “God said it, I believe it, that settles it”? Sometimes, the bumper stickers even go a step further, “God said it, that settles it, whether I believe it or not.” The original bumper stickers have been around since the 1970s, when the musical groups the Heritage Singers, came out with a musical hit of the same name.
There is nothing necessarily wrong with the idea that our theology should be succinct enough to fit on our bumpers. In fact, we ought to be able to teach our children what we believe or sing our values, like “Jesus loves me” or “God is with you”. However, like all of our half-truths in this series, there is a kernel of truth surrounded by distortion over time. Let’s take some this morning to look at what biblical truth comes with “God said, I believe it, that settles it”.
When we have said “God said it”, we have often meant – the Bible said it. We appropriately understand the Bible as God’s Word. In this effort, sometimes we have not look at the context, or read original languages, or given heed to fullness of understanding. In short, we have oversimplified scripture putting unusual limits on ourselves. Let me explain.
Did any of you find yourselves scratching your heads as the Old Testament passage from Deuteronomy was being read? Have you ever heard a devotion or sermon on this passage? Let me share it again:
“You shall have a designated area outside the camp to which you shall go. With your utensils you shall have a trowel; when you relieve yourself outside, you shall dig a hole with it and then cover up your excrement. Because the Lord your God travels along with your camp, to save you and to hand over your enemies to you, therefore your camp must be holy, so that he may not see anything indecent among you and turn away from you.”
I must share that I have never preached on this passage before, and it did not make it into the Revised Common Lectionary. The Revised Common Lectionary is a shared three-year biblical reading for worship organized by the North American Consultation on Common Texts throughout the year, and they are shared perciopes across traditions. There is a reason this passage is not in the lectionary or regularly preached. It is very contextual.
Now, rewind 140 years. In the 1880s, churches were beginning to debate indoor plumbing. The technology advanced to allow for such innovation. Previously, parishioners left the church building whenever “nature called.” From a theological perspective, installing a bathroom in the worship space raised this concern. If God made God’s home with the people in the tent and the people relieved themselves in the tent, then God would not want to live in then tent, because it would be considered indecent. They were concerned that God would turn away blessings and protections, because they did not bury their excrement outside of town. Simply put, if they put a bathroom in the church, would God still show up?
My first years of ministry, there was still one church in the conference without an indoor bathroom. If you needed to use the bathroom during worship service, you went to a nearby parishioner’s house. If you want to live by “God said, I believe it, that settles it,” you might come to that conclusion reading this passage.
If you want to be sure to care for all manner of laws, here are some other verses to highlight of deep importance:
– Do not wear blended fabrics or sow two different two types of feed in your fields (Leviticus 19:19).
– Eliminate pork and shrimp from your diet. (Leviticus 11: 19-27)
– Don’t trim edges of bread. (Leviticus 19:27)
– Children who curse their parents are put to death (Exodus 21: 18-21)
- Don’t clean your house on Saturday (Exodus 35: 2)
- – If you are not a virgin at marriage, men of town can stone you (Deuteronomy 22:21)
Very few of us can say that we are living in a “God said it, I believe it, and that settles it” kind of way. AJ Jacobs and Rachel Held Evans separately took the challenge to live out challenge to live out a year of biblical mandates and commands. AJ Jacobs in 2007 with A Year Living Biblically and Rachel Held Evans in 2012 with A Year of Biblical Womanhood.(1) Jacobs seeks to lives out literal biblical mandates including the stoning of adulterers. He reasons that the size of the stones is not indicated, so he tries first to throw little pebbles at Sabbath breakers – people working hard on Sunday, and just apologize. But he knocks heads with someone as he drops a pebble on their shoe to “stone” them. Evans cultivates a gentle spirit by putting a penny in a jar for act of gossip, nagging, complaining, exaggerating, or snark. At the end of the month, each penny represents one minute I have to spend doing penance on the rooftop of my house to simulate what it is like to live with someone who is contentious. She credited Alabama football games for her time spent on the roof. Both Evans and Jacobs having lived and studied a year in biblical manhood and womanhood with a deeper appreciation for the Bible and God’s word.
You might say, “All scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, so that everyone who belongs to God may be proficient, equipped for every good work.” As we hear this morning from 2 Timothy 3: 16-17. This is the only place in the scriptures that references inspiration, which means God’s breath. When Paul wrote this, he would have understood scripture to mean the documents that make up the Old Testament (The Torah – first five books, history books, psalms, proverbs, history, laments, prophets). The others were not yet written – the Gospels, the New Testament. Additionally, when Paul talks about every scripture being inspired, all of sacred writing sharing a place in at that time, the growing canon.
Paul, nor any of the Gospel writers, had an image of God dictating scriptural books word for word. This was the way that the Mormons understand their Book of Mormon to have been received from the Angel Moroni and Muslims to have received the Quran from the angel Gabriel. However, in our faith, the biblical writers lived their lives, experienced God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit, and imperfectly lived and wrote about their life. In living with God each and every day, they became confident, that future generations would find God in their lives.
We are interpreting what it most important every day. In fact, our gospel lesson today reminds us that Jesus interpreted the law. As Jesus fulfilled that law, the most common phrase we hear Jesus speak is “as you have heard it said,” “but I say”, as he applies the law for the context, he is in.
Have you ever wondered why we stand for the gospel lesson and not for any of the other readings from the Bible? Have you every wondered why on some Sundays we do not stand at all, if there is not a gospel reading? What is significant about the gospel, that the church urges us to stand if we are able? Since the early church, The Didascalia in the 3rd century records the practice of standing for the gospel. (2) The church has understood that the four books, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, that include the narratives of Jesus are the lenses through which we should read and seek to understand all of the scriptures. By standing, the hearer is learning kinesthetically and developing muscle memory that the word of Jesus is perspective through which they should see the world.
We are given our reason, our experience, and the tradition of the church to assist us as we read together the Scripture to go forward together. Our half-truth urges us to say: “God said it, I believe it, that settles it.” A fuller understanding takes 140 characters, but listen in: “God influenced it, I read the Bible, study the Bible, and sometimes wrestle with it. As I interpret it through the life of Jesus, God speaks, and I seek to live my life.”
This is the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, thanks be to God, Amen.
Jacobs, AJ. The Year of Living Biblically: One Man’s Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible. Simon and Schuster, 2007. And Evans, Rachel Held. A Year of Biblical Womanhood: How a Liberated Woman Found Herself Sitting on Her Roof, Covering Her Head, and Calling Her Husband ‘Master’. Thomas Nelson, 2012.
https://blog.umcdiscipleship.org/liturgy-man-should-we-stand-for-the-reading-of-the-gospel/
Old Testament Lesson: Deuteronomy 23:12-14
You shall have a designated area outside the camp to which you shall go. With your utensils you shall have a trowel; when you relieve yourself outside, you shall dig a hole with it and then cover up your excrement. Because the Lord your God travels along with your camp, to save you and to hand over your enemies to you, therefore your camp must be holy, so that he may not see anything indecent among you and turn away from you.
New Testament Lesson: 2 Timothy 3:16-17
All scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, so that everyone who belongs to God may be proficient, equipped for every good work.
Gospel Lesson: Matthew 5:17-20
Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets; I have come not to abolish but to fulfill. For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth pass away, not one letter, not one stroke of a letter, will pass from the law until all is accomplished. Therefore, whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches others to do the same, will be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.
Meditations For Your Week
Sunday, May 19 ~ Saturday, May 25
Sunday: “Praise the LORD! Praise the LORD from the heavens; praise God in the heights!” Psalm 148:1. Today, join your praises with others. Speak out loud your witness to God’s greatness!
Monday: “All scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness” 2 Timothy 3:16. Consider that God’s word is living and each of us is called to regular study. Where are you engaged in biblical study with others?
Tuesday: “So that everyone who belongs to God may be proficient, equipped for every good work.” 2 Timothy 3:17. Pray for our graduates as they are seeking jobs in a new chapter of life.
Wednesday: “‘Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets; I have come not to abolish but to fulfil.” Matthew 5:17. In our United Methodist tradition, we stand for the gospel lesson to remind us that the words of Jesus are given a high value – they fulfill the words of law and prophets. Consider how your life might fulfill the words of Jesus.
Thursday: “For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth pass away, not one letter, not one stroke of a letter, will pass from the law until all is accomplished.” Matthew 5:18. How are you being called today to live out the law of love?
Friday: “Therefore, whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches others to do the same, will be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.” Matthew 5:19. Pray for teachers and preachers as they lead others.
Saturday: “For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” Matthew 5:20. Consider how you might seek first God’s ways of righteousness today.