Preaching and the "Word of God"

Excerpts from an article by Rev John Shuck, First Presbyterian Church, Elizabethton, TN

I believe that many clergy are overdue for a heart to heart with their congregation about the metaphor “Word of God” especially as it applies to the Bible. I have found that this metaphor more often stops creative thought than inspires it. The question we might ask our congregations is, “If the Bible is the Word of God, what makes it so?”

Modern scholarship has eroded the foundations for the metaphor. We have come to a time in which it is incredible to assert that our canon of scripture is objectively true or authoritative for all humanity. Appeals to the Bible’s historical or scientific accuracy are naïve. The claim that our canon has been dictated or inspired by supernatural revelation amounts to little more than special pleading. There is no magic power that makes the Bible or any text within it superior, truer, or more divinely inspired than any other human writing, religious or secular. The hands of human beings through their own imaginative power made every jot and tittle of carving and of script.

The Bible is a collection of the writings of human beings. Once we dismiss the assumption that our book or library of books is more authoritative that any other collection, we can finally take our seat around the table of humanity.