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The word that speaks today
In
biblical testimony, every instance of hearing folds another possibility into the previous, with no final
demarcation between literal and figurative—nothing is superseded as meaning
is continually deepened. Scripture is like the expanding spiral of a seashell—a
spira mirabilis—in which hearing and
testimony accumulate as remembrance and anticipation of a new word to be heard
in every new “today.” In
Scripture, the word of God is dynamic not static. God encounters humans as hearers
in specific times and places within their contingent perceptions. The interpreter
of the word cannot be an omniscient adjudicator of texts and contexts, for the
human subject in Scripture is always addressed as compromised and fallible, called
to repentance and the way of grace and truth. v The
determination of a biblical writing’s deputed sources, author or editors, audience,
dissenters and context is easily used to adjudicate on how and what any writing
can now say. Yet biblical testimony is not an object of control but our companion,
provocateur and always with a word otherwise within human life. The
modern obsession with what was behind a text and how the key to its true meaning
might be retrieved, consists of various quests for the origin and cause of a text
that are also contingent on ever-changing hypotheses of context. Any assumption
that the sociological, political or historical context of a text can be viewed
objectivity, fails to recognise that within any discipline of human discourse,
methods and their presuppositions are always contested. Human
immersion in time and language is a significant factor in interpreting any text
or tradition, contrary to claims of objective analysis, whether for science, history
or classical texts. Contrary to historicist attempts to reconstruct a deputed
original context as the key to the meaning of a particular writing, any writing
continues to speak anew to present human expectations and questions. (Gadamer)
How much more is this so for Christian Scripture as it speaks from the future
of every present! To
be human is to be cast into life at this time and not another, here and not elsewhere.
Humans invariably understand themselves in the context of time and place, within
a culture and certain traditions. For this reason, everything that humans do is
perceived and interpreted in specific ways. (Heidegger) Every human context is
unique, therefore Scripture comes to human hearing with tangible imperatives to
people and communities before their peculiar challenges and possibilities. Through
Scripture, the living word of God speaks into human life in its particularity
in every time and place of human existence. While this word speaks to humans in
specific times and places, its veracity is never contingent on human perspective.
Biblical testimony is heard anew as an invitation to step into another reality
in the midst of creation, to participate in word and deed in a continuing spira
mirabilis of testimony to the disclosure of grace and truth. v Our
inability to reach the original context behind a text is not a regrettable flaw
to be rectified. Scripture articulates a word ahead of us as the word of God coming
into our existence, calling us to new possibilities, challenges and commitments
as a vocative call to decision, responsibility and faithfulness. In the spira mirabilis of Scripture, past events
of encountering the word of God are remembered in hearing that anticipates a new
word. The
meaning of any biblical writing cannot be gained by peeping, even with sophisticated
methods, behind its deputed first articulation, for it already gathers previous
and continuing testimony to God who speaks into human life in every “today.” In
every word for today, Scripture’s “today” is also always new. Our engagement then,
must relinquish the desire for adjudicative control, to be exposed to a word otherwise
than our own. Our
hearing of Scripture is self-relinquishing as exposure of the compromised self
to the grace of God. Hearing is loosening our grip on a text so the word of God
can find us. By letting go of a text as we think it should speak, even in the
past, we allow it to speak afresh in each “today.” In our hearing then, we are
open to being found by Christ, the risen Lord of Scripture, who is always ahead
of us as the definitive word of God calling for our response in repentance, decision
and thanksgiving. Without
a Christology that articulates the self-giving movement of God in Christ, we can
easily construct Jesus merely on human terms—after the disastrous nineteenth century
portrayals of Jesus without Christ—and
adjudicate on texts and human subjectivity accordingly. Yet this is to revive
the hubris of adjudicating on everything and so miss the central foci of Christian
faith. Christian
Scripture anticipates the reality of God defined in Jesus Christ and continues
to shape the Pentecost community in which it is heard truly. Prophetic recognition
that God writes the word on hearts is
seamlessly one with the Paraclete who leads into all truth. In testimony to Christ, the Spirit’s teaching
is specific and boundless, as Christ is also tangible and inexhaustible in grace
and truth for human life. This dynamic is ever-new in evangelical faith. Christians
are not a people of the book who are
destined always to quibble over words of texts in search of the elusive truth.
We are a new creation in Christ the
incarnate Word; we are taught by the Spirit toward tangible grace and truth in
the world for the glory of God, which is disclosed in Jesus Christ. v Any
writing is like a musical score that is performed again for new hearing. This
extends beyond the written notations in the event of performance between score
and listener. In this way, any writing can speak anew in a new context, like the
interaction between a score and musical performance in which a musical score will
always be performed and heard anew. (Ricoeur) Because
a score must always be performed, there is a lazy inclination for some to assume
that it is capable of any possible performance. Yet this view omits the desire
to pass on a composer’s gift in each performance. That a composition might be
performed in many creative ways is not disputed. That it is performed in fidelity
to the spirit of a gift given is the critical issue. Musical
performances are not uniform. Every desire to give the gift again in the spirit
it was first given and celebrated, even with flair, is nevertheless a desire to
relay with fidelity, a unique gift of musical composition. An extravagant gift
of musical composition gives a legacy of rich possibilities for its subsequent
performances, while faith is still kept with the score as the gift’s medium. Otherwise,
why not perform something else instead? Interpretation
of Scripture is neither a science that merely replicates other human disciplines
nor is it a licence to say anything under the premise that any expression is equal
to all other expressions. Scripture can be approached, not only with freedom and
variety in its proclamation but with remembrance of many hearings that have sought
fidelity to the testimony of grace—a measureless gift given—in each new event
or “today” of hearing. In
Christian faith, gift or grace is triune in being led by the Spirit—the integral
interpreter of God for us in grace and truth. Grace and truth are to be anticipated,
heard and received in Jesus as risen Christ who calls us into the spira mirabilis of this testimony. Sources:
Gadamer Truth and Method; Heidegger
Being and Time; Ricoeur Interpretation Theory; From Text to Action; Oneself as Another. |
