Saturday, August 12, 2017

1 Corinthians 5:11

Believe it or not, I DO read my Bible.  In fact, I have read it in its entirety multiple times, which is a fact that tends to surprise people.  Perhaps I don't come across as a person who would actually study scripture.  I'm never sure how to respond to someone who is taken aback when they learn that I have read the Bible through even once, let alone close to a dozen times.  Sometimes I want to ask if they have ever read it entirely, if they just stick to the New Testament, or worse, if they only read what's displayed on the screens as part of the Sunday sermon.  I can't remember the last time I heard a sermon from Lamentations or Leviticus.  With all of the online options available these days, owning a physical Bible is no longer a requisite to reading it, so asking if they own one is impertinent.  Even if a person does own a Bible, that doesn't mean they read it, or even have any familiarity with it, or even know where it is in the house.

What about me that makes it so remarkable that I would have read the Bible all the way through, anyway?  I participated in 3 years of Mormon seminary when I was in high school, during which we studied the New Testament, the Book of Mormon, and the Doctrine and Covenants and the Pearl of Great Price.  I was no longer a practicing Mormon the year I would have studied the Old Testament, but I read it on my own.  Another fact that surprises people is that we used the King James Version - as teenagers.  And the most shocking fact of all - this was not the first time I had read the Bible through.  I completed my first cover-to-cover reading when I was in middle school.  It took 2 years to struggle through the KJV, but we were encouraged to independently study scripture by our church leaders.

Since rededicating my life to Christ as an adult, I have read the Bible through 8 or 9 times ~ I honestly can't remember how many for certain ~ in at least 5 different versions, even revisiting Old King James.  I have a personal goal to read it through every year, sometimes starting in Genesis and moving straight through to Revelations, sometimes following a predesigned chronological reading plan, sometimes jumping around between the Old and the New Testaments.  I couple of years I didn't quite make it all the way through, but I finished up in the first part of the next year and then started over again.

One of the benefits of reading the Bible multiple times, and in multiple translations, is that each time I read it I do so with different eyes.  I'm always a year older and, hopefully, a year wiser.  This allows me to catch details I may have missed in earlier readings, or interpret the same scripture I've read so many times before in a new light.  A case in point...

Some years ago, as I was reading the book of Numbers in bed one night, I started to giggle.  My husband asked what could possibly be funny in the Old Testament.  I had come to the story of Balaam and his donkey.  The third time the donkey saw the angle of the Lord, she laid down in the middle of the road and refused to move.  When Balaam got off of the donkey to beat her, scripture says the donkey spoke.  This did not strike me nearly as funny as the next passage, where it says, "And Balaam responded..."  I found this very nonchalant response to a suddenly talking donkey to be quite amusing.  I thought to myself that if I were disciplining my dog and he suddenly turned to me and said, "But MOOOOOOOOOOOM...", I would not have answered the dog, I would have checked myself into the loony bin believing that I was suddenly hallucinating.  How many times had I read that passage and never seen the story in that light?  This is why we must never cease our study of scripture ~ ALL of it.

Right now, I'm reading 1 Corinthians and I have come across a verse that troubles my heart.  5:11 reads:  "But now I am writing to you that you must not associate with anyone who claims to be a brother or sister but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or slanderer, a drunkard or swindler. Do not even eat with such people."  But isn't that exactly what Christ did?  Aren't those the exact people Christ hung out with?  If the reason is because these people have already professed faith in Christ, would shunning them really encourage them to repent?  Wouldn't it be more effective to surround these folks with positive influence?  Does Paul think the entire community so fragile in their young faith that they would be easily corrupted by these tainted believers?  What context am I missing here?  And how many times have I read this verse before and never seen it in this light?


Unfortunately, the online commentaries I have read regarding this chapter shed no light on a deeper or historical context as to why such harsh instruction is necessary, only the reasons these verses justify judging and condemning those who behave in these ways.  I get the idea of keeping the community pure, and that it's much easier to throw out the damaged goods than it is to clean them up and repair them, but it seems contrary to so many of Christ's parables.  The one about the lost sheep, for example, where the shepherd rejoices at finding the one sheep that wondered off, or the one about the widow rejoicing after finding her lost coin.  Neither of these parables address the cleansing of the dirt the sheep or coin picked up in their wayward travels.  They once belonged to a master, strayed, and were met with joy at their return.  Sounds like the story of the prodigal son to me.  I fail to understand how ostracizing someone, essentially casting them out of the community, fosters any hope of a return to the ways of righteousness.

And so I am conflicted in my heart about this verse.  Maybe next year, when I am another year older and, hopefully, wiser, another nugget will be revealed to help me understand the deeper meaning.