“The whole purpose of the Bible, it seems to me, is to convince people to set the written word down in order to become living words in the world for God’s sake. For me, this willing conversion of ink back to blood is the full substance of faith.” -Barbara Brown Taylor
Jesus once said his word was like a seed. That is a very important statement. One does not eat a seed, one plants it. In becoming a plant, the seed must disappear. People who quote the bible overly much have not digested it. As an ancient stoic once said, the shepherd does not want sheep to prove they have eaten by throwing up the undigested grass. The shepherd wants the sheep to prove it by growing, by producing wool and milk. Anyone can memorize and throw out bible verses. The only proof that one has digested its message is when the word is incarnated as love.
This reminds me of the idea (I think it comes from a Buddhist parable) of the hand pointing at the moon. All too often people get stuck staring at the hand and fail to see the moon at all–the bible is like a hand, but the moon is something far deeper and more profound. Fixating on a text like the bible means that you’re missing the point of the whole thing.
Nicole, that’s a good way to put it.