Spirit in our midst.

Dear editor,

Capt. Canon A. Knight's reply (Calling, February letters) to M. Lane (Discrimination, December letters) has it half right. The Bible is the word of God. The other half is that it is written in human words. Since the church is not sinless and what we most easily hear are human voices, we are called to judge which words most faithfully echo God's word in our situation, when we differ over how we weigh possibly conflicting texts.

If we read God's word as law, we do well to learn from our Jewish neighbours' experience of interpreting the law. Notably today, their Society for Textual Reasoning steers between traditionalism and liberalism by taking literally the New Testament promise that, when two or three gather to hear God's word in His name, God in Spirit is in our midst.

They recognize that good judges are not those with hardened hearts but those who bring the best scholarship to bear on past readings of the texts and current knowledge of the world, then listen to different witnesses and listen for God's voice both in their own hearts and the voices of those who disagree with them. They ask what the texts mean in Hebrew and whether they are the most pertinent text for answering present pastoral questions.

When we are healed by the blood of the Lamb, we follow the Hebrew idea of sacrifice. The blood is the life. We cover our sins by accepting the offering of an untainted life on our behalf and receiving in return the breath of life through the gift of the Spirit, as known in the restoration of communion.

Jesus made very clear what the priorities are when reading God's word as law. It is a pagan idea to exalt disembodied love or to make sexual love the whole story. We are not talking about mathematical laws with only one right answer, regardless of who is being judged for what. Making sex a litmus test of true communion owes more to Freud than to the Bible.

Rev. Dr. Peter Slater 

Toronto