The Questions the Scriptures Ask

My pastor, Keith Spencer, wrote this and posted it on Facebook:  "As Christians, we are called to be a people of compassion. If this is seen by others as a sign of weakness, then it is precisely the weakness to which we have called in and through Christ Jesus. As Christians, we are called to be a people of humility. If this is seen by others as a sign of weakness, then it is precisely the weakness to which we have called in and through Christ Jesus. When we seek clarity in the scriptures in the midst of the debates before us concerning refu...gees by bringing to them our questions, we had better be prepared for the Scriptures to instead question us. Because I think the answers that are found in our hearts will unsettle us. The further those answers are from drawing us deeper into love of God and neighbor the further they are from being what is right and true for us as people of faith."

I love this sentence:  ". . . we had better be prepared for the Scriptures to instead question us."

What questions are the Scriptures asking you? 

I like this vision of the text as an interactive, living thing--but of course, I would.  I have a Ph.D. in English, and I spent my misspent youth engaging with texts in just this way.  What do I bring to the reading?  What does the author bring?  What questions emerge?

I have never seen the Scriptures as having the one and only truth.  I have read the whole book, and I can see the contradictions, as the truth shifts from book to book.  There are overarching themes, to be sure.  But even those themes are undercut in certain places.

What would happen if we viewed the Scriptures as an interesting collage, a collection of truths, instead of as The Truth?

But now I have strayed from the interesting thought of the Scriptures having a chance to ask us questions. 

I think of the Advent message of the angels, the admonition not to be afraid.  I think of the Scriptures asking me why I am still afraid.  How many angelic messages will it take before I get this central message?