Sermon for Williamstown Uniting Church

September 08, 2013

Philemon 1-21

Way back in the sixteenth century, when the Western Church was splitting into Protestant and Catholic, some radicals accused Protestant Reformers like Luther of turning the Bible into a ‘paper pope’. The Protestant Reformers had freed Christians from the authority of the Pope but, the radicals said, had set up in place of the Pope a book, the Bible; trusting in another human creation instead of in God.[1]

Was that true? Is the Bible a ‘paper pope’ for Protestants? For some churches, it might be. Some churches proudly proclaim that they are ‘Bible-believing’ churches, and I think that declaring a belief in the Bible is a good indication that you do follow a ‘paper pope’. But the Uniting Church is not one of those churches. As seriously as we take the Bible, we do not ‘believe’ in it. For us it isn’t the word of God. According to the Uniting Church’s Basis of Union we find in the Scriptures ‘unique prophetic and apostolic testimony’ to the Word of God, who is of course a person, Jesus, and not a book. That Word of God is heard when the Scriptures are read and understood in the worship and witnessing life of the Church, the Basis tells us.[2] Continue reading →