A Parable: No one was certain why the Park family’s dog was at the baseball game, but Rover was there. Rover, deciding to live up to his name, took a walk and ended up in the outfield. Turmoil ensued. Players yelled at Rover, the umpires yelled at Rover, people in the stands yelled at Rover. Confused and scared by the noise, Rover ran all over the field unsure of what to do. Suddenly Rover stopped, perked up his ears and headed straight to a woman on the third base side who was calling out “Rover, Rover.” With a yip of joy Rover leaped into Meaghan Park’s arms. Rover had heard a voice he knew and trusted.
Rev. Jennifer Cameron, in telling this story at the Sola Scriptura (Scripture Alone) event held in October, drew the analogy: when people who have been formed by scripture hear the voice of God in the word they are drawn to it, knowing it to be their primary allegiance, the way to follow.
The Sola Scriptura gathering was part of two day event at Presbyterian College, Montreal. The previous day Dr. Edith Humphrey of Pittsburgh Theological Seminary spoke on “Prima Scriptura,” the primacy of scripture over tradition, reason and experience. The speakers at the gathering the following day spent little time defending the Bible as the word of God or addressing questions of inerrancy, debating points of an earlier time. Instead the invitation was to reflect on the ways scripture forms and shapes the lives of followers of Jesus both individually and as communities of faith.
Beginning with baptism, an unusual place to start a conversation about scripture, Rev. Dr. Roland De Vries of Presbyterian College demonstrated the ways scripture shapes the life of the believer. Describing three scenarios—a baptism in the early church, a contemporary baptism of an infant, and a contemporary adult baptism—De Vries showed baptism arises from allegiance to scripture. The individual or the parents, having been shaped by scripture, come to be baptized or bring their children to be baptized in allegiance to those same scriptures. Further, parents promise to nurture their children in a family (both at home and in the church)
informed by scripture and those baptized on their own profession of faith promise to continue allowing scripture to shape their lives.
The panel of Jason Zuidema (from Concordia University and pastor at Église Réformée St-Paul, Repentigny, Que.), Hillary Kaell (from Concordia University), Kaye Diviney (minister at St. Andrew and St. Paul, Montreal), and Sybil Mosley (at Livingstone, Montreal) deepened the understanding of what allegiance to scripture means in the contemporary context. Kaell, whose research explores modern “pilgrimage” to the Holy Land, noted that Christians who engage in daily personal Bible reading and attend small group Bible studies are far more likely to make a trip to the Holy Land than are those who do not. Engagement with the biblical material feeds a desire to see where the events described took place, giving a lived experience to the ongoing reading of scripture as “the Bible comes alive” through visiting the Holy Land.
Zuidema, Diviney and Mosley recounted how scripture has shaped the life of the very different communities of faith in which they are involved, ranging from the multi-ethnic community at Livingstone, to the city church that is St. Andrew and St. Paul to the Francophone congregation at Église Réformée St-Paul. The scriptures’ ability to form faith communities crosses ethnic, linguistic and cultural lines.
The Scripture Alone conversation was the third of five gatherings taking place between 2013 and 2017, exploring “the five solas” of the Reformation. Voices not often heard in the Presbyterian Church have, through these gatherings, been given contexts in which to speak. These unexpected voices demonstrate that thoughtful theological engagement is taking place in many places across the church.
Sponsored by the Committee on History and funded through grants from the Ewart Endowment for Theological Education and the Conference Fund of the Life and Mission Agency, these events are preparation for the 500th anniversary of the Reformation in 2017. The conversations seek to address the questions: What might “the five solas” say to the church in Canada? Are the 500 year-old slogans robust enough to be relevant today? The hope is that these conversations will continue through the study guides available at presbyterian.ca/history.
The Oct. 29 gathering in Winnipeg will explore the theme Christ Alone. The final gathering will take place at Knox College in 2017.
