I had a friend in Sarasota, Florida, who may have been one of the brightest biblical scholars I have ever met. He told me one day that he had failed a class – he was 9 years old at the time – because he hadn't memorized the book of Genesis. By the way, he was expected to recite the book in Hebrew, Arabic and English. What a bummer!

We first met when I was invited to work with the National Conference of Christians and Jews. My job was to convene, chair and moderate our monthly meetings and I really enjoyed our Bible study and how it was read, studied and applied in Jewish and Christian communities. 

That's when and where I met Rabbi Barry Konovich. The first thing he said to me was, "John, when you finish saving all the souls you can, come by and talk to me. I might just listen."

One Sunday each year, Barry and I would exchange pulpits. We never told one another what we preached, but since we were invited back, we must have done just fine. One of the church members did tell me that we recited the entire first paragraph from Genesis, in English, and then said, "God created! With those two words, I could preach a lifetime!"

One day, a young man came to my office and said he was considering entering the ministry and could I tell him what he needed to know. Here's what I remember saying. As far as Presbyterians are concerned, he needed to contact our local Presbytery, speak to the committee on preparation for ministry. He'd have about two years of preparation for the first step, then there is about three years of academic work at a seminary, which would clobber him with theology, church history, Greek and Hebrew language and Bible. 

"You can be a Catholic priest or a reformed pastor, but you'd best talk to God about that."

I said that I believed the most important work he could do from now until the day he died was to know his Bible inside and out, from front to back, historically, literally, figuratively, scholarly and pragmatically. 

This is not to be misunderstood as criticism of my seminarian training, but I got the best biblical education from some Sunday school literature I bought at the book store. I still have some of the books on my shelves here at home. When I had tests, I studied the lessons rather than memorizing much of the lectures. I passed every test.

I told him that my approach to the Bible is very personal and, "The Bible was written for the church, the synagogue, denomination, pastor, deacon, elder, bishop, cardinal, pope. 

The Bible is God's Word for the people, those who sit in the pew, stand on the street corner and who work from 9 to 5, in the mill, at the office, on the farm, behind a desk or in front of a class. 

“Never, and I repeat, never have I believed that the church, administration or individual has the right to interpret or use this Bible for fun or profit, as an instrument of pain or punishment or as a declaration to win an election. This Bible is sacred, not secular."

Let me close by stating that is a singular theme that runs through the entire Bible and that theme can be presented in a few words. God took chaos and made it cosmos. God took disorder and created order. He called this order good.

People try to make God's Word so complex, but His Word is so amazingly straight-forward. "In the beginning, God!"

Thanks, God!