Introduction to Hermeneutics: Everything is an Interpretation

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An Inner Metro Green Sermon Series

We started talking about hermeneutics this morning at our community’s Sunday gathering. This is going to be a fun series. It’s an important one too. Why? Simply put, the life of faith is shaped, informed and continuously nurtured by interpretation, be it for good or for ill. Our hermeneutic affects our approach to the life, neighbors, spirituality and faith. Our hermeneutic speaks volumes about our faith and our understanding of faith.

A quick word re: faith: Faith is work. Faith is chasing divinity without knowing all the answers or even where we may be going (note: the end of our personal story is totally unknown to us). Faith is seeking, knocking, searching, and chasing. We have to do the difficult work of interpretation and that work ushers us into a lifestyle that is grounded in faith. So, needless to say, I personally think that hermeneutics – interpretation – is high on the list of our spiritual practices because in my opinion interpretation itself introduces us to a lifestyle of faith and journey. Exactly what we are introduced to depends totally upon our approach to interpretation.

Reading and interpreting takes a lot of hard work and dedication. It’s not easy and was never meant to be. The life of faith is not as automatic as we think for the following reasons: 1. The Incarnation is so real that we should be awe-struck and perhaps more than a bit uncomfortable; 2. Divinity majors on redemptive analogies (Jesus himself is a redemptive analogy); 3. The most important lesson of scripture is we have no guide or template; 4. Our personal stories are still being written and we do not know the endings.

So, some may ask why is interpretation important? I would answer because interpretation is everything! Spirituality is totally affected and shaped by our interpretations.

I decided to skip all the big names and interpretive concepts during the introduction to this series because 99% of the people listening have no idea who any of these people are, and, more than that, they would not understand anything that these people say. My goal is to take postmodern interpretation to the village because there it can be applied and used in very practical and effective ways. Had I dropped a bunch of names (Bakhtin, Bataille, Foucault, Gadamer, Ricoeur, Caputo, Derrida, etc.) or literary concepts the people listening would never catch a glimpse of the big picture. And what is the big picture? For us, the big picture has to do with our approach to the bible and how our approach affects and shapes everything else we do in life and faith (as if the two could be separated somehow).

So, I broke out the whiteboard and drew some pictures. These works of art (I jest!) are below, with narration. I would suggest listening to the presentation while you look at the whiteboard sketches. It all just might make a bit more sense that way.

I began the presentation with a very rough sketch of two people. One was in red marker; the other black marker. The red sketch was Fred Phelps of Westboro Baptist Church infamy, complete with cowboy hat; the black sketch was Rob Bell, complete with square, black framed, hipster eye glasses. Surprisingly, someone in the congregation actually identified my Bell sketch correctly as Rob Bell! No one guessed the Phelps sketch correctly. (Note: I don’t have my original sketches of these two fellows because I had to erase them to continue my morning’s sketching. So, I’ll include two photos of them that I found online).

What do Fred Phelps and Rob Bell have in Common?

So, what was my point in sketching these two characters? I simply said that these two fellows seemingly come different planets as far as theology and philosophy of ministry is concerned, but they do have one thing in common. They read the same bible! It’s all about interpretation! Everything is affected our interpretation!

I then followed that little sketch with a talk about two very, very important theological concepts: Redemptive Analogies and Incarnation. Why? Well, I happen to think that if we are going to do interpretation as honestly as we can do it then we must have a basic grasp on the concepts of Redemptive Analogies and Incarnation. And if anyone thinks that such things are not important, I would say that person neither understands God’s mission, nor does he or she understand the life of faith following. A healthy spirituality can not be realized if such basic building blocks are not in place. This is as devotional or spiritual as it gets, people. Everything is a redemptive analogy and the Incarnation – which was epitomized in Jesus (himself a redemptive analogy) – is Divinity’s constant and continued effort to establish relationship with human beings and deliver universal revelation to humanity. Incarnation has been happening since the beginning of time. Incarnation is so immediately present that it is completely awe-inspiring. Divinity is everywhere!

A Hermeneutic Illustrated

The rest of the presentation would be better explained by simply listening to it while you look at the above photo of my white board. Seriously, looking at the above sketch will help you follow my presentation, which was crafted especially for real-time delivery within our local community. I added a few graphics (text and arrows) to the white board to help people follow along with the podcast online (all graphics added later appear in white). So, hit play below to hear the presentation, and think about it. Blessings and peace.

Related posts:

• Week Four of Hermeneutics: Everything is an Interpretation

• Week Two of Hermeneutics: Everything is an Interpretation

• Hermeneutics: Everything is an Interpretation

• Growing up Westboro

• Week Three of Hermeneutics: Everything is an Interpretation