Jeremiah 23.25-29
‘I have heard what the prophets have said who prophesy lies in my name,’ [says the Lord. ‘They say,] ‘I have dreamed, I have dreamed!’ How long? Will the hearts of the prophets ever turn back—those who prophesy lies, and who prophesy the deceit of their own heart? They plan to make my people forget my name by their dreams that they tell one another, just as their ancestors forgot my name for Baal. Let the prophet who has a dream tell the dream, but let the one who has my word speak my word faithfully. What has straw in common with wheat? says the Lord. Is not my word like fire, says the Lord, and like a hammer that breaks a rock in pieces?
Luke 12.49-51
Jesus said to his disciples: ‘I came to bring fire to the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! I have a baptism with which to be baptised, and what stress I am under until it is completed! Do you think that I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division!
The Word: like hammer and fire
From the last verse of the reading in Jeremiah: “Is not my word like fire, says the Lord, and like a hammer that breaks a rock in pieces?” The Jewish Talmud echoes this: “As the hammer splits the rock into many splinters, so will a scriptural verse yield many meanings.”
The Talmud grew out of the same spiritual melting pot that produced Jesus and St Paul, so perhaps this helps us understand Jesus’ startling words in Luke 12: “I came to bring fire upon the earth. … Do you think that I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division.”
So, this is about scripture and the interpretation of Scripture. Often, scripture is read in church and followed by the automatic conclusion: “This is the Word of the Lord,” to which we dutifully respond, “Thanks be to God.”
But just why do we give thanks for fire, division, and splintering rock, let alone some of the appalling verses from elsewhere advocating slavery, violence, debauchery, incest, dishonesty, misogyny, genocide, the killing of infants? (Yes, all of those are explicitly approved of in verses in scripture). And what about the things which scripture also somewhere forbids – eating bacon, black pudding, or prawns and shellfish, shaving, selling real estate, eating your windfall fruit, and, of course, wearing polycotton shirts and other mixed fabric clothing, all of which are banned in verses in scripture and mostly they are punishable by death. Yet Christians will happily read any of those passages and then declare ‘This is the Word of the Lord.”
This is why I use the alternative “Hear what the Spirit is saying to the Church”, because, quite frankly, sometimes the Spirit is saying, “You can safely ignore that, even though it is in Scripture”. It’s a subtle but crucial reminder that not every ancient injunction demands our obedience today.
What Is the Word of the Lord?
Given how often (and how thoughtlessly) Christians refer to bible passages as “The Word of the Lord,” perhaps it’s worth asking: what is that Word? What is the Word of the Lord?
The first time the phrase appears is in Genesis, in the Abraham saga: “The word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision.”
It’s all over the Old Testament—mentioned hundreds of times. The word of the Lord comes to people in and out of visions, which makes it sound as if the word of the Lord is difficult to pin down. How ironic, then, that the Lord complains of this in the Jeremiah passage! The word arrives, unbidden, like the unpredictable Spirit, which, Jesus tells us in John 3: “You do not know whence it comes or whither it goes.”
Curiously, the Word of the Lord often comes to the prophets in the form of poetry. The prophets, Psalms, and Wisdom Literature contain the most carefully crafted words in Scripture. Writing poetry takes time and meticulous working and reworking of the text to get it just right. Poetry is also open to endless meanings and interpretations. It’s notoriously difficult to translate. To capture all the nuances a poem conveys is probably impossible in translation. So, to declare (for example) that an English rendition of Jeremiah is “The Word of the Lord” is nonsensical because we simply haven’t got all the subtleties and shades of the original. It may have been the Word of the Lord when Jeremiah received it; it isn’t when some of it is inevitably lost in translation.
The rest of the Bible is an eclectic collection of sayings and sagas, told and retold in oral tradition and remembered in diverse written traditions. Thus, for example, in Genesis we sometimes encounter two—or more—versions of the same story, preserved from distinct oral traditions. And just as each of the Gospel writers has their own biases and theological positions, so it is with these Old Testament sources. They come from different theological perspectives. And later editors couldn’t tell which was “true”, so they included both.
For example, Abraham, in Genesis 12, tells Pharaoh in Egypt that Sarah is his sister, hoping to avoid danger. Then again, in Genesis 20, he pulls the same stunt with King Abimelech in Gerar. And if that weren’t enough, Isaac does exactly the same thing in Genesis 26, telling the men of Gerar that Rebekah is his sister, again out of fear. Three stories, same pattern – deception, danger, divine intervention. These aren’t follow-up stories; they’re versions. It’s the same story, retold with slight variations, passed down and preserved. The editors haven’t tried to iron out the differences: instead, they allow God to speak through the variation and the repetition.
Now, modern readers, especially those of us who like things neat and logical, tend to ask, “Well, which one is right?” But Scripture doesn’t work like that. It’s not trying to give us a single, tidy answer. Instead, it invites us into a conversation. It lets different voices speak.
Fire, Division, and the Living Word
So here’s the crux of this.
I hope you can see how difficult it can be to read the Bible literally. And when it comes to poetry and visions, it becomes even more demanding.
Scriptural verses yield many splinters when the hammer of God’s word falls on them. Getting to a single, unified truth is nigh impossible, which makes us uncomfortable, especially if you come to church to be told what to think, as some believers seem to do.
Taken as literal instructions, the Bible can feel like a patchwork of competing laws and austere warnings. It is riddled with paradoxes and contradictions, which is a problem for those who come to church to be told what to think.
But it isn’t a problem for those whose guiding principles are Tradition, Scripture AND Reason, and who are therefore allowed to apply their intellect to the Bible, who don’t need to be told what to think. It’s not a problem, because when we recognise Scripture for what it claims to be: a living conversation with many voices telling us the truth about God, then we can let its sharp edges do their work: they challenge our certainties and burn away our complacency.
Jesus underlines this in today’s Gospel: he came not to confirm our peace but to expose our illusions—because truth, by its very nature, divides. If we embrace it, we’re drawn toward life; if we reject it, we recoil. Division is not Christ’s goal, but the by-product of his unflinching light.
And John’s prologue shows us why the Bible can never be the final Word: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” The true Word of God is not ink on a page we read but a person we meet—Jesus Christ, the incarnate Word. He is the fire that refines us and the hammer that shatters our hardened hearts, inviting us to be remade in love.
So here’s what this means for us today
What if the Bible isn’t here to give us all the answers, but to introduce us to its central figure?
- The Bible is not an instruction manual: it’s a library of encounters with God that point us to its central figure. It’s not the Word of God, but it introduces us to the Word made Flesh, Jesus Christ himself.
- It’s not a book of answers to Frequently Asked Questions, but it provokes questions that drive us deeper into our relationship with God.
- When we say “The Word of the Lord,” we do not mean text on paper, but Jesus Christ—alive, active, and speaking in our midst.
Rather than reciting “This is the Word of the Lord” by rote, may our prayer be: “Speak, O Holy Spirit, through the living Word. I’m listening.”
Hear what the Spirit is saying to the Church.
Amen
Scripture quotations are adapted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.