Invitation to Interpretation

Today's reading was all about interpretative meaning. The OT reading was pretty obvious, but had an object lesson that is important. Joseph was given the gift of interpreting dreams, and he interpreted dreams so accurately that he was redeemed from prison.

In the NT reading, the disciples ask Jesus why He tells stories when He talks to the people. His response is that those who are open to the teaching will have a greater understanding, and that those who are not open will have even more taken from them.

In this method, rather than teach people directly, Jesus is teaching in parables so that his human listeners can ponder and wrestle with the meaning. Again, the act of wrestling with the meaning hearkens back to a prior reading when God changed Jacob's name to Israel, or "one who wrestles with God."

By contemplating the words, and the meaning behind the story, we have to use our intellect to try to understand the nature of God. It is in the process of thinking about God that our minds become attuned to God. What you feed in your mind is what grows. By meditating on the word of God, our minds grow to be more richly in tune with God. This is not only a desired goal in worship, but is also a way Jesus is protecting His flock. Storms will come, bad things will happen, but a mind that is richly in tune with God will be like a house on a stone foundation. It will survive, with much more of its structure intact, than will a house built on sand.

So we are asked to meditate on the word and interpret it. Does that mean that we can interpret it any way we want, as the deconstructionists would say? Or that there is no meaning at all? Well, we see in the OT reading a clear method for interpretation.

Before Joseph interpreted any dreams, he stated, only God can do such a thing. By giving credit and glory to God in all we do, we automatically have a guide for interpretation. If He is our fixed point of reference, then we can do things that others don't understand, and can't believe.

Similarly, meditating on the word of God requires placing faith in God's ability to lead us to an interpretation that makes sense according to His will and nature.

So how do we know how to do it? The Proverbs reading gave another clue. The Lord mocks at mockers, but He shows favor to the humble. With an approach of humble desire, we seek to understand. Not necessarily to teach, but to learn. It's those that try to say they "know" for sure what He means, that try to "Lord" their knowledge over others, it's those people who will be "put to shame." The proud will fall.

So, we are given license to interpret. But, we are also given a guide on the tools we need to interpret. Faith, humility, and desire seem to be those tools. But faith, most of all.