Consequently, my dog has figured out that his daddy is the disciplinarian of the household. So he is often on his best behavior when daddy is around. Well, now when I call for him to come to me he listens very carefully for my tone of voice. If I call him in my googoo gahgah voice, like one would if playing with a two year old, he comes racing to me like he's trying to win the Indy 500. However in those moments when I would rather talk to him like an adult than a toddler, and I use my normal voice ("Coach come here"), he just stands there and looks at me. It is one of the funniest things in the world. I will call him and he will just stare at me. I try, with every variation of my array of voice tones, to convince him that he's not in trouble, but he doesn't budge. I continue to call his name, but by now his little head is tilting to the side as if he's trying to view someone's Facebook profile pic after they've uploaded it sideways (smh). I can't help but to realize that my dog is doing exegesis on my every action. It's as if looking at me from a different angle will help him understand fully (or more accurately) what is going on.
My dog has a hermeneutic of suspicion...
So me being the manipulator that I am, I sit down with my feet extended toward him, put on my googoo gahgah voice and assure him that daddy wants to play. He finally comes. Now this is where I am sometimes kind of mean. If he has been a good boy, then I will will play with him like he wants. But if he has done something wrong, and my deception is convincing enough to get him to come to me, he will walk right into the discipline that is awaiting.
As we peruse the biblical text, in search of meaning for our lives, let us realize that there are times when we too must tilt our heads to get a better perspective. Things in the bible aren't always what they seem to be. And they certainly aren't always what we think they are. Simply taking a gander here and there and presuming that we know exactly what is being said, can be misleading at best and detrimental at worst. Scripture has a lot to say to our contemporary culture, even though the texts we not written specifically for us (per se). But it takes those that are willing to put in the work to discover what is, and is not being said. It requires us not to approach the bible with an arrogant disposition, and a motive to make it fit our lives. We must, prayerfully, read thoroughly and carefully if we are to get closer to what is being said. We may not always fully understand. There are texts that are difficult to interpret. They lead us in with a googoo gahgah tone, only to discipline us and remind us that "God is God and we are not!"(thanks Dan Rudy). Only God knows all things, and the sooner we realize this the better off we will be. Therefore we must approach scripture with great humility, realizing that faithful interpretation, though sometimes seemingly unattainable, is still worthy of our best (and most prayerful) efforts.
So we can take a lesson from Coach today. Sometimes it is of great benefit to have a hermeneutic of suspicion. It protects us from misunderstanding and thereby walking into some very uncomfortable circumstances (be it physically or spiritually). This kind of hermeneutic can also take us on a journey to a much richer and more relevant word, which is needed in our world today! Let's do the work!
