This morning, I want to speak about The Bible. This
Book saved my life. Not this particular copy, which was actually given to Mark Smutny by
the Presbyterian Women of First United Presbyterian Church in Troy, New York in gratitude
for the Bible studies he led with them each year but the Bible itself. The Bible saved my
life, and I'm not just talking about salvation in the life after death. The Bible saved my
life in this life, here and now, and it continues to do so each and every day.
It isn't actually the words on the page, nor is it a particular translation that has
saved my life. The Bible saved my life by making it possible for me to encounter what we
call the Living Word of God, that is, Jesus Christ. And it did so, miraculously, even
before I could read. Now that I can read, it happens over and over again, and it can for
you, as well. How did such a thing happen that I encountered the Living Word of God before
I could read? It happened in the same way it has happened for millions of people for
thousands of years.
The church of Jesus Christ and my parents, by the grace of God, saved my life by
telling me the stories of Jesus from the Bible long before I could read. And I learned to
sing of Jesus' love long before I could read words on a page. "Jesus loves me, this I
know, for the Bible tells me so. Little ones to him belong. They are weak, but he is
strong. Yes, Jesus loves me, the Bible tells me so." And, "Jesus loves the
little children, all the little children of the world. Red and yellow, black and
white," we learned to sing, "they are precious in his sight. Jesus loves the
little children of the world."
The Bible, the Word of God, is the sacred earthen treasure through which we know that
God loves us in Jesus Christ. The Spirit of God moves through the stories of scripture,
its poems, histories and letters, so that we might know God's love for us in Jesus,
whether we are 5 years old or 45 or 95. The church is entrusted with this treasure and
called to tell it anew in every age. When we baptize someone in the Presbyterian Church -
children, youth, and adults - we promise to tell them the stories of the faith. I am here
to tell you, that in ways beyond our imagining, nothing less than life and death may be at
stake in our fulfilling that promise to the people we baptize.
The author of II Timothy lifts up the importance of scripture for the people of God. He
writes, "All scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for reproof,
for correction, and for training in righteousness, so that everyone who belongs to God may
be proficient, equipped for every good work." Today I want to speak a little about
scripture, something of what it is and is not, and why it is so important for you and me,
and for this world.
Please take a Bible from the pew near you, if you didn't bring one with you to church.
Hold it in your hand and open it to the table of contents. At the risk of appearing to
offend those who already know what they need to know in this regard, I begin by stressing
the fact that the Bible is not a book but a collection of books, in fact, a library of
books. Sixty-six separate books have been collected from the writings of ancient Hebrews
and early Christians, and by an editorial process have been brought together over a period
of centuries to form the book we now call the Bible. Our Bibles are divided into two main
sections, what we usually call the Old and New Testaments.
The Old Testament is actually the Hebrew scripture that Jesus' followers and Jesus,
himself, reinterpreted in light of his death and resurrection. When the author of Timothy
tells us to read scripture and that it is good for our instruction, he actually means
those Hebrew scriptures we call the "Old Testament." That is the only scripture
he had. That part of the Bible was written in Hebrew.
The New Testament was written in what some call a "corrupted version" of
Greek. But I prefer to think those Greek teachers would have just given it a B in its
grammar. It was translated into Latin and then back to the original languages before being
translated into the first English translation. That means the woman who told me Jesus had
spoken the King's English, wasn't really correct except in a larger, more metaphysical
way.
We believe that the Bible is a result or consequence of a complex process that is both
human and divine. The relationship between human and divine in this process is an intimate
one. These are writings by human beings who are themselves believed to have been inspired
by God. We further believe that God inspired human councils with the wisdom and the will
to organize these books, and that through these books the divine word of God is
communicated to us. Because of this intimate, back and forth relationship between human
and divine, it is not sufficient explanation of the Bible to say simply that it is either
the Word of God or "merely" a human book such as The Iliad or the collected
writings of Shakespeare. The Jews who gathered together their books from a whole range of
their writings and called them scripture did so in the firm conviction that God spoke
through these human writings, and that these human writings brought the people of God
nearer to God. As did the Christians who came later. (Peter Gomes, The Good Book)
Although the books of scripture take different forms - poetry, history, law, and wisdom
literature - the subject of The Bible is always the same, no matter which book you're
reading. It is the relationship between God's people and their God. The human element in
this relationship is significant and important to understand, for scripture is always
understood to be a human response to the initiative of God. Scripture does not simply
record historical facts, but by its interpretation of history, seeks to ask and answer the
fundamental questions of human existence. Who am I? Why am I here? What is the purpose of
life? What does it mean to be good? What is evil, and how do I deal with it? How do I deal
with death? These are both individual questions and public, communal questions. These
writings are considered sacred because God is seen to be revealed in them. (Peter Gomes,
The Good Book)
The narrative history of Genesis, the legislative tedium of Leviticus, which seems to
go on for an eternity, the books of history, the lyrical book of Psalms, the saga of Job,
the wisdom of Proverbs, and the heroic story of Esther are authoritative and inspired
because each in its own way has been proven useful in the people's attempt to understand
ourselves and our relationship to God.
In what we call the New Testament, books were chosen from a wide range of early
Christian writings. The final product - the present canon, we call it - represents the
consensus of the early churches in A.D. 367. It is composed of three sections history that
includes the four gospels (telling the story of Jesus' life, death and resurrection in
slightly different, but compatible ways), and the Acts of the Apostles (the history of the
early church); letters (called "epistles" from the Greek word for letters)
written to the early churches, which were read aloud to groups of people meetings in
houses and synagogues; and The Revelation to John. Here is a fun fact to know and tell:
The New Testament is not arranged in chronological order. For example, Paul's letters to
the church were written before the gospels. If you want to start reading the Bible, I
suggest you begin not at the beginning, but with the Gospel of Luke, or Mark. Read the
stories of Jesus and let them speak to your life.
This sermon is entitled, "Finding the Word in the Word of God." Let me
explain. We call this book the "Word of God" because through it, God has spoken
and is speaking still to God's people. But Christians use "Word," with a capital
W in another way. Following the lead of the opening chapter of the Gospel of John, we
speak of Jesus Christ as the Word: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was
with God and the Word was God." So, Word with a capital W refers to Christ. The Bible
is not, itself, God, and it is not Christ. The Bible points to God and it points to
Christ.
These words of scripture become the Word only as the Spirit of God moves in us to
interpret them for our time. For example, think of the wind. The wind is air. But if I say
that the air is the same as the wind, I am wrong. Air becomes wind only as currents move
through it. So too, the Word of God, these sacred texts, become the Living Word only as
the Holy Spirit moves through them and us, animating them for today and for our own lives.
When we neglect this distinction, we turn the Bible into a lifeless god, an idol, and
forget that it only comes alive as we are open to the Spirit of God moving through it and
us.
What is so amazing to me about the Bible is that it has a life of its own which cannot
be contained or boxed in by any of us for very long. The same words that spoke to the
people of God for centuries now speak to us in ways those people could never have imagined
were needed. While the actual text of the Bible remains the same, the Spirit of God makes
it possible for us to read it in light of the issues and context of our own day. We do not
become nomads or early Palestinians as we read the Bible. This text transforms itself
through the Spirit of God for us, today.
This is part of what makes the reading of scripture and its application to our lives so
dynamic, so lively, and so controversial. We are evidence that the renewing interpretation
of scripture Jesus, himself, engaged in, continues to this day. We hear the Bible speaking
to us in different ways and need the church of Jesus Christ as the context for
interpretation.
It is one of the great ironies of faith that the scripture used by the status quo to
preserve our place, our traditions, our world view, our theology, is also the same
scripture that leads those oppressed or excluded or on the bottom to speak and move and
agitate for freedom. The Bible is used both as an instrument of hate and love, of
oppression and liberation, of exclusion and inclusion. It is an amazing wonder of the
Spirit of God moving through these words, that the Bible which was used to justify buying
and selling human beings is the same Bible in which African American slaves found the Word
of freedom. The Bible from which John Calvin justified husbands' beating their wives
regularly is the same Bible that leads the church to pronounce all domestic violence a sin
against one another and God. This same Bible is used even now in the church for hatred and
love, for exclusion and inclusion, to maintain the status quo and to challenge it.
Although it is tempting, it is never appropriate nor true to say that one side or the
other of these uses of scripture is captive to the culture. Every one of them is informed
by the culture of its time. We are called by God to read scripture with eyes, minds and
hearts open to the Holy Spirit, so God can show us the errors of our life and culture, and
move into new ways of being that have been here in the scripture from its very beginning.
I return to the place from which I began. This Bible is not like the antique vase that
sits on my mother's shelf, has been passed down through the generations from my
grandfather's great-grandparents, and has never changed except to collect dust and then be
dusted off again. This Bible is the way through which we encounter and share with others
the living love of God, the Living Word of God that we know in Jesus Christ.
As a little child, I heard those stories of faith, those stories of Jesus, in the
nursery, in the Sunday School, and from my parents. God was big and far away in the
clouds, somewhere. But Jesus had the little children come to him and, in my mind, invited
them to sit on his lap. So I felt welcomed and loved by Jesus.
As an adult, when I turn to these same scriptures and read them, Jesus still invites me
to come and hear his word for my life. Then he opens up ramifications and implications for
me, for the whole world and for the church that are beyond anything I would have thought
of on my own. Beyond and beneath it all, the Bible teaches me that Jesus, and therefore
God, loves me, loves you, and loves the whole world. Thanks be to God for this treasure we
have been given. What an honor it is to share that treasure with others. Amen.
