Bible Sunday

“The Bible is alive, it speaks to me, it has feet, it runs after me, it has hands, it lays hold on me”.  So said Martin Luther.  Bible Sunday is an opportunity to reflect on the impact the Bible has on our lives, and through us, those around us. 

There is a striking similarity between what I have just done, in reading the Gospel, and what the Priest and Teacher, Ezra did in Jerusalem almost 2500 years ago. In the Old Testament book of Nehemiah we read: “Ezra brought the book of the Law before the assembly, both men and women, and all who could hear with understanding and the ears of the people were attentive to the book of the law”. That book of the Law is contained in the Old Testament, and that is the link, like many others in our liturgy and worship, that takes us back beyond the roots of our own Christian faith, to that of our Jewish ancestors.  What an amazing sense of continuity spanning all those generations.

Very little is known about the Priest and Teacher, Ezra, what we do know is that he dedicated his life to the study of the Holy Scriptures, and teaching them to the Jewish people who he led back to Jerusalem from exile in Babylon. He was first and foremost a devoted teacher, steeped in the Law of Moses, committed to sharing his knowledge, wisdom and personal experiences with others.

The Jewish people were sent into exile by God as a punishment for disobeying God’s laws. Ezra taught the returned Jewish people God’s laws contained in the Book of the Law, which is the first five books in the Old Testament, and they turned to God again with new joy. The way, the Priests, Teachers and Rabbi’s taught the Israelites, meant the Old Testament passages would have been very familiar to them, we have to remember, everything a Jewish person did, how they lived their lives, was all governed by the Law contained in those first 5 books of the Old Testament.  If they broke the religious laws they were dealt with by the Priests.

Other parts of the Old Testament were used in regular worship in the Temple, such as the Psalms.  They were the original hymns, songs of praise and thanksgiving and also songs of anger and concern.  We call them the Psalms of David, but they weren’t written by him, they were probably dedicated to him.

I have a great affinity with the “Psalmist”, as he shares his problems, just as they are, with God; expressing anger, resentfulness, jealousy, guilt and pain, as well as joy and thankfulness. By using the Psalms, we are given permission to shake our fist at God one moment and to praise him the next. And if you think about it for a moment, that’s how we react to God in our everyday lives. It can be so liberating to say things just as they are, rather than dressed up in pious language. And so the Psalms are a particularly powerful example of human response to the reality of God’s creation, our place in the world and our response to and relationship with God. As examples we see, ‘O my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer, and by night, but find no rest. Why have you forgotten me?’  And by contrast, ‘Praise the Lord! How good it is to sing praises to our God’. Bishop Gordon Mursell is deeply moved by the protest of the Psalms.  Read ‘Out of the Deep’, ‘Praying in Exile’. I pick on the Psalms only as an example, because I particularly identify with them.  You may well identify with other parts or characters in the Bible.

The Bible obviously plays an integral part in our lives each Sunday, but I wonder what part it plays in our daily lives and how we experience the living word at other times?  Are we really committed to the growth and enrichment of our love of God and of our neighbour, and those relationships, through regular reading and study? There was a time when most families read the Bible every day, attended regular Bible Classes, my Grandparents who were Chapel people attended Church twice on Sundays, and a Bible Class in the week, and had a sort of calendar with a Bible Tract for each day. Nowadays I come across families who have no idea what the Bible is, and certainly don’t have a copy in the house.  Who don’t even know the Lord’s Prayer.

Scholars continue to interpret the same bits of the Bible over and over, and we can all read different things into the words, because the words of a particular passage, such as the readings today, speak to each of us in a unique way each time we read them or hear them, depending on what is happening in our lives at the time.  But that is the point! It’s part of the richness.  The Bible is a living book which enables a real relationship with God, Jesus Christ, our neighbour and the world we live in.

The American theologian Richard Foster says, ‘When we come to the Bible, we come to be changed, not to amass information’. How very true that is, the Bible is not a fictional work, even though it is full of historical inaccuracies, contradictions, repetitions and collations, because there are human finger prints all over it. It is a fascinating mixture of both the secular and the sacred, who’s words are inspired by God. What the Bible is not, is a collection of stories about perfect men and women who loved and served God. It is rather an encyclopaedia of human life on earth with all its faults and concerns.  It is real life as we experience it ourselves. It is full of ordinary and extraordinary people, with characteristics we love, hate, admire and envy, those we feel empathy with and those we identify with, those who make us feel uncomfortable and uneasy. The Bible explores their relationship with God and their response to Him.  It is our history too.  As we hear their stories we clearly recognise ourselves and others – trusting Abraham, the father of the nations, treacherous Judas betraying Jesus, persistent and parsimonious Paul. The Bible is full of the life of the world, life’s rich tapestry, full of knots; it’s messy, imperfect.  What we need to do is to immerse ourselves fully and enter into the drama, so that we experience it first hand. And live it. It would be easy to read only those parts of the Bible that appeal to us or make us feel comfortable in ourselves, but the lectionary ensures we don’t just get those bits of the scriptures, but that we also read, and hear, the more challenging parts with which we need to wrestle.

The American writer, Mark Twain said, ‘Most people are bothered by those passages of Scripture which they cannot understand.  But for me, I always notice that the passages of Scripture which trouble me most, are those that I do understand’. The Bible keeps us rooted in our historical tradition and providing authority and a pattern of living.  It is God’s living word and age only increases its power.  When we recognise our own lives in its pages, making a particular story our story, then we are lifted out of our own time and space and set free. We are liberated by the knowledge that our lives fit into a much larger puzzle.  It gives us a sense of being part of a much larger community, provides us with a history and a future, and shows us God.  Our lives are an extension of the Bible as God continues to work through us.

We can see that so well in our Gospel reading this morning, when we hear Jesus challenging us to be part of His great mission to change the world, not as a theory or a distant future event, but here and now. To bring good news to the poor, release the political and economic prisoners of this world, free people from fear, debt and hunger, to help to make people see how life could be, should be, if we follow His Holy Word. And the time for action is now, we each have a part to play in serving the Kingdom, no matter how small our part may be, it all counts, because we carn’t wait for God to return to do it for us.  It could be too late then.

So on this Bible Sunday, let us pray that the word of Christ will dwell in us richly, that we might be transformed in love and take the Gospel into our daily lives and the world. Amen.