"READ ANY GOOD BOOK LATELY?"

How many of you really like books? Lorraine and I sure do. When we moved to St. Louis I don't think our furniture took up nearly as much room in the truck as our boxes of books did! Lots of people love books and, in spite of our living in the age of cyber-space and electronic everything, still there's just something about the feel and look and experience of a book that's like nothing else.

Here's one book I really cherish. It's a copy of Charlotte's Web that my parents gave me for Christmas when I was 11. I used to love to get my Mom to read it aloud ‘cos there's this one part, where the pig Wilbur gets out of his pen and the farmer's wife, Mrs. Zuckerman, sees him through the kitchen window and immediately hollers for her husband and their hired man: "‘Ho-mer!' she cried. ‘Pig's out! Lurvy! Pig's out! Homer! Lurvy! Pig's out. He's down there under that apple tree." My Mom could do that real good!

Then there's another book that always makes me think of my mother. Gone With the Wind. My mother was always a member of things like the Doubleday Book Club and Book of the Month Club. But at least once a year, it seemed, she'd always reread Gone with the Wind. Such a big, thick book. It was amazing to me as a kid.

Of course, nowadays kids are into reading big, thick books! How many of you read this book Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire? I was so curious as to what could make kids read something this long, I bought this one and the first 3 books in the series and read them all. And you know what? They're good! I'm looking forward to the next one!

Yes, there are lots and lots of good books in the world. But there is one "good book" that stands out from them all. It's the most translated, most published, most purchased book in history. THE "Good Book", the Bible.

For the four Sundays of this month, we're going to explore the Bible a little bit in a series of sermons I've entitled, "Reclaiming the Bible for Real People." My major goal is just to get us all thinking about this challenging and wonderful book and, perhaps, to motivate us to give it another chance in our lives.

Tell the truth now...how many of you have read any Good Book lately? Some. But don't feel bad if you didn't raise your hand; you'd surely be among the majority on this issue. Lots and lots of people avoid even trying to read the Bible...even folks who consider themselves to be Christians and who want to know more about God. Now why is that? Well, one big reason is that so many of us simply don't understand it! It doesn't take very much time reading the Bible to figure out that it can't be read the way we read a novel. And that taking everything in it literally just doesn't make any sense.

The English word "Bible" comes from the Greek word biblia which means, simply, "books." The Bible is not really one book, you know. It's a collection of books, a collection of writings, really, not cohesive "books" as we think of them today, that was written and compiled by various authors, mostly unknown, over a period of around 1,000 years.

In part 4 of this series I'll say a little more about how the Bible we know today came to be and you can certainly learn more about that in our Monday night "Bible 101" education class that starts tomorrow. But suffice to say, for now, our Bible contains a wide variety of kinds of literature. Poetry, visions and prophetic messages, rules and laws for a particular group of people at a particular time in history, witnesses' reports on various occurrences, fables and myths, and a little of what we loosely call "history." Mostly, though, the Bible is what we might call a "confessional witness." It's a collection of people's reports, experiences and insights about the nature and presence of God in their lives.

The "Scripture", or sacred writing, from Psalm 119 that was read this morning has the psalmist saying to God, "Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path." The Bible is meant to be just that: a way of shedding some light on the mysteries and confusions of our lives throughout this journey we're on and a means of putting a spotlight on the presence and power of God. The problem is that this particular "light" does not work at its optimum level simply with the flip of a switch (or in this case, a page.) Learning to read, understand and apply the Bible to our real lives does require some skills.

A lot of us, instead of learning and using these skills, prefer instead to sit around playing "Bible bingo." Flip and read...flip and read. Sooner or later, we'll probably have an experience like the minister who was on a jumbo jet that began having engine trouble at 30,000 feet. Seeking comfort from Scripture, he opened his pocket-sized New Testament and latched onto the first verse his eyes met, which was the 12th verse of the 6th chapter of the Gospel of John: "Gather the pieces that are left over...."

There are many ways to learn the skills we need to read the Bible. Classes like the ones we're offering this month, books...at the end of this series we will give everyone a good, easy pamphlet that covers the basics. But for starters I will tell you what I tell anyone who wants to start reading the Bible: learn how to separate the timeless and universal truths from that which is historically and culturally bound. God's love for us...the saving grace of Christ...the power available to us through the Holy Spirit: those are timeless and universal truths. Unfortunately, a lot of us here don't read the Bible because we've been beaten up with material that is historically and culturally bound: ancient laws used in a specific time and place and antiquated notions about human physiology and sexuality. The Bible has too often become a misused tool in the hands of fools.

Think of a hammer, for instance. A perfectly good, helpful tool. You can build things that need to be built with a hammer. You can take apart things that need to be taken apart. Of course, I could also take this hammer and chunk it out there randomly into the pews...but that would be pretty stupid; someone could really get hurt or even killed. In fact, people have been killed with hammers. Intentionally. So...since some people have been ignorant enough or evil enough to misuse a hammer, shall I renounce the use of all hand tools?

Of course not. But some of us do that with the Bible. Because either ignorant or evil people have used the Bible to spiritually wound and even kill people, shall we renounce the good and useful tool that they misused? I say "No!"

Yes, gay and lesbian people have been beaten up by Bible misuse. That's why we made available this morning a pamphlet called "The Bible as Your Friend." But gays and lesbians are not the only ones. People of color. Women. Heterosexuals who have been divorced or who are childless. Lots and lots of people have been hurt by the misuse and misunderstanding of the Bible, its context, its meanings and its purposes.

But we shouldn't renounce it. On the contrary...we should reclaim the Bible! We need it! We need its message of hope...its assurance of God's love...its guidance toward ways of living that are good and loving and holistic.

We need the Bible because it deals with many real life issues. Part 2 of this series next week is called "Sex, Sin and Scandal: Sunday School in the New Millennium." But those things are not new or unique to this day and age. Throughout history, there have always been sex, sin and scandal because there have always been people! If we look hard enough, in the pages of the Bible we can find ourselves.

We are all in there, you see, because the Bible is a living thing. Do you realize that? The Bible is not only a story from long ago. It is one of the ways that a living God speaks to us who are living today. It is meant to be a way of illuminating our minds and spirits to the presence of God. In the book of Romans, chapter 15, verse 4, we are reminded: "...everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through endurance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope."

Quoting Peter Gomes, the preacher for Memorial Church at Harvard University, "Contrary to popular opinion, the Bible never was meant to be an object of worship. Such a view [certainly runs counter to the long respected commandment] ‘thou shalt have no other gods before me.' What is holy about this book that we call "holy" is that it directs by [teaching] and example the mind and spirit toward the mind and spirit of God. In other words," he says, "one's devotion begins when one closes the Bible. Faith becomes the [living word] when it becomes rooted in the hearts and lives of believers...."

We need the Bible, most of all, because it shows us, in our humanness, how the divinity of God was made manifest in Jesus, and how we, too, share in Christ's divine nature. In the 20th chapter of his "good news" report, John says, "...these things are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Child of God, and that by believing you may have life in that name." Jesus came to show us the way to God. To be our bridge of reconnection. To embody the love of God and to offer that love to all of us. Call me sentimental...but, yes, Jesus loves me for the Bible tells me so!

We must reclaim the Bible as an integral part of our spiritual lives. But know that with the Bible, then, our work is not done but is just beginning...for in that penetrating light we have to live our lives as our spiritual ancestors lived theirs -- working out our salvation with fear and trembling.

The Bible is one way of nourishing belief, but for Christians it must never be a substitute for belief. What is written is indeed written for our learning, but as we are reminded by the apostle Paul, these things were written "...so that through endurance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope." Amen.

MCC St. Louis - Check Us Out!

This page hosted by Get your own, Free Homepage