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September 14, 2014How Do I Get Eternal Life?
September 28, 201421
Sep.
2014
Why Read the Bible?
“Why Read the Bible?”
Rev. Dr. David E. Gray
Bradley Hills Presbyterian Church
September 21, 2014
2 Timothy 3: 14-17; Luke 4: 16-21
Listen to the sermon here.
The Bible has something for everyone. For those who like humor consider:[i] Who was greatest comedian in the Bible? Samson, he brought down the house. For sports fans. Where is the first tennis match mentioned in the Bible? When Joseph served in Pharaoh’s court. What happened in first baseball game in the Bible? Eve stole first. Adam stole second. Cain stuck out Abel. Giants and Angels were rained out. For the economists among us. Why did the man looking for work get excited reading the Bible? He thought he saw a j-o-b. Who was the greatest financier in the Bible? Noah, he was floating his stock while everyone was in liquidation. For romantics. Did Eve ever have a date with Adam? No, just an apple. What did Adam say on the night before Christmas? “It’s Christmas, Eve.” I promise I’m done.
Last Sunday’s Washington Post magazine included a cover story about the current construction of an $800 million, eight story Bible museum being built a few blocks from the U.S. Capitol. The privately funded Bible museum plans to open in 2017 and should be one of the largest museums in DC.[ii] It will house centuries-old copies of books of the Bible, historic artifacts about scripture, a Bible that was flown to the moon; even Elvis Presley’s Bible.
The project’s stated goal is to “bring to life the living word of God.” It’s slated to have a ballroom modeled after Versailles, Disney quality holograms, a soaring digital entryway with religious images projected on the ceiling and even a restaurant serving biblically themed meals, according to the Post.
Several times in the Bible, from Deuteronomy to Matthew and Luke, we are told that we do not live by bread alone, but by the word of the Lord. Dallas theologian Charles Ryrie once said, “The Bible is the greatest of all books; to study it is the noblest of all pursuits; to understand it, the highest of all goals.”
Michelle Boorstein of the Washington Post writes, “The Bible is probably the most influencial book of all time. It is a precious guide to billions of people. Yet it remains a mystery. Only a few dozen complete New Testaments manuscripts from the early centuries have been found. There are thousands of textual differences among them.”[iii] Modern archeology to excavate sites mentioned in the Bible is little more than a century old, and many academics don’t work on Biblical texts due to controversial nature of sacred texts.” So there is a lot we have to learn yet about the Bible.
Yet we should not take our ability and right to read the Bible for granted. It’s a gift. Centuries ago, and in many communities, they restricted who could read the Bible. During the Reformation, Protestants fought for the right to read the Bible and it began to be printed in the languages of the people. Families in the early Americas would save their funds to buy one book, the Bible.
I can remember my grandfather showing me an old family Bible. I can picture my Aunt still reading scripture to me. I can recall my grandmother on my mom’s side needlepointing scriptural passages to hang on our walls.
A 2013 survey by the American Bible Society revealed that more than 85 percent of Americans own a Bible, 79 percent think the Bible is sacred, 61 percent wish they read the Bible more.[iv]
While owning a Bible and believing it’s important, 57 percent of Americans only read their Bibles four times a year or less. Only 26 percent of Americans said they read their Bible on a regular basis.
The number of those who are skeptical about the Bible—who believe that the Bible is “just another book of teachings written by men that contains stories and advice”—has nearly doubled from 10% to 19% in just three years.[v]
Is the Bible still relevant? Is it out of date? Can we trust it? Does it reflect the divine?
The Bible does not seek to include every piece of knowledge or answer every question in the universe. It is not always consistent. It is not infallible. But, as Paul suggests, God is behind all of it. The Bible is right for its purpose, it is unique in its ability to lead us to God.
When we ordain elders and deacons and pastors we ask them a series of questions. One question we ask is, “Do you accept the Scriptures of the Old and the New Testament to be, by the Holy Spirit, the unique and authoritative witness to Jesus Christ in the church universal and God’s word to you?” To me, this summarizes well why we should read the Bible.
These words were chosen carefully. They affirm at least four things. First, that there are two Testaments in the Bible of specific scriptures. There are the Old and New Testaments. Some try to ignore the Old Testament, but Jesus didn’t. As our first passage notes, he read passages from Isaiah and other books from the Hebrew Bible. We didn’t get to pick the books of the Bible. Martin Luther didn’t believe five of the books of the Bible belonged. Thomas Jefferson literally cut out the parts he didn’t like. Yet, Paul wrote to Timothy, all parts of the Bible are useful, for God is present in all. We learn something, even from the parts we don’t like or agree with. I have often heard the Bible compared to the constitution of a state, organization or nation. The Bible can be interpreted, but it puts everyone in the church universal, as our question implies, on the same basic page.
Secondly, the scriptures are inspired by and illuminated by the Holy Spirit. Calvin thought that scripture comes alive for us with the involvement of the Holy Spirit. That is why early on in most sermons, Kori, Wally, Marty and I ask you to pray with us, asking for the Holy Spirit to come upon us, opening the meaning of the words. We know that the Bible was written a long time ago over many centuries by many people to many different audiences, so the Spirit is important in helping the meaning to make it into our lives. The spirit is important for it to be as fully useful as Paul suggests. How the spirit moved the writers of scripture is a mystery. Yet the Greek word Paul uses in verse 16 is significant, noting that scripture is “inspired.” The word Paul uses is “theopneustos.” God-breathed. It is not only the writer who was inspired, but all who read can be inspired because God is present in the Word.[vi]
Third, scripture is a unique witness. The Westminster Confession of Faith, one of the key documents from the Reformation, refers to Scriptures as the “Word of God written.”[vii] Meaning they are a way God has chosen to communicate about Godself with us.
A cartoon in the New Yorker last month had God sitting on a cloud looking distracted and one angel says the other, “It’s the same thing each September, He begins to doubt the existence of man, and then football season begins and He snaps out of it.” We shall see how the Skins do this afternoon with the Eagles. The Bible helps us understand how God has chosen to communicate with us by relieving Godself in such a way.
There is no document that tells us as much or speaks as reliably about God’s relationship with Israel and about Jesus as does the Bible. There has been an incredible amount of historic research done on the Bible and it has credibility in its description of Jesus’ life and the testimony of those who experienced his life miracles, death and resurrection. So we say the Bible is authoritative. We take it seriously. It brings Jesus Christ to us and it brings us closer to God.
Now we Presbyterians don’t take every word of the Bible literally. We worship Jesus, not the book. Best-selling author Steve Maraboli writes, “If your salvation was dependent on your ability to read and understand scripture, Jesus would have been an author.”[viii] Not a carpenter and evangelist. Yet the Holy Spirit works through the people writing. We recognize that the Bible contains oral history transmitted from generation to generation before some was written down. We know there are inconsistencies within it. It is not a science book. We know that it was written out of specific contexts and that different parts of the Bible are meant to convey different things. For example, there are some parts that I believe are historical in nature, such as many of Jesus’ activities. There are many other parts that are meant to be poetry, prophecy, or allegory. I do not believe, for example, that Genesis 1 intends us to believe the earth was created in 7, 24 hour periods. That is a metaphor. I do believe, however, that we are to understand that God is behind the creation of our universe and world.
Fourth, we affirm that scripture is God’s word to us. That God speaks to us through this book today. The book is centuries old and yet in a mysterious way, God uses the Bible to speak to us. To touch and shape us. I know from my own experience reading scripture and from the testimony of many friends and colleagues how deeply reading the Bible can impact us. It provides wisdom for our living, as our friend Scott Winnette used to say. It’s why Paul suggests that God can use the Bible, a document which like us has flaws, to do good things. The Bible helps shape us and instruct us for our good works. Scripture is a lamp to our feet and a light to our path. It can make a difference in how we live.
It is said that Vincent Quiroga of Chile found a few pages of the Bible washed up on the seashore by a tidal wave following an earthquake. He read them and devoted the rest of his life to distribution of the scriptures in forgotten villages in northern Chile.[ix]
A story is told that one night in Sicily a robber held up a man distributing Bibles. He lit a bonfire to burn the books. As the fire was lit the salesman asked if he might read a little from each book. He read from Psalm 23 and from 1 Corinthians 13 and from the Gospels. After each reading the robber said, “That’s a good book, don’t burn that one, give it to me.” By the end no books were burned. The robber kept the books for himself. Many years later, having finished reading them all, he became a Christian minister.[x]
Craig Kanalley is a senior editor of the Huffington Post. He writes about how in 2012 he was inspired to read the whole Bible in 100 days.[xi] Kanalley grew up in a somewhat, but not overly religious, Catholic family. He hadn’t been particularly involved in religion as an adult. During a difficult time in life, where things were not going well, he felt he needed to make some changes. So he divided the Bible into 100 sections and began to read a little each day.
Kanalley writes in the Post and describes how during those 100 days “nearly everything around him seemed to take on great new meaning, spiritual meaning.” A random chair showed up one evening on the subway as he was reading for him to sit on. A woman gave him a ping pong ball with the words, “Always believe in angels” written on it. He randomly stumbled into a beautiful first communion ceremony. A picky eater, he became much more relaxed about eating foods. He felt calmer and more at peace during this time. He said he started smiling more.
At the end of that 100 days, Kanalley said he had a new worldview. He began to focus more on other people. He was more positive and reflective. He emerged much happier.
As some of you know, in the summer of 1994 I was trying to decide whether to go to seminary the next fall or combined law and business schools in Chicago. I spent a good part of the summer beforehand reading the entire Bible to help me discern my future. I read the whole Bible that summer. When September came I found myself in law school. Perhaps the “Good Book” didn’t change a thing.
Or did it? While it didn’t yet dictate my vocation, my reading about the amazing life of Jesus and about God’s love helped shape my own commitment to God. I became involved in church in a new when in law school. I started praying and engaging in spiritual practices in new ways. In the summers of graduate school, I worked for law or business firms half the summer and for a chaplain in New York for the other half. The Holy Spirit was at work, planting seeds in my spiritual practice of reading which bore fruit many years later with my going to seminary and becoming a pastor.
The Rev. James Martin, a Jesuit priest, has said the Bible can seem intimidating, writing, “There’s a tendency to think that if you read the Bible, you have to read it from start to finish.”[xii] But you don’t have to read it all or from the beginning or in any order to get great value from it. All of it is God-breathed. Just read it a little at a time. Just read it.
The Bible has changed the lives of millions of people over the years. It can change yours. It will give you wisdom. It will help you understand yourself better. It can lead you closer to God. So don’t ignore it. Take it seriously. Test it. Study it. Criticize it. Pray over it. Let it guide you in its own way.
One of my favorite publications is the satirical newspaper The Onion. An article in this week’s Onion was entitled, “Reclusive Deity Hasn’t Written A New Book In 2,000 Years.”[xiii] The article describes the Bible as “the seminal work by someone hailed by critics as one of the most important authors in recent millennia. The eccentric divinity is said to have long ago retreated from the public eye, eschewing a life of celebrity for one of solitude and quiet. His artistic reputation rests exclusively upon His bestselling and highly acclaimed first work, the Bible.
God has granted no interviews, made no public appearances, and has kept entirely to Himself for what seems like ages, and yet it’s fair to say that no other author has been quite so influential,” the article notes. He has only one book to His credit, yet He remains among the world’s most respected and quoted writers. The article continues, “For many readers, God’s writing had a transformative impact on their lives, and countless people list His book among their favorite titles.
But for reasons that we can only speculate about, God has chosen to stay out of the limelight and let His words speak for themselves, the Onion writes. Perhaps it is God’s retreat into His own world that allowed Him to render His vision so vividly on the page.”
Many within the literary community suggested that God might well have become a victim of His own success, arguing that the enormous pressure to write a book as well-loved as the Bible—to which any new work of His would inevitably be compared—had simply proved too daunting. “It’s also possible that, with the first book, He simply said everything He had to say.
According to publishers, who predict that the Bible will remain in print for many years to come, the popularity of the famously secretive deity remains so high that just about anything new He released would be an instant commercial success. Successive generations of booklovers have reportedly found themselves returning again and again to what they regard as a timeless and enduring classic.
Many of God’s most ardent fans still make regular attempts to contact Him. It’s understandably difficult for people to accept that a deity could create an epic as complex, beautiful, strange, and enduring as the Bible, and then just stop writing.
However, the qualities that make God so mysterious to us are the very same qualities that make Him such a unique voice.”
The article concludes, “It’s natural to want more, but in the end, maybe God only had the one Bible in him.”[xiv]
Maybe God did. But what we have is enough to bring us to God. So let us pray again……Amen.
[ii] Michelle Boorstein. “Spreading the Word.” Washington Post Magazine. September 14, 2014.
[iii] Ibid.
[iv] http://www.religionnews.com/2013/04/04/poll-americans-love-the-bible-but-dont-read-it-much/.
[v] Ibid.
[vi] New Interpreters Bible volume XI p. 851.
[vii] Book of Confessions, 6.002.
[ix] William Barclay. Letters to Timothy, Titus and Philemon. New Daily Study Bible. 1975. P. 226.
[x] Ibid.
[xi] http://www.huffingtonpost.com/craig-kanalley/how-reading-the-bible-in-100-days_b_1610954.html
[xii] The Rev. James Martin, a Jesuit priest and author of “The Jesuit Guide to (Almost) Everything.”
[xiii] http://www.theonion.com/articles/reclusive-deity-hasnt-written-a-new-book-in-2000-y,36936/.
[xiv] http://www.theonion.com/articles/reclusive-deity-hasnt-written-a-new-book-in-2000-y,36936/.