Nehemiah 8:1-3, 5-6, 8-10; 1 Corinthians 12:12-31a; Luke 4:14-21
In the comic strip Cathy this past week (Chicago Tribune, January 19, 2010), Cathy and her husband Irving have the following exchange. Cathy says, “You bought a new iPhone?? Are you kidding??” Irving replies, “I know…Google’s ‘Nexus One’ is newer than the new iPhone, and I want the newest one! I want the newest one! I want the newest one! I want the newest one! I want the newest one! But I’m bound by my sacred vow with AT&T…so instead of running off with a new android, I recommitted with a 32 GB, $499 iPhone upgrade!” Cathy walks away saying, “I give up.” But Irving adds, “It was a 200,000 ringtone ceremony!” It’s funny, we laugh. We laugh because it is a reflection on life; it is a reflection on our obsession with new technology. Perhaps you have read the recently published book The Help written by Kathryn Stockett (New York: Penguin Group, 2009). This book is a page turner. It is a wonderful account of a group of white women living in the south in the 1960’s, all who are accustomed to having black women in their homes to raise the children. The varied understanding of discrimination among these white women, and the ways in which the black women cope with the discrimination, causes us to reflect on how this country began to come to terms with discrimination against blacks a very short fifty years ago. We get caught up in our reading because we want to find out what is going to happen, because we want to understand ourselves.
In our Gospel reading today, Jesus goes to the synagogue in Nazareth. He reads from the scroll of the prophet Isaiah. He returns the scroll and sits down. And, we learn, “The eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him” (Luke 4:20). Something very powerful was happening; there was something very powerful about this person Jesus. In the verses following in the Gospel of Luke, we learn that the people were “astounded” (4:32) and “amazed” (4:36) by Jesus’ teaching. “A report about him began to reach every place in the region” (4:37). Thousands gathered to see him. The crowds “wanted to prevent him from leaving them” (4:42). “The crowd press(ed) in on him to hear the word of God” (5:1). They wanted to hear, they were captivated by the Word of God. This desire to hear from God, to learn and understand about God and the meaning for our lives, did not begin with Jesus’ reign on Earth. Listen to our Old Testament lesson today from Nehemiah, the governor who led the Jewish people to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem. After the walls had been rebuilt, the people gathered together in the square and the priest Ezra read from the book of the law of Moses, and “all the people wept when they heard the words of the law” (Neh 8:9). They wept. They wept because the words are their history, their story. They wept because this is their truth, this is their guide to understanding who they are and what life is all about and how they are to live their lives. Scripture is our story. Scripture is our truth.
The Bible is the most popular book in the world. Shakespeare has been translated into 60 languages. The Bible has been partially or fully translated into 2,400 languages. 14 million copies are sold every year – the biggest selling book every year. The Bible is by far the best selling book of all time. There is something about this book that draws millions of people year in and year out to want to read it, just like the thousands of people who crowded around Jesus to hear the Word of God. The Bible fulfills our deepest need to understand who we are and what life is all about and how we are to live our lives. The Bible contains all things necessary to salvation. This is our faith.
In 1870, William Reed Huntington, an Episcopal priest, wrote an essay in which he named four elements of faith which might be a basis for reuniting with the Roman Catholic and Orthodox Churches. At the General Convention in 1886 – General Convention is the legislative body of the Episcopal Church in the United States; laity, clergy and bishops convene every three years – at the General Convention in 1886, the House of Bishops passed a resolution naming these four elements as identified by Huntington to be the basis for ecumenical discussions. Now, Lambeth Conference is a gathering every ten years of all Bishops in the Anglican Communion – the Episcopal Church in the United States is a member of the worldwide Anglican Communion. Two years after the General Convention in 1886, in a time of rapid expansion of the Anglican Communion, a resolution was passed at Lambeth to name these same four elements of faith as the principles of unity, the principles that hold the Anglican Communion together in faith. What are these four elements of faith? We believe in the Apostles’ and Nicene Creeds as statements of our faith, we believe that Baptism and Eucharist are the two great Sacraments of the Gospel, we believe in the historic episcopate, meaning bishops beginning with the Apostles are responsible for handing down the traditions of the church from one generation to another, and we believe that the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments contain all things necessary to salvation. Scripture is our truth.
Inspired by God, the books of the Bible were written to teach a truth. The Bible is a theological document that teaches us about God and how God interacts with human beings. The Bible is authoritative, not because it is scientifically or historically accurate, but because it speaks truth about God. The intent of the Bible is not to inform, but to transform. In fact, historical accuracy is a modern concept. When you get a chance, take a look at the story of Noah in Genesis, chapter 6, and in Genesis, chapter 7. In chapter 6, God tells Noah to bring two of every kind into the ark, male and female, birds, animals and every creeping thing of the ground. In chapter 7, the story is told a little differently. God tells Noah to bring seven pairs of all clean animals, a pair of the animals that are not clean, and seven pairs of the birds. We have a discrepancy. In fact, we have many discrepancies in the Bible. However, these stories were not written to be historically accurate in the sense we think of today. Today, we expect and rely on events being documented exactly as they occurred – the truth is in the historical accuracy. At the time the books of the Bible were written, the people had limited means to document events as they occurred. Information was conveyed orally from one person to the next. Most importantly, the intent was not to convey historical accuracy. The intent was to convey truth.
Scripture is our story. Scripture is our truth. Everything we read, whether it makes us laugh, or cry, or reflect, we read to understand ourselves. Through Scripture, we come to know God and we come to know ourselves. We learn what life is all about and how we are to live our lives. Scripture is life.
The Bible is a page turner. It may take a while to read, it took me about a year to read it cover to cover, and there is something to be said for learning how to skim through the begets, the detailed genealogies going back to the beginning of time. But, it is a page turner. You will want to read the next page, you will want to read the next chapter and the next book, because therein lies the truth of life. Take a look. Amen.
