St
Paul’s United Church Sunday, September 11, 2005
People of the Book – Rev. David Mundy
Genesis
50:15-21 Matthew 18:21-35
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The first time I went away for a brief period of retreat in a Christian
community I was assigned someone as a spiritual companion or mentor. This woman
was very low-key -certainly no “ball of fire” of spiritual energy. And she
asked me to do something as part of my spiritual discipline that I thought was
rather odd. She asked me to write out a passage of scripture each day by hand
and to spend fifteen minutes in quiet contemplation of what I had written.
Actually, I was irritated by this request. Ministers are accustomed to
reading passages from the bible quite quickly, we know many of them very well,
and we are always pondering how we might preach on what we are reading. It felt
as though I was being punished, a bit like staying after school to write out
lines on the chalkboard.
I was surprised, then, by how meaningful and spiritually enriching this
exercise was. By taking a pen in hand and slowly writing the words I was forced
to slow down and pay attention to what I was reading. This meditative writing
was a form of prayer which opened the door for God to speak to me through
scripture.
Can you imagine what it would be like to attempt writing out the entire
bible, all thirty-nine books of what we call the Old Testament, as well as the
twenty-seven books of our Christian testament? It’s easy to forget that this is
only way the bible could be copied and shared until the invention of movable
type.
When Johannes Gutenberg figured out how to arrange metal characters for
printing it was suddenly possible to reproduce books, including the bible and
to distribute them widely. It has been argued that Gutenberg was as important
to the Protestant Reformation as Martin Luther. But it meant that from that
time forward not one bible was crafted by the painstaking process of copying by
hand.
Until now. For the first time in nearly six hundred years
an institution, a Benedictine monastery in Minnesota has taken on the
formidable task of creating a written bible, in its entirety. Some of the best
calligraphers and artists in the world have been enlisted for this project,
including the man who does the ornamental handwriting for the Queen. It is well
underway but it will take years to
complete, at a cost estimated at four million dollars, much of that money coming
from corporate sponsorship. It is called the St. John’s bible after the
monastery which is behind it.
I contacted the project coordinators recently and they kindly sent off a
compact disk with several of the art images which grace the beginning of the
books as well as some of the text. The monks of St. John’s are aware that some
people are disturbed by the cost of this project but their response is that
they are no less concerned for the poor. This is an opportunity to bring our
attention back to the beauty and meaning of scripture.
I would like you to consider the beauty and meaning of the bible for
your lives on this morning when we resume the full range of Sunday School classes for our children. During the next few months
our kids will spend time learning about the Ten Commandments first of all, then
the rest of the year considering the life of Jesus in every aspect. Of course
the bible will be the source for their study.
At the same time these children are being given what we hope will be a
solid grounding in scripture we will be listening to the bible and doing our
best to interpret it for our lives here in worship. Are we people
of the book? We probably all own a bible and there are literally dozens of
inexpensive versions available to us these days. It used to be that every
bible was a rather serious looking volume. Now we can get them with colourful
covers for children and dressed up like comic books for teens. And we can go
out and purchase a bible for less money than it would cost to take the family
to a movie. Yet even with the ready availability of our book we tend not to
open them.
Why is that? People often express to me that the bible is not always easy to understand, which is certainly true, at least in some places. It was two years ago right around this time that I preached for the first time at St. Paul’s and I mentioned the dubious film classic, Monty Python’s Life of Brian. The premise of the movie is that a fellow named Brian was born in the stable next to Jesus and his life keeps bumping up against the life of Jesus. There is a scene where Brian and his friends come upon Jesus as he is delivering the Sermon on the Mount, which includes the beatitudes. Unfortunately they are at the back of the crowd and have trouble hearing what he is saying. So when Jesus offers “blessed are the peacemakers” they think he has said “blessed are the cheesemakers.” When one of them asks what is so special about cheesemakers another assures her that this isn’t meant to be taken literally. It refers to any manufacturers of dairy products.
Even though the scene is irreverent,
I come back to it this morning because it is also true to life. At times we do
strain to hear what the prophets and Jesus are saying to us. We can complain that the bible is not beautiful.
We can point to the passages which seem to advocate violence and war. When I
read that the strongman, Samson, set the tails of foxes on fire and sent them
into the grain field of his enemies to burn it I want to call the humane
society and the department of agriculture. Why is this story in the bible?
While some of those stories disturb me, I actually have just as hard a
time listening to the passages which tell me to make peace and forgive others.
As we listened to our gospel passage this morning we may have wondered why
Jesus says that we are to
forgive one another over and over again. We might protest that it is not fair,
and not even humanly possible, a thought that seems to have crossed the mind of
the disciple Peter when Jesus told him to
But what if took the approach that we need to slow ourselves enough to
hear what God has to say to us through scripture – even the parts that seem far
too demanding – and to respond with grace and love? Because the bible is a
patchwork quilt of storytelling and instruction stretching across the
centuries, it is often challenging to decide what is worthwhile for daily
living.
In the United Church we have decided we are not biblical literalists. We
don’t take the view that God has faxed us handwrites documents which we must
follow with only one interpretation. We should be a little leery of those who
insist that their view is the only one possible. This doesn’t stop us from
reading scripture with reverence. God permeates the collection of books which
together create the “Good Book.” I am convinced that the bible is the inspired
word of God, which in turn inspires me to be a different person, the “new
creation” in Christ.
I know that when I read scripture there are words of truth that will
change me. Some of those
caution me against being the sort of person I don’t want to be.
This week the psalm I have been reading is psalm 141 which includes the verse “set
a guard over my mouth, O Lord: keep watch over the door of my lips.” I have
paid attention to this verse because I can be “mouthy” at times,
too quick-tongued in response to things I see and hear. I can ask God to help
me keep watch on what I say.
There are also words that inspire
me to be the sort of person that I do want to be and, more importantly, who God
wants me to be. I’m sure that I have heard Peter’s question “how many times
should I forgive?” a hundred times before but it’s good to hear it again,
along with Jesus’ answer. I have a former sister-in-law whom I figure I have
forgiven seventy-six out of the seventy-seven times now, although I realize
that what Jesus is really saying is that there is no limit to forgiveness. I
want to be someone who can be charitable and kind in my outlook, even in
difficult circumstances.
I like the way Roman Catholic writer Noel Cooper speaks of the
inspiration we derive from the bible
When we say that Scripture is the
inspired Word of God, we mean that God has led humanity forward in the search
for meaning and wholeness in life, and for an every-deeper relationship with
God. We view all of the Scriptures – errors, misunderstandings, questions and
profound revelations – as the inspired Word of God for us. And we search in our
sacred books for the seeds of understanding, of faith, of love and hope; we
search for the voice of God who speaks to us in a language that reaches the
depths of our hearts . . .
The bible is our book as the Christian community and that’s why we read
it every time we come together for worship. The bible is also our book as
individual Christians and it is essential that each one of us picks up our
bible with a sense of anticipation that God will assure us of our acceptance
and encourage us to live out the love of Christ.
I’m not going to ask you to write out passages of the bible this morning,
although you might be as pleasantly surprised by the exercise as I was. I have
done it a number of times through the years, to help me listen. Please take
some time to open your bible at home in a devotional time each day, or join a
bible discussion group, or do whatever will help you appreciate scripture more
fully. And parents, please read the stories to you
children so they will grow up in faith.
Since we are talking about the importance of the bible, I will leave you
with two verses of scripture today, one from the New Testament and one from the
Old, one from a modern version and another from the venerable King James version.
For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. Hebrews 4:12
Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path. Psalm 119:105
We are people of the book. Thanks be
to God!