St Paul’s United Church Sunday, November 15, 2009

People of the Book – Rev. David Mundy

1 Samuel 1:4-20 Mark 13:1-8

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Some of you have been able to travel around Europe and enjoy the remarkable culture going back hundreds and even thousands of years. In most European countries that includes churches and cathedrals. One of the most remarkable churches of Britain is Canterbury Cathedral. Both the interior and exterior are impressive because of the architecture and size. Canterbury is also amazing because of its stained glass windows, some of them eight hundred years old. Now, some of these windows depict kings and saints. But Canterbury is renowned for its representation of biblical stories. Many of the windows of the great cathedrals do tell the biblical stories and for a very good reason.

Until relatively recently in human history the majority of people were illiterate. They could not write, nor could they read. So if they were to learn the stories of the bible in church there were really two ways they could do so. They could listen to the priest read from what was often the only bible for a large geographical area. Of course until King James authorized an English translation the bible was in Latin, a language the average person did not understand.

Or they could “read” the stained glass windows which in places such as Canterbury which was so vast that even some of the most obscure biblical figures and stories are represented. An example of an Old Testament story is the presentation of the baby Samuel in the temple. And then there is Jonah, being yanked from the gullet of the big fish. From the New Testament there are depictions of both the crucifixion of Jesus and the empty tomb on Easter morning.

Can you imagine not being able to read the bible? Or that you wouldn’t be able to listen to the bible read in your own language? Or that you wouldn’t be allowed to own a bible? Unfortunately there are still places in the world where it is either illegal or dangerous to be in possession of a bible. Still, today the bible is perennially one of the best-selling books in the world and the “Good Book” has been translated into just about every tongue.

No wonder then that today all of us who are Christians are grateful for the freedom to read the bible and would describe ourselves as biblically literate! Well, perhaps not. It’s odd, but for all the availability of the bible – about ninety percent of Canadians homes have one – we aren’t really all that comfortable with our “good book.” One of our members, a mother with two young children admitted to me recently that she keeps her bible at her bedside – and it makes a really good coaster! She wants to know more about her bible and that’s why it’s on her bedside table. It’s picking it up and reading it that is the challenge.

This morning we did what we do every Sunday morning. We listened to passages of scripture, both of them actually bible stories rather than passages of description or instruction, and in each case we are required to peer a long way back down the tunnel of history.

The one I’ll speak to this morning is of a woman who lived more than a thousand years before Jesus and a hundred years before David, one of the kings of Israel. We hear that the faithful Hannah is heartbroken because she is unable to have a child. Even though her husband loves her very much and tells her that he doesn’t care if she can’t have a child, he just doesn’t understand how important it is for Hannah to have her own baby. Her husband’s other wife (there was a fair amount of multiple-spousing in those days) is a rival and taunts Hannah because “the Lord has closed her womb.” It was conventional wisdom in ancient times that the inability to have a child must be God’s judgement.

Even the priest of the temple doesn’t appreciate Hannah’s sorrow. He is initially so clueless that he assumes that when he finds Hannah praying he scolds her for being drunk in church! It is only when he realizes that she is truly reaching out to God that he makes a bold promise that she will be rewarded for her persistence with a child. And she is, with the child Samuel we saw in the stained glass window from Canterbury.

Now, we could say that this is an example of an old and curious tale which doesn’t have much to say to us today. There are obvious sexism and inequality. There are weird customs and superstition about fertility and God’s role in getting pregnant. Who needs this stuff!

At the same time, we are aware of the tensions that often exist in even the most loving couples about important life decisions, including having children. We know about personal rivalries within families which can be hurtful. And while we don’t want to be superstitious, sometimes we wonder whether God is ignoring us when we offer our heartfelt prayers. If God is loving and compassionate, why have we been disappointed? While it may require a little interpretation, this story which is three thousand years old is our family story, and most honest family histories have their skeletons, their unanswered questions. As one of our bible study members offered earlier this week, the bible is the history of the human heart.

Maybe this old book isn’t irrelevant after all, although it may require a little digging and interpretation. The challenge though seems to be getting us to the place where we trust the bible enough to let it speak to us.

Of course we live in a culture that questions most forms of authority, including biblical authority.

Groups of scholars such as those of the Jesus Seminar vocally question just about every aspect of the gospels and we are left asking whether the bible is trustworthy. Suspicion sells, so novels such as The Da Vinci Code give the impression that the Christian religion has hidden the “real story” of Jesus. Honestly, so much of this suspicion is inaccurate and downright silly, but it seems to seep into our collective soul.

Now, we may think that the more conservative churches, which say they take the bible literally, believing every word, are doing a better job with biblical literacy, especially because they tend to attract a younger crowd. Yet there is a growing concern amongst them that they are not doing the important work of developing biblical literacy.

In several polls done in the U.S. and Britain over the past decade researchers discovered that:

*12% of adults thought that Noah’s wife was Joan of Ark.

*60% had no idea of what the parable of the Good Samaritan is about.

*More people could name the ingredients of a Big Mac hamburger than basic biblical facts.

*More people could name members of the Brady Bunch television show than a similar number of the Ten Commandments.

Granted, the Ten Commandments have been in reruns longer than the Brady Bunch, but this is a bit disturbing!

I often wonder, as so many pastors do, what I can do to help you with your level of biblical literacy. I even wonder whether some of the things we do to help are more of a hindrance. For example, we display our scripture readings on the screen each week and you have the opportunity to read along as they are spoken from the pulpit. At the same time, there are bibles in every pew rack that just don’t get used anymore because we don’t even invite you to follow along.

So what do we do to revive our conviction that we are “people of the book?” It’s fine for the minister to preach a sermon on reading the bible, but it’s a little like the visit to the doctor or the dentist. We hear that we should change our diet and make healthy choices, or that we need to be more thorough in our dental hygiene. We say that we will do what we’re told, and we go out the door promising ourselves that we will do better. Then we go to them a few months later and hear the same thing.

Perhaps this time we can take the steps toward biblical hygiene which will make a difference.

One of the obvious choices is either dusting off the bible we have at home or going out and getting one that suits us. You might want to read in a systematic way, taking a few moments each day to read a passage. The Canadian bible society has some great resources for doing this and their daily reading guide and other pamphlets are available with the sermons this morning.

Those of you who are parents can get a good children’s bible and read to your kids. Not only will it provide the foundation for their biblical literacy, it will help yours. What would really make sense is to read the story to your children, then find the same passage in an adult bible and compare the two.

We can come to worship on Sunday morning with a readiness to let the bible speak to our hearts and minds and to “connect the dots” between the passages which we are hearing and the application to everyday life. A few Sundays ago one of our teens thanked me for preaching on a passage from the book of Job, because he had been in an animated conversation at school with some fundamentalist Christian friends about why bad things happen to people. I wanted to hug him, but I don’t think he would have appreciated it!

We can get over our fears and embarrassment about our biblical knowledge and decide that attending a bible study is something that will be literally be good for our souls.

Our goal can be to move beyond the guilt and the good intentions of “I really should read the bible” to reading it with the eagerness which comes from a sense that our lives will be changed for the better. Guilt just won’t do it. In the end becoming “people of the book” is about deepening our relationship with God.

Earlier this month the Christian Century magazine included an excellent cover article on “Getting Into Scripture” which shows people climbing a bible on ropes like mountain climbers. One of the people who reach the top is celebrating her climb with arms upraised. It is a great image because it gives the impression that hard work can lead to a sense of accomplishment. Understanding scripture is like that, hard but exhilarating work with the satisfaction of coming into that deeper relationship with God

I’ll leave you today with words from the Christian Century article: “Told well and faithfully, the stories have such power. Trust the stories, trust the God who is in the stories.”

We are people of the book. Thanks be to God!