Part of the continuing drama

From Helen

I am an avid reader. I love books. My parents encouraged a love of reading in me. The problem for my Mum was that if I had been naughty- I know it’s hard to believe-she couldn’t send me to my room as that would be a treat, as I could read in quiet to my hearts content. It was often thought that I would prefer to read about something than to do it. I thought about this as I prepared for this morning.

Today is Bible Sunday the day when we give thanks for our Bibles. We will all have different favourite stories from the Bible. We all have favourite passages. We know the Bible but how often would we rather read the Bible than act on its message?

I have to say that I have quite a collection of Bibles and when I was younger I liked buying Bibles and handbags to match. The fact that I could do this shows how easy it is for us to get hold of a Bible, when it’s that easy it can make us forget how important it is. 

On the back of one translation of the Bible it reads,

“ These pages contain stories on an epic scale – thrillers, adventures, family sagas, and more – taut with emotion and spanning the whole of history. Yet a single current – one of love, sadness, betrayal, and forgiveness – flows through. It points to a Father who offered his only Son so that we can go free.

A cast of thousands crowds the pages – people living in different times, different places. But the casting isn’t closed. In the continuing drama, each of us is invited to play a part.”

This is incredible our Bibles are that exciting and we often forget. I could talk about the Bible for ages but there are three things I want to think about.

The first of these is that the Bible is both about God and is also from God. In the Bible we learn that God is interested in humanity. For example, He sends prophets in the Old Testament to help His people, to show them how to turn to Him. As we heard in our reading from Isaiah  (45:22-25)  God is the only Lord, He is powerful and He calls each one of us to turn to Him.

The Bible isn’t just about God though,it is also from God. The Bible is God’s revelation/description of Himself. It is the Word of God. It is a record of the way in which God makes contact with humanity, as we read the Bible we learn more about God and so the Bible is a living word. 

It is not just stuck in history, the Bible impacts the lives of people today as God shows people through the Bible what He is like. So the Bible is about and is from God. As it says in the collect this morning God has given us the Scriptures for our learning, for us to learn about Him.

The second point to make about the Bible is that it is useful. The fact that the Bible is God’s revelation /description of Himself means that is very useful for the people He has created. The Bible is a guide to who God is and also how we can relate to God, the Creator, the Almighty.  

In the reading from the letter to the Romans (15:1-6)  which we have heard Paul, the writer encourages the Christians in Rome to look after one another. Paul reminded them of the importance of Scriptures,  as they give instruction. The Scriptures they had are our Old Testament. Our Bibles are useful in teaching us how to live. 

With all this it’s  not surprising that the Bible is important, which  is my third point. The Bible is the Word of God, it is useful, it is important. The Bible is central to our belief. Sometimes we forget how important the Bible is. We are so used to seeing Bibles in shops, in other peoples houses, on our own shelves that we can almost see the Bible as a helpful extra, that can also give us solutions to crossword puzzles. 

The importance of the Bible is immense, but as I said earlier we do sometimes take it for granted, and we forget to give thanks for it. There are many countries, particularly in Eastern Europe where getting a bible is still difficult even after the fall of communism. One man who has worked at getting Bibles to these areas is Ronald MacMilian, he said,

“I can remember the first time I gave a Bible to an old pastor in Czechoslovakia who had led his church for about thirty years and all he had were some hand written notes from his mother who had copied a bit of the Bible out from part of the second letter to Timothy. He had led the church all that time on just those passages. When I gave him this Bible, he turned to me and said, ‘This is a dangerous book. What trouble has it brought you?’” 

The Bible is dangerous in countries where Bibles need to be smuggled in because they are not allowed, but the Bible is not just dangerous for these people it should be dangerous for us as well, because the Bible has the power to change us as we seek to live more like God, if we are prepared to let God speak to us through it.

In our gospel reading (Luke 4:16-24) we heard of Jesus reading to the people from the book of Isaiah a passage of hope. The people were waiting for a Messiah, one who would save them from the Romans, one who would make life better. Jesus stood there and said that He was the One they had been waiting for. 

This was life changing any encounter with God and with our Bibles can change us. It is dangerous, it is life changing. 

And so, on this Bible Sunday we need to be thankful for the Bible, thankful for the ease with which we can obtain a copy, thankful for all it contains and teaches. When we read the Bible, and listen to it being read in Church, then we can become, as the blurb from the back of a Bible translation that I read earlier said, a ‘part of the continuing drama’. 

May we always be thankful for the Bible and be prepared to let it change us as we learn more about God from within it. AMEN.