Pastor's 
Weekly Sermon

  • What is the Bible For?
    I suspect that many of us grew up in homes that had family Bibles. Do you remember
    when you first got your very own Bible? I think I was about 10 when my church
    presented each of us in my Sunday school class with a Bible. It felt very special to have
    a Bible that was MINE. I don’t remember exactly what was said when it was given to
    me, but I knew that it was important and I was supposed to read it. Of course, the Bible
    wasn’t new to me. I had been hearing Bible stories in Sunday school all my life. And I
    had heard the Bible read and preached in worship as I sat next to my parents in our
    family pew. I treasured this Bible but I found it very hard to read and understand. It was
    the King James version, which the translation almost all Protestant English speakers
    read in those days. It was written in the English people spoke in the early 1600s…which
    wasn’t at all like the way WE spoke. All those thees and thous, and –e-s-t or –e-t-h
    added to all the verbs. “Thou preparest a table before me…” Although I was a voracious
    reader, this was one book I had trouble making myself read. Mostly this treasured book
    lived on the shelf, unopened, unread. I didn’t know what I was supposed to read it FOR.
    Why? What was I supposed to get out of it?
    I think this question…“What is the Bible for?” …is a crucial one. How we answer that
    question determines what we do with what we find there. One answer that has
    predominated through the centuries is that the Bible is a rulebook…and we’d better
    follow the rules if we want to please God now and get to Heaven later. God is watching
    us and we’d better get it right…or else. That song about Santa could apply to this
    approach… “He sees you when you’re sleeping, He knows when you’re awake. He
    knows if you’ve been bad or good, so be good for goodness sake.” But there are SO
    many rules to follow. So many “thou shalts” and “thou shalt nots.”
    The Pharisees in Jesus’ day saw their sacred scriptures as a holy rulebook. Scripture
    defined a straight and narrow path in life. It named the rules of the road…the do’s and
    don’ts. The Pharisees had memorized all the rules, and, in order to make them easier to
    apply in day-to-day life, they had added their own very detailed rules defining exactly
    what should and should not be done in ordinary situations to be in compliance
    scripture’s rules. Then they set about trying to keep the people in alignment with all of
    these rules, so everyone could please God and have a great life.
    Jesus took a different approach. He paid attention to the intention behind the rules in
    scripture. Then he let the intention rather than the rule guide his actions. For example,
    one of the rules was to keep the Sabbath holy. Ordinary work was forbidden on the
    Sabbath. When Jesus healed sick people on the Sabbath, the Pharisees accused him
    of breaking Sabbath law by working. Jesus saw this differently. He understood the intent
    of that law was to keep it holy by keeping the focus on God. Jesus practiced living in
    deep communion with God. He knew from this experience that God’s intention was for
    health and well-being for everyone. The way Jesus saw it, by healing on the Sabbath
    he was fulfilling God’s intention…doing God’s holy, healing work (not his own)…working
    on behalf of God, doing what God had sent him to do. He thought he was KEEPING the
    law, not BREAKING it, by healing on the Sabbath.

  • Can you see how differently Jesus and the Pharisees answered the question, “What are
    the scriptures for?” The Pharisees thought the scriptures are there to keep us on a
    straight and narrow path, confining our lives so we might please a demanding,
    judgmental God. And they had developed a system that was squeezing the life out of
    everyone. Jesus knew that God’s intention was for abundant life for everyone. Scripture
    is there to show us how to live in relationship to one another and to God so that
    everyone could live in peace and well-being. Jesus showed the way to a more life-giving
    understanding of scripture. He said, “I came that they may have life and have it
    abundantly.” (Jn 10:10).
    The Gospel of Luke (Lk 24:13-35) reports that, on the day of resurrection, Jesus
    appeared to two followers walking on the road to Emmaus. Confused, they were
    discussing all that had happened in the last 3 days and the unbelievable news they had
    just received that Jesus was not dead. As they walked with Jesus, they did not
    recognize who he was. Responding to their confusion, Jesus explained the scriptures,
    beginning with Moses and the prophets. As he talked, they understood the scriptures in
    a new way. It was as if more light came forth from the scriptures they thought they
    already knew.
    That’s how Jesus had spent his time in the flesh. He opened up the scriptures so that
    there might be more light than the Pharisees had seen in them. What he taught and the
    way he lived, what he said and did, all put the meaning of scripture in a new light…God
    was not the judgmental, demanding, far-away God perceived by the Pharisees, but an
    intimate, close God who was like a loving, generous, and forgiving father. The most
    important rule of all is the rule of Love…loving like God does, generously and without
    reserve. This was the light that the people needed…the light Jesus brought…the light
    that (as the Gospel of John proclaims,) shines in the darkness and the darkness cannot
    overcome it (John 1:5).
    The Bible itself says very little about what the scriptures are for. There is no preface to
    tell us how to use it. However, in Psalm 119, in the verse we read today, the psalmist
    gives witness to what God’s Word is for. “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to
    my path” (Ps 119:105). Scripture illuminates our path, especially when it is dark, so we
    can find our way to the abundant life God wants for us and all of creation. Now,
    thousands of years later, our world is still full of darkness. We still need the Light to
    shine, unwavering, to illuminate our path. Whenever it seems like what we call God’s
    Word is being used in a way that increases pain and suffering, diminishes hope,
    increases despair, or denies love, then it is being used to add to the darkness, not bring
    in the light. In such times, I think it would be well for us to wonder whether we are
    seeing the Word in the right light. Times like these are when we might pray for God to
    open up our minds and our hearts, to illuminate our understanding, perhaps even to
    speak a new Word, so that more light, and more truth might break forth from God’s
    Word … even today, even in our lives.
    Rev. Janice Kemp
    June 16, 2019