BIBLE SUNDAY (Last Sunday after Trinity)
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Readings: Nehemiah 8: 1-12 and Colossians 3: 12-17
Our Redemptorist Sunday sheets have given us Bible Sunday today, rather than the Last Sunday after Trinity, so Bible Sunday we’ll keep. The Collect for today is one of the great Prayer Book Collects, which used to be read on the Second Sunday in Advent. ‘Blessed Lord, who has caused all holy Scriptures to be written for our learning: help us so to hear them, to read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them, that, through patience, and the comfort of your holy word, we may embrace and for ever hold fast the hope of everlasting life.”
The bible remains the most read book in Christian history – translated, so far, into 700 languages. An estimated 5.6 billion people have access to a Bible in their own language. At our Deanery meeting with Bishop Hugh he mentioned that there is a renewed interest in the bible, especially amongst young people. He also said, I guarantee that if you leave a pile of bibles in your church porch with a notice – Please Take One!- they will go. Since we get a good number of occasional visitors during the week, I’m going to try that.
“Blessed Lord, who caused all holy Scriptures to be written for our learning: help us so to hear them, to read, mark, learn and inwardly digest them…”
It’s an interesting concept – digesting words, but I’ve heard it used in everyday conversations, when people talk about opening their daily paper and ‘digesting’ an article about something or other. Paul urges, in the reading from Colossians today, “Let the word of God dwell in you richly.”
In the first reading today, from Nehemiah, we find an outpouring of emotion to the Word of God, or in this case, to the discovery of the book of the law of Moses. The description of the reading of the law is very detailed – how all the people were attentive to the book; how Ezra stood on a platform for the purpose of being seen and heard; how the scribes ‘gave sense’ so that the people understood. The people wept when they heard the words of the law, such was its impact. It is a reaction perhaps hard to imagine today. Nevertheless, people still regard the bible as a special book – not to be mistreated. How do you dispose of a tattered bible you don’t want any longer? It doesn’t just seem right to throw it away.
But when people turn to Christ for the first time, they very often become very absorbed in the bible. I do hope they find some guidance in their reading. I’m always a little worried when I hear people say they are going to read the bible from cover to cover, as you might do a novel. That is maybe not the most useful way of absorbing the Scriptures.
And it should be pointed out to new readers that the bible is a complex collection of many different types of writing: history, prophecy, praise, lament, celebration, teaching, poetry, story and myth. In a lifetime we don’t unearth all its treasures, and our quest to understand and meditate on its truth is never finished. St. Paul says, “All scripture is inspired by God…” but we should remember that its words come through human writers – and humans have their limits and make their errors. And because the bible is that complex mixture of history, prophecy, praise, lament, celebration, teaching, poetry and myth, we must be discerning to understand these distinctions in writing. I was interested to hear a radio discussion the other day about whether a sperm whale could swallow a human. I can’t recall the context in which this question arose, but the story of Jonah was mentioned. For the record, it would not be possible for a whale to swallow a human – just like that.
Now that might worry some who think, because ‘all scripture is inspired by God’ – every word must be true. But the Book of Jonah is a story. Nowhere is it stated that it is a historical record. No dates or other context is given that would align it to an event in history. That doesn’t mean the tale of Jonah doesn’t have a valid message; it certainly has – not least that the Lord is concerned for the great city of Nineveh and its 120,000 inhabitants who don’t know their right hand from their left.
The context of any given passage is helpful in trying to make sense of some of the difficult passages in the bible. In this little book by Richard Rohr – What do we do with the bible? – the author says that the bible cannot be understood as an isolated text outside of any appropriate context. Each of its 66 books was written or compiled at a particular time or place – across centuries, cultures and languages. We need to appreciate that what St Paul wrote to the church in Corinth in the first century may not relate exactly to our situation in the 21st. Some biblical writings were addressed to communities or churches under pressure or persecution. In such writings there may be some defensive writings about ‘us’ and ‘them’; about keeping the outsider at bay; about tightening up the rules of the community and being very specific about belief and rules for belonging. In easier times you might write in an entirely different way. And as understandings of God and of his saving work in Jesus developed, we find more generous and open texts welcoming the foreigner, the outsider; words stressing the mercy and generosity of God.
So, going back to the reading from Nehemiah we mentioned, the background was that after the exile in Babylon, the newly-compiled law is brought back by the scribe Ezra, as part of the attempt to establish purity of community and worship in Judah after the long time away. The people wept when they heard the words of the law: tears of repentance. But Nehemiah urged the people not to weep, but to keep a great festival of joy because they had newly understood the words declared to them. They read ‘from the law of God, with interpretation.’
Some folk will tell you that they take the bible at face value, but, in fact, the interpretation each of gives what we hear will differ, even if we think we are taking it at face value. The comparison is made with the morning mail that drops through the letter-box. Even before opening anything, we are interpreting what we see. We may be able to see where it is from, either from a postmark or a sender’s address. Over the years we have come to distinguish between business mail, bills, junk mail, charity letters and personal correspondence. With personal letters we may recognise the writing. We will probably have a preplanned order in how we open the mail – for most of us, I expect, personal letters first, as they will be of more interest.
The process of biblical interpretation is similar. We look for clues about where the books were written, when, and by whom. We may look for clues about what style was used in writing and we recognise that who we are and what we think can make a difference to the way in which we read texts. Another point to bear in mind is that we are reading texts in some cases over two thousand years old. Our understandings of the world and of life have changed considerably. Few of us view the world as being as described in Genesis 1; few of us would agree with St Paul that ‘no woman should be permitted to speak (or teach) in Church. What was taught in the Old Testament is often superseded in the New. ‘You have heard that it was said, You shall love your neighbour and hate your enemies, but I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.’ Even Jesus interpreted the Holy Scriptures he knew and gave them fresh meaning, charged with the love of God he had come to make known and share.
On occasions we often let the text speak for itself, and a particular verse might be used fruitfully in an entirely different way from what was intended. There is in Southwark Cathedral a memorial to the 51 people who died on the pleasure boat Marchioness, which hit another boat on the Thames in 1989 and sank near the cathedral. A text from the Song of Songs appears on the memorial: ‘Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it.’ How wonderful that a text from the 5th-century before Christ is still bringing solace and hope to people around 2,500 years later.
So in the light of all this, how might we ‘read, mark, learn and digest’ the Scriptures in their variety and complexity. Richard Rohr offers some hints:
Firstly, offer prayer for guidance before you make your interpretation of a text. Determine not to make the text say what you have pre-decided it will say.
Then, move to a position of detachment from your own will, its goals, needs and desires.
Next, listen for a deeper voice than your own, even if it challenges you. God does not ask or expect you to do anything new until he has first made it desirable and possible for you to do so.
If your interpretation leads you feelings or actions of the fruits of the Spirit: Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, trustfulness, gentleness, or self-control, we can trust the interpretation has come from the Spirit. Watch out for any subtle feelings of righteousness or those taken-for-granted feelings of “I am right” and “They are wrong.”
Of course, that you are sitting down looking at a passage with a view as to its interpretation suggests an interest and devotion to the bible which I fear many Christians don’t have. So the reading from Nehemiah might cause us to ask hard questions of ourselves. Am I likely to weep when I hear the word of God read? – as they did in Nehemiah’s time. Does the bible bring me to my knees – in repentance, or in thanksgiving, or in joy, or in wonder?
And in times when the future seems very uncertain, do I have faith that God’s word will continue; that I see God’s big story revealed in the pages of the bible and find hope there? We find hope because what we read in its pages shows that what we see and experience here and now is not all there is, and that God in his love and his goodness will ultimately prevail.