Sermon by the Revd Karl Przywala on Personal Bible Study - Part 2 Deuteronomy 6:1-9; Luke 24:13-27 ...It’s possible just to read the Bible as a book, any book, but if it’s read with a desire to hear God’s message, he will honour that prayer. Hearing the Bible together in church is made relatively easy for us. Discipline is imposed by the fact that it is read at a set time, we follow a set pattern of reading sequentially, and there’s a sermon to help us digest what we’ve heard. Some of you may never have attempted personal Bible reading or may have tried and given up. That’s where having a discipline that replicates what we have ‘in church’ may help. There are many systems devised to help with this, but I want particularly to recommend Scripture Union’s Bible Reading Notes. These are published quarterly, with a set passage for each date. Books of the Bible are followed sequentially, and the notes help us understand and apply what we’ve read. The notes help with the basic problem of where to start. You’ve probably heard to the person who starts reading the Bible at the beginning, at Genesis, does well through Exodus, the second book, but gets bogged down upon reaching the Book of Leviticus. That said, if we take seriously what Paul wrote to Timothy, that “All Scripture is inspired by God”, literally, ‘breathed out by God’, “and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness”, 2nd Timothy 3:16, then, in time, we should be prepared to deal with all of it. As we mature as Christians, we should want to read unfamiliar Bible books previously unexplored by us. One of my criticisms of the lectionary some churches follow, is the parts of the Bible that are never read. Approaching the Bible systematically is more honouring of its intend than the random text approach: the person who seeks guidance from God, opens the Bible randomly and reads Matthew 27:5 “Then he went away and hanged himself.” Seeking confirmation, our reader opens the Bible randomly again and happens upon Luke 10:37, “Go and do likewise.” Trying for a third time, he gets John 13:27, “What you are about to do, do quickly.” A text without a context can be just a pretext. A word about Bible translations. The Old Testament was originally written in Hebrew and the New Testament in Greek. It’s in these forms that we have God’s Word in its purest form. But most of us rely upon a version in English for easy access. And the versions do vary in how authentically they manage to convey the original intent. Generally speaking literalness in translation has a lot to said for it, and the Authorised or King James Version is very literal, but this can affect its accessibility when Hebrew or Greek idioms or word order are replicated. Some degree of paraphrasing can be valid in conveying meaning and aiding readability. We generally use the New International Version, which strikes a good balance and I’m a particular advocate of the NIV Study Bible published by Zondervan. Even if you’ve got a Bible already, the Study Bible’s footnotes are well worth having. I’m aware that I’ve been speaking about the Bible but haven’t really engaged with a biblical text as such. You may consider what’s gone before as a long preamble, but one I hope you’ve found helpful and encouraging. Let’s turn now to our passage from Deuteronomy chapter six, page 178 in the church Bibles. Moses is speaking to the Israelites having just delivered the Ten Commandments to them. They’re still in the wilderness, preparing for entry into the Promised Land, verse 1, “the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess.” Verse 6, “These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts”; verse 8, “Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on your door frames of your houses and on your gates.” The Jews were people of Scripture. This goes back to the Ten Commandments and the first five books of the Bible, the Pentateuch, of which Deuteronomy is part, traditionally held to be written by Moses. A Jewish household has a Mezuzah on the doorframe, a small wooden or metal container in which passages of Scripture are placed. And Jews tied phylacteries to their foreheads and left arms, containing passages of Scripture from the Books of Exodus and Deuteronomy. Jesus makes reference to this in Luke chapter 10. Verse 25, “an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. ‘Teacher,’ he asked, ‘what must I do to inherit eternal life?’” Jesus’ response, verse 26, “What is written in the Law...How do you read it?” is really saying to the man, what’s contained in the phylactery you’re wearing? The man tells him, verse 27: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your strength and with all your mind”, taken from our passage, Deuteronomy 6:5, and “Love your neighbour as yourself”, Leviticus 19:18. Jesus, as a Jewish rabbi or teacher, reminds the expert in the Jewish law that the answer to his question regarding eternal life is contained in their shared scriptural inheritance, something which the man has readily to hand – literally. In the Parable of the Good Samaritan, which the man’s subsequent question “And who is my neighbour?” generates, Jesus presses home that it’s not just a matter of knowing one’s Bible, important as that is, but putting it into effect. Deuteronomy 6, verse 3, “Hear, O Israel, and be careful to obey.” When talking about Scripture Union’s work and the importance of personal Bible Study, Nancy Cuddeford said to me, “You’re never too young” or, I might add, too old, “to start.” Deuteronomy 6:7, “Impress [these commandments] on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.” Talking of walking along the road, two of the disciples had a joyous encounter with the risen Jesus when walking along the road to Emmaus. Jesus put this text into practice: “beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself”, Luke 24:27. As they subsequently asked each other, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?”, verse 32. At the Coronation of our current Queen, in Wesminster Abbey in 1953, as she was given a Bible, these words were said: “to keep your Majesty ever mindful of the law and the Gospel of God as the Rule for the whole life...we present you with this Book, the most valuable thing that this world affords. Here is Wisdom; This is the royal Law; These are the lively Oracles of God.” Her great-great-grandmother, Queen Victoria, when asked in the 1850s by a diplomatic delegation how Britain had become powerful in the world, responded, so legend has it, “not with the number of her fleet, not the number of her armies, not the account of her boundless merchandise, not the details of her inexhaustible wealth … but handing him a beautifully bound copy of the Bible, she said Tell the Prince that this is the Secret of Englands Greatness.” It’s perhaps a less dramatic image, but think of the light flashing on your answering machine. Do you ignore it or push the play button to find out who’s called your and hear the message? God’s message to each one of us is in the Bible, waiting for us to listen and respond. Let us pray. 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 that, through patience, and the comfort of your holy word, we may embrace and for ever hold fast the hope of everlasting life, which you have given us in our Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.
Posted on: Mon, 22 Sep 2014 23:53:59 +0000
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