Take & read
Readings: Romans 15. 1-6
For a Christian there can be nothing either more necessary or profitable than the knowledge of holy scripture, since in it is contained God’s true word, setting forth his glory, and also our duty. And there in no truth or doctrine necessary for our justification and everlasting salvation except what is, or may be, drawn out of that fountain and well of truth. Therefore, those who desire to enter into the right and perfect way with God, must apply their minds to know holy scripture, without which they can neither sufficiently know God and his will, nor their office and duty.
So begins the homily on the reading of Holy Scripture, the first of the sermons in the Church of England’s, as it was at the time, official book of sermons; the first book of homilies as published in the 16th Century.
The Bible both reveals who God is and what he has done, and also reveals to us what we must do, how we are to respond. Without the Bible we would be groping around in the air, and yet God in his mercy and grace has given us his word, given us the inspired words of Scripture.
And what a gift it is. The record of God’s actions in and through his people down the ages and his promise of the Messiah as recorded in the Old Testament. And the record of God the Son come to us in the person of Jesus Christ as that Messiah with much of what he said and did, most importantly of all his death and resurrection for our sake. And the record of the life and teaching of the early Church in response to those events all wrapped up in the New Testament.
And it’s a rich text, filled with history, poetry, wisdom, prophecy, parable and letters, not to mention the apocalyptic writings which pop up from time to time as you read. It’s rich in genre. Not only that but it’s rich in it’s exploration of our humanity, if you think modern TV series’ are scandalous they’d struggle to compete with some of the events recorded in these pages. Not only that but we see the best and the worst of humanity, the highest joys and the deepest pits. And through it all we see the God who see’s, the God who draws near, the God who longs to bring us home, to make us right with him, to enable us to live as he commands for our good.
But more than that it’s living and active. It’s not simply words on a page recording events that happened and words that were spoken long ago, no. Enlivened by God’s Spirit the Bible is God’s word to us today, it’s where he speaks to us. If our faith is a relationship with the God of the universe then how we talk to him is prayer, and how we listen to him is through the Bible. I know sometimes we feel God speaking to us in other ways too, but these are the fully reliable words of God, the definitive, objective words. The words against which all other words we perhaps feel God might be saying must be weighed.
We are perhaps quick to pray, to speak of our need, our desire, our worries. But perhaps less quick to open the word of God and listen. For in opening and reading we will see God reveal himself to us, see his glory, and better understand our duty.
Now there are some who think of themselves as New Testament only Christians. They like the New Testament but they perhaps struggle with the Old or think it simply irrelevant now that Jesus has come. And yet if Jesus is the fulfilment of the Old Testament, the one to whom it points, why would we not go there to see the signs for ourselves.
But more than that we see the Old Testament saturating our New Testament readings today. Jesus of course exclusively quotes the Old Testament as there wasn’t yet a New, as he does in our Gospel reading today declaring that he is the fulfilment of that prophecy from Isaiah, that he is here to do those things. And Paul today in Romans writes of the Old Testament that ‘everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through the endurance taught in the Scriptures and the encouragement they provide we might have hope’.
That’s a rather radical approach to the Old Testament isn’t it. Perhaps far from how we might think of it; ‘everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through the endurance taught in the Scriptures and the encouragement they provide we might have hope’.
It’s there to teach us, to help us better understand both who God is and what we are to do. It’s there to help us to keep going, to endure, both through the examples of others as recorded in its pages and through the encouragement it offers us in our walk and our faith. And what’s the result of all of those things? The teaching, strengthening and encouragement it provides? That we might have hope. The ultimate end of reading the Scriptures, both Old and New Testaments is to fill us with hope. We’re meant to come away encouraged, hopeful, eyes fixed on Jesus. Even in the challenging bits, the bits we wrestle with, they are there to encourage us and strengthen us, to renew our hope in Jesus. For whilst in the Bible we may come face to face with the depths of our sin, we also come face to face with the Saviour. Whilst we may recoil a little at the heights and challenge of God’s commands, we are also drawn by the Spirit to the one who empowers us to fulfil them a little better each day.
Which means if we skip the Old Testament, we skip over a whole bunch of stuff that is meant to encourage us, meant to reveal God has his nature to us, meant to reveal what we are to do in response to his mercy and grace, and we miss out on the fulness of the hope he longs to give us. If we skip the Old, we skip so much that God would us to bring us hope. But even moreso if we don’t ever open our Bible’s at all, if they simply sit on the shelf gathering dust.
That same homily I quoted at the beginning of my sermon compares reading the Bible to eating and drinking. It’s said that if faith is to the soul what life is to the body, then prayer is to the soul what breathing is to the body. It’s a wonderful picture isn’t it. And we can expand it to say that the Bible is to the soul what food and drink is to the body. It feeds us, nourishes us, strengthens us.
If we find our faith is weak and faltering. If we find ourselves spiritually faint, when did we last eat and drink from the Bible, when did we last come to it to find sustenance. All the world provides is junk food, satisfying in the short term, perhaps seemingly more tasty that what God offers, but ultimately empty calories that leave us hungry for more soon after.
If we’re not growing in our faith, is it because we are not feeding ourselves on his word? Just as child won’t grow properly if they’re malnourished, so we won’t grow properly to maturity in the faith if we are leaving our Bible’s on their shelves. This book contains all things that are necessary to our salvation, if we desire that salvation, if we desire to know God and enjoy him forever, why would we not take and read?
If we long to grow in our faith, in depth and breadth, we will find little else that will enable us to do so like the Bible will. The great Baptist preacher Charles Spurgeon once said ‘visit many books, but live in the Bible’. It’s good to be well read, it’s good to read lots of theology and the writings of the Saints. But they can never replace the Bible, it all flows downstream from here, so come to the source and drink deeply. For if we do not come first to the source we are ill equipped to judge whether pollutants have been added further downstream by those we read or listen to.
Next week we begin Kingdom Season, and then, a few weeks after, a new Church year begins as we set out into Advent once more. If your Bible has sat on the nightstand or shelf for too long, now is a great opportunity to pick it back up. To open it afresh and eat and drink deeply as we encounter the living God in its pages. There are lots of options for reading plans and devotionals to read alongside it. I’d be happy to suggest some if you would like but I’m sure many of those who are here today would be happy to offer advice too. Don’t let a new year come with your Bible still gathering dust. Don’t allow your faith to starve and suffer, instead take and read, and discover food and drink for your soul in a parched and weary land, and meet there the one who came and died and rose again to save you. And as you take and read may you be strengthened, encouraged, and filled with hope.
Amen.