Wonderful Words of Life

Deuteronomy 6:4-9, John 1:1-5, 14, John 20:26-31

July 25, 2010

Rochelle A. Stackhouse

Sing with me if you know this one: “Oh, the B-I-B-L-E, yes that’s the book for me; I stand alone on the word of God, the B-I-B-L-E!”

“I stand alone on the word of God!” Very thrilling, kind of Martin Luther like: “Here I stand I can do no other!” And over the millennia since the different parts of the Bible were written, many, many people have stood strong because of the words of the Bible. “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.” “Nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord!” “Come all who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest.” I asked you to bring your Bibles today; what verses are important to you? What words help you stand?

(Time to share)

So the scriptures are important to many of us, but what does it mean to say they are the “word of God?” Did God write the words of the Bible? No, people did. So what does that mean?

Well, it might be a good idea to turn to the Bible to understand that, which is why we heard from the beginning of John’s gospel this morning. John speaks of the “Word of God” as the part of God who will take flesh as Jesus. Did you hear that? The word of God is not words on a page, not a book, though the book tells us about the word of God. According to the Bible, the word of God is living! More than that, the purpose of the Word of God, as John says near the end of his gospel, is to bring life! That applies, says John, both to Jesus and to the words written about Jesus, the Word of God. When Jesus no longer lived in flesh, the Holy Spirit came to inhabit the words about God in order to give them life for us today.

The word of God is living, and its purpose is to bring life. That’s actually what the UCC’s “God is still speaking” initiative is all about. It’s based on the Pilgrim Pastor John Robinson’s words that “God hath yet more light and truth to break forth from the word.” It’s actually a very Jewish understanding of scripture, which makes sense because most of the people who wrote the Bible were Jewish! The Jewish relationship to the words of scripture clearly prohibits making an idol out of it or seeing it as static and finished. Biblical scholarship in the Jewish tradition means struggling with scripture, arguing with it, seeking out different interpretations and arguing with them, wrestling with the hard parts and with how hard it is to live the commandments in it, interpreting it anew for each new generation. That’s what the Old Testament prophets did. It’s what Jesus did with the scriptures he knew: “You have heard…but I say to you.” This was not unique to Jesus! It’s a way of seeing the text as something living with which you interact in a continual quest for life and truth. As UCC Biblical scholar Walter Brueggemann says, “The Bible is not a fixed, frozen, readily exhausted read; it is rather a ‘script,’ always re-read, through which the Spirit makes all things new.” (Christian Century, 1/3/2001). A “script,” like a play which is different each time it is performed as different actors and different audiences hear new things in old words.

The Bible is the living word of the living God, not the historical record of dead people and a God who stopped being engaged with humankind in the first century of the modern era. It has power and authority for us as it “provokes, inspires, nourishes and forms us.” (Delwin Brown, Progressive Christian Witness, 1/24/2006). It is not meant to be revered on a shelf, any more than we would revere a painting of Jesus and then ignore his teachings and life. It is not meant to be wielded as a weapon or quoted out of context, either.

It is meant to be read and re-read, prayed over, discussed and wrestled with, learned from, lived out and tested in our daily lives. It means something different in our generation than it did 2000 years ago, but it also means some of the same things to us as to them. It needs to be continually engaged, acted anew, or we might as well put it in a museum as a relic of the past.

So what are we to do with it? Well, again, I turn to the Bible to help me get a clue. This lovely passage in the book of Deuteronomy, meant to be used as a formational, foundational instruction for the new nation of Israel, says a lot to me about our situation today. First is the summary of the law, something Jesus, Word in Flesh, often repeated. All scripture is meant to be interpreted from this base line.

Love God. With all you are and have. Jesus added, in words from another part of Deuteronomy, “Love your neighbor.”

Don’t just read these words with your mind, but also with your heart and let them work on you very deeply in your life, not just on the surface. That’s harder than it sounds and it means that engaging the Bible involves some vulnerability.

Teach your children about God.

Discuss what it means to love God, what these words say about that, with others in your home and outside your home on a very regular basis. The Bible really is not meant to be read alone, but in conversation with others.

Put these words on your hand and forehead. Consider them whenever you act (your hands) and when you think about anything (your forehead).

Write them at the entrance to your home and your city gates. Let them live in your daily family life and also in the life of your communities and nations, in all the challenges you face and the decisions you make.

Let me say that again.

If we take this seriously, if we actually believe in a Holy Spirit and its ability to still speak through this book, then it can be the living word of a living God. Then, and only then, can we say in response to the scriptures: The word of the Lord, thanks be to God. Amen.