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Bible-Sunday-2006
SERMON - 10.15am, Emmanuel Church, Pokfulam, Hong Kong
Sunday 29th October 2006
Revd. Matthew Vernon
There are of course many jokes about the Bible.
How do we know Moses wore a wig?
Some days he was seen with "Aair-on" and some days he wasn't!
This annual Bible Sunday gives us a chance to step back and look at the Bible as a whole.
It's a big topic for one sermon,
• so today I'll try to paint a picture of how fascinating the Bible is.
This will involve some broad brush strokes,
• but it's a wonderful topic.
Exploring it can deepen our appreciation of faith and the wonders of God.
Here's another bad Bible joke.
How do we know Adam and Eve were not Chinese?
They would have eaten the snake!
"Who is silly enough to believe that God, like a farmer, 'planted a paradise in the east at Eden'.
Or put in it a visible, real 'tree of life' and if anyone eats the fruit with his teeth they gain life. …
And when God is said to 'walk in the paradise in the cool of the day'
• and Adam to hide himself behind a tree,
I don't think anyone will doubt that these are figurative expressions.
They indicate certain mysteries not actual events."
You may recognise these words.
They're not mine.
They sound very modern,
• but they come from the brilliant 3rd century Christian scholar called Origen.
Origen believed that there are different ways of reading the Bible,
• that the Bible has different levels of meaning.
He was not alone.
In fact, his view shared by many Christians including Church heavy-weights like St. Augustine.
Origen spoke about 3 levels of meaning:
• literal, moral and spiritual.
A good example is the exodus –
• the people of Israel leaving Egypt.
At one level the story is about Moses and the people leaving Egypt.
We can also read it as a story about our redemption in Christ,
• as we do at Easter.
Thirdly, we can read it as a story about conversion from the slavery of sin to the freedom of grace.
Origen looked at the Gospels in the same way.
In the story of Jesus being tempted by the devil, the devil takes Jesus to a high mountain to show him all the kingdoms of the world.
Origen asks where is there a mountain high enough to view all the kingdoms of the world.
Origen thought that in the Bible there are things "absurd and impossible".
He didn't say the whole Bible is like that.
He believed many parts were historically accurate.
However, Origen shows us that from the earliest days of Christianity, Christians understood that the Bible is wonderfully rich and diverse.
It needs to explored and mined.
Far from being an easy read, the Bible is often complicated,
• its meaning is not straightforward.
But the Bible is central to our faith.
And the wonder of the Bible is its diversity and complexity.
Like the faith it represents,
• like God who it tries to describe,
• there is always more to discover.
The Bible is not a book with simple answers to all questions.
It is a book that keeps inspiring new questions, fresh insights, deeper faith.
We talked about Origen in our midweek group a few weeks ago.
We've also watched the excellent TV series "Who wrote the New Testament?"
It looks at the history behind the New Testament, exploring its complex background.
One programme on the Gospels explores questions like:
• who were Matthew, Mark, Luke and John?
• did they write the Gospels or were the Gospels just attributed to them?
• who were the Gospels written for?
• and why are they different?
The second programme was on the letters in the New Testament.
Paul's name appears at the beginning of 13 of these; tradition says that he wrote them.
But for more than 100 years now scholars have argued that they weren't all written by Paul.
Some were written in Paul's name, but the style of writing and the content is significantly different to the other letters.
They don't contain the images for the body of Christ, for example, that Paul loved.
As it happens 2 Timothy is one of those.
Our second reading this morning comes from 2 Timothy with the verse "All scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching" and so on.
You realise that whoever wrote that was referring to the Jewish Bible –
• what we call the Old Testament.
The New Testament didn't exist yet.
It's unlikely that the people who wrote the books and letters in the New Testament thought they were writing scripture as such.
The origins of the New Testament is fascinating
• and shrouded in mystery.
Our version has 27 books or letters.
Why were they chosen and not the many other writings around at the time?
Who chose them?
What politics affected that choice?
At some point Christian leaders decided to define what was Christian scripture and what wasn't.
This was towards the end of the 2nd century with characters like Bishop Irenaeus.
But exactly how that happened we don't know.
David Gill was the minister of Kowloon Union Church.
He has worked throughout Asia with the Christian Conference of Asia.
The quote on the front of today's pewsheet is his words:
"Instead of just reading the Bible to confirm your own version of Christianity, try studying it alongside someone from a different denomination, a different culture. Expect to see things you've never seen before."
My colleague Father Dwight helps me do that.
He often gives a different perspective on the Bible.
Remember that Dwight is from the Philippines, a country which struggles with political oppression and social injustice.
Here's one example he mentioned recently.
The 10 commandments includes do not worship idols or other gods.
You have a clear idea, I imagine, of that that means.
For Dwight those idols could mean symbols of oppression and slavery.
Remember that the people of Israel had escaped from oppression and slavery in Egypt.
The religion of ancient Egypt involved many gods and that religion was used to justify the slavery of the people of Israel.
Having escaped that, their new faith included not worshipping idols of oppression and slavery.
Speaking of the 10 commandments, have you seen the cartoon of Moses on the mountain with the stone tablets.
He is saying to the people "I don't care what you're lawyer said, they're not called the ten recommendations."
It's so easy for us to read the Bible to confirm our own version of Christianity.
Easy whether we are liberal minded or conservative; catholic or evangelical.
It's fascinating to discover how people of different cultures interpret the range of meaning in Scripture.
Liberation theology from South America is another example with its focus on the message on God's preference for the poor and the Bible's strong position against social injustice.
I'm going to change gear for the last minute or two.
And let our first reading from Isaiah do the talking.
It's glorious poetry about faith and God.
It illustrates why we persevere with exploring the Bible and discovering its riches.
(Isaiah 55.1-11)
"Everyone who thirsts,
come to the waters;
and you that have no money,
come, buy and eat!
Come, buy wine and milk
without money and without price.
Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread,
and your labour for that which does not satisfy?
Listen carefully to me, and eat what is good,
and delight yourselves in rich food.
Incline your ear, and come to me;
listen, so that you may live.
Seek the Lord while he may be found,
call upon him while he is near;
let the wicked forsake their way,
and the unrighteous their thoughts;
let them return to the Lord, that he may have mercy on them,
and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.
For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
nor are your ways my ways, says the Lord.
For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.
My thoughts are higher than your thoughts.
The Bible can't capture God's thoughts.
• indeed it contains tales of killings and war that we now know are not God's ways.
But in trying to capture God's thoughts, the Bible is a wonderful treasure trove that helps us discover more about God's thoughts and ways.
Our yearning to draw closer to God is why we read the Bible.
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