Let us pray: Come Holy Spirit, open our ears, eyes, and hearts to the blessed hope offered in Jesus Christ made present in you holy Word. Amen.
I love the collect for today. It’s one of my favorites. I’m not as excited about the lectionary readings. They are tough. But what I hope to offer you today, with the help of the Holy Spirit, is a way to engage the Scriptures that both acknowledges the difficulty of the task, and also offers guidance and hope. Let’s take another look at the collect:
Traditional
Blessed Lord, who has caused all holy Scriptures to be written for our learning: Grant that we may in such wise hear them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them; that, by patience and comfort of thy holy Word, we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life, which thou hast given us in our Savior Jesus Christ; who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen
Contemporary
Blessed Lord, who caused all holy Scriptures to be written for our learning: Grant us so to hear them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them, that we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life, which you have given us in our Savior Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
All Holy Scriptures were written for our learning and we ask God to help us as we hear, read, mark, learn and inwardly digest them. I love this line, chewing on the scriptures. What do these words taste like? What ideas about God and about ourselves do they offer? What kind of nourishment do they provide?
Today’s collect in its earliest form comes to us from Archbishop Thomas Cranmer, the architect of the first Book of Common Prayer. Cranmer was convinced that all Christians needed to be reading the Scriptures as much as they could, and so, prayer books throughout time from the first book in England in 1549, and the first American prayer book in 1789, to the 1928 prayer book, to what we have in the pews today, the 1979 prayer book, all of these began with and have continued to be based on the Scriptures. Included in the prayer book are the psalms which we sing or recite on a regular basis. Many of the expressions, sayings, and prayers from the prayer book that are familiar to you, come from the bible. The prayer book offers us a way and guides us to pray the scriptures both on our own and together, throughout the day, with morning, afternoon, evening, and end of day (compline), prayers. And of course, our Sunday services as well as special days and occasions in our lives. Our liturgical calendar connected to our lectionary, the choices of readings for each day and Sunday, lead us through the birth, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, offering us a scriptural journey that invites us to better understand God’s relationship with humankind.
While the prayer book’s origins are hundreds of years old, it continues to evolve. There is ongoing discussion around the next revision, examination of patriarchal and colonial language and imagery, suggestions for more inclusive and gender- neutral language, the potential inclusion of new services, like services for same-sex marriages, and proposals for updates, and new translations in Spanish, French, and Haitian Creole. The process continues! Our book of common prayer is based on the Holy Scriptures and it offers us a way to be led and guided through as we hear, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest.
If you’ve come from another denomination, or spent any time in a non-denominational or evangelical church like I did in my teens and college years, then you are probably used to seeing bibles in the pews, or of bringing your own bible with you to follow along. And during the sermon the preacher would invite you to open your bibles and turn to the book, chapter, and verse. Some, but not all Episcopal churches have bibles in the pews. Some, but not all Episcopalians have their own bibles that they carry around with them. At St. Mary’s we have our lectionary inserts. But Scriptures are a key part of every time we gather to pray and celebrate the Eucharist. We include a reading from the Old Testament, a psalm, a reading from the New Testament, and a gospel reading in every Sunday service. Following the order of our BCP, we divide our service into the Ministry of the Word, and the Ministry of the Table. We come together to hear, to sing, to listen, and to respond to the word of God. As Episcopalians, we are a people of the book. A people of the bible, guided by our book of common prayer as we journey together through the Holy Scriptures.
But how do we read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest the Holy Scriptures, embracing and holding fast the blessed hope of everlasting life given in Jesus? In this way too we are influenced by our English forebears. A few weeks ago, we celebrated the feast day of Richard Hooker, known as the father of Anglican theology. His process for reading the bible and figuring out what it means for us is based on two main ideas: context and community. The context of where, when, and how we read the Holy Scriptures, and community, the people that we do it with. Yes, we can read scriptures on our own, but…they were meant to be read out loud, listened too, talked about, pondered, shared, reflected on, WITH others! Context: the context from which these Holy words have come. This is key. As Episcopalians, we approach the Scriptures with all of the gifts made available to us by our loving God. We look at and value the scriptures themselves, we look at and value the traditions, the opinions, conclusions and ideas of all those who have come before and how they have sought to understand God through the bible. We look at and value the gifts of reason, science, sociology, psychology, the gift of our minds that we can apply to our understanding of the bible. And finally, we look at and value our own experiences with the Divine and what we have learned from them. These are the gifts that we bring to reading the bible. We don’t read the bible literally, but contextually, with the help of those who have come before us, with our current understandings of historical, cultural, and literary contexts, with our past and ongoing experience with God, and all of this through prayer, guided by the Holy Spirit.
Last Sunday I was invited to talk with our Journey to Adulthood youth class as they focused on the Old and New Testaments and their differences and similarities. As I found myself in front of this group of young people, I reflected on what I thought was most important for them to know about the bible. Here’s what I shared with them: First of all, the bible is not just one book or even two books, but it is a compilation of LOTS of different books, written at different times, by different people, for different people, edited, added to, taken away from, written in many different literary forms. There are historical books, poetry, letters, eye-witness accounts, biographies of the life of Jesus, myths, fables, allegories, love letters, historical fiction, and more! The bible is the word of God, NOT God’s literal words. The bible is inspired by God, by the Holy Spirit, but it also came through human writers, so it’s not perfect, there are mistakes, it does contradict itself. It was written and then translated in many different languages. And what we have today is a translation of a translation of a translation. It is old, but it also new, and timeless, with applications that were specific to certain people and places, and also applications for us today. It is a way to better understand who we are, who God is, and who God created us to be.
Finally, it must always be viewed and interpreted though the lens of love. The love of God for all creation, proclaimed in Genesis, and God saw all that God created and it was good, and it was good, and it was good. God is good. God created us and all that is, and it is good, we are good, loved, lovable, and called to love others. Scripture must be viewed through the lens of the love of Jesus shown in his actions and teachings, his inclusion, uplifting, and inviting of ALL, his compassion, mercy, and forgiveness.
After this session one of the leaders shared with me that a young person had asked why God had allowed slavery to exist. Wow! What a great question. Not an easy question. One that we will have to grapple with together, as we look at scripture, tradition, reason and experience, guided by the Holy Spirit. For the teacher and I, the happy moment came when we realized that these young people were comfortable enough to ask this question and to seek to understand God through exploring the holy Scriptures together.
Let us pray: Blessed Lord, we give you thanks that you have caused all holy Scriptures to be written for our learning. Please be with us as we hear, read, mark, and chew on them together, so that we may embrace and hold onto the hope you have given us in our Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
