Twenty-Third Sunday after Pentecost: Proper 28, November 17, 2019
Traditional
Blessed Lord, who hast 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 scripture 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.
What are some of your memories of hearing the bible? Was it a story in Sunday School? Were there bright pictures, a felt board, crayons and a coloring page? Or Maybe grandparents, parents, or a beloved neighbor read to you from a children’s bible, comfortable in a stuffed chair, snuggled on a lap, special attention just for you. How about Charlie Brown’s Christmas special when Linus explains the true meaning of Christmas? For me, it was the story of Moses parting the Red Sea and then parting it ourselves in the parish hall, each of us taking turns raising Moses’ staff as the others kicked and tossed a sea of red balloons and streamers. After Moses and a few Israelites made it through, Pharaoh’s army followed and we got to throw the balloons, some of us bopping a few soldiers on the head as they collapsed on the seafloor. And then we all changed roles, parting, passing, and balloon bopping again. It was great fun and a great story. A moment for me to fully embody a part of the bible and take it into myself.
Do you remember a time when you really heard or felt the bible? A time when a word, an image or a phrase stood out and stuck with you, making a powerful connection with your life? Was it in church, with a lector reading from the Old or New Testament? Maybe it was the deacon proclaiming the gospel with everyone standing. Or maybe at a wedding: “Love is patient, love is kind, love is not boastful or arrogant or rude…it bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things” (1 Cor. 13: 4, 7). Or maybe it was at a funeral? “I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die” (John 11: 25-6). Hearing the scripture can be a powerful moment of connection with God that influences us for the rest of our lives.
And these “sticky moments” of recognizing God speaking to us through scripture are what I believe the author of today’s collect means when they talk about “inwardly digesting,” taking the stories and the words of the bible into ourselves, making them a part of us. When we hear, mark, read, learn and inwardly digest God’s word we begin to discover who God is, who we are, and how the two are connected.
From the very beginning we learn that all of God’s creation is good, that the God of love and goodness creates out of those two same materials. SEVEN times God declares the goodness of creation in the first chapter of Genesis. And it was good, and it was good, and indeed it was very good! This is God’s goodness, this is creation’s goodness, this is our goodness. We learn that we have been created in the image of God, out of love, with and for love, God created us. This one simple fact confers worth and dignity upon every person in the world, no matter where, no matter when, no matter whom. Through the scriptures we learn who we are: beloved children of God, heirs with Jesus, destined for eternal life, partners helping bring God’s dream for our world to life.
We learn that God listens to us, loves us and cares for us, leading us from captivity into freedom, from exile into the promised land. We learn that God loves us SO much that he is willing to come down and live among us, becoming a baby in Bethlehem, spending life here on earth, feeling what we feel, hurting like we hurt, laughing, loving, and crying like we do.
And we learn what God’s love looks like in the actions of Jesus Christ on earth, healing, including, and caring for everyone he meets and challenging the powers that be to do the same. We learn of the pain and suffering endured for us, of Jesus ultimately giving up everything to show us how much God longs to be in loving relationship.
And we learn how we are to act out of gratitude, modeling God’s ENORMOUS love for everyone and everything. We learn from the examples of the first followers of Jesus how we are to bring God’s love especially to those who are poor, how we are to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, and spend time with those who are hurting, lonely, or feeling unloved. And we learn that that no matter what, God will be at our side.
“Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom. 8: 35, 37-9).
Through our study of the scriptures we learn about the identity of God and we learn that that is our identity too. God loves and cares for us SO THAT we can return this love by loving and caring for others. The examples of Jesus in the gospels show us how to live our lives as God intended them. They show us our true identities; which Paul describes as “hidden in Christ.”
To find ourselves we need to take the scriptures into who we are, to bring our whole selves, to get them inside us and us inside them. This isn’t easy, and there’s no getting around some parts of the bible that are confusing and complicated and others that are just terrible, but it’s infinitely valuable. When we decide to grow in our relationship with God by learning, and inwardly digesting the Holy Scriptures, we are embarking on the most important journey of all. We are finding ourselves. We are discovering the love, joy, and empowering expectations with which God created us. My friends, I invite you, and I urge you, to hear, read, mark, learn and inwardly digest the good news of God’s loving identity which is also ours.
