This week’s Collect is truly one of the gems of our Book of Common Prayer. “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 by patience and comfort of your holy Word, 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.”
This
prayer was written by Thomas Cranmer as he was composing the first Prayer Book
in 1549. In addition to the wonderful cadence of the prayer, not only does it
help us to ask God to be with us in our reading of Scripture, but it also
teaches us about the how and the why of reading the Bible. Episcopalians may
not be known for citing chapter and verse in the middle of conversations, but
you all know a lot more Scripture than you might realize. Our Prayer Book has
been called “the Bible arranged for worship.” Not counting things like the
rubrics and instructions, a full 87% of the words of the Prayer Book are either
quotations of or allusions to Scripture. Our liturgy steeps us in the word of
God. So pretty much all those phrases from the liturgy that you have memorized,
they’re all full of the truths of Scripture.
That
being said, reading the Bible beyond Sunday worship is something commended to
all Christians. Our tradition says that Scripture “contains all things necessary
for salvation,” so being rooted in the Bible is good soil to be grounded in. This
Collect helps us to do just that.
It
opens by addressing God as “Blessed Lord” – a reminder that God is a God of
blessing. In every situation and moment, God reaches towards us with the
goodness of his love. The great theologian of the 20th century, Karl
Barth, said that God is “lovingly loquacious.” Indeed, God has a lot to say –
through nature, through Scripture, through the Spirit, and most fully in Jesus.
God blesses us by speaking to us, in always being available for a conversation.
I know that our lives are full of noise and distractions, but if we aren’t able
to hear God’s voice, it’s not because God isn’t speaking, but that we aren’t
listening. You all remember Will Willimon who we had here to preach back in 2019
– he’s published a new book that is essentially a long reflection on a Latin phrase:
Deus dixit, which means “God has spoken.” And he notes that the tense of
this phrase is called the “eternal perfect,” meaning that God has not only spoken
in the past, but God continues to speak.
As
we know from the opening of John, the Word of God became flesh in Jesus Christ.
And so God’s speech is always contemporaneous, never stuck in the past, but God
is always speaking, even through words that were first spoken long ago. This
takes us to the next phrase of the prayer, that God “caused all holy Scriptures
to be written.” This is pointing to what is sometimes called “inspiration,” the
idea being that Scripture is not simply the writings of people who lived long
ago, but Scripture is the record of God’s revelation throughout history. This
point causes a lot of debate and confusion though.
We
are not claiming that God dictated Scripture. We get into trouble when we
confuse the sign for the object. Again, the clearest expression of the Word of
God is Jesus – he is that which towards the Bible points. The Bible does not
exist to be worshiped or even obeyed. That is called bibliolatry – when strict adherence
to a specific reading of the Bible is demanded or expected. No, instead, the
Bible is something like the exit sign at exit 76 on I-85. It has an arrow that
points towards downtown and says “Salisbury.” No one in their right mind would
stop at that sign and say “I’m here.” The sign exists to guide us into town,
but far too many Christians treat the Bible as the end instead of the means. Saying
that the Bible is inspired simply means that it is God’s way of using human
language and literature to point us towards the grace, mercy, and love made
known in Jesus Christ.
The
prayer then asks that God grant us to “hear, read, mark, learn, and inwardly
digest Scripture.” There is a clear progression here from a basic acquaintance to
implantation in our being. This tells us that our relationship with Scripture
is one of growth. Sometimes people think that in having Scripture read in
worship they will be struck with wisdom and holiness right upon hearing it. Let
me know if that happens for you, because I’d like to have you teach me. This
isn’t to say that we won’t have moments of transcendent encounter with God when
Scripture is read, it’s just that hearing something read doesn’t often lead to
conversion. But we do start with hearing. When Scripture is read in worship,
and I’m as guilty of this as anyone, try to really listen. It’s not the time to
be checking your phone, or reading the announcements, or making sure your hymnal
is marked for the next hymn. The reading of Scripture demands our full
attention. Because if we don’t even hear what is read, it’s a lot harder to get
to the point where we inwardly digest the message.
Next,
we read Scripture. Now, why do we read Scripture? Is it to make you feel
righteous for waking up early and reading a chapter of Scripture as you drink
your morning coffee? Of course not. But that’s how Bible reading is often
viewed in our culture – as something that we do to become better people and
better Christians.
When
the pandemic began and everything shut down, I had to stop going to the gym.
After about a month of working from home 15 feet away from our pantry, my pants
all started getting tight. So I bought some kettlebells, essentially balls of
iron with a handle on them. Well, in the world of kettlebells, they speak about
something that happens when you train with them. They call it the “what the
heck” effect. Because of the nature of how you use kettlebells, you get strong
in ways that you didn’t even realize or intend. It’s not about looking like a
bodybuilder, but being ready for whatever life throws at you.
In
a similar way, that is why we read Scripture. Reading the Bible might not make
you any calmer, it might not make you curse less, it might not make you any
nicer. Instead, when we read the Bible, we encounter the God who is still
speaking through those words. It is the relationship that comes through Scripture,
not the words of Scripture alone, that changes us. Again, it’s the sign versus
the destination. And that relationship with God that comes through reading
Scripture makes all the difference. When you are stressed, anxious, scared,
angry, or wronged, it’s not that you’ll be able to pull a specific passage from
Jeremiah or Ephesians out of your memory and feel better. Rather, it’s that you’ll
know that the God who is revealed in Scripture is withyou and that is where the
peace that passes all understanding comes from. So if you are not in the habit
of reading Scripture on a regular basis, I commend the discipline to you.
Scripture is something like food for the faithful, and if we do not eat of it,
we will starve spiritually.
The
prayer then says that we are to mark Scripture. Yes, this prayer is not only
giving us permission, but it is even suggesting that we write in our Bibles. What
is being commended here is that we study Scripture. The Bible is not best thought
of as a book; it’s a library. The contents of the Bible span centuries of
history and several genres. Imagine a book that contains writings from Plato, Dante,
letters from the Revolutionary War, Shakespeare, Agatha Christie, and excerpts
from an encyclopedia – if you’re going to read that book, you’d need some
guidance to understand the context of each. This is where the work of scholars
is so important. Not only do we need to hear and read Scripture, but we also
have to read about it. Again, the Bible is the means, not the end. You might
think of the Bible as something like a map – which is a very helpful tool, but to
use it, you have to know how to read a map and you have to know where you are.
A lot of Christians get into trouble because they treat the Bible as a GPS
system that takes them to a specific spot. And we all know that when we rely
too much on that type of navigation, we don’t have a great sense of direction.
We mark and study Scripture as a way of learning the terrain of God’s grace.
And
learning is the next step in the prayer. This is, perhaps, the hardest step for
us because we have to concede that the Bible knows more than we do and that the
Bible points us to a truth not of our own making These days, you can hear a lot
of people quoting studies, pointing to trends, or voicing their feelings. Consider
how many times we hear the phrase “Well, in my experience” or “The way I see
it.” The Bible trumps all of that. The Bible does not trade in fads or ulterior
motives. Instead, the Bible points us to the truths of God that shall endure.
So many people these days seem to be lost with no moral compass, no sense of purpose
or identity. Well, the Bible points us in the direction of truth. It’s a
question of whether we will allow ourselves to learn this truth or not. Do we
conform our lives around the truths expressed in Scripture or do we conform
Scripture to our needs?
Rowan
Williams has written that because we are a community that is formed and shaped
by Scripture, it means that we are to live a “listening life.” Scripture calls
us into a new way of seeing the world, a truer way of understanding our lives. Listening
and learning though is a challenge because often Scripture will teach us that
we prioritize the wrong things, that we need to repent, that we need to change
course. The law of inertia says that an object in motion will stay in motion
unless acted upon by an outside force. So even if we are on the wrong path, we’ll
tend to say on that wrong path until something pulls us off it. Scripture is
given to us that we might learn that there is a better way.
We
then have that great phrase about “inwardly digesting” Scripture. The goal is to
think Biblically. I’m struck by our collective inability to do this. When it
comes to public discourse by Christians about things like climate change, the
vaccine, critical race theory, the social safety net, abortion, and gun ownership,
Christians rarely think through these issues Biblically. To be sure, there’s a
lot of Scripture quoting, but that’s not thinking. That’s just weaponizing
Scripture for our purposes. When I say “thinking Biblically,” I mean thinking
that goes in the direction that the Bible points. And to do this, we have to be
incredibly familiar and conversant with Scripture. We have to read not just
verses, chapters, or books, but all of Scripture. We have to intimately know
the one to who all of Scripture points – Jesus Christ. Scripture is so much
more than a collection of stories with individual lessons, but rather there is
an overarching narrative in the Bible, and it is the same truth that we saw in
Jesus. That God is gracious, merciful, and loving. When we’ve inwardly digested
Scripture, we become people who have peace, grace, and mercy at the center of
our communal life.
The
prayer then concludes by noting that with Scripture as our guide, with patience
and comfort, we are able to hold fast to the everlasting life given to us in
Jesus. In other words, Scripture immerses us into and surrounds us with the
love of God made known in Jesus Christ. This is why Scripture is so central, it
tells us about and assures us of God’s love for us and then teaches us how to
abide in this love. Now, in a sermon of this length, there’s simply no way for
me to cover everything about Scripture or answer the questions that you have
about the Bible. But, truly, I want to talk with each of you about your questions.
So send me an email or give me a call and we’ll find time to talk further, or I
can give you some more resources to use. In the meantime, take the bulletin
home with you and pray this prayer with the hope of hearing and receiving God’s
word as the words of life.
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 by patience
and comfort of your holy Word, 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.
