Believe week 13 “Engaging scripture” RUMC 1/22/17

Believe week 13 “Engaging scripture”

RUMC 1/22/17

 I was wondering this week…. What if … what if for one week we exchanged our mobile phones for Bibles?

•             Anywhere we normally take our phone, we take your Bible instead.

•             Anytime we normally look at our phone, we look at God’s Word instead.

•             The time we spend calling, texting, and browsing online with our phone is traded for time reading Scripture.

•             What if instead of getting a phone call, we get a notification and our Bible app opens up.

•             If we normally place our phone next to us at a meeting, we now put our Bible there.

•             Instead of browsing the internet while we wait for the doctor, we browse Galatians.

What difference would this make in our life in just one week? I am not trying to make anyone feel guilty, (In fact I don’t want to give up my phone either!), but I was thinking about how cell phones have changed our lives and how much more our lives would change if we placed as much importance on our Bibles as we do on our cell phones.

Most Americans just do not read much of anything. One poll states that in the past twelve months

•             41% of the respondents had not read a fiction book.

•             42% had not read a non-fiction book. And

•             28% have not read even one book in the past year.  When it comes to the Bible, the results are similar.

  You might agree with more than half of Americans who believe the Bible has too little influence on our culture. At the same time, even though

•             88% of Americans own a Bible,

•             fewer than 20% open it on a regular basis.

 According to a Barna Research Group survey

•             82% of Americans think that “God helps those who help themselves” is directly from the Bible (it isn’t);

•             63% cannot name the four Gospels (Matthew, mark, Luke, and John) ;

•               58% do not know that Jesus preached the Sermon on the Mount (he did);

•             52% do not know the book of Jonah is in the Bible (it is right between Obadiah and Micah).

 If we start with the

(lack of Biblical reading   X general Biblical ignorance, )

Skepticism of our age,

we have a formula that explains why the Bible has not only been marginalized, it is completely off  of our cultural page.

 Therefore, my message to you today as we examine power of the Bible in our lives is DO NOT READ YOUR BIBLE. Does that surprise you? I’ll say it again in case you want to get your tape recorder turned on so you can turn me in to the District Superintendent. “DON’T READ YOUR BIBLE.” ENGAGE your Bible.

If all you are going to do is read, you might as well put it under that old table leg to keep the table from tipping back and forth. Today I want to call you to engage the Bible. Let me unpack that.Here are three ways not to read the Bible. 

 1. Do not read the Bible as a rulebook. Yes, there are rules in it, but that is a fairly small portion of the whole text. Don’t hear me wrong. The Bible does guide our lives, but reading it as primarily a rulebook is like just looking at just the pictures in the encyclopedia.

 2. Do not read the Bible for one-liners. To search for a single verse that gives us a warm fuzzy feeling and take it out of context, is to abuse the Bible.

Perhaps we should blame Stephanus, who in the year 1551 added verse numbers every sentence or so. It was handy for referencing, of course. But it also encouraged people to see the Bible as a set of isolated sayings. Where each verse is numbered separately so it appears to be an independent thought. Rather than memorizing stories or longer passages, people started to memorize these isolated verses stripped of their context and making it all about us. The Bible has some great one-liners, but to read the Bible just for the one-liners is to sip the spiritual milk and ignore the meat of scripture.

 3. Do not read the Bible as a puzzle to be solved. Reading the Bible is not an Easter egg hunt. It is not a jigsaw puzzle where we empty all of the Old and New Testament pieces onto the ground, and start to construct our theology. Did you catch the problem there? “OUR” theology. The Bible is not to be pieced together to fit our own prejudices, and agendas. In some ways, that is exactly backwards. We are the puzzle to be solved. The Bible is the picture on the front of the box that describes what we will look like when we are done.

 So don’t read the Bible as a rulebook, or a collection of one-liners, or like a puzzle. In fact don’t read it at all: engage it. There are times, when Robyn and I  have been driving on a long trip. A song will come on the radio and I’ll even hum along or sing with it a little. When it is over, Robyn will ask me something about that song that was just on and I have no idea what she is talking about. I was listening but I was not engaged with the song.

Let me tell you how to engage the scriptures.

 1. Read to understand. If the Bible is just an ancient text, we can study it like a history book. You know that when I study for a Bible study or a sermon there are all kinds or resources I use to help me understand the original language, the history, the context, the historical interpretations. But all of that is academic. I don’t do that in my personal reading and I am not asking you to do that

Just read the story and ask: “What is going on in this Bible passage?”

•             Read it several times from a translation you understand. From various translations if you want.

•             Read it slowly. Thinking about every single word. Our brains tend to skip words as we read because we know what if coming. Nevertheless, slow down and read every single word.

•             Always read it aloud. The scripture was intended to be read aloud and it forces us to slow down and read every single word.

Ask:

•             What is going on in this Bible passage?

•             Who are the characters?

•             What is the situation?

•             How does the story move?

•             What is the outcome?

Those kinds of questions. If you have to look up something in a Bible dictionary or Bible maps to understand it fine, but don’t spend much time researching. Just read to understand.

 2. Read to encounter God

Ask God “What are you saying to me through the text?” Remember Hebrews says the Bible is “the living word of God.” If it is living, it speaks to us today in our context and our lives. Spend some time encountering the living God in the text.

•             Is there something that God might want to reveal to you through this passage?

•             Does the story connect with something happening in your life? Remember “sharper than a two edged sword.”

•             Does it pierce you in some way?

•             Does it poke a hole in something you have been doing or thinking?

•             Does it call you to stand up for what is right?

•             Does it call you to sit down and have a heart to heart with someone with whom you have had a disagreement?

•             Does it make you feel uncomfortable, or

•             guilty, or

•             ashamed, or

•             angry, or does it

•             comfort you or

•             encourage you. Listen to your feelings because that too might be God.

Encounter the living God n the living word and hear what God has to say to you today.

 3. Read and talk back

What do you want to say to God about the text? After encountering the living God in this passage, you might want to tell God that you are

•             scared,

•             angry,

•             confused, or

•             embarrassed. On the other hand, you might want to tell God that you feel

•             emboldened, at

•             peace,

•             comforted, or that you are

•             ready to make a commitment. Use this time to tell God about your feelings. Ask questions, express your fears and doubts as well as your obedience and praise. Be honest—and don’t worry: God can handle anything you have!

 4. Read and respond

Finally, you do something. The living word and prayer may move us to action.

•             It might be standing up for what is right,

•             proposing a new ministry,

•             taking food to a neighbor. What does the scripture call you to do? Do it.

The living word and prayer may move you to change. Maybe it

•             calls you to be more compassionate and

•             faithful. Maybe it causes you to

•             rethink an attitude or

•             decision. Sometimes we are changed by our engagement with scripture.

Based on your prayer, to what action are you called? Do it.

 Hebrews tells us that “the word of God is living and active, sharper than a two edged sword, piercing until it divides soul from spirit, joints from marrow; it is able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.”

That is not something that you just read. Just reading it like a textbook, or a fairly tale, or a Steven King novel will not change a thing. … I call you to engage scripture as “the living word of God sharper than any two-edged sword.” With the power to reveal, the power to transform and the power to give hope.

An African Christian who had been converted from cannibalism was standing by a boiling pot of water. An explorer came by and asked what he was reading.

The converted cannibal responded, “I am reading my Bible.”

The explorer could hardly keep from laughing. He scoffed at the man saying, “The Bible? No civilized person believes anything the Bible says. It is out of date, and a waste of time.”

Without looking up from the Bible, the native pointed to the pot of boiling water and asked, “Do you see that pot of water?”

“Well Yes,” said the man.

The former cannibal said, “You better hope that I believe what the Bible says, and you better believe that is has the power to change lives, or you would be in that pot right now. “

 We had better believe that truly engaging the Bible as the living word of God will change our lives. Or we are all in hot water.

•             Read to understand

•             Read to encounter God

•             Read and talk back

•             Read and respond

AMEN