Connect the Dots: connecting with God through
Scripture
First UMC, Carroll, Iowa
September 22, 2019
It seems like
our lives are getting busier day by day, doesn’t it? These days, most of us are
always connected, constantly running kids here and there, spending weekends
with the grandkids, working long hours, striving to keep ourselves healthy;
Trying to keep our homes clean running smoothly along with fitting in family
time. We feel disconnected from ourselves, disconnected from each other, and
disconnected from God. So how we can stop the merry-go-round and focus on God?
This series is
called Connecting the Dots and is focused on helping us connect with God. In
fact, that is exactly why we are here between Main and Adams Street. Our purpose
statement is so simple… “connecting people with God.” Our discipleship wheel is
a new tool to helps us explain how we connect people with God.
Last week we talked about connecting with God through
worship. You can always go back and read or watch any sermons you miss by going
to our website, facebook or Youtube.
This week we
stay in the upper right-hand quadrant of the discipleship wheel which is the
“connecting up with God” quadrant, and we will talk about connecting UP with
God through Scripture.
I doubt that I
need to convince you that the Bible is important. In fact, 88% of all Americans
believe that the Bible is important but 41% read it less than one time a year.
We probably beat those odds significantly. Well, I hope we do.
The problem can be illustrated this way. Turn to your
neighbor and between the two of you come up with as many of the 10 commandments
as you can.
There is the answer list. How many got all ten. How
many got more than half. See what I mean… I won’t make the others stand, but it
isn’t just our church. Basic Bible knowledge is really lacking in local
churches, in most denominations and in the culture in general.
A new pastor asked the junior high boys’ Sunday school
class who knocked down the walls of Jericho. All the boys denied having done
it, and the preacher was appalled by their ignorance. At the next church
council meeting, he told about the experience. "Not one of them knows who
knocked down the walls of Jericho," he lamented. The group was silent
until finally, one trustee spoke up. "Preacher, this appears to be
bothering you a lot. But I’ve known all those boys since they were born and
they’re good boys. If they said they didn’t know, I believe them. Let’s just
take some money out of the maintenance fund, fix the walls, and let it go at
that."
OK maybe that didn’t happen, but it represents the
quality of today’s Bible knowledge in the church! BTW if you are wondering: the
answer is Joshua with God’s help.
If 88% of Americans
and a greater percentage of churched folks like us believe the Bible is
important why don’t we read it more? Why don’t we know it better?
Some people say, “there isn’t enough time.” You can blame time if you want. The truth,
however, is we find the time to do the things that are most important to us. I
can carve out time for the hawkeye game or a new NCIS episode, but I can’t find
time for other things? Let’s be honest here. Some folks make sure they get to
all their kid's games. Others would never miss their favorite TV show or bridge
game or fishing or whatever. We find time for the things that are important to
us. If the Bible is important to you, you can find time to read it.
Some will say
it is so hard to understand… OK, I can understand that…I know that…
The Bible can be hard to read. It can be hard. But
there are things we can do.
Like, make sure you have a translation that is easy to
read. If you read ancient Greek or Hebrew use that. If you are fluent in 17th
century Elizabethan English like Shakespear, read the King James version. If
not find one of the high-quality modern translations that you can read and
understand. We use the New Revised Standard in worship. Today we gave
Contemporary English Bibles. Find one that you can understand and start reading
it.
Or you might
find the Bible it hard to read because it all took place 2000 to 3000 years
ago. Most of us know almost nothing about the world in those days, culturally,
geographically, or politically. So, make sure that you have a study Bible. Your
Bible should have notes and maps and cross-references, and maybe a small
concordance. Just know that different study Bibles might show a bent toward a
more liberal or more conservative perspective. Those notes, are, after all,
written by scholars, not God.
Finally, I think sometimes we make reading the Bible
harder than it needs to be. We expect the Bible to read like a novel. The
Bible, however, is not a single type of literature. It is a 66 book library. It
contains some history, but even the history is not written like a textbook. The
Bible also contains poems, hymns, parables, biography, letters, prayers,
sayings, prophecies, laments and other styles of literature. Just to make your
life a little harder the Bible is not in chronological order.
I say all of that just to make the point that we can’t
read the Bible like a newspaper or a novel. Every passage of the Bible has to
be interpreted prayerfully, through the eyes of faith, and with the power of
the Holy Spirit if we are to understand its true meaning. So don’t try to grasp
the Bible. Let the Bible grasp you.
Let me tell you how to do that.
First we approach the Bible with prayer. The
Bible was not written by people on their own. It was not engraved on printing
plates by God. The Bible was written by people who had an intimate experience
with God and were led by the Holy Spirit to share that experience with us. Most
United Methodists do not believe that God actually wrote or dictated verbatim
the entire Bible, We believe it is the “inspired Word of God” given through the
saints of old.
So I say to you… Start with prayer. Ask God to help
you to understand what you read. Focus on God and ask for God’s help to
understand the story or poem, or lament or whatever you are reading. This process
of just understanding the words is described by Pastor Randy Frazee as seeing
the lower story. It is the history, the names, the places. It can be
interesting but that is not all that is there. If you stop reading the Bible at
that point you are only touching the surface of Holy Scripture. Paul and the
author of Hebrews refer to this as spiritual milk. Hebrews (5:13-14) says
13 for everyone
who lives on milk, being still an infant, is unskilled in the word of
righteousness. 14 But solid food is for the mature, for those whose faculties
have been trained by practice to distinguish good from evil.
Growing disciples, as I hope we all are, can’t live on
milk alone. There has to be meat. There has to be more.
Second, approach the Bible with prayer a
second time,… this time to look behind the words. Randy Fraze calls what you
see on the page the lower story.
But if you prayerfully approach scripture. You can
also find what Frazee refers to as the upper story. You might think of this as
the big picture of what is happening in heaven. That’s why he calls it the
upper story. This is the trajectory of God’s work with humankind. We ask, “how
does this story fit into God’s long-range goals for creation and humanity?”
The best way to understand these layers is an example.
Let’s go to the temptation of Jesus we read. One can read it for what it says.
The newly baptized Jesus faced temptation and used Bible passages to win. That
is the lower story. That is what the words say.
If you look
behind the curtain, however, you might notice that is a battle between good and
evil. Between God and the devil which is a major theme in the Bible. And in
this one instance, we see for the first time ever that Jesus has the power to
face down and defeat darkness and evil.
Now, I want to admit two things. First I know that
many people and I am sure some of you never get to the upper story. They never
get to the meat. Maybe you have never known that you can get anything but milk.
I’m telling you that you can, and we want to help you do that. Watch for
classes like I BELIEVE and other opportunities. Finally, I’ll admit this does
not happen quickly. It takes some practice and some perspective. And it
requires knowing that there can be multiple equally true answers. My favorite
sermons are the ones where the preacher uncovers a whole different perspective
than I have ever seen before. That doesn't mean it is better or I am wrong. It
is just another layer. I know it can be hard, but keep it up…seeing that there
is an upper story really helps to make sense of many of the troubling Old
Testament passages. But more importantly, it can make all the difference in
your life as a disciple.
Third we again
approach the Bible in prayer; this time that we will see ourselves. First to
understand the words. Then to see behind the words. Now to clearly see ourselves. Besides the
lower story and upper story, we begin to see where the two intersect is our
story. Your story and my story. Where does this scripture come alive for you?
Where does it make you feel stronger, or ashamed, or guilty, or joyful? Where
does the scripture live in you?
Taking the same story of the temptation of Jesus, you
might realize, for instance, that Jesus’ victory over evil gives his disciples
the ability to battle temptation. That means you have power over temptation.
Maybe you
notice that Jesus used scripture to fight temptation and you don’t know scripture
very well. If we were in the desert that day, we probably would not come up
with the scriptures off the top of our head. Maybe it challenges you to learn
more scripture by heart.
Maybe as we peel back this layer we reflect on Jesus
words, “Man does not live by bread alone.” We ask, “What is it that I am living
on?” Am I on a diet of bread that which I can see and touch. Or Am I nourished
by the presence and power of God?
Do you see what I mean? You read the lower story, put
it in the perspective of what God is doing in the upper story, and then bring
it right back down to your life.
We ask, “How will I live differently because I
encountered this scripture today? How am I changed by this time I have spent
Connecting with God in scripture?”
Second Timothy says, (3:14-17)
14 But as for you, continue in what you have learned
and firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it, 15 and how from
childhood you have known the sacred writings that are able to instruct you for
salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. 16 All scripture is inspired by God
and is useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in
righteousness, 17 so that everyone who belongs to God may be proficient,
equipped for every good work.
Scripture is useful for changing us and helping us to
grow. If we don’t approach scripture in deep prayer we might as well be reading
a 2000-year-old newspaper.
Dig in and you can connect with God through scripture…
because God is already there seeking to connect with you.
Looking at the Discipleship wheel, the person
on the outside ring might own a Bible but probably doesn’t read it.
If you want to
take the next step (to the next ring) you might be reading the Bible
occasionally and seeing only the lower story.
The next step
is you might be reading it regularly and understanding the upper story.
But as you
grow more and more connected with God you may find yourself craving more than
milk. And you may dig into your story to see how you can be changed by God
working through the scripture.
You
can do it. I know you can.
An unknown
writer penned these words and I would like to read it together to close the
sermon today.
"This book
is the mind of God, the state of man, the way of salvation, the doom of
sinners, and the happiness of believers. Read it to be wise, believe it to be
safe, practice it to be holy. It
contains light to direct you, food to support you, and comfort to cheer you. It
is the traveler’s map, the pilgrim’s staff, the pilot’s compass, the soldier’s
sword, and the Christian’s charter.
Christ is its
grand subject, our good its design, and the glory of God its end. It should
fill the memory, rule the heart, and guide the feet. Read it slowly,
frequently, prayerfully. It is a mine of
wealth, a paradise of glory, and a river of pleasure. Follow its precepts and
it will lead you to Calvary, to the empty tomb, to a resurrected life in
Christ; yes, to glory itself, for eternity."
Rev. Terry Plocher- All rights reserved.
