Connect the Dots: connecting with God through Scripture First UMC, Carroll, Iowa September 22, 2019

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.