Sermon 45
Sermon by Colin Sowter
on Sunday 29th October 2006
Bible
Prayer from Psalm 119…(BibleGateway.com Psalm 119) Lord, open my eyes that I may see wonderful things in your law.
Amen
I'm going to ask you to do something unusual for a sermon in an Anglican church. I'd like you to take pew bibles , Put under your left arm…
pretend they are swords.
Draw swords…..(all)…everyone do that - Draw swords
say after me :-The sword of the Spirit is the word of God
The sword of the Spirit is the word of God
again
The sword of the Spirit is the word of God.
( C ) Ephesians 6.17 Ephesians 6.17
All together The sword of the
Spirit is the word of God Ephesians 6.17.
That's what we called 'Sword Drill' in Bible class when I was teenager, and we did it every Sunday before we read the Scripture Union bible passage for the day. the sword of the Spirit as soldiers of Christ, asking, as it were, for "marching orders for the day"from our Captain.
childish? naïve? simplistic? perhaps, yes
Last week Ian spoke to us about having a daily Quiet Time as we learned to do in our Bible Class Once or twice a day, we would read passage of scripture, with help of notes such as Scripture Union [ ] try to understand, think about it, pray, often turning text of scripture into prayers.
I used to have a pocket bible [
], which I would take everywhere I went.
We were encouraged to look for an example to follow, a promise to claim,
a warning to heed, a command to follow, and so on asking God's word to
penetrate into every part of our lives, asking God to speak to us through it,
guide us, challenge us in the ordinary things of life as well as in the special
As it says in Psalm 119.105 :- your word is a lamp to my feet and a light
for my path.
Childish? naïve? simplistic? - perhaps yes, and yet it had a major effect on me as I was growing up in the Christian faith and I'm sure it was also a major factor in leading me to ordination to the Christian ministry.
Childish, naïve, simplistic?
or is it about the most profound thing a person can do? asking the creator to speak to them through his revealed word
Are we hungry for the word of God? as it says on notice-sheet and as John quoted at beginning of service
Do we rejoice at God's word, as one who finds great treasure?
We hear of countries where they only have 1 bible for whole church, pass it round 1 page at a time- they're hungry for the word of God
I'm sure we all have several bibles at home - I did quick count - in my office, let alone elsewhere in house, I have 11 whole bibles in different versions, 5 NT's, NT on tape, Whole Bible on computer
We have all these things at our disposal, yet I wonder if we treat it as if it were, as it said in the Queen's coronation service,
the most precious thing this earth affords?
I think that's a challenge for us I want the emphasis of what I'm saying today to be on the excitement of bible reading, the thrill of discovering or re-discovering some great truth, of finding a new meaning, a deeper meaning, a new application reading it expecting God to speak to us through it.
I
rejoice at your word,
as one who finds great treasure
I’m going to speak about the bible from 3 perspectives – as a Christian, As an Anglican and as a preacher.
I speak about the bible firstly as a
Christian
As a teenager, I was challenged by the gospel. I didn't go to church at first, but I did go to the Christian Union at school and there I met boys of my own age for whom the bible and the Christian faith seemed to make sense. so I read the bible a lot, and it made sense to me and I made a Christian commitment.
The thing I remember most about those times as a new Christian was my hunger for the word of God. That's when I discovered that verse
I
rejoice at your word, as one who finds great treasure
-hunger for the word of God, not just at the Christian Union, Certainly not from scripture lessons at school, where we seemed to spend most of the time hearing how the miracles in the bible didn't really happen But in my own private bible reading. I read it morning and evening
(here's the one I used [ ]
how many of the bibles we use today are as worn as that… and have so many verses underlined… my present one isn't! I'm sure my parents, friends thought fine as long as doesn't take it too seriously - he'll grow out of it! Fact that here today suggests grown into it! It was a simple faith - might say a naive faith – and since then I’ve grown up and realised things not quite as simple as seemed, Realised that questions such as inspiration and authority of scripture are the subject of tremendous argument among theologians.
Yes, we had a simple faith, and yet, in its way, looking back, I believe it was a profound faith, because it was a life-changing faith, a faith that was nurtured more than anything else on daily bible reading
So I speak about the bible as a Christian.
Secondly, I speak about the bible as an Anglican because
formularies of Anglican church hold bible in very high regard, much higher than some people realise. Look at Book of Common Prayer some time Article
6 of 39 Articles, to which every minister has to swear at ordination, says Holy Scripture containeth all things necessary to salvation. So that
whatsoever is not read therein, nor may be proved thereby, is not to be
required of any man, that it should be
believed as an article of the faith, or be thought requisite or necessary for
salvation.
Our Church of England faith is firmly
based in the bible. At service for
ordination of a Priest, the Bishop says some brilliant words: "Because
you cannot bear the weight of this ministry in your own strength, but only by
the grace and power of God,
pray earnestly for his Holy Spirit. Pray that he will each day enlarge and
enlighten your understanding of the scriptures, so that you may grow stronger
and more mature in your ministry, as you fashion your life and the life of your
people on the word of God".
And throughout the Anglican liturgy the scriptures are given a crucial place - at Communion service - we have Ministry of the Word as well as the Ministry of the Sacrament I speak about the bible as an Anglican
Thirdly, I speak about the bible as a preacher.
I couldn't get up in front of congregation if thought being asked to give my ideas about God, nice thoughts, interesting ideas, moral teaching, philosophy a comfortable way of passing 20 minutes (remember, as boy, Westminster Chapel, Martin Lloyd Jones 45 minutes minimum - congregation spellbound). At the Ordination service, the priest is given bible with words
"Receive
this book, as a sign of the authority which God has given you this day to
preach the gospel of Christ"
A sermon, according to ordination
service, is speaking God's word to his people, building them
up in his truth.
It's good that we have pew bibles
in church - it's a great help to
preacher if we use them, to follow lessons as being read, and to have open
during sermon; if not in habit, can I
commend idea to you (when have them
back, that is!) I'm always encouraged
by words of Apostle Paul to Corinthians - If anyone could preach he
could And yet when he came to the Church
at
There are 2 ways we can approach the bible:
we can stand in judgement over it , say "I will decide whether I can
accept it as word of God or not"
which is exactly what Richard Dawkins has done in his book 'The
God Delusion'- you may have heard of it
That book is torn to shreds in a brilliant article in this week's Church
Times, written by The Rt Rev Dr David Atkinson, Bishop of Thetford,
a member of the Society of Ordained Scientists- v ery
interesting- the Society of Ordained Scientists - all people with
scientific degrees, who accept the
Christian faith enough to be ordained into the Christian ministry, and in this case to be a bishop.
Less eminent, but just as sincere - think about our own ministry
Team - with Ian a physicist, me a physicist, Keith an Engineer, John an
Engineer, James a mathematician, with at
least 7 scientific degrees between us.
Either we're all deluded, or we've
realised that science and the Christian faith are complementary, not
conflicting.
If you have problems with this, do have a word with
one of us so, we can stand in judgement over the bible, or we can stand under its authority and
let it judge us we can say I believe it is the word of
God, I don't claim to understand all of it; don't know answer to all of the
problems concerning it but I believe it
I accept the picture and teaching of God it presents and expect
God to speak to me through it
What about the practical issues on bible reading and the
daily Quiet Time Ian was talking about last week?
What are the mechanics of bible reading? When? For how long? Where? How?
No rules, in fact might be good to vary it
from time to time
First: When?
As Ian said, for some people it's 1st thing in morning, and
I know someone who gets up at 6 o'clock to do that. For others, last thing at
night, for some, a quiet, unhurried spot during day.I
suggest key is unhurried rather than long I won't do it, but it would
be very revealing to ask how many people in church today have read the bible
for themselves during last 24 hours? I'm
going to be a bit controversial here, because I have a feeling that some
people may have
got out of the habit of daily bible reading. Perhaps they started when young,
then life got busy with work or children, and the habit slipped away. They don't
any longer rejoice at God's word,
as one who finds great treasure
or they've never
really got into the habit That's why I say unhurried rather than long.
If we have time and the motivation for half an hour a day, fine but a
deliberate setting aside of, say, 10 minutes, is infinitely better than
nothing (some people would say much
too short, but better than nothing Is there one of us who can't spare 10
minutes each day? It's a matter of the will - if we really want
to, we will.
Here's a verse of scripture to encourage us It is God who works in us to do his good
pleasure -
God helps us to do something wrong- I've left something out -
anyone know?
It is God who
works in us to do his good pleasure [?...] It is God who works in us to will and
to do his good pleasure
God not only helps us to do things - he helps us to want
to do them- he creates in us desire to do them
Bible reading is meant to be a delight, not a burden,
a pleasure, not a duty or a chore If we've missed
it, we shouldn't feel guilty - we should feel want to get back to
it We can ask
God to give us the will, the desire, so that we can say I
rejoice at your word, as one who finds great treasure.
Where should we do our bible reading? Almost anywhere.
Last week heard of Daniel, who went to his upstairs room which had a window
overlooking
Jesus got up a great while before day, and went to a
solitary place, and there prayed For
several years, I had to leave home at 6.30 to drive 60 miles to work . I used
to get ahead of the traffic, and then stop at a service station on the M3, in
the quietest parking place, and there I would have a quiet time before the rush
and conflict of the day's work. I've
seen some people having Quiet Time on the train Not sure about golf course although I do hear the name of God and Christ
invoked there as much as in church!
The place will be different for each of us.
How should we do our bible reading?
We used to start with the Scripture Union Prayer Lord, open my eyes, that I may behold
wondrous things out of thy law then read the passage, understand it, turn
it into prayers but what passage?
Ian said last week that he'd used 'The Bible in One Year'
during 3-month sabbatical John said uses
Scripture Union Notes as many others do (do see Barbara Barter if you'd like to
order some, and do look at the board in
the Selwyn Room for some different versions of bible reading notes) Some use Daily Light or Living
Light [ ] Some work through a book of the bible using a
commentary [ ]
Best book I ever bought apart from bible was a Concordance
[ ] where you can look up every word in bible, find every verse
where it appears - v fruitful source of bible study- cross-referencing Some have a calendar with a verse for
each day; My e-mail gives me a
verse and a short commentary each day a bit superficial, perhaps better than
nothing but surely God wants us to do some serious bible reading, not
just have tiny bites at it It's refreshing to change from time to time,
but personally I keep coming back to Scripture Union notes- Encounter with God, Daily Bread or whatever
suits us.
One final suggestion which has helped me more than almost
anything else: learning verses of
scripture [cards at University…..] real problem here - which version
of the bible are you going to learn To
learn verses, need to choose 1 version and stick to it I was brought up on AV, so I read and learn verses from AV and turn them into modern language as I
go choose 1 version and learn key verses
from it.
Psalmist said Your word have I HIDDEN MY HEART and that applies to our minds
also
Your word have
I HIDDEN MY HEART Jesus could quote
OT from memory-
I commend the idea to you
We need to learn how to understand and interpret
the bible, to realise that different
parts are fact and history, fiction or
allegory, prose or poetry. We need to
understand the genre of what we are reading, the setting in life when it was
written, and so on so that we can interpret it correctly but that's perhaps another
sermon My passion today is
that we should capture or re-capture the excitement of bible
reading, the thrill of finding something new in God's word so that we
can say with the psalmist I rejoice at your word, as one who finds
great treasure.
May it be so for each of us, and may God help us both to will
and to do his good pleasure.
Amen