"The Word of Life to Own"

 

            "I did not speak on my own, but the Father who sent me commanded me to say all that I have spoken. I know that his command leads to eternal life."

 

            Phyllis Tickle has written a book called "The Great Emergence: How Christianity is Changing and Why," in which she talks about the erosion of biblical authority in our society. She points to a great variety of events and movements that have caused this erosion. She feels it began in his country with the Civil War, where both sides read the same Bible, had the same commitment to its authority, and yet came to completely different conclusions. After the war it caused people to question the authority of Scripture because the Scripture did not lead people to agreement.

            Then in the rise of science, the controversy over evolution and whole new ways of understanding our universe from Einstein and many others caused people to wonder if truth is beyond what could have been conceived by the ancient biblical authors.

            Along with the dramatic expansion of knowledge in nearly every field of study came the invention of television, which allowed people to form opinions in the privacy of their own homes. Authority became much more of an individual and private matter. The automobile, she says, changed the traditional Sabbath into what we now know as "Sunday," with all of its choices of how to spend a day largely free of work. As a result, many people do not hear the Scripture read publicly every week. The rise of Pentecostalism shifted the location of authority in faith away from Scripture and more towards personal experience and even private visions and revelations. Of course, globalization and instant communications have brought a whole range of spiritual options and languages to us. This is more than just choosing which religion to follow. Now the possibility is for each person to customize their own spiritual practice by choosing from many traditions and authorities.

            Tickle's point is that the Bible no longer holds the place of authority that it once did, and that the Reformation foundation of "Scripture alone" as our authority is now very much in question in our society and even in many churches. Some of the groups that define themselves as "emergent" churches are saying that their authority is a combination of Scripture and community.

            It is important for us as a Reformation church to take a deeper, clearer look at our conviction concerning the authority of Scripture. But even more important than affirming where we stand on Scripture is our need to commit to read it with purpose.

            It is not easy to truly live by the authority of the Bible. There are two reasons for this. First, the Bible is largely written in the form of a narrative, a story. It is not simple to grasp what it means to say that a story is authoritative in your life. If the Bible was just a list of rules, or principles for happy and fulfilling living, it would be easier.

            In the time that I have been here I have greatly benefitted from the Friday morning men's Bible study. We gather and read Bible portions together. As we have learned to read together – and that takes time – we find we have moved away from sharing our opinions about the Bible and its themes, to more and more allowing the text to speak to us and shape us, to question us, to sometimes puzzle us and to renew us. In some ways it does seem odd to get up early on Friday and read a chapter in Exodus about Moses turning a staff into a snake in ancient Egypt, and then go off to work. How do you put these together? No one else on the job probably spent an hour before coming to work wondering about staffs that become snakes. And yet, each week the word speaks to us, and in that particular text it spoke to us about the words of confrontation we are sometimes called to speak, or to have spoken to us. Next week it is frogs piled to the ceiling, and I am already wondering about the application of that one. But the narrative will speak in a way that has authority in our lives. The Word of God is our authority in life, and God speaks to our hearts through His Word.

            The second issue with the authority of the Bible is that it is an ancient book, and it is a long book. So in Confirmation class, we say each week, "open your Bibles and read this passage." And so after some encouragement we open and we read, and then we ask what that passage means, and it can be hard to get to the answer. It takes some time and some practice. It takes some experience to know how it connects together, to find the center of the Word, to know just how to bring it to bear on life today. It is not easy. But when we open the book and read, God speaks to us.

            This book is worth reading, all of it and often. For it is the Word of God that brings us into relationship with God. James Smart writes,

"The revelation of God that was reality in Israel and that in Jesus Christ burst its national limitations to become the faith and life of all mankind, has access to each new generation only through the narrow channel of Scripture. When the Bible is no longer read and understood by Christians, then they have been cut off decisively from the roots of their distinctively Christian existence."

            Reading the Scripture leads us into a relationship with Jesus Christ, it leads us to salvation. This is what Jesus is saying in John chapter 12. Just before the cross, Jesus gives one more invitation to believe in him. Jesus came into the world that people might believe and be saved. He came as light to deliver us from darkness. So in his life Jesus says he spoke only what the Father commanded him to say.

            The Father sent Jesus into our world. Jesus spoke the Word of God; that is, he spoke a message from God's heart, a permanent message that does not need to be revised or added to or made to comply with the thinking of every new generation. The Word that Jesus brought is that there is a close relationship of Father and Son. When we see the Son we see the Father. When we hear the son we hear the Father. Trusting the Words of Jesus leads us into a relationship with Jesus, a relationship with God that leads to eternal life. We do not have to question it or search for more.

Donald Frisk writes in his book "Covenant Affirmations,"

"While the Bible speaks about many things, it is not about many things; it is about one thing – Gods' salvation and its meaning in human life. The Bible's purpose is to convey the revelation of God. The Scriptures will not let us down; they can be counted on absolutely to lead us into the presence of Christ and his saving power."

          This was the message of the Reformation. The Scripture is both authoritative and also powerful in the life of the believer. The Scriptures are the final norm in all matters of faith, doctrine and conduct and they are also a means of grace by which God accomplishes his saving work in our midst.

The movement of Pietism, out of which our Covenant church was born, came after the Reformation, and built on the authority of Scripture to go on to say that the proper use of the Bible must include a faithful entering into, or participation in, its spiritual realities.

One of the early Pietists, Johann Arndt, wrote, "The Scripture testifies externally concerning the new birth, the new creature, and all of this must be in me and I must be in it through faith." In other words, we not only believe in the Scripture, but we experience God through reading the Word. We believe and come to know God.

Carl Rosenius was one of the founders of our movement in Sweden. He wrote, "God is near in his word. When his word is accepted Christ is received into the heart. All that the Word contains with its message and promises become the believer's possession."

So Nils Frykman put that thought into words when he wrote our final hymn today: "The highest joy that can be known by those who heavenward wend, it is the Word of life to own, and God to have as friend." He knew that reading God's Word in faith led to the experience of accepting its truth and receiving Christ in the heart, so that the Word becomes our possession and God our friend. This is the authority of Scripture that leads to life.

            Amen.