Bible Sunday 2023 St Andrew’s Milngavie
Today we welcome Alison to play for us for the first time, we look forward to seeing her again.
Don’t forget Milngavie Choir Coffee Morning on Saturday 4th November at the Fraser Centre – please support if you can!
This Week
Tuesday 10am – Prayer Group in the Garden Room followed by P5 from Milngavie Primary School visit to the church.
Thursday 10am – Said Holy Communion followed by coffee in Friendship House.
Saturday 4th November 10 -12pm Milngavie Choir Coffee Morning plus stalls at The Fraser Centre
Readings for next Sunday – All Saints Day – Revelation 7:9-17 1 John 3:1-3 Matthew 5:1-12
Today’s readings – Nehemiah 8:1-4,8-12, Colossians 3:12-17, Matthew 24:30-35
Today as we think of the conflict between Israel and Palestine, we pray, as in all wars, for an end to the fighting and terms of peace realised in a meaningful way. However, it seems that there is little chance of this soon, despite our prayers it does seem that some wars go on for ever.
But one thing we can be sure in life is actually nothing lasts for ever, good times and bad times, they all pass eventually.
At the end of WW2 in the centre of Warsaw which had been heavily bombed only one building remained on the main street and many devout Poles regarded it as a shrine. It was the Bible Society H.Q. and the words carved in its only remaining wall were clearly legible from the street,
“Heaven and earth will pass away But my words will never pass away” Matthew 24:35
Today is Bible Sunday the day we give thanks for the Bible, that most precious and wonderful piece of resource that we have from which we can evidence our faith and centre our worship and liturgy.
We all have our favourite bits of the Bible, passages and stories that warm our hearts, give us hope and bring us encouragement. Even verses leant from childhood, recited and hard wired into our DNA fill us with a certain warmth.
But equally, there are some Sundays, when we hear passages that bring us up short, question our faith and unsettle us as we respond,
“This is the word of the Lord”
However, “The Word of the Lord” isn’t literally the words on the page. Christianity has never regarded scripture as the dictated word of God but rather the inspired word of God – and there is a difference.
We know that the actual words are, of course, a translation from Hebrew and Greek, in some cases a translation from a translation! They are the work of men and women over several centuries. But these people wrote in a different age and culture, and so, inevitably, there of some passages which come across to our generation as bizarre and inappropriate.
However you may look at it, the bible is a complex piece of work. It is multi layered, it is literature, laws, letters, stories, dreams.
It’s a whole library between hard covers.
So, when we read it, we almost need different lenses, to look at it. The way we read the stories of the OT is different from the way we read a Gospel, and the way we read the Psalms is different again from an Epistle. Parts of the Old Testament date from seriously ancient times, and yet we are reading it in the age of smart phones, twitter and the internet.
Many of the stories, both those about Jesus and other people too, were circulated by word of mouth for some years before they were written down.
And those who wrote them down were not trying to be historians or biographers, but simply creating a narrative, it says at the end of Ch 20 in St John’s gospel.
“Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.”
The purpose of the bible is not just information but formation. Its message is continually unfolding through the work of academics and theologians. But at the same time, it is unfolding in our lives as we engage with these texts and find in them a message which shapes our lives, challenges us to change, comforts us in distress and brings us hope.
For us, the central person is Jesus and so it is said that Jesus is the lens through which we read the scriptures. In the account of Jesus’ reading in the synagogue in Luke’s gospel at the beginning of his ministry, Jesus chooses a piece of the OT to interpret and establish his own vocation.
“Today” he said, “this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing” Luke 4:16-21
When we hear Jesus address us, it is always “today” no matter how many times we have heard him before. The Bible is a living text, God is a living God, and our scriptures reflect this as each time we read them they can speak to us anew, bringing a fresh meaning to our different contexts and situations. Interpretation over the centuries may continue to evolve but the word always remains steadfast.
“Heaven and earth will pass away But my words will never pass away” Matthew 24:35
The Bible is not just information and formation but also transformation. And that can begin “Today” when we let the bible in a sense read us.
So, today we give thanks for the Bible. We give thanks for those who God inspired to commit the words to parchment, compiled it and later translated it into so many languages for all to read.
And we give thanks that it is a living work that speaks to us today as it has done throughout time.
Amen.