Hebrews 1:1-3; Isaiah 52:7-12; John 1:1-14
It is a rare privilege to preach the Gospel on a Sunday Christmas Day, which occurs only every five or six years. The last was 2011 and the next will be 2022. The birth of Jesus is the central focus. His incarnation – the Word becoming flesh and taking up residence in the midst of humanity – gets our full attention. Traditionally Sundays are little Easters, a reminder that the highest point of our faith is Christ’s resurrection, the keystone of his triumph over sin, evil, and death, so that all who call on his name may rejoice in his everlasting love and eternal rule.
The opening verses of the Book of Hebrews, give us the opportunity to think beyond the coarseness of a manger’s straw and the earthy aroma of a stable. While his celebratory birthday may attract great attention on the secular calendar, on the church’s liturgical calendar it must never be separated from the immense story of all that is disclosed to us in Christ—in birth, life, death, atonement, resurrection, and exaltation. There is life after birth, purpose and power during a life of witness, and everlasting joy and peace in resurrection and reign.
With that as foundation, these three verses make an astounding claim that the Word becoming flesh makes connections: between God and flesh, body and spirit, the universal and the particular, the temporal and the eternal. This claim comes in verse 3: “The Son is the light of God’s glory and the imprint of God’s being.” Academic theologians pounce on this text to declare the absolute deity of Christ. Without diminishing the importance of that understanding of Christ, our Hebrews author also presents his solid humanity. This combination allows us to receive and rejoice in an unabridged Christ.
The full meaning of incarnation frames not only our knowledge of God, but also our knowledge of ourselves and of the theological significance of our bodily existence. The birth of Christ sheds a powerful light on creation, on human beings – you and me – and on God.
Michael Granzen writes that several years ago he spent the winter at Iona, a one by three mile rocky island in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Scotland. St. Columba brought Christianity from Ireland in the 560's. He used Iona as his base to evangelize Scotland and Scandinavia. Since then various monastic communities, crofters, fisherman, seagulls, and Presbyterians have clung to this bleak but beautiful isle.
Iona contains some of the oldest black surface rock on the earth and some of the worst weather. Huge storms with gale force winds blow in from the North Atlantic and rage for days. Granzen says that during one five-day storm the ferry from the island of Mull was cancelled for the week, and the fifty permanent and temporary residents lived off the larder of endless tea, oatmeal, thick stale bread, and old yellow pudding.
Twice daily people trudged though the darkness and cold to gather for worship in the abbey. There was no heat, only candlelight, and no organ, just the sound of the wind howling outside. Granzen remembers singing with that small company, “O Come, O Come Emmanuel, to ransom captive Israel, who mourns in lonely exile here... Rejoice, Rejoice, Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel.” Strangely the severity of weather and life seemed to contribute to the warmth of the Spirit and community. Acknowledging the existential darkness allowed the Light to truly shine.
Wondering why that was, Granzen thinks that the more we acknowledge our hurt and brokenness the more we may receive the divine-human light. And the inverse is equally true: the less we acknowledge our hurt, fear and hostility (and project them onto others), the less we are open to the true light of forgiveness, justice and hope. In the very things that we ignore, reject, and even despise as dirty and strange, God’s incarnate light and presence is shining deep in the flesh.
In other words, says Granzen, “God is in the wound.” The prophet was right, “The people walking in darkness have seen a great light. On those living in a pitch-dark land, light has dawned.”(1)
We may not live on an isolated island ravaged by the elements. Yet we live in a wounded world which is beset by the darkness of evil, despair, grief, fear, hatred, greed, poverty, and inequality. It seems like a never-ending solar eclipse but without its eerie half-light. It is like the ear-splitting roar of a tornado, the repeated lightning flashes of a violent thunderstorm, and the constant pounding of a typhoon. Event after event darkens human existence. Words insensitively bantered about walls, prisons, arms buildup, and bombing, or words filled with racist, sexist, ethnic, elitist, or gender slurs caulk the chinks in life where light could shine in.
“The Son is the light of God’s glory and the imprint of God’s being.” David Woods writes,
To proclaim that in Jesus the glory of God was revealed and that Jesus (in body and spirit) was nothing less than “the exact imprint of God’s very being,” is to declare that flesh can no longer define existence that is not-God. Flesh is God’s territory no less than spirit. The world of bodies, time, and space is God’s world through and through.(2)
So Christmas is not just about a special child born in unusual yet ordinary circumstances. Christmas is about us.
You and I often need to have documents notarized. This process verifies that you are who you say you are and willingly sign the document. Centuries ago, when everything was written out in longhand by scribes, a king would sign a document and press into a glob of warm wax his signet ring to verify that the contents of the document was the lawful order of the king.
The Hebrews author wrote, “In these final days, [God] spoke to us through a Son...[who] is the light of God’s glory and the imprint of God's being.” Not only is Jesus the radiance of God’s glory, but he is also the signet ring imprint, the exact representation of God’s being. Jesus is God himself—the very God who spoke in Old Testament times. The Greek word for “being” (hypostasis) means the very substance of God; the Greek word for “imprint" was used in ancient times to depict an image. Thus, Jesus is the visible expression of God’s invisible being. We get a perfect picture of God when we look at Christ. Jesus explains God; he came to the world and portrayed God to people by his words and actions. We know God by knowing Christ. God reveals God’s self through Jesus. The prophets could only tell God's people second-hand what they saw and heard. Jesus was God himself—his message was firsthand; there were no intermediaries.
Christ “maintains everything with his powerful message.” Christ not only created the universe, he preserves and delivers the universe. Christ spoke the world into existence and he supports the world, not physically like the mythical Atlas, but by guiding the world toward its appointed future—the time when he will receive it as his inheritance. Because Christ sustains everything, nothing in creation is independent from him. All things are held together in a coherent or logical way, sustained and upheld, prevented from dissolving into chaos. In him alone and by his word, we find the unifying principle of all life. He transcends any and all other powers.
“After [Christ] carried out the cleansing of people from their sins, he sat down at the right side of the highest majesty.” Here the Hebrews author gives a precis of his sermon’s two main themes about Christ: his sacrifice and his exaltation. Jesus cleansed his people from the ugly stain of sin. Sin destroys our ability to know or approach God, but when God purifies us from our sins, our record is expunged. God regards us as though we had never sinned and clothes us in the righteousness of Christ himself.
After paying that penalty with his death on the cross, Christ sat down. This means that his work was complete and declares that his position was exalted. Earthly priests in the temple would stand and keep offering sacrifices. Their work was never finished. Christ’s sacrifice was final and complete. The author is thinking of the opening verse of Psalm 110, which is the only place in the Bible where anyone other than God is described as enthroned in power. This verse became a main text for the early church to use as an argument for the deity of Christ, an image which had a greater ability to persuade the Jews of Christ’s authority than did his resurrection. Jesus said to high priest Caiaphas when he was being tried, “You’ll see the Human One sitting on the right side of the Almighty and coming on the heavenly clouds” (Matthew 26:64).
In these three verses, the author of Hebrews gives us the unabridged Christ, who is proclaimed in the words of the Nicene Creed:
One Lord, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father, God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, of one Being with the Father; through him all things were made. For us and for our salvation, He came down from heaven, was incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary and became truly human.
For us and for our salvation. Thanks be to God.
General Resources:
Feasting on the Word: Preaching the Revised Common Lectionary, “Hebrews 1:1-4 (5-12),” Year A, Volume 1: Advent through Transfiguration.
Life Application Bible Commentary - Hebrews (Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 2001.
(1) Michael Granzen, Facebook. https://www.facebook.com/michael.granzen/posts/10211686328980264.
(2) David J. Woods, “Hebrews 1:1-4 (5-12): Pastoral Perspective,” Feasting on the Word: Preaching the Revised Common Lectionary (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2010) Year A, Vol.1, 136.
Unless noted otherwise, all scripture references are from The Common English Bible, © 2011 www.commonenglishbible.com.
Copyright © 2016 First Presbyterian Church of Waverly, Ohio. Reprinted by permission.
What We Need Is Light
Isaiah 9:2-7; Psalm 98; Luke 2:1-20
Once upon a time a church received a legacy from one of its members. This member had often commented that she wished that the church was brighter. The memorial committee thought long and hard about how to spend the money. They took their recommendation to the session. The committee proposed that the legacy be spent on a chandelier for the sanctuary. Session discussed this a while and finally one session member said with exasperation, “We don’t need a chandelier. We can’t spell it, we can’t afford it, and, besides, what we need is light.”
One of the details about the birth of Jesus that is indelibly etched in our minds is the fact that Jesus was not born at high noon. The announcement to the shepherds came in the dead of night.
There’s a reason Jesus was born at night and not at midday. He came into a world that was indeed dark. People were figuratively stumbling unseeing through life with no hopes, faded dreams, and blinding oppression. This was a political darkness. A series of geo-political power shifts had happened since the time of Isaiah, nearly 600 years earlier. First Assyria, then Babylonia, the Medes, the Greeks, and then the Romans in succession conquered the land. Isaiah was active when Israel was being overrun by Babylonian forces who exiled much of Israel’s upper and middle classes to Babylon. Anyone held in captivity as a prisoner of war knew something of anguish and darkness.
For Isaiah, the announcement of having seen a great light was also about people – leaders and followers – who consulted their gods, their “ghosts and the spirits that chirp and mutter” (Isaiah 8:19). When we fall back on our idols and neglect to desire and to wait in hope for God, then gloom and darkness fall upon us. Captivity results from consulting our own rituals and fantasies. People can be held captive without chains and locked cells and armed guards.
That captivity reflects the spiritual darkness which had existed since the time when God evicted Adam and Eve from the garden of creation. They had openly disobeyed God’s instruction about the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The first created human beings broke down the barrier between themselves and God thinking that they should be creators as well. Since then humanity has dwelt in a land of darkness constructed from the hopelessness of oppressing sin.
Human existence has been a cycle of sin, repentance, belief, confidence, delusion, and downfall. This cycle has repeated itself through the generations with little deviation and no hope of being able to be broken by human effort.
It was a lightless, darkened world into which the promise of a Messiah was given. It was a lightless, darkened world into which Jesus was born. The population of this dark social void ranged all the way from the lowest of the lowly – the marginalized shepherds who received the first news of Jesus’ birth – through those who recognized God and those who administered God’s ways – rabbis, church lawyers, educated elite – all the way to people who were beyond the bounds of the Israelite faith community – foreigners, aliens, star-gazers in distant lands.
What the darkened world needed was light. That light shattered the night sky with a sound and light show the likes of which had never been seen. The startled shepherds received the announcement from an angel who was backed up by the great assembly of the heavenly forces singing, “Glory to God in heaven.” I like to think that the heavenly light was so brilliant and powerful that the shepherds were radiant in the aftermath, that the angelic light had burned itself into their countenances so that their experience was etched on their faces for the rest of their lives.
That same effect was certainly the spiritual reality for all who encountered the new born Jesus, particularly Simeon and Anna who saw him in the Temple when he was presented and named according to rabbinic tradition. The magi so marveled at him that they knew instantly that Herod must never be told where the child was. And at the age of twelve the elders and scholars at the Temple were amazed at his understanding and knowledge. The spiritual darkness was retreating as the Light of the world advanced into and through the world.
Isaiah gave four compelling descriptions for this desperately needed light. They were memorialized in scripture long before George Frederick Handel put music to the prophet’s words.
“Wonderful Counselor.” In the world of business and other professions, one current strategy for supporting leaders is coaching. This is not the yell and berate style of many professional sports coaches. This form of coaching quietly asks questions of the individual about the situation at hand and elicits from that person observations and ideas that they already have within them, allowing them to better order their thoughts and to see the best ways to proceed. These coaches stand along side their coachees and help them sort things out. They don’t tell them what to do or how to do it.
Jesus – Emmanuel, God with us – enters our battered and bedraggled sphere of human existence to wonderfully counsel – coach – us into living the life of faith which God had designed for humanity, but which humanity more often than not determined that it could do better. Jesus asks questions, Jesus tells stories, and when necessary Jesus interrupts the prevailing order of things to illumine, demonstrate, and promote what holy living was supposed to be.
“Almighty God.” As the gospel writer John reminds us, Jesus was with God in the beginning and through him everything came into being (John 1:2-3). Genesis tells us that the first piece of creation was light. Then the first comment about God is made: “God saw how good the light was” (Genesis 1:3-4). Everything else is dependent on the light that came first. The problem is that human beings through their self-willing to be in charge of their own lives have dimmed the light, as soot darkens the glass globe of a candlestick, as putting a lamp under a basket darkens the room. Sin darkens each life, each community, the whole world. As “Almighty God,” the creator of light reintroduces light into human lives one by one.
“Everlasting Father.” Now it seems a stretch, as Walter Brueggemann says, to call Jesus “Father.”(1) After all, Jesus numerous times speaks of and to God as Father. We need to step back and think about what fathering can mean.
Near the end of his earthly ministry Jesus tells his followers, “I will not leave you as orphans” (John 14:18). Jesus takes up the father’s role. He welcomes children to him. On the cross he makes family by linking his mother, Mary, and the beloved disciple (John 19:26-27).
Throughout his ministry Jesus takes up the role of family-making, family protecting, family generating. He addresses his disciples as “little children” (John 13:33). He exercises family responsibility like a father. He gives his children a radical commandment within the intimacy of family to “love one another.” In a world of broken relationships, of betrayal, and of domestic violence, Jesus sheds light on the ways God’s people are called to live together in community.
“Prince of Peace.” What is peace? Is it the holiday truce of combative families wearing pasted-on smiles and pretending to like each other? Is it the old-style notion of two people grasping right hands because they couldn’t attack each other with their left hands? We live in a Herod world of duplicity, greed, false truths, and narcissism. We recognize that yet we often deny it.
It is as if we live in a constantly-shaken snow globe. We know there is an idyllic scene in there somewhere, but we can’t find it for the churning of the snow particles. We are powerless to do anything about it. And the shaking goes on.
Jonas Ellison wrote in his blog the other day about there being two emotions – love and fear – and that only one of them was real. “Love is the fabric of relationship in all of the universe. Atoms stick together and break apart in a certain way. They don’t try to trick each other or harm themselves. They just… Dance.”
Fear is a story, he goes on to say. “Fear is an arrangement we humans made up when we created the idea that we’re separate from the all, and we’ve passed this story down, generation to generation — not only through our words, but through our genetics.”(2)
The apostle John wrote that “there is no fear in love, but that perfect love drives out fear, because fear expects punishment. The person who is afraid has not been made perfect in love” (1 John 4:18). Jesus shines an irradiating light of love on our human-constructed fears and drives them out. When we fully and joyfully receive his light, we can be fear-less. That is the peace over which Jesus is prince.
In this world which knows too much warfare, famine, natural disaster, human negligence, and bullying words and actions, we need this midnight clear, silent, holy night which erupts with a light that is unmatched and inextinguishable. What we need is light, a light for all people, the light of the world. It begins with a flicker like a breathed-on ember in a borrowed, rustic setting. It begins. It continues. It will reign in the place of all other lights. May that light be yours this night and forevermore.
(1) Walter Brueggemann, Names for the Messiah (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2016), 44.
(2) Jonas Ellison, https://medium.com/higher-thoughts/only-love-39888ad55d4a#.5lb73r1uq
Unless noted otherwise, all scripture references are from The Common English Bible, © 2011 www.commonenglishbible.com.
Copyright © 2016 First Presbyterian Church of Waverly, Ohio. Reprinted by permission.
Matthew 3:1-12; Isaiah 35:1-10; James 5:7-10
One of the weekday emails I get is called “A.Word.A.Day”. The author mines the depths of the dictionary for obscure, strange, common, and confusing words, often around a weekly theme, such as eponyms or words derived from literature. It is interesting to see how some words evolve to mean the opposite of what they started out as.
That’s the nature of our English language. In a manner of speaking it is a living organism. As such, new words come into being frequently. Some are developed from the constantly emerging new technologies, some are extensions of current usages, and some are mixtures of two words.
The Oxford English Dictionary word of the year for 2016 is “post-truth.” “Post,” of course comes from the Latin root which means after or beyond. “Truth” is truth. So the new word means something like, “that which is beyond truth.” What is that? That seems to be the question asked by the new word. Its usage suggests that the truth of something doesn’t matter. What matters is how a person feels about something. In its crudest meaning, feelings are more important than truth.
For instance, people who deny the reality of climate change disregard and discredit the scientific evidence because they don’t feel that the climate is changing. The increase in storms and their severity is purely anecdotal poppycock to them.
The same approach is applied to any number of topics right now. This is not a new question. We can hear in the background the ancient question asked by a Roman military governor: “What is truth?”
People are seeking authenticity. In the post-truth era, if it be such, what is authentic is what I feel about something. An editorial cartoon this week highlighted this: a woman is peering at her computer and asks, “How do I know if the news is true.” Her husband says, “If I agree with it.” Post-truth authenticity depends on self-validation rather independent evaluation.
Authenticity is the basis for the question which John the Baptist relays to Jesus through his disciples. “Are you the one who is to come, or should we look for another?” John wanted to know if Jesus was a really real messiah, or a fake real messiah. That’s the question with which the world outside the church struggles mightily. And some folks within the church, as well: “Don’t confuse me with facts. I know what I believe.”
Authenticity is not just what is really real. People have expectations about what is authentic. When the real authenticity doesn’t measure up to people’s expectations, then it won’t matter whether the really real is authentic or not. It is perceived as fake. This could fall under the post-truth category. John could be saying, “I don’t feel that you are the real messiah. You aren’t doing the things that I think you should be doing as a Messiah, so whether you are or are not, I don’t accept you as authentic.”
You have to remember that there had been before Jesus, and again after Jesus, a number of possible messiahs each of which turned out to be fake. A man named Judas of Galilee led a bloody revolt against a Roman census in the year 6. Simon was a slave of Herod who became a messianic figure when he rebelled in the year 4. Theudus attempted a revolt against the Romans in the 40s, and was killed. Notice that these attempted to act their supposed messiah-ship through violent rebellion. That sort of behavior seems to have set the ideal in people’s minds about what a messiah should be doing.
Jesus does not respond to John’s inquiry with a simple “yes” or “no.” Rather he gives a catalogue of his activities. “Go, report to John what you hear and see. Those who were blind are able to see. Those who were crippled are walking. People with skin diseases are cleansed. Those who were deaf now hear. Those who were dead are raised up. The poor have good news proclaimed to them.”
What Jesus is doing is resetting the expectations for messiahship. He is reminding John of larger, more inclusive promises of salvation which God has given the people through the prophets. In the words of Isaiah,
Strengthen the weak hands,
and support the unsteady knees.
Say to those who are panicking:
“Be strong! Don’t fear!
Here’s your God, coming with vengeance;
with divine retribution God will come to save you.”
Then the eyes of the blind will be opened,
and the ears of the deaf will be cleared.
Then the lame will leap like the deer,
and the tongue of the speechless will sing.
Waters will spring up in the desert,
and streams in the wilderness. (Isaiah 35:3-6)
Authenticity is to be found in actions, not words.
Jesus goes on to celebrate John’s authenticity. John is wrestling with what he thinks is the object of his faith. He is not disbelieving, but is seeking a clarification for his faith. Bonnie Pattison writes,
“Circumstances have a way of thrusting themselves into our theological paradigms, challenging our basic assumptions. Such was the case with John..., [who] came to Jesus fully believing what the prophets had written but seeking clarification concerning whether those writings pointed to Jesus.”(1)
Jesus’ reply to John stresses actions, not words, and those actions verify the words of the prophets.
Jesus then goes on to celebrate John as a prophet. John is the ultimate prophet, not a royal palace advisor. Furthermore, John is more than a prophet, insists Jesus — he is “the one of whom it is written, ‘Look, I’m sending my messenger before you, who will prepare your way before you.’” (v. 10).
John is the messenger foretold by the Old Testament’s Malachi, the one who will prepare the way for the authentic Messiah. John is not a royal yes-man in a tailored suit, but is “like the refiner’s fire or the cleaner’s soap. He will sit as a refiner and a purifier of silver. He will purify the Levites and refine them like gold and silver.” (Malachi 3:1-3). John accomplishes this mission by calling people to repentance, and baptizing them to cleanse them of their sins.
So Jesus is not the only really real person in this passage of Scripture. John the Baptist is authentic as well — he is the authentic messenger.
But notice the surprising comment that Jesus makes next. “I assure you that no one who has ever been born is greater than John the Baptist. Yet whoever is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.” (Matthew 11:11). John is great, but those who follow him will be even greater. Jesus predicts that he will have some authentic disciples who will surpass even John the Baptist in their faithfulness and effectiveness.
So what does it take to be an authentic disciple of an authentic Messiah? Authenticity comes from a sense of place, a larger purpose, a strong point of view, and integrity.
First, a sense of place. If you want to drink authentic champagne, then you have to open a bottle from the Champagne region of France. Anything else is just sparkling wine. If you want to be an authentic disciple of Jesus, you have to know the story of Bethlehem and Nazareth, Judea and Galilee. Jesus the Messiah did his work in a particular place, and unless we know the story of that place we cannot be his true followers.
Second, authenticity demands a larger purpose. Whole Foods Market, the world’s largest retailer of natural and organic foods, has a larger purpose — to “change the way the world eats.” If you want to be an authentic disciple, you have to look beyond your own interests and focus on the interests of Jesus. “All who want to save their lives will lose them,” says Jesus to his disciples, “but all who lose their lives because of me will find them” (Matthew 16:25).
Third, authenticity requires a strong point of view. When Billy Graham’s library in Montreat, North Carolina, was dedicated ten years ago, three ex-presidents and many other dignitaries attended. In spite of the world’s skepticism about evangelists and tele-evangelists, the American public has trusted and admired Billy Graham due to his simple, but strong point of view: Jesus saves.
If we want to be authentic disciples, we will align ourselves unequivocally with Jesus and his distinctive, even radical, way of life. “Let your light shine before people,” says Jesus to his followers, “so they can see the good things you do and praise your Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 5:16).
And authenticity involves integrity. In order for a person to be authentic, there has to be a match between words and actions — there has to be integrity. If you want to be an authentic disciple, you are challenged to create a match between your talk and your walk. Spreading malicious gossip or pronouncing half-truths simply doesn’t line up with “treat people in the same way that you want people to treat you” (Matthew 7:12).
By being authentic we join the long line of people from John forward who in faith pass on the torch of the really real Messiah — Jesus the Authentic One who comes in the name of the Lord. As we celebrate Advent — Christ’s first coming and expected second coming — we renew and re-authenticate our faith — for ourselves, for the church which bears Christ’s name and mandate, and for the world that longs for what is real, true, and authentic.
May the faith of our hearts and the actions of our lives be authentic in your sight, Lord Jesus. Amen.
General Resource: “The Authentic Messiah,” www.homileticsonline.com, December 16, 2007.
(1) Bonnie L. Pattison, “Matthew 11:2-19, Theological Perspective,” Feasting on the Gospels: Matthew (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2013), vol. 1, p. 284, 286.
Unless noted otherwise, all scripture references are from The Common English Bible, © 2011 www.commonenglishbible.com.
Copyright © 2016 First Presbyterian Church of Waverly, Ohio. Reprinted by permission.
Romans 15:4-13; Isaiah 11:1-10; Matthew 3:1-12
Long before Google and Wikipedia became the go-to places for information and answers, long before Siri and Alexa adopted their know-it-all personas, we had questions. We would ask Mom or Dad. They were the authorities who had all the answers. And if they didn’t, they would say, “Ask your father,” or “Ask your mother.” There was a popular radio program called “Ask the Answer Man.” One of my joys as a teen was getting the annual edition of the Information Please Almanac. And the family lore also includes the fact that as a young child I would read the student’s encyclopedia by street light after I went to bed.
I love trivia. I know that I would flop on a live Jeopardy program, but at home I often get the questions to the answers faster than the real contestants. I’m an eclectic reader, mostly non-fiction beyond theology. Lots of subjects fascinate me. I like to read. Paula will tell you that when I’m desperate, I’ll read cereal boxes and soup cans.
Libraries are wonderful. It’s great that the Pike County Library – named after one of our very own Presbyterian saints, Garnet A. Wilson – is planning a new facility that will more effectively provide information services. Bravo to Presbyterians Gary and Evelyn Baker for helping to successfully head up the Bristol Village fund drive for the new library.
Libraries are wonderful. I won’t embarrass you by asking if you know that the church has a library from which you can freely borrow different translations of the Bible, commentaries on particular books, audio CD recordings of the Bible, and devotional literature. It’s in one of the coat rack areas of the Lobby and is a treasure.
Information doesn’t come only in printed or digital form, in written word or in graphic presentations. Long before those forms of media existed, people had to rely on a community’s collective memory for all the information that was needed. It was passed on from generation to generation. Special people carried that information: swamis, gurus, shamans, elders.
Imagine that a library could offer a resource in additional to printed matter and the internet. Imagine going into the library and borrowing a person who was a knowledgeable expert on some topic, not necessarily an esoteric one, perhaps one as simple as how to fold a fitted bed sheet or change the oil in your car. A person can’t learn brain surgery by reading a book. There needs to be some one-on-one mentoring and on-the-job training that only a live teacher can provide.
Perhaps the borrowed person could explain and demonstrate what it is like to be an undocumented worker or a refugee, what it is like to live in a homeless shelter or to live through a tornado, what it feels like to ride into space on the top of a rocket or experience weightlessness. Kindle books are great and so are You Tube videos. But there is nothing like getting the first hand experience of someone who has been there or has immersed herself in the deepest knowledge of something. That would be a “human library.”
A Human Library was tried in Denmark in the spring of 2000. It ran for four days straight at a Copenhagen location and offered some 75 “titles,” chosen to inform and to challenge stereotypes. More than 1,000 “readers” showed up. The idea is no longer Danish. Human Library events have now happened on every continent. At a Human Library happening in Rochester, New York, for example, borrowers got to hear from a Vietnam veteran, a martial artist, a British butler and a person paralyzed in a car accident, among many others.
Most of us think about borrowing from a library. But have you ever thought about being the item borrowed?
Being a human borrowed for information that we have is not a new idea. Paul wrote this to the Corinthian congregation:
You are our letter, written on our hearts, known and read by everyone. You show that you are Christ’s letter, delivered by us. You weren’t written with ink but with the Spirit of the living God. You weren’t written on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts. (2 Corinthians 3:2-3)
We can be read. You have probably heard someone say to another person, “I can read you like a book.” Are your readable?
The original texts of the Bible were written in Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek. The Bible has been translated countless times. The Old Testament books were translated into Greek. The books of both testaments were translated into Latin. Luther translated scripture into the German of the early 16th century. About the same time Myles Coverdale and William Tyndale were translating scripture into English. That was 75 years before the “Authorized” version was presented to King James. Several dozen English translations were done in the 20th century. The Common English Bible we use in the Sanctuary was published in 2011. There will many more translations during this century, perhaps as caches of ancient fragments are discovered, and certainly as English continues to evolve.
Translations of the Bible follow several methods. Some strive for exceedingly accurate word-for-word translation. These are good to study, but often are stilted and awkward to read aloud. Some versions are paraphrases, like the Living Bible of the 1970s and Eugene Peterson’s The Message. Other versions seek to translate ancient images and ideas into contemporary idioms while being faithful to the words
Paul would urge us to read scripture avidly. He wrote the Roman believers:
Whatever was written in the past was written for our instruction so that we could have hope through endurance and through the encouragement of the scriptures. May the God of endurance and encouragement give you the same attitude toward each other, similar to Christ Jesus’ attitude. That way you can glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ together with one voice.
It is of greater importance that you read the Bible diligently and of lesser importance which version of the Bible you read. It is often very helpful to read a passage is several translations so that you can benefit from a wider understanding of what scripture may be saying to you at a given moment in time. There are many different methods to read scripture in terms of a one-year or a two-year cycle. Another spiritual practice for reading scripture is to read a short passage and note the word, phrase, or image which strikes you. After meditating on that, the passage is reread, followed by a question, such as what does that word, phrase, or image say to you about God or Christ or the Spirit.
Following Paul’s comment to the Corinthian congregation, I want to suggest that each of you is a translation of Scripture. There’s a gospel song, “The World’s Bible,” written by Annie Johnson Flint:
We are the only Bible
The careless world will read;
We are the sinners’ gospel,
We are the scoffers’ creed;
We are the Lord’s last message,
Given in word and deed.
What if the type is crooked?
What if the print is blurred?
I’m sure our scripture presentation is to some extent crooked and blurred. None of us perfectly represents the breadth and depth of the faith we profess. If someone were to read us, they would find gaps in our knowledge, pages missing, typos galore.
However, if you and I are serious about following Jesus, our reader would likely read in us some things that convey that we are living differently from how we would if we weren’t trying to be disciples. Would it be clear to our reader that we have a hope that serves as a irresistible guiding principle for our life. Paul nails it down firmly in his comments to the Roman church people: “we could have hope through endurance and through the encouragement of the scriptures.”
Many of us are busy preparing our Christmas cards and letters. If we are Christ’s letter this Advent, are we giving as full and true a message as we can about the hope and peace which will “glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ together with one voice”?
If we put our Christian witness in the context of a Human Library, we don’t have to worry about reaching out. We can just wait for someone to check us out. Don’t hide in the library stacks however. Live your life as if you were on display on the new books shelf. Let people become interested in you, your cover, your title, the blurbs on the back of the dust jacket, the introduction on the inside of the flyleaf. “Christ in you” means that people can read about him in all you say and do. Christ lends you out to those around you so that they too may come to know him and know him as Lord. You, like John the Baptist, can be someone who goes before the Lord to declare his coming. Perhaps your title is Prepare the Way of the Lord.
General Resource: “Let People Check You Out,” Homiletics, December 4, 2016.
Unless noted otherwise, all scripture references are from The Common English Bible, © 2011 www.commonenglishbible.com.
Copyright © 2016 First Presbyterian Church of Waverly, Ohio. Reprinted by permission.
