I want to start by telling you a joke this morning. A woman is sitting on the train, reading her
Bible. A man sitting next to her, seeming amused, asks her:
“You don’t really believe what it says in there do you?”
“Every word”, she replies.
“OK, he asks. How about the Noah story, the flood, the animals – do you believe that?”
“Absolutely ”, she replies.
“What about God creating the universe in six days?”
“All true, I believe every word”.
“What about Jonah – how could a man live for three days in the belly of a whale?” he asks.
“Yes, I believe that too”, she says.
“Well, how could that be? How could he breathe?”
“I don’t know”, she said. “When I get to Heaven, I’ll ask him”.
“What if he’s not in Heaven?” the man asks.
The woman replies: “In that case, you can ask him”.

We can laugh at the joke but I wonder if you’ve ever had conversations like that or found
yourself asking those sort of questions? For some people in our lives, and for some parts of
scripture the Bible just feels utterly incomprehensible. We can accept that not all Christians
take every word of the Bible as literally true and that there are different traditions and
approaches within the Church towards interpreting the Bible.
But it feels like we can’t escape that there are some really tricky bits in the Bible that even
though we might be year’s into our journey of discipleship still cause us to trip up.

For example, the parts of the Old Testament, such as the Fall of Jericho, where Joshua’s
army are told to slaughter every living thing in the city. The section ends with the verse: “So
the Lord was with Joshua”. Did God really tell his people to slaughter innocent women and
children? If so, how do we reconcile this God with a God who according to the Psalms, like
Psalm 103, is “gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love”?
The God of the New Testament, who “so loved the world that he sent his only Son…not to
condemn the world but to save it”.? These are questions that people often ask, and
questions that some Christians struggle with also.

Today is Bible Sunday and as we think about the Bible and today’s world, its good to address
these issues. How do we handle and interpret the Bible as Christians? We’ve heard read the
famous passage from 2Tim.3: “All Scripture is God breathed and is useful for teaching,
rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man (or people of God) may
be thoroughly equipped for every good work”.

I’m sure that no matter which church tradition we’re from and where we stand on Biblical
interpretation, we’d agree that all Scripture is God breathed, it is inspired by God and
carries divine authority. But that is probably where the agreement ends for lots of Christians who will, because of their interpretation of scripture, come down on another side to us on
really hot button issues within the church today. The danger is that the Church can become so bogged down in these arguments that it loses sight of its main purpose for existence – to be part of God’s mission in the world, pointing people to Jesus Christ.

And to return to our gospel reading today from John 5 Jesus himself rebukes the Pharisees
for being so bogged down in the Word of God that they can’t recognise the Living Word
himself, standing amongst them! Jesus is the Word made flesh. Sadly its possible to know
the Bible like the back of your hand, be able to quote it but not know the One who is himself
the Word. There have always been people who claimed to be Christians, who knew the
Bible thoroughly, but didn’t have “the love of God in their hearts” as Jesus says in this
passage. The Crusaders, the Inquisition, and all the persecution carried out by Christians
against so called heretics.

And to a lesser degree, the factions that are still around in the Church, that divide Christians.
No matter how much we claim to know and love the Bible, if we don’t have the love of God
in our hearts, we don’t truly love and know Jesus, the Supreme Word Himself.
We need that relationship with the Living Word, Jesus, to understand the written Word . He
illuminates it, brings it to life so that it has the power to speak to us. The Living Word and the written Word coming together. Without knowing the Living Word, we cannot partake of the power of the written word.
Jesus, the Living Word, comes to live in our hearts, as we offer our lives to him, and so his
written word comes alive within us, speaks to us and nurtures us.

Isaiah 55, our Old Testament reading for today, says “Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good, and your soul
will delight in the richest of fare. Give ear and come to me, hear me that your soul may live”.
Similarly, today’s Psalm, Psalm 19: 7 says “ The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul”.
God’s word nourishes, feeds and strengthens us. It teaches, and comforts.

How is the Bible changing us? How do we use it to engage with our world?
Its an amazing Book . Divinely inspired, yet provoking a whole range of reactions, from love
and reverence to confusion, bewilderment, anger, division and even hatred.
How are we responding to this Book?

If we’ve been Christians for a long time is it still speaking to us in fresh ways? Exciting us,
challenging us, disturbing us? Changing us? Are we wrestling with it as we hold the Bible in
one hand, and a newspaper in the other and attempt to discern what God might be saying
to the Church and today’s world? And above all, are we continually coming to Jesus, the
Living Word, that we might have life and the love of God in our hearts? Lets pray that we
may be people rooted in God’s Word, filled with his Spirit, showing Jesus, the Living Word,
to our rootless, lost generation.

Service: Rev Lex Bradley-Stow, 27th October 2024. (St John’s Church Peterborough UK)

Readings: John 5: 36-47