If I had told you this morning that because Michelle is away we were going to cut out the Bible readings so we can have more time for coffee or get home earlier, I wonder what you would think?

You might think something was wrong.  You might think something was seriously wrong.  And you would be right.  The Bible lies at the heart of the Church. Taking it out of the Church’s worship would be like removing one of the body’s vital organs. It would be that serious.

From this morning’s  Bible readings themselves we have heard what the scriptures are and what they promise: Jesus stood up to read, and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written, ‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon me … ‘

Here is Jesus worshiping as a faithful Jew, reading the scriptures. The Christian Church stands in the age old tradition of Jewish faith which roots itself in scripture. To lose the Bible would be cutting ourselves adrift from our moorings.

Paul writes: Whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction; by the encouragement of the scriptures we might have hope. The scriptures are place of learning. They are a place too of encouragement, ‘so we may have hope’.

If we want to be faithful, if we want to learn and grow, if we want the encouragement we need, and if we want hope, we know where to come: the Bible.

The critical heart of Bible reading and Bible hearing is when we meet together for worship in Church. Together we listen to the word of God and the Gospel of Jesus Christ. If you are feeling at all uneasy that maybe your Bible reading isn’t up to much, take enormous encouragement from this. The heart of our Bible reading, listening, and study is right here in the Christian family, gathered for worship, gathered around the scriptures.

You can, of course, build on that. You could for example, read one of the passages again during the week. You can use the Bible Society notes which Michelle has arranged for anyone who feels that is the right way forward.

We need, however, to dig a little deeper into the ‘why’ of  Bible reading and listening. At the start of the Ukraine war the Bible Society put out a video of a group of Christians reading together Psalm 31. In their underground shelter, with bombs going off around, they said together,  ‘In you, O Lord, I seek refuge … in your righteousness deliver me’. I think the use of this particular Psalm started in the Ukrainian Jewish community. At a time of extreme peril they touched base, went to the root of things and drank from the spring, the source. ‘In you, O Lord, I seek refuge … in your righteousness deliver me’.

By a godly instinct they knew that here, in the scriptures, was a living Word, that could be trusted when all around was chaos. This is because our scriptures witness to the Word made flesh, Jesus Christ. They are a witness to what we call the Gospel, the Good News, the divine surprise.

The first Christians didn’t have a New Testament as we have it. But they did have the Gospel: stories of Jesus’ deeds, stories of his teaching, and the story of his death and resurrection. All this was treasured, passed on, learned, and it formed the Church, the body of Jesus Christ.

This Christian community popularised, perhaps even invented, a technology that would help them learn and spread this Gospel. It was, ‘the note book’. The earliest written form of the New Testament writings, the Gospels and the Letters of Paul were produced in booklet form, not scrolls like the scriptures in the synagogue. There’s some truth in saying that Christians invented the book. These note books could spread the Gospel and were just the right size for the four Gospels, or a collection of Paul’s letters, to be written out.

At the heart of this process is witnessing to Jesus Christ, his life, his ministry, his death, his resurrection, his sending of the Spirit. This witness invites us to choose. An invitation to choose Jesus as the way, the truth and the life. To choose Jesus as the way to live our lives. To choose Jesus as the truth of life’s meaning and purpose, to choose Jesus as life itself, the fullness of life, eternal life.

Towards the end of the first century, when the Christian Church was growing, when it could be dangerous to be a Christian, a book, a booklet, a notebook even, was written. It has a double ending. Together they witness to why our scriptures are to be treasured in our worship and in our hearts.

One ending is this:

This is the disciple who is testifying to these things and has written them, and we know that his testimony is true. But there are also many other things that Jesus did; if every one of them were written down, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written.

The other is this:

Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. But these are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name. 

You may recognise them. It’s the Gospel of John. Not a bad place to start your journey into the Bible.

Service: Canon Bill Croft, 23rd October 2022. (St John The Baptist Church Peterborough UK)

Referenced Scripture: Isaiah 45.22-end, Romans 15.1-6, Luke 4.16-24