Sermon: Bible Sunday

Different people have different views of the Bible.  At one level there are people who take a very fundamentalist and literal view.   At the opposite level there are people who see the Bible as a collection of parables to teach us about God.  There are many viewpoints in between these also.   Some people see the Bible as literature in its own right and fiercely defend any attempt at modern translations.  Others see it as an interesting historical account of God’s people.   Yet others try, (with no success of course) to read the Bible as science and wonder why they can’t understand the early chapters of Genesis. 

So how do you see the Bible?   History?  Literature?  Literal truth?   Parables conveying truth?  Theology?    You may well see something of all these things. 

Let’s have a look at the words from Luke 4. (16-24).  Jesus is invited to read from scripture in the synagogue in his home town of Nazareth.   He reads from the prophecy of Isaiah;  words through which the prophet brings hope to an oppressed people.  Isaiah was speaking to the people of his day whom the Lord was about to rescue from oppression.  

   “The Spirit of the Lord is on me,

    because he has anointed me

    to preach good news to the poor.

    He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners

    and recovery of sight for the blind,

    to release the oppressed,” 

The people who listened to Jesus reading from Isaiah may well have imagined themselves hearing the story of their ancestors and found it all very interesting, but Jesus saw much meaning than that in these words of Isaiah.  Jesus in fact applied these words to himself.  This did not make him popular with many of the people of his own town as he began his ministry.    Jesus was setting out what a politician would call a “manifesto” . Jesus was telling the people that Isaiah’s prophecy was being fulfilled in him and that he is the one who has come to free the people from oppression.    

This makes an interesting point about how Jesus both understands and uses scripture.  He sees it not only as belonging to the past  (the time of Isaiah) but also the present (the time he reads the scripture in the synagogue) and indeed to the future as he sets out his intention to bring freedom to people.    

    “The Spirit of the Lord is on me,

    because he has anointed me

    to preach good news to the poor.

    He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners

    and recovery of sight for the blind,

    to release the oppressed, 

Of course this freedom from oppression is what God gives to his people.  Jesus speaks of it as the day of the Lord.  So the Bible is essentially about God’s relationship with his people.   If we see the Bible as history then it is the story of how people have related to God over thousands of years. It is the story of how people have grown in their understanding of God. 

Let us never forget, when we read the Bible that it is not just about people who lived a few thousand or more years ago.  It is about us.  If the Bible is to mean anything to us then it is our story. It is the story of how each and every one of us relates to God.