INTRODUCTION: Our first Scripture reading this morning comes from the first chapter of the Gospel of John, from the section known as “The Prologue.” Drawing on lyrics of an early Christian hymn, these verses begin to poetically describe the role of Jesus, who is described here as “The Word” of God.
SCRIPTURE: John 1:1-5
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2He was in the beginning with God. 3All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being 4in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. 5The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.
INTRODUCTION: Our second scripture reading today is from the Apostle Paul’s second letter to Timothy, a younger pastor to whom Paul served as mentor. In this letter Paul reminds Timothy—and all of us—of the purpose of Scripture.
SCRIPTURE: 2 Timothy 3:16-17
16All scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 17so that everyone who belongs to God may be proficient, equipped for every good work.
SERMON: “Noticing God in the Written Word”
The late comedian and vaudeville performer, Gracie Allen, once wrote to her husband, George Burns and said this: “Never place a period where God has placed a comma.” (repeat). Many years later this quote was remembered and used by the United Church of Christ, one of the denominations to which our church belongs, as a motto or slogan to refer to the theological truth that “God is still speaking.” In other words, God is still interacting, still communicating with human beings. God is still speaking.
Richard Peace’s book “Noticing God”—on which this sermon series is based—reflects this truth as well. The premise of the book is that if we pay attention—if we open our eyes and ears, minds and hearts—we can “hear” God speak. The title of Chapter 5 is “Noticing God in the written word,” and in it Richard Peace contends that the written word—the Bible—is “the primary avenue by which we encounter God.” (p. 87).
Now, I am guessing that some of you may well be shaking your heads in complete agreement with Professor Peace—thinking that Of course the Bible the primary avenue by which we encounter God! Perhaps you’ve been reading the Bible since you were a little kid in Sunday School, and you are deeply grateful for the way your faith has been shaped and nurtured by its stories-- of Moses and the prophets, of inspiring women like Deborah and Ruth, of Jesus and the disciples. Or perhaps you discovered the Bible as an adult—maybe you’re just starting on your journey of Bible reading, and you’ve begun to notice that the words of the Psalms or the laments of Job—seem to echo the deep questions, griefs and longings of your own heart in ways you had not thought possible.
OR perhaps you are inwardly shaking your heads in disagreement with Professor Peace. Perhaps your experience of the Bible has not, overall, been a good one. Perhaps you first picked up a Bible as an adult and tried to read it because you thought it would be good for you, only to discover that parts of the Bible are long and boring, and parts are filled with details that applied to a tribal culture 2 or 3 thousand years ago but NOW seem not only irrelevant, but also sometimes scary. Scary, because, tragically, parts of the Bible have been used, at times, down through the centuries to incite hatred, bigotry, racism, violence and even war. How many of us cringed at the Christian symbols and words of Scripture used by members of the violent mob that stormed the Capital on January 6th?
And that use of the Bible is horrible. It is NOT God’s intent to incite hatred, bigotry, racism, violence or war. I can say this with conviction because when you read through the 66 books of the Bible--both the Hebrew Scriptures and the New Testament--its central message is clear. And that message is two-fold: 1) God’s main character trait is steadfast love, “hesed” in Hebrew; and that love extends to the whole world and all its peoples; 2) human beings are commanded to reflect God’s love. So, ALL parts of the Bible—especially the difficult parts—need to be judged and interpreted through a lens of Love, which is its main theme. (I would like to claim that as my own idea, but, actually, St. Augustine pointed that out in the 4th century A.D.—so that idea has been around for a while.)
UCC Pastor and writer Lillian Daniel builds on this idea in a recent essay entitled, “Do We Believe in the Bible?” She answers that question in the affirmative, saying QUOTE, “We believe in the Bible so much that we think it deserves our best questions. We believe that the Bible is the opening of a conversation in which God is still speaking.” And she goes on to say, “As mature, thinking Christians… we can marvel that God thought so highly of us that we were not left with a mere rule book, but rather a word of so many dimensions that it would take a lifetime to explore.” END QUOTE
Looked at this way, the Bible is an invitation—and a means by which—we can engage in a life-long conversation and relationship with our Loving God.
Our first reading from the Gospel of John is a beautiful reading. It is part of an early Christian hymn from the first century. It refers to the “Word” of God using the Greek word logos, which is a term used in both Greek and Jewish philosophy in the first century.
So, when the first chapter of the Gospel of John speaks of the logos, the Word, of God, the first-Century audience hearing these words would have understood the term to mean more than the static word of a story written on a page. They would have understood the logos, the Word, to refer to an active, creative entity, a Presence related to, if not synonymous with, God. In fact, the first-century readers of the Gospel of John--members of his faith community--would have immediately understood that the active, creative logos—the Word--referred to Jesus himself, whom they believed to be God incarnate.
And they would have understood, as John spells out, that the Word of God—Jesus himself—continues to be spiritually present and active in the world and in our lives—and that we get to know him through the words of Scripture.
National Public Radio Reporter Barbara Bradley Hagerty experienced getting to know Jesus through the words of Scripture, and it was such a powerful experience, that she wrote a book about it called The Fingerprints of God. Richard Peace quotes from Hagerty’s book where she describes reading the Gospels as a visceral experience, one in which she said the words “reached up and grabbed me” and “demanded that I pay attention.” She describes hearing the sound of Jesus’ voice as she read, tasting the “salty air of the Galilean Sea,” and smelling “the fear of the fishermen caught in a vicious squall.” She said, “This two-thousand-year-old story sprung, like those pop-up birthday cards, from two dimensions to three—from myth to concrete reality.
What unnerved me [she said] was that this feeling seemed to come from outside me, not within: it was as if someone had tied a rope around my waist and pulled me slowly and with infinite determination, toward a door that was ajar.”
“Hagerty then goes on to tell how she opened herself to this God to whom she was being drawn: “I prayed—and in that split second of surrender, I felt my heart stir and grow warm, as if it were changing. It was a physical thing, exquisite, undeniable.” (Haggerty quoted in Peace’s Noticing God, p. 89.)
Barbara Bradley Hagerty experienced the active, creative logos, the Word, the incarnate Christ engaging her through the pages of Scripture, and as she opened herself to God’s presence, her life was changed.
Have you ever had that type of enlivening, life-changing experience when reading the Scriptures? If you haven’t--or haven’t had it for a while, in next week’s e-blast I will include a one-page description of a spiritual exercise called lectio divina, which is an ancient method of deeply reading the Word of God that can be traced back to the Benedictines. If you’ve never tried this exercise I invite you to try it next week. And let me know how it goes, or if you have any questions! And I’ll invite you to share your experiences with lectio divina scripture reading at next week’s fellowship time.
But all this brings us to our second scripture reading for today, from 2nd Timothy, chapter 3, which reads: “All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, so that everyone who belongs to God may be proficient, equipped for every good work.” These verses contain a lot of churchy words, but basically what they are saying is this: God engages us through Scripture for a purpose—that we might be equipped for “every good work.” In other words, engaging more deeply with the love of God through the Scriptures is not an experience to keep to ourselves; we are called to savor it and then share it with others through good works.
My friends, may we continue to notice God in various ways as we go through our daily lives. May one of those ways be through the written Word of God, the Bible. When reading this ancient text, may we open ourselves up to the real, spiritual presence of God speaking through its pages. May we not only read about, but may we actually encounter, the Living Word, the logos, the Spirit of Christ whose Love transforms our world for the better. May we know the truth of today’s reading, that Christ’s light “shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” Amen.
Rev. Dr. Marlayna Schmidt
Franklin Federated Church
Franklin, MA
INTRODUCTION: Our first Scripture reading this morning comes from the first chapter of the Gospel of John, from the section known as “The Prologue.” Drawing on lyrics of an early Christian hymn, these verses begin to poetically describe the role of Jesus, who is described here as “The Word” of God.
SCRIPTURE: John 1:1-5
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2He was in the beginning with God. 3All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being 4in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. 5The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.
INTRODUCTION: Our second scripture reading today is from the Apostle Paul’s second letter to Timothy, a younger pastor to whom Paul served as mentor. In this letter Paul reminds Timothy—and all of us—of the purpose of Scripture.
SCRIPTURE: 2 Timothy 3:16-17
16All scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 17so that everyone who belongs to God may be proficient, equipped for every good work.
SERMON: “Noticing God in the Written Word”
The late comedian and vaudeville performer, Gracie Allen, once wrote to her husband, George Burns and said this: “Never place a period where God has placed a comma.” (repeat). Many years later this quote was remembered and used by the United Church of Christ, one of the denominations to which our church belongs, as a motto or slogan to refer to the theological truth that “God is still speaking.” In other words, God is still interacting, still communicating with human beings. God is still speaking.
Richard Peace’s book “Noticing God”—on which this sermon series is based—reflects this truth as well. The premise of the book is that if we pay attention—if we open our eyes and ears, minds and hearts—we can “hear” God speak. The title of Chapter 5 is “Noticing God in the written word,” and in it Richard Peace contends that the written word—the Bible—is “the primary avenue by which we encounter God.” (p. 87).
Now, I am guessing that some of you may well be shaking your heads in complete agreement with Professor Peace—thinking that Of course the Bible the primary avenue by which we encounter God! Perhaps you’ve been reading the Bible since you were a little kid in Sunday School, and you are deeply grateful for the way your faith has been shaped and nurtured by its stories-- of Moses and the prophets, of inspiring women like Deborah and Ruth, of Jesus and the disciples. Or perhaps you discovered the Bible as an adult—maybe you’re just starting on your journey of Bible reading, and you’ve begun to notice that the words of the Psalms or the laments of Job—seem to echo the deep questions, griefs and longings of your own heart in ways you had not thought possible.
OR perhaps you are inwardly shaking your heads in disagreement with Professor Peace. Perhaps your experience of the Bible has not, overall, been a good one. Perhaps you first picked up a Bible as an adult and tried to read it because you thought it would be good for you, only to discover that parts of the Bible are long and boring, and parts are filled with details that applied to a tribal culture 2 or 3 thousand years ago but NOW seem not only irrelevant, but also sometimes scary. Scary, because, tragically, parts of the Bible have been used, at times, down through the centuries to incite hatred, bigotry, racism, violence and even war. How many of us cringed at the Christian symbols and words of Scripture used by members of the violent mob that stormed the Capital on January 6th?
And that use of the Bible is horrible. It is NOT God’s intent to incite hatred, bigotry, racism, violence or war. I can say this with conviction because when you read through the 66 books of the Bible--both the Hebrew Scriptures and the New Testament--its central message is clear. And that message is two-fold: 1) God’s main character trait is steadfast love, “hesed” in Hebrew; and that love extends to the whole world and all its peoples; 2) human beings are commanded to reflect God’s love. So, ALL parts of the Bible—especially the difficult parts—need to be judged and interpreted through a lens of Love, which is its main theme. (I would like to claim that as my own idea, but, actually, St. Augustine pointed that out in the 4th century A.D.—so that idea has been around for a while.)
UCC Pastor and writer Lillian Daniel builds on this idea in a recent essay entitled, “Do We Believe in the Bible?” She answers that question in the affirmative, saying QUOTE, “We believe in the Bible so much that we think it deserves our best questions. We believe that the Bible is the opening of a conversation in which God is still speaking.” And she goes on to say, “As mature, thinking Christians… we can marvel that God thought so highly of us that we were not left with a mere rule book, but rather a word of so many dimensions that it would take a lifetime to explore.” END QUOTE
Looked at this way, the Bible is an invitation—and a means by which—we can engage in a life-long conversation and relationship with our Loving God.
Our first reading from the Gospel of John is a beautiful reading. It is part of an early Christian hymn from the first century. It refers to the “Word” of God using the Greek word logos, which is a term used in both Greek and Jewish philosophy in the first century.
So, when the first chapter of the Gospel of John speaks of the logos, the Word, of God, the first-Century audience hearing these words would have understood the term to mean more than the static word of a story written on a page. They would have understood the logos, the Word, to refer to an active, creative entity, a Presence related to, if not synonymous with, God. In fact, the first-century readers of the Gospel of John--members of his faith community--would have immediately understood that the active, creative logos—the Word--referred to Jesus himself, whom they believed to be God incarnate.
And they would have understood, as John spells out, that the Word of God—Jesus himself—continues to be spiritually present and active in the world and in our lives—and that we get to know him through the words of Scripture.
National Public Radio Reporter Barbara Bradley Hagerty experienced getting to know Jesus through the words of Scripture, and it was such a powerful experience, that she wrote a book about it called The Fingerprints of God. Richard Peace quotes from Hagerty’s book where she describes reading the Gospels as a visceral experience, one in which she said the words “reached up and grabbed me” and “demanded that I pay attention.” She describes hearing the sound of Jesus’ voice as she read, tasting the “salty air of the Galilean Sea,” and smelling “the fear of the fishermen caught in a vicious squall.” She said, “This two-thousand-year-old story sprung, like those pop-up birthday cards, from two dimensions to three—from myth to concrete reality.
What unnerved me [she said] was that this feeling seemed to come from outside me, not within: it was as if someone had tied a rope around my waist and pulled me slowly and with infinite determination, toward a door that was ajar.”
“Hagerty then goes on to tell how she opened herself to this God to whom she was being drawn: “I prayed—and in that split second of surrender, I felt my heart stir and grow warm, as if it were changing. It was a physical thing, exquisite, undeniable.” (Haggerty quoted in Peace’s Noticing God, p. 89.)
Barbara Bradley Hagerty experienced the active, creative logos, the Word, the incarnate Christ engaging her through the pages of Scripture, and as she opened herself to God’s presence, her life was changed.
Have you ever had that type of enlivening, life-changing experience when reading the Scriptures? If you haven’t--or haven’t had it for a while, in next week’s e-blast I will include a one-page description of a spiritual exercise called lectio divina, which is an ancient method of deeply reading the Word of God that can be traced back to the Benedictines. If you’ve never tried this exercise I invite you to try it next week. And let me know how it goes, or if you have any questions! And I’ll invite you to share your experiences with lectio divina scripture reading at next week’s fellowship time.
But all this brings us to our second scripture reading for today, from 2nd Timothy, chapter 3, which reads: “All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, so that everyone who belongs to God may be proficient, equipped for every good work.” These verses contain a lot of churchy words, but basically what they are saying is this: God engages us through Scripture for a purpose—that we might be equipped for “every good work.” In other words, engaging more deeply with the love of God through the Scriptures is not an experience to keep to ourselves; we are called to savor it and then share it with others through good works.
My friends, may we continue to notice God in various ways as we go through our daily lives. May one of those ways be through the written Word of God, the Bible. When reading this ancient text, may we open ourselves up to the real, spiritual presence of God speaking through its pages. May we not only read about, but may we actually encounter, the Living Word, the logos, the Spirit of Christ whose Love transforms our world for the better. May we know the truth of today’s reading, that Christ’s light “shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” Amen.
Rev. Dr. Marlayna Schmidt
Franklin Federated Church
Franklin, MA
