Living in the Biblical Worldview

As our children, youth and young adults go back to school, we open our books too. Today, we are digging into the most important book to ever be written: the bible. The Bible is the most printed book in history for a reason. It has the most ancient manuscripts of any book that proves its historicity and accuracy through the generations. Every generation, no matter what comes, no matter what wars or famine or genocide they have to endure have held onto this book and poured over its pages. Intellectuals, scientists, historians, sociologists, philosophers, mystics, law makers, have studied its pages and found insight and revelation. The Bible has inspired artists, musicians and writers. It has become a bedrock for ending slavery, apartheid, war and more. We can barely imagine a more impactful book if we tried. There is power in these words. We recognize its importance so we call the first half of our service the liturgy of the word. Today, we are digging into the bible and asking three important questions:

What is the Bible?

Why do we care so much about it? and

How can it change our lives and world? Seeing through its world view (God’s)

So first, what is the Bible? I think the most helpful place to start is to recognize that the Bible is God’s revelation of Himself throughout history. Let me break that down briefly. God has purposefully been revealing himself to every generation through history. He has done this through everything, but primarily through his chosen people Israel, through His Son Jesus and through his Chosen family, Christians. God has chosen these three to witness him and tell their stories of God's work. Yet, the Bible isn’t just an individual's witness of God’s work and how he responds to what is happening in that moment. It is a collection of works that the Holy Spirit has confirmed as the word of God throughout generations of people reading them and seeing a common and profound witness. I might be a Christian that witnesses God, but my writing or story doesn’t become Scripture. It might be helpful, but the canon of Scripture was confirmed through a long process of communication, prayer, discernment and finally edification. These books weren’t just chosen by one group, they were confirmed by the Holy Spirit through history as an accurate revealing of Himself.

Recognizing that the Bible is God’s revelation of himself throughout history is an important starting place, because it will help us in reading it. It tells us God’s primary purpose and what he is trying to communicate. It is not primarily a science text book, or a law code, or a moral treatise, or a philosophical argument - though it can and does act as all of these well at different times. Instead, it is a book that is going to use these types of writing and thinking to communicate to us the reality of God.

Just look at our psalm today. Psalm 119 is the longest Psalm in the bible and it is this long treatise on how important God’s word is. Yet, the interesting thing is that the psalmist doesn’t use just one word to describe God’s word. Just listen to the variety of words he uses. Scripture is God’s word, his commands, his testimonies, his ways, his statutes, and his judgements. The Psalmist knows that the Bible is far more than any of these things, yet each of these tells us something about the Bible. As God’s word, it is God directly communicating with us when we are willing to listen. As his way, it is telling us about his character, his promises, his faithfulness and even directing us on how to find him and follow. As his commands, it does show us God’s authority and his expectations for our lives. As his statutes, it is telling us what to do and how to live in a way that forms ordered society and godly loving relationships. As his judgments the bible is showing us how to live out both justice and mercy. Yet, in all of this the psalmist still has not exhausted his words, he calls Scripture his delight, sweeter than honey. It makes him wiser than princes. It humbles the proud. It upholds and lifts up those who look to it. As God’s revealing of himself through history, the Bible communicates the great aspects of God in such a real way that they become manifested, powerful and they shape us and those in our lives.

As it is a book where God reveals himself through history, it is important to recognize that these stories did happen in a historic moment in a place and to a people. Understanding its original context does help us to understand certain things in deeper ways, but as the Bible is communicated throughout history, we acknowledge that these stories don’t remain in their historic moment, they are communicated to us afresh again and again. We may not be shepherds that know what it means to leave the 99 sheep in search of the one that was lost, yet we do know, in our own way, how important and pertinent it is that God would leave the 99 to seek out us for those who are lost.

This brings me to a really important aspect, as God’s revealing of himself through history, we have to realize something deeper, more mystical about the bible. It is a living word. It is God still revealing himself to us today as these words speak afresh into our hearts. It is Jesus who became incarnate so that we can meet him. That is why we stand up during the gospel, especially on communion Sundays. We stand, because we are recognizing that Jesus is becoming present in a very real way when we read through the Bible, especially the gospel. Too often, we can treat it as a dead text though. We can be like a coroner doing an autopsy of the text, trying to pull apart all the details devoid of any life, ignoring that the person is alive, and that person wants to speak with us personally and corporately. It’s kind of a gruesome image, but that is often how we treat Jesus, the word made flesh. Instead, when we read or listen to Scripture we are meant to let it stir in us to live in us. We are meant to pray over it, ask it questions, delight in it, contemplate it, carrying it on our lips everywhere we go. In fact, our relationship with the living word is meant to be a very intimate, romantic one as we keep it close, and hide it in our hearts as the psalmist says.

I hope you are already starting to see why Scripture is so important to us. We want to get to know God, so of course we are going to pour over how he has chosen to reveal himself, but more so we turn to Scripture because it acts like an open door to God's home and Kingdom. When we read it with an open heart and mind, we enter in as God enters in our hearts too. As the gospel of John tells us God abides in us, as we abide in him.

I recognize that the Bible is still a hard book to read. Our difficulty wrestling over the bible shouldn’t surprise us though. If God is the creator of everything, of course it would be hard to contemplate him. If God is other than us in a truly just way, of course we are going to run up to parts that challenge us - our thinking, our relationships, etc. Anything that is beyond us and smarter than us would challenge us. The added complication is that the bible is more like a self-informing library of books that in its numerousity forms a coherent whole. It is 66 books with many forms of literature, of different time periods that all point to the singular reality of who God is and how he has purposefully entered into creation. Yet, as complicated as this seems, we need to realize something as the living word of God, we can trust that God will reveal and equip us to understand such a diverse and deep reality as himself. In fact, Jesus tells us that when he leaves, the Holy Spirit will do just that revealing and he does. I can tell you that as we seek God, he does open up Scripture more and more and so we come to know him more and more - but not just through his word, but also through his word that formed all the world. The word reveals God in our midst. We are meant to turn to the bible daily, because as the disciples said, “No one else has the words of life”

So, finally, how can Scripture change our lives and world? First, it is important to recognize that it is God working through Scripture. The book can become an idol, where we don’t recognize Jesus as he reveals himself through it or the God who seeks to live in us. In that context, we must understand something about how humanity works. We create narratives all the time: we can create narratives for a day. I spilled coffee this morning so it's going to be a bad day. Or we can create narratives for our lives, I’m not pretty enough, smart enough, or talented enough - so people aren't going to acknowledge me. Now, whether these narratives are true or not, they shape our days, especially our experience of the days. For whatever reason, we are actually very good at believing lies - and of course we know why - sin. Our world is consistently communicating lies, every advertisement is trying to convince us that we need that thing. Every new movie, every new game, every new food, or technology, or new magazine is promising something they cannot give. Our culture is convinced it can live without God. But if we are honest with ourselves we know this isn't the case, because was is the result? only the deterioration of our legal system, our government, our economy, our education, our communities, even our families and marriage. The world is wrapped up in a lie. We need our eyes opened, we need a new vision, we need to see the world through the perspective of what is true, good and right. We need Jesus our word who is the way, the truth and the life. The world has proved Jesus right time and time again, that there is nothing else that leads us to a better world other than a contrite heart, recognizing our brokenness and approaching God with humility in our need for him.

The Bible shapes our hearts and minds to see the world for what it is. It helps us to understand the brokenness that we live in and the sin we live out. It helps us to see and seek out God’s forgiveness and redemption that we cannot achieve on our own. It helps us to see the joy and love that surrounds us, even while evil works. The bible helps us to see the truth and potential that was always there. The truth that sadly the enemy and our culture has spent a long time hiding. We may have to start reading Scripture through our own understanding and experience, but the more we read the Bible the more we can understand our experience through Scripture. Scripture is meant to become our filter, our lens, our worldview. The beautiful thing about this new worldview is that it will show us the good and godly things that have always surrounded us. As we read Scripture, as we invite the word made flesh to enter our flesh, as we breathe in the breath of God, God fills us with himself and his Kingdom. Remember what Jesus said, “The Kingdom is close at hand”. It is at your finger tips, all you have to do is reach out and really grab hold of it - then take it in and live in it. AMEN

Every Sunday we read through the Bible and we dwell in portions of it repeatedly through our liturgy. The church fathers and mothers that came before us knew that this was essential to our development and a growing relationship with God. In fact, history and most intellectual thinking has proven this to be true throughout history. Even if the world convinces us otherwise, we need the Bible.

This is because the Bible is God’s revelation of himself throughout history. God has chosen to reveal himself in a certain way and through a certain people. Now we are being invited to experience and know this self revealing God. This Sunday we explore what this means and how this changes literally everything for us

Children’s story:

Backpack blessing.

The Books we carry - expanding our mind to see in a new way