Dear all,
The lights of Christmas are already beginning to fade; things are beginning to be normal. We are all back in the saddles for another year. Many of us have made New Year’s resolutions; I hope we shall soak all that we are resolved to do in prayer. My advice would be: have your vision board and write down all your new resolutions and revisit them from time to time. They should be smart and achievable ones. Why not resolve to read your Bible regularly?
We all know that around Christmas and Epiphany there is much that the world around us ‘knows’ of the story of Christ that just isn’t there in the Bible. When the wise men came to visit, how many of them were there? Did they come at the same time as the shepherds? And for me quite importantly – where did the wise men meet Jesus? (Answers at the end).
All this got me thinking. How much of what we ‘know’ to be in the Bible is actually folklore and fiction. How much is passed down from others who have heard that Moses played tennis, because the Bible says he served in pharaoh’s court! (Again, I can’t find these words anywhere in the Bible).
But! How much do we know our Bible? In his second letter to Timothy St. Paul writes that: “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.”
(2 Tim. 3:16-17).
In Matthew’s Gospel Jesus speaks to his disciples before he ascends: “And Jesus came and said to them; ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”’ (Matthew 28:18-20).
How can we fulfill this command of Christ if we ourselves have not studied and know what he commanded us to do? We can’t! The Good News of the Gospel becomes something that is distorted. There are churches who claim to follow Jesus who preach that God hates! God hates those who disagree with His view of the world. I simply don’t read that anywhere in the Bible. I also don’t see that in the example of Christ; in fact I read that God is love.
We have to know our Bible, as the famous collect states; “to read, learn, mark and inwardly digest the scriptures”. In order to know our Bible we start by reading, then learning it, by marking those passages through which God inspires and speaks to us as we digest them so they become part of who we are and how we live – but it starts with reading the Bible. Did you know that the Bible is the most shoplifted book? But people don’t read it more, especially members of the Anglican Church.
We love our Prayer Books so much and some of us will be very sad (or glad?) to know that there will be a new one replacing the current one of 1989. We are sometimes sadly called AWBs (Anglicans without Bibles).
So the challenge for 2014 is for us to engage in reading the Bible on daily basis. There are many ways that this can be done today. Find a friend or two to meet with twice a week in a home or coffee shop to read the Bible with and talk about what it means to you today. Or simply, at the start (or end) of the day, sit down and read the Bible-I’d suggest starting with the Gospels and Paul’s letters of the New Testament, but God reveals himself throughout the whole of the Bible so the Old Testament is very important too.
Whatever you do, however you decide to do it, please – let us bring the Bible to the centre of who we are and how we undertake our Christian journey. Let us read for ourselves the message that it contains and not simply learn from others. Let us find the gems of truth it contains that never get read out in church on a Sunday (for example Proverbs20:1); those passages that will sustain us on our Christian journey and let us listen for God’s words of love to us written in its pages.
How do we know that Moses rode a motorbike? (Because the Bible tells us that the roar of his triumph was heard throughout the land!) Find for yourself ☺.
With every blessing,
The Very Revd Lazarus Mohapi