The Bible - A Message for Today

Glorious God, let your light so shine upon us here in your house that only Truth may be spoken and only Truth may be heard, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

(Have a Bible handy)

Why is this book so important to us?

Not one word in it was written more recently than about two millennia ago. How can something written two thousand years ago by people who spoke languages which really don’t exist any more, living in times which are vastly different from our own say anything about how we should understand our world?


No answers?


Let’s look at our first reading today. Hmmm. Some place names .. Samothrace, Neapolis, Philippi, Macedonia, Thyatira …. If it weren’t for this book, I would never have heard of any of these places.

Well, the place names don’t tell us much, maybe if we look at what they are doing in the reading. We start with someone having a vision. Having visions today is not looked upon as a blessing. At the very best, talking about your visions would label you as eccentric, at the worst … I’ll leave that to you. Either way you would basically be ignored as having nothing valid to say. In Paul’s time, having visions labelled you as a prophet. At best, that meant that people listened to you. At worst, they stoned you to death. Either way your words were taken seriously, either as words to live by or as words that are in some way dangerous and should be stopped.

Having visions is just not the same as it used to be.


Next they go sailing. Getting from one city to another was a major expedition. Most people only did it once or twice in their lifetime if they did it at all. Sailing from Israel to Greece would take days if not weeks. This saved huge time because the only other way for most people was to walk. Flying from Israel to Greece is about a couple of hours (plus baggage check-in and customs of course so maybe a day or two).


Next they talk about the Sabbath. We talk about the Sabbath too. We observe it on Sunday. We go to church. Many of us spend family time on Sunday. Many of us don’t work on Sundays. So we keep the Sabbath, don’t we? Well, they would say we don’t. To them, keeping the Sabbath meant that you really did no work at all. You didn’t cook on the Sabbath. You prepared the meals in advance. You didn’t clean on the Sabbath (no dishes, no washing clothes, no bathing). You didn’t walk far on the Sabbath, maybe just a bit outside your house where you could talk with people. For the most part, talking wasn’t considered work. You didn’t even play on the Sabbath (no golf).


Maybe we should look at this a different way.

Who is this Jesus guy to us anyway? I mean he’s been dead for two thousand years. How can anything he had to say way back then have any real meaning for us today?

I think the answer to that can be found in our Gospel today. “I have said these things while I am still with you. But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything, and remind you of all that I have said to you.”

Jesus, the Messiah, the anointed one, brought the good news to God’s people.

Jesus, Emanuel, God with us, knew that what he told us was rooted in the society in which he said it.

Jesus, the Son of God, died on the cross to change our relationship with God. Jesus died so that we could live.

Jesus, the Light of the World, rose from the dead. Jesus showed us that through the resurrection we are no longer living until we die, we are living until we reach the Kingdom of God.

Jesus, the Way, the Truth, and the Life, continues to be with us. Jesus, through the Holy Spirit, continues to teach us; to guide us while we read words that are two thousand years old and older. Through these words we are shown a glimpse of what eternity is about because they are still relevant. They do have meaning in the twenty-first century. These words resonate with things that we know to be Truth, with things that God continues to in our hearts.

Yes, the times have changed. Yes, the language has changed. Yes, the world is a different place …. Yes … this message still has meaning.


Thanks be to God.