a sermon on prayer

Before we have a sermon extolling us to read the Bible more often, let’s just admit it, reading scripture is hard.

After all, the Bible is written in a foreign language, comes from a different culture, has an ancient history and is full of names that are alien to our ears. That isn’t to say anything about the challenge of cultivating a discipline of reading scripture, either.

So yes, reading scripture is hard…

The truth, though, the truth is that none of that stuff, is the biggest challenge when it comes to reading scripture. 

Martin Luther described scripture as the cradle that holds Christ…

And it occurs to me, that while we would all agree with that aphorism; we don’t really believe it.

For instance, any Christian will agree that scripture is important. When the question is asked about why scripture is important, though; you will get a whole host of answers. None of the answers, unfortunately, have much to do with Christ, though…

Some will say scripture is important because it is a list of rules, others will insist scripture is important because it is a history of the faith, some will say scripture is important because it tells how we can “get saved” and then there are those who hold unto scripture because they see it as a literal description of how the world begin and will end.

None of those reasons, though, has a single thing to do with encountering; literally coming face to face; with Christ who is cradled in those very scriptures!

In fact, all of those reasons are about -you guessed it- us!

And that right there is real reason reading scripture is such a challenge.

Here we are, blessed with a holy book that delivers Christ, and we insist this book is just some list of rules, or a history, or this that and the other thing. 

It comes as a surprise to us, but the scriptures aren’t really that interested in the agendas we bring to the scriptures. The scriptures, frankly, are much more interested in bringing us face-to-face with this God we did not choose, with the Christ cradled therein. 

There’s a popular myth out there right now; that we can live an untutored life. This myth says that we’re capable of choosing God on our own, that we have the faculties to make such a decision.

The way we’ve all believed this myth of an untutored life, is real the reason reading scripture is such a challenge. It’s also the reason for so much nonsense, like folks who don’t bless a congregation with their presence and yet still consider themselves a follower, that kind of thing…

Our belief in this myth is why we simply assume the scripture, if it is about anything at all, must be about us.

You’ve heard devotees of this myth, perhaps you’ve even said some of their creeds yourself. For instance, ‘I worship God on the lake better than in a sanctuary,’ and so on.

The problem with all that, though, is the myth of the untutored life assumes we can, or even would, choose to worship, honor, obey, follow and trust God on our own. 

This myth assumes humans are capable of choosing the real and living God on their own…

I hope it goes without saying that, that myth assumes way too much! 

This myth of the untutored life is naive, it has a pathetic understanding of human nature and our history. (We began this service by thanking God for rescuing us in baptism, so I trust you all have a better grasp of what kind of creatures humans really are when we’re left to our own choices…) 

We’d choose God? Don’t bet on it!

Why, we’re too busy lauding ourselves to even begin to find the time to try and choose God. We’re too busy trying to figure out how to become gods ourselves, to get around to trying to choose the real and living God!

After all, that’s why when God does graciously visit God’s people, the best thing we can think to do, is get rid of this God as quickly as possible. This myth of the untutored life, sadly, knows nothing of the cross.

As scripture itself puts it succinctly, “we did not choose God, God choose us.” (Jn 15:16) It turns out, scripture has a better understanding of ourselves, than we do! 

And why is that? It’s because the scripture is first and foremost about God. Because scripture is about God, it is free to be honest about humanity, God’s creation…

And that tension is, finally, the ultimate reason why reading scripture is so darn hard. 

As humans, we will do anything to keep the myths about ourselves intact. Scripture, however, puts us on a collision course with the real and living God. In this collision scripture orchestrates, those myths we tell about ourselves again and again, break apart under the weight of their own delusion.

And, to put it mildly, it sets our teeth on edge! 

That’s why scripture is so hard to read!

We want to choose our own worship, our own morality, finally our own gods, for ourselves. 

Scripture, however, presents us with the God who doesn’t demand worship, because this real God inspires it. Scripture presents us with the God who doesn’t need to be created, because this living God does the creating. Scripture presents us with the God who doesn’t need to be chosen, because this electing God does the choosing.

Scripture, finally, is hard to read because it is at odds with the myth we have about ourselves. 

Again and again, we’re bound to bet it all on some other gods, some gods of our own conceiving, some gods that can’t save us. Scripture, however, brings us into the presence of the most high, the God who creates, the God who can actually save us.

As it turns out, reading scripture is actually a kind of worship. When we come before scripture, and set aside our myths and let scripture tell us the truth about God and consequently ourselves, we finally stop breaking the first commandment and actually have no other gods before the God. 

And that’s the rub, isn’t it? As sinful humans, we prefer to choose, we want to be the almighty chooser, the ultimate consumer. 

That’s why it’s so hard to read scripture.

In the final analysis, that tension between the real God and the idols we choose, is also the very reason we why need God, why we need the Christ who is cradled in scripture. 

Sure, we want to be gods, we want to choose our own worship and all that. However, our “choices” have only made things worse. That’s why we begin our services by thanking God for saving us in baptism week after week, and each week we always are thankful God has saved us.

All week we’ve been going along believing the myth that we’re perfectly capable of choosing and creating our own gods. Each of those so-called choices, though, has only made us ever more needful of a God who can actually save us by choosing us.

We come here again and again, singing along with Aimee Mann in her brilliant song, “Save Me.” In this song she sings about needing to be saved from the wrecks and the freaks and the people who can never love anybody. As she croons, though, you begin to realize she is singing about herself. That what she really needs saving from, is herself.

And we know what that’s like, don’t we?

That, finally, is why we read scripture, although it is so hard and countercultural. We read scripture because it cradles Christ. We read scripture because it brings us face-to-face with the God we didn’t choose, and yet the very God we need. We read scripture because it puts us in the power and presence of the God who can save us from ourselves, the God we don’t have to choose but thankfully has chosen us.

In that encounter, all of our idols are seen for their fraudulence and destruction. In that encounter, we come before the God who actually is God. In this encounter, we finally worship God because we’ve fallen in love with the only one who can save us from our own “choices.”

When that happens, let me tell you, the Bible ceases to be words about God and instead becomes the very Word of God breaking into our present, destroying our idols, prompting us to worship and pointing us to the God who can save us simply by being the real and living God choosing, electing, you.

So you who come here seeking salvation from your own choices, come to the cradle of Christ and find the God you would never choose but thankfully has chosen you, find the God you didn’t choose but absolutely need.

Amen