Abstract
There are some passages in the Bible which are, frankly, boring, as those who read it systematically are bound to find out. This, happily, is much less true of the New Testament than it is of the Old Testament, but someone, encouraged to read the Gospels for the first time, will probably find the first chapter of Saint Matthew, with its long list of “begats”, somewhat daunting. But then the Bible is rather keen on providing very full genealogical tables. In the Old Testament it also has a particular interest in giving extraordinarily detailed descriptions of construction projects: the dimensions of Noah’s ark, of the tabernacle, of the temple. And there are the census chapters like Ezra chapter 2, an interminable list of names and numbers, as well as his final chapter which is devoted to listing all those who, contrary to God’s command to Israel, had either married “foreign” women or allowed members of their family to take partners from “the people around them”.
I begin with this somewhat negative comment for a particular reason and that is to throw into relief how exciting the Word of God consistently is. In book after book, chapter after chapter, we truly have the Word that thrills. And what variety! Story-telling about the journey of God’s “chosen people”, profound prophetic commentary on current events, the poetry of the Psalms, the “good news” of the Gospel, the inspiring life history of the early church. It was right of the Reformers to put the Bible at the very centre of their faith for it is, in truth, the Word that thrills.
Nowhere is this more true than in our post-Epiphany readings. Take the verses selected from Nehemiah as a good example. I find the picture they paint compelling.
Ezra, as we have it, was originally grouped with the book of Nehemiah in a single book, originally titled simply “Ezra”. They were first divided into separate books by the early Christian scholar Origen, in the third century. That separation became established by Jerome, in his Latin translation of the Bible in the fifth century, although it was not until the Mddle Ages that the books became separated in the Jewish scriptures. Our chapter 8 from Nehemiah deals with the important contribution made by Ezra, the exiles having returned from captivity. The verses selected as our reading tell of a hugely dramatic event, the public reading to the whole people of the Book of the Law.
Let Nehemiah himself describe the scene (chapter 8, verses 1 and 2):
“When the seventh month came and the Israelites had settled in their towns, all the people assembled as one man in the square before The Water Gate…….Ezra the priest brought the Law before the assembly….He read it aloud…..in the presence of the men, women and others who could understand. And all the people listened attentitively to the Book of the Law.”
The crowd gathered there was immense. The list of the returned exiles runs into thousands. Ezra, we are told (verse 4) “stood on a high wooden platform, built for the occasion” and there he read the Book of the Law. It was no five minute homily or twenty minute sermon. He read “from daybreak till noon” (verse 3). What a thrilling scene is presented to us! Here you have a vast assembly, gathered together in the square before the Water Gate, listening with rapt attention to what was, for them, the Word of God.
As Ezra opened the Book, he “praised the Lord”, bringing the whole gathering to its feet with a universal cry of “Amen! Amen!”, hands raised toward heaven in sheer exhilaration. And there were tears too, prompting Ezra to proclaim: “Do not mourn or weep. This day is sacred to the Lord, your God”. An amazing and thrilling occasion indeed!
The Word that thrills? Yes indeed, for the feelings of excitement continue, if for different reasons, in our readings from the Psalms and the Gospel of Saint Luke.
In Psalm 19, what a sense of wonderment is created by just that first verse. “The heavens declare the glory of God. The skies proclaim the work of his hands” (as the New International Version of the Bible translates it). This is a statement about the sheer magnificence of Creation. It is a word that thrills!
Who has not felt that sense of awe and amazement at the simplicity and complexity of the world on some memorable occasion? I felt it as I stood on the hill behind the Abbey on the island of Iona, the soaring heights of the Highlands on one side of me, the view stretching across the sea towards Northern Ireland on the other. I felt it on the traffic-free island of Tresco in the Scillies, with its magnificent Abbey Gardens and its glistening sands. I experienced it again as I stood, looking down on the Sea of Galilee, from a road above Tiberias, and realised that this was, yes!, where Jesus had walked on the water, calmed the storm, preached to the people. I felt it strongly when, sitting in the Glacier Express, I looked down from high on the mountainside on the valleys and river below. Revelation is the glory of our faith, and in it lies our salvation, but like the Psalmist, we can all be thrilled by the “natural theology” all around us.
The eight verses from the fourth chapter of Saint Luke’s Gospel record an episode in the early life of our Lord that must have been moving and exciting both for himself and the congregation in his home-town synagogue. Statements like “their eyes were fastened on him”(verse 20) and “all spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his lips” (verse 22) testify to the electric atmosphere in the synagogue that day. Everyone would surely be familiar with the words that he quoted from the prophet Isaiah, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me…” The thrilling moment came when he rolled up the scroll, gave it to the attendant and said: “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing”.
The remaining reading, from 1 Corinthians 12, is of a different order, but it is in its own way exciting too. It is a presentation of Saint Paul’s picture of “the body of Christ” modelled on something to which everybody then, and anyone now, can relate, our very ordinary human bodies. But are they ordinary? Not at all! The human body is an extraordinary organism, equipped, in its organisation and unity, to cope with whatever life brings. We are able to function because all parts of it cohere, each part carrying out its specific function. Each part needs the other parts. And the “weaker parts” have their own importance too. Transfer it all to the body of Christ the church, and you have yet another thrilling concept.
The Bible is at the heart of Reformation theology, not as a book to be taken literally, as if the divine imprimatur is on every word and syllable. It is a book to be read under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. When it is so read, it is the Word that thrills.
The Nail – meditations for Good Friday
Stephen Cottrell, The Nail: Being Part of the Passion (London: SPCK, 2011. £6.99. pp. xvi + 74. ISBN: 978-0-281-06635-3).
This little book will be worth its weight in gold for clergy or lay people looking for inspiration for Good Friday services. The meditations began as something Stephen Cottrell put together for ‘An Hour before the Cross’ on Good Friday when he was a curate. He has since expanded it to make it suitable for a Service of 3 Hours or to be used as a Lent book alone or in groups.
The Nail contains a series of Scripture readings followed by a meditation and prayer by the following characters: Peter; the Roman Centurion; Pontius Pilate; Caiaphas; Judas Iscariot; Mary Magdalene; and Pilate’s Wife. There is also a final chapter containing meditations on the question: Will you let Jesus forgive you? I could see that it could be used by one voice or many, and Cottrell suggests visual ideas too for performances in church.
The meditations from each character explore their role in Jesus’ death as they try to justify their actions and, as it were, pass on the blame. The inference at the end is that we are all responsible. The writing is powerful and emotive and I know that this is a book I shall go back to time and time again.