4 th December: 2 nd Sunday of Advent

When I started out in ministry at the end of the 1980s, many Churches’ lectionaries designated today as ‘Bible Sunday’, when congregations were invited to think about and reflect on the importance of the Bible, and to thank God for the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments. And I can remember regularly preaching sermons on this day that explored aspects of the Bible’s overall importance. ¹

Since then, most Churches have switched to the Revised Common Lectionary, and there is no Bible Sunday in this lectionary; today is the first of two Sundays that focus on John the Baptist. ² There is, however, still a trace of the old Bible Sunday in the present Lectionary. For, in this year the set NT reading has nothing to do with John the Baptist, who only appears in the Gospels. It is the verses from Romans that begin, ‘Whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we may have hope.’ And it is this very passage, Romans 15:4–13, that was the traditional reading for Bible Sunday.

So we are back with the Bible after all! Or, rather, we are back with the significance of the Old Testament, specifically. For when the NT writers refer to the ‘Scriptures’ or ‘whatever was written in former days’, they almost always mean what we call the OT, for that was the Bible for the NT writers.

Paul, speaking to Gentiles as well as Jews, describes the OT books as having been ‘written for our instruction’ and as the means by which God gives us endurance and encouragement—or patience and comfort in some other translations—and that through this endurance and encouragement from ‘the Scriptures’, we have hope. That certainly says that the OT Scriptures are vital for the faith of all of us, whoever we are and implies that we should be making use of those Scriptures and thanking God for his gift of them to us.

And not only does Paul tell us this in our passage, he then proceeds to do it! In the first thirteen verses of Romans 15, Paul quotes the OT no fewer than five times. In fact, his comments about the Scriptures having been written for our instruction come almost as an aside, after his first OT quotation, as if to tell us why he is drawing so much from the Scriptures. There can be few more significant asides, either in the Bible or in the whole of literature! What we call the OT, is all for our instruction, edification, education. What we call the OT is all there to give us endurance or patience, and encouragement or comfort, from God and so to strengthen our hope in God.

But I know very that many Christians find the OT hard to get on with. It is long. It is diverse. It contains types of writing and subjects that we don’t readily warm to—long genealogies with unpronounceable names, laws about subjects that aren’t obviously relevant to life today, seemingly God-inspired and very violent battles and judgments against ‘heathen’ nations, and so on. I know that very many Christians effectively either reject or neglect the OT.

So if you feel that you don’t know the OT very well, and if you feel daunted by it, don’t worry too much or feel too guilty about it. You are far from alone! But, nevertheless, I urge you to do something about it! There can be no substitute for reading the Bible, the Old Testament as well as the New. But how and where to begin? I can only be brief, but here are a few tips for getting started.

Firstly, get hold of one of the decent, modern translations of the Bible. They make the Scriptures far more accessible than the older versions.

Before you start reading, pray that by your reading you may indeed receive instruction, edification, endurance, encouragement, and hope in Christ.

Read carefully and slowly. Treat reading the Old Testament like searching for the proverbial treasure buried in the field—hard work with occasional real gems. But the more you do it the more gems you find. Well, I have, anyway. So persist with it, even when it’s hard going.

A good place to start is the Book of Psalms, perhaps reading one or two Psalms a day. Martin Luther called the Psalms a ‘mini Bible’. They give ‘an overview of salvation history from creation through the giving of the Law at Mount Sinai, the establishment of the tabernacle and temple, the exile due to unfaithfulness, and point us forward to the coming messianic redemption and the renewal of all things.’ ³ So, they’re a good summary of the whole OT, and can be a good way in.

A more comprehensive summarised Bible is Meet the Bible: A Panorama of God’s Word by Yancey and Quinn, ⁴ which covers most of both Testaments but leaves out the sections that we might find the hardest to read. Again, it’s a good way to get started reading the OT.

As you read, try to be aware that OT often tells things more than once, in different ways, such as in Genesis 1 and 2–3, and don’t try to collapse different accounts into each other. Realise that prophecy is more about trying to get people to change their ways than predicting a definite future. And be aware of who is saying what—the OT actually contains many passages that are not God’s word but those of his (human) enemies. For instance, in the Book of Job, many of the words of the friends are in the end totally dismissed by God.

Always, but particularly with the most difficult bits, ask yourself, does the NT affirm, strengthen, or deny for Christians what this OT passage says? Some parts of the OT are made even more rigorous in the NT, such as in the Sermon on the Mount. But some parts are denied, such as the exclusive status of the Jewish people, which is replaced by the Good News of God being for all, Gentile as well as Jew, in the NT.

One thing I’ve found most helpful recently is to listen to the OT on CD, often while I’m driving. David Suchet has recorded an excellent edition of whole Bible on MP3 CDs. I find it helpful to listen to quite long passages at once—it gives me a better sense of the ‘big picture’.

Whatever way works for you, I urge you, on this day that traditionally has been Bible Sunday, to hear, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest all the Scriptures, Old, as well as New, Testament, that through patience and the comfort of God’s Holy Word you may embrace and for ever hold fast that hope of eternal life that he has given us in his Son, our Saviour Jesus Christ. ⁵