The word of God and the Word of God

“You search the scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that testify on my behalf. Yet you refuse to come to me to have life.” (John 5:39-40, NRSV)

“You have your heads in your Bibles constantly because you think you’ll find eternal life there. But you miss the forest for the trees. These Scriptures are all about me! And here I am, standing right before you, and you aren’t willing to receive from me the life you say you want.” (John 5:39-40, The Message)

Here’s the scene. Jesus is back in Jerusalem, and (not surprisingly) hanging down at the Bethesda pool, where all the sick people — blind, crippled, and paralyzed hung together. There’s one unnamed Joe who’s been laying there unable to move for 38 years! Jesus engages him with a question: “Do you want to be well?” And Joe says, “Well, sure! But I don’t have anybody to put me in the pool, and I can’t get up and do it myself” to which Jesus responds, “Well, then get up and start walking!” and he does, he does!

And that’;s where the trouble starts. It’s the Sabbath, you see! And Jesus is working on the Sabbath, and Joe now is too, because carrying your bedroll according to the scripture, according to the law is not allowed on the sabbath. So the religious leaders, the folks who know the scriptures inside and out confront the Joe (who surely they’ve seen laying there all these decades): “Who told you to start walking and carry your bedroll?” Joe shrugs his shoulders; doesn’t know. Jesus has slipped away. Later Joe, for likely the first time in his life, is able to go to the Temple (imagine his joy!), Jesus sees him and says, “You look wonderful. You’re healed!” and Joe now knows its Jesus, and fills in the powers-that-be, who are now out to get Jesus for disobeying the scripture and the law of Moses within. I love how the Message has his response: “My Father is working straight through, even on the Sabbath. So am I.”

And it’s these things — his breaking of the Sabbath, and his calling God his own Father — that cause the Religious leaders of Jesus’ own Jewish faith to form a plan to kill him. Kill him for these wonderful things. Why, O Why?

This is the context in which Jesus says to them what you read above. The reality of this healing miracle turns into a struggle over biblical authority. And Jesus, who John says is “The Word (capital W) become flesh, living among us”, weighs in. His words are powerful, and put the word in context to the Word. The scriptures are authoritative in that they bear witness to Christ Jesus, the Word. But the scripture — or in this context the Law — does not replace the Living Word, the Word come to life in Jesus.

His words speak for themselves, and are so important for us these days in all kinds of conversations regarding biblical interpretation, theology, and the ministry of the church, and this is especially true for those, like us, who come from church traditions known for having a high view of biblical authority. We are prone to say to each other in our own minds and arguments, “Where is it written?” or “What does the Bible say?” and these are really important questions! But if these become THE questions that stand alone without questions like “Who is Jesus?”, and “what does Jesus say and do?” and “How does our New Life in Christ speak to this?”, we are constantly on the edge of making the Bible an idol — an idol being “an image or representation of a god used as an object of worship.”

The Bible can become an idol too, if it ceases to be seen as leading us to Jesus, the Word. The words of David Nyvall: “To believe in the Bible is not the same as to believe in God. It is possible to believe in the Bible instead of believing in God. The worst way to lose the Bible is to make it into an idol. the Bible is God’s book, but it must in a special sense be the Christ book.”

We, too, like they did back on that blessed day in Jerusalem, we can miss the forest for the trees. They were unable to celebrate what God was doing right in their midst because the sabbath regulations were first, front, and center. Jesus is calling them not to just throw out the law or the commandments, but to know Him first and most, to learn and follow Him, and then have the ability to read and understand scripture with new eyes to see, and new hearts to love — which would have meant on that day that Joe’s healing was to be celebrated sabbath or not! And this Jesus embraced rather than seen as a threat!

May we locate our scriptural authority in direct connection to the way it leads us into life with Jesus, as was true of our spiritual ancestors who were called “Lasare”, or “Readers” because of their love of the Bible as my grandfather Eric wrote: “The ‘readers’ did not come to the Bible because they had been been convinced by theological and dogmatic dimensions of inerrancy or infallibility. The came, and continued to come, because they had found life and inspiration for themselves. They knew that speaking about food could not satisfy hunger and that speaking about thirst could not quench thirst. They trusted the Bible to be its own defense as well as their own, not by speaking about it, but by proclaiming its message in testimony and sermon, song and living.” (Images in Covenant Beginnings)

Love from here!

Peter Hawkinson

The word of God and the Word of God

“You search the scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that testify on my behalf. Yet you refuse to come to me to have life.” (John 5:39-40, NRSV)

“You have your heads in your Bibles constantly because you think you’ll find eternal life there. But you miss the forest for the trees. These Scriptures are all about me! And here I am, standing right before you, and you aren’t willing to receive from me the life you say you want.” (John 5:39-40, The Message)

Here’s the scene. Jesus is back in Jerusalem, and (not surprisingly) hanging down at the Bethesda pool, where all the sick people — blind, crippled, and paralyzed hung together. There’s one unnamed Joe who’s been laying there unable to move for 38 years! Jesus engages him with a question: “Do you want to be well?” And Joe says, “Well, sure! But I don’t have anybody to put me in the pool, and I can’t get up and do it myself” to which Jesus responds, “Well, then get up and start walking!” and he does, he does!

And that’;s where the trouble starts. It’s the Sabbath, you see! And Jesus is working on the Sabbath, and Joe now is too, because carrying your bedroll according to the scripture, according to the law is not allowed on the sabbath. So the religious leaders, the folks who know the scriptures inside and out confront the Joe (who surely they’ve seen laying there all these decades): “Who told you to start walking and carry your bedroll?” Joe shrugs his shoulders; doesn’t know. Jesus has slipped away. Later Joe, for likely the first time in his life, is able to go to the Temple (imagine his joy!), Jesus sees him and says, “You look wonderful. You’re healed!” and Joe now knows its Jesus, and fills in the powers-that-be, who are now out to get Jesus for disobeying the scripture and the law of Moses within. I love how the Message has his response: “My Father is working straight through, even on the Sabbath. So am I.”

And it’s these things — his breaking of the Sabbath, and his calling God his own Father — that cause the Religious leaders of Jesus’ own Jewish faith to form a plan to kill him. Kill him for these wonderful things. Why, O Why?

This is the context in which Jesus says to them what you read above. The reality of this healing miracle turns into a struggle over biblical authority. And Jesus, who John says is “The Word (capital W) become flesh, living among us”, weighs in. His words are powerful, and put the word in context to the Word. The scriptures are authoritative in that they bear witness to Christ Jesus, the Word. But the scripture — or in this context the Law — does not replace the Living Word, the Word come to life in Jesus.

His words speak for themselves, and are so important for us these days in all kinds of conversations regarding biblical interpretation, theology, and the ministry of the church, and this is especially true for those, like us, who come from church traditions known for having a high view of biblical authority. We are prone to say to each other in our own minds and arguments, “Where is it written?” or “What does the Bible say?” and these are really important questions! But if these become THE questions that stand alone without questions like “Who is Jesus?”, and “what does Jesus say and do?” and “How does our New Life in Christ speak to this?”, we are constantly on the edge of making the Bible an idol — an idol being “an image or representation of a god used as an object of worship.”

The Bible can become an idol too, if it ceases to be seen as leading us to Jesus, the Word. The words of David Nyvall: “To believe in the Bible is not the same as to believe in God. It is possible to believe in the Bible instead of believing in God. The worst way to lose the Bible is to make it into an idol. the Bible is God’s book, but it must in a special sense be the Christ book.”

We, too, like they did back on that blessed day in Jerusalem, we can miss the forest for the trees. They were unable to celebrate what God was doing right in their midst because the sabbath regulations were first, front, and center. Jesus is calling them not to just throw out the law or the commandments, but to know Him first and most, to learn and follow Him, and then have the ability to read and understand scripture with new eyes to see, and new hearts to love — which would have meant on that day that Joe’s healing was to be celebrated sabbath or not! And this Jesus embraced rather than seen as a threat!

May we locate our scriptural authority in direct connection to the way it leads us into life with Jesus, as was true of our spiritual ancestors who were called “Lasare”, or “Readers” because of their love of the Bible as my grandfather Eric wrote: “The ‘readers’ did not come to the Bible because they had been been convinced by theological and dogmatic dimensions of inerrancy or infallibility. The came, and continued to come, because they had found life and inspiration for themselves. They knew that speaking about food could not satisfy hunger and that speaking about thirst could not quench thirst. They trusted the Bible to be its own defense as well as their own, not by speaking about it, but by proclaiming its message in testimony and sermon, song and living.” (Images in Covenant Beginnings)

Love from here!

Peter Hawkinson

Coming Together

“Many Hands Make Light Work.”

It sounds like, it seems like it’s in the Bible somewhere. A great proverb, perhaps, or the teaching of Jesus after telling a parable. The closest idea would be St. Paul’s image of the body: “To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. (1 Cor 12:7).

“Many Hands Make Light Work.” Though the ancient Greek idiom first made its English appearance in John Heywood’s book Proverbs, which was published in 1546, it is ever-new as we witness it’s truth before our eyes again and again.

Case in point — the pew shuffling game that’s been going on the last two Sundays. We have sung God’s blessing to one another, enjoyed one last reflective postlude moment, and then rolled up our sleeves and gotten to work. Both Sundays have clocked us in at under ten minutes to do a job that would take two unfortunate folks hours! And many of us whose backs could not handle the full job could take one or two turns, or help organize the bibles and hymnals. The point is that many hands make light work.

(One important reminder here…we need to come together this Saturday, 9:30 a.m. to put them back into place on our freshly cleaned carpets. And this column is dedicated to the three folks who did this hard work the first time around last Thursday…you know who you are!)

This is a most important ministry technique! We come together to accomplish what we would be unable to do on our own. It’s always such an encouragement and brings a palpable energy when we come together to give, to serve, to go, to eat, to worship, to support whatever it is that needs our attention.

And what needs our attention now is yet another opportunity to come together in a powerful way.

This week a letter requesting help came from pastor David Washington and Kingdom Covenant Church. We are one of a few churches that have partnered in their support as a church planted five years ago in Chicago’s Roseland community. After five years of budgeted support, Kingdom Covenant is now working on sustaining itself. But as many churches have experienced, Kingdom Covenant has lost some members and giving during the pandemic time of the last years. And to begin with, times are tough in the Roseland community, where the median household income is 37 thousand dollars (as opposed to Wilmette, where median household income is 162 thousand dollars, four times greater).

Pastor Washington is planning out of need to move to Bi-Vocational ministry.

How about we come together in the “many hands make light work” way and stop that from happening? What more exciting and worthwhile use of our dollars could there be? Instead of a “card shower” we undertake when someone is grieving the loss of a loved one, how about we have a “giving shower” and see how we can come alongside Kingdom Covenant in their critical gospel work?

Pastor Washington gives us the invitation: “We need individuals who are willing to become new financial partners to walk with us over the next twelve months as we plan for sustainability.”

A crazy idea and goal — could 50 of us go to http://www.kingdomchicago.org/give and get on that train? Imagine what an encouragement this could be, and how again in this case “many hands make light work.”

We’ll talk more about this on Sunday, when we gather to chew on Jesus’ latest parable:

Luke 12:13-21

Someone in the crowd said to him, ‘Teacher, tell my brother to divide the family inheritance with me.’ But he said to him, ‘Friend, who set me to be a judge or arbitrator over you?’ And he said to them, ‘Take care! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions.’ 

Then he told them a parable: ‘The land of a rich man produced abundantly. And he thought to himself, “What should I do, for I have no place to store my crops?” Then he said, “I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.” But God said to him, “You fool! This very night your life is being demanded of you. And the things you have prepared, whose will they be?” So it is with those who store up treasures for themselves but are not rich towards God.’

———————

Let’s come together and give with a flourish to the work of God’s Kingdom and our sisters and brothers in need. Let’s go for fifty of us! You can participate in some way. If you will, just let me know you have, and I’ll keep a running tally to see how our challenge goes.

See you Sunday!

Peter Hawkinson