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Learning for Life: Cultivating a Student Spirituality
Week 14
Syd Hielema, Chaplain at Redeemer University College, Ancaster Ontario
The Role of the Bible in Life- Two Books
14. 1 The Word of God -- I
“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth…And God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light.” Gen. 1: 1, 3.
We have all encountered phrases like, “I give you my word; you can count on me.” And we understand why such phrases are so common: we humans are speaking and acting creatures, and a very common experience is that people’s speech and actions do not match.
The key words in the phrases “I give you my word; You can count on me” are the words “my” and “me.” The flesh-and-blood person behind the “my” and “me” becomes the standard by which we accept or reject the promise. During my days as a high school teacher, I frequently had students who rarely completed their assigned work. When it was time to assign final grades, I would often hear something like, “wait one more day. I’ll have it tomorrow; I give you my word.” Based on their track record, I found it difficult to trust their promises.
The Bible begins with a very bold assertion concerning the relationship between God’s speech and his actions: God speaks the universe into being! As Genesis 1 walks us through the days of creation, God speaks “Let there be…” and the narrator concludes “and it was so.” There was complete correspondence between God’s words and the actions which followed from those words. Scripture introduces God to us as THE King of the universe, the one whose word is utterly sure. It’s as if the Bible is saying to us, “listen to this word because he gives you his word and you can count on it.”
This correspondence between God’s speech and God’s actions is central to our reading the Scriptures and walking with God. The book is filled with hundreds of promises of God, good words for us. Some of these promises have been completely fulfilled, some partially fulfilled, and some are completely awaiting fulfillment. We dare to stand on the promises of this creating God because he is trustworthy. His words and actions are in complete harmony. The word of God is something we can count on.
Prayer:Dear Lord, thank you for your faithfulness to your creation, to each of us. On those days when we do not see your faithfulness clearly, grant us grace to trust and to follow, Amen.
Hymn:
Great is thy faithfulness, O God my Father
There is no shadow of turning with thee
Thou changest not, thy compassions they fail not
As thou has been thou forever wilt be.
14.2 The Word of God -- II
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. …The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father full of grace and truth.” John 1: 1-3, 14.
About twenty years ago I heard best-selling author (at that time) M. Scott Peck tell his conversion story. It went something like this:
“I’d never taken Jesus very seriously until, later in life, I read through the four gospels and I was deeply struck by the fact that Jesus completely walked his talk. What he did and what he said were identical; he had absolute integrity. I’m a therapist, seeing clients Monday to Friday from 9-5. But Jesus said, ‘Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest’ (Matt. 11: 28); an unlimited invitation! I thought, ‘Anyone who walks his talk and offers himself to all without conditions must be the Son of God.’”
In effect Dr. Peck was saying, “the Jesus we meet in the gospels continues the pattern we saw in the creator God of Genesis 1. His speech and actions are in complete harmony.”
The Apostle John reinforces this link by beginning his gospel with deliberate echoes from Genesis 1. It’s as if he is saying to his readers, “remember the God of the (Old Testament) Scriptures? The one who spoke and it came to be as he said? Now you will meet him in a more powerful way. The Word has now been made flesh. You can count on the Son in the same way that you have come to trust in the Father.”
The link between God’s word as Creator and the word made flesh in Jesus is also made explicit by the apostle Paul. He writes, “God who said, ‘let light shine out of darkness,’ made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ” (II Cor. 4: 6). Jesus is the way to the Father, and as we come to know him as the word of God, we also come to rest inside the faithful promises of the Father.
Prayer:Dear Lord Jesus, teach us to come to the Father through you, to see you in all of God’s good promises fulfilled. Amen.
Hymn:
Christ, whose glory fills the skies, Christ, the true and only light,
Sun of righteousness arise, triumph o’er the shades of night;
Dayspring from on high, be near, daystar in my heart appear.
14.3 The Word of God – III
(Jesus speaking to the Pharisees) “The Father who sent me has himself testified concerning me... You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life.” John 5: 37-40.
“Some Greeks came to Philip with a request. ‘Sir,’ they said, ‘we would like to see Jesus.’” John 12: 21
The new preacher was hot. His sermons flowed like poetry and he had a turn of phrase that could send goose-bumps down the people’s spines. He seemed to find just the right stories for his points.
Soon, however, his parishioners sensed there was something missing. One morning he climbed onto the pulpit to begin the service and found a note that simply read, “Sir, we would like to see Jesus.” They had come to realize that if the book didn’t serve to reveal the One who is its focus and coherence, the heart of the book was lost.
The Pharisees had the same problem as this preacher. They knew the (Old Testament) Scriptures inside out, but they didn’t know how to read them. Knowledge does not equal insight. The point of the Scriptures is that through them we come to see Jesus and find life in him.
Too frequently Christians operate with the Trinity of the Father, the Son and the Holy Scriptures, with the latter getting the most emphasis. A biblical scholar once observed that those Christians who take the Scriptures very seriously but do not focus on Jesus are the most divisive Christ-followers. And it makes sense! If we focus on the book as an end in itself, we will spend our time debating our favourite interpretations of the book, because books exist to be interpreted. But if we focus on Jesus and then learn to read the book to hear his voice speaking, feel his heart beating, and see where he is leading, then we will find life.
When I read the Scriptures, I ask, “where is Jesus leading through this passage? How is the Father’s heart beating here? How is the Holy Spirit shaping our community in response to these words?” These questions invite the gift of life from the Savior’s hands to redefine our being and doing.
Prayer:Dear Lord, thank you for the book that points the way to you, the way to life. Grant us your Spirit that we may read the book and see you, trust you, love you, and follow you, Amen.
Hymn:
Thanks to God whose Word incarnate human flesh has glorified
Who by life and death and rising grace abundant has supplied
God has spoken, God has spoken, praise him for his open word!
14.4 The Word of God – IV
“I saw heaven standing open and there before me was a white horse, whose rider is called Faithful and True…He has a name written on him that no one knows but he himself…He is dressed in a robe dipped in blood, and his name is the Word of God…On his robe and on his thigh he has this name written: KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS.” Rev. 19: 11-16 (excerpts)
In Revelation 19 Jesus has four names! Did you notice them? They are (1) “faithful and true,” (2) the name only he knows, (3) “the word of God,” and (4) “KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS.” Why does he have four names, and why is one of them a mystery?
I have my theory. It takes four names just to begin to describe Jesus’ majesty. “Faithful and True” describes what he means to the believing community: the one who was faithful unto death on our behalf (Phil. 2: 8). As King over all we see his sovereignty over the entire universe: God exalted him to the highest place (Phil. 2: 9-11). As the word of God, we see the harmony between Jesus and the Father; he is the one who makes the Father known (John 1: 18). The unknown name? It tells us we will not understand Jesus until he comes again, for “now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror, but then we shall see face to face” (I Cor. 13: 12).
I believe these names can be woven into one grand name: Jesus Victor. When we encounter the word of God, we are able to rest in that triumph; “though the wrong seem oft so strong, God is the ruler yet.”
We do not yet know the fourth name of Jesus Christ, and as we wait for the final victory we see a great deal of evil: wars and massacres, the rape of the environment, millions dying of epidemics that could easily be contained, and innumerable interpersonal injustices. We live between Jesus’ first and second comings. We cling to the three names that we do know – He is the word of God, he is faithful and true, and he has won the victory, becoming King of kings and Lord of lords. That sustains us as we work and wait for the final name.
Prayer:Dear Lord, faithful and true, the word of God, the King of kings and Lord of lords, grant us peace inside the victory that you are. Grant us courage to follow you until the entire creation acknowledges your victory, Amen.
Hymn:
See, the Conqueror mounts in triumph; see the King in royal state,
Riding on the clouds, his chariot, to his heavenly palace gate.
14.5 The Word of God – V
“Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing Psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God.” Col. 3: 16
“Stand firm then…take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.” Eph. 6: 14, 17
This week we’ve seen how the Father’s word points to his integrity and trustworthiness. We’ve seen how Jesus the Son is the Word made flesh, the Victor to whom all Scripture points. Completing the Trinitarian picture: this Word of God dwells in us through the work of the Spirit. The Word of God is not something “out there,” dead pages in a book or divine beings somewhere in outer space. The Word comes to live and grow in us richly. Paul equates the Word of God with the sword of the Spirit: like a pruning knife cutting away our deadness, replacing it with the presence of Christ. Growth happens as we teach and admonish one another, as we sing together, and as we practice spiritual disciplines that make room for Christ to grow within us.
As a young Christian I understood the word of God to be “out there somewhere,” and this hindered my growth in Christ. A friend suggested that I participate in a guided silent prayer retreat at a Catholic monastery. A spiritual director, listening to my struggles, said, “I advise you to spend three hours this morning reading Psalm 23.” I did.
It took me 58 seconds; “what now?” I wondered. I took the first verse – “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want” – and let it weave through my imagination and my heart. After about half an hour something happened. I found myself wrestling, tugging, pulling, digging inside those words with my heart. I fought within myself: “but I do want, I want all the time! God doesn’t feel like a shepherd, he feels like a judge….” And so on. By the time the retreat was done, I had learned a beginner lesson about the transforming word of God dwelling within, a lesson that I have never forgotten.
How do you let the word of Christ dwell richly within you?
Prayer:Dear Lord, send your Spirit to grow your word in me, use your sword to cut out sin and make room for you. Amen.
Hymn:
Spirit of God who dwells within my heart
Wean it from sin, through all its pulses move
Stoop to my weakness, mighty as you are
And make me love you as I ought to love
14.6 The Word of God – VI
“A voice says, ‘Cry out.’ And I said, ‘what shall I cry?’ ‘All men are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field. The grass withers and the flowers fall, because the breath of the Lord blows on them. Surely the people are grass. The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God stands forever.” Isaiah 40: 6-8
In grade 11 English class we were assigned to memorize this speech from Macbeth:
Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day
To the last syllable of recorded time,
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more: it is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.
In these memorable lines, Shakespeare catches something of the spirit of Isaiah 40. Our lives fly by. I’ve just turned 53, and aware that I’m probably in the final third of my life. If my life is the standard for assessing reality, then surely it is nothing more than a tale told by an idiot, signifying nothing.
But my life is not the standard! My few years are part of a much larger picture described by the word of God. This is a tale told not by an idiot, but told through Jesus Christ, signifying everything.
As people who have been raised with Christ, we have been transplanted from being Isaiah’s flowers of the field to being branches grafted into the vine (John 15), “for he chose us in Christ before the creation of the world …(and) you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, …guaranteeing our inheritance” (Eph. 1: 4, 13-14). See? As transplanted flowers, our identity is rooted in the beginning of all things (before the creation) and the end of all things (the inheritance). Because the word of God lives in us, our lives have meaning in the big picture. We are not just grass blowing in the wind, we are branches in the eternal vine named Jesus.
Prayer:Dear Lord, thank you for grafting me into your vine. Grow your fruit through me today, Amen.
Hymn:
Finish, then, thy new creation, pure and spotless let us be
Let us see thy great salvation perfectly restored in thee
Changed from glory into glory till in heaven we take our place
Till we cast our crowns before thee, lost in wonder, love and praise.
14.7 The Word of God -- VII
“As the rain and snow come down from heaven and do not return to it without watering the earth, …so is my word that goes out from my mouth: it will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire....” Isaiah 55: 10-11
Add up all that we’ve seen about the word of God this week, weave through these thoughts the verses from Isaiah quoted here, and we come to one grand conclusion: the word of God is fruitful. The word of God is like seeds which are planted all over the creation, and which bear amazing fruit everywhere they grow.
Ponder the two thousand year history of Christianity. Yes, horrible abuses have been committed in the name of Christ, but we also see fruit that outshines the sin: communities caring for the sick and poor, establishing hospitals and orphanages; recognizing the full humanity of all persons, seeking to abolish slavery, protect the unborn, minister to those in prison, and more. The word of God continues to bear fruit all over the world.
The fruitfulness of the word of God leaves us with two questions: first, what kind of soil am I? Jesus describes four soils in his parable of the sower in Mark 4: rocky soil, thorny soil, hard soil along the path, and fertile soil. How fertile is the soil of your life as the word of God is planted? What are you doing to make your soil more fertile? A friend of mine was disillusioned with Christianity, and, after abandoning the faith for a year, finally went to his trusted mentor and asked, “what should I do?” The simple reply shocked him: “read your Bible, pray, and attend church.” Later he understood why: these are the three principal ways in which our soil is made more fertile.
The word’s fruitfulness also poses a second question: there is a fruitful word growing in me (remember Col. 3:16?); how am I called to plant the word of God? I’ve learned that seed-sowing moments arise in hundreds of different ways, some predictable, and some a complete surprise. A “chance” one minute conversation, a class presentation, a response to an email. Sometimes the encounter is very explicitly word-of-God driven; often it is more subtle, a signpost to a better way. My personal inspiration for honouring the fruitfulness of the Word comes from Ecclesiastes 11: 6 – “Sow your seed in the morning, and at evening let not your hands be idle, for you do not know which will succeed...”
May the Lord bless you as his Word grows in you, and as you become part of its fruitfulness.
Prayer: Dear Lord, thank you for fashioning me as seed-sower, a partner of your fruitfulness; grant me the grace to sow with courage and trust, Amen.
Hymn:
Father, grant your Holy Spirit in our hearts may rule today,
Grieved not, quenched not, but unhindered, work in us his sovereign way.
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