Scripture: Psalm 24, Ephesians 1:1-14

Well, here we are in July, smack dab in the middle of another hot Atlanta summer. I hope you have been fortunate enough to get away or if not yet, that you have a vacation coming up. My family vacationed, we had a week away and we’ve got some more time ahead of us. But I suspect that for most of us summer, and especially summer vacation, is a great time to slow down. When I slow down, I read. I like nothing better than to compile a book list for the beach or the mountains and then leisurely sink into a comfortable chair and a good book or two or three.

So far I’ve read Flags of our Fathers, about the World War II battle of Iwo Jimo and the men who raised the flag in what became one of the most famous photographs of that war; I’ve read The Number, about nest eggs and retirement; not doing so well there. What Jesus Meant by Gary Wills, which is both provocative and challenging, a novel by former president of Amherst College entitled, Rules for Old Men Waiting and Barbara Brown Taylor’s memoir Leaving Church about her days and struggles as a parish priest. They are all good books, but I tell you the one I couldn’t put down is Flags of Our Fathers. I read the whole thing during a long day of travel by plane.

Finally, I will say that I am a bit disappointed that there is no new John Grisham novel out this summer. Well, what about you, what are you reading this summer?

Have you noticed that the City of Atlanta is both emphasizing the importance of reading and the building community by encouraging all of us to read a book together. By popular vote the book is Ferrol Sam’s Run with the Horsemen, the wonderful first book of a trilogy, a coming of age story of a young precocious Georgia farm boy Porter Osborne, growing up in the 1930’s. If you haven’t read that one, it is well worth it. Put it on your list.

It’s a great idea isn’t it; to all read a book together. As I thought more that concept, I began to think wouldn’t it be a great for us to do that, to read a book together as a congregation and I started thinking about possible books we might read. And then, of course, it occurred to me, as it has to you, that we already have a book which we read together – The Bible

In fact, we are a community shaped by and around the Scriptures. At least that’s what we claim. But let me ask you, how many of us are reading the Bible on our own these days or in groups? And I have to ask myself, how is it that I am compelled to read Flags of Our Fathers for 10 straight hours and give no thought to the Scriptures? Shouldn’t it be the Bible that we can’t put down? Sometimes I think I may be suffering from an occupational hazard of being a clergy person, of always being around the Bible, but rarely reading it. What about you?

Of course, the Bible is not just any book. In addition to it being a compilation of different types of writings by many authors and over many years, we Presbyterians believe as our Book of Order states that “Scripture is the record of God’s self revelation through which the Holy Spirit speaks to bear witness to Jesus Christ and to give authoritative direction for the life of faith.”

“Authoritative direction,” witness to Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit, Revelation all that’s pretty heavy stuff, and maybe that why some of us are reluctant, even afraid, to read the Bible, not only because it can be difficult to understand and interpret, especially if we have an archaic translation, but also because we may read something that challenges our comfort zones, that may convict us of our sin and that may require something of us. For instance, Jesus may say “Follow me” or “whatever you do unto the least of these you do it unto me.”

If we fail to read Scripture, we most likely are also missing the experience of God’s blessing and the good news of God’s grace in Jesus Christ, for, you see, the Holy Spirit speaks through the Bible bringing life and mercy, grace and truth.

Something happens when we read the Bible. Craig Dykstra in his book Growing in the Life of Faith puts it another way. He says simply, “The Bible should happen to us.” He goes on to relate a story told by Hans-Ruedi Weber in the book Experiments in Bible Study, about a woman in an East African village community:

“A simple woman always walked around with a bulky Bible. Never would she part from it. Soon the villagers began to tease her: “Why always the Bible? There are so many books you could read” Yet the woman kept on living with her Bible, neither disturbed nor angered by all the teasing. Finally one day she knelt down in the midst of those who laughed at her. Holding her Bible high above her head, she said with a big smile.” Yes, of course there are many books, which I could read. But there is only one book which reads me!”

Weber goes on, “Listening, analyzing, and reading, students of the Bible meet a living reality which begins to challenge them… This divine presence starts to question, judge, and guide us. Perhaps gradually, perhaps quite suddenly, the book which was the object of our reading and study becomes a subject which reads us.”

Has the Bible ever happened to you? It happened to Kathleen Norris, a Presbyterian who in her faith journey and search for God began to spend some time at a Benedictine monastery. She writes in her Book Amazing Grace: that whereas Presbyterians “are in a hurry to get to the next thing listed in the bulletin, “[m]onasteries have offered me the grace of worship without bulletins, and with considerable silences placed around the words of scripture that treat the Bible with such reverence that I feel compelled to offer it my full attention. Benedictines structure daily life around scripture; they hear it day in, day out, reading entire books straight through, a practice that allowed me to live in dialogue with the Bible until it began to convert me and became an essential part of my relationship with God.”

You know it has also happened to me. It first happened when I was 15 and at a Presbyterian summer camp. One morning after worship we were asked to go outside, find a quiet place and read the 12^th chapter of Paul’s letter to the Church in Rome and then to come back to the meeting hall if we desired to commit our lives to the Lordship of Christ. Well, I read Romans 12. It was the in J.B. Phillips Translation that some of you will remember. This is what it said, “With eyes wide open to the mercies of God, I beg you, my brothers, as an act of intelligent worship, to give him your bodies, as a living sacrifice, consecrated to him and acceptable to him. Don’t let the world squeeze you into its own mould, but let God re-mould your minds from within, so that you may prove in practice that the plan of God for you is good, meets all his demands and moves towards the goal of true maturity.”

Just words, I know. But it is hard to describe what happened. It was as if the words leapt off the page, and seared into my brain, into my soul, as if God were speaking directly to me, saying “now is the time”. I knew and I saw in an entirely new way, with a deeper understanding than anything I had ever experienced before. In the language of Paul, I believe “the eyes of my heart were enlightened” It was through the Bible and it was the first time that I consciously and wholeheartedly understood and responded to God’s grace

What about you? Have you heard God calling you? Has the Bible by the power of the Holy Spirit happened to you? You know ,several years ago Howard Rice wrote a book called Reformed Spirituality in which reported that studies show that we Presbyterians have as many religious experiences of God as other Christians, but that we are for some reason more reluctant to talk about them. Why is that I wonder? We need to encourage each other to be reading the Scriptures.

May I offer some Bible reading suggestions that have been helpful to me?

Start by reading a psalm a day. The Psalms have long the Church’s prayer book. John Calvin spoke of the Psalms as “an anatomie of the soul” in which every human emotion is expressed. The psalm this morning, Psalm 24, declares “the earth is the Lord’s and all that is in it, the world and those who live in it.” Don’t’ we need to be reminded of that everyday? And that the “steadfast love of the Lord” lasts forever?

Pick a gospel and read it through, just read it, don’t try to study it. You might start with Mark the shortest or the gospel of John, the most intimate portrayal of Jesus. Whichever you pick, just read it. As Eugene Peterson who wrote the popular paraphrase “The Message” says, “Reading is the first thing, just reading….it is important simply to read, leisurely and thoughtfully.”

Read through a letter of Paul, all at one sitting. This morning because of our format, our tradition and our time constraints we could only read the first 14 verses of Ephesians, but that was just an introduction. Read it all, all 6 chapters. I have been doing that this summer, carrying around a copy of Peterson’s paraphrase, trying to immerse myself in this one letter.

For daily reading you can go to our website www.firstpresatl.org, go to “Worship” then “Prayer and Spiritual Growth” you will find a “Daily Lectionary Readings” link which will take you to prescribed Bible readings for each day.

For those who are really ambitious there are Bibles such as The Daily Walk Bible that will direct you through readings at a pace of reading the entire Bible in one year.

Try to develop the discipline of taking time in the morning or evening for Bible reading and prayer. What some call a “quiet time” our Book of Order describes as daily “Personal worship, which centers upon Scripture as one reads and listens for God’s Spirit to speak.” Pray before you read that you may be open to hear God’s voice.

A word of advice if you try the morning – don’t go to the internet or the newspaper or TV first. If you start with the paper you may never make it to the Bible. I have found, however, that a strong cup of coffee in a favorite mug is a good companion.

By the way, I am not saying that we should not read the newspaper. In fact, we should be well informed and in a week like this one when we have seen war raging in Lebanon and Israel and many other matters of concern, we should be praying for this world.

And we should be reading the Bible together, not just here in worship. There are many opportunities. Sign up for a Disciple class. The Disciple program has had a profound effect on many members of our church and on our church itself. Join a Sunday School Class when they reconvene in the fall. You know we are not monks, but maybe we could even get together and have a class or a time where we just read Scripture aloud to one another and pray. Who knows what might happen to us, and in us and through us?

The point is not to acquire Biblical knowledge, as important as that is, but the point is to get in touch with the living God who made us and Christ who redeemed us and the Spirit who empowers us. It is to learn our own story, to come to know the faith into which we have all been baptized and to learn what it means to follow Jesus Christ as Savior wherever he might lead us.

Did you hear the Scripture we read this morning from the letter to the Ephesians? Believed to be written by Paul or a disciple of Paul, and circulated to the churches in Asia Minor, it is a passionate declaration of Jesus Christ as Lord, an exhortation to unity and a call to holy living.

To Paul, it is all about Jesus... Look at what is described in just the first 14 verses. Paul is an apostle of Christ Jesus, writing to the faithful in Christ about the grace of Christ. We are blessed in Christ, chosen in Christ, adopted as children of the loving Father in Christ. We are redeemed and forgiven by the blood of Christ , we have received the riches of God’s grace in Christ this grace in Christ all things in heaven and earth are united, our hope is in “Christ” and in him we have received the word of truth, the gospel of salvation and the seal of the promised Holy Spirit.

And that's just the first 14 verses! Don’t you want to read on and get to the heart of what Paul really wants to say, to hear how he encourages these early believers and us to fully live this Christian life? If we read on, we will read that we have been saved by grace, created by Christ Jesus for good works which God has prepared for us to walk in that there is one body and spirit, one hope one Lord one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of us all.” And at the end of the letter we will be exhorted “to be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. To put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil”.

Well, I conclude with this. If you read Ephesians and the rest of Scripture and our Presbyterian confessions, and our own Statement of Purpose on the front of the bulletin, it is abundantly clear that we are here today, that we exist as a congregation for one reason and only one reason: to worship and serve the God made known to us in Jesus Christ.

I heard Craig Barnes, now the pastor of the Shadyside Presbyterian Church in Pittsburgh, tell the story of greeting people at the door after worship one Sunday. A woman while shaking Craig’s hand also shook her head, saying, “Jesus, Jesus, Jesus is that all you are ever going to preach about?’ Craig’s responded, “Yeah, that’s pretty much it.”

Look if there is any question about it, all we have to do is look around this place where we worship every Sunday. And we see the wisdom and the faith of those who have come before us. Look at the windows. With the exception of the Rose window above us, all were installed long ago and they insure that all who worship here will never forget why we are here. The windows tell the story of salvation, this side beginning with the promise to Abraham, the prophets and David the psalmist, the birth of Jesus, the Sermon on the Mount, and dark Gethsemane. And then on this other side, the resurrection, ascension, Pentecost and tongues of fire, the stoning of Steven and the preaching and missionary journeys of Paul. Above us and in front of us the empty cross and in the Rose window Jesus seated in glory. Behind us Jesus coming again in clouds of glory.

You see it is all about Jesus. Here in this place it’s as if we are literally inside the Scriptures, we are part of the story and the drama. Christ beside us, Christ above us, Christ behind us. We are together in Christ, just as the Bible tells us.

Summer reading? Isn’t it time to put the Bible on your list? You see if you read the Bible, we just might find out who you really are – for in Christ you are the beloved child of the Father. And that makes us all family (but we are not going with you on your summer vacation). And if we read the Bible you just might discover what you are to do with this life you have been given – to live for the praise of his glory and to walk in the good works he has prepared for you. And all this in just one book, it ought to make a great summer read. To God be all praise and glory! Alleluia! Amen.