6/12/24
Reading the Bible, studying the Bible . . . it’s something we talk a lot around Christ Church, and it’s one of the reasons we came into being. God has given us one tangible object as a witness to God’s loving work, and if we’re going to be the people of God, we need to know as much about it as possible.
Through studying and reading the Bible, we seek to know Jesus Christ, and learn how to be like him, and how to do the things he said to do. We can only accomplish this by spending time in God’s word.
Not everything that goes under the title, “Bible Study,” is truly a Bible study. I often say that a “Bible Study” should be a study of the Bible. That seems simple and obvious, but some “studies” I’ve sat through seemed more focused on an entertaining personality, regaling the listeners with stories about his or her own personal life with the Bible being no more than a tangential springboard for their shtick.
True, that’s more fun (and a lot easier) than plowing through some of the obscure or challenging scriptures written to people who lived more than 3,000 years ago . . . but God has given us the gift of the Bible, and even in the more obscure parts, embedded in what might seem the driest parts of the Old Testament Law, we can see the love of God shine through — if we have eyes to see.
For instance, when people are trying to read the Bible from beginning to end (not the easiest thing to do), they often get to Leviticus and give up. All those laws . . . all those details . . . our eyes glaze over . . . we might even feel a nap coming on . . .
But if we stick with it, in the middle of all the laws, rules and regulations we can see the sort of God we worship and the sort of people God wants us to be.
For example, in Leviticus 19, God tells his people, “You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy.” “Holy” meant that they belonged to God in a special way, and the way they lived their lives was a reflection of the God they served. Over and over in the chapter the people are reminded, “I am the Lord your God” which implies “This is Who I am, I am your God, you are my people . . . now live like it.
So, in 19:3-8, God reiterates several of the Ten Commandments (honor your parents, keep the Sabbath, no false gods) and gives some instruction about offering a sacrifice of well-being. Eight verses in and already your eyes are glazing over. Ten Commandments . . . sacrifice . . . religious stuff . . . fine . . .
But wait! Then God says, “When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap to the very edges of your field, or gather the gleanings of your harvest. You shall not strip your vineyard bare, or gather the fallen grapes of your vineyard.”
Why? Not worshiping false gods, I can understand that. Keeping the Sabbath, honoring your folks — even not messing up an offering. But why is God concerned with the way his people picked their crops? Seems a little meddlesome to me. But God continues: “you shall leave them for the poor and the alien: I am the Lord your God.”
Here we see the loving care of God for those in need. Part of being God’s people, living their lives as a reflection of the God they served, was to intentionally leave some for those who are less fortunate.
And it’s like that all throughout the chapter. The people are reminded of their “religious duties” and then God reminds them of their duties to their fellow humans: “you shall not keep for yourself the wages of a laborer until morning. You shall not revile the deaf or put a stumbling-block before the blind; you shall fear your God: I am the Lord.”
Maybe there’s no difference between our “religious duties” and our duties toward others.
Verse 18 gets us to the heart of the matter in words that should sound very familiar: “you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord.”
God’s intention from the beginning is that he would rule the world through us. Even though Adam and Eve sinned and the world was left in a fallen state, that vocation of God still stands. And God’s rule is not arbitrary nor angry. God’s rule is loving, and God has chosen to exercise his loving rule through us.
We just concluded a study of I John, and something jumped out at me that I’d never really understood before. In I John 4:12, John makes the most astounding declaration: “No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God lives in us, and his love is perfected in us” (4;12).
What does that mean, “his love is perfected in us”? Some translations will have something like “his love is brought to completion in us,” which works just as well. But how is God’s love brought to completion in us?
God began his loving project by sending Jesus to die for us. That’s how God ultimately showed his ultimate love! But that love didn’t stop with Jesus. The way we live our lives is a reflection of the God we serve.
God loves through us. No one has seen God, but they’ve surely seen me and you! People don’t really know who God is until they see God revealed in the lives of Christians. When they do, God’s love is perfected. Brought to its goal. Completed.
What God launched in Jesus, God completes in and through us.
That’s why our mission of “Loving God . . . Loving Others” is more than just a saying or a catchy, warm and fuzzy little slogan. It’s a vocation. It’s a calling. And it’s a calling that we all share as the people of God who call Christ Church home.
Blessings,
Pastor Terry