9/13/23

For students in 2023,  all the information in the world is in their hands anytime they need it. But when I was in school, if we were working on a research paper,  or if we needed a recipe, or if we needed to look at a map of a nearby city, or to look up a phone number in a neighboring state, or check out a movie (they were on 2 or 3 huge and heavy 16 mm reels), we had to get in the car and drive to the library. 

I have very vivid memories of the library. 

I spent a lot of time at the old Huntsville Public Library! I still remember the smell.  The carpet was a tattered gold. When you walked in, a staircase to the right took you up to the audio-visual room and the small, cramped,  Guntsville history room. Straight ahead was the main desk across from the magazines and newspapers. Beyond that, and stretching down the western wall was the fiction section (the last 5 rows held the mystery and science fiction books). The north wall stretching around to the east wall was the non-fiction section. Third row in, second column, third row down started the music, theatre and movie section (right next to the sports section, but those books all looked newer; I don’t think they got checked out much). Like I said . . . I have vivid memories of the library!

Not too long ago, Jackson Love and I stopped by the new Huntsville Library (an impersonal fortress aptly nicknamed Fort Book) and I showed him a book that had something I wrote in the margins back when I was in middle school. It’s my indelible contribution to the library!

I know it sounds goofy to some people, but seeing those old books I checked out, read and reread 40 and 50 years ago is like seeing old friends. 

And speaking of old friends . . .  one of the best things about studying at the library was meeting up with my friends. After junior high I transferred to a different school, so sometimes I would look up and see old friends doing research for their classes. Studying there on weeknights was accompanied by a constant low buzz that the librarian’s booming voice could never silence. 

Talking about this recently with some friends, we all agreed that our “social network” was the library.

As I said, now all that stuff is available to us 24/7 – research, movies, recipes, maps, phone numbers and people. I will not knock progress because, after all, I’m writing this on my phone while I’m sitting in a waiting room. 

But it has its limitations. 

There are some things we just need to know. There is some information that just needs to be part of our mental library so we can recall it instantly when we need it. Like 2x2. Or how many ounces are in a cup.  Or our phone numbers and the numbers of our emergency contacts. There are occasions when we won't have time to look those up!

I’ve talked and written quite a bit about the importance of having our own personal mental library of biblical knowledge. That’s why I  encourage you to read. In Matthew 13:52, Jesus says the writers of the New Testament (I’ll say more about this on Sunday) are like “the master of a household who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old.” The new is the gospel, and the old are the stories and promises found in the Old Testament. The New Testament writers weaved them together. 

As you read the New Testament, you’ll find Old Testament quotes and allusions all throughout. The gospels and Paul’s writings are especially loaded with quotes from Isaiah and the book of Psalms. Depending on who’s doing the counting, there are around 505 references and allusions to the Old Testament in the 404 verses of Revelation (some count as many as 1,000). 

Of course, you’d want to use outside resources to help you discover the different quotes and allusions, and one would have to be quite a scholar to catch everything . . . but there’s nothing like reading on your own and suddenly going, “Waitaminute! I know that!” 

And the way you can know is to build up your own personal library of biblical knowledge in your brain and that comes from reading and paying attention to what you’re reading. 

You might think, “I’m too old” or “that’s only for preachers” or something ridiculous like that. Nope. 

When I was in grad school, we had to pass a Bible content exam before we could graduate. It was basic Bible knowledge, stuff I thought everyone would know (I made the second highest grade on it in the history of the school – after one of the professors – not bragging; just facts). I was shocked that some of the guys going into ministry had to take it multiple times before they passed it, and even then some of them just barely passed it . . . and then they were turned loose on unsuspecting congregations! 

While at the first church I pastored, for some reason I was sent a copy of the test. Our Sunday School classes (which we unfortunately don’t have at Christ Church because of space) and Wednesday night classes were all in-depth Bible studies (a Bible study is a study of the Bible – not everyone sees it that way . . . which mystifies me), and had been so for several years, so I thought it might be interesting to give my Wednesday night group the test and see how they did. None of these folks were scholars, but they did read their Bibles.

Every person who took the test not only passed but excelled! They did better than many seminarians!

So I hope you are reading!  I’m especially digging our current reading. Luke and Acts together, with Paul’s letters inserted where it’s believed he wrote them . . . reading it this way gives me a better context for understanding the story. If you haven’t started, start now! We’ll be doing a different one starting in Advent, but don’t worry, we’ll come back around to this again. It’s the Word of God, and no matter how often you read it or how well you know it, you’ll never exhaust it!