2 Timothy 3:12-17; 2 Peter 1:20-21: Luke 8:4-15
Read from Lutheran handbook
Imagine the scene… let’s presume it was a hot summer day, easy to imagine recently. You are sitting on a small hill outside a small town. Hot from walking and dirty from the dust stirred up by the crowds that have gathered. It’s probably afternoon, though we don’t know. I say probably because it seems to me that that is when most of these teachings took place. You know… “loaves and fishes” time of day. But no loaves and fishes today, so you’re probably hungry.
You are one of a crowd who follows Jesus. In fact you were called from a fishing boat, left everything and followed him. And this after he had taught you to fish on such a way that the weight of the fish you caught nearly broke your nets. You’ve seen Him heal several people, including a paralyzed man that was lowered through a roof because the crowds were so big, you’ve seen him raise the dead, learned at his feet as he was quizzed on topics like fasting and the Sabbath. This man is a captivating speaker and an incredible story teller. He frequently speaks in parables, some of which he has explained, but many of which he simply presents and leaves the application to you. And now, here he is, with another parable…And in the middle of his teaching he stops… pauses and, looking around asks
“ARE YOU LISTENING TO THIS? REALLY LISTENING?” He had never stopped in the middle of a teaching before to ask “Hey you… in the back… you awake and paying attention?” I bet it got awful quiet. And then one of you has the courage to break the silence and ask “WHY DID YOU TELL US THIS STORY”? If it is so important that Jesus stopped to make sure that everyone was listening, someone figured they’d better ask to make sure they understood…
And Jesus explains that the parable relates the word of God and does so in a way that the people of his day, a rural, “close to the land” type of people could understand…
If he’d been speaking in Minnesota he might have talked about fishing.. And the lures that get “snatched away by the devil”, or lost in the weeds… here in Colorado talking to skiers he may have talked about snow… falling on the roads and being plowed away. Or on flat meadows, where just sits, or falling on the mountains where it can grow and be enjoyed and then melt for use on our lawns this summer….
In any case it was obvious that it was important for Jesus that those listening understood the significance of this parable. Understood the significance of the Word of God.
Martin Luther picked up on that significance. In his large catechism he wrote:
GOD’S WORD IS NOT LIKE SOME EMPTY TALE… IT IS THE POWER OF GOD, INDEED THE POWER OF GOD THAT BURNS THE DEVIL AND GIVES US IMMEASURABLE STRENGTH, COMFORT AND HELP. WY SHOULD I WASTE WORDS? TIME AND PAPER WOULD FAIL ME IF I WERE TO RECOUNT ALL THE BLESSINGS THAT FLOW FROM GODS WORD……SHALL WE FRIVOUSLY DESPISE THIS MIGHT, POWER AND FRUIT?... IF SO WE DESERVE NOT ONLY TO BE REFUSED FOOD BUUT TO BE CHASED OUT BY DOGS AND PELTED WITH DUNG. I like the “pelted with dung” part.
So, what do Lutherans mean by the “WORD of GOD”.
The Word of God is a Living Appeal which, when heard, enters our hearts and calls for a radical change. The exact words/versions/translations are not the key… the key is that is LIVING and enters into you and grows… like a seed.
In the same way that baptism isn’t about the water, the WORD isn’t specifically about the words. KJV, RSV, NRSV, Latin, German, Toddlers Bible…. All can and do enter hearts as the LIVING WORD, and ask for the listener, or reader, to change. A life change beyond what we can imagine.
I’ll never forget the day….There I was… at a table, with an incredible woman in front of me. We had spent a fair amount of time getting to know each other, I knew I was doing the right thing, and yet… I was nervous. Not as nervous as she would have been if she knew what was coming up. Taking her hand in mine, looking into her eyes…”Stacey… will you marry me”. I’m not sure if those were the EXACT words, but pretty close. In any case, she knew what I meant. Now imagine her position… she is a bright, successful woman who has lived on her own for 20 years. She is comfortable with who she is and how her life is. She heard the words I spoke… but my real request wasn’t to have her wear a dress, walk down the aisle, have Rob say some words, and then eat cake and champagne.… I was really appealing to her to change her life. A significant, FUNDAMENTAL change. Everything about her life would change… her friends, her family, her freedom, her finances, her future, her hopes, her dreams, her plans. I had asked her to make a change. A change that would change her in ways she couldn’t imagine.
Hearing The Word of God isn’t about reading or hearing the words in the Bible, anymore than hearing my proposal wasn’t about just the words I spoke. Truly “hearing” the Word of God it is about responding to His appeal that we change. Fundamental and life altering changes.
As for the format that we have to hear the word… think back to the birth of Jesus. In a manger. The manger was probably wood, probably some worn boards, some missing nails, some newer boards where old ones had broken and been replaced. Maybe full of hay, maybe Mary lined it with a piece of cloth…we don’t know and it doesn’t really matter. It contained the Christ. The manger was “human” the baby was “divine”. The manger was “dead” the Christ was “living”. If he had been born in a bed of silk or the back of a taxi… it wouldn’t have mattered. It wouldn’t have changed his divinity. It wouldn’t have changed the message of love and redemption.
In the same sense, the exact format of the Bible that we use isn’t the key. We don’t worship relics, nor should we make idols of pages of paper… what we are called to do, however, is hear and respond to God’s Living Word. If we had the original copy of Luke’s letter to Theophilus or had the Bible on CD, if we used the RSV that I got when I was confirmed or the Toddlers Bible that we are starting to read at home… the type of paper, size of font and exact translation or version, all those “dead” aspects of the Bible, don’t change the grace and sacrifice of our God, the “living” part of the word. It doesn’t change his appeal to us to make a change. The seed is living, the paper is dead.
Think back to the parable again…there is the sower of seed, reaching into a bag of seed. The bag is “dead” like the wood in the manger. A hand reaches in and casts the seed far and wide, without prejudice, giving all ground an opportunity to receive the seed. At the moment it enters the ground, be it a hard path, or the fertile soil, the seed becomes alive… the Word of God is LIVING.. And begins to grow. At the moment the word of God is heard… it begins to grow in the person that hears it…. Lutheran theology teaches that this “LIVING” aspect of the Word of God is what is important.
So here you are on that hillside, listening to a man that can raise the dead, heal the sick and speak wisely about the ancient laws and the current reality in ways that you understand… and he ask you to let the Living Word of God fall on you, enter you and grow until harvest… will you listen?
Amen