Community Covenant Church - Sermons - Sacred Rhythms: Encountering God in His Word

July 15, 2007

Call to Worship

Psalm 119:105-112

105 Your word is a lamp to my feet
and a light for my path.

106 I have taken an oath and confirmed it,
that I will follow your righteous laws.

107 I have suffered much;
preserve my life, O LORD, according to your word.

108 Accept, O LORD, the willing praise of my mouth,
and teach me your laws.

109 Though I constantly take my life in my hands,
I will not forget your law.

110 The wicked have set a snare for me,
but I have not strayed from your precepts.

111 Your statutes are my heritage forever;
they are the joy of my heart.

112 My heart is set on keeping your decrees
to the very end.

Scripture Readings

Psalm 119:9-16

9 How can a young man keep his way pure?
By living according to your word.

10 I seek you with all my heart;
do not let me stray from your commands.

11 I have hidden your word in my heart
that I might not sin against you.

12 Praise be to you, O LORD;
teach me your decrees.

13 With my lips I recount
all the laws that come from your mouth.

14 I rejoice in following your statutes
as one rejoices in great riches.

15 I meditate on your precepts
and consider your ways.

16 I delight in your decrees;
I will not neglect your word.

Hebrews 4:12

For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.

Message: “Sacred Rhythms: “Encountering God in His Word “

Do you have a favorite Bible story? Something that touched you deeply in recent months, or maybe one that spoke to you many years ago but still resonates in your heart today?

Maybe you have a favorite Bible verse…. A thought or a phrase first spoken centuries ago in Hebrew or Aramaic, but words which became very real in your life.. something that connected you with God; with faith, with hope, or with His love for us.

I believe I have told you before that one such Bible story for me, is the Old Testament story of Joseph… the favored son of Jacob…. Sold by his jealous brothers into slavery, but used by God for his plan of salvation. I am never able to read of Joseph’s forgiveness of his brothers without a warming of my heart. For reasons I have yet to fully understand, that is my scripture story.

But as far as scripture verses that have grabbed a hold of me, I would say that one such verse came from the words of the Apostle Paul in the sixth chapter of Romans, where he is writing about sin and righteousness.

Romans 6:16

Don't you know that when you offer yourselves to someone to obey him as slaves, you are slaves to the one whom you obey—whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness?

Now that may sound like an obscure verse to you, but to me it proclaims reality. It tells me that true freedom is only experienced when we give ourselves to God. It told me that any freedom apart from God is in reality slavery to sin. For me Romans 6:16 defines the American experience, where our cultural “freedoms” either leads to holy living or to death & destruction. And as many of you may remember from scripture, again from Romans 6:

Romans 6:22-23

….. now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

I say this in preface to this morning’s message about the Bible, God’s written Word, because I whole-heartedly believe that if we are not allowing God to transform us by reading His Word, then we are allowing the world to enslave us.

In other words, if we are not what the Bible refers to as bond-servants of God, that is people who have been freed by the cross, but who willfully obligate themselves back to God and to His will, we are slaves to the world and all its sins. It is one or the other; slaves to God or slaves to the world. Romans 6:16 says:

You can proclaim “freedom” all we want,

- but when you drive through a Burger King tomorrow because we saw a Whopper commercial at 10 pm tonight; or

- when you buy a certain car because you like the image advertisers have linked to it, or

- when you purchase something you cannot afford and do not need, and allow feelings of greed and envy to create financial problems for you and your family,

…then all your talk about “freedom” become babble in light of your obvious slavery to the world.

Again, I whole-heartedly believe that if we are not allowing God to transform us by receiving His Word, then we are allowing the world to enslave us.

This summer as we consider ways we can draw closer to God, I want you to consider two questions related to the Bible.

1. Do you honor the Bible as God’s Word by receiving this gift on a regular basis?

Do you know that the same Psalmist who wrote

Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path. - Psalm 119:105

Also wrote 175 more verses in the same Psalm to describe his love for receiving God’s Word? It was not hard for me to choose a Call to Worship Psalm or a Scripture Psalm to be read…. It’s all Psalm 119.

Today;

- We can sit down, open up a Bible and read God’s Word in our favorite translation;

- We can turn on a computer, on our desk on our lap or in our hands, to study God’s Word with scholars from around the world;

- We can even download your favorite Bible translation to your iPod to hear as you jog down your road or sit at the beach.

God Word is available everywhere through every kind of media. But, are we receiving it? Are we “answering” when the phone rings, and the caller ID says God is on the line? Are we honoring God’s Word by receiving this gift on a regular basis? And, if we are receiving it, are we trying to understand God’s Word as clearly as possible? Will we be remembered as were the Berean Christians in the Book of Acts, the people of Berea who…

Acts 17:11

…. were of more noble character than the Thessalonians, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true.

Are we honoring the Bible as God’s Word, and trying to understand it the best we can? Also, are we going beyond the academic of God’s Word? Do you know that the Bible is more that an ancient collection of 66 writings inspired by God for our study?

Unlike a few of my seminary friends, I am not an historian disguised as a Pastor. I am not one to spend hours in a new members’ class talking about the history of Protestant Reformation or even the Covenant Church. But as I took Church History classes in seminary, I was fascinated by certain Christians who, though they lived long before the Covenant Church came into being, had a great influence over who we are today.

One such person was Philipp Jacob Spener. Spener was a 17^th century German Lutheran pastor who challenged the church to go beyond simply recognizing the authority and inspiration of God’s Word, by recognizing the Bible as central to the life of the congregation and individual believers. Stated in practical terms, Philipp Jacob Spener called for the recognition of the living nature of God’s Word. For many in Spener’s day the Bible was simply information, or laws or rules; but for Spener the Bible was power to effect change in the life of the hearer through the Holy Spirit. (Citation: Covenant Affirmations, p. 8)

So let me ask you a second question about using the Bible to draw closer to God: If you are honoring the Bible as God’s Word by regularly reading it….

2. Are you meeting God and His transforming power in His Word?

We heard it read earlier:

…the word of God is living and active (Hebrews 4:12a)

What a silly thing to say about something so ancient! “Living and active!?” (Sounds like a yogurt culture!)

Even in New Testament days God’s written Word was 13-hundred years old. Today it is 33-hundred years old… even older of you begin counting the oral-tradition before the days of Moses. How can something over 3,000 years old be “living and active”?

Simply put: The word of God is living and active because the same Spirit who inspired the ancient writers of scripture, is living and active among all who, to this very day, receive God’s Word with faith.

Are there thousands of years separating the writing from our receiving of God’s Word today? You bet.

Are there enormous cultural and linguistic divides between the many generations and nations who have received God’s Word? You bet.

Does the Holy Spirit have any problem making God’s Word living and active for anyone at anytime, who receive it in faith? No!

The word of God is living and active because the same Spirit, who inspired the ancient writers of scripture, is living and active among all who to this very day receive God’s Word with faith.

While the connection between God’s Word and God’s Spirit goes all the way back to Genesis 1 where God’s Word calls everything into being as the Spirit hovers over the waters…. A New Testament connection that may first come to mind is when the Apostle Paul is talking about the “armor of God” we have to put on as we live in this spiritually-dangerous world. For among the battle gear Paul describes is:

Ephesians 6:17b

the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

When the writer of Hebrews tells that that:

….the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.

… we should not forget in whose hands we find God’s Word. The Spirit and the Word are inseparable.

And while the imagery of the New Testament makes use of the armaments of the then familiar Roman soldier, today I tend to imagine a scalpel in the hands of a surgeon; deadly sharp but life-giving; able to dissect muscle from bone; able to discerning diseased tissue from healthy tissue.

Just as God’s Word, the sword of the Spirit defends us from external worldly threats and frees people by wielding God’s truth; so too is God’s Word alive and active within us, as we allow the Holy Spirit to surgically examine & explore our hearts and to cleanse us from all our sin.

Are you meeting God and His transforming power in His Word? Is the Bible alive and actively changing you? Or, have you forgotten the work of the Spirit, and allowed the Bible to become nothing other that an ancient textbook you once studied? What do your reading or listening habits say about the place of God’s Word in your life?

This morning I want to give you a taste of meeting with God in His Word, and experiencing the “living and active” transforming power of His Word. I want to read a passage of scripture and ask you to receive it not as “information”, but to receive it as an opportunity for transformation right now.

This method of reading scripture is an ancient form known as Lectio Divina (“divine reading”), and it seeks not so much to better understand God from a cognitive standpoint, but to allow God to speak to us in a relational way. As a Pastor, I have personally found this method of reading scripture very helpful, for the Bible can quickly become a “textbook” for theologians, a tool that helps us apply our trade. It becomes a collection of stories and verses that can help parishioners face the joys and sorrows of life. The Bible is a text for Sunday morning messages, for Bible studies, for devotional commentaries, for retreats as well as for wedding and funeral meditations.

But if we are interested in drawing closer to God, Lectio Divina allows God’s Word to speak to pastors and parishioners alike; to experience God’s Word as “alive and active”, and not just a source of information to be used for our purposes.

Are you ready? Here we go.

I have chosen God’s Word from Ezekiel 37:1-10. What I am going to do is to read it four times. Now this would be a strange use of time if we were reading simply for information. But in these four readings I will invite you to listen for God’s Spirit to make His Words significant (living & active) for you right here and now.

But before I read, would you bow your head and enter into a moment of quiet preparation? Forget what is on your agenda for after worship. Let the noises around us be silenced by your hearts desire to sit in God’s presence and to hear His voice speaking to you.

1. Reading - As I read what may be a familiar passage from the Book of the Prophet Ezekiel, listen carefully for a word or a phrase that strikes you, an image or an emotion that you sense; be alert to that which stand out for you in this reading.

Ezekiel 37:1-10

1 The hand of the LORD was upon me, and he brought me out by the Spirit of the LORD and set me in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones. 2 He led me back and forth among them, and I saw a great many bones on the floor of the valley, bones that were very dry. 3 He asked me, “Son of man, can these bones live?”
I said, “O Sovereign LORD, you alone know.”

4 Then he said to me, “Prophesy to these bones and say to them, ‘Dry bones, hear the word of the LORD! 5 This is what the Sovereign LORD says to these bones: I will make breath enter you, and you will come to life. 6 I will attach tendons to you and make flesh come upon you and cover you with skin; I will put breath in you, and you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the LORD.’ “

7 So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I was prophesying, there was a noise, a rattling sound, and the bones came together, bone to bone. 8 I looked, and tendons and flesh appeared on them and skin covered them, but there was no breath in them.

9 Then he said to me, “Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and say to it, ‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe into these slain, that they may live.’ “ 10 So I prophesied as he commanded me, and breath entered them; they came to life and stood up on their feet—a vast army.

Remain silent as you reflect about that which struck you in this reading.. what is it that stood out? What word or phrase caught your attention? What image or emotion to do see or feel?

Now, write that down on your morning message insert.

What word or phrase, image or feeling struck you during this first reading? __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

2. Reflecting – As I read God’s Word a second time, I want you to reflect more upon what struck you. As you hear God’s Word, ask God’s Spirit to connect you with what’s going on in your life that made those things stand out for you.”

In silence, ask God to do that for you as we await His Word again………..:

Ezekiel 37:1-10

Again, go to your message insert and answer the question:

“What’s going on in my life that made certain things stand out for me?”

3. Responding – As I read God’s Word a third time, consider how you might respond to what God is saying to you. In other words, if this passage fills you with pain, or encouragement; if you feel like “dry bones”, or the one called by God to proclaim His Words to the dry bones, what would you like to say to God? What would be your first “gut” response to God’s Word for you this morning?

Ezekiel 37:1-10

What is your first “gut” response to God’s Word for you this morning? Would you ask Him a question? Would you get angry? Would you thank Him? God is speaking to you; write down your first response to Him.

4. Rest in God – In a final reading, I invite you to rest in God. As we meet with God in the power of His transforming Word, we come expecting change, and expecting the difficulties of change. Perhaps God has spoken a difficult Word to you through this passage from Ezekiel. Maybe God has revealed needed changes in your life that you have resisted for years, or simply don’t have a clue just how to address.

As I read this passage a final time, hear God’s Word as you rest in the knowledge that God will enable you to accomplish all He asks of you. He knows you better than yourself…He knows the numbers of hairs on your head, He knows your strengths and your weaknesses, He knows exactly what you are capable of, and what He can accomplish in you if you only let Him.

As I read from Ezekiel a final time, rest in God’s hands as you trust in His power to help you respond to whatever invitation for transformation He has offered to you through this Word.

Ezekiel 37:1-10

Based on God’s Word from Ezekiel, what will God help you to accomplish in the days ahead? (What does God want to “work on” with you?) ________________________________________________________________

This morning we have learned what may be for some of us, a different way to read the Bible; not the only way, but one important way. And while this time, to a certain measure, was a cognitive exercise, I hope it was more than that for you; I hope you felt God’s presence, I hope you heard His voice, and I hope you discovered that the Bible is not “ancient”, but that by the power of God’s Spirit it is living and active, guiding and transforming those who accept it as the very Word of God.

Take that Word with you now, as you go back to your world. Keep it before you. Let it change you. And let your transforming life give witness for others to see God’s presence and power. AMEN

Scripture taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION