John 5:39-47
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
Dear congregation! Today I am preaching a sermon that Pastor Hans Hoßbach preached in the Protestant parish in Leun and Tiefenbach on 6 June 2021. I didn't need to change much.
Dear congregation, some people call the Bible a ‘bestseller without a reader’. There is no other book in the world that is still being printed and sold as often as the Bible. And although it has been translated into many languages, people in other parts of the world long to own a Bible in their mother tongue.
What is the situation here in South Africa, in Pretoria? Has the Bible also become a ‘bestseller without a reader’ here? How often do we read the Bible? Short passages are read out in church services. In the divine service booklets or calendars, only selected verses are taken from the Bible. Who still regularly picks up the Holy Scriptures, reading them for advice and help for their own lives? We probably read less at all. Although we are inundated with images, texts and information, it is precisely for this reason that we often only notice it in passing and immediately dismiss the news from our minds.
How can the Bible, the Holy Scriptures, the Word of God help us to live in this world?
Already in the first Christian communities, there were discussions about how the words of the ancient scriptures can lead to life. This is also shown by today's passage from the Bible, more precisely from the Gospel of John. Back then, almost 2000 years ago, when the Gospel was written, the Christian communities were small. Christians often came under pressure because of their faith. On the one hand, they had to suffer disadvantages in public and were sometimes also massively persecuted. On the other hand, they were ridiculed for their faith in Jesus, who had died so miserably on the cross. Their faith was also attacked by convinced Jews. There were disputes about the understanding of the books of Moses and the prophets, which were cited by both Christians and Jews.
To reassure and strengthen the Christians in their faith, John wrote a summary of Jesus' words and his speeches in the Gospel of John. One of Jesus' speeches is the Bible texts for this Sunday; John 5, verses 39-47. Jesus says to the Jewish scholars who criticise him:
39 You study[a] the Scriptures diligently because you think that in them you have eternal life. These are the very Scriptures that testify about me,
40 yet you refuse to come to me to have life.
41 “I do not accept glory from human beings,
42 but I know you. I know that you do not have the love of God in your hearts.
43 I have come in my Father’s name, and you do not accept me; but if someone else comes in his own name, you will accept him.
44 How can you believe since you accept glory from one another but do not seek the glory that comes from the only God[b]?
45 “But do not think I will accuse you before the Father. Your accuser is Moses, on whom your hopes are set.
46 If you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote about me. 47 But since you do not believe what he wrote, how are you going to believe what I say?”
We live in a different world than John did almost 2000 years ago. Unlike back then, it is not we Christians who are being harassed by Jews today, but rather Jews who have been oppressed and persecuted by Christians for centuries. We must stand against this because Jesus himself was a Jew, because the Jewish people were chosen by God and because in their faith lies the roots of our faith.
Despite all the differences to back then, we can still learn from the words of the Gospel of John today. It is about the question of how we can read the Bible in such a way that we can find true life in it.
I am reminded of the story of the conversion of the Father of the Church, Augustine. Augustine lived at the end of the 4th century, at a time when Christianity had just become the state religion. He himself was anything but a devoted Christian. Although he had heard some things about the Christian faith from his mother; as a gifted scientist, he was also familiar with the scriptures of the Bible, but this played no role in his life. As one would say today, he led a rather loose life that did not conform to the moral standards of the time. Yet at the same time, he searched for the truth and was sometimes desperate that he could not find true life. One day, as he later recounts in his most famous writing, the ‘Confessions’, as he lay in despair in a garden, he heard a voice singing: Tolle, lege; which means in German: Take and read. He understood this as a hint from God and so he opened the Bible. In Paul's letter to the Romans, he read: ‘Let us live honourably, as people who live in the light of day - no orgies or drunkenness, no immorality or indecency, no fighting or jealousy, but putting on the Lord Jesus Christ.’ (Romans 13:13f.)
He now read this differently than he had previously read in the Bible: not with the eyes of a scientist, but as words that were addressed to him personally. Augustine describes how his doubt receded, and he experienced peace within himself. He changed his life and was soon baptised. He later became a bishop and a famous teacher of the church.
It was similar for Martin Luther several hundred years later: his new understanding of faith came from his intensive study of the Bible. Suddenly the words of Romans spoke to him in a completely different way, and everything became new for Luther.
So that's what it's all about: not just reading but allowing the words to speak to us. Not just that we read the Bible at all, but that we relate the words to our lives. This is how we will find truth, love and life. It is important that we open our minds, hearts and wills as we read.
I would like to elaborate on this by looking at today's passage from the Gospel of John:
1.Firstly, we need to open our minds to what we are reading. In the age of the worldwide web and smartphones, we easily behave like computers ourselves. Only what we really perceive and take seriously can become important for our lives. In the Gospel of John, Jesus says: "If you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote about me. But if you do not believe his words, how will you believe mine?" Jesus wants us to believe the words. It is about trusting that we will find truth in the words of the Bible. We have our minds to deal with how the words of the Bible can become true for our lives. This needs trust in the truth of the Word of God.
2. Secondly, it is about opening our hearts to the word of God. Believing in God is above all a matter of the heart. It is certainly wrong for some people to think that Christian faith requires us to switch off our critical thinking. The mind is as much a part of it as the heart. In today's Bible text, Jesus says: "I know you do not have God's love in you. I have come in my Father's name and you do not receive me". Only someone who opens their heart to God's word can have God's love in them. God's word is about more than the words we read. God's word is Jesus himself. ‘God was the Word’, it says at the beginning of the Gospel of John, and continues: ‘And the Word became man and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory.’ (John 1:1.14) Every year at Christmas, we celebrate God's Word becoming man in Jesus; but it is only when we open our hearts to this that God's love will dwell in us. Opening your heart to the glory of God in this way is a risk that requires a great deal of trust. But only by trusting in God's love will we truly live.
3. Thirdly - Finally, it is about opening our will to a life under God's Word. Opening our minds and hearts to God may still be acceptable, but putting our own will in God's hands? ‘Thy Will be done’, we pray in the Lord's Prayer. This is not about something far away. Opening our own lives to God's will day after day requires trust. And this is precisely where the promise of eternal life lies. As Jesus says: “You search in the scriptures, because you think you have eternal life in them; and they are they that testify of me, but you will not come to me that you may have life”. It takes a great deal of trust to open your will to the Word of God.
As Christians, we can say: trustingly open ourselves to the word of God - Jesus - with our mind, heart and will: this is how Jesus Christ comes into our lives. This is how we can find the true life that is valid today and lasts forever.
And the peace of God, which is higher than all our reason, will keep our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Prayer: Yes, Lord Jesus Christ, it is not easy for us to open our minds, hearts and wills to You and Your Word. So much in our time seems to speak against trusting You. So many voices come across as louder and more insistent than Your Word. So much distracts us, makes us comfortable or superficial. We ask You: Strengthen our trust; help us in our little faith so that we may hear and understand and live accordingly. Amen.