Monday Morning Mail, 15th April 2013

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Loving God | Loving Each Other | Loving our Community

Good Morning!


Yesterday morning we were looking at Isaiah 55, which is a passage which really challenged me about the transformation which God's word can and should bring to our lives.


As a vicar, it can be a temptation to read the Bible as something to be studied academically – that's sometimes the way it's taught in theological colleges. When I was a child, I read the Bible as a story to be mined for interesting details. But the Bible is not meant to be "interesting", though I suppose that's better than being "boring" which is often how it is portrayed. The Bible, as God's word, is meant to be transforming. Hebrews says that the "the word of God is alive 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."


In the passage we looked at yesterday morning, Isaiah says that God's word is like rain and snow, which always accomplishes the purpose for which God sends it out. The people's experience of life and land they lived in was pretty close to being desert. And when the rain falls on a desert, it produces spectacular results. In the 11am service, I showed a film of what happens in Death Valley after it rains. Here's a longer film of a desert blooming after the rain.


God's Word, when we let it fall on the dry and dusty parts of our lives, of our community, transforms them and makes them bloom. Yet so often, when there are parts of our lives that desperately need his rain, we try to keep them dry because we want to keep them safe and don't want to be hurt any more. But God longs to transform them, so they they become a source of life both for us and for others.


The Collect for Bible Sunday gets close to this:


Blessed Lord,

who caused all holy Scriptures to be written for our learning:

help us so to hear them,

to read, mark, learn and inwardly digest them

that, through patience, and the comfort of your holy word,

we may embrace and for ever hold fast

the hope of everlasting life,

which you have given us in our Saviour Jesus Christ,

who is alive and reigns with you,

in the unity of the Holy Spirit,

one God, now and for ever. Amen



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