Tag: Scripture

The Invitation

A Pondering on BIBLE SUNDAY, by my friend, The Revd. Becs Challis.

So, it’s Bible Sunday, this is a time where we pay special attention to and give thanks for the Bible in our lives as disciples….
I’ll be honest, for me I find this easier said than done….

  • First, the bible that I am currently paying most attention to is the NIV study bible (a big large hardback book) and I’m paying attention not because I am referencing it  but because it’s just the right size as a laptop stand on my desk.
  • Secondly, rather than simply give thanks  in my inner thoughts, I want to add “but did it really have to be SO long and SO complicated (not only to read but also to understand)
    And I’m not being flippant I am just recognizing my human condition and the fact that actually the bible if I think about it as a “book”,  for me is the source of a lot of shame. And I am going to hedge my bets that I am not totally alone in sometimes slipping into thinking things along these lines?

Yet this is actually the one day when many churches will be praying and giving thanks for the bible, so it’s worth us really understanding what we mean when we say that we are paying attention to and giving thanks for, the Bible. So let’s use this time to take away any  barriers we may have to connecting with God when we are thinking, praying or blowing the dust off and potentially even reading the bible!

So what is it, that we are actually giving thanks for, and can we put words to the impact that that has had on our lives and those around us?
We’re told in 2 Timothy (3:14-4:5) that all scripture is inspired by God, all of it. – The passages we love, the passages we’ve read over and over again, the verses we can recite and the bit’s we’re less familiar with, those sections we skim over or the ones we’ve never read, those passages that we can’t quite reconcile with our view of God, and those ones that have been interpreted differently and used as weapons against us or those we love…. All of them every word is inspired by God.
The bible is God breathed; all 66 books all 700 thousand plus words are inspired words of God. It is the most sold book  (not necessarily most read) but most controversial books in the world.
Yet it’s not a book at all, it’s an invitation into relationship with Jesus, it’s admittedly a very large, dense, wordy invitation. But it is an invitation all the same…

This is an invitation of hope:

  • an invitation to us here in church.
  • an invitation to those who we know aren’t here today
  • an invitation to those who ‘have never’ and ‘will never’ come here….
  • an invitation to the whole human race, the whole world, to all of us grace gifted misfits[1] that in some way don’t think we are good enough

    But what do we do, how do we access this invitation?

Well in Paul’s letter to Timothy there’s a sense of urgency, whatever you do, do something because the Bible is invitation into relationship with Jesus, it is not something to put off for a rainy day.

“Hold fast to what you have learned.”
It might be just one word or one phrase but hold onto it. However, right at the heart of this instruction, it isn’t about gripping tightly with fists closed. Instead, it’s a reminder to hold on with an openness, with a heart ready to receive, a mind willing to explore. The Bible, or “scripture” for Paul, is not a cage meant to confine us. It’s Jesus as light within us, illuminating dark corners, showing us paths of justice, mercy and peace.

The bible, this invitation, is not just to know Jesus, but to be known. This is wisdom for salvation, Paul says – not salvation only in some distant, other-worldly sense, but salvation that reaches into the here and now, into our living, breathing lives on the good days and on those that are more challenging.
The Bible when we let it breathe, has the power to show us how to live in rhythm with God’s grace, in sync with God’s love. – This invitation instead of us reading it, allows us to be read and in turn, to be known.

The interesting thing about invitations is that they generally come with an RSVP, it’s not good enough to just receive the invitation of the Bible we have to respond as well:

In John’s Gospel (5:36b-end) Jesus says:
You study the Scriptures diligently because you think that in them you have eternal life. These are the very Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life.

The RSVP to the invitation we have all been given is not found in echo chambers and divisions, or in those voices that are heard louder and more confidently than the rest, it’s not found in words that flatter rather than challenge…
The response, the real response to us receiving the gift of the Bible, the inspired word of God, is to take it in with each breath we take , each pause, each silence each chaotic unplanned moment, each waking minute of every day move closer to Jesus.

And as with all invitations, they generally always come with a +1
For Timothy, and for us the invitation to be in relationship with Jesus is not about how much you’ve read or whether you can quote it word for word, it is about how you respond in the ordinariness of your life. How you embody the Good news in all you say and do. It’s about living life in a way that others can see Jesus through and in you.
So if you do nothing else, just find a way that works for you to connect and engage with the Bible and let God’s inspired breath become part of all of us. This invitation is to a dynamic relationship, one with a God that is very much alive, not a relic of the past covered in dust,  but rather, a living breathing divinely inspired word unfolding all around us, calling us to new depths of love and wisdom and inviting us to be shaped, transformed and in turn transform others.

(based on a sermon preached at St. Mary-at-Latton, Harlow. on Sunday October 27th 2024.

[Becs Challis,
Programme Manager Mission & Ministry, Diocese of Chelmsford

Richard Hooker, a father of Anglicanism

Richard Hooker was an English priest who died in 1600, and we remember him today as a theologian who defended the Church of England and its choice of “the middle way” between Roman Catholic and Puritan ideologies.

Hooker entered Oxford University in 1567 and for eighteen years devoted himself to scholarship and reflection on the subtle points of theology. He became deputy professor of Hebrew, was ordained to the priesthood, and appeared to be set on a purely academic career. But his learning, moderation, and commitment to the Church of England brought him to the attention of the authorities, and he was appointed Master of the Temple, an office of great prestige because it made him the chief preacher to the legal community of London. He held this post for six years, then resigned to become the rector of a parish near Salisbury. A few years later he moved to a rectory in the diocese of Canterbury, where he died at the age of forty-six.

He was a quiet man, loving to his wife and children, glad in his piety, and happy in his ministry.

But the Church remembers him primarily for the one great work that he wrote — a majestic study entitled Of the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity. It was published in 8 volumes though the final 3 were published posthumously. It was addressed to a group of English protestants who were nicknamed Puritans because they sought to purify the Church of England according to their own narrow reading of the Bible. Against this movement Hooker argued for a more liberal outlook, which coordinated the testimony of Scripture, the course of Christian history, and the values of human reason, in order to defend the English Church as a communion for all the people, not just a small group of “saints.” The experience of The Anglican Communion has confirmed his teaching, and today we honour his work as a true cornerstone of Anglican history.

(from: For All the Saints: Episcopal Church of Canada)

Richard Hooker has rightly been called  one of the Fathers of Anglicanism.
Our Church is deeply influenced by Hooker’s teaching that our authority as a church is founded on what has come to be known as a Three-Legged stool  of Scripture, Tradition and Reason.
Our knowledge of God and His purpose for  humanity and all creation is based on these three.

Scripture:  We seek to discover the word of God through reading the Bible. There are different understandings about the Bible’s authority in our lives. We need to use resources like different Bible translations, commentaries and Bible reading notes to help us understand this but Anglicanism has a deep  commitment to the authority of Scripture as God’s Holy Word to us.

Tradition:  We often hear talk of  Apostolic Succession which has been narrowed down to the Episcopal succession of Bishops, priests and deacons—the ‘order’ of the church’s ministry – but its wider application is that of handing on the teaching of the Apostles. From them the doctrine of the church passed on through  the early church to every generation since as teaching and doctrine which is added to and refined as our knowledge of God is deepened and enriched. This theological richness and diversity includes inspirational material like hymns, songs, prayers, poetry, Christian art and devotional books.There are also formally agreed teachings as found in the creeds and the ‘Liturgy’ – the orders of services such as Common Worship (Church of England) and the Book of Common Prayer, and their equivalents in the Scottish Episcopal Church, The Churches of Wales and Ireland and throughout the Anglican Communion. These are primary sources of our Theology. It is rightly said  that we believe what we pray. All true theology is rooted in prayer. The Orthodox Church puts it like this: A theologian is one whose prayer is true.

Reason:  We are called to love God with our minds as well as with our hearts. To the best of our ability we need to think things through in the light of reason. This means becoming aware of different points of view, and using our own critical thinking to make sense of God’s world. 

(an insight from the Methodist Church)

Hooker expressed these fundamental  tenets of Anglicanism in Volume 5 of his Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity. It became the essence of what is distinctive about Anglicanism. It became known as the Via Media,  The Middle way between Roman Catholicism and Protestantism and led to the Anglican church being known as as both Catholic & Reformed.

The Anglican balancing of the sources of authority has been criticized as clumsy or muddled. It is hard to live between two powerful and divergent views – Catholicism & Protestantism whilst seeking to incorporate the best of both.

Seeking the best means being willing to tolerate, comprehend and embrace opposing viewpoints and practices. This results in the Anglican Church having a wide inclusivity even though at times this could be disputed and lead to musunderstandings. At the heart however it is the importance of worshipping and praying together and a pursuit of what is described today as generous orthodoxy.

To Scripture, Tradition and Reason, we have recently added  Experience. This stresses the importance of our own experience of God’s grace working in our lives. We gain wisdom and maturity from life experience, especially when we pray and reflect about our story with other Christians not just within Anglicanism but Ecumenically and even through engagement with the secular world.

One thing that Anglicanism seeks to uphold is the Inclusivity mentioned above.
After all we are all One in Christ Jesus. We are all equal in the eyes and heart of God. We are all enlivened by the Holy Spirit. We are all held together in the corporate love of the Trinity. Anything narrower than that takes us, I would argue, away from God.

[GC | 3rd November 2020 ]