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[begin reading in ancient Greek...]
"Ho logos tou Christou enoikeitO en humin plousiOs, en pasEi sophia didakontes kai nouthetountes heautous, psalmois, humnois, Oidais pneumatikais en tE chariti aidontes en tais kardiais humOn tO theO kai pan ho ti ean poiEtE en logO E en ergO, panta en onomati kuriou IEsou eucharistountes tO theO patri di autou." (Colossians 3:16-17)
You all understood all of that? I can say it again if any of you were unclear? It’s very important we understand the bible.....
Back in 1823 my great-great-great granddad Henry William set out with his wife and children in a boat to New Zealand to take the Gospel to the Maoris - any of you who have got sea sick in a boat in the bay of Biscay will know how unpleasant sea journeys have can be - and you’ve only traveled for a few days. they had to travel for months in boat which by today's standards was tiny. They changed boats at the colony in Australia and then went on to a place where they were TOTALLY cut off from the world they Knew. Apart from the occasional whaler, the only people in New Zealand were Maoris who spoke no English and practiced cannibalism. But Henry went there to take the Gospel to them. He pretty quickly realised that in order for them to become Christians, they needed the bible in their own language. He and his brother William worked on translating it bit by bit from the original Greek into Maori. This was no easy feat since when they arrived Maori had no written language. They had to invent that from scratch. Why slave away to do that? Because they knew that in order for the Word of Christ to dwell richly in their Maori congregations hearts, the Maori had to hear God speaking their own language.
Now that’s an exotic tale from pre-Victorian times. We’re used to having an English bible sitting on our shelf, It’s always been there. There’s nothing special about a bible being in English, is there? Except that the bible wasn’t always available in English.
This year we celebrate the 400th anniversary of the King James Bible, the most famous English translation of the bible. But the story does not start 400 years ago. It starts even earlier in 1526 with William Tyndale. The 16th Century was a terrible time in church history. Brave Christians of different traditions died for their faith at the hands of Christians who held different views. In both Calvinistic Geneva and Roman Catholic Spain, believers were burnt for their faith for being “the wrong sort of Christian”. And one of those who died for their faith in the 16th Century was William Tyndale. He wasn’t killed by Lutherans or Calvinists or Roman Catholics. He was killed by Henry VIII’s Church of England for producing an unauthorised translation of the New Testament. Tyndale knew that when he published his translation of the English New Testament, he was risking death - but he did it anyway. Because if the Word of Christ was to dwell richly in people’s hearts, they had to hear God speaking their own language - English. The irony was, that the Church of England who executed Tyndale later used Tyndale’s translation almost word for word as the basis for their official translations of the bible, including the King James Bible who’s 400th anniversary we celebrate today.
Ho logos tou Christou enoikeitO en humin plousiOs, en pasEi sophia didakontes kai nouthetountes heautous, psalmois, humnois, Oidais pneumatikais en tE chariti aidontes en tais kardiais humOn tO theO kai pan ho ti ean poiEtE en logO E en ergO, panta en onomati kuriou IEsou eucharistountes tO theO patri di autou.
(Colossian 3:16-17)
You don’t have to be fluent in ancient Greek to know what that passage means, because you can pick up an English bible and hear God speaking to us in our own language:
“Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly: teach and admonish one another with all wisdom; and with gratitude in your hearts sing psalms hymns and spiritual songs to God. And whatever you do in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him”.
If we were Jewish we would be told that in order to be a proper Jew we would have at our Barmitzvah to recite by heart in Hebrew passages of the scriptures. If we Muslim we would be told that in order to be a proper Muslim we must learn Arabic and read the Quran in its original language.
But Colossians tells us God wants his Word to dwell in US. Not just in academics and linguists who can learn long-gone languages, but in all of us. God speaking OUR language. When the New Testament was written, the writers could have written in the Hebrew they had been brought up with. But they wrote instead in Greek, the language their hearers spoke. The only way their hearers could have the Word of God dwell richly in them was to hear God speaking their own language.
One speaker once said “A bible in the hand is worth two on the shelf”. And when we open the Bible we will find that God doesn’t just speak in our own language - he speaks into our circumstances. As Jesus said in Luke 21:33 “heaven and earth may pass away, but my words will never pass away”. The are lots of first century words preserved in ancient manuscripts of the British library. They are preserved for academics but in many senses they HAVE passed away. But Jesus’s words will never pass away, because they speak in OUR language to OUR circumstances.
If you open the front of a Gideon’s bible for example you will find a list of bible passages to read
- when you are under stress
- when you are looking for a new job
- when you are unemployed
- when you are facing ill health or bereavement.
Whatever our circumstances, God’s Word has something to say. In my homegroup we have been doing a five course on what the bible has to say about the workplace - from why we work, to how we relate to our bosses. Hard to get more practical than that. And that’s all in the bible.
There are passages that help with our marriages, and passages that help with our children.
Whatever our circumstances, God’s Word has something to say.
But there’s a catch.
“A bible in the hand is worth two on the shelf” or perhaps “A bible in the hand is worth a dozen on the shelf”. As St Jerome put it, ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ”. If we want the Word of Christ to dwell in us richly, the catch is, we have to open our bibles: we need to read. We may need help with it, we may need advice with it, but we need to read. We may want to use bible notes, we may want to be part of a homegroup, but we need to read. The read bible is the powerful bible.
My ancestors Henry and William Williams travelled to the ends of the earth so people could hear God speak in their own language. William Tyndale laid down his life, so we could hear God speak in our language. For us it is oh so easy. The bible is more available than at any time in history. It can change our lives …. but ONLY if we read it.
Amen
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