Inspired and Equipped
Exodus 4:10-20; 2 Timothy 3:10-4:5
When was the last time you felt inspired to go out do some
good in the world? How did that come to
be?
Sometimes we get charged up after being positively influenced
by another person’s words and actions.
This person might be a family member, a friend, a neighbor from near or
far whom we know or read or hear about.
And, of course, it might be a courageous leader who encourages and
enlightens whole groups of folks. “I
have a dream,” proclaimed Martin Luther King, Jr., “that one day this nation
will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: We hold these truths
to be self-evident, that all men are created equal."
At other times we feel inspired when beholding something
beautiful in this world. Something that
helps us realize how interconnected all of life truly is. Award winning nature photographer Charlie
Wait knows this very well. He seeks it
out and stunningly captures it with his camera. “A landscape image,” he once said, “cuts
across all political and national boundaries, it transcends the constraints of
language and culture.”
We also, at times, inspire ourselves and then feel
prompted to inspire others. This
especially happens after we’ve endured tough times of one sort or another. Having survived, we gratefully go around spreading
hope and healing to others facing the same situations. Ann Lamott, a popular writer who has come
through many personal trials, is a good example. Hers is a very honest, authentic voice. It greets us with words like, “It's funny: I
always imagined when I was a kid that adults had some kind of inner toolbox
full of shiny tools: the saw of discernment, the hammer of wisdom, the
sandpaper of patience. But then when I grew up I found that life handed you
these rusty bent old tools - friendships, prayer, conscience, honesty - and
said 'do the best you can with these, they will have to do'. And mostly,
against all odds, they do.”
Feeling inspired by others, by beauty in the world, and by
our own resilience all happen directly to us.
They can be experienced and validated through our five senses. We build relationships and therefore
identify with other people. We sigh with
joy at the sight and smell of peonies in bloom.
We glow from the strength within
us that’s been forged through hard times.
But how does it happen that we can feel inspired by
immortal, invisible, God only wise?
What directly anchors our trust that God is inspiring us all to help
transform the world with the rescuing love of Jesus Christ?
I think we all go through times when God seems
heart-wrenchingly remote from our daily experiences. We all have moments when we yearn to be inspired
and better equipped to really believe we belong to Jesus and are a vital part
of his Body on earth, the church. And
we all have our Moses moments, when our overwhelming insecurities debate with
what God is adamantly inspiring us to go and do. Where do we turn during such times to hear God’s
voice and be presented with holy signs?
I so hope the word “Bible” just popped up in your mind! As Presbyterians, we live out a tradition
that has constantly confirmed that the Old and New Testaments are God’s written,
self-revelation. We hold fast to our
belief that wherever the Bible is read and proclaimed, Jesus Christ -- God’s
fullest, most personal self-disclosure -- speaks to us through the power of the
Holy Spirit alive in our hearts and minds.
By rooting ourselves in the Bible, we “come to understand how God has
been present with humanity since the beginning of time and is present in our
world today” and how we can “know of God’s faithfulness, constant love and
eternal goodness.”[i] God speaks to all God’s children (in other
words, every single human being!) each time the wondrous and mysterious stories,
the complex history, the soul-stirring poetry, the challenging proverbs and thought-provoking
parables, the insightful historical letters to first century congregations, and
above all, the Gospels … are experienced anew.
This all said, across time there have been all sorts of
debates among all kinds of people trying to come up with absolute conclusions
about exactly how holy inspiration happens through the Bible. Take a moment to consider your own
understanding of the Bible. Is it a
thoroughly divine, error-free collection of 39 Old Testament books and 27 New
Testament books? Or are these all
divinely inspired but thoroughly human documents? Perhaps you consider it to be just a
historical record of one people’s moral and religious experience?
I think it’s very
important to have an answer for yourself about what gives the Bible authority
to guide your life and the church. And this will especially have an impact on how
you hear sermons. As a preacher, it
obviously impacts how I study and present them. I stand squarely in the interpretive space
that celebrates all of Scripture as witness to Jesus Christ. It’s all God’s self-revealing history among
humankind. The ultimate divine disclosure came once in
the flesh of Jesus Christ. Following
the resurrection, our Lord keeps coming to every generation through the testimony
of the whole Bible. The purpose of
rooting ourselves in ancient Scriptures is not about the book itself. It’s about constantly being inspired by the rescuing
grace of God that worked throughout the all of biblical history and came to its
crowning moment in Jesus Christ.[ii]
Because the Holy Spirit is still going about this illuminating
work, the way you experience God inspiring you through Bible verses and sermons
– the ones you hear in this sanctuary and everywhere else -- is going to be
unique. But in the book How to
Worship as a Presbyterian, there’s a little guide that identifies some
categories you might find helpful. The
author, Pastor Dean Chapman, first presents us with this easy to relate to
imagery – “If God is the root of all reality, then Scripture is the trunk
through which God becomes known, and the sermon you are listening to on a given
Sunday morning is a branch from that trunk.
Your own reflection and action become the leaves and twigs, and, occasionally,
a blossom.”[iii]
At any given time, he suggest you might experience the
branches in the following six ways – 1. As
a door. The Spirit inspires you to
become involved in something you haven’t participated in before. A sermon on the hospitality of Jesus may be the
door through which you actively begin to love your neighbors through IHN. 2. As
a window. The Spirit inspires you by
opening the window of your soul so the love, peace, wisdom and joy of Jesus
Christ found in the Bible can blow in. I think this is particularly wonderful when
you’ve been feeling shut-in and somewhat allergic to your surroundings. 3. As a
springboard. The Spirit inspires you
to recall people and times in your life that led you to feel thankful to
God. As sermon on the exodus may help
you recall someone God sent to help liberate you from an oppressive experience.
4. As a cattle prod. The Spirit inspires you in a
particularly profound way. Chapman
offers this example, “Ouch! I guess I’ve been carrying that grudge around far
too long” 5. As God’s Delivery Service. The Spirit inspires you in such a way that
you suddenly treasure a particular verse or passage of Scripture. You leave with it and it becomes like a
string tied around your finger to help you remember to behave as God would have
you behave. 6. As God’s Lesson for the Day. The
Spirit inspires you to write down and study further the main points of the
sermon.
I hope these categories help to reinforce the faithful
fact that when it comes to being inspired by God through the Bible, it’s a
community experience! Individually and
together in Christ, we are equipped for today, tomorrow, and every fresh bit of
biblically based, Spirit inspired history that is about to unfold. None of us experience this in a
vacuum. It doesn’t happen in a space
with nothing in it. Our lives are
filled with the Holy Trinity inspiring us through the Scriptures, one another
and across the ages -- from all who have walked in faith, experienced itching
in their ears to hear alternative truths, endured sufferings, and entered our
hearts and minds to encourage us to fully herald the Good News love of our
Lord. Amen!
[i] http://www.presbyterianmission.org/ministries/101/bible/
[ii]
I’m most influenced by the neo-orthodoxy theological school of Barth, Brunner,
Kierkegaardhttps://www.pcusa.org/resource/presbyterian-understanding-and-use-holy-scripture/.
[iii]
Dean W. Chapman, How to Worship as a Presbyterian, p. 75-76
