Sunday, November 15, 2015

Hear, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest



A Sermon preached on November 15th (Proper 28) at St. Augustine’s, Wiesbaden
1 Samuel 1:4-10, Hebrews 10:11-14, 19-25, Mark 13:1-8

In some Anglican churches today is known as “Bible Sunday,” because of the theme of the Collect of the Day that I prayed earlier. So it might seem more than a little ironic that I am going to talk mainly about that collect, the prayer for the day. But don’t worry. I will fit the Bible in as well! So what is a collect? When I was a much younger churchgoer I thought it had something to do with the collection – so I probably mispronounced it as collect much as I spent years referring to that one unfortunate Biblical character as job instead of Job! I do remember finding it strange that there was such a long gap between the prayer and the collection. 

But no, although collect and collections share the same Latin root, they have little to do with one another. The Latin word collecta just means “gathering.” It might originally have referred to the gathering of the people as the collect was once said just before the procession into the church where the people were gathered. Or – this is a more common explanation – because it is a prayer that collected the prayers of the individual members of the congregation into one, and also often gathered together the themes of the service – either the seasonal or the scriptural themes. Though the latter rarely works at all anymore as we have a 3 year cycle of readings and a one year cycle of collects! The collects in the first 1549 Book of Common Prayer, which are still the source for most of the collects we use today in our Episcopal worship, were mainly translations by Thomas Cranmer from the Latin prayers for each Sunday of the year. But not today’s – this one is an original composed by Cranmer and perhaps his team.

The prayers we call collects also have a particular structure – they are usually made up of five parts:

  1. The invocation or address: indicating the person of Trinity addressed, usually God the Father
  2. An acknowledgement: a description of a divine attribute that relates to the petition, so … God who saves or comforts or whatever
  3. The petition, what we are asking God for. Traditionally "for one thing only and that in the tersest language"
  4. The aspiration, this is the desired result – what happens if the petition is fulfilled and finally
  5. The pleading – the conclusion of the prayer calling for the mediation of Jesus Christ, the one who intercedes on our behalf – followed by the people’s response: Amen – so be it.

And we can see this structure in today’s collect – on page 236 of the prayer book, and yes, you may look it up! 

Our collect is addressed toBlessed Lord” – this is unique by the way, no other collect starts this way. God’s attribute is to be the one “who caused all holy Scriptures to be written for our learning.” I hope it’s becoming clear why we call this Bible Sunday. So what do we want, what is our petition? “Grant us so to hear them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them.” And what is the desired result of this hearing, reading etc.? “That we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life, which you have given us.” As you can see the aspiration sort of runs into the pleading toour Savior Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.”  

Today’s Collect is in a way a little summary of the Anglican approach to Scripture. You may have heard of the so-called three-legged stool, the concept that in Anglicanism authority derives from Scripture, Reason, and Tradition. Yes, but the three are not equal. Richard Hooker, one of our greatest theologians, described a hierarchy of authority, with scripture as the foundation but informed by reason and tradition. And that is what we see in this Collect, it is through scripture that we learn to “embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life.” Which is another way of saying, to continue this morning’s history lesson, and quoting from Article VI of the 16th century 39 Articles that “Scripture contains all things necessary to salvation.” But that is all of Scripture, not just the bits that we like and that fit our particular agenda. You heard that too in the prayer to our God who caused all Holy Scriptures to be written!

You see, Cranmer and his contemporaries felt very strongly that the whole Bible should be read – both successively and in context.  One of their criticisms of the Pre-Reformation practice were the frequent interruptions in the flow of the readings caused by all the Saint’s days and other festivals. So his Prayer Book contained a schedule of readings that covered the entire Bible during the course of the year – but only if you attended Morning and Evening Prayer every day. That was rare then, and is even rarer today. But the idea of reading the whole Bible on a daily basis has recently had a renaissance in the Bible Challenge[1] – a guide to reading the entire Bible in a year that comes from within the Episcopal Church. Its founder, Rev. Marek Zabriskie, says that “understanding how the entire Word of God coheres and what God is saying to you daily through Holy Scripture is a transformational experience.” I know some people in this congregation have taken the Challenge and I can provide you with more information if you would like to have a go.

Another aspect of the Anglican understanding of Scripture is hidden in the collect in the little phrase “who caused all holy Scriptures to be written,” This reminds us of Paul’s words in 2 Timothy (3:16): “All scripture is inspired by God,” but it is not written or dictated by God. Scripture is a human record of the experience of or encounters and interaction with God by nations, groups of people, and individuals – and as a human record it is by no means infallible. Reading the whole Bible helps us to notice the often different or even contradictory accounts of the same events and to reflect on where they come from and what these different interpretations mean for our learning for today. When we read the Bible we always need to think both of the context in which a particular passage was written and how it might have been understood – although that understanding also that changed over time. Just look at some of Paul’s reinterpretations of parts of the Old Testament. And we must also consider our own context – both our personal situation, wants, needs and fears as well as our society’s.

This is something that cannot just be done alone. Note how Cranmer’s prayer asks that we may “hear, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest” Scripture, not just read it alone, in the solitude of our homes. We hear Scripture when it is read by others – in worship or in a Bible Study – and we learn from the insights of others, perhaps even from mine. We can and should read such insights in books by eminent theologians – as well as gain insight by discussing Scripture and its application in a group with others – for which this church also has plenty of opportunities!

The prayer also asks that we mark and learn. To mark means to take notice of something and to learn means to change – ourselves, our acts, and our behavior – based on what we have heard, read, and taken note of. I really love the final phrase in this section, to inwardly digest. Yes, the word of God is nourishing, we feed on it and we feast on it. In the Book of Proverbs (16:24) we are told that “pleasant words are like a honeycomb, sweetness to the soul and health to the body.” To inwardly digest Scripture is more than an intellectual understanding, it is about making the contents of Scripture part of our very being. Yes, Scripture contains everything necessary for salvation – but only if we act on what we hear and read and mark and learn. In this morning’s reading from Hebrews – I have to bring at least one of our lessons in somehow – you heard how the author holds up the importance of meeting and worshipping together as a means of encouragement and learning: “And let us consider how to provoke one another to love and good deeds, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another.” (Hebrews 10:24-25)

To be encouraged is the ultimate purpose of Cranmer’s prayer, to be encouraged by the “blessed hope of everlasting life” that we find in Scripture. And right now – in these times of terror – we need hope mist of all. Cranmer’s Collect may have been an original composition, but it is not just a prayer about Scripture, it is also inspired by it. His words echo the words of Paul about the connection between Scripture and hope from the Letter to the Romans (15:4): “For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, so that by steadfastness and by the encouragement of the scriptures we might have hope.”

And in the end our hope does not come from Holy Scripture, from a book, but from the God whose acts and deeds of love are described in its pages. Our hope comes not from words but from the Word of God, God’s Son, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ who we not only hear and read about, but can encounter personally here at his table in the meal he instituted for our comfort, solace, empowerment, and renewal. Amen.


[1] http://thecenterforbiblicalstudies.org/

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