News

When you watch a movie that you thought was a very good film, what was it that made it so? The plot? The actor(s)?  The director? As we can see from the credits, it takes many, many people to make a movie. The script, acting, and directing are the three areas that draw the most attention from movie goers, critics, and award ceremonies.

Famed movie director Nicholas Ray once said, “It is not all in the script. If it was, why make the movie?” Indeed. Actors bring the script to life on the screen. Directors work with actors to interpret the words of the script and work with the camera crew and many others to get just the right angle for filming a scene. This too is part of interpreting and communicating the words of the script.

We often call the Bible “the Word of God” without giving such a phrase much thought. The church rightly encourages its members to read the Bible. However, the church treats the Bible differently than a simple library book that was written only to be read alone. We read the Bible publicly, out loud in worship. Such a reading is different than sitting at home alone and reading it silently to oneself. Those reading in worship are also giving their own understanding of a text of scripture by the way they read; emphasis is placed on certain words; some phrases are read in such a way their words speak to us and touch us.

Following the reading of scripture in worship is a sermon. The sermon deals with one or more of the previous readings. The words spoken by the preacher are to take an ancient text and inject them into the present. That is, the task of preaching as it works to proclaim good news is to speak in such a way that the written, ancient words become living words, timely words, words that address our life today. Theologian Karl Barth once said when preaching one should have the Bible in one hand, the newspaper in the other. When Billy Graham began his “Crusades” that is exactly what he did.

Notice it takes ordinary human beings to make this happen. It takes lectors and pastors. It also took human authors millennia ago to write down the “script” of the Bible. No doubt many would have been shocked to learn their words will still be read millennia later in places they never dreamed even existed. Paul, for example, simply thought he was writing letters to other churches.

The point is the Bible comes to life through lives…..human, relational, lives. That is why we repeat texts in worship every three years. Each time they appear and are read, they speak to a new life situation and address these new times in new and very living ways. Those news headlines are not the same from year to year. Preaching is to address the current times.

A movie is not confined to the words that will be spoken and the directions given in the script. The words become alive when directed and acted upon. God is not confined to the mere vocabulary of the Bible and words printed on a page. God is much more alive than that!

If the words of the Bible or the written text of a sermon were sufficient, we could just take a few moments to read the Biblical texts and the sermon in worship, then move on. We would be missing something in this method of doing worship. We would be missing the enfleshment and embodiment of God’s word in real humans and in real life.

Of course the Bible can touch us as we read it alone at home. It can touch us when and wherever we read it for God is also not confined to prescribed persons or prescribed methods. God is confined to speaking to us and touching us with the Good News of Jesus Christ. ….the Good News written in the Bible, the Good News read in worship, the Good News proclaimed in sermons, the Good News as it comes to us through others words and actions.   It is not all in the “script”. It is in the God who speaks and reaches us in any way, place, time, or method God chooses. Listen with your ears, your eyes, your hearts, and your minds!