For this Last Sunday after Trinity there are some options for what readings we use.  We have chosen the selection for ‘Bible Sunday,’ when we can reflect on and celebrate the gift and role of Scripture in our Christian lives and worship.  I will give a fuller appreciation of the Scriptures in my Sunday homily, but the following reflections on the prescribed readings, especially the Epistle and Gospel, are given with particular reference to their significance for Bible Sunday.

Isaiah 55: 1 – 11

This wonderful passage concludes the second of three parts which constitute the book of the prophet Isaiah.  The whole book of Isaiah is in fact the testimony of not one prophet but of at least three.  The anonymous prophet that we read in chapters 40 – 55 is generally known as ‘Second Isaiah.’  He is a prophet of the Jewish Exile in Babylon during the years 597 – 538BC, so some 150 years after his spiritual predecessor, Isaiah of Jerusalem (chapters 1 – 39).  Our reading today concludes his work which is known as the Book of the Consolation of Israel.  It was likely uttered or published on the eve of the deliverance from exile when Cyrus the Mede who had conquered Babylon in 539BC set the exiles free to return to their homeland of Israel.  The prophet shows how this return also indicates a ‘return to God,’ a renewal of the ancient covenant of God and his people Israel, and an invitation to them to participate once again in the life-giving benefits of the covenant.  

Psalm 126

One of several mostly short psalms called Songs of Ascent (Psalms 120 – 134) traditionally sung by Jews living in the Diaspora (foreign lands) as they went up to Jerusalem on pilgrimage.  The songs are characterised by a longing of the pilgrims for Jerusalem and of life free from the pagans among whom they lived.  Our psalm today begins by recalling in celebration the return from the Exile in Babylon (from 538BC).  Not all the exiles returned at the moment of liberation.  No doubt some had settled and were prospering in Babylon.   Other Jews, like those on pilgrimage, were scattered around the near eastern world.  The psalm contains a prayer that all will return and be part of the great deed of liberation that the Lord has worked for his people, and which had apparently impressed the surrounding nations.

2 Timothy 3: 14 – 4: 5

This reading is from the second of three letters (1 & 2 Timothy, and Titus) known as the ‘pastoral epistles.’ The writer has attributed them to Paul using a convention common in ancient Jewish literature, not least in the Bible.  Inspired by the memory and teachings of Paul, these epistles seek to apply or adapt his views to a later generation and culture.  In my view, the radical Paul of, for example, Romans and Galatians, is sadly diminished in these texts, but they do give a valuable insight into the more developed Church organisation of the late first and early second centuries, and of a Christian community struggling to find its way among the customs and values of the Hellenistic (Greek) world. 

In today’s passage we read how Scripture is ‘inspired by God,’ literally, ‘God-breathed.’  This does not mean that the Bible is an oracle that would somehow give us unmediated access to the words and will of God.  But it is deeply relevant as the supreme witness to the unfolding word of God to our ancestors in faith which continues to provide the chief guide and reference point for all our God experiences today.  Although communicated through human filters, the Scriptures uniquely reveal God’s character and loving purposes to us, that reach full clarity in the person of Jesus Christ, the ‘Word made flesh.’ (John 1).

John 5: 36b – 47

This passage seems to confirm that the Bible is of value to us precisely because it points us to Jesus.  In fact, we would know very little about Jesus, if anything, without the Gospels and the other New Testament writings.  The person of Jesus, the character of God revealed in him, is the key to understanding the whole Bible.  Of course, the ‘books of Moses’ (the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Bible) along with the principal prophets do not refer explicitly to Jesus.  But they deal with God’s relationship with humanity, outlining how human beings have consistently broken that relationship, and how God sets about restoring it.  The unfolding revelation of God and God’s promises to humanity as revealed in the Hebrew Scriptures (what we call the Old Testament) come together in Jesus the Christ.

We read the Bible not simply to know about Jesus, but rather to come to know Jesus.  As Christians we must read the Bible in the light of his words, values and example.  In so doing, and by God’s grace, we grow more and more into a relationship with him that will enhance our lives so that they come to reflect the love of God for the world.

A prayer for this Sunday:

Blessèd Lord, who caused all holy Scriptures to be written for our learning: help us so to read, mark, learn and inwardly digest them that, through patience, and the comfort of your holy word, we may embrace and for ever hold fast the hope of everlasting life, which you gave us in our Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen