The Word Gives Us all we Need

1st Sunday after Trinity 2014
Eleanor Schmidt tells this story in " Reader's Digest":
" My doctor had recommended surgery and referred me to a specialist.  Arriving early for my appointment, I found the door unlocked and the young surgeon deeply engrosed in reading, behind the receptionist's desk. When he didn't hear me come in, I cleared my throat. Startled, he closed the book, which I recognized as a Bible. " Does reading the Bible help you before or after the operation?" I asked.  My fears were dispelled by his soft one word answer," During."
All of our lessons today seem to me to be about the Bible which is God's revelation to us.  Someone once asked , " Pastor, which translation of the Bible do you recommend?"  I think the best answer is , " the one we read."  Our nation is a nation founded on Liberty .  In fact when I lived in Philadelphia and worked at the American Bible Society in 1976 which happened to be the 200th anniversary, I walked over to the exhibit of the Liberty Bell and saw the large crack in it.  But I also saw something else which brought tears to my eyes.  A verse from the Bible is on the bell ---Leviticus 25:10  "...Proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof: it shall be a jubilee unto you."
The rich man found out too late in our Gospel for today. What Jesus said at the end is the key, " if they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead." Luke 16:26  In the afterlife there is no crossing over.  " Between us and you there is a great chasm fixed "  The Apostle Paul said that the sword of the Spirit is the Scripture.  The Scottish pastor , Thomas Cuthrie said , " The Bible is an armory of heavenly weapons, a laboratory of infallible medicines, a mine of exhaustless wealth.  It is a guidebook for every road, a chart for every sea, a medicine for every malady, and a balm for every wound. Rob us of our Bible and our sky has lost its sun."
Jeremiah in ch. 23 our Old Testament lesson says that pastors and preachers have a solemn responsibility, " the prophet that hath a dream, let him tell a dream; and he that hath my word, let him speak my word faithfully...Is not my word like as a fire? saith the LORD; and as a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces?...Behold , I am against them that prophecy false dreams, saith the LORD, and do tell them, and cause my people to err by their lies, and by their lightness; yet I sent them not, nor commanded them: therefore they shall not profit this people at all, saith the LORD." 23:32
Great churches have abandoned the Word of God for their own inventions of truth and people's lives are shipwrecked.  Why?  Because our own imagination and ideas are not the Word of God.  Science is not the Word of God, but God's creation is explained by science.  The Word of God is eternal, inerrant ( without error in the words) and trustworthy.  One of my favorite Psalms is Psalm 119 which we read in our own Prayer Book at various times .  " Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path." vs 105  " For ever, O LORD, thy word is settled in heaven."  So if God's Word is settled, why are trying to say we have new revelation?  Hebrews 1 assures us , " God..hath in these last days spoken unto us by His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, by whom He also made the worlds."
Last Sunday we talked about changing our perspective.  Isaiah had such a shift in his perspective after the king who reigned for 52 years died.  Isaiah says that he " saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up...the seraphims ...cried one to another , and said, ' Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory." 6:2  Does the Word of God change our perspective?
Our perspective about our eternal home is changed as we hear the Letter to the Romans, " For whosoever shall call upon the name of the LORD shall be saved.  ..and how shall they hear without a preacher?  And how shall they preach, except they be sent? as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things!"  10:11
Because of those things the Epistle today reminds us to " love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God" 4:7 of I John.  Now this is not our natural response.  When someone we do not agree with does something or says something that offends we are often ready to go to wrath and anger but that is not of God.  We are to bear with all and to be patient.  This we learn from the Word of God.  A cartoon in a national magazine recently showed a couple standing before a minister during their wedding.  The minister, looking at the bride, said, " The correct response is ' I do'---not it's worth a try."
How do we know these things?  The Scriptures are our standard and without God's Word we are hopeless.  When we need comfort and solace we read such passages as the 23rd Psalm , " The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want...Yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me..."
When we go through difficulties we learn from Romans 8 ..." the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us....And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose." 18,28
One of our Anglican collects or prayers sums it up: " Blessed Lord, who hast caused all holy Scriptures to be written for our learning: Grant that we may in such wise hear them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them, that by patience, and comfort of thy holy Word, we may embrace, and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life, which thou hast given us in our Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen." 1662 , Book of Common Prayer, Second Sunday in Advent, p. 67.