2015 Advent Devotions (11/29/15)

11/29/2015 Sunday

2 Kings 22:1-20, 23:1-3      A Forgotten Bible Found

Josiah, King of Judah, leads a people who have fallen away from the knowledge of the scriptures that form the basis of Judaism. He takes on the task of repairing the temple in Jerusalem that had been damaged during the siege by Assyria several generations earlier. During the repairs, the royal secretary delivers a “book” that the high priest had found as the carpenters and masons did their work. Reading the book, he discovered that it was a book of the Law, most likely a part of the Torah, or what we know now as the first five books of the Old Testament that formed the basis of Judaic law. On hearing this book read to him, Josiah is moved to a spiritual reformation, as indicated by the tearing of his clothes, and is committed to re-forming the worship life of his people around the scripture. The people of God were not familiar with their story because it had been “locked up” behind the temple doors – it had not been taught to the people or preached to the people and they had remained ignorant of it.

Making scripture known has been essential to the growth of faith in many ages. St Jerome translated the bible into Latin in the 4^th century with the hope that it could then be read by the ordinary Christian, but by Luther’s time only the educated could read Latin and in many dioceses, the very act of owning the Bible in a language the common person could read was a crime. A century before Luther, John Wycliffe had been declared a heretic for translating the Bible into English. He escaped the hangman in life, but after he died, his bones were found, burned, and the ashes strewn in the river.

Why all the fuss about reading the Bible? Because those opposed to it know that the Bible is dangerous – it starts revolutions, offers an alternative social imagery that doesn’t take the status quo as adequate or inevitable, and presents a God who wants something better for us and, even more destabilizing, wants something better for our neighbor.

Which brings us to today. While the Bible is no longer gathering dust hidden away in some back room of the temple or church, it may be gathering dust in our own houses! We should not be afraid that we are not competent to read and understand scripture. The Word of God belongs in our hands, not just those of the clergy or experts. And it is still dangerously powerful-when the Holy Spirit gets hold of the Word and the people who read it, walls can come tumbling down, stones can be rolled away, the heavens can be torn asunder, the powerful can be cast down from their thrones and the poor can be fed and the prisoner set free. Sinners can die to themselves and have Christ reborn in them.

Father of the Word, inspire us to read and know our story in the scriptures and use its power to guide our lives to do as you would will. Amen.

(Adapted from the commentary of Pr. Rolf Jacobson, Professor of Old Testament, Luther Seminary, St Paul, MN)