Let us pray: Your Word is a lamp to my feet, and a light for my path.
The Lord answered, "Martha, Martha! You are worried and troubled over so many things,
but just one is needed. Mary has chosen the right thing,
and it will not be taken away from her." Luke 10:38-42
On the outskirts of a small town, there was a big, Old Pecan tree just inside the cemetery fence. One day, two boys filled up a bucketful of nuts and sat down by the tree, out of sight, and began dividing the nuts. "One for you, one for me. One for you, one for me," said one boy. Several of the nuts dropped and rolled down toward the fence.
Another boy came riding along the road on his bicycle. As he passed, he thought he heard voices from inside the cemetery. He slowed down to investigate. Sure enough, he heard, "One for you, one for me. One for you, one for me."
He just knew what it was. He jumped back on his bike and rode off. Just around the bend he met an old man with a cane, hobbling along. "Come here quick," said the boy, "you won't believe what I heard! Satan and the Lord are down at the cemetery dividing up the souls."
The man said, "Beat it kid, can't you see it's hard for me to walk." When the boy insisted, the man hobbled to the cemetery. Standing by the fence they heard, "One for you, one for me. One for you, one for me..." The old man whispered, "Boy, you've been tellin' the truth. Let's see if we can see the Lord." Shaking with fear, they peered through the fence, yet were still unable to see anything.
The old man and the boy gripped the wrought iron bars of the fence tighter and tighter as they tried to get a glimpse of the Lord. At last they heard, "One for you, one for me. That's all. Now let's go get those nuts by the fence and we'll be done." They say the old man made it back to town a full 5 minutes ahead of the boy on the bike.
Let us get serious. Today when we talk to people about the Bible, we can’t assume anything. On one occasion, a mother was surprised when I told her that the story of Jesus’ birth came from the Bible and that Jesus was an historical person. She said, "I thought it was just one of those stories like, you know, Snow white and Cinderella".
According Catholic Stat, in 1966 there were 22000 ordained priests in Canada, today there are only 9000 with the average age of 66 yrs. Lutherans and other denominations are not far behind. There are several factors that contribute this shortage of pastors in ministry. (But due to time I am not going to go into it today).
It’s a sad fact that even those who attend church regularly there is little regular Bible reading. The National Church Life Survey has shown that about 70 % of Lutherans read their Bibles once a week or less. In other words, the only time they hear God’s Word from the Bible is at worship services on Sundays, that is of course, if they come to church every Sunday. (And those who come some insist on 10 minutes of sermon!!).
God has given us his Word to light our way as we walk the path of life. To not read it is like walking in the dark with an unlit lamp. What is it that prevents us from making the Bible a greater part of our lives? We are distracted by noise, and wants. The first thing most people say is that the stress and pace of modern life leaves little time for any reading, let alone reading the Bible.
This is nothing new. We heard the story about Jesus’ visit with Mary and Martha. This followed immediately after the story of the Good Samaritan that highlighted the way we are to love and serve our neighbour.
Maybe Martha had heard the story as well so she eagerly wanted to serve. When Jesus came to dinner she was putting into practice what Jesus had said and was showing her love for Jesus by cooking one of the best meals Jesus had ever had. She was going out of her way like the Samaritan who made it his business to see that the man who had been beaten and left to die was taken care of.
Maybe she was thinking that Mary had missed the point of the Jesus’ Good Samaritan story. Loving your neighbour means action, doing something, going out of your way to help and here was Mary doing just the opposite, sitting in the lounge room, and taking it easy.
Martha comes out of the kitchen all steamed up. "Lord, don't you care that my sister has left me alone to do all the work by myself? Tell her to come and help me!" Jesus answered, "My dear Martha, you are upset over all these details! There is really only one thing worth being concerned about. Mary is taking the time to listen and learn from me." The Logos…. God’s Word in flesh!
I believe Luke, the gospel writer, recorded this event straight after the Good Samaritan for a very good reason. Life is busy and especially the Christian life is busy as our faith and love lead us to serve God and others everyday of our lives. Jesus isn’t upset about the fact that Martha is busy. But he is saying that there is a time for being busy and a time for listening to God, reading his Word, giving the Holy Spirit the opportunity to increase our faith and love for even greater works of service to others.
Stephen Covey wrote this. "People expect us to be busy, overworked. It’s become a status symbol in our society - if we’re busy, we’re important; if we’re not busy, we’re almost embarrassed to admit it. Busyness is … a good excuse for not dealing with the first things in our lives." (First Things First, p. 33).
We can become so preoccupied with all the things that make up our lives, even committees and service toward others in the church, that we squeeze out of our daily program a time to spend hearing God speak to us through his Word and talking with him in the quietness of our heart in prayer.
Why should we read the Bible?
Firstly, the Bible is God's powerful Word. I don’t see in the life of me how people can claim to be Christians and not read or study God’s Word!!. His Word is a lamp to guide us along the up and downs of life. In times of stress and difficulty, his Word is there to comfort us.
Every step of the way we are guided by the comforting light of his lamp. God’s Word is a lamp to our feet, and a light for our path to guide us through the ups and downs, dark shadows and obstacles along the path of life.
In the Bible we read God’s Word, God’s powerful Word.
In Jesus we see God who came out in the darkness and the storm to help us who were his enemies.
Secondly, God's Word is a hurricane lamp that guides us to Jesus, who saves our life. Through his death and resurrection, he has overcome the darkness of sin and destroyed the dark powers of death and the devil.
Through him, God has brought us out of darkness into his marvelous light.
Jesus speaks to us through the Words of the Bible and reminds us that he will use his powerful Word in our lives today just as he did back in time when he said to sinners, "Your sins are forgiven" or to the sick, "Get up and walk".
He speaks to us through the pages of the Bible and promises that he will always be there walking through life with us, that there is life beyond this life. With the lamp of God’s Word we can walk through the blackest night and the wildest storms, and find our way safely home... safely to our home in heaven.
In the light of the Word we can see our way through blackest of black sin in our lives that we might think is positively unforgivable. We see Jesus the only one who can save us and forgive all our sin. He has died so that we can be assured that our life in heaven is guaranteed.
May the Holy Spirit gives us all the strength to set time aside each day to hear what God has to say through the Bible. May we, through our reading and hearing of God’s Word grow closer to him and more sincere in our faith.
Your Word is a lamp to my feet, and a light for my path.
Love the LORD thy God. Amen.
Rev. Samuel King-Kabu
July 18, 2004