PEOPLE OF THE BOOK

They gave him the book; they said it was holy
And so he committed large portions to memory
They called it Scripture; they said it was true
Though as how to grasp most of it, he didn’t have a clue.

They said God was the author; they said the book was inspired
But for God to speak in human words; well, how could that transpire?
And if he didn’t understanding the meaning, to whom could he turn?
What are parents for?  So he quickly learned…

No question was unanswered; the truth was black on white
Moses and Mom – God had spoken to them both; one taught by his letters, the other by her life
One day, adventure beckoned and the boy flew the coop
Where to, you may ask?  Why of course, to Bible school.
Meandering among the towering rows of books, he contemplated the vast knowledge stretched from wall to wall
And this little fellow realized that it’s a big wide world after all.

He had always enjoyed works of history; now, as he surveyed the countless tomes
He came to realize that the book had a story all its own
He was far from the first to peruse its pages; he was far from the last
But to join the conversation, he would have to travel far into the past.
As the young man bent his mind towards the genesis of Scripture
He understood that long before prophets had put pen to parchment
there had been a people.
Long before the closing of the canon, there had been a community.

What is the essence of being a Christian?  The young man asked himself
Growing up, the answer had been no further than the nearest shelf
But then he realized that 15 centuries had passed
between Christ and the invention of the printing press
so many years had run their course
so many had been born and baptized, died and to rest were laid
by the Church from whose pulpits Scripture was proclaimed
all those baptized millions had lived and died without encountering the book with their eyes

The light shone once again, as the book the young man thought he knew
Proved itself to be a fascinating and intriguing stranger
…his childhood interpretations were in mortal danger
Not simply a discourse about his soul; the book was speaking about the creation, the cosmos, the whole wide world that God made, loved, redeemed, loves
Isn’t that what the ancient Creed had said?  Bodies will be resurrected and a new world will come; heaven and earth will become one.

Other unbidden thoughts clouded the young man’s vision
There were so many churches, traditions, denominational divisions
All claiming to belong to Christ, all reading the same text.
He realized that it was not good that the book should be alone.
From the beginning, the book had belonged to the body which is Christ’s bride.
Like they say at weddings: what God has joined together, let no man separate.

God’s word to God’s people – that’s what the book is.
God’s word through God’s Spirit-anointed people – that’s how the book was born.
God’s word through God’s people to edify the one body to the full stature of the one Lord – that’s how the book works.
So, no book without the bride; no word of God without the people of God.
The book itself seemed to have a thing for the word “one”
One shepherd, one flock, one body, one faith, one baptism, one new humanity, one Lord, one Spirit, one Father, one God.

A question burned in the young man’s mind: where was the body?
He set off like a detective conducting an investigation
No body, no conviction
No Church, no context for Scripture
Where to find the community that exemplified the unity of God’s people,
Where was the Church established on the foundations of the apostles and prophets, which had Christ himself as the cornerstone? 
One stage in his journey had come to an end; another was about to begin.

The book actually pointed beyond itself… it witnessed to a person
it said the Word of God became flesh and became one of us
the book said that down through the  centuries God had spoken to his people in many different ways
but in this “time of the end” he spoke to us in the person of his Son
the essence of Christianity is not the book; the essence is the Word
He who is the Word made flesh said: “I offer my flesh for the life of the world”
s/he who would live forever must eat my flesh and drink my blood
at the table with his closest friends, He said, “This is my body; this is my blood”
the Word through whom the world was made came to give us life, to nourish us with …himself

So, the young man realized, the question was actually, Where’s Jesus?
those portions of the book that he had neglected suddenly shone crystal clear
sneaking into mass one day, kneeling in a back pew, he said to himself: Where else can I go?  Jesus is here.
His quest had led him from town to town, his questions had led him from page to page,

But on April 19th, 2014, Jesus brought me home.


MY JOURNEY HOME (POWERPOINT PRESENTATION)

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