PRAYER
Father, anoint us with your Holy Spirit
so that as we read your eternal word,
your word may penetrate our whole being and transform us.
Grant us the blessing to be faithful disciples in believing the Word of God
And that we may be a light shining upon darkness.
Amen.
SERMON
“Generative text is something we all need to adapt to,” he said. “We adapted to calculators and changed what we tested for in math class, I imagine. This is a more extreme version of that, no doubt, but also the benefits of it are more extreme, as well.” —Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI (creators of ChatGPT)
Jeremiah 11:3-6 NRSV
You shall say to them, Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Cursed be anyone who does not heed the words of this covenant, which I commanded your ancestors when I brought them out of the land of Egypt, from the iron smelter, saying, ‘Listen to my voice and do all that I command you. So shall you be my people, and I will be your God, that I may perform the oath that I swore to your ancestors, to give them a land flowing with milk and honey, as at this day.’ ” Then I answered, “So be it, Lord.”
And the Lord said to me: Proclaim all these words in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem: Hear the words of this covenant and do them.
1 Esdras 10:10-14 (Ezra)
Then Ezra, the priest, stood up and said to them, “You have trespassed and married foreign women and so increased the guilt of Israel. Now make confession to the Lord the God of your ancestors and do his will; separate yourselves from the peoples of the land and the foreign wives.” Then all the assembly answered with a loud voice, “It is so; we must do as you have said. But the people are many, and it is a time of heavy rain; we cannot stand in the open. Nor is this a task for one day or for two, for many of us have transgressed in this matter. Let our officials represent the whole assembly, and let all in our towns who have taken foreign wives come at appointed times, and with them, the elders and judges of every town, until the fierce wrath of our God on this account is averted from us.”
POINT: The scriptures are
PSALM 1:1-2 NRSV — Happy are those who do not follow the advice of the wicked or take the path that sinners tread, or sit in the seat of scoffers, but their delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law, they meditate day and night.
JOSHUA 1:8 NRSV — This book of the law shall not depart out of your mouth; you shall meditate on it day and night so that you may be careful to act in accordance with all that is written in it. For then you shall make your way prosperous, and then you shall be successful.
REVELATION 10:9-10 CEB — So I went to the angel and told him to give me the scroll. He said to me, “Take it and eat it. It will make you sick to your stomach but sweet as honey in your mouth.” So I took the scroll from the angel’s hand and ate it. And it was sweet as honey in my mouth, but when I swallowed it, it made my stomach churn.
POINT: The words of the scriptures aren’t merely meant to be
“Christians feed on Scripture. Holy Scripture nurtures the holy community as food nurtures the human body. Christians don’t simply learn or study or use Scripture; we assimilate it, take it into our lives in such a way that it gets metabolized into acts of love, cups of cold water, missions into all the world, healing and evangelism and justice in Jesus’ name, hands raised in adoration of the Father, feet washed in company with the Son.” —Eugene Peterson, from Eat this Book: The Art of Spiritual Reading
PRACTICAL TIPS FOR APPROACHING THE SCRIPTURES:
1. Pray.
2. Be humble.
3. “Biblical” is not a self-evident adjective.
4. Understand that all translations are interpretations.
5. Use many different translations.
6. Reading isn’t understanding.