“The Bible in Twenty Minutes”
2 Timothy 3:14-17
“The Bible in Twenty Minutes”
Heart of the Rockies Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)
David A. Shirey
Dedicated to the men and women who have opened my eyes, heart, and mind to the Bible: Mrs. Tims, Professors Roy Battenhouse, Jim Ackerman, and David Buttrick. Dr. Fred Craddock. Eugene Peterson. And to all the men and women who quietly labor each week to teach the Bible to Sunday School classes of children, youth, and adults.
On this next-to-last week of Epiphany, let’s do an overview of the source of epiphanies that have changed lives, changed the course of history and changed the world across the ages: the Bible. The Bible holds the dubious distinction of being “the least-read bestseller of all time.” I understand why. It was written over many years out of many cultures, each with its own languages. The Bible is not an easy read. So it’s no wonder we pastors receive requests periodically for an introductory, Keep It Simple Stupid overview of the Bible. I’ll give it a go. The Bible in twenty minutes.
Pentateuch The first five books of the Hebrew Scriptures are referred to as the Pentateuch (penta/ 5 + teuch/ scrolls = five scrolls). They are Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. Genesis is a word that means beginning. The beginning of the heavens and the earth that God called “very good” and human beings were to care for very well. We’ve not done very well, have we? And the beginning of God’s people who were to show forth the contours of God’s heaven on earth by living lives marked by righteousness, mercy, and justice. Exodus as in the word exit: the exit of God’s people from slavery in Egypt to the Promised Land. Leviticus is next. Many people bog down in Leviticus as they set out to read through the Bible. Leviticus comes from the word Levite. A Levite was a priest. It’s a book about worship. Those who don’t bog down in Leviticus usually perish in Numbers because it begins with a boring census of the people exiting Egypt (It’s Greek name is Arithmoi as in Arithmetic) and continues with stories about Israel’s forty years in the wilderness (“In the Wilderness” happens to be the name of the book in Hebrew). Deuteronomy Deutero as in the word deuce – a two. Second. Nomos – the word for law. Second Law. It’s Moses repeating for a second time what he said the first time in Exodus. Isn’t that just like us? Needing to be told something twice because we weren’t paying attention the first time.
History Next are the books of history. Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1 & 2 Samuel, 1 & 2 Kings, 1 & 2 Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther. All those names and hundreds of others in between span a good 750 years from 1200 B.C. to 450 B.C., a history that crosses paths with Canaanites, Assyrians, Babylonians, and Persians. Such a tangled tapestry with so many different threads! Yet, the books of history have a common thread, namely: God patiently, persistently working God’s purposes out, sometimes with the help of God’s people, sometimes without them, sometimes in spite of them. Which, come to think of it, is still the case today. God is working out God’s purposes in history – sometimes with us, sometimes without us, sometimes in spite of us. When you think about it, that’s very good news. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven? The History books say, “Count on it.”
Wisdom and Poetry Next come the Books of Wisdom and Poetry: Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon.
Job Why do bad things happen to good people? You’ll not find the answer in Job, but you will find many explanations given by Job’s friends that God says are not the answer. For instance, they told him he must have done something to deserve such suffering. God said, Not true! You won’t find an answer to the vexing problem of suffering in Job. What you will find, however, is that Job is followed by…
The Psalms The Prayerbook and Hymnal of God’s People. I find it significant that the question of suffering is followed by prayers and hymns. As if our deepest sorrows are met not with an Answer, but with a Presence. God gives us not an explanation, but an incarnation: God’s very self. As the Psalmist says in the most beloved Psalm (23), “Even though I walk through the shadow of the valley of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me, thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me… Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.”
Proverbs follows. It’s a Whitman’s Sampler of time-honored wisdom on how to live life well. Take a proverb. Taste it. Savor it. Try another one. Eat the whole box! It’s a fortune cookie of a book: take a proverb, open it, read it, ponder it, live it, then pick out another one.
Ecclesiastes The question is: What is the meaning of life? Why are we here? The author says, “I’ve eaten, drunk, and made merry. Paaarty! But that didn’t satisfy me” (Ecc 8:15). “I’ve bought everything money can buy. That didn’t do it, either” (Ecc 5:10). At a couple points he says, “Vanity of vanity. All is vanity” Life is meaningless (Ecc 1:2, 12:8). But at the end of the last chapter he writes, “Fear (Reverence) God, and keep God’s commandments” (Ecc 12:13). Beloved, don’t wait until the last chapter of your life to recognize and embrace life’s meaning: Love God. Love others.
The Song of Solomon The R-rated book of the Bible. A love song for mature audiences only. A holy Valentine so explicit it’ll make you blush: God loves me this much? Whew.
Prophets The rest of the Old Testament features the parade of prophets with names like Isaiah, Jeremiah (and his Lamentations), Ezekiel, Daniel, and a dozen more. We miss the heart of their message if we pigeonhole them as prognosticators of the future. They were foremost agitators for social justice in the present. The prophets had a lover’s quarrel with church and state meaning they loved both enough to quarrel with priests, parishioners, and politicians when they perceived their actions weren’t in accordance with God’s will and way. The prophets were both patriotic and faithful – patriotic because they loved their nation enough to call it back from folly and wickedness to righteousness, faithful because they loved the Temple enough to call it back to repentance and renewal. But you know as well as I do that neither people nor nations like to be criticized, even by people who profess to do it out of love. So, the prophets paid for their lover’s quarrel. They were told to go away by kings. They were told to shut up by priests and pew-sitters. But they were told to keep standing up and speaking up by the God who will not rest until “justice flows down like waters and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream” (Amos 5:24). We still need prophets today. We still have them. We still chaff at what they say. We still try to silence them or send them away. God desires that we listen.
The New Testament begins where the Old leaves off-- with a prophet named John the Baptist telling everyone to “Prepare the way of the Lord” (cf. Malachi 3:1, Mark 1:3) -- the Lord as in Jesus, the Christ, the Messiah, the one sent from God, the Son of God. John says he was God: “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us full of grace and truth” (John 1:14). His life is a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path.
Gospels The first 4 books of the New Testament tell of Jesus. They’re called the Gospels. In Old English: gut spiel. A good story. On Broadway: “Godspell.” A good play. In Greek it’s evangelion meaning "good news." Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John tell of “the good news of great joy that has come to all the people in the city of David, a Savior who is Christ the Lord” (Luke 2:10,11). Don’t read Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John as biographies, a “This is your Life” Jesus of Nazareth. Rather, look at them as four unique, but complementary portraits of Jesus. Just as Mary Cassatt, Georgia O’Keefe, Rembrandt, and Picasso would paint the same thing differently, thereby enhancing our capacity to see the splendor the subject by their artistry, so do the gospel writers in their four masterpieces help us see Jesus in four different perspectives. In their portraits, they above all want to tell the good news of Jesus’ life so that, to use John’s words, we “might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing we may have life in his name” (John 20:31). These aren’t biographies. They’re invitations to life abundant and life everlasting.
History The Gospels are followed by Acts, our only history book in the New Testament. It’s the story of the first thirty years of the church – how 100 or so ordinary people accomplished wondrous things under the power of God’s spirit. You read it and get the sense that’s how the author of the book (Luke) sees a congregation of any era: one hundred or more ordinary people who can accomplish wondrous things when we yield to the leading of God’s Spirit. There are 28 chapters of the church’s history in Acts. We’re writing Acts chapter 29 right now.
Letters Then come all the letters. Called epistles in Greek. There are 21 of them written by leaders of the early churches like Paul, James, Peter, John and Jude to congregations in present-day Turkey, Greece, and Italy, though they speak to everybody everywhere. They appear in order from Paul’s longest (Romans) to his shortest (Philemon fil-LEE-muhn) followed by the longest of the rest of the letters, the anonymous letter to the Hebrews, through letters from James, Peter, John, to the shortest of letters: Jude.
Do you have letters you’ve held on to over the years? Chances are you held on to them and read them again and again because they’re straight from another’s heart to yours. The early churches held on to these letters from Paul and company for the same reason. And we have these 21 letters now in the top dresser drawer of our Bibles to read and reread for the profound truths and kernels of wisdom they convey, their just-what-the-doctor-ordered words of encouragement and hope, their attempts to explain the meaning and ramifications of the gospel (what theology is all about), and from time to time, for their needed kicks in the seat of the pants or their stepping on our toes so as to get our attention and get us back on the right track or give us an overdue attitude adjustment.
Revelation Lastly comes the book of Revelation. It’s the year 95 AD and someone says, “What’s this world coming to?” It could be the year 2025 AD. John puts pen to paper and relates a vision whose soundtrack is “This is my Father’s world, O let me ne’er forget/ that though the wrong seems oft so wrong, God is the ruler yet.” Revelation is a kaleidoscope. Turn it round and round and different images come into the lens, but they all convey the same promise: “Goodness is stronger than evil” (Bishop Tutu). “Love wins” (Rob Bell). “All will be well and all will be well and all manner of thing shall be well” (Julian of Norwich). The Lamb who was crucified is risen. (Revelation 5:6) “And he shall reign for ever and ever. Hallelujah.” (Handel’s Messiah) Renowned church historian Martin Marty pointed out that though the book of Revelation was originally written to give reassurance and hope, it’s often been hijacked by people to scare other people to death. Stop it! Hold fast to the book’s original intention: the promise that God’s will shall be done on earth as it is in heaven.
So it is that John concludes the Revelation (and the Bible) with a glorious vision, saying,
“Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband; and I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling of God is with men. He will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself will be with them; he will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain any more, for the former things have passed away.” And he who sat upon the throne said, “Behold, I make all things new.” Also he said, “Write this, for these words are trustworthy and true” (Rev 21:1-5).
The Bible’s words, when interpreted rightly, are indeed trustworthy and true. And they’re written for us to read and reflect on and live by.
Which brings us to the last word of the Bible, the last word of the Bible’s 774,746 words, the word which, as you might imagine, is: AMEN (Rev 22:21).
