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The following message for the moment is delivered by the Reverend Dr. Bruce Wheeler-Thielman. Today's sermon on Gideon Sunday is entitled "The Autobiography of a Book." Let us continue in worship by giving reverend attention to the second letter of Paul to Timothy, the second chapter. I begin the reading at the verse number 8. "Remember Jesus Christ risen from the dead, descended from David

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as preached in my gospel, the gospel for which I am suffering and wearing fetters like a criminal. But the Word of God is not fettered. Therefore I endure everything for the sake of the elect that they also may obtain salvation in Christ Jesus with its eternal glory. The saying is sure, if we have died with him

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we shall also live with him. If we endure we shall also reign with him. If we deny him he also will deny us. If we are faithless he remains faithful for he cannot deny himself. Remind them of this and charge them before the Lord to avoid disputing about words which does no good but only ruins the hearers. Do your best

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to present yourself to God as one approved, a work person who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth. And may the same Spirit who inspired these words incline our hearts to their understanding. Amen. Pray with me.

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In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, amen. I am your Bible and I would like to talk with you a bit this morning about myself. You might call this the autobiography of a book. You of course have seen me in many places. You see me in sanctuaries and centers of worship.

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You have seen your president as he places his hand upon me and takes the oath of office. You have seen me by hospital bed. You have seen me buried in the caskets of loved ones. You have seen me in hotels and motels all around the world. Astronauts have carried me into space and chaplains have taken me into

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grim chambers of execution. Most likely I am in your home, either in a place of convenience or in some closet somewhere. I think I can say without arrogance that I am the most important book in all of the world's history, for I speak of one's eternal salvation with Jesus Christ as Lord, and I speak also to the human

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condition not only in terms of sin, but in terms of liberty, in terms of human rights, and in terms of that social commitment which is to belong to every person who claims Jesus Christ as Lord. I have been translated into over 300 languages. Portions of me have been translated into more than 1,000

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languages. And make no mistake, I am not a book out of the past. I am a perennial bestseller, and I resent it when someone looks upon me as some kind of spiritual relic, for I am not a legend. I am a living influence in your own day and age." Perhaps you heard about the pastor who was calling on a member of his flock, and

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he knocked on the door. He could hear someone moving inside, but no one answered. He knocked again and again, no answer. So finally he took one of his business cards and wrote on it, "Revelation 320. Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hear and open unto me, I will come in and eat with him

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and he with me." Well, the next Sunday morning the pastor was surprised to discover in the offering plate a small note, and on the note were written the words "Genesis 3 10," and he opened his Bible to see what those words were, and they read, "I heard thee when thou walkest in the garden, but I was afraid, for I

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was naked, and so I hid myself." Well, there's a bit of a comic in that, but this is true. I speak to every situation in life. I may not always tell you what you want to hear, but I will always tell you what you need to hear. And it is indeed said that Christians,

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in using me, sometimes speak ill of one another. There are different understandings of my nature, so let it be. God's work is not handicapped by that, for God is the God of the intellect, and the use of the mind praises him. It does not dishonor him. But I must say that I do resent it when people purchase me,

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when they display me, when they translate me, and when they circulate me, and even when they argue about me, if they fail to read me. It is important to note, I think, that I have many enemies who have sought to bind me. There was a time when kings and popes forbade my being read to the people, for they thought that my words

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would lead to revolution, and so they did. Henry VIII came to the place where he was enlightened enough to allow a single Britisher to read the Word of God alone, but he would not permit it to be read in the company of other people, lest unhappy ideas of revolution were to rise in the group. This is the reason it was so

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important that Martin Luther and the other reformers diligently labored to translate the scriptures into the language of the people. And we have such brilliant translations as that of Luther's "Into the German." There was a time in your own country when slave owners would not permit the scriptures

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to be read to their human property because they thought they might gain the wrong ideas from hearing such reading. Make no mistake about it, I am an incendiary book. I sent Schweitzer to Lamborghini. I sent Eliot to Ecuador. I sent Moffat to Korea. I sent McClure to Ethiopia. I have sent

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those out who have changed the world. I am the one who gave Martin Luther King Jr. his dreams, and I am the one who illuminated the mind of the greatest Christian apologist of the 20th century, C.S. Lewis. And there are some who resent the fact that all of this is true. They prick me, but when they prick me they

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discover that I do not bleed ink, I bleed blood. For countless hundreds of thousands have laid down their lives that others might be able to take me into their hands. But strange to say, my friends also often fetter or bind me. This is not, of course, their intention, but nonetheless this is what happens.

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There are some, for example, who try to make me into a kind of magic book, something to predict the future. They root around in the stories of my Old Testament, or they take the numbers which appear upon my pages. They especially enjoy books like Daniel and Revelation, and they present on the basis of their

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searchings things which Jesus himself claimed he was unable to present for lack of knowledge. These people look upon the Bible as some kind of Ouija board, and that is not what I am, and it dishonors me to treat me so, and it dishonors Christ to treat me so. There are others who, with the best of intentions, nonetheless bind

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me by putting me in a very narrow perspective. They suggest that I am only interested in spiritual matters and not in social concerns. You are entering now the season of politics, and you hear your political leaders say the same things they've said many times before. Doesn't there sometime come in your heart a

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desire that these men and women would launch out into the deep seas of God's truth and discover on my pages the word not only that individuals need to hear, but that nations and this whole plundered planet needs to hear? Yes, I care about peace in the heart, but I also care about peace in the world. When I

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speak of captives, I am not speaking of those who are spiritually bound in every instance. I'm speaking about people who are in jail. When I talk about the poor, I'm not only speaking of those who are discouraged, I'm also speaking of those who are economically distressed. When I speak about the care of the earth, I'm

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not just expressing thanksgiving. I am also calling every Christian to an environmental concern for this blue gem on which you float through space. When I speak about justice, I'm speaking not only about the justice of God, but the justice that you are to have with one another. I am not a sedative. I am a

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stimulant, and it particularly distresses me when young people are told otherwise, for young people have within them many times a great social passion and zeal to make things better. And when they are told that I have no concerns about things like that, they turn away from me, and sometimes they never turn back to me

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again. And then sometimes I am bound by those who take a perspective biblically or historically or scientifically, which is at least from the viewpoint of the majority of the world's Christians, naive. These people again have very good intentions, but they constitute less than 5% of the world's Christians. It's

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important to understand that any language that anyone uses carries with it certain baggage, carries certain analogies, carries certain images. One of the great projects with which science and philosophy are concerned today is to learn how to enable us to communicate with one another in such a way that we

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will know precisely what we mean when we speak to one another. You see, when I say a word like "father," to some of you that's a beautiful picture, and to others of you that's a horrible memory. The word you see is given meaning by the context in which you've experienced, and science is coming to the place where it says the

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only way we're going to be able to communicate to one another perfectly and without these cultural or personal encumbrances is by numbers. And that's the reason in studies such as relativity or quantum physics all of the communication is done in such a way. To understand me, you have to accept me as I

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am. You have to recognize that the words in which I was written, those words carry their cultural baggage as well. I think it's very important that you think, for example, of Michael Polanyi. Polanyi is one of the great philosophers of the period, and Polanyi studies the way in which we

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learn and the way in which we know. And he had an experiment in which he took a number of people and put on them eyeglasses, which turned everything they saw upside down. They couldn't take them off, they had to wear them day and night. As you can imagine, it was very difficult. They would stumble over

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things, fall into things, couldn't reach for things. But gradually the conceptions in their mind began to match up with the perceptions given to them by these glasses. And when that happened, they were able to function just as well in that upside-down world as they were able to function in the world as it truly is. You

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see, you cannot have rational thoughts when perception and conception are not the same. Your life today is vastly different from the lives of those who wrote my words. After all, 4,000 years have elapsed since my earliest pages were scribbled, until this day. And when you see me, you must look at me through

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glasses which help you understand the world and the context, the language in which I was written, those things with which I was dealing. When I, for example, use the word "inspired," I do not mean perfect, though that is a word that you commonly define as perfect. When I use the word "Scripture," I do not speak of

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the New Testament. You speak of both the Old and the New Testaments when you use the word "Scripture," but when I was being written, the New Testament did not yet exist. When I use the word "time," or when I use the word "life," or when I use the word "predetermined," in each of these instances I am writing with ideas that

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were much more primitive than the knowledge that you have gained today into the nature of time and light and the interaction of time and space in questions of predetermination. What I'm trying to say to you is I am NOT God, and he alone is perfect. And sometimes when individuals attempt to present me in

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terms of this day without taking any time to understand what I meant in the day in which I was written, the intelligent hear them and turn away scoffing, and my opportunity to witness has been lost. Or think of it in another way. As you know, the Old Testament was written in Hebrew. Early Hebrew had no

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vowels, only consonants. Take a word like "cabed." If we transliterated that, it would be spelled K-A-B-B-E-D. But you wouldn't find it written that way in the early Old Testament. There it would simply be written as K-B-D. There would be no vowel A, no vowel E. Now, 2,000 years after that word "cabed" was written on my pages, and

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the word means "honor," it appears in the commandment, "Honor thy father and thy mother." 2,000 years after that word was written, a group of people called the Masoretes got together and they recognized that it would be easier to understand the Old Testament if they would add certain markings which would

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give vowel sounds to the Hebrew words. And so they developed vowel markings to be put on all of the Hebrew words. And if you look at an Old Testament today, you will find that it has, if it's looked in Hebrew, you will find that it has not only the consonants but also the vowels. The difficulty is that sometimes when

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they decided what vowels to put in, they made mistakes. And sometimes those mistakes had rather comic results. Have any of you ever seen Michelangelo's great statue of Moses? He's sitting there in majesty on a chair in his right arm, the tablets on which the Ten Commandments appear, and sticking right

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out of his forehead are two horns. Moses with horns? Yes. And that's because when Michelangelo sculpted that statue, the version of the Bible being used was that translated by Saint Jerome. And that version was very much influenced by the Masoretic text, the addition of vowels by those individuals. Now it so

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happens that the difference between the word "horned" and the word "shown" in Hebrew is only in terms of its vowels. So in Saint Jerome's version you read that Moses, when he came down from the mount, had a face which was horned, and he knew not that it was horned. When actually what the text says is when

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Moses came down from the mountain, his face was shining, and he knew not that it shone. You see, the vowel can make a great deal of difference. Now if you are going to suggest that God protected every word that was written upon my pages, and that he kept those words in perfect order, then you must also be

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willing to argue that he came down again when those Masoretic vowels were added and guided the writers of those vowels, because those vowels changed the interpretation and the understanding of many passages of Scripture. Now you are certainly at liberty to hold that position, and I would not dispute it for

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one moment, but I would ask this question. Is it rather odd that God would be so concerned for the perfection of the writing in the first place, and so concerned for the continued perfection of the writing that he influenced even the vowels which were placed upon the text, and yet at the same time he did

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nothing whatever to protect the Bible from different manuscripts, portions being left out in one manuscript, put in another manuscript, mistakes in translation? In some of your Bibles, if you turn to John 8, you will find that the story of Jesus and the adulteress does not appear. Why? Because it's not in

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the best manuscripts that come, the oldest manuscripts of me. Others of you will turn to your Bible, and in John 8 you will find those words about Jesus and the adulteress in italics, or they'll be omitted altogether. Some of you, when you go to your Scriptures, will find that Mark 16 is twice as long as it is

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in some other versions. Why? Because in many of the ancient manuscripts, the last half of the chapter does not appear, and the suggestion is that someone added it later. If it is so important that every word of mine be absolutely precise, then why is it that the genealogy of Jesus in Matthew 1 differs

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from the genealogy of Jesus in Luke 3? Why is it that in Matthew 27 it says that when Judas got his money, he took the money and gave it back to the priests and then went and hanged himself? But in Acts chapter 1 it says that he took the 30 pieces of silver and with them bought a field, and when he was in

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the field, fell down and his intestines were ruptured and he died. If it is so important that every word within me -- so important that some people will fight and brand one another as being outside of Christ -- if it is so important that every word in me is absolutely as it first was written and as it's been

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protected and that there are no errors, in spite of all of these contradictions and other things that I've mentioned, if that is so important, then I ask you, "Whom do you worship? Him or me?" Isn't this the reason you require your minister to study the languages in which the Bible was originally written? Isn't it for this

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reason that they must study exegesis to understand the words in terms of the centuries when they were first scribbled? Isn't this why you require them to study biblical introduction so you know why a letter was written and who wrote that letter and to whom it was written? Isn't this why you require them to master the

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field of hermeneutics, which is the science of being able to interpret my pages in terms of the best knowledge that we have? Isn't this why you require them to learn biblical history, because the history of the day so much impacts upon the words that are written in me? You require these things because you

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want people to interpret my pages to you in terms of what is really said here. And when someone goes out to witness and uses me and maintains those things which some educated person will say, "Well, I happen to know that you're historically wrong," or "I happen to know that you're linguistically untrue," such persons will

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turn away with a sneer or with a snicker, and the power of my witness is weakened. Well, the time for my autobiography is over. I urge you this morning to read me and to understand what I am, not what you want me to be, but what I am. I am not God. I contain God's Word written, and you may trust me perfectly when I speak of

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him and of Christian belief and Christian practice. It is because of this Word of God written that is in me that I have such great power. So let me be free to exercise it. Do not bind me with naivete or lack of learning or a contempt for those whose position is other than your own. The fact is, you need me. I don't

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need you. The fact is, I am not bound, but you are bound. I talk about life and life eternal. I have these things, but some of you do not yet have them. So as freely as I speak to you now, I urge you to speak to all with whom you come in contact and to urge them to read me either in faith or to read me with honest hearts so that

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they will hear what the Holy Spirit will utter through God's Word on these pages. For I am the Bible. I contain the Word of God written. God cannot be bound. Therefore, I cannot be bound. Ever. Let us pray.

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Our Father and our God, we give thee hearty thanks that thou dost grant to us the spectacles of the Holy Spirit by which to read thy Word written. And we pray that thou wilt lead us to discipline our mind and our study, our reading and our argument, that all of these things together will make us more

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effective in the use of that two-edged sword which cuts to the very quick, thy Word written. We yield ourselves to thee and we pray that if what we have said is pleasing to thee, then the promises of thy Word may they be upon us. And if what we have written is not pleasing to thee, then may the curses of thy Word be

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upon us. For we would only be what you would have us be, and we would be what that is for the sake of Jesus Christ, who is the Word, the truth, the life, the way to life everlasting. Amen. [回hmar]