WE CALL IT THE WORD of GOD
Jeremiah 23: 23-29
LUKE 12: 49-56
AUGUST 17, 2025
How many of you remember “SWORD DRILLS” … those challenging moments from days gone by when a Sunday School teacher or youth leader looked around the room to ensure that each child had a Bible in their hands? It was usually their very own personal Bible that they brought with them from home each and every Sunday morning to church AND to Sunday School with pride or that they brought with them to youth group meetings because they knew that more than likely everyone was going to be opening up their personal Bibles at some point during the meeting.
Excitement began to build because a SWORD DRILL was competitive fun and each child was ready to showcase how well they knew their Bible. There were usually prizes too. The teacher or leader would call out … “SWORDS READY” and all the little hands would take hold of their Bibles and raise them up into the air … and then the verse would be called out Nahum 1 verse 7 … GO! Now if you went early you were disqualified so it was all about timing but I remember my thumb going up and down the pages waiting for that verse to be called out.
And, quickly pages were flipped through and each and every child’s goal was to find that verse in the midst of the minor prophets and to stand up to be recognized as the first to be reading … “The Lord is good a haven in a day of distress. He acknowledges those who take refuge in Him.”
Amazingly, few if any of the children back in the day had to turn to the INDEX first before flipping through their Bibles because they knew the Books of the Bible song that they could sing rapidly in their minds to find Nahum ensconced between Micah and Habakkuk just like all of you know without even thinking about it or maybe when I said Nahum you sang, “Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk.”
I always loved when we got to Habakkuk such a strange name almost funny and I know there were sometimes giggles but we knew how to find Nahum in our Bibles.
Looking out at all of you … and even at those of you online … I am wondering if we held a Bible Sword drill today who would win? I think there is an advantage to a well worn Bible but it was always frustrating when the pages stuck together … and you just couldn’t get there before some other kid … in the Bible … in God’s Word … to find a valuable verse … getting to know and become familiar with the source for essential information about how we are to live each day.
And, we sang … “thy Word is a lamp onto my feet and a light onto my path.” I think we sang that old classic hymn from this morning’s worship service sometimes in Sunday School back in the day before the Sword Drill. Mr Seifert, our elementary Sunday School superintendent, getting all of our attention … leading us into song and hearing that song our fingers were just itching to flip open God’s Word.
Perhaps BIBLE SWORD drills are why I find it easy to just flip my Bible open to discover a day’s Scripture reading in my life. It’s how I found my favorite Psalm, which is Psalm 63. You know … you just can’t flip open a Bible app to a random page in Scripture and you can’t write notes in the margin of a Bible or highlight passages if you never open up God’s Word. Actually, reading on my I-pad or phone is not the same as holding a book … a Bible and pausing to stare at a page or a few lines and then perhaps highlighting them.
In our Bible study this past Wednesday we looked at an interesting passage of Scripture from Ecclesiastes. Solomon wrote about being overwhelmed in his reading options and as I have thought more about that reading from God’s Word I started thinking about all of us … about the 21st century world and how Solomon’s teaching about too many books that just overwhelm us could be directed at too much constant drum beating of information much of it fake and politically motivated that has worn us down to the point in life that we just don’t want to sit down and read … read a book for our own enjoyment … read God’s Word to grow our faith.
Every time I walk through the Village of Williamsville I smile when I walk past the library because that building is a sanctuary where Jim Tammaro and I went every week and sometimes more than once a week for years. We picked up books of history, we chose the classic novels from famous authors, and we soaked in knowledge. When Kathy mentioned she was reading the House of Seven Gables this week in Bible study it brought back memories of when I first read it and it is the reason this book is on my bed stand because I am planning to dig back into Nathaniel Hawthorne and this particular novel that was his third major written work.
But statistics show that in the last ten years visits to public libraries have fallen by 56.6 percent. We have created a society unwilling or uninterested to read books or who perceive themselves too busy to pick up a book and read it. Just think of all the bookstores that have closed … consider how few people know where their Bibles are if they even own one.
This morning I am so tempted to call for a SWORD DRILL … but then again, I realize that the habit of bringing one’s Bible to church on Sunday’s literally DIED … DIED … years ago. I admit that before I became a pastor in 2003 I cannot remember if I was still bringing my Bible with me to church on Sunday’s but I definitely remember when I did because I would flip through my Bible with my pastor … I would write notes in my Bible … but then I stopped like everyone else. I’d like to ask how many of you know where your Bible is at home but I won’t … I know that I encourage you to ensure before the school year begins that your children, grandchildren, and nephews and nieces who own smart phones have the BIBLE APP on their phones so that they can read God’s Word during lunch breaks and study halls … not that they will because if they don’t see their parents reading the Bible why should they read the Bible? Heck, if they don’t see their parents reading a great novel … why should they want to pick up a book … they already can no longer pick up a daily newspaper in most communities in our nation because reading is passé … we’d rather watch a reality show or play a video game.
But seriously … in these troubled times … in this era of overload … as we watch almost every lesson of Jesus imploded and mocked every day on the nightly news and as voices clearly focused on going against Scripture seem to have more fans than any sports team … don’t you think you need to make God’s Word … the Holy Scriptures … part of your life. A place where you can easily find the only words of Jesus Christ that are recorded and that you can read over and over again so that they become what Joshua challenged people of faith with, “Be very brave and strong as you CAREFULLY obey all of the instruction of God. Do not deviate from it. Then you will have success wherever you go. NEVER stop speaking about this … THIS … instruction scroll. Recite it day and night so that you can carefully obey everything that is written in it … then you will accomplish your objectives and you will succeed. Don’t be alarmed … the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”
And, as we are wont to say … that’s the Word of God for the people of God but seriously, you don’t have to memorize the historical realities of the minor prophets like Nahum or Amos or Joel or Snagglepuss. Ok, Snagglepuss was a pink puma created by Hanna Barbera for the Quick Draw McGraw cartoon show and then the Yogi Bear cartoon show who also appeared in Kellogg’s feral commercials in the 1960’s and whose famous line was EXIT STAGE LEFT but I am pretty sure I could fool a lot of church goers by making up names of the minor prophets and many would not know the actual names if put on a list with fake names. Those prophets wrote about the challenges facing the people of God before Jesus came.
And, you don’t have to read and reread all the begetting that the Bible showcases as history lessons but the Gospels … we are Christians … we claim to be followers of Jesus Christ … we have told that world that we have been saved or to use the Nicodemean language, “we have been born again” so if that is our truth … that we have pushed the world aside to align with God then it is incumbent on all of us, as the FAITHFUL, to learn God’s most recent clarity of expectations and we do that by reading the Gospels paying attention to what Jesus said and did. We can hone our faith into something that lifts us up by reading the suggestions that Paul gave the early churches in his letters because those early churches were struggling just like we struggle in our faith some times.
Theologian John Stott in his reflection on Paul’s second letter to Timothy writes, “[1]if we are to ask Paul what someone’s first duty is in relation to the gospel, he would of course say to receive it and live by it. His concern is with the duty of Christians towards the gospel. Our duty being to communicate the gospel.” And, friends we cannot communicate the gospel that Paul teaches is the first duty of Christians without reading it and knowing it … in this Bible it’s just 123 pages long.
Yesterday in Toms River as we walked the Main Street there were some extremely ugly folks with hate signs attempting to disrupt a celebration of the community. Two men and one woman stood between these hateful few with megaphones and the crowd who were happily enjoying good food and checking out the items on display in various booths. I went up individually to the two men who were sweating to thank them and offer them a bottle of water. They each said that they wanted to ensure peace … they were not going to get into an argument with the others even though those hate-filled individuals wanted a confrontation … and I looked at their signs … “And, Jesus told them … “I give you a new command love each other as I have loved you. This is how everyone will know that you are my disciples. God didn’t send His Son into the world to judge the world but that the world might be saved.”
The Word of God for the people of God from John’s Gospel not from some human leader’s lips but from God. In our reading from Jeremiah this morning, the Lord declares, “Am I a God who is only nearby and not far off? Can people hide themselves in secret places so I might not see them?” When we choose to get close to God we need to be wrapped up in God’s teaching … get ready for that SWORD DRILL … SWORDS READY … SNAGGLEPUSS chapter 1 verse 2 … HEAVENS TO MERGATROYD no … let’s choose Micah chapter 6 verse 8 … “He has told you, human one, what is good and what the Lord requires from you: to do justice, embrace faithful love for all, and to walk humbly with your God.” You need to read the Bible to find that truth … AMEN