On theology and the Christian life

“Now the word of God, profitable as it is to the cursory thought of a pious mind, reveals a deeper meaning to the patient student than to the momentary hearer.” It may be that you need to read this quote from Hilary of Poitiers a few times in order to grasp his point. If so, then his quote has, in some measure, helped to accomplish what he here counsels.

We are an impatient and distracted people. The proof of this is the number of people that pass me on Highway 2 even if I am at or over the speed limit. Additionally, our level of discourse has shrunk to 140 character tweets. No doubt, news headlines must be so outrageously short and pithy — so full of invectives and calumnies — so as to draw us in like a mosquito to a bug-zapping lamp. Surely our attentions have the life-span of the bubbles my three year old attempts to blow. As the world continues to move with rapidity, we demand that things move faster and grab our attentions longer.

The Word of God, on the other hand, does not move at such a pace, nor is our attention always held when reading it. That God’s Word is the record of our beginning and our eschatological end is proof enough that it does not move at ludicrous speed. The story of salvation takes generations to unfold. Therefore, the reading of this story is accomplished by the patient student and not the momentary hearer. Again, there is profit in giving God’s Word cursory thought, but a deeper understanding comes with patience.

As a pastor I am sometimes asked how to begin reading the Scriptures. To myself I think “Pick up your Bible and read.” Of course, no one comes to their pastor for his cynicism and shame on me for the thought. That one wrestles with this question is due a “Christ be praised!”

Indeed, I confess it is difficult for me to pick up my Bible and read. I understand the difficulty because I am shaped by the fast-paced world in which I live. I am perhaps the impatient one passing the already fast-paced driver on Highway 2. I don’t have Twitter, thanks be to God, though I do scroll short, cheap headlines and imagine I know the whole story. My attention has the life-span of the bubbles my 17 month old attempts to blow; you know those ones that don’t even make it off the bubble wand? All this is to say, I am often the momentary hearer rather than the patient student. I often treat the Scriptures in a cursory fashion, rather than jumping into the depths of the fullness of God’s holy Word.

So, what is the remedy? What will invigorate my ailing attention? What will curb my whining impatience? Psalm 119 is the longest chapter in the Bible and one wholly devoted to the praise of God’s Word, but the thought of reading it exhausts me. As with any problem, its admittance is the first step to overcoming it. So, again, we are an impatient and distracted people and so with much drudgery do we attempt to read the 66 Holy Spirit-inspired books of the Bible. The Bible’s pace is too slow, so we speed by it or wonder if there is a CliffsNotes version. In some sense there is, and this should help the impatient and distracted Christian reader in his reluctance of this supposed tortoise-paced book.

The CliffsNotes version of the Bible is that God loved the world in this way: He sent his only begotten Son into the flesh, to bear your sin and to be your Savior. This promise is for the forgiveness of your sins and eternal life in Christ Jesus. The promise was first made in Genesis 3:15, but it took time—yes, the fullness of time (Galatians 4:4)—for it to come to fruition.

The remedy, then, is to realize that God your heavenly Father has done all things for you and for your salvation according to his before-the-foundation-of-the-world plan (I Peter 1:20). Therefore, you can rest in this promise, patiently reading the full breadth of his holy Word. For there, as the story of salvation unfolds in this generation-upon-generation kind of way, you know that the genealogy culminates in the Word made flesh.

So, pick up your Bible (and yes, “Physician, heal thyself”) and follow the instruction of a third-generation Lutheran pastor, Johann Gerhard. His advice is to read two chapters in the morning and two chapters in the evening. In this way, you will have the whole Bible read in less than a year. And do not lose heart; you already know the end of the story and what a glorious end it is. God grant you the spirit of a patient student.

Amen.

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Pastor Marcus Williams

St. Paul Lutheran Church, Havre

Zion Lutheran Church, Chinook