Archbishop CranmerI thought I'd post this sermon ahead of the day this week, since I remain without a cure and am not preaching anywhere this week.
On this second Sunday in Advent, our Collect and Scripture readings have concerned the Holy Scriptures and their value to us. It is only fitting that, during this season when we remember the Word become flesh, we be reminded of the wonderful treasure that the Lord has given to us in the Bible. As Christ became a human baby, so weak to human sight, so His Wisdom revealed to us is enclosed in a book that looks much like any other book. However, by faith, we recognise that therein lies the knowledge of our salvation, of Christ Himself. Thus Christians heartfully sing words such as those found in Mary Lathbury’s hymn “Break Thou the Bread of Life” wherein she writes:
Beyond the sacred page I seek Thee Lord:
My spirit pants for Thee, O living Word!
Historically, the Anglican Church has been a Church of the Book. The shape of the church handed down to us from our Anglican forefathers - and though I have been a Methodist and a Presbyterian, I do indeed have Anglican forefathers! - has been one in which the Scriptures have pervaded everything. The Anglican Church has plainly testified that the Bible alone contains all things necessary for our salvation. As much as we value the sacraments in our worship, they are sacraments only because we read in Holy Scripture that God has made them such and it is therein that we find our understanding of them that we might rightly receive them.
Last night during our discussion around the table, we talked somewhat about the Homilies of the Anglican Church. The Homilies are sermons appearing in two “books” which originally were to be read in the churches that did not have a qualified priest to preach sermons. In the 39 Articles, it says that Ministers are to read these as well. The first book was written in the time of Edward VI and the second under Elizabeth I. Of all the Homilies, the first, written by Thomas Cranmer, is entitled “A Fruitful Exhortation to the Reading and Knowledge of Holy Scripture.” It is no surprise that the church would have published a sermon on the value of the Bible before all others.
What does Cranmer teach us about the Scriptures in this homily? For the most part, he writes much of the same kind of thing we have said already. He uses a good deal of space listing for us the many wonderful virtues of the Scriptures which we find written in the Bible itself. These are such things as those we read earlier in our service in Psalm 119. Indeed, the Bible is full of wonderful testimony and imagery regarding the worth and necessity of what is contained in its pages. The doctrine of Holy Scripture according to Holy Scripture is quite an extensive study.
But this is not all that Cranmer does. He speaks to our hearts. He tells us that, since the Holy Scriptures are necessary for our salvation, “Therefore as many as bee desirous to enter into the right and perfect way unto God, must applie their mindes to know holy Scriputre….” We must labour, as it were, to know that which God has revealed to us. Of course, for the spiritually minded Christian, this is something he enjoys doing. Cranmer writes,
And as drinke is pleasant to them that bee drie, and meate to them that be hungrie: so is the reading, hearing, searching, and studying of holy Scripture, to them that bee desirous to know GOD or themselues, and to doe his will.
If anyone does not find the Scriptures pleasant, it is because their hearts are filled with the vainities of this world. He writes:
And their stomackes onely doe loathe and abhorre the heauenly knowledge and food of GODS word, that be so drowned in worldly vanities, that they neither fauour GOD, nor any godlinesse: for that is the cause why they desire such vanities, rather then the true knowledge of GOD.
In light of the importance of our learning the Bible, Cranmer says,
Therefore forsaking the corrupt iudgement of fleshly men, which care not but for their carkasse: let vs reuerently heare and read holy Scriptures, which is the foode of the soule (Matthew 4.4). Let vs diligently search for the Well of Life in the bookes of the New and Old Testament, and not runne to the stinking puddles of mens traditions (deuised by mens imagination) for our iustification and saluation.
The condition of our hearts, writes Cranmer, not only affects our attitude toward the Scriptures, but also how much we are able to profit from Scriptures. The person who would profit from the knowledge gained in the Bible must be someone who is willing to change. His heart must be so inspired by the Holy Spirit that his life will conform to what he reads. He will be someone that is, as Cranmer continues:
…dayly lesse and lesse proud, lesse wrathfull, lesse couetous, and lesse desirous of worldly and vaine pleasures: he that dayly (forsaking his old vicious life) increaseth in vertue more and more. And to bee short, there is nothing that more maintayneth godlinesse of the minde, and driueth away vngodlinesse, then doeth the continuall reading or hearing of GODS word, if it be ioyned with a godly minde, and a good affection, to know and follow GODS will.
This all reminds me of what St. James says in the first chapter of his epistle, when he writes of the two ways that people hear the Word of God.
22: But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. 23: For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass: 24: For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was. 25: But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.
It is obvious that the difference between these two men is that one came to the Scriptures ready to change, caring about change.
Since Cranmer in his sermon is trying to get people reading and memorizing and listening to the Word carefully, he addresses a couple of excuses that people used in his day to stay ignorant of the Bible. One was that the person thinks himself so ignorant that, if he read the Scriptures he might misunderstand what was said and thus fall into error. His answer to this excuse is basically that it’s a silly one. The whole point is to learn to avoid error - not to remain ignorant to avoid error. If someone thinks that way, they may as well not do anything at all out of fear of doing something they shouldn’t do. They should never take a step anywhere lest they fall into the mire, nor eat any food lest they get too full. But having answered this excuse, what he says to encourage the ignorant to learn Scripture is really beautiful, because it reminds us of the spiritual nature of God’s truth in the Bible. If we have humble hearts, if we seek the glory of God, if we pray for enlightenment, God will help us understand what He is saying. "Presumption and arrogancy is the mother of all error: and humility nedeth to feare no error."
The second excuse used by those who would stay away from the Bible was that the Scriptures are too hard to understand and require academic learning in order to rightly comprehend them. Here, Cranmer speaks tenderly of how “God leaveth no man untaught, that hath good will to know his word.” He then describes the varied truths in the Bible, some being easy to learn and some being more difficult, as a landscape through which we walk: "And the Scripture is full, as well of low valleyes, plaine wayes, and easie for euery man to vse, and to walke in: as also of high hilles & mountaynes, which few men can climbe vnto."
And as it takes physical exercise to be able to climb the mountains, so Cranmer says that, given time, those who are weak in the Scriptures, if they keep reading, will “wax stronger.” And if they need help, God will provide it. He reminds us of how God sent Philip to the Ethiopian Eunuch who did not understand a passage in Isaiah. What a lovely picture this is of the kindness and care of God for the least of His people. He is indeed able to help us with whatever we need for our salvation, and He will give that help, either indirectly, as through Philip, or directly by His Spirit as need be. Cranmer states: "...if we lacke a learned man to instruct and teach vs, yet GOD himselfe from aboue, will giue light vnto our mindes, and teach vs those things which are necessary for vs, & wherin we be ignorant."
As a rule for study, Cranmer just simply says in his own way, if at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. He refers us to the words of Christ when he said, “Ask and it will be given unto you, seek and ye shall find, knock and it shall be opened unto you,” and helps us realise that these words apply to understanding the Bible as much as to anything else.
Finally, when dealing with the issue of what is easy or difficult in Scripture, Cranmer tells us that we are responsible before God to learn all we can, and what we cannot understand we should just be content to not understand until God sees fit to help us to do so. What is more, just because certain passages are hard to understand, that does not give us leave to ignore them. We should continue to read through the whole of Scripture, and not those parts we find easy. After all, how will we ever understand the more difficult parts if we never visit them.
Cranmer ends the sermon with words that remind us of Deuteronomy 6. We are to be contemplating God’s word day and night. And as we do so, we must do it in a spiritual manner. I use his closing remarks as my own:
Let vs pray to GOD (the onely authour of these heauenly studies) that wee may speake, thinke, beleeue, liue and depart hence, according to the wholesome doctrine, and verities of them. And by that meanes, in this world we shall haue GODS defence, fauour, and grace, with the vnspeakeable solace of peace, and quietnesse of conscience, and after this miserable life, we shall enioy the endlesse blisse and glory of heauen: which he grant[s to] vs all that died for vs all, Iesus Christ, to whom with the Father and the holy Ghost, bee all honour and glory, both now and euerlastingly.
Amen.
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David