Storybooks

Preached at St Paul Presbyterian, Aurora, Colorado, May 24, 2009

Text:  Psalm 1

As I was just telling the children, I love stories.  All my life, while moving through sixteen different states, through many schools and jobs, they have been my constant companions and the place where some of my best friends lived.

And not just books, but movies and TV also.  I’ve already seen the new Star Trek movies three times and Nancy will tell you that I’ve thought way too much about it.

I saw the first Star Wars, what we now know as “Episode IV” 13 times…

The summer it opened, I was 12 and it was the last summer that I could get in the child price:  $1.25.  Since that summer I’m sure that I’ve seen it more than a hundred more times.  I know that movie backwards and forwards.  From “There’ll be no escape for the princess this time” to “You’re all clear kid, now let’s blow this thing and go home!”  I know that movie.

Since that summer, I’ve learned much more, I know about the last of the V-8 Interceptors and that “if you want out of here, you talk to me.”  I know that “it’s 106 miles to Chicago, we’ve got a full tank of gas, half a pack of cigarettes, it’s dark and we’re wearing sunglasses.”

I’ve learned important life lessons like:  “never go in against a Sicilian when death is on the line,” That “when someone asks if you’re a god, you say yes” and that if anyone ever asks “are you Sarah Conner?” you say no.

“I think that this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship,” that “you just put your lips together an blow,” “we’re not in Kansas, anymore.”

I know that “Death is her gift,” that “they got the mustard out” and that “I’m pretty sure I said ‘no interruptions’”

I know that “A day may come when the courage of men fails, when we forsake our friends and break all bonds of fellowship, but it is not this day.” And that “If nothing we do matters... then all that matters is what we do.”

I know all about “the Knights Who Say ‘Ni,’” and sometimes I think “of the immortal words of Socrates, when he said, ‘I drank what?’”  I know that “I never wanted to do this…I wanted to be a lumberjack.” And most of all, I know that “no one expects the Spanish Inquisition.”

Then there’s the Bible and all the amazing stories in there, just think about the stories that we’re perched between this Sunday, with the Ascension of the Lord last week and Pentecost coming next week. But there are so many more, the familiar like Sampson and Delilah, David and Goliath or the Nativity, and the lesser known like Jephthah’s Daughter and “Shamgar, son of Anath, who killed 600 Philistines with an ox goad, he too delivered Israel.”

I love all those stories; they have taught me, inspired me and guided me through my whole life. For me, the great Good News of the Bible is contained in the great, timeless stories that it tells.
So I was not all that thrilled with this morning’s Psalm when it told me that the secret to a happy, full life to study the law.

I mean, have you read the law?  Page after page of exacting descriptions of how to build the tabernacle, then page after page of exacting descriptions of how the tabernacle was built.

Then there are all the rules about what’s clean and what’s not clean and what you have to do to make yourself clean if for some reason you ended up not clean.

And really, when you think about it, isn’t when we focus on the law that we get into the most trouble?  When was the last time you heard someone arguing about David and Goliath?  No, if you hear two people arguing about religion, it’s a pretty safe bet that they’re arguing about some part of the law.

So, with my love of stories and my, let’s just say, ambivalence toward studying the law, am I destined to sit in the “seat of the scoffers?”  I really would rather be a “tree who bears its fruit in season, and whose leaves don’t wither.”

Do I need to give up on my beloved stories and knuckle down to study all those laws?  Maybe.
But then again, maybe not.

The physicist Steven Hawking tells the story of how, when he was writing his book A Brief History of Time his publisher gave him the rule of thumb that for every equation he put into the book, he could count on loosing half of the books potential readership.  He took that advice to heart, and in the end only included one equation in the book, deciding that it was important enough that it was worth the potential drop in purchasers.

During the course of seminary, preachers and ministers learn a similar rule of thumb, that for every Hebrew or Greek word that we put into the sermon and try to explain, we risk putting half of the congregation to sleep.

But just as Dr. Hawking felt that he just had to include that one equation in his book, consequences be damned, there is one word from today’s Psalm that I just have to dig into, so if you see the person to your left or right start to fade out, could you do me a favor and give them a little bit of a nudge to wake them up?

I’m not too worried, though, because the word I’m going to talk about is at least one that I think most of you will have heard before, and one that you may even think that you already know pretty well.
It’s used twice in today’s Psalm, and both times I would say that it is translated incorrectly even though the way it is translated will match what most of you probably think the word means.

Not surprisingly, it’s the word that is translated into English as law, but in the Hebrew it’s Torah
You will almost always see Torah translated as “law” and I guess it’s not correct for me to say that “law” s an incorrect translation, because the torah does include the law, but the problem is that it’s a terribly, terribly limiting way to translate a word that means so much more.

The root of the word Torah is in a Hebrew verb that means, “he teaches,” the particular form of the of the verb translates roughly as “that which he teaches” or “that which he causes to be learned.”  Or most simply, “teaching.” 

I think, therefore, that a better translation of the second verse would be “but their delight in the teaching of the Lord, and on what he teaches they meditate day and night”

When translated that way, it encompasses so much more than just a list of rules and commandments, it’s also the stories that surround those laws and in the oral traditions that through the centuries have grown up around those stories and laws.

Think about the five books that are usually included in the Torah, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy.  Those books do contain long lists of rules and regulations, they also contain many of the best known and best loved stories of the Bible.

Think about all that’s in there, from Adam and Eve, to Noah, to Abraham and Sarah, Jacob and Esau, Joseph and his fancy coat, the Tower of Babel, and of course, Moses and the Flight from Egypt.

All those stories give context to the rules.  When we read all those laws and instructions we need to remember the context of the covenant between God and Abraham, when we look at the Ten Commandments, we need to remember the whole story of Moses and the Exodus.

What happens when we don’t?  Well, we can see one example, in the passage from Acts that was read earlier.

I’ve been amusing myself this week by thinking of this passage as the minutes of the very first Session meeting.

Jesus has ascended, the Spirit hasn’t come yet, and so what could be better than to have a committee meeting?

Peter calls them to order and explains the agenda, that they need to elect a new elder, I mean disciple, so that they can have the right number as required by the rules.

Then they proceed to nominations and then determine the choice by the rolling of dice.  Mathias is the winner.

Let me tell you every thing we know about Mathias…

…

Mathias won that roll of the dice.  That’s it.  We never hear another word about Mathias.

Now, we now don’t know that Mathias was a bad apostle, we just know that he was an unremarkable one. Which is damning with faint praise if I ever heard it.

And maybe, just maybe, if Peter and the rest of them had been more interested in letting the story continue and waiting for the Spirit to come as Jesus had promised than in making sure that they had the right number of people on their team, they might have ended up making a better choice.

And maybe, when we go to make our decisions, we need to have more room for the stories and not just look to the laws.

Is studying the law a bad thing?  No.

What’s bad is focusing on the law at the expense of the stories that give the law context and heart.
When the time comes to stand for judgment and join the congregation of the righteous I hope to be able to say that I have loved all of the Torah.

And to quote another favorite story, “may the same be said for all of us!”

Amen.