Sept 30 2007 Bible Presentation Sunday

Sept 30. 2007 PUMC Rory Swenson “The Bible is..”

I get to do another one of my favorite things this morning.
We get to give out Bibles to third graders and confirmation students.
And I am wondering ,how many of us still have a Bible that you got in about third grade?
How many of you have a Bible that you got for confirmation?
And then take a minute and tell somebody next to you about your first Bible.

When did you get it and who gave it to you?
What did it feel like to get that Bible?
Do you still have it? No that for just a minute or 2

Now another question:what is a favorite verse or a verse that you think of most often?
Finally, is there anybody here who does not have a Bible ?

Because if you don’t then I have a Bible for you;... you can see me at the end of the service.

Now up until Thursday evening I was going to talk about what the Bible is.

I was going to talk about the Bible as a way to hear God’s voice to us.
... we do speak of It as God’s Word..and we are called into this dialogue of listening and relationship

I was also going to talk about the Bible as a standard for living

and I was going to talk about the Bible as a the source for our identity ...
that's why I had those verses put into the bulletin insert this week

I listed some verses that tell us who we are
so maybe you could save that insert and use them as prayer reminders this week of who you are;

And all that is true

But there was this story that I’ve know about for several years
that has been waiting for its turn to be told and it kept coming back to me this week

I got this idea again and again ,“tell that story this week..”
Drop those other notes,Go get that story

and I realized that it is also a story about what the Bible really is....

Except that it’s a zen Buddhist story and its about how the Buddhist scriptures
the sutras, got printed in Japanese language

Well
its still a story that can speak to us about what the bible really is..

Heres the “jist” of to the story..and its based in history

Tetsugen,
was a follower of Zen in Japan, in the 1600s and he became a monk when he was just a young teenager. He wanted to become a holy person so he obeyed the discipline of the monastery where he listened, he studied ,chanted and he learned


But very early on he dreamed of having the Buddhist teachings printed in the Japanese language . Up until this time they were only printed in Chinese:
all the scripture and the chants
the koans the parables and the stories;
all had to be read in Chinese

so only the most dedicated and determined people were able to do this
You had to learn Chinese before you could even start to study and of course,
not everybody could do that

so you can see why Tetsugen wanted to translate the words

and then
he wanted to have 7000 copies printed
That was his dream and his devotion to the scriptures;
so that the lay people of Japan
could read this in their own languages
and they too could be inspired ..and they too could become holier in their own lives...
(We had the same kind of challenges and issues in western Christianity , trying to get the Bible printed into the common languages of the people, for example English or German, rather than just Latin)

But this was a huge project ; translating and then carving all those letters on to wood blocks for printing...it would take about 60,000 wood blocks to make this translation ;of course it was very expensive

yet Tetsugen was driven by this dream and his own devotion to tho scriptures
and wanting to share this wisdom and this life with the people.

He became a leader in his own monastery and then became a master also at a young age ;then he started to teach outside the monastery ,out in the villages
or in the town s and cities,soon
he was invited to teach with the scholars and the businessmen and the government officials
He was a famous teacher and as he taught in these places
he was able to charge for his lectures; he also collected donations for his project
sometimes he would get a hundred pieces of gold
..but most of the time
he got just a few coins.

. Still, he was grateful for every donation and he valued them all just the same

. After doing this for ten years.. He had enough money to hire a translator,

He could now by the paper and have the paper prepared,
and have the print blocks made.

After ten years he could finally have the books for the people

But just as he was about to give the money to the translator and get the project in motion, there was typhoon and heavy rains
and the Uji river overflowed .Homes were ruined, bridges and roads were destroyed and the rice crop was lost ;
after that there was a famine..


The very young and the very old were the first to die
but soon everyone was in danger
there was no seed rice..for the next crop
Tetsugen looked at the suffering of the people and he thought,

“How can I make books when the people who are going to read them.
Are starving to death”

And so he took all the money he had saved in those ten years
and he sent away to get rice .to save the people.
He gave away everything he had for the hungry

As Japan began to recover
Testugen still had his dream to translate the scriptures so he started to go out and speak once gain,
to collect for the project..

More traveling ,,more begging..
He begged from every one and anyone ;always grateful for the gifts..

Again it took him several years to collect enough money

by now the cost of the materials had gotten higher
but finally he was ready with the translator
and the paper and the person to carve the printing blocks


But again. Tragedy struck
there was an epidemic; disease was everywhere.
The people were two weak to work the fields..
’people needed medicine and they needed food.
.and so again Tetsugne spent all of the money
to help the people


and then For a third time
he started his work, all over; speaking , teaching, writing,
collecting donations..

He begged shamelessly but he was begging from people who had given donations before and sometimes people would say to him

What did you do with the money that we already gave you for this project.?

But he never gave up on his dream, and his devotion to the scriptures and how he wanted to share them with his own people
well

again after twenty years his wish was fulfilled.
He had enough money ;this time
no disasters came along,
the translator was paid

the wood printing blocks were made
the paper was printed.

And in 1681
7000. copes of the sutras
., the prayers and the teachings
were made for the people of Japan

Testsugen was not a young man anymore but his devotion was shared
and it was lived in his translation

You can still go to a monastery in a Kyoto Japan
and you can see Four of those little printing blocks that made the first edition of sutras
.
I'm told that
The tour guide in that monastery museum
will tell you this..
They say that Testsugin
actually made three sets of sutras,
not one
but three translations of those scriptures

and that the first two invisible sets

surpass even the last.

The first 2 sets of scripture are far superior and much more to be valued.

You get the message

The best translation of the scriptures came in the acts of devotion
and self lessness and compassion .as he helped the people

When Tesugun used the scripture
to become food and medicine and the rebuilding of lives

that is what really taught the wisdom and gave holiness to the people

Because he loved those sutras , those scriptures ;
he also loved the people those scriptures were for
because he knew what those teachings taught, he know what he really had to do.
because he wanted to share those scriptures; he also knew that he had to share with the people in need

He could not do one without the other.

That what I want us to hear to day as we present these Bible and have our kind of Bible Sunday.

Can you really love the Bible without loving the people the bible is for?
Can you love God’s word without loving Gods world..and God’s vision for the you in that world?

Can you be devoted to God’s word
without being devoted to gods work
Doesn’t one lead tot he other?


That’s the lesson that I hear in our Bible as well..
The true giving of the scriptures happens when we give love and life

the true translating of the bible
happens when change our action
s and respond the hungry and the poor

The true teaching of the Bible
happens when we do what the Bible teaches us to do
and we begin to live the kind of world
and form the kind of future that God points out for us

That is the vision of the scriptures where they study war no more
where the hungry are fed
the outcasts are regathered and the lost are found
in the good ness of God

Do you think God want us to translate that into our real lives somehow?

Maybe that what the Bible really is

it s a translation of Gods will
.wanting to happen in us..and thorough us.....
a translation of Gods wisdom

a translation of Gods love into your world, your mind, your action, your being

Is the translation only in the pages of this wonderful book?
or

do we make those other invisible translations
those more precious translation
in the living of our lives

as we become
those sacrificial and holy
stories of faith and hope and love..
Can you make that translation?

the Bible is meant to be translated... into life..

Go back to the gospel lesson today

maybe the true devotion to the Bible as the word of God
comes when we do see the Lazarus at our own gates of the world..

and we listen to the scriptures

We listen to the warnings and calls of Moses
and the prophets

and yes we listen
and do the the words of Jesus
who did indeed raise from the dead...

Jesus is very clearly saying we already have the scriptures to lead us!
Now do it! Will we listen to it..Will we translate it!

That the kind of living translation that the bible
..as the word of God ,is trying to be

There is an old gospel poem and song
that talks about the gospel according to you

and that you are the gospel
you are the bible

that most people are actually going to read...

Are you good translation.? I hope that as a church we are trying to be a good modern translation
that takes to days complex issues
and todays challenges
and tries to solve them

with the same kind of transformative love, and creative hospitality
and selfless sacrifice and
ultimate trust..
that Jesus revealed as the way

now thats a transaltion
of the bible to be treasured.. Its seems like a very rare translation!

The Bible printed in a book
is to be cherished and prayed and studied..

But most of all it is to be embodied.
.taken to heart and lived..

Maybe that's why we see Jesus Christ as the incarnation of the word
..the living Word...Jesus became the word


Let me close with lesson form the Jewish tradition
Rabbi David Wolpe
tells about a man who went up to a very wise rabbi and said

Rabbi I don’t want to boast
but I consider myself a very devout and learned Jew.
I have been through the Talmud three times in my studies.

The rabbi smiled back at him and nodded
“Admirable
Very admirable
But my friend, I have a question for you?
How much of the Talmud has been through you?”


Maybe we have to ask the question :how much of the bible has been though us..?
Gotten into us..
Moved us ..changed us.. Formed us.

What is the Bible ...? As people of faith..I think we have to say

The Bible is God word to create us and recreated us. The bible is Gods word
that is meant to be translated and gone through us.
All of us and each of us

How much of the bible is going through you.?
That is how we personally answer, what the Bible is.

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....(My version of the Tetsugin story is a compilation of the material from the wikipedia entry for Tetsugen as well as Megan Mckenna's version in Keepers of the Story p. 50 Orbis Press

The rabbi and Talmud story is From M. McKenna Prophets,,p. 1 , she cites Rabbi David Wolpe