October Jottings...

I remember a series of TV commercials for the brokerage firm Merrill Lynch. They were set in a busy, noisy location like a cafe or an office and it focused on two people talking. One person would say to the other, “Well, my broker is Merrill Lynch and Merrill Lynch says …” The camera would then pan back and the room had gone suddenly quiet as everyone else in the room leans in to listen in on what Merrill Lynch had to say.

The first two weeks of October we will be in the book of Hebrews and that book kind of starts out the same way as the commercials. Depending on the version you use it may not be as clear but the first 7 verses in chapter 1 of Hebrews are one long sentence. There are lots of clauses and sub clauses modifying various things but if you remember back to English somewhere around the 6th or 7th grade there was something called sentence diagramming. I actually liked it and think I benefitted from it. (Yes, I am weird that way!) Anyway, the key is to figure out what the subject and verb are and go from there.

In this long sentence at the beginning of Hebrews the subject and verb are clear:

GOD // HAS SPOKEN

The next key element is an adverbial phrase modifying the verb, telling us how:

GOD // HAS SPOKEN

^ ———- THROUGH HIS SON

Now let’s move from English to theology. Do you really believe God has spoken? Or at the center of who you are and what you believe, though you would never say it out loud, do you not really think God knows who you are or cares or even exists? And if God HAS spoken wouldn’t it behoove us to figure out how and what He said? And if we accept like the writer of Hebrews does, that God has spoken through His Son, then that gives a whole new flavor to our effort to figure out what He said.

Of course this is where pastors like me emphasize the way to hear what God has to say is by reading the Bible and attending church. Being in a small group or Sunday School that includes study of the Bible and accountability is another way. The method Jesus and John Wesley used is by service - visiting the sick and those in prison and leading class meetings brings us to the truth in an exciting way that just listening to sermons or reading books never will.

I doubt we will ever see a new set of commercials but wouldn’t it be great if one came out and what the one person is saying is: “Well, my broker is Merrill Lynch and Merrill Lynch says that God has spoken through His son!”

- Pastor Brian