6th Sunday in Ordinary Time - 2025c

Old Testament - Psalm 1:1-6

New Testament - 1 Corinthians 15:12-20

 

The Book About Everything 

 

INTRODUCTION: Happiness in the Bible is an odd thing, or it sure seems that way when compared with how we modern, enlightened folk view it. 

 

These days we tend to see happiness as being personally fulfilled and achieving assorted goals. “Happiness,” for sophisticated people like us says one man, “tends to be understood essentially as enjoying oneself; one’s life goal is understood in terms of self-actualization or self-fulfillment; prosperity becomes a matter of attaining what one wants…”  

 

And so depending on the person, happiness can be all sorts of things these days, right? Maybe it’s finally achieving the goal of becoming a partner at that law firm, or landing that long sought after dream job or promotion. 

 

But for other people happiness might be some other realized desire or goal. Maybe it’s a truly beautiful house inside and out that has been artfully crafted and is, rightly so, the envy of everyone else in the neighborhood. Or as strange as it sounds to me, happiness might even be a house full of kids running around wreaking destruction at every turn.  

 

For me? Happiness, as you know all too well by now, would be living in a three bedroom flat in Edinburgh. Of course, don’t forget the cabin in the highlands for weekend getaways. I am not asking for much, people!    

 

And let me be clear, there is nothing wrong with achieving such objectives. Many good things have come from people achieving their deeply held yearnings and aspirations. Truth be told, people reaching some lifelong aim often makes life better for others in the process as well.

 

ONE:  But happiness in the Bible, well, it is something different. For in the Bible, you see, happiness isn’t so much getting what we want out of life, but rather following God’s instructions and teachings so God can get out of us what God wants. 

 

“The truly happy person doesn’t follow wicked advice,” says the author of Psalm 1, “doesn’t stand on the road of sinners, and doesn’t sit with the disrespectful. Instead of doing those things, these persons love the Lord’s instruction, and they recite God’s Instruction day and night!” 

 

Happy people, in other words and according to Psalm 1, are those who spend time studying God’s word so they might know what God expects of them. While we often ask little kids and adolescents what they want to be when they grow up, Psalm 1, I think, suggests a better and more direct way to phrase the question might be to ask, “What do you think God wants you to be when you grow up?” 

 

Not just when it comes to a career or profession, of course, but also when it comes to who we might need to be as people in general.  

 

For happiness in the Bible, as odd as it might sound to hip, modern people like us who prize individuality and autonomy, is actually seeking to be obedient to God’s will above all else. Such people are like trees planted by a river, says the Psalmists, leading to a flourishing of their lives.

 

No wonder there is also a Jewish saying that claims, “A single day devoted to the Torah outweighs 1,000 [sacrifices].” And that one Rabbi long ago could even claim that “God Himself studies the Torah for the first three hours of every day.” What a great line for stressing the importance of studying Scripture! 

 

TWO: Of course, let’s not sugar coat things. Start studying God’s instructions and teachings in Scripture and it doesn’t take long to figure out the Bible is full of all sorts of peculiar advice.   

 

We hear happiness is to be found in studying God’s word, but then we crack open our Bibles only to find ourselves being handed some pretty odd counsel. For God’s instructions for living seem, well, they seem so foolish and even dangerous, right?

 

After all, we’re told, among other things, not to focus on being first in life, but rather on being last. Well, that’s hardly good advice for a dog-eat-dog world. And then, in a similar vein, we find Jesus also telling us it is more important to serve, rather than be served. Clearly Jesus never saw an episode of MTV’s long running show Cribs, or one of those many versions of The Below Deck Series done by the Bravo Channel. 

                

And then there is all that strange talk from Jesus’ during his Sermon on the Mount. Jesus starts laying out his action plan for a successful life and it’s easy to see why he wasn’t a highly sought after life-coach for business seminars and weekend retreats. “You have heard it said, “Love your neighbor and hate your enemy, but I am here to tell you to instead love your enemies and even pray for those who harass and torment you.” 

 

And what about this little pearl of self-help wisdom: “You have heard it said an eye for an eye and tooth for a tooth, but if someone slaps you on the right check, turn and offer them the left one.” 

 

And finally let’s not forget about the counsel to not worry about our lives and what we might eat, drink, or wear for clothing. Last time I checked bulk buys at Costco continue to be hot items, and Prada and Gucci are still highly sought after bits of apparel to try and don. 

 

When asked to provide a short, pithy description of the Bible, someone will inevitably describe it as a “how to manual for living.” And while I like that description, I also think the Bible is easily the strangest “how to manual” I have ever read! For it has one weird suggestion after another about how to really live in the world.                

 

THREE: And so you think we would have stopped giving the Bible any credence a long time ago, right?

 

Given the odd advice it passes out about how to be happy, it seems only logical that we would have thrown it into the trash bin centuries earlier. Why it isn’t stashed in some museum somewhere in a glass case to be viewed by hip patrons as some silly relic from a by-gone, unenlightened age is truly a mystery, I think.  

 

And yet, maybe it is the very strangeness of the Bible that also makes it so hard to dispose of. For we seem to also intuitively understand the Bible is trying to tell us something important - something important that is elusive and that can't quite be easily grasped or comprehended through normal ways of thinking and seeing. So every Sunday we still gather to hear readings from the Bible despite its strange talk and counsel about what it means to live for God.

 

No wonder one person likes to say, “The Bible is not just a book about religion. The Bible is about everything.” That’s why I am a bit embarrassed and ashamed to admit I don’t have much patience for people who think the Bible is just some archaic book full of wild fairy tales that should be discarded because we humans have outgrown it. Cause as near as I can tell, people who think that have never actually read the Bible, or if they have, they simply weren’t paying attention.     

 

“The Bible takes time,” says one person. “You already know that any true friendship takes time. In order to be someone’s good friend, you must spend time with that person in conversation, in work, in play, and just hanging out together…think of the Bible as the major means God has provided for us to become friends with God.”

 

Well, not a bad way to think about the Bible, right? It’s the way for us to become friends with God.  

 

FOUR:  And friends of God, of course, have an odd way of behaving in the world.

 

Their egos tend to be small and they go out of their way to be magnanimous when they can. Friends of God are often more interested in maintaining relationships when they’ve become frayed than trying to place blame. They tend to think there is more than enough in the world to go around for everyone and so strive to be generous.

 

And while most people are often busy looking out for their own interests, friends of God tend to be busy looking out for the interests of others. They have bigger goals, agendas, and projects to complete than just their own personal ones. 

 

In the 1940s and 50s, Samuel Rayburn would serve as the Speaker of the House on three separate occasions totalying 17 years in all. He still holds the record for the most years served as Speaker of the House. 

 

Born in Roane County, TN, Rayburn and his family moved to Texas in 1887 where he would eventually be elected to represent Texas’ 4th Congressional District for nearly 50 years!  He was, needless to say, a pretty powerful and highly respected man in both Texas and DC.  

 

One day, though, he learned that the teenage daughter of a reporter friend had tragically died. Going to see the reporter friend, Rayburn asked the grieving man if there was anything he could do.  

 

Stammering, the man replied, “I don’t think there is…We are making all the arrangements.”

 

“Well, have you had your coffee this morning?” Rayburn asked. 

 

“No. We haven’t had time.” said the man.

 

“Well,” the Speaker of the House replied, “I can at least make the coffee.”

 

As the grieving father watched one of the most powerful politicians in the country make him coffee, he suddenly remembered something. “Mr. Speaker, I thought you were supposed to be having breakfast at the White House this morning.”

 

“Well I was, but I called the President and told him I had a friend who was in trouble, and I couldn’t come.”

 

A simple story to be sure, but an illustrative one nonetheless, I think. Why, it’s enough to make me wonder if Rayburn had been both reading the Bible and paying attention.    

 

CONCLUSION:  Well, there is just something about the Bible, right? 

 

Even though it is full of odd advice, we still, strangely, keep gathering to hear from it. And maybe we keep coming to hear from it because in our heart-of-hearts we know that the Bible is more than just a book about religion. For despite what some might say about it being a dusty, boring, irrelevant  book, in the end, it’s really a book about everything.                    

 

Now to the ruler of all worlds, undying, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever! Amen.