The Bible is an extraordinary collection of books, written over many centuries, telling the story of God's relationship with humanity. Through its pages, we find people who struggle, doubt, fail, love, use their power, forgive and discover God's presence in unexpected places. Above all, we encounter Jesus, who shows us what God is like and invites us to follow him.

The trouble with the Bible is most people do not read it regularly, and when people go to another extreme and decide they want to understand it fully they buy a book to explain it. Then they buy a commentary to try to understand what they’ve read in the book. Eventually, they have a whole shelf of books about the Bible, and have been so busy doing that, they haven’t prayerfully read the bible itself for a very long time!

The bible is given to be read, wrestled with, prayed over and lived. It’s a problematic book in many ways. It would be much easier if it were undisputably clear. But it’s what Christians have read for millennia and it’s what we have now, as a gift.

Our Gospel reading today contains a remarkable promise from Jesus: “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.”

So much in the world has changed in 2000 years, and just in our short span our lives change. Our circumstances change, our understanding develops, relationships change, and the world around us changes. Words that seemed important to us years ago may have been forgotten. Yet Jesus tells us that his words will not pass away.

Through the bible, the Holy Spirit can speak into our lives today, bringing comfort, challenging us, revealing the truth about ourselves and drawing us closer to God, and it should also change us.

Firstly, the bible matters because it brings us closer to God.

At the beginning of John's Gospel, we read these extraordinary words: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” John goes on to tell us that “the Word became flesh and lived among us.”

John is talking about Jesus. Jesus is the Word of God made flesh. He is not simply someone who brings us God's message; he reveals God to us in his own person. If we want to know what God is like, we look at Jesus: at the way he welcomes the excluded, touches the untouchable, forgives sinners, challenges hypocrisy and loves even those who reject him.

The Bible helps us discover this living Word. Through its stories, its promises, its poetry and its teaching.

And for many people, particular words of Scripture become precious because they meet them at a particular moment in their lives. A verse that we may have heard dozens of times can suddenly speak with extraordinary power when we are frightened, grieving, uncertain or simply wondering whether we matter.

Last week in the ABC of Evangelism – Authenticity, Boldness and Confidence, I mentioned Psalm 139. I spoke about how psalm told me that God knew me, that there was nowhere I could go where the Spirit of God wouldn't be there with me, and that I was fearfully and wonderfully made and his hand would guide me. Likewise Psalm 42 sustained me after my husband died – and I’ve spoken about that a bit before.

But one of the most consistently sustaining passages for me, when I’ve supported a loved one who is seriously ill or when I was quite poorly myself was Romans 8. Here’s a few verses which you may recognise:

I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory about to be revealed to us. Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness, for we do not know what to pray for, but the Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Sometimes I read those verses in tears not sure if I believed them, sometimes I read them and knew the Spirit was present with me, sometimes I was numb, but new them to be truth. This is why the bible matters it’s not something we just read and interpret; it’s a place where we encounter God's love and discovered something of who Jeus is and who we are in God’s sight.

These passages do more than give us information about God. They speak to our deepest questions. Am I loved? Am I known? Does my life matter? Is God with me when I cannot feel his presence?

The Holy Spirit works through the Bible. We may read a familiar passage and suddenly notice something we have never seen before. A verse may stay with us throughout a difficult day. Words we have heard in church may return to us when we need them most. The text has not changed, but somehow we hear it afresh.

But we do have to read it for that to happen, and often that means getting help to understand the context of what we’re reading too.

The Spirit can use the bible to illuminate our lives, deepen our faith and help us recognise God's presence.

Secondly, the bible matters because it changes us and we can share that change.

Jesus says, “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.” These words remind us that what Jesus says is not simply relevant to the people who first heard him. His words continue to call us into a life shaped by God's love and it’s for all generations.

Reading the Bible is not just for our own comfort. We can know a great deal about it and find it personally helpful, but fail to live by it’s challenge to change.

The purpose of reading it is not simply to become more knowledgeable. It is to become more like Jesus. To have the living word dwell within us.

When we read about forgiveness, we are invited to become more forgiving. When we read about welcoming strangers, we are challenged to make our welcome real. When we read that we are loved by God, we are invited to live with greater confidence in that love, and to offer that same love to others.

Sometimes the words that challenge us most are precisely the words we most need to hear rather than dismiss – what does this actually mean today? Sometimes the words that comfort us are what enable us to face another day, but should also be shared, and used to help someone else face another day.

I wonder, when was the last time you shared a bible verse, or the thread of a bible story with someone?

So perhaps we need to make space for Scripture in our lives, not simply reading it because we think we ought to, but approaching it expectantly. We might read a few verses slowly, ask what they reveal about God, notice what they stir in us, and pray about how we might respond.

We don't have to understand everything, we simply need to keep coming back, with open hearts and minds, allowing God's Word to do its work in us. What is Jesus really like? How can I be more like him?

At the PCC away day, we thought about all areas of inclusion. We were asked by our facilitator to think about bible verses about inclusion. At first we sat quietly and then the floodgates opened. Through our shared knowledge of the bible, we discovered how radically inclusive Jesus was and the thread of inclusion that permeates scripture. If we’d left it there, that would have been great in itself, but pretty pointless if our next act was to exclude someone or forget all about it. Our learning, our stretched understanding should fire us to live out the living word. I believe the Spirit was prompting each of us to discover afresh how much God loves each and every person no matter what their circumstances, or how much I myself like them, or want to be with them or not. It was challenging personally and corporately, I think. I’ve been reflecting on it a lot.

What place does the bible have in your life? And if the life of this church?

So, the  bible brings us closer to God, through the Spirit illuminating the word, and it should change us. We should be expectant of these things.

As I close, I want to share a great story in a book called Open Doors which is about taking bibles to places where they are illegal.

Daniel (not his real name) had carried boxes of bibles through the airport before. The old scanner was too small for the box, so customs officials had always waved him through. But this time, he discovered that a new, much larger scanner had been installed.

A customs officer asked what the books were. Daniel replied, “Documentation.” The officer ordered him to open the box. Since it was tightly sealed with tape, a guard fetched a large knife, while nearly a dozen customs officials gathered to watch.

As the guard cut through the tape, the blade suddenly shot out, almost hitting Daniel. Daniel dramatically fell backwards, and the officials burst into laughter. The guard apologised, insisting he had not meant to hurt him. Daniel played along, making them laugh even harder.

Someone helped Daniel to his feet and waved him through. He collected his opened box and walked away, looking back at the scanner. The image the bibles was still clearly visible on the screen the whole time.

Why would someone take such a risk for a book?

Because, for people who have little access to Scripture, the Bible can be a precious source of hope, a way of learning about Jesus and a reminder that they are not forgotten by God.

Most of us can pick up a Bible whenever we want. We can read it on our phones, choose a translation or leave it unopened on a shelf. We have a freedom that others do not enjoy.

The question for us is not whether we are prepared to risk our freedom to obtain a Bible, but whether we value the freedom we already have to read it.

We should not read it carelessly, nor assume that every passage is straightforward. But neither should we be afraid of it. We can bring our questions, our doubts and even our disagreements to God, trusting that the Spirit can work through our honest engagement with his Word.

The words of Jesus do not pass away. The living God continues to call us, comfort us, challenge us and draw us closer into his presence.

And may the Holy Spirit help us not only to hear the Word, but to live it and share it, so that others may encounter something of God's love through us.

Amen.

May my spoken word be faithful to the written word and lead us to the living word. Amen.

I want to begin with an observation. I was once in a church with people who were excited evangelists. They loved knocking on doors and telling people about Jesus. My observation is that the majority of Christians are not like this. Am I right? We would much prefer that people knocked on the door of the church, and then we can tell them about Jesus. Is that fair?

Today we celebrate St Luke, the Evangelist, and our Gospel reading takes us straight into the business of sharing our faith. Yep! Evangelism!

Jesus sends out seventy disciples, telling them to proclaim that the kingdom of God has come near. They are not simply sent to be nice people, although they certainly need to be that. They are sent to speak as well as to act. They are to heal the sick, offer peace, and tell people that God is at work among them.

Not, I’m afraid, to wait for the people to come to them!

Now, I suspect that the word evangelism might make some of us feel a little uncomfortable. We might picture someone standing on a street corner with a Bible, or a person pining us down - probably not literally, to ask whether we have been saved.

I was at the Christian resources exhibition this week, yes, there is such a thing – it’s like the good food show, but well, has stands like Holy Socks and take away communion plastic cups with little wafers! Anyway, a rather aggressive man came up to me and asked me if I was saved. When I hesitated, having just arrived after an early start and bad traffic to get there, he told me if I couldn’t answer I as going to hell.  That is not good evangelism.

I want to suggest this morning that evangelism is not about becoming someone we are not. It is about learning to share something of the faith we already have. And St Luke the Evangelist can help us discover how to do that.

So I will give you an ABC of evangelism: Authenticity, Boldness and Confidence.

A — Authenticity: Be yourself, and tell your story

Why do we call Luke the Evangelist? The word evangelist comes from the Greek word meaning good news. An evangelist is someone who announces good news.

We know relatively little about Luke personally. Paul refers to him as a beloved physician in his letter to the Colossians, and in our reading from 2 Timothy we hear poignant words: "Only Luke is with me."

He is a faithful friend and in his writing the outsider is always welcomed. Luke’s good news is drawing our attention to people who others might overlook, and showing us how they are seen by God. His experience of Jesus inspires him to tell the stories that matter to him.

We all like sharing good news. I might say to Natalie or Gill when we're in the office together, ask me about football on Monday night, and when they do I usually can talk them through the brilliant goal I scored!

And that is where evangelism begins for us, too. Not with learning a script, or memorising a list of arguments, but with asking ourselves what our good news is. Why do we come to church? What difference does following Jesus make to the way we live?

Authenticity is important , not perfect answers = answers like-  "I don't know why that happened, and I don't understand it all, but my faith has helped me through some very difficult times." Or, "I find that coming to church gives me hope."

When I had a period in my life where I was feeling quite down - and actually it wasn't connected to any of the major stressful things that have happened in my life - I was just feeling lost, and despite having lots of people around me, quite lonely and useless. Someone read Psalm 139 to me- because another person had done the same for them at a similar time in their life. The psalm told me that God knew me, that there was nowhere I could go where the Spirit of God wouldn't be there with me, and that I was fearfully and wonderfully made and his hand would guide me.

I share that with you, because that is good news. That is evangelism. That is a story I can tell authentically to someone else. To tell this I have to be bold, and that brings us to the B, of our A, B, C.

B — Boldness

Authenticity, however, is not the whole story. We can be kind, generous, welcoming and compassionate, and all those things matter enormously. But if we never speak about our faith, how will people know what motivates us? And why we do what we do?

There is a saying often attributed to St Francis of Assisi: "Preach the Gospel at all times; when necessary, use words." It is a good quote, but there is a danger in using it as an excuse never to talk about Jesus. Words are necessary. Jesus did not simply heal people and hope they would work out who he was. He taught and he told stories.

In our Gospel reading, Jesus sends his disciples out with a message: "The kingdom of God has come near to you." Their actions matter, but so does their proclamation.

The challenge for us is that talking about faith can feel risky. What if somebody asks us a question we cannot answer? What if they challenge our beliefs?

I suspect that many of us have had conversations like these, or have worried about having them. Someone asks, "If God is loving, why is there so much suffering in the world?" Or, "How can you believe in a God who allows war and violence?"

The answer is not to become defensive, to dismiss the question, or to try to win an argument. Nor do we need to pretend that Christianity offers a neat explanation for every tragedy. When someone asks why God allows suffering, we can acknowledge that it is a question Christians have wrestled with for centuries. We can speak of a God who does not remain distant from suffering in our own lives.

You may think this is all very well for me. I’m a Vicar, I walk around in a dog collar all day, but actually, I don’t. When I go home and go out I look, relatively normal!

Boldness is not about being loud, aggressive or certain of everything, but it is about being brave. It is about being willing to speak, even when the conversation is difficult. It is about not hiding our faith because we are afraid of what somebody might think.

I’ve recently started going to a LGTBQIA well-being walk. For now, three walks in, I’ve told them I work for a Charity. The majority of the LGBTQIA community do not have much time for the church or Christians, for good reason. On the next walk I will almost certainly tell them I’m a Vicar. I cannot stay in the charity box forever, and nor do I want to. I would not be being authentic and would not be being bold. I have good news to share!

So it's not always easy, but sometimes it is as simple as saying, "I will light a candle for you at church on Sunday." Or, "I will say a prayer for you.”  If people trust us and we are secure in ourselves and Jesus’ promise to be with us, we can be open about our faith without expecting everyone else to agree with us.

So Authenticity - sharing our own stories, Boldness - gaining trust and speaking up. Finally confidence.

C — Confidence

In Luke's Gospel, Jesus consistently meets people where they are. He does not wait for them to become respectable, to learn the right religious language, or to get their lives in order before he welcomes them. He goes towards them with confidence.

In today's reading, Jesus sends his disciples out in pairs. They are to offer peace, heal the sick, and announce that the kingdom of God has come near. Notice that they are not sent out to win a debate. They are not told to prove that everybody else is wrong. They are sent to bring peace and healing, and to make God's presence known and do that with others.

We sometimes imagine that evangelism is something done by a particular kind of Christian: the Vicar, or the naturally outgoing, the eloquent, the enthusiastic.

Jesus sends ordinary disciples and they are part of a joined-up plan, we can be confident the Spirit will use our efforts.

Some of us will be comfortable talking about our faith with friends. Others will find it easier to invite someone to a service, share a prayer, or explain what a particular part of church life means to us. There is no single personality type required. What matters is that we are willing to let our faith be seen and heard because we care and want to share the good news.

Conclusion: Our ABC this week

So, as we celebrate St Luke the Evangelist, we have our ABC: Authenticity, Boldness and Confidence.

Authenticity means being honest about our own faith and sharing what Jesus means to us, without pretending to have all the answers.

Boldness means being willing to speak about our faith, even when the questions are difficult.

Confidence means trusting we are part of a bigger plan and we can do our part

This week, I want to challenge each of us to do one simple thing. Find one opportunity to put our faith into words. Not to preach at somebody, not to win an argument, and not to force a conversation, but simply to share something of what we believe.

Perhaps tell someone why church matters to you. Perhaps, when somebody asks a difficult question, resist the temptation to change the subject. Perhaps speak about how your faith has helped you through a difficult time. Perhaps offer to pray for somebody who is struggling.

So let us be authentic in our faith, bold in our witness, and confident in God’s plan. And may those who encounter us catch a glimpse of the good news we have discovered!

Amen.

Footnote: I realise I didn't talk about prayer during this sermon - you can't say everything in one sermon! But please don't forget to pray when you're talking to people. We're told the Spirit will give us the right words.

Romans 12:9–21

I wonder what comes into your mind when you hear the word love. For some people, it is flowers, chocolates and romantic music. For others, it is a cup of tea appearing at exactly the right moment without anybody having to ask, and then, of course, there is family love. Family love is a wonderful thing. It is also the reason why some people can say, “I love you very much, but if you put the milk back in the fridge empty one more time, I cannot be held responsible for my actions.”

And church is rather like that too. We sometimes talk about church as being one big happy family, which is lovely until we remember what families are actually like. We have different personalities, different opinions and different ways of doing things.

For good reason, I suspect, Paul, writing to the Christians in Rome, says, “Let love be genuine.”

Paul does not say, “Have warm feelings towards everyone.” He does not say, “Try to be vaguely pleasant if you can manage it.” Instead, he gives us a picture of love with its sleeves rolled up. Love that honours one another, serves, perseveres when life is difficult, gives generously, welcomes strangers, rejoices with those who rejoice and weeps with those who weep. And then, just when we think Paul has asked quite enough of us, he says: “Bless those who persecute you… Do not repay anyone evil for evil… If your enemies are hungry, feed them… Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.”

Romans 12 begins, “In view of God’s mercy…” Paul is not saying, “Do all these things and perhaps God will love you.” He is saying, because God has loved you, this is what love can begin to look like in your life.

So this morning I want us to think about three things: loving one another genuinely, loving people when life gets difficult, and loving even when it is not returned.

First, Paul calls us to love one another genuinely. Genuine love is not pretending that everything is wonderful when it isn’t. It is not smiling sweetly at somebody during the Peace and then criticising them before you have reached the church door. Genuine love means wanting the good of another person. It means noticing them, taking an interest in them and being willing to give something of ourselves for them.

The spiritual writer Thomas Merton said, “The beginning of love is to let those we love be perfectly themselves.” That is harder than it sounds, because sometimes we would quite like the people we love to be themselves, but perhaps a slightly improved version of themselves. But genuine love begins with recognising that another person is not here to become our project. They are a child of God. And that applies in our families and it applies in the church.

Paul says, “Outdo one another in showing honour.” Now, as you know, I like a competition! Imagine this. Not, “Who has the best ideas?” or “Who has been here the longest?” or “Who has done the most?” But who can be the first to encourage somebody else, notice the person sitting on their own, give somebody else the credit, or simply say, “Thank you. That was wonderful”? This is genuine love. It is love which recognises that we belong to one another and that other people’s flourishing does not diminish our own.

Perhaps that is one reason why the death of Dolly Parton this week has caused such widespread sadness. Of course, she was a hugely successful singer and songwriter. She was funny, talented and had a larger-than-life personality. But people did not only admire Dolly; they felt affection for her. She seemed to have the rare ability to cross all kinds of boundaries and still leave people feeling that she was on their side. Her friend and colleague Jenifer Lewis called her “a general in the army of LOVE”, and I think that says something about why people felt her loss so deeply.

She had a memorable way of talking about love. One of her best-known songs, I Will Always Love You, was itself a song of parting without bitterness, written when she left a difficult professional relationship. Its great line, “I wish you joy and happiness, but above all this, I wish you love,” perhaps says something about why people felt they knew her. She had a way of speaking about love as something bigger than possession or agreement: a willingness to wish the other person well.

That leads to Paul’s second point: love people when life gets difficult. He says, “Rejoice with those who rejoice; weep with those who weep.” In other words, be present to one another’s lives. Sometimes love means celebrating with somebody, but sometimes it means sitting in the difficult place with them. And both can be surprisingly hard. When somebody else’s life seems to be going wonderfully while ours is difficult, can we genuinely be pleased for them? And when somebody is grieving, suffering or facing something we cannot fix, can we resist the temptation to rush in with an answer?

Sometimes the most loving thing we can say is simply, “I’m here.” That sounds simple, but it is not always easy.

And we must also love when others don’t love us. It may be the brother or sister we have not spoken to for years. It may be the adult child who has hurt us, or the parent whose words still echo in our minds. It may be a difficult neighbour. It may be somebody in the church family who seems to have a particular gift for irritating us. In those relationships, Paul asks us a difficult question: what would love look like here?

Sometimes it will look like reconciliation. Sometimes it will mean saying sorry. Sometimes it will mean accepting an apology. Sometimes it may mean taking a first small step rather than waiting for the other person to take one. But sometimes love will also mean setting a boundary. Christian love does not mean pretending that abuse is acceptable or putting ourselves back into danger. Paul himself says, “If it is possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.” That is a wonderfully realistic sentence. If it is possible. We cannot control another person’s response. We cannot force somebody to apologise. We cannot make somebody want reconciliation. But we can ask: what depends on me? Can I stop feeding the resentment? Can I refuse to pass bitterness down to the next generation? Can I pray for the person I find difficult, even if the first prayer is simply, “Lord, you know I don’t really want to pray for them, but here we are”?

That brings us to the final and hardest part of Paul’s teaching: love even when it is not returned. “Do not repay anyone evil for evil… If your enemies are hungry, feed them… Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” Paul is not asking us to be doormats. He is not telling victims to remain in dangerous situations. He is not saying evil should not be named or that justice does not matter. He is saying something different: do not let somebody else’s behaviour determine who you become.

That is the danger, isn’t it? Somebody hurts us and we hurt them back. Somebody shouts and we shout louder. Somebody is unkind and so we become unkind. Somebody spreads gossip and, before long, we are contributing another little piece of information which, of course, we only mention so that people can pray. And before we know it, evil has reproduced itself. Paul says: stop the cycle here. Do not allow evil to create more evil through you. Do not let the wrongdoing of another person steal your own capacity to love.

There is a wonderful biblical picture of this in Joseph. His brothers betray him, sell him into slavery and spend years living with the consequences of what they have done. Eventually Joseph is in a position of enormous power over them. If anyone had an opportunity for revenge, Joseph did. Instead, when his brothers come to him hungry, Joseph feeds them. That is not weakness. It is extraordinary strength. Joseph refuses to allow the evil done to him to become the thing that defines him.

We do not have to become great saints of forgiveness overnight. We simply have to ask what Paul asks us to ask: where is there an opportunity, in my ordinary life, for good to be stronger than the evil or hurt I have received?

First, love genuinely. Look for practical ways to honour, encourage and care for the people God has put in your life, especially in your family and in the family of the church. Second, love when life is difficult. Rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep. Do not imagine that love always has an answer; sometimes love simply stays. And third, love even when it is not returned. Refuse to let the wrong that another person has done determine the kind of person you become. Seek peace where you can, forgive where you can, protect yourself where you need to, and refuse to allow evil to have the final word.

Because the great truth beneath all these instructions is this: we love because God first loved us.

And so, by the grace of God and in the strength of Christ, let us not be overcome by evil, but let us overcome evil with good.

Amen.