August 20, 2006
FROM PDA TO PAD
Today we live in a technological age. In the home and office we have computers, DVD players, HD TVs, cell phones that take pictures and record music, little devices known as Blackberries that do just about anything imaginable.
Today there is a device that is making an impact on technology. It requires no power source. It never will need an upgrade. It will not break if dropped. It has a large storage capacity and that storage capacity can be doubled or tripled at a very low cost. You can even carry it around and it is cheap. Interested? Gotta have one? It’s a pad of paper.
Yes, the good old pad of paper is making a comeback. What was good enough for Van Gogh and Hemmingway should be good enough for us. I may be computerized but I still use my yellow notebooks or pads. I write my sermons out longhand, not on a computer. Bible studies and prayers are on little yellow pads. With all the technology out there that’s designed to process thoughts and words, why the big push to go old school with simple pen and paper?
Maybe it’s because the words we type and tap into our computers don’t have the same personal appeal as the character of a hand written document. A person’s handwriting is very much like a fingerprint, unique, personal and one of a kind. The way the pen strokes are made, the heavy hand or light touch, and the scribbling or doodles all say something about the author.
Think about it, in this age of text messaging, e-mail and instant communication it’s still neat to get a letter or a card from someone. You know they personally committed some time and attention to the task, and thought the words out carefully rather than processing them through spellchecker and grammar correction programs. Handwritten words mark a particular time and place. They can be held and touched and kept in drawers and scrapbooks rather than be hidden on a hard drive. They lend authenticity to life.
E-mail is useful for quick messages, but if you are going to write a love-letter or keep a journal of your adventures, only a pen and paper will do. And when we pick up our printed, bound and cross-referenced bibles, the Bibles that we sometimes forget about, don’t use and put on shelves we have to remember that the words and the Word inside were first carefully put to papyrus or parchment by human hands. Each phrase is crafted and each letter turned by someone wanting to convey the personal story of God.
From the epic stories of Genesis and Exodus to the run on sentences and passionate arguments of Paul, each biblical book, letter and poem carries the personal stamp of a writer with his own experiences, interpretations and questions laid out for others to see and then experience for themselves.
The Bible is a very personal book; it was hand crafted by people. It is hard to imagine Paul’s letters coming to Corinth as a series of disposable e-mails. Imagine too, the experience of the people who first received these scrolls perhaps delivered to them by someone who endured a perilous journey to make the delivery.
Think of the anticipation the readers felt in cracking them open. Reading every word on the page over and over again, gleaning new meaning from each word and space with each reading.
Gutenberg may have done us all a favor by inventing the printing press in the 1450’s and getting the Bibles into more hands, but the flip-side is from that time onward scripture has been so readily available that it’s taken for granted and easily deposited on the shelf. Before the printing press if you wanted a copy of the Bible, the key word was copy, you had to copy it yourself.
The writer of Hebrews, penning a letter to a distant community, reminds his readers that the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two edged sword. This section of Hebrews is a virtual word study.
The word of God is living. The writers suggestion is clear God’s word is not the dead word of a document written 2000 years ago, but continues to have meaning for us in a changing world. It is still possible for us to read the Bible and ask ourselves how does God’s word inform the decisions and actions of our everyday lives?
The word of God is active. Active logically follows the word living. You expect something that is alive to be active, to have movement. Just as scripture is alive not dead, it is also active not passive. The words in the Bible have energy they are energetic.
The word of God is sharp or a two edged sword. The word of God as a living and active instrument is so sharp it gets to the heart of the matter. The word of God is nuanced, it’s sharp. It is able to cut to the chase, to the issues that concern us with laser like precision.
The word of God is piercing. It does not just scrape the surface but penetrates. To get the authors idea, think of another metaphor that James uses, the word of God is like a mirror. It gives us total objectivity and honesty, it doesn’t lie and it’s able to give us the whole picture.
And the word of God is judging. Here we see God as a critic who is able to discern our thoughts and intentions. God through God’s word is able to unravel all of our justifications for ethical and suspicious behavior and our rationalizations for the bad choices we make.
This is God’s word to us. It may come to us through human words but it is powerful nevertheless. So it’s time to revisit the idea that the people of God are a people of “The” book. Let’s get back to the book.
Before television and radio people and families would read the bible aloud, meditating on the words and phrases that lift off the page and touch the heart and soul. Reading scripture is not only the words but the spaces and meanings behind and between and a way of making the passage personal.
The bible is an interactive book. It’s not like a best selling novel that is an entertaining good read. A reaction is expected, a personal reaction, a life changing reaction. Whatever we do, getting people to anticipate opening their Bibles with the same excitement as opening a letter from a friend is a living and active task worth pursuing. Sure commentaries, study Bibles, and Sunday school curriculum are necessary but until God’s people engage the scriptures as God’s personal word to humanity these tools are incomplete. People are already going back to the printed page. We all need to get back into the big black book in some retro and creative ways. Now!
Let us pray.