Good books can be very restorative. A thriller can draw you into a plot which holds your attention until the last page. A novel can take you into the complex emotions and moods of human beings. Other books can teach us something new about the world.

Today, we celebrate the gift of the Bible, often described as a library of books. For some Christians, this description is tricky as we fear it lessens what the Bible has to reveal to us about who God is and how God acts. For others of us, the challenge is that the Bible narrates stories of violence which do not sit easily with our faith in God or our sense of mercy. Yet for others still, the fact that the Bible speaks into so many of the human situations which we encounter actually deepens our faith in God. For at its very best, the Bible narrates to us a love story of a long-suffering God who goes to extraordinary lengths to love people who often don’t want to be loved and to seek their renewal and flourishing.

RE-DISCOVERY
Much of the Bible calls us back to rediscover that which we have overlooked. In Nehemiah’s time, the priest Ezra reads from the rediscovered book of the law of Moses, which had been lost in years of national chaos. These words speak to a demoralised and divided people who had forgotten the spiritual practices which had sustained them over centuries. In particular, Ezra interprets the law to remind the people of the gift of the Sabbath to be both a rest day and a radical act of justice, where the poor regain access to the fruits of the land. The people weep because they realise that forgetting the Sabbath led to their exile. Ezra’s patient explanation enables them to rejoice at the re-discovery of the life-giving nature of the Sabbath, which will continue to be the well from which they drink as a community. As part of the inscription over Yad Vashem, the memorial to the Shoah in Jerusalem says, ‘remembrance is the secret of redemption.’

REJOICING
In the letter to the Colossians, we encounter the Bible in a different style of writing and mood. Here, the writer uses the language of desire, urging the Christians at Colossae to clothe themselves in compassion. Such clothing will enable them to live fruitful, peaceable and thankful lives. This is an image drawn from dressing, which invites us to prayerfully put on these qualities each day. Here too are resonances with the language of John’s Gospel, where Christ abides or dwells in us and from that dwelling springs forth all kinds of qualities and habits. Not least the capacity to rejoice, to sing out gratitude which echoes the song and poetry of the hymn book, which is the Psalms. Here is practical wisdom about being the body of Christ and an attitude of rejoicing which can reframe us and renew us.

RE-ORIENTATION
If re-discovery looks back and rejoicing looks around us, then re-orientation, seen in the gospel reading, is about looking forward. In Matthew, we encounter a language of looking for signs both of the coming of the Son of Man in future glory and in seeing the already present God in the blossoming fig-tree. This is powerful and arresting imagery designed to help us change the way we live. It is hopeful and picks up a trajectory running throughout the whole Bible that life in the past, the present and the future are to be lived in the light of that hope. Yes, there is language of judgement and accountability, but also the language of a God who has not withdrawn from the world, rather is deeply present. What God asks of us is to be re-orientated by hope and we do this by being watchful, looking out for signs of God’s coming. This is about our not giving up on the world, echoing God’s promise to never let any of us go.

CONCLUSION
Whilst the Bible can and does speak powerfully to those who are exploring or new to faith, perhaps the key to today is a reminder that for the community of faith, the Bible calls us back time and time again to who we are meant to be. We re-discover how to live life committed to justice, we are clothed to rejoice and we are re-orientated to seeing the signs of God’s fruitfulness in the world.