A synopsis of the sermon delivered by the Rev. David L. Hicks at St. Paul’s Reformed Episcopal Church on Sunday, December 7, 2003, Advent II. Please read Romans 15:4-13.

Why did God give us the Holy Scriptures? What use are we to make of the Bible? These are important questions for Christians to answer. The Bible is often misused and abused by those who claim to have a high regard for it, so we do well to listen to Saint Paul’s words to the Romans about the purpose for the holy writings: “Whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope” (Romans 15:4).

God has given us the Scriptures for our learning. More specifically, our learning and understanding of the Scriptures are to engender the patience and comfort that comes from the knowledge of God in order that we might have hope in Jesus Christ. We should note that the words “patience” and “comfort” have possible meanings in contemporary English that differ from the significance given them in the Bible. When the Scriptures speak of patience, the idea of endurance in closely related to it. Godly patience is not a matter of simply waiting around or putting up with something for a period of time. The patient person endures the hardships and burdens that come with the Christian life without giving up on faith. Similarly, in our time the word comfort is often associated with ideas related to sympathy or that of having a soft shoulder on which to cry. However, when the Scriptures understand comfort to involve help and strengthening for the person being comforted. Jesus speaks of the Holy Spirit as this kind of “Comforter” in Saint John’s Gospel (John 14:16). Paul has told us that the patience and comfort found in the Scriptures are to produce “hope.” Here again, our modern notions of what hope is differ from the biblical notion. We think of hope as wishful thinking, such as when we say, “I hope it does not rain tomorrow.” Whether or not it will rain is unknown to us, but we express our desire for the future. The Christian’s hope, however, is not some uncertain future about which we express a wishful desire. Our hope is in Jesus Christ, and that hope is quite certain. We need not guess as to whether death, judgment and the resurrections are in the hands of our Lord, for we know that they are. Our hope is firm anticipation of what we know will happen at a future point.

The Scriptures are a source of learning that brings about patience, comfort and hope, because they speak of Jesus Christ and God’s unfolding plan of salvation through him. As we read the actions and promises of God in the Old Testament, we emboldened to believe that God will bring everything to completion at the appearing of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. This encourages us to continue in the Christian life and not to lose heart and the difficulties that we encounter. In this season of Advent, as we prepare for the coming of our Lord, we are to be especially mindful of the indispensable gift of God that has been given to us in his written word and to receive the strength that comes by its learning.
Amen.