The Church's Message

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume LXXIV, Issue 14074, 31 May 1946, Page 4

The Church's Message

MORE LIGHT YET

By Bishop A. A. David.

It was'one of the Pilgrim Fathers who declared his belief that God has yet more light to break out of Plis Holy Word. He could hardly have meant that we are to expect an addition to the essential substance of the Faith which was once for all delivered to the saints. iE'ut what has happened since bis time, and is happening still, is that to each of us, as we learn how to read our Bibles, new gleams of understanding shine out, one by one, illuminating more than the particular passage through which they come. Some of them may seem to have no great significance in themselves, but all may bring a fulfilment of our Lord’s promise that we shall be led by the Holy Spirit into all the truth. Many of them we owe to our new knowledge of the conditions under which the sacred books were inspired, and written, and edited, and translated, and in some cases re-translated, and there is little doubt that further discoveries, linguistic, historical and archaeological, will bring stlil more enlightenment.

I remember my first impression of the twenty-eighth chapter of Job. The opening verses in the Authorised Version seemed to me a collection of beautiful and sonorous phrases with nothing to bind them together. I was sure that tlmy must be about something, but I had no idea what it was. When the Revised Version came in ISSS it showed me a clear picture of a mine with minors at work in it. 1 could see them swinging down in their cages, culling their galleries far underground, keeping the water out, and forcing their way to the sapphires and the “lumps of gold.” And the vision led me at once to the other human quest in the rest of the chapter, equally arduous and almost as dangerous the search for wisdom.

Sometimes mistakes in translation (our mistakes, not the Bible’s) have led to false inferences in the matters of some importance. In the tenth chapter of St. John’s Gospel onr Lord speaks of Ills care for His own. As often in His other teaching He describes His work for them, not by defining or explaining it, but by comparing it with a relationship, more familiar to- them than to us, and He expects them to. think out the comparison for themselves. As the Eastern shepherd is to his sheep, so will He be to His followers in all generations. Then, according to the old version, He said, “and there shall be one fold and cm; shepherd.” I have heard this text quoted in support of the belief that He iccognisos only one of the Churches into which' Christians have divided themselves, and, therefore, that the only liopc of unity is Hr the 'others to enter it. But the word fold is here a mistranslation of the Greek. The Revised Version gives the right rendering, “and they shall become (or there shall he) one Hock, one shepherd.” The sheep of an Eastern Hock belonging to a single owner might bo divided for tendance and protection into separate folds. So with His Church. It would consist of separate communities, each marked by its own separate tradition and emphasis, each sheltered in its own fold, but all acknowledging the same Chief Shepherd—many folds hut one flock. Again a mistaken impression may be due to a lack of imagination as we interpret for ourselves a saying of our Lord. For a long time I luia'c never heard the opening sentence cT the Offertory without a sense of discomfort. ‘ Let your light so * shine” —but who was 1 to display my good deeds (if any) as an example to others? One day 1 was led to a happier understanding by the suggestion of a picture. 1 was to see a man mounting by night an upward path, narrow and rough, wMh a lantern in Iris hand. The light shines, not on him, but on the path, revealing to his companions, a winding way Between the obstacles. And they are to thank, not him, but the Father, who makes all His children bearers of the light that lightened every man though some of us may show, hut a glimmer of it. There arc some narratives in the Bible which are incompletely understood because they arc not studied

carefully enough, and one of them is the story of the Magi. There is one point in it which is commonly overlooked. The idea of this story most people have is that the wise men saw a 'now star arise which led them as they kept their eyes on it all the way to Bethlehem. But the actual narrative does not say so. \V hat St, them •tells us is that having seen the star in the East, they set out to follow Ms guidance, but at some point lost sight of it. 'They then went on their own account to Jerusalem. and there enquired where they might find the Child. It was Herod, not the star, who sent them from there to Bethlehem. But on the way, the star they had lost reappeared, and went before them till it came and stood ever where the Child was. And when they saw it again they rejoiced with exceeding great joy.

Is not this a parable of life? How often it happens that when we are very young the person of Christ is real and near. Once I asked a little child whether he could ever see Jesus. He said, “Yes, and I often talk to Him before I go to sleep.’’ But too soon for most of us the star of faith is dimmed. A hard, unti listing world begins to obscure it. As the child- grows he becomes, unless he is very fortunate, aware of unfriendliness, of cruelty, of injustice. 'And later on we realise all the power of evil to spoil love in us and in our neighbours. So for a time we seem to lose sight in our murky sky of the star of faith that rose upon us in our youth. But those who in their own way are the wise men will not abandon hope of it. They will pled alopg the path of duty, enduring their discouragement as within God’s plan for them. By thought and study and 'prayer they will pursue their way towards • the light, and once more human effort will gain its reward.