One dark night in a forest, a robber held up a man at the point of a revolver. The man was a special kind of salesman – he carried Bible tracts to spread the Word of God. The robber, expecting to relieve him of money, was very disappointed and angry. The only thing he could think of doing was to order the man to light a bonfire and burn the books. The man lit the bonfire as ordered and then he asked if he might read a little from each of the books before he dropped it into the flames. He read the 23rd Psalm from one; the story of the Good Samaritan from another; from another the Sermon on the Mount and from another 1 Corinthians 13. At the end of each reading, the robber said, “That’s a good book. We won’t burn that one. Give it to me.”  In the end, not a book was burned. The robber went on his way carrying all the books with him.

Years later the robber turned up again only by this time he was a Christian minister – and it was to the reading of the books that he attributed the change in his life.  The story is quoted by William Barclay in his commentary on today’s New Testament Reading and it illustrates the power of the Bible to change lives.

The Bible Society, which sponsors today’s Bible Sunday in the Church, have chosen the theme: The power of the Bible to influence and shape lives in history and now and they are highlighting how reading Scripture can produce a chain reaction where one thing leads to another.

So in the story of the robber – his intention is to relieve his victim of his worldly goods; this leads to him being so disappointed that he had to destroy what the man was carrying. The man’s request to read portions of Scripture then resulted in the robber having his interest awakened so he takes the books away with him. Reading them converted his life and gave it a new purpose.  One action led to another – a Chain Reaction which brought the Word of God alive and active in the life of someone who didn’t, until then,  know God.  The consequence was that he was led to devote his life to bringing the power of God’s Word to others.

This is also the aim of the Bible Society which has a vision for a day when the Bible is shaping the lives and communities of people everywhere.  It is a work which, as the British & Foreign Bible Society, they began in 1804.  The Society’s story is bound up with that of William Wilberforce who was, of course, one of the prominent campaigners for the abolition of slavery. His success in getting the British Parliament to abolish the slave trade in the British Colonies was only the beginning and the Bible Society is joining with others in continuing that campaign because the traffic in human beings and the enslavement of people which goes on still in many forms. It is estimated that there are over 20 million people in the world  who are in some way slaves.

Next year will be the 200th Anniversary of Wilberforce’s bill and there are two reasons why the Bible Society is involved in the Campaign.  First, because they hold firmly to the belief that the Word of God has the power to set people free – not only those who are enslaved but also, through conversion of hearts and lives to the love of God, it overturns the lives of those who enslave others.  The other reason is that William Wilberforce was one of the founders of the Bible Society. 

Wilberforce was himself changed by the Word of God.  On a journey to Nice with a friend, they read the New Testament together and he said afterwards that he became a new man on that journey. This set up a chain reaction not only leading to his campaign to abolish slavery but also to the founding of the Bible Society.

One of the main areas of the Society’s work is to make the Scriptures available to all, in their own language and at a price they can afford.  We might think that in 200 years this has been achieved but, in fact more than half the world’s languages. More than 4,500 languages still wait for even one book of the Bible. About 1 billion people in the world are also living on less than 60 pence a day so the Bible is a luxury they can’t afford. Add to that the need to make the Bible available in Braille for the blind for as yet a Bible in Braille exists in only 30 languages. A further billion people are unable to read and only 3% of languages have the bible in audio.  The Bible Society is campaigning for an end to Bible Poverty by providing as many of these resources as their funds permit.

In seeking to supply the Word of God to all there is the conviction that each time the Bible is placed into someone’s hands it begins a chain reaction. As each person’s life is shaped and influenced by the Gospel and choices are made to live out the Good News of Jesus Christ then this has a cascading effect on others.   For our study of Scripture must never simply be for our own good alone. Whilst God’s Word in Jesus Christ has the power to save us and help us to make the personal choices which lead to holiness of living there is a further action which takes us beyond ourselves. One of the results of Bible study should be to make ourselves more useful to God in His reaching out to others. We are not truly saved until and unless we are on fire with the desire to share with others the Good News of Jesus Christ.

I once read a slogan which I still believe is very true – that we may be the only copy of the Gospel that some people ever see and what they read in our lives might be the most significant moment on their own journey of faith. We have, therefore, a duty to pass on our experience of the Bible to others – and not least to those near and dear to us.

This point is brought home in today’s lesson from St.Paul’s 2nd letter to Timothy.  St. Paul exhorts Timothy to continue in what you have learned and firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it, and how from childhood you have known the sacred writings that are able to instruct you for salvation through faith in Jesus Christ.   Paul is referring here to how Timothy’s faith was shaped by his grandmother Lois who opened the scriptures to Timothy’s mother, Eunice who in turn passed on the love of God’s Word to Timothy.  This is the process which goes on and on throughout history until we are caught up in it as the Bible comes alive for us. It is our task to make the Word of God known to those over whom we have influence and responsibility.  We are all part of the chain-reaction.

But, of course, for that to be so, the Bible has to mean something to us. The Word of God can only convert those who bother to read it, pray it and seek to live it.  So the question we have to face and answer is: What does the Bible mean to you?  A supplementary question – perhaps an uncomfortable one for some – is when did you last open its pages?

At the beginning of October the Church remembered William Tyndale. He was martyred in 1536 and his crime was that he translated the Scriptures into our native tongue. Up until then, the Bible was only available in England in Latin and that was how the Church authorities wanted it because it meant that they had control over the people and what they were taught.  Tyndale was ahead of his time and it took a Reformation to establish what he set out to achieve – that the people of England could read Scripture in their own language and in their own homes. As a result, the Bible came to occupy a central and special place in the lives of the people. Owning a Family Bible and listening to God speaking through its words was a major influence in the shaping of both English and Personal spirituality.  Can we still say this today?

Sadly, as the Bible Society struggles to make the Bible available to those in the world who have so far been denied access to the saving Word of God, we in England have become complacent. Whilst the Bible still outsells any other book in the bookshops, in many homes it lies mouldering on shelves, gathering dust and rarely opened.  It is no longer, for many, a source of God’s Wisdom nor a force by which to order Lives and consequently it fails to inform faith.  This is a reverse chain reaction – neglect leads to being cut off from the power of God’s Word to shape, influence and transform lives including our own.

The Bible Society’s campaign to end Bible Poverty is mainly about those places in the world where the Scripture is unknown but there is within our own society a Poverty of Spirit which only a return to the Bible can overcome.  Timothy is told by Paul that All Scripture is inspired by God  by which he means that the Words of the Bible have the breath of God in them by which He communicates His Saving Love. Indeed, it has been said that the Bible is an extended love letter from God to us all.  It offers us teaching about this love and how it has been worked out, first in Old Testament communities then in the new communities of Christ’s Church and how it finds its total expression in the Good News of Jesus Christ. It therefore guides our lives and trains us for righteousness, as Paul would have it.

But only if we believe in its importance for our faith journey and for our prayer relationship with God. If we Christians don’t revere the Bible then we can hardly expect others to believe its message. We cannot plead lack of time. Many spend time reading the daily newspaper, listening to the news on the Radio or watching it on Television. If we can spare time for the often bad, and frequently trivial, news then there is time to read the Good News. Only when we do will we really become part of God’s chain-reaction – to share in his work of saving love for all. 

We have heard a lot in recent times about making poverty history and making a difference.  The way we can make Bible Poverty history and make a real difference to the world’s need for salvation is to return to our Bibles, particularly the Gospels,  and allow God to shape our lives in such a way that we become living pages of the Gospel for others to read.