July 15, 2009 - The Bible will "holp" you

     You have never heard of the word “holped,” pronounced with the “l” barely heard. No one today says, “She holped me!” Even though this is a word we do not use, I am of the belief that from the close kinship, you can assume it means “helped”. My grandmother used the word “holped,” and so did ‘most every member of our extended family. It was a word that was common to our usage. I only learned later that no one else used it.
     Actually, “holped” is a real word that has simply gone out of style today. 300 years ago, in southern England and Wales, “holped” was the way you referred to the past tense of the present word “help”. My family claims this area of Great Britain for our lineage, and this word is some ancient evidence of our previous homeland that has survived to my generation.
     You will not be surprised to note that time often changes things. Something which was meaningful and purposeful for one generation is of little or no value to this generation. I have just completed reading three of the many volumes of John Wesley’s sermons. This was not enjoyable reading, and if I preached any of these sermons today, our worship would be a snooze fest. Wesley’s sermons speak honestly to the Word of God, but they do not necessarily speak to us today in this century.
     I have a collection of ancient commentaries on the Holy Bible. I have a copy of John Wesley’s Commentary on the New Testament that begins by saying that Matthew is a perfect Gospel, but where Matthew ends, Mark takes up, and where Mark ends, Luke takes up, and so on. Today, we know that this particular commentary cannot be true, since we have observed that all of the Gospel of Mark appears almost word for word in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke, suggesting that Mark was the first Gospel written. In other words, the scope and depth of the commentary is dated, and the implied references are a bit skewed for today.
     I have another commentary written in the 1930s that reads like an antiquated commentary from a foreign planet due to its being written prior to World War II. This commentary reveals a lack of insight that we have today following the 1947 discoveries of the Dead Sea Scrolls. And another commentary written just after World War II seems to draw all of its wisdom from Winston Churchill and General Douglas MacArthur.
     Some would say that the Word of God could not and must not change, as, of course, the physical word does not. However, the way we identify with the Word of God, the stories that tell the truths of God’s Word, the filters on our vision, and the visions we have witnessed along the way, impact the language we use to make God’s Word a living word for our life today.
     This is, finally, the point I want to make: The Word of the Lord is a living word that grows, swells, consumes, invades, and impacts every aspect of our life. With every new era, life event, blessing, and tragedy, the way we interpret God’s Word grows. The truth we find in the Holy Bible today is not the truth that will suffice for our life in the decades to come, in much the same way that almost any sermon preached in America prior to September 11, 2001 would seem a little empty and flat after the tragedy and the war that has followed. The strength of the Holy Bible, God’s Living Word, is that every generation, individual, and circumstance will find God’s presence within the Living Word to abundantly offer us hope, mercy, grace, and salvation.
     Reading through the Holy Bible once, from “kiver to kiver,” and believing this is sufficient for all time, is the belief of a fool who has not known the marvelous and mysterious joy of God’s Word, that will beat with our heart, flow through our veins, and focus our minds on the present incarnation of God in our lives. God’s Living word can “holp” you today.
Rev. Dan Martin is pastor of First UMC, Hendersonville. He can be reached at moose1953@hotmail.com