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NEVER ON THE SALE RACK #1

  VICTROLA HANDBOOKS FOR 25 CENTS

If you’ve got the time to kill, there can be nothing more delightful than spending a couple of hours browsing through a used book store.  Or coming across one of the sale racks at a place like Super Crown or Borders, where there’s a long, long row of books — nice books, bestsellers, hardback editions — and they’re all marked down to $3.99.  Or paperbacks for fifty cents.

But now this question:  why do books get cheap?  Well, for the same reason that a lot of things in stores finally get their sticker price slashed to 20% of the original value.  Not enough people bought it at full price, and now merchants want to get that thing out of the store by any means necessary, including throwing it at you as you just walk by on the sidewalk outside.

Of course, when you’re talking about books, there’s a second reason why they become cheap.  David was telling me about a bargain he picked up the other day, entitled The Choice.  Now, this was a hardback bestseller written by Watergate guru Bob Woodward, who has been at the top of the New York Times list more times than we can count.  And this book, written with the inside scoop that only he and fellow sleuth Carl Bernstein seem to be able to ferret out, described all of the inner workings for both the Democrats and the Republicans in the 1996 presidential race.  So, of course, there’s a picture on the front of Bill Clinton and also Bob Dole.

Here’s the dilemma, though.  Fascinating as the book was, it only described the primary process up to the two party conventions of that year.  It didn’t even cover the exciting two-month race from Labor Day to the election itself.  Of course, that means that after November of 1996, the book was already kind of dated.  The suspense was gone already.  Clinton won, Dole went home to Kansas, Colin Powell kept on doing what he was doing, Pat Buchanan went back to CNN’s Crossfire, Ross Perot was still Ross Perot, but that was the end of it.  And it was the kind of book that had a built-in obsolescence.  Even by 1997, if you were patient, this was the kind of twenty-dollar book you were going to soon get for $4.99.

Here’s another kind of book that you can now use to start fires in your fireplace: a Windows ‘95 handbook.  Or any computer manual, really, describing how to run that powerful 286 you bought back in 1989.  Do you remember when personal computers had no hard drive at all — and you had to store absolutely everything on those big floppy disks?  How much would a manual for one of those Edsels sell for now?  A quarter, maybe, if you wanted to use the pages to protect your carpeting while you painted the ceiling of your house.

Well, friend, where are we going with these stories of dusty old basement bargains?  This week isn’t just our Thanksgiving break; it’s also National Bible Week.  This is a week to read Bibles, to promote the Word of God, to dig out that Bible — speaking of dust — and make it a reinvigorated part of your life.  I’m sure that in many places around the country, especially this Thursday, perhaps, there will be Bible-reading marathons.  Proclamations by governors and mayors.  And I certainly hope that each of you listening today will determine that this week, and also through the year to come, you’ll make the Bible a more important part of your life.

But now this question: why does this Book endure so?  Or ask it this way: why SHOULD it endure as it has?  Other books become obsolete, and so they become very cheap.  They’re marked down because what’s between the front cover and the back cover doesn’t have much practical meaning anymore.  But we chose as our National Bible Week title here: NEVER ON THE SALE RACK.  Why do we recommend an ancient Book that has been around for thousands of years, written to people living centuries ago, and written by people — long since dead — who had no concept of what our lives are like today?

There was an interesting notice in the L.A. Times just a few weeks ago, where a well-known artist — the name got tossed out with the paper, unfortunately — had just contracted with a publisher to personally prepare a series of high-quality etchings, illustrations, for a new Bible.  Here’s the curious thing, though.  The publisher was only planning a print run of 400 copies, and the list price per Bible was going to be something like $8,000 apiece.  Eight thousand bucks!  When under regular market conditions, this old, dusty Book, this obsolete collection of 66 scrolls, would have been marked down to a quarter and finally thrown out into a trash bin outside Walden Books a good 16 centuries ago.  Why does it still command top prices?  Why is it still a bestseller?

One of our favorite authors, the great evangelical scholar and writer John Stott, asks the question many of us wonder about:

“We are tempted to ask impatiently, ‘What on earth has that old book got to say to me?’”

Well, there’s a version of the Bible that we often quote — rather cautiously, because it’s admittedly a paraphrase version — and it bears this powerful title: The LIVING Bible.  Not dead and buried.  Not marked down.  Not obsolete.  No, this is The LIVING Bible.  And the Bible itself makes an interesting claim, found in Hebrews chapter four:

“For the word of God is LIVING and active,” it says.  “Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.”  The Clear Word Bible puts that last line this way: “It lets us see our own motives and then helps us change them.”

Now, think about that line, which is all written, notice, in the present tense.  “The Bible ‘lets us see our own motives and then helps us change them.’” And friend, it’s the testimony of millions around the world that this is true today, on this very Monday in November.  Not just in the Dark Ages.  The Bible is LIVING right now; it’s got a power that is relevant for the 21^st century A.D.

There’s an intriguing study group experience that this same well-known Christian, John Stott, has participated in for more than two decades.  After asking the rhetorical question, “What can this old Book tell us today?”, he describes what’s been happening in his own life and ministry.  Notice:

“How does the unchanging Word speak to the changing world?”  That’s the question of the week, of course.  He goes on: “Nothing has helped me to do this more than the reading group of younger professionals who have been meeting with me in London about every six weeks for the last twenty years.  We agree at the end of each session which book to read or film to see before our next meeting.  We choose, in the main, books and films which express a non-Christian perspective.  Then we ask ourselves, (1) What are the main issues which this raises for Christians?  and (2) How does the gospel relate to people who think and live like this?”

That’s interesting, isn’t it?  These men and women are sitting down around a table, with their King James Bibles, and asking this question: What does this Book say to people who would rather be reading Harry Potter #4 or the latest John Grisham thriller?  What is the relevance of the New Testament to kids who have just been to see Almost Famous or The Watcher?  Or the newest Adam Sandler masterpiece, Little Nicky? How can writers like Paul or King David possibly have anything to say to people who are feeding their minds on The Jerry Springer Show?  And you know, they find answers to those questions!  Stott’s wonderful book, The Contemporary Christian, is 400+ pages filled with powerful, relevant truth for people living in today’s world, today’s culture.  And take note of that title: The CONTEMPORARY Christian.  Friend, the Bible is “never on the sale rack” because its message hasn’t gone out of style.  In fact, if we manage to sit through even one episode of Mr. Jerry Springer’s public musings, we might conclude that the truths of the Bible are more needed today than ever before.

Well, as we close today, let me encourage myself and you at the same time.  Let’s read those Bibles!  Not just this week, but more and more as we move through these perilous last days.  The Word of God has promises and warnings written for those in the last days; it truly is the LIVING Bible.

A bit earlier in his book, Dr. John Stott has a chapter with this title: “Responding to the Word.”  And of course, he’s right.  It’s not enough to read this living Book, to embrace it here in the year 2000; we need to respond to its truths.  If we ignore the Bible or, just as bad, read it without accepting it and applying it, the net effect IS to make it obsolete, regardless of its price tag.

And then Stott lifts up this challenge:

“A full, balanced and mature Christian discipleship” — and that’s what you and I want, isn’t it? — a full, balanced and mature Christian discipleship is impossible whenever disciples do not submit to their Lord’s teaching authority AS IT IS MEDIATED THROUGH SCRIPTURE.”

That is heavy truth right there!  Don’t you agree?  The Bible is a living Book for today because it contains the teaching authority of Jesus Christ!  The Word of God isn’t a sale item, it has full-priced value, because it’s the instructive Word of Jesus for me on this November Monday.  Come to think of it, that makes it the best bargain we could ever find.