"Sweeter than Honey to My Mouth"
Psalm 119:97-104
Rev. Everett L. Miller
When I was in the fourth or fifth grade, I discovered a book that made something magical happen between the words on the page and the imagination within me. It was the book that unlocked my imagination. I assume that I bought it at the much anticipated Scholastic Book Fair. Do you remember the Scholastic Book Fairs in elementary school? They would wheel all of those shiny metal bookshelves into the library and form them into a semi-circle and they’d set out the racks of bookmarks with tassels and pictures of kittens or racecars on them. Then each class would get a turn to walk through to look at the books about sports, exotic animals and kid detectives like Encyclopedia Brown. This was before there were Barnes and Nobles and Borders everywhere and before you could just get on the Internet and have a book over-nighted to you from Amazon.Com.
This particular time I picked out a book called A Castle in the Attic by Elizabeth Winthrop. On the cover was an illustration of a young boy the same age as me in front of a miniature castle and holding a little figure of a knight as though it was alive. I made the purchase with my hard earned allowance money and began to read it that night. When I would have usually been outside playing basketball or football with other neighborhood kids I was sitting on the top bunk in my room reading this amazing book in which a little boy named William receives an old play castle from his British nanny who is getting ready to move away. The castle comes with only one figure, a knight. At first he is disappointed with only having one figure but then he opens the box holding it and finds that the little knight is alive. It was kind of The Indian in the Cupboard meets The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.
I don’t have time to tell you any more of the plot but this book convinced me that two worlds, the world of William and the world of the castle and the knight, can overlap. It opened my mind to think that just maybe there is something more magical and alive to those things which we might otherwise look at as being inconsequential. As I stay up late, under my covers reading that book with a flashlight, arguing with my stepbrother on the bottom bunk who kept telling me to shut it off and go to sleep, the relationship between words and imagination was born for me. Words came to life.
Later in life I discovered another book that did much the same thing for me, but on a grander scale, a life-transforming scale. I bought my first very own Bible when I was sixteen. Well, after I made that purchase I sat for what seemed like hours but may have only been minutes reading the Scriptures, reading the stories of Jesus, reading of the children of Israel, and the beautiful poetry of the Psalms, and even the strange visions of Revelation. And I remember it like it was the beginning of a relationship. I didn’t know if I liked it or not. Sometimes I wanted to sleep with it in my arms and at other times I wanted to throw it out the back door. I didn’t understand it but at the same time I wanted to learn everything there was to know about it. And at first maybe it was just words on a page but thirteen years later I can look back on it and see that one of the things that was happening in me that I couldn’t understand was that the relationship between holy words and a holy imagination was being born within me. Words were coming to life and this book started to convince me that two worlds, the world of my everyday existence and the world of God’s dream for creation can overlap. It opened my mind to think that just maybe there is something more mysterious, delightful and alive to those things which we might otherwise look at as being inconsequential. I was, in a manner of speaking, falling in love.
In Psalm 119, the poet declares, “Oh, how I love your law! I meditate on it all day long.” This isn’t like, “I love pepperoni pizza” or “I love watching My Name is Earl on Thursdays.” The Hebrew word used here for love is the same word that is used over and over again in the Song of Solomon, as in “Have you seen the one my heart loves?” This is true love, not just finding it interesting, not just memorizing it so you can regurgitate it later, this is being in love with the law of God, being in love with the Scriptures in a similar way to the way you love another person. “Oh, how I love your law.” How can this be?
When I was a senior at Oklahoma State University, I started to hang around with a cute freshman girl. We sort of dated and sort of didn’t. We were friends, then we were dating, then we hated each other, then we were friends, then we were dating, and so on. Maybe you can relate. I was about to graduate from college and she was just getting started so there was no way in the world that I was going to let this get serious and to fall in love with her. But then after I had done some really stupid stuff and almost lost her then something started to change. I stopped imagining what life might be like if I was to graduate and move off by myself to some big city and pursue a career in writing and I started to imagine what life might be like with both of us in the picture. When I began to fall in love with this girl who became my wife I knew that things had changed from interest or even infatuation to true love when I started to imagine our life together and I thought about it what seemed like all day long and it hurt when I wasn’t with her. In fact it still does. This is the kind of imagination that doesn’t just take place in your mind, but also takes place in your heart, your soul, that deep down core of who you are. This is where imagination and love intertwine. And the poet proclaims, “Oh, how I love your law!”
Do you think of love and imagination when you think of the Bible? Is it just words on the page like an encyclopedia? Is it just a bunch of hard names to pronounce and terrible stories of violence and silly stories of miracles and lists of things you can’t do because life might be too fun if you did them? If that is the case for you, I ask you to pray to God that your imagination might be opened.
This particular time I picked out a book called A Castle in the Attic by Elizabeth Winthrop. On the cover was an illustration of a young boy the same age as me in front of a miniature castle and holding a little figure of a knight as though it was alive. I made the purchase with my hard earned allowance money and began to read it that night. When I would have usually been outside playing basketball or football with other neighborhood kids I was sitting on the top bunk in my room reading this amazing book in which a little boy named William receives an old play castle from his British nanny who is getting ready to move away. The castle comes with only one figure, a knight. At first he is disappointed with only having one figure but then he opens the box holding it and finds that the little knight is alive. It was kind of The Indian in the Cupboard meets The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.
I don’t have time to tell you any more of the plot but this book convinced me that two worlds, the world of William and the world of the castle and the knight, can overlap. It opened my mind to think that just maybe there is something more magical and alive to those things which we might otherwise look at as being inconsequential. As I stay up late, under my covers reading that book with a flashlight, arguing with my stepbrother on the bottom bunk who kept telling me to shut it off and go to sleep, the relationship between words and imagination was born for me. Words came to life.
Later in life I discovered another book that did much the same thing for me, but on a grander scale, a life-transforming scale. I bought my first very own Bible when I was sixteen. Well, after I made that purchase I sat for what seemed like hours but may have only been minutes reading the Scriptures, reading the stories of Jesus, reading of the children of Israel, and the beautiful poetry of the Psalms, and even the strange visions of Revelation. And I remember it like it was the beginning of a relationship. I didn’t know if I liked it or not. Sometimes I wanted to sleep with it in my arms and at other times I wanted to throw it out the back door. I didn’t understand it but at the same time I wanted to learn everything there was to know about it. And at first maybe it was just words on a page but thirteen years later I can look back on it and see that one of the things that was happening in me that I couldn’t understand was that the relationship between holy words and a holy imagination was being born within me. Words were coming to life and this book started to convince me that two worlds, the world of my everyday existence and the world of God’s dream for creation can overlap. It opened my mind to think that just maybe there is something more mysterious, delightful and alive to those things which we might otherwise look at as being inconsequential. I was, in a manner of speaking, falling in love.
In Psalm 119, the poet declares, “Oh, how I love your law! I meditate on it all day long.” This isn’t like, “I love pepperoni pizza” or “I love watching My Name is Earl on Thursdays.” The Hebrew word used here for love is the same word that is used over and over again in the Song of Solomon, as in “Have you seen the one my heart loves?” This is true love, not just finding it interesting, not just memorizing it so you can regurgitate it later, this is being in love with the law of God, being in love with the Scriptures in a similar way to the way you love another person. “Oh, how I love your law.” How can this be?
When I was a senior at Oklahoma State University, I started to hang around with a cute freshman girl. We sort of dated and sort of didn’t. We were friends, then we were dating, then we hated each other, then we were friends, then we were dating, and so on. Maybe you can relate. I was about to graduate from college and she was just getting started so there was no way in the world that I was going to let this get serious and to fall in love with her. But then after I had done some really stupid stuff and almost lost her then something started to change. I stopped imagining what life might be like if I was to graduate and move off by myself to some big city and pursue a career in writing and I started to imagine what life might be like with both of us in the picture. When I began to fall in love with this girl who became my wife I knew that things had changed from interest or even infatuation to true love when I started to imagine our life together and I thought about it what seemed like all day long and it hurt when I wasn’t with her. In fact it still does. This is the kind of imagination that doesn’t just take place in your mind, but also takes place in your heart, your soul, that deep down core of who you are. This is where imagination and love intertwine. And the poet proclaims, “Oh, how I love your law!”
Do you think of love and imagination when you think of the Bible? Is it just words on the page like an encyclopedia? Is it just a bunch of hard names to pronounce and terrible stories of violence and silly stories of miracles and lists of things you can’t do because life might be too fun if you did them? If that is the case for you, I ask you to pray to God that your imagination might be opened.
In fact, I want us to pray for that right now. Repeat after me:
Loving God, explode my imagination with your love.
Explode my imagination with your Spirit.
Explode my imagination with your Word.
Amen.
When you are open to the working of God in your life, the Scriptures can begin to open up your imagination and an entirely new reality breaks in on you.
You begin to imagine an existence in which there is a creator God who not only formed everything in creation but also loves you and everybody else. You begin to imagine an existence in which in some strange, mysterious, and holy way God came to walk among us in the person of Jesus of Nazareth. You begin to imagine an existence in which a Holy Spirit from God begins to tear down walls between people. You begin to imagine an existence that is in turmoil but is not hopeless, instead it is on its way to being made whole again and that you get to participate in it by loving others and the world through acts of justice, kindness, and mercy. You begin to imagine an existence, your personal existence, that matters in the cosmic scheme of things.
And you know what happens when you start to really imagine these things? You start to notice that something has changed from interest or even infatuation to true love when you start to imagine a life together with God and you think about it what seems like all day long and it hurts when you are not walking with God. This is the kind of imagination that doesn’t just take place in your mind, but also takes place in your heart, your soul, that deep down core of who you are. This is where imagination and love intertwine. And you find that you are falling in love with God through falling in love with the Scriptures and you just might burst out with some ridiculous words like, “Oh, how I love your law! I meditate on it all day long.”
And as you fall in love with God through falling in love with God’s Word you begin to see that the world of your everyday existence and the world of God’s dream for creation begin to overlap.
And you find that you begin to become what Paul tells Timothy is being “wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.”
And you see that the Bible isn’t there to simply answer your questions, but instead it questions you. It might ask you:
Are you willing to imagine the way that God wants things to be and are you willing to bring that imagination into being with the help of God’s Spirit?
Are you willing to stop loving stuff and start loving your God and the people God created and the creation God formed as an artist?
Are you willing to be “thoroughly equipped for every good work?”
Are you willing to have your imagination explode, to live beyond your imagination, and to have your life transformed?
Are you willing to fall in love with God?
And you thought it was just words on a page!
And the poet declares, “O how I love your law… Your words are sweet to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth.” Amen.
When you are open to the working of God in your life, the Scriptures can begin to open up your imagination and an entirely new reality breaks in on you.
You begin to imagine an existence in which there is a creator God who not only formed everything in creation but also loves you and everybody else. You begin to imagine an existence in which in some strange, mysterious, and holy way God came to walk among us in the person of Jesus of Nazareth. You begin to imagine an existence in which a Holy Spirit from God begins to tear down walls between people. You begin to imagine an existence that is in turmoil but is not hopeless, instead it is on its way to being made whole again and that you get to participate in it by loving others and the world through acts of justice, kindness, and mercy. You begin to imagine an existence, your personal existence, that matters in the cosmic scheme of things.
And you know what happens when you start to really imagine these things? You start to notice that something has changed from interest or even infatuation to true love when you start to imagine a life together with God and you think about it what seems like all day long and it hurts when you are not walking with God. This is the kind of imagination that doesn’t just take place in your mind, but also takes place in your heart, your soul, that deep down core of who you are. This is where imagination and love intertwine. And you find that you are falling in love with God through falling in love with the Scriptures and you just might burst out with some ridiculous words like, “Oh, how I love your law! I meditate on it all day long.”
And as you fall in love with God through falling in love with God’s Word you begin to see that the world of your everyday existence and the world of God’s dream for creation begin to overlap.
And you find that you begin to become what Paul tells Timothy is being “wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.”
And you see that the Bible isn’t there to simply answer your questions, but instead it questions you. It might ask you:
Are you willing to imagine the way that God wants things to be and are you willing to bring that imagination into being with the help of God’s Spirit?
Are you willing to stop loving stuff and start loving your God and the people God created and the creation God formed as an artist?
Are you willing to be “thoroughly equipped for every good work?”
Are you willing to have your imagination explode, to live beyond your imagination, and to have your life transformed?
Are you willing to fall in love with God?
And you thought it was just words on a page!
And the poet declares, “O how I love your law… Your words are sweet to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth.” Amen.
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