Isaiah 55:1-11; 2 Timothy 3:14 – 4:5; John 5:36b - end

In 1967, a 20 year old athlete by the name of Kathrine Switzer made history by becoming the first woman to run the Boston Marathon wearing an official race number. Despite there being no specific reference made to gender in the marathon rule book, it was widely understood that only men were allowed to participate. Consequently Kathrine registered for the marathon under her name, KV Switzer, and received race numbers which she pinned onto her bib, before running.

During the Marathon, she was physically attacked by the race manager, who tried to grab her race numbers from her and remove her from the competition. The race manager also knocked her trainer and fellow runner to the ground before being stopped by Switzer’s boyfriend, who was also running. Despite all the obstacles, Kathrine Switzer completed the race.

Today’s reading, from 2 Timothy, encourages us to keep on going despite the obstacles we face in living out our faith.

On Friday morning, I found myself in front of 30 year 4 pupils in Boxted school. For the last half term, they have been thinking about what Christians believe and how they come to faith.

As part of this they had been thinking about how some of that is affected by our home life and whether or not they go to church; their school life and the values they learn at school, particularly in a church school, and the bible.

And so I began, by sharing a little bit about how I came to faith, and the fact I was brought up in a Christian household, my dad being the organist, my mum one of the Sunday school leaders. I talked about how at the age of 7, a prerequisite of being the organists daughter, was that I should join the church choir.

I talked about how from a young age, I could argue quite eloquently for what I wanted from the bible. For example as an 11 year old, having an argument with my parents about whether or not I could wear my new stone washed, skin tight jeans to church. I thought I could, my parents disagreed, feeling I should wear the skirts and dresses we were always made to wear, our Sunday best. In the end, I won the argument, by simply saying, that my understanding of the bible was that God was more concerned about my heart, than my outward appearance. A shallow win in fact, when of course, I arrived at church and immediately had to put on my choir robes, quite frankly I could have been wearing anything.

From the age of 8 I had declared that one day I would be a vicar, by the age of 11 was arguing from scripture to get my own way.

But actually, as I told the young people the other day, I didn’t become a Christian until I was 13 and took a friend to a Billy Graham satellite meeting. That night, I gave my life to Christ, and realised, that my faith up until then had been head knowledge, I knew and had studied the bible, I knew what Christians believed, but now I had heart knowledge, I knew what it was really like to have God in my heart, to be transformed by his love, and knew that being a Christian impacted all aspects of my life, not just what I did for an hour, or two or three on a Sunday, week by week.

The young people were then invited to ask me any questions they had about my faith, and what I believe, and so I had to talk about my favourite bible stories – Jonah, and the prodigal son, which of the school values I felt most drawn to – forgiveness and Compassion, which of the Christian festivals was my favourite – Pentecost, that took some explaining! My favourite hymn – In Christ alone my hope is found, although how you ever decide a favourite hymn, I have no idea – how often I pray – they looked very surprised when I said every day … I wonder how they would have responded if I said, many times, every day, and how many times I have read the bible? Simply put I don’t know, I just know that I have read it all at some point, and some passages I must have read hundreds of times over.

And of course, as we celebrate today the bible on this bible Sunday, it is to the bible that we can turn when we do face obstacles in our lives.

Not just to win our parents over in an argument. But when faced with trauma … Holding our daughter Grace in my arms, just moments after she was still born, I remember so clearly just saying the words of Psalm 46 ‘Be still and now that I am God.’ That assurance, that even though this was the most painful experience I could ever imagine going through, God was there with us … he hadn’t abandoned us.

Or when facing a decision or big change in life the words of Jeremiah ‘For I know the plans I have for you, plans to prosper you, not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.’

When we want to give thanks Philippians 4 ‘Rejoice in the lord always, and again I say rejoice’ … or psalm 150 ‘Praise the Lord, praise God in his sanctuary, praise him in his mighty heavens. Praise him for his acts of power; praise him for his surpassing greatness. Praise him with the sounding of the trumpet, praise him with the harp and lyre, praise him with the timbrel and dancing and so on ….’ a favourite Psalm from my childhood, not least because it is one of the shortest psalms we had to sing at Matins.

In fact no matter what we face in life, there is teaching in the bible that covers it, whether it be identity, relationships, friendships, finance, rest, work and so many other things. Gideons bibles, which of course used to be found in all hotel rooms, hospital lockers, prison cells, and handed to pupils in schools, are great for helping us find passages that relate to all the topics we can possibly think of. And in turn have brought many people to faith, not least, most famously David Suchet, who came to faith having read Romans chapter 8 in his hotel room.

As Paul says in our passage today ‘All scripture is God breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man/woman of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.’

Just a few verses after our passage from Timothy today, in verse 7 Paul writes ‘I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.’

Marathon runner Katherine Switzer would be fully aware that running a race requires discipline, training and perseverance.

Reading the bible also takes all three!

It takes discipline to set aside time every day to read an excerpt from scripture, we may not see instant results as we get ‘trained in righteousness’ by God’s word, but as we intentionally familiarise ourselves with those God-breathed words, we’re certain to become more like Jesus.

So this Bible Sunday, why not resolve to persevere in your study of the bible and pray that you may grow in your knowledge and understanding of the things of God.

So that when obstacles come, and they will, we can keep running the race and keep the faith.

Amen