Well. I've been going to a bible study that meets at the church... not necessarily a bible study really... they gather to read the bible together, out loud, and have snacks.
Yesterday morning, Ezekiel 23 happened to be where we were (they are reading straight through... I think they might have started with Jeremiah)... and holy cow! I have never read that chapter before... and I don't think that any of them had either! The chapter talks about two sisters who are whores... an analogy for the cities of Jerusalem and Samaria... but if you aren't reading with a careful enough eye or a critical enough spirit, you don't quite get that right away. I'm not quite sure how they would have preceeded through that chapter without me! And while I tried really hard this morning to keep quiet... mostly so I could observe what normally happens in this group... this chapter was just too difficult!
One thing that I have learned from this group however... well, from the church members in general... is that I need to learn how to love the Bible. I think there is a book by Peter Gomes - The Good Book - and I'm going to try to read it sometime soon. I realized that when I go to the bible to read it, I'm looking for the themes, I'm looking for the historical connections, I'm looking at it academically and critically, thinking of it most of the time as a message for people a long time ago and hoping that with the Holy Spirit's help that something might apply to my life today. The people I have met in my congregation just love to read the bible. One homebound member actually said that she doesn't really understand the bible, it gets all confusing, she just loves to read the words. She said - all of that figuring the message out - that's not for us lay people. And that mindset really confuses me! There is a sort of simpleness too it and part of me wants to challenge them and teach them to learn from the depths of the text. That kind of simple-minded reading of the bible leads to a lot of proof-texting and quoting verses without paying attention to the context. On the otherhand, this group is so passionate about reading the word of God, whether they understand it or not, that they gather each week to read it aloud to one another.
As I thought about it today, I wonder if a lectio divina method would work well with this group. I think that it might add just a little bit of structure to their reading and allow them to focus on smaller isolate chunks and really absorb them deeply. It would give them a chance to lift up phrases that speak to them and help them to look more closely at what is going on.
Lectio Divinia is one of my favorite ways to be in scripture. I hope you will think about doing it with them. (I've never read that chapter in Ezekial either....lusting whores!)
ReplyDeleteYour reaction to that chapter amounts to the phone call of shock I received from my mother early one morning when she read it and then my attempts that day in Hebrew Bible when we were studying the same book in class (funny, how things work out that way) to get my professor to give a response to the text.
ReplyDeleteThe Bible study reminds me of one method to begin discussing how we read the Bible - there is this story about a professor who set a fish in front of students and asked them to write down as many facts about the fish as they could. So, the students did it. Then the next day, the professor once again asked them to do this. So, they did. Then the next day, the professor asked them to do this again. What happened as each day passed is that the students began to look deeper and began to ask more questions. You could do this with a plant in the church or some other object, have everyone discuss it and then later talk about the ways that they would work to learn more about the plant. Ask their neighbors, look in an Encyclopedia, look online, etc. And questions they would want to find the answer to. Then after this discussion, ask "How can we do this with our study of the Bible?" When I heard this story, I thought it made a really good point.
You may want to note how you include commentary on your congregation; someone from your church may be reading it. You may already be thinking this way. However, some of the comments could be "heard" less as your inward reflective thoughts, but potentially as comments on them. Example: "mostly so I could observe what normally happens in this group... this chapter was just too difficult!" is subject to misunderstanding.
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