One of the great concerns I have about most good, devout church folks is their lack of biblical knowledge. My experience since I was a child has been that we get very little Bible study in our churches, and the Bible, while read in worship, is offered to us in small pieces that often don’t connect with each other. Very few people, in my experience, have ever sat down and read one book of Scripture at a time, which isn’t hard to do. Most of the New Testament Gospels and letters are about the length of a newspaper, and some are pamphlet size. There’s nothing scary about it at all! I would urge you to give it a try with an open mind and heart – I find it fascinating.
One of the ways I find the study of Scripture to be most interesting is in looking for what isn’t there. I don’t make things up, but I try to understand the unspoken subtext. For example, there is a story in Matthew 9, Mark 5, and Luke 8 about a woman with a 12-year hemorrhage who reaches out in the midst of a crowd to touch Jesus. In Leviticus 15, there are a number of verses about being made unclean by being touched by a woman who is bleeding – you are then unclean until the evening and need to purify yourself. And yet, Jesus does not do this. He tells her that her faith has made her well. What isn’t said, but seems obvious to me, is that Jesus nullified this rule. Nothing God makes (or cleanses), Acts 10 tells us, is unclean. Jesus also changed how His followers were to honor the Sabbath. They picked grain – technically working – on the Sabbath, and when Jesus is accused of breaking the Sabbath, He said, “The Sabbath was made for humanity, not humanity for the Sabbath,” (Mark 2). The Sabbath is there to make sure everyone – animals, undocumented aliens, workers, etc. – isn’t worked to death. It is salvific, not punitive.
The Bible isn’t scary; it is for instruction and wisdom and learning. It isn’t a weapon; it is a tool for spiritual growth, our introduction to God. It isn’t to be swallowed whole as without error; it is to be digested in pieces for the nourishment of our souls. Too many people use the words of God for condemnation – let’s read it for what, I think, it was meant for – to draw us closer to each other and God.
Prayer – Holy God, Your words can give us guidance. May we grow in faith and Spirit and love as we are nurtured by them. Amen.
Today’s art is “Lotus Flower and Ornament, Mosaic Structure, #1” by Jozef Klopacka.