Devo180 – Page 9 – Where the Wind…

More Sets of Lenses (January 31, 2013)

Published on January 31, 2013January 28, 2013 by Adam ThomasLeave a comment

…Opening To…

We say we read to “escape.” …A book so excites our imagination that we “consume” it… What would it feel like to consume the sacred book? Or to be consumed by it? To eat it, chew it, swallow it, digest it, to make it a part of you? (Roger Ferlo)

…Listening In…

You were called to freedom, brothers and sisters; only don’t let this freedom be an opportunity to indulge your selfish impulses, but serve each other through love. All the Law has been fulfilled in a single statement: Love your neighbor as yourself. (Galatians 5:13-14; context)

…Filling Up…

The fourth thing you should do when you read the Bible is to read it with other people. Reading the Bible alone is a fine practice in itself, but when you read the Bible in a group, you will hear perspectives different from your own, which can help you go deeper into the text. This practice is the human equivalent of reading several translations at once.

Another person might read a sentence with completely different emphasis than you have. Another person might gravitate to a different place in the text than you have. Another person might affirm your interpretation or challenge yours with one of her own. In all of these instances, the other people with whom you read act as more sets of lenses through which you view the text.

Here are a few suggestions for you if you are going to begin a Bible study group. Agree amongst yourselves never to put one another down for voicing an opinion about a text. Always accept feedback in a positive manner. Always listen to another fully rather than forming your own thoughts while he or she is speaking. Always wait for your turn to speak. And most importantly, always pray before and after your study. We’ll talk about that tomorrow.

…Praying For…

Dear God, you gave us each other in order than we might learn how to find you in each other. Help me to rely on others in order to come to a better appreciation of your grace in my life. In Jesus Christ’s name I pray. Amen.

…Sending Out…

I leave this moment with you, God, gladdened by the prospect of meeting you in the Bible.

Cluttering the Page (January 30, 2013)

Published on January 30, 2013January 28, 2013 by Adam ThomasLeave a comment

…Opening To…

…Listening In…

Now when Jesus saw the crowds, he went up a mountain. He sat down and his disciples came to him. He taught them, saying: “Happy are people who are downcast, because the kingdom of heaven is theirs.” (Matthew 5:1-3; context; the three chapters that make up the Sermon on the Mount have 22 headers in the Bible I’m using for this. Thankfully, most are fairly neutral.)

…Filling Up…

The third thing you should do when you read the Bible is ignore several things that clutter the page you’re looking at. None of these things is original to the text and so you will read more authentically when you fail to notice them. (That being said, the English language, paper, spaces between words, and in some cases vowels aren’t part of the original text either, but you’ll get the idea.)

First and most important, ignore the section headers. These are the bold or italicized phrases that purport to tell you what you are about to read. Sometimes, these are quite neutral, such as “Jesus says some stuff” or “Moses goes up the mountain.” Other times, the headers can sway your reading before you do it. A section might be headed, “Jesus says why some folks are bad” or “Moses is angry because of what Aaron did.” These types of headers act like the names of pieces of orchestral music: you read the name and then the music makes you think of whatever the name described. If the music had no name, you’d be free to come up with your own imaginative description of the music.

Along with the headers, ignore the chapter breaks and verse numbers. These were added much later to make it easier for people to find stuff in the text, not to set off little bits of it at a time. (I talked about this last week.) When we let the chapters and verses break up our reading, we sometimes artificially shorten the writers train of thought, and that’s not a good thing.

Finally, ignore the red text. In many editions of the Bible, Jesus’ words are set off by the use of red ink. Now, please don’t misunderstand — don’t ignore the words printed in red text. Rather, ignore the fact the red ink is used at all. The red letters set off Jesus’ words from the rest of the text, making them seem more important. Remember, however, that the entire Gospel is Jesus’ Gospel, not just the words he speaks in dialogue. His actions and the reactions of his followers and opponents are just as important as the words he says.

…Praying For…

Dear God, you put the spark of creativity within me. Help me to interpret the Bible in ways that promote my creation and my continued growth in you. In Jesus Christ’s name I pray. Amen.

…Sending Out…

I leave this moment with you, God, gladdened by the prospect of meeting you in the Bible.

The Creative Voice Within (January 29, 2013)

Published on January 29, 2013January 28, 2013 by Adam Thomas1 Comment

…Opening To…

…Listening In…

[The Ethiopian eunuch] was reading the prophet Isaiah while sitting in his carriage. The Spirit told Philip, “Approach this carriage and stay with it.” (Acts 8:28-29; context)

…Filling Up…

The second thing you should do when you read the Bible is to read it aloud. In the passage above, Philip knew that the Ethiopian eunuch was reading from the prophet Isaiah because the eunuch wasn’t reading silently to himself. He was reading aloud – to himself. This may seem strange to you and me, but this was the way people read in the ancient world. There was no such thing as “silent” reading.

So read your passage out loud. I know you are reading a translation, but the beauty and rhetorical power of the Biblical texts do not necessarily suffer in an English treatment. When you read aloud, you will notice oratorical patterns and cadences that the Biblical writers employed to make recitation easier and listening more captivating.

Besides appreciating the oratorical flair of Biblical writers, reading aloud gives you the opportunity to engage the drama of the Bible. A good chunk of the text is narrative and a good chunk of the narrative is dialogue. Now, we have no audiovisual documentation of the conversations recorded in the narrative, so it falls to us to interpret how the dialogue sounds.

A trained musician may be able to “hear the music” when she looks at a score, but most of us cannot comprehend music’s beauty and power without hearing it played. Similarly, the Biblical text soars when it is read aloud. In Genesis, God speaks creation into being. When we read the Bible aloud, we access that creative voice within ourselves and use the breath and the bodies that God created.

So, read the Bible, yes. But don’t just read it. Speak it. And don’t just speak the Bible. Proclaim it.

…Praying For…

Dear God, you spoke and creation happened. Help me to breathe my life into the Bible just as you breathe your life into me. In Jesus Christ’s name I pray. Amen.

…Sending Out…

I leave this moment with you, God, gladdened by the prospect of meeting you in the Bible.

Greek to Me (January 28, 2013)

Published on January 28, 2013January 28, 2013 by Adam Thomas1 Comment

…Opening To…

…Listening In…

One of the two disciples who heard what John said and followed Jesus was Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter. He first found his own brother Simon and said to him, “We have found the Messiah” (which is translated Christ). He led him to Jesus. Jesus looked at him and said, “You are Simon, son of John. You will be called Cephas” (which is translated Peter). (John 1:40-42; context)

…Filling Up…

Last week, we discussed five things you shouldn’t do when you read the Bible. You can probably guess what we are doing this week. You’re right! We are going to discuss five things you should do when you read the Bible. I’m not saying you must do these things, of course, but I think your Bible study will benefit from them.

First, you should probably read the Bible in its original languages.

Woah, wait a minute, you say. I don’t know Greek, Hebrew, or Aramaic.

That’s okay. I don’t really know them that well, either (and good for you for knowing all three languages the Bible is written in). Barring your extensive study of ancient languages, how can you approximate studying the Bible as it originally was? For most of us, this approximation lies quite far from the original, and that’s okay, too.

Rather than taking several graduate level courses in ancient Greek, I’d suggest either amassing several English translations of the Bible or logging on to a website that has several translations on file (like this one or this one). Then, when you begin studying a passage, read it in several versions. Note the important words that versions translate differently. What do you suppose accounts for the variation? What are the shades of meaning of a word of the original language that you notice when three or four different English words are used to translate it? Which makes the most sense to you? These are great questions to ask when studying the Bible because they can help deepen your understanding of the text.

Adding this step to your Bible study will also help you avoid one major pitfall – forgetting that the Bible was not written in English. This seems like a silly thing to warn against, but it’s a remarkably easy thing to forget. You don’t need to read in Greek to know that English-speaking scholars funneled the text into our language. But always keep in mind that what you are reading is not the original. Remembering this can keep us humble as we seek to understand the English text, just as the translators sought to understand the original languages.

…Praying For…

Dear God, you speak your words of life to people of all languages. Help me to interpret the Bible in ways that lead me to accept of your life-expanding grace. In Jesus Christ’s name I pray. Amen.

…Sending Out…

I leave this moment with you, God, gladdened by the prospect of meeting you in the Bible.

Read it Again (Jan. 25, 2013)

Published on January 25, 2013January 20, 2013 by Adam ThomasLeave a comment

…Opening To…

No man ever believes that the Bible means what it says: He is always convinced that it says what he means. (George Bernard Shaw)

…Listening In…

The Lord is my shepherd. I lack nothing. He lets me rest in grassy meadows; he leads me to restful waters; he keeps me alive. He guides me in proper paths for the sake of his good name. (Psalm 23:1-3; context)

…Filling Up…

The fifth thing not to do when you read the Bible is to skip over things you’ve read before. You may know a passage backward and forward. You may have heard the nativity story every year for fifty years. You may have read Psalm 23 a hundred times. The next time you come upon it, don’t pass it by. Read it again.

You can probably get away with reading the latest bestseller a single time. You might want to read through Harry Potter twice. But when it comes to the Bible, multiple readings is always the best way to go. Back when the accounts of the Gospel were newly written, some scholars tell us, a reader performed the text every Sunday. The entire Gospel. Every week. In certain prayerful Bible study methods, you might read the same passage three times in a half hour period. These multiple readings help us to savor the words we find in the Bible. They help us to place ourselves inside the text, and they help us to place the text inside ourselves. They make us familiar, like old friends who pick up right where they left off even after years with no contact.

You see, the Bible will be the same every time you read it. But you will be different. And therefore, your encounter with God, even in the same familiar text, will be different and new, as well.

…Praying For…

Dear God, you make yourself known to me in the pages of the Bible. Help me to seek you whenever I read it and to bring my whole self to the reading of scripture. In Jesus Christ’s name I pray. Amen.

…Sending Out…

I leave this moment with you, God, trusting that you will grant me the patience to study the Bible slowly and keep my eyes and heart open for your presence in my life.

Two Guarantees (Jan. 24, 2013)

Published on January 24, 2013January 20, 2013 by Adam Thomas2 Comments

…Opening To…

No man ever believes that the Bible means what it says: He is always convinced that it says what he means. (George Bernard Shaw)

…Listening In…

Examine the scriptures, since you think that in them you have eternal life. They also testify about me, yet you don’t want to come to me so that you can have life. (John 5:39-40; context)

…Filling Up…

The second thing not to do when you read the Bible is to think you already know what it says. Going into Bible study with a clear picture of what you want to find when you read will guarantee two things. First, you will find what you are looking for. And second, you will miss what is looking for you.

You’ll find what you’re looking for because the Bible is a compendium of human experience stretching thousands of years. If you are trying to prove a point, some verse in the Bible will help you out. It may be a single verse tucked into the corner of an obscure chapter or a famous verse from a well-read book, but you will be able to appropriate it for your own ends. This, of course, is not a very good way to read the Bible.

Unlike other books out there, the Bible is special because when we read it, we encounter the Holy Spirit breathing life into its pages. That life flows into and out of us in the ongoing dance of God’s movement throughout history. And so, when we think we know what the Bible says, we will often miss what’s looking for us in the text. When we come to the text, we should come with open minds and open hearts. We should open ourselves up to the possibility for God to surprise us when we read.

…Praying For…

Dear God, you are the source of life that weaves its way through the library of the faith. Help me to be open to the possibilities in store for me when I delve into that library. In Jesus Christ’s name I pray. Amen.

…Sending Out…

I leave this moment with you, God, trusting that you will grant me the patience to study the Bible slowly and keep my eyes and heart open for your presence in my life.

More Things in Heaven and Earth (Jan. 23, 2013)

Published on January 23, 2013January 20, 2013 by Adam ThomasLeave a comment

…Opening To…

No man ever believes that the Bible means what it says: He is always convinced that it says what he means. (George Bernard Shaw)

…Listening In…

When they had plenty to eat, he said to his disciples, “Gather up the leftover pieces, so that nothing will be wasted.” So they gathered them and filled twelve baskets with the pieces of the five barley loaves that had been left over by those who had eaten. When the people saw that he had done a miraculous sign, they said, “This is truly the prophet who is coming into the world.” (John 6:12-14; context)

…Filling Up…

The fourth thing not to do when you read the Bible is to read only the “ordinary parts.” This practice is similar to the third in that it warns against removing parts of the text. But rather than removing the parts that make us feel uncomfortable because of violent imagery (like Psalm 137), this practice removes the things that we can’t understand. It removes the “miraculous” stuff from the Bible. Thomas Jefferson did this when he published an edition of the Bible. His Gospel was full of holes because every one of Jesus’ miracles was missing.

The trouble with this approach is that it lacks humility. When we edit out the parts that we can’t understand simply because they don’t fit into the way we think the world works, we set ourselves up as the final judges of that world. But as Hamlet reminds his friend, “There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy” (Act 1, Scene V). When we decide on our own that miracles can’t happen, then we will automatically miss the miracles that do happen everyday. Truly, miracles aren’t aberrations in the natural order: they are part the natural order, just a part that we can’t explain except through faith.

So don’t excise the miraculous from your Bible like Thomas Jefferson did. You may have trouble believing that they happened, and that’s okay. Just don’t get rid of them. Over time, let the miracles wash over you and fill you with hope. Let them open you up to all the possibilities that God has for this world, all the things that have yet to be dreamt of in our philosophy.

…Praying For…

Dear God, you infuse the natural order with your miraculous presence. Help me to be humble in the face of the unknown and unexplainable. Help me to locate all of my answers in you. In Jesus Christ’s name I pray. Amen.

…Sending Out…

I leave this moment with you, God, trusting that you will grant me the patience to study the Bible slowly and keep my eyes and heart open for your presence in my life.

The Good Parts Version (Jan. 22, 2013)

Published on January 22, 2013January 20, 2013 by Adam ThomasLeave a comment

…Opening To…

No man ever believes that the Bible means what it says: He is always convinced that it says what he means. (George Bernard Shaw)

…Listening In…

Daughter Babylon, you destroyer, a blessing on the one who pays you back the very deed you did to us! A blessing on the one who seizes your children and smashes them against the rock! (Psalm 137:8-9; context)

…Filling Up…

The third thing not to do when you read the Bible is to read only the “good parts.” The practice of selecting only certain parts of the Bible is so widespread that we regularly do it in our churches when we read passages aloud. Sometimes, we edit parts out for brevity, but in many cases, we edit parts out to censor the “bad” stuff in the Bible. Take Psalm 137 for instance, the final two verses of which are quoted above. There’s a good chance you’ve never heard them because they always get edited out in church.

These verses and other difficult passages in the Psalms and elsewhere (the slaughter at Jericho in the book of Joshua comes to mind) make my stomach turn. How can we keep ourselves from excising these parts from our Bibles? How can we integrate even these hard parts into our lives of faith?

Let’s keep Psalm 137 as our example. This psalm is written from a place of desolation and utter grief as the writer remembers the captivity in Babylon. In 586 bce, God’s people in the land of Judah were taken into captivity in Babylon, victims of conquest and expansion; they lost homes and lives and loved ones. The captivity lasted for decades. The writer remembers the sorrow and hopelessness of those years, in which the captors mocked the people, commanding them to sing their old songs. The writer grieves the loss of Zion, vows never to forget Jerusalem, and then rages at the Babylonian captors.

But the writer expresses rage in the context of a prayer to God. The writer gives the grief and rage to God because they are unbearable. If we remove this passage from our Bibles because it is difficult, we may never discover that God is available, able, and willing to bear our grief and rage. We may never realize that those feelings are natural. If the passage remains, however, we will know that we may not be able to move past these natural feelings right away. We may not be able to forgive or hope just yet. But God will forgive and hope in our stead until we are ready to move past those feelings. This is just one example why editing the Bible to just the “good parts” is a bad idea.

…Praying For…

Dear God, I pray that I can trust you enough to know that you will be with me as I struggle with the difficult parts of the Bible and will hold them in trust until I am ready to integrate them into my life of faith. In Jesus Christ’s name I pray. Amen.

…Sending Out…

I leave this moment with you, God, trusting that you will grant me the patience to study the Bible slowly and keep my eyes and heart open for your presence in my life.

Fortune Cookie Faith (Jan. 21, 2013)

Published on January 21, 2013January 20, 2013 by Adam Thomas1 Comment

…Opening To…

No man ever believes that the Bible means what it says: He is always convinced that it says what he means. (George Bernard Shaw)

…Listening In…

God didn’t send his Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through him. (John 3:17; context)

…Filling Up…

Last week, we discussed a few things you may not have known about the Bible. Continuing in our Biblical theme, this week we are going to discuss five things not to do when you read the Bible. The practices we are going to talk about lead to (a) poor interpretations of the Bible, (b) ungracious and uncharitable opinions of other people, and (c) misunderstandings both of the texts of the Bible and misunderstandings among people who read the Bible in different ways.

The first thing not to do when you read the Bible is the act of reading it a single verse at a time. As I mentioned last week, the verse numbers were added less than five hundred years ago. They artificially divide texts that were always meant to be read each in its entirety. Bumper stickers, signs at ball games, magnets, and greeting cards that point to or quote a specific verse do a disservice to the rest of the text, from which the verse comes. Take John 3:16 for example. Most folks know what it says: “For God so loved the world…” But do you know John 3:15 or John 3:17? What about the beginning of chapter three, which builds to a climax at 16 and 17 before transitioning into another passage? Reading the rest of the story helps us interpret John 3:16 as a part of a larger dialogue between Jesus and the Pharisee Nicodemus. The verse was never meant to be taken by itself.

When we read verses individually, we run into the tendency of stringing together all of our favorite single verses until we have a fortune cookie faith. The Bible was never meant to be tweeted. The books of the Bible were meant to be heard and read, pored over and digested. Single verses out of context might go down easily, but they will never fill you up.

…Praying For…

Dear God, you infuse the Bible with your presence and give me the opportunity to encounter you whenever I read it. Help me to find the patience to read the Bible as it was written. Help me to resist the urge to boil down the Bible into tiny pieces that are easy to recall but tell little of the story. In Jesus Christ’s name I pray. Amen.

…Sending Out…

I leave this moment with you, God, trusting that you will grant me the patience to study the Bible slowly and keep my eyes and heart open for your presence in my life.

27 Pieces (January 18, 2013)

Published on January 18, 2013January 14, 2013 by Adam ThomasLeave a comment

…Opening To…

When you read God’s Word, you must constantly be saying to yourself, “It is talking to me, and about me.” (Søren Kierkegaard)

…Listening In…

From Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy. To the Thessalonians’ church that is in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace and peace to all of you. (1 Thessalonians 1:1; context)*

…Filling Up…

The fourth thing you might not know about the Bible (and again, primarily about the New Testament) is the fact that the 27 texts, which make up the second bookcase of the Bible’s library, are not the only texts that were written because of Jesus in the couple hundred years following his death and Resurrection. There were countless other letters, revelations, sermons, and accounts of the Gospel floating around Greece and Asia Minor in the first few centuries after everyone had to get a new calendar.

The church settled on the 27 we have (bonus points if you can name them without looking!) based largely on three criteria: attribution to a first or second generation follower of Jesus, widespread use throughout the church (so the letters that went viral made it in), and sound theological doctrine. Of course, this last one was open to more interpretation than the first two because the church itself was concurrently attempting to establish sound theological doctrine. (Remember the chicken-and-egg thing from yesterday.) Indeed, folks were skeptical of the Gospel according to John for a long time because some fairly whacky people really loved it. (The church called them “heretics.”) But in the end, the group who set the canon needed this account of the Gospel to settle a dispute with another heretical (but much better funded) group.

My intention here is not to despiritualize the Bible by presenting some of the nitty-gritty pieces of history behind its formation. Far from it. I find great hope in the fact that real, fallible human beings cobbled together such an amazing library of texts about God. Clearly, God was moving in that process. And I firmly believe that God moves in our lives, as well, whether we read the Bible or not. But our reading and our study of God’s movement in the lives of others helps us see and participate in that movement in our lives.

I pray that, if you are not already doing so, you pick up your Bible and read. In doing so, your imagination and your heart will open, and you will be ready for an encounter with God.

…Praying For…

Dear God, you were the constant presence in the lives of those who wrote and compiled the Bible, and you always called them back when they strayed from you. Help me to hear your voice calling me back to you, both in the words of the Bible and in the words you write across the sky of my life. In Jesus Christ’s name I pray. Amen.