The Weekly Fare . . . July 31, 2003

Searching The Word . . . Searching You

You've got to admit it. They are perhaps the two most feared words in all of Christendom - if not all of creation . . . they strike fear into the hearts of young and old alike . . . The words?

"Bible study."

If ever two words could conjure up a vision of time spent in some dimly lit room peering deep into the yellowing pages of an old, stale book with print so small it takes a microscope to discern, then these are it . . .

"Bible study."

It's enough to make even the most devout among us go diving for cover.

"I'd love to, but I've got a root canal scheduled today and later on I'll be cleaning the attic . . ."

And who's to blame anyone for such a response? Look what years of mishandling, misuse and mis- presenting has done for it? "Christianity" as presented by "the church in America" at different times and in different places has often taken the extraordinary events of the Bible and reduced them to a staid and dogmatic lecture that has all the attraction of peeling potatoes at 3:00 A.M..

But let's be honest. Even without all that human "help," the Bible presents some rather large challenges on it's own. As my friend Frederick Buechner has commented:

"There are good reasons for not reading it. Its format is almost supernaturally forbidding - the binding rusty black like an undertaker's cutaway, the double columns of a timetable, cluttered margins, and a text so overloaded with guides to pronunciations and inexplicable italics, that reading it is like listening to somebody with a bad stutter.

There are still more reasons. The barbarities for instance. The often fanatical nationalism. The passages where the God of Israel is interested in other nations only to the extent that he can use them to whip Israel into line . . . the self-righteousness and self-pity of many of the Psalms . . . the way the sublime and the unspeakable are always jostling each other . . .

In short one way to describe the Bible, written by many different people over a period of more than 3000 years, would be to say that it is a disorderly collection of sixty odd books that are often tedious, barbaric and obscure - a swarming compost of a book full of poetry and propaganda, law and legalism, myth and murk, history and hysteria . . . Let them who try and start out in Genesis and work their way conscientiously to Revelation beware . . ."

Which is perhaps why most of us in the modern world, view it as so incredibly inaccessible. The "good book?" Give us a bad book any day - one where we can sail smoothly from chapter to chapter and safely watch as the plot unfolds as we mostly knew it would. We'd rather take our "religion" - the practice of our faith, our relationship with God - like we do so much of the rest of our lives, like a pill - simple and clean and neat and easy . . . by just showing up from Sunday to Sunday - or maybe just occasionally - and throwing our hat in the ring by listening to a good sermon or two.

We might even attend Sunday school from time to time - there's often some good discussion to be found there. And of course we will read the occasional book that sometimes expands our understandings or just plain makes us feel good. But read and actually study the Bible? That "swarming compost of a book?"

Why?

Indeed, what on earth is really there for today's reader?

I'll tell you what's there. "We" are there. That "swarming compost" that is each of us - with all our intrigue and intricacies - our concerns and contradictions - our self-importance and self-pity. The "living word" as it turns out is just that - living. And it has a way of taking even the most confused and confounded among us and putting us in a place where perspective can be found. The kind of perspective that not only cuts across the centuries and the generations of all who have sought its deeper meaning but one that also cuts through the glitter and glitz and temporal waste of this world.

But it's not necessarily easy - and it does take a commitment.

But doesn't everything worth anything in life?

What did you watch on TV last night? The night before? Do you even remember?

You've always said you would. If not now, when?

Jump in a small group Bible study.

Let the Word read you.

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PS As the Adult Ministry Director of a Presbyterian Church here in Roanoke, I can point you to several good offerings regardless of denomination or lack thereof . . . Send me an email! I'd be happy to help!