Rhythm of Life: Spiritual Practice of Sacred Reading

Psalm 1

Words matter. They sink into us if we read them, especially if we read them over and over and particularly if we attach our sense of God to them or through them. The Bible is full of powerful stories, rich poetry and mystical prose. At its best it sinks into us, makes us brave in the face of oppressive tirants. It can paint the picture of meaningful partnerships and ways to be in the world.

Also, it is not necessarily written for us. The more we know about the language and the history, the deeper we study the bigger the mystery will become. Reading scripture means taking it seriously enough to understand the context. And just as Jesus invited folks to question and wonder in his day, you are invited to question and wonder in ours.

This book of books is full of human fingerprints each with egos and agendas, failings and successes. It is full of the moments that those who have journeyed before us brushed up into something bigger than themselves and they held the story, shared the story, and passed it from generation to generation. The Bible we hold in our hands today has been on its own incredible journey. There are magnificent differences and disagreements in telling the same story, just look at the manger on your mantle at Christmas. It’s not biblical but it does carry a truth. Kings have modified the translations in their favor, books have been chosen and rejected and some words have been added really late in the game, like the use of the word homosexual which doen’t enter english bibles until western culture is concerned.

All of this is to say; the Bible is wild and weird and if you don’t take it seriously enough to really understand the context and to think actively about your own context, it will be dangerous. It is dangerous when people read the words and pray demons out of someone in a health crisis. It is dangerous when people read the words at surface level and tell queer folks they are going to hell. IT is dangerous when people read the words of sculpture and take it as permission to abuse their wives or their children. If you can’t read it with care. Just don’t.

The people before us brought their brains and hearts to the life of faith and so should you. Our Methodist tradition places scripture as sacred but in conversation with tradition, reason and experience. You are not just invited to think, you are expected too.

Ours is a faith of practice. We can see how Jesus found scripture’s power and how it was a part of his practice. When he is in crisis or conflict with the religious establishment or about to be run out of town or facing the chief priest; he quotes the scriptures. He knows the poetry of the Psalms and the prose of the prophets. And so on the cross and before the crowd, those scriptures are on his lips.

He has favorites and sources that give him courage and mold his mission. That’s what sacred reading should do for us too.

It takes time, commitment and community for us to learn. That’s what Jesus did, when he went to the synagogue. He went deeper and deeper and deeper until it was written in his heart.

When we were starting Urban Abbey there were so many moments I thought WTF did I get myself into. Nothing is going, growing or progressing…at least not fast enough for the folks to whom I was accountable for the grant. I found Psalm 1. I colored it. Painted it. I read it in different interpretations and different translations.

Here it is…my personal; favorite blend of all the translations and interpretations:

 

Happy are those

who walk hand in hand with goodness,,

Who stand beside virtue,

who sit in the seat of truth;

For their delight is in the law of the Love,

and in loves heart they dwell,

and on the law of love they meditate day and night.

They are like trees

planted by streams of water,

which yield their fruit in due season,

and their leaves do not wither.

In all that they do, they give life.

Reading this invited me to take a breath. To focus on being a tree planted by living water and to wait for my season. This work would give fruit in due season. This scripture is one that I hold in me and I offer it if it matters to you. Maybe you are in a place that looks like winter and you just need a reminder that seasons have their purpose and time.

So how to start?

Take the scripture from Sunday and read it each day of the week? Explore what it means on different days and different moments.

If you find a special scripture, look at it in another translation. Carve out a moment in the day or a few times a week. Make what space you can…take small steps.

A little deeper step? Get a really good study bible like The Oxford Study Bible with scholar commentary. I prefer NRSV translations.

Another step? Try Reading the Bible Again for the First Time by Borg and Crossen. Try reading some books with the community about the Bible's history and construction or about the current themes we are exploring in worship. This will make your Sunday experience mean even more.

What to read the Psalms as prayer, Try Praying the Psalms by Nan C. Merril read her interpretation and read the NRSV translation. Draw out the words you love. Put them on a note to yourself. Text them if you need to.

Choose a devotional or a resource that supports you as you read. Want to get something really big…try the Women’s Bible Commentary as a resource to have alongside your Study Bible.

Write your favorites out, follow your joy and bliss, follow what makes you more loving, brave and bold.

PS

Those hard stories. We can learn from the things we want to clip out. But this takes time and lots of reading. There are some parts where the faithful response is to let them go and some parts where we can say, hey you are banning women from speaking in church…that means women were talking. There is so much about early followers of Jesus that we don’t know. Want a good book for that? Try After Jesus Before Christianity: A Historical Exploration of the First Two Centuries of Jesus Movements