One MORE way to Read Scripture

In my last post, I offered six ways of reading Scripture.  We explored Scripture as a chain link; Scripture as concentric circles; Scripture as moral/ethical truths; Scripture as conversation; Scripture as embodied truth (emotional connection); and Scripture as story.  As the class that explored these ways was talking, we found another way to read Scripture which is as Stained Glass.  This makes sense.  Originally Stained glass told the scripture stories through imagines.  When the Bible was read in Latin, a language the common person did not understand, the windows brought the stories to life in living color.  The windows were a way of communicating the faith.

To think about reading Scripture as Stained Glass awakens our imaginations.  When you look at stained glass there are many different levels.  You can look at the individual colors in each pane, each of which will communicate a truth. You can look at the ways the colors come together, culminate together to create a beautiful image.  Yet, it is not only about us as individuals.  Stained glass looks different depending on the light and especially how much or how little.  Stained glass can shift depending on where you stand.

All of that is truth of us as we approach Scripture.  What is going on inside us and around us will color our reading, much like where we stand as we gaze at stained glass.  We can focus on a few verses or we can try to step back and see the whole story/book of the Bible/where the passage fits in the whole Bible story.

In the church I serve now, in our chapel, is a beautiful/huge stained glass window of creation.  It is amazing.  It comes alive and looks different every single time I look at it.  Scripture is similar for me.  Scripture comes alive as I think about the passage.  What it must have been like to be standing there as Abram received a call to move or Miriam danced with a tambourine.  What it felt like to like to sit in the grass as fish and bread were passed around to you and five thousand of your closest friends.  That is the power of Scripture.  It is colorful and color-filled if only we let the light shine through.  And Scripture looks different every time I pick it up, even when I read the passage just a few short days later, especially when I read a passage a year later.

How does this way of reading Scripture sound?  Does it make sense?  Does it help?  For me, no one image of reading Scripture is the be all and end all.  Each way offers me a needed set of lenses or windows to look through.  Some are more meaningful, but each has a place in life at some point or time.  I pray you continue to think about the ways you read Scripture.  Which one resonates, which one feels too difficult or different, which one you might want to grow into.  But perhaps the best way is to open the good book and start reading!

I pray you will and will provide more than just a trace of God's grace.

Blessings ~

p.s. In my next post, I want to offer a way to read Scripture as one whole book.