Prayer for the 50ish Days of Gospeling Your life

 

God, You traveled with Abraham and Sarah, Moses and Miriam, Naomi and Ruth, Isaiah and Ezekiel; in Jesus the Christ, Your love became incarnate ~ in the flesh ~ with bone and breath and life to meet us in our humanness.  So, as we strap on our sandals, sling our backpacks filled with why we are reading the Gospels and questions we have at the beginning as well as hopes for what might meet us along the way, be with us.  And we pray, God, You would meet us each day.  We pray that each morning or afternoon or evening when we slow down and open Scripture, we might find You.  You might be in a verse or a single word.  You might be there in the margin of a thought that isn’t printed on the page but written in our hearts.  You might be there in a moment that feels like sandpaper to our soul as we craft a brilliant argument for why Mark was a bonehead for including that story!  You might be there when we miss a few days and need to catch up, skimming the words.  You might be there in a moment that stops us short, when we stumble over a story or stub our toe on a part of a passage we didn’t realize or remember was there.  Scripture can be like stepping on a Lego with our bare feet.  Scripture can be like a song that causes our souls to dance.  Scripture can sometimes cause us to stifle a yawn and our minds to wonder just how many licks does it take to get to the center of a Tootsie pop? And…and…and there can be so much more that awaits us that we don’t even know.  Whatever happens, whoever we are on October 30, God enfold us and hold us and guide us with Your love that we might meet again and anew and afresh in the coming 50-ish days.  May this adventure truly be good news to our souls in these days.  Amen.  

Why Would You "Gospel" Your Life?

 

Over the last few weeks, I have been sharing with you information (and I pray inspiration) for reading the Gospels with me in September and October.  But the question remains, why?  Why would you do this?  Afterall, I know you are busy; I know there are tons of entertaining Netflix shows just calling your name; there are places to volunteer; and a slew of new books to read. 

 

Why do this?

 

That is a question for you to hold close to your heart.  I have tried to offer some of the reasons why I am doing this, but I don’t assume those are your reasons.  You don’t have to do this.  There will be no badge for your heavenly sash passed out at the end…although I do think we should have a party with chocolate in November when we finish!  We don’t do this to get anything, we do this because there is a curiosity in our souls or an ache that longs for healing or itch that we’ve tried every other option advertised out there with no relief.  I am not promising the Gospels will magically cure all our hurt, but I do believe God meets us where we are when we open to the Presence that is always around us and within us. 

 

Why are you doing this?  Take time today to answer this.  Do you want to do this?  And, what questions do you bring with you?  Please note, you don’t need to write a dissertation.  The backside of an envelope or a note in an app will work too.  Before you begin, it is important to write down your “why”, so that when the climb is challenging or you fall behind or you want to throw the Bible across the room (don’t do that if you are reading on a tablet, I can’t replace your iPad!).  We can come back to your “why”.  And it is okay to revise your “why” after a few weeks too.  Maybe you start with one intention and discover another along the way.  You may have great questions today and by the end of September you have jettisoned for a new set you didn’t realize were right there hidden in plain sight in your soul. 

 

There is a great quote from Rachel Held Evans “Jesus didn’t talk much about the church, but he talked a lot about the kingdom.... In contrast to every other kingdom that has been and ever will be, this kingdom belongs to the poor, Jesus said, and to the peacemakers, the merciful, and those who hunger and thirst for God. In this kingdom, the people from the margins and the bottom rungs will be lifted up to places of honor, seated at the best spots at the table. This kingdom knows no geographic boundaries, no political parties, no single language or culture. It advances not through power and might, but through acts of love and joy and peace, missions of mercy and kindness and humility. This kingdom has arrived, not with a trumpet’s sound but with a baby’s cries, not with the vanquishing of enemies but with the forgiving of them, not on the back of a warhorse but on the back of a donkey, not with triumph and a conquest but with a death and a resurrection.”

 

For me, this is why I keep coming back to the Gospels with fresh energy and open heart to discover anew God who is right here all along authoring my life for the sake of love. 

Gospeling our lives this Fall

 

So far this week, we have set the stage for reading the Gospels in 50ish Days by remembering that Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John were written in a particular time and place.  Each sought to speak to the conditions of the lives and souls of people living under the oppression of Rome, where Caesar ruled over you.  We held four questions of challenge, change, joy, and service that each Gospel will address in their own beautiful way.  Today, a quick seminary lesson.  I promise it will be painless.  We will start the 50ish days with Mark, not Matthew who is the first Gospel when you open the New Testament.  Why?  I am so glad you asked.  Most scholars suggest Mark was written first.  It is also the shortest, so you will feel so good after finishing Mark’s 16 chapters and realizing you are 1/4^th of the way through.  Woo hoo.  Plus, some say that Matthew and Luke had a copy of Mark’s gospel on their desk.  Matthew and Luke also seemed to share some other notes too (like having Jesus preach a sermon either on a mountain in Matthew or a plain in Luke).  Mark can be a foundational outline that Matthew and Luke both follow and enhance and leave some of Mark’s stories on their editing room floor.  Matthew and Luke each have unique stories as well.  John takes his own route, not really following Mark’s outline.  John is poetic and passionate in his storytelling and decides to color outside the lines of the other three Gospels.  Two Gospels (Matthew and Luke) talk about Jesus’ birth and parents.  Three Gospels (Matthew, Mark and Luke) have Jesus telling parables ~ John prefers signs like changing water into wine.  And all four wrap up their confessions of faith, testimonies to the truth of God’s love, with Jesus’ death and resurrection.  There are similarities and differences, there are stories they share and some that are entirely unique.  We start with Mark for a foundation.  We move to Matthew because I am taken by Shaia’s understanding of climbing a mountain and facing change.  We then move to Luke and acts of service.  Finally, the frosting on the cake is John’s words that can stir our sacred imaginations like hot sauce wakes up our tongues and taste buds.  This is the adventure for 50ish Days and a bit of the roadmap for you in the coming weeks.  The truth is there is the journey we plan and the vacation we take.  That is, I can have an itinerary or a reading plan, but what I actually experience, and encounter will be found not on a piece of paper or an online reservation, but in the engagement with the words of the Gospels day-by-day.  I cannot tell you everything that will happen out on the road through the Gospels, but I can promise that it is rarely boring, and it might just cause your heart and mind and soul to expand toward the Eternal. 

Four Questions in Gospeling Your Life

 

Another resource in our toybox as we play with the Gospels comes from Alexander John Shaia, who sees the four Gospels as a journey.  Shaia describes Matthew’s Gospel by writing, “In Matthew’s gospel, the central landscape is that of an inner mountain. Much like the people of the first century who climbed up a mountain to hear Jesus teach, the first path invites us to climb toward a larger understanding of God and ourselves. Yet, this journey begins in grief, as we must first let go of yesterday’s truths.  Matthew’s Gospel —like the season of autumn—is bittersweet with gratitude for this year’s harvest and a recognition of our need to make room for what comes next.  Like climbing a mountain trail on which you cannot see what lies ahead, letting go and moving onward can take all the courage we have. In this moment, as those earliest Christians did, we may also turn to The Gospel of Matthew as a wise guide, answering the question, “How do we face change?”

 

Shaia says as we climb the mountains in Matthew we face storms, just as Jesus’ disciples faced a storm in the boat on the Sea of Galilee.  Mark seeks to help people amid the chaos that comes with the challenge of the climb and the changes we sense stirring within us.  One of Mark’s central questions is “How do we move through suffering?”

 

As the suffering subsides, as we gather a few deep breaths finding equilibrium, as ache and hope sit awkwardly side-by-side, we start to wonder, how can we also live joy?  In these moments, Shaia says, there is an opening like an everlasting embrace of an eternal guardian and intimate lover.  There is a union.  The Gospel of John calls this “abiding”.  We abide in the eternal and within a wide diversity of people.  John’s question is seeking to tell us about how we live in joy alongside the truth of change and suffering.

 

Finally, Luke turns to the question of how do we mature/live/practice service amid our humanness?  How do we reach out when we are suffering, changing, mixing heartbreak and hope, joy and moments of pain?  Luke lives into this question for us today.

 

How do we face change?  How do we dance amid suffering?  How do we abide in joy?  How do we reach out in service to others and with all creation?  These four questions are like an undercurrent in the gospels seeking to meet you where you are.  Which question is your question today?  Or maybe all of them are.  I encourage you to keep these questions close by (I will remind you when we are reading each Gospel too).  As you read the gospels in 50ish days, you join with our ancestors who have asked these questions and met God’s love in the flesh who still meets us right where we are in the messy middle of our lives.  Amen.

Why Gospel Our Lives??

 

Next week, we will dive into and dwell with the four gospels for 50-ish days.  We will let the stories of Jesus roam and rummage around our life.  We will sit prayerfully with Mark, Matthew, Luke, and John, who will each sing to our hearts, souls, and life.  Just like when you prepare for a trip, you pack a bag with necessities that help you navigate your exploration, there are resources that can help us as we journey through each Gospel, chapter, and verse.  First, remember that each Gospel was written to a particular community to share the good news of God’s unconditional love incarnate in Jesus Christ.  The Gospels are not just trying to cram some cognition into people’s brains.  These stories were meant as more than information, but for transformation to change lives today.  Second, all four writers are using a very politically charged word, “Gospel”.  This means good news.  Gospel was also Caesar language.  When Caesar invaded your village, defeated your defenses, tramped and took over, a herald/messenger would arrive (insert trumpet blast here) with a scroll.  “Good news!  You have now been conquered by Rome!  Cheer or else!”  The messenger continues, “On the positive, Rome will protect you from other invaders.  On the negative, that is going to cost you through increased taxation.  And don’t even think about a revolution, because we defeated you once and we will do it again.  Have a nice day.”  Insert confetti thrown here.  Gulp.  Zoinks!    Hold that tension that the Gospel writers are saying there is a different good news that comes not with treats or violence or fear, but with God’s love that never lets us go.  Moreover when the Gospel writers call Jesus, “Lord”…that is overt political language of who has the power in our lives.  When the Gospel writers call Jesus, “The Son of God,” that was the title for Ceasar and Ceasar alone.  From the very beginning, this description and definition lets us in on the truth that Rome isn’t just going to let this peasant, itinerant, healer, preacher, sharer of God’s unconditional love get away with this.  They will crucify him just like any other “would be” savior of the people.  When we say that church and politics should be kept separate, we are missing one of the central claims of Scripture.  Our Gospels confronted the powers that be with an unconditional love that can still change our lives, churches, and world.  The Gospels, good news, isn’t just a story we read, it is a life we are called to live every hour and every day.  Jesus didn’t come to establish buildings; he came to share a revolutionary love that reorders our whole lives.  Jesus still calls us as disciples or apprentices or practitioners or artists, to follow him.  Why do we read the Gospels?  Because I am always an amateur apprentice to Jesus.  I am still a student, a beginner, of this Jesus way.  I am still trying to get my muscle memory, heart in-sync, soul in-tune with the wisdom of Jesus.  Because while I can nod at the truth of God’s unconditional love and unceasing grace on Sundays, by Monday morning you’d think I hadn’t been to church.  By Wednesday I am grouchier than Oscar on Sesame Street.   By Thursday, I have prayed, “Jesus, I know you said, ‘Love your enemies,” but can I get a pass on that person?!  Pretty please??”  I am forever a beginner, but the beauty is that every time I open the Gospels, I have the invitation, opportunity, and grace to start afresh and anew, as if for the first time.  May the Gospels re-author our lives, re-energize our souls, and re-organize our whole lives toward the One we follow.  Amen.

Gospeling Our Life ~ Prayer

 

Story-telling, singing, shaping, sharing, Spirit of God, move in the narratives of our live today.  Like Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, each of us is a testimony and witness to You.  Each of us is being formed and fashioned by following the One who is Your love incarnate.  God, continue to prepare our hearts for what we will read.  Open our sacred imaginations, breathe within us through words that can be both familiar and some long-forgotten, because we don’t have all the gospels memorized.  We pray for the coming days and weeks that we might find You, Your wisdom, Your promise and possibility, Your grace and love, and ways we can be Your people through reading the Gospels together.  Guide us, ground us, bless us, and hold us as we dust off our Bibles, as we turn to an app on our phone, as we prepare to leap and land in the narratives of Your work then and now.  All this we pray in the name who knits us together as Your people, Jesus the Christ.  Amen. 

Gospeling Our Life ~ Beyond a Few Neat and Tidy Verses

 

Author Margaret Atwood writes, “When you are in the middle of a story, it isn’t a story at all, but only a confusion; a dark roaring, a blindness, and wreckage of shattered glass and splintered wood; like a house in a whirlwind, or a boat crushed by icebergs or swept away by rapids.  All on board are powerless to steer or stop the boat.  Only afterwards that it becomes anything like a story at all.  When you are telling it, to yourself or to someone else.”

 

Too often we compartmentalize Scripture.  (Like the rock split above) We read a few verses on Sunday, watch as the preacher dissects and inspects the words and phrases.  Too often, as you listen, the pastor hands the words back to us wrapped with a neat and tidy bow we can put in our pocket as we head off for coffee and cookies and the rest of our week.

 

But the Gospels are stories.  Most of us would not open to page 65 of your favorite fiction author, read a paragraph, then proceed to make meaning of that.  Okay, you may be the kind of person who reads the last chapter first, but we read a book from beginning to end.  That is what I am proposing to do with the Gospels.  Each is a testimony, a witness, a way a community of faith made sense of Jesus birth, life, death, and resurrection.  We are a storytelling, meaning making people.  Chances are your conversations with your friends are not just facts about your life.  I don’t sit down with my friends and recount only details about what I ate or what I did.  Rather, we swap stories with each other, where one story feeds off another.

 

That is what happens in Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.  Where each story begins matters.  What parts of Jesus’ life are told matters.  What is repeated in each and what is unique to each matter.  There is a world we are entering in each Gospel.  This reminds me of Willie Wonka and the Chocolate factory, where the kids go in and discover a world at work in turning out delicious chocolate.  Where each child finds him or herself in new ways, where each child’s shadow side is explored.  The same can be true in the gospels.  This is a holy journey that can shape our life, each time we open the book.  And, as Atwood says, it is only after going through the wilderness of words and worlds created by each Gospel verse by verse that by the end, we might see the whole journey/pathway/twists and turns with new appreciation.  This is both the promise and possibility of what you might find in each Gospel.  I pray after the last few weeks you are more than ready to being.  With anticipation and God’s love to you this day.  Amen.

Gospeling Our Life ~ what is familiar

 

As we continue to think about how we will approach Scripture, notice that what I suggested on Monday and Tuesday, had more to do with holding Scripture a bit at a distance.  That is intentional.  Not every verse is going to warm the cockles of your heart.  Not every story will stir your soul.  There may be days you feel like an eagle soaring and days when the stories leave you feeling, “Meh”.  No matter what, I do believe God moves through Scripture.  Timothy says that all Scripture is God-breathed.  That means I am invited to inhale scripture, to let it rummage and roam around my life.  As I do, I need to honor that I am welcoming a guest, this story, into my heart.  Even if it is a story I’ve studied and heard hundreds of times, like the Good Samaritan, I am amazed how what is familiar can be fresh when I open my sacred imagination to what I am encountering.  Breathing in Scripture, honoring that I will never fully understand, but I stand under, try to learn, from the words.  This is where Scripture moves from being an artifact to study at arms-length, to a holy moment of Emmanuel, God with you, in that moment.  Here are a few questions to ask as you are reading. What more do I need to learn and understand about myself?  What is underneath my response?  What and why am I feeling?  To be sure, Scripture doesn’t just have a single message and meaning, Scripture meets us in the messiness of our life each time we open the pages.  We breathe in God’s wisdom that people of faith have shared for centuries and in turn the words start to re-form us, if we are willing.  I encourage you to ponder today: what are some favorite Bible passages?  Maybe the 23^rd Psalm or John 3.  Go and re-read those words afresh and anew, breathe in what you love and be open to how God’s love might be working in those words in your life today.  I pray you might discover and uncover God’s presence in the tiny words on razor thin paper not just today but throughout September and October. 

Gospeling Our Life - Noticing our Assumptions

 

This week, we are preparing the soil of our souls, polishing our reading glasses, before we launch into reading the Gospels in fifty-ish days.  Yesterday, I touched briefly on the importance of questions in response to what we are reading Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.  Unfortunately, sermons too often leave us with neat and tidy “answers” that we can tuck into our pockets, and we assume that we understand.  But the best part of Scripture is that it is not a story to be solved but a mystery to be lived.  Yesterday, I invited you to read Luke 2.  Today, continuing our Christmas in the middle of summer, theme lets turn to Matthew 2 where we meet Joseph, Jesus’ adoptive father.

 

For example, who really is Joseph?  What do we know about him?

 

Actually, very little.  Matthew tells us he was a righteous man.  Wait, what pops into your mind with that word, “righteous”?  Often today, it carries baggage of negativity.  We think of self-righteous people who pound pulpits and are always the hero, who never admit a mistake, always blame others.  We think of people who look down their nose at us, make us feel small.  But “righteousness” here could be faithful.  In fact, it could be connected to the Hebrew word, “Hesed” which means, “Loving-kindness”.  Joseph embodied and embraced a way of being that sought not to blame or shame.  As a matter of fact, Joseph had every right to accuse Mary of adultery.  But he tried to dismiss her, that is, divorce her, in quiet.  He didn’t drag her into the public square or post on his social media accounts about how he is the victim.  He sought another way.  And note that most people would have assumed that the baby in Mary’s womb was Joseph’s offspring.  And that he was sidestepping his parental responsibility and accountability.  Joesph takes the societal shame and blame. 

 

Now, I don’t expect that you would know all of that or that you should go down a rabbit hole with every sentence in Scripture.  Otherwise, we won’t finish the gospel in about sixty days or sixty years!!  What I am encouraging is that each day, you find one story, verse, or word to dig a bit deeper for five minutes.  This is where technology is amazing!  I will share a few good resources with you to help you with overviews of each Gospel.  The church library has some amazing commentaries that I can share with you to assist you.  I have books that you could come and read a few paragraphs about the verse that are singing to your soul.  Again, this won’t be every day or even every week.  But I do pray a few times over the course of sixty days you might find God showing up as you read Scripture with me.  May God, who is authoring your story in these days, continue to write of God’s love in your life today. Amen.

Gospeling Your Life - how we read

 

Beginning in September, we will launch into reading the Gospels in fifty-ish days.  Maybe because it is the time of year when back-to-school supplies are on sale or because there is always a part of us that wants to get an “A” on any assignment in life, even after graduation.  It is important to name and notice our intention and pay attention to how we read scripture.  If reading the gospels feels like a burden, you don’t need to do this.  If life is too chaotic or the weather pattern of your soul is stormy with no end in sight, feel free to skip the next few weeks.  Sometimes for me, returning to stories of Jesus that have been shared for centuries can help find me amid the wilderness of my life.  Sometimes I read the old, old story, and one word suddenly leaps off the page, lands on my soul, stirring me in new ways.  Yet, how I open Scripture matters and makes a difference.  If I am speed reading through just to get done with the “assignment” to move on, I might miss that word or image or phrase that was hidden there in plain sight.  More than reading, the response and reaction to what you encounter is equally as important.  I want to invite you as you read to have paper or an app on your phone open to write down your questions and insights.  Please remember that questions set us on quests – or adventures. Some questions stir curiosity and some questions shut down conversation.  Some questions are rhetorical and some cause us to leap down a beautiful rabbit hole to a wonderland.  A couple of examples of open questions.  After you read you may ponder:

 

What do I need to understand about the story?

What do I know objectively from the story? 

What assumptions am I making?

What might be another way to look at this narrative.

 

For example, if you look at Luke 2.  We know objectively, Jesus is born in Bethlehem.  We assume through Christmas pageants of our youth it was in some inn ~ like a Motel 8.  But the word, “inn” can also mean, guest room.  Some scholars suggest Jesus might have been born a cave.  As you read pay attention and be aware what are you reading into the story, especially when the story is familiar.  In fact, the more you know a story, the more holding your assumptions and previous conclusions about the message and meaning is important.  Today, I invite you to practice this.  Go to Luke 2 and read Jesus’ birth narrative.  What questions and insights do the words provoke and evoke?  What emotions are stirred reading about God with us in the middle of August rather than the familiar setting of Christmas Eve candlelight?  What surprises you with the sacred?  As always, I would love to hear your insights and thoughts!  May God surprise you with the sacred in your life this day.  Amen.

Gospeling Your Life Prayer

 

Story-telling, Scripture-breathing, word-weaving, God, You are with us each time we open the Bible.  Thank you for narratives that continue to meet us where we are in our life each time we dive into the Gospels.  Thank you for helping us notice and name how we approach Scripture will impact and influence what we encounter there.  Thank you for permission slips that Scripture can have more than one way of impacting me because each person will create a different world when they step into the tiny print on the thin pages of the Bible.  God, help awaken us to Your love and light, presence and possibility.  Help us be open to how Your story colors our story each day.  God continue to guide us each time we enter the Bible with Your shalom (wholeness), grace and love.  In the name of the One whose life is a light to our daily living, Jesus the Christ.  Amen. 

Gospeling Your Life Part 4

 

 Yesterday, we shined a light on the fact that sometimes we think the point of Scripture is to identify or even become like the main character and this can leave us feeling like we have multiple personalities or are being pulled in too many directions.  One of the powers of Scripture is to return and re-read the Gospels time and time and time again.  Each time you re-visit a story, the prayer is to discover a new twist on what is as familiar as your well-worn slippers on your feet this morning.  For example, you can read the Parable of the Good Samaritan and want to be the Samaritan.  You rush out and volunteer and stop when someone is having trouble on the side of the road, because, you know, Jesus is watching!  But maybe next time, you feel depleted and deflated, more like the dude in the ditch.  Or maybe next time you realize that you can’t be the savior of everyone all the time or maybe recall that time you didn’t round up your total for charity or decided to skip your volunteer shift to go on vacation.  At some point you might wonder why are so many in the ditch - suffering and struggling, how can I help change the system?  This is one story that can provoke so many responses and reactions, all of which can be true simultaneously.  Secondly, it is good to remember that while you are contemplating the moment you passed by - someone else might feel like the one being passed by.  There are underlying, often unnamed, emotions driving our thoughts and what we say in response to Scripture.  Stories don’t try to convince you of truth by blasting and blaring statistics, they come through the backdoor of our soul.  Which means, our emotions might be the first to greet the story, before the words reach our brain.  But by the time the words do reach our mind, we want to reconcile our thoughts and feelings before we speak.  So, we use our words to say why this story, staying with the Good Samaritan, is clearly an example of do-gooder-ism run amuck in our world.  Or why this story should challenge those people (usually leaders) who aren’t doing their part.  We point out others who are passing by so maybe people don’t see where we didn’t do our part.  Or because we love to be the hero and not the dude in the ditch ever, we tend to treat him as a prop rather than a beloved child of God.  The more you turn Scripture in the palm of your hand, the more God’s light reflects and radiates through each syllable to shine/show something new and fresh.  I pray that you will go slowly through Gospels, reading not in a monotone – just get through it – way but with a curiosity of how our Creator is writing your story in your soul through these words each day.  Amen.

Gospeling Your Life Part 3

 

As we prepare the soil of our souls to engage the four gospels, it is good to shine a light on what could be called, “Main Character Kerfuffle”.  MCK for short.  I want to be clear that the church has contributed to this condition.  Basically, it means we always want to identify with the main character in the story.  This causes us to go off the edge because one week I am supposed to be like Abram gazing at the stars believing the promises of God, even when it takes 13 years.  Next week, I am supposed to be Moses standing before the burning bush listening for God’s call and being ready to go right now.  Wait, which is it?  Is God calling me to wait or to push forward?  Is God saying, “Patience, Young Jedi” or “Leap now!”?  Too often in church we boil the messy message of Scripture down to a bummer sticker phrase you can carry in your pocket.  MCK shines a light that sometimes I don’t feel like waiting and I leap regardless of what God is saying.  MCK says that sometimes I dismiss and discount a story because it contradicts the story I want to tell.  MCK tells me that not every passage of Scripture will strangely warm my heart all the time.  It is important to notice, as you read Scripture, where/with whom you identify and what words feel like sandpaper to your soul, but you don’t need to stop there.  As a practice read Jonah 2, the passage for this coming Sunday.  I personally have never been swallowed by a fish or covered in kelp and whale saliva.  In some ways I have tried to be the anti-Jonah, I want to earn the badge for my Christian sash to show off what a good boy I am and how bright my halo shines.  And there are times I can run and race with good intentions before listening fully to God.  Like a student so eager to take a test, he/she/they forget to put their name at the top of the page.  How am I like the main character?  How am I unlike the main character?  How does this story land in my head, heart, and life?  All great stories are a mirror, not only to our lives, but to all those who share the stage with us.  Remember, while I am the main character in my own story, I am but a bit player in your story.  My role in the drama/comedy of your life may only be these few moments we have each morning together or on Sundays.  I hope you will hear in this that as you encounter and engage Scripture it takes an openness, willingness, and curiosity to listen to how God is speaking to you.  Then, remember that it will be different at different times and places in your life and in the life of someone else.  I pray you will ponder this and that you are finding a spark that might be fanned to a flame for reading the Gospels with me.  Amen. 

Gospeling Your Life Part 2

 

David Lose talks about four approaches to Scripture that can be helpful to keep in mind before you open the thin pages of your Bible with its tiny print.  The first approach is the one we are taught and caught as kids, Scripture as the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.  Lose calls this, “chain link” approach to scripture.  We know that a chain is only as strong as its weakest link, so we tend to think that if we question Jesus’ healing story, then the whole structure will come crashing and crumbling down.  Or, if we yank the thread on virgin birth, the whole sweater will unravel.  First, that is putting a lot of pressure on ourselves.  It is like Smokey the Bear saying, “Only you can prevent fire forests” and thinking every night we need to go out to the woods with a bucket of water.  Second, I am not convinced the entire Christian faith rests on just one verse.  As faithful people, we have a patron saint Thomas who wanted to see for himself the resurrection of Jesus, which I think we all wear Thomas’ sandals on deeply desiring and encountering new life.  Further, Jesus didn’t seem too offended by Thomas asking and in fact showed him the scars ~ which would have many my stomach queasy!  A chain link approach to scripture is where every story must be equally and unequivocally true. 

 

Second, you can have the Thomas Jefferson approach to scripture.  Jefferson is famous for having cut out stories from scripture he didn’t like, particularly miracles.  While I have seen Jefferson’s Bible, and I am not sure that anyone anointed me to be the editor of the Gospels.  My concern with this approach is that it is an over-correction to the chain link approach.  It is almost as if we are saying, “If I don’t like it, I don’t have to deal with it.  I deserve to have it my way.  Thus sayth the Gospel of Burger King.”  To be sure, there is a lot in scripture I wrestle with, get frustrated by and flummoxed.  But sometimes rather than dismissing a passage or clinging to it so tightly I put fingernail marks in it, I want to hold it and be curious with it. 

 

Third is the concentric circle approach.  This says, “Okay, I really like what Jesus said about God’s love so I will put that at the center.  And any story that supports it goes close to the center, and any story that deviates from one message goes far out there.  In fact, I try to fling it as far away as Pluto!”  I think this is where most of us are at.  We listen to a story and then rate it on a scale of: “Agrees with my theology/understanding/makes me comfortable…. to…Nice try, God, but I am not buying it.”  The concern is that do we ever let a passage of scripture challenge us, stretch us, change us?  Or do we skim the surface, make a quick judgment call to either keep or toss.  It is the Marie Kondo approach to Scripture, does this passage bring me joy?  If not, then I can give this one away and can be a bit like the Jefferson approach above.   There are passages of Scripture that should be surrounded by yellow caution tape and danger signs.  There are texts of terror.  As C.S. Lewis said, the Bible is an adult book written for adults.  And there are themes and threads that are not always helpful or healthy, especially if we are not in a good place. 

 

Finally, Lose says, is to approach Scripture as a witness.  What we read in the Gospels are testimonies of faith.  In fact, there are four attempts to tell the biography and backstory of Jesus to people in ways that move us, shape us, and send us.  The four find places of harmony and moments of disagreement.  Just as if you have four UCC members in a room, you will have five opinions or ways of seeing the world (that was a joke).  Scripture allows for diversity and contradiction and has human fingerprints all over it.   

 

Look back at the word you wrote yesterday to describe and define Scripture.  Do any of your words fall into the four categories above?  Is there a fifth or sixth category you see leaping from your page of words?  I pray that the above has been helpful and you will hold onto this not only today, but especially when we dive into the Gospels starting in a few weeks.