letting it read you...

"We come to a biblical text, raising questions about its relevance to our present daily lives, only to find that the text questions us about our relevance to the way of Christ.

...The thick impenetrable nature of these texts may be by conscious design. A difficult to understand text catches our attention, begs for attention, and engages our natural inclination to figure things out. On the other hand, the texts may be difficult, obscure, and distant simply because they are talking about what is true, whereas most of what we live is false."

-Will Willimon, Pastor 

I have to be honest, there was a season early in my journey where I just read scripture...edited, cut and pasted. It led to a pretty comfortable faith. I did nothing more than download my edited version of the word onto the harddrive of my brain. Faith was not even faith, nothing more than building blocks of knowledge neatly packed in a box...the lid, tightly sealed shut. It really led no where...a dead end street. 

Then something weird happened, sort of like Psalmist talking about " deep calling to deep ". The biblical text started reading me, or should I say the inspiration, the wind that inspired it's writers started to read me. It's a little un-nerving to discover relevance is'nt about me...it is all about the way of Christ.

With the building blocks of knowledge scrambled around my feet like rubble...I discovered I was a lie. But, now, I could embrace every thing; the difficult, the obscure and the distant. The things I couldn't understand, the difficult passages that left fragments and holes, I embraced with faith, rather than belief, if that makes sense.

But having the text read me, to undo me, moved me beyond myself to Jesus. It became faith, it became a journey. Deep calls to deep; the breath of God, Holy Spirit; ... " Christ in me ", as Paul would say..." I will write my laws on their hearts." Having the text read you, is discovering the Living Word within, and being able to live and walk from that space.

Being read...have you?

"We come to a biblical text, raising questions about its relevance to our present daily lives, only to find that the text questions us about our relevance to the way of Christ.

...The thick impenetrable nature of these texts may be by conscious design. A difficult to understand text catches our attention, begs for attention, and engages our natural inclination to figure things out. On the other hand, the texts may be difficult, obscure, and distant simply because they are talking about what is true, whereas most of what we live is false."

-Will Willimon, Pastor 

Comments

[Hope]

I had several years where I stopped reading the bible altogether. Too many feelings of the bible being used to beat me down instead of lift me up. Nothing was ever good enough. A tough road when I only knew how to live it from my head as well.

Then, when I came into a liturgical tradition where the gospel is preached every Sunday. I started to be challenged in that deep way you write of here. I've had more unsettledness, more unsureness than I've ever had. Yet more sense of how loved I am simply because I exist instead of loved for having any answers.

[brad grinnen]

really resonates with me ron. thanks for sharing.