What does the word "bible" conjure up in your mind? Old time religion? Your grandfather's tattered King James Version? Something you've never read? Some people love the bible, obsess over it, give it power over their lives. Like an oracle or tarot deck, they might look for answers to life's questions in it. Some use it to condemn and to hate. Others use it to positively motivate or inspire. It is translated into many languages now, including common American English. If you can read, you can read the bible. But the bible is not to be trifled with. It is not like any other reading material, ancient or modern. One cannot read the bible the same way one reads Tolstoy or Hemingway or J.K. Rowling. It is not the world and work of J.R.R. Tolkien. It is neither fiction nor nonfiction. It cannot be categorized.It is song and love poetry and history and biography and handwritten letters and theology and cultural anthropology and law and ethics and allegory and motivational speech and political rhetoric. It is the past, the present, and the future. And it is a collection of ancient writings spanning thousands of years. BIBLE does not stand for Basic Information Before Leaving Earth.
There is a man in my congregation who spent 90 days reading the entire bible. I think he used an app that somehow broke the bible into daily readings for 90 days. This was a feat of endurance. I have read a lot of the bible, probably the whole thing. I've never read it from cover-to-cover. He has asked me some questions along the way. The last question he asked was a good one; "Pastor, is it wrong that I never had a moment of enlightenment?" He wanted to know why he wasn't moved, inspired, or enlightened by the reading of the bible. I asked him, "What were you expecting to happen?" I suggested that enlightenment or inspiration is the work of the Spirit and may not be attached to a certain feeling. He may not have had an epiphany, per se, but he did hear the Word of God. I asked him, was he reading it from the perspective of faith, meaning that the reason behind his nightly reading was to form and inform his relationship with God? Was he expecting the living God to talk through the words and pages? He said that he read it that way to become more familiar with the overall story, the big picture view. As a lifelong Lutheran he has heard significant parts of the bible in worship. We read a lot of scripture over the course of the three-year Sunday morning reading cycle we follow as a Lutheran congregation. Is it possible to read the bible and not be changed, moved, inspired by its message? I think so. I also think that we have a particular impression of what it means to be changed or inspired. And we expect immediate results. What if his reading of the bible is like the planting of a garden? What if he begins to notice the fruit of it in the days, weeks, months, years ahead? What if he hears the weekly reading of scripture differently now? What if he can see and hear the biblical story in other media? Maybe he unexpectedly hears it in a song or sees it in a film. What if he notices that the biblical story is not only found in between the covers of the book, but in the created world? He swallowed a watermelon whole. He's going to have to digest it for awhile. Some people are inspired by a single verse from the bible; John 3:16 or Psalm 23. But taking a verse out of context and applying it is also dangerous. You can justify all kinds of bad behaviors that way. Its not meant to be read with a microscope and a pair of scissors. But maybe the 90-day nighttime slog isn't ideal either. Its not a novel or a collection of quotable quotes. Americans like bumper sticker theology. But we misuse the bible when we reduce it too much.Somewhere between a tome and a bumper sticker is how I read it mostly. For the stories.
I know this. There is no magic in the bible. It is not enchanted. It will not kill you, blind you, turn you into a frog, or fix your love life. It is not a cure for whatever ails you. But it may open your eyes,bring you healing, expand the meaning of love for you. It may teach you something about life and living your life. It may challenge you, disquiet you, and comfort you at the same time.
My wife has strange and vivid dreams she likes to tell me about. She told me about a dream the other night in which she and I were at a monastery. There were monks praying. I can't remember the rest, except that one certain monk insisted that she read Psalm 127. It was such a palpable message that she woke up and immediately opened her bible. This has not happened before. She and I read the Psalm together. After reading it, we pondered its meaning and the meaning of the dream. I suggested that she continue reading the Psalm for several days, until she feels like it is done with her. There is a message in it for her to hear and share. It did not seem random to her or me when she read it, but seemed to carry a message to us. This is what Psalm 127 says:
"Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain.
Unless the Lord guards the city, the guard keeps watch in vain.
It is in vain that you rise up early and go late to rest,
eating the bread of anxious toil; for he gives sleep to his beloved.
Sons are indeed a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb a reward.
Like arrows in the hand of a warrior are the sons of one’s youth.
Happy is the man who has his quiver full of them.
He shall not be put to shame when he speaks with his enemies in the gate."
We have sons. We are the caretakers of a house. We get up early and go to bed late. What does this mean? I don't know. I suspect it means something. Does that say something about me or the bible? Maybe both.
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