The Thursday Thurible Vol. 1 No.4



GOD'S NEWSPAPER

How is it that we read Holy Scripture? Too many times, well, almost always, I pour myself a cup of steaming hot coffee, snuggle under a warm Pendleton blanket, pray to hear the Word of God and begin reading the text. The point of this paragraph is that I am sitting alone with the text. Wonderful! I bring to the text one point of view, one application of the text to one life at one point in time. How incomplete my perception and my application to my life—as if I live in a vacuum.

The reading of Holy Scripture is essential to us as people of God and as followers of Jesus the Christ. It is the newspaper of the People of the Way. It is complete with editorials and sidebars that is if we know where to look for them. It contains verbal images of the foolishness of human beings. It provides cartoon images for the mind. Above all, it is the story of God’s covenant with the rag tag groups of people called into community in response to God’s intrusion. It is not meant to be read in isolation. It is meant to be read in small communities or small groups of 2 or 3 or 5 or 7. It may be read to a larger number of people gathered but then it is for the larger number to divide into smaller numbers so that everyone’s voice may be heard. What fun! What a rich learning experience!

"Scripture is a community book," says Sister Teresa Okure, professor of New Testament at the Catholic Institute of West Africa. “Individuals may have written it, but it’s a community that accepted it." "…we really do need one another to be able to understand it."

No matter what book it is that we read, we understand its message in a contextual manner. We understand from a specific cultural worldview. We cannot help but do this. Walter Brueggemann, the dean of U.S. Bible scholars states, "And if I only read from my local context, it causes me to dismiss many of those other readings that faithful people are doing elsewhere." By focusing too singularly on the correct meaning of the texts, we have lost the multiple dimensions of meaning. Brueggemann continues, "I think most often there are multiple right readings but there are clearly readings that are wrong. And I think the work of the Church now is not so much to find out where the wrong readings are; the work of the Church is to find out how can I tolerate other right readings that stand alongside my preferred reading. The Church has had a long practice of assuming that there’s only one right reading, and that seems to be manifestly not true." Trinity News

It is my joy to present the community of St. Barnabas with what may be alternative interpretations of Holy Scripture as I preach on Sunday. My contexts are different from yours. Other congregations know that Adult Forums that center on the lections of the day do provide the rich tapestry of contexts that bring the diverse applications of the meaning of texts into current life situations. Are you ready to cast aside the comfort of a blanket and move into a small group that needs to hear the diversity of meaning that God’s Holy Spirit has woven into the Holy Scriptures? If so, email me at eclectic9559@msn.com and we will see what we can do.

Meanwhile, perhaps this is a prayer that you may enjoy using before reading from Holy Scripture. It is written by Edward Hays, a monk who writes prayers prolifically and for every possible occasion. It is appropriate for the rainy season in Oregon.

A PRAYER BEFORE READING HOLY SCRIPTURE ON A RAINY DAY

Your wet words of life
in thousands of thin sentences
saturate my meditation
as I lift up my heart to you,
O God of rain-gifts.


The earth, like an ear,
soaks up your words.
Oh, that my heart
would do the same.
Soften my heart,
O God of living waters,
that the shower of Scripture
I am about to read
may enrich the soil of my soul.


Rain down your wisdom
in sacred streams
to carry me like an upturned leaf
through the currents of this gray day.

Amen+

Blessings,



Priest Kathleen Galvin+, D.Min.
Rector, St. Barnabas Episcopal Church





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