The lead piece is from "Amazing Grace by Kathleen Norris. In this book she takes many of the words and images of the faith and attempts to put some reality and life to them.
BIBLE
Norris writes of a man her family knew while she was growing up back in western South Dakota.
Out of the blue, Arlo began talking about his grandfather, who had been a deeply religious man, or as Arlo put it, "a damn good Presbyterian." His wedding present to Arlo and his bride had been a Bible, which he admitted he had admired mostly because it was an expensive gift, bound in white leather with their names and the date of their wedding set in gold lettering on the cover. "I left it in its box and it ended up in our bedroom closet." Arlo told us. "But," he said, "for months afterward, every time we saw grandpa he would ask me how I liked that Bible. The wife had written a thank-you note, and we'd thanked him in person, but somehow he couldn't let it lie, he'd always ask about it." Finally, Arlo grew curious as to why the old man kept after him. "Well, he said, "the joke was on me. I finally took that Bible out of the closet and I found that granddad had placed a twenty-dollar bill at the beginning of the Book of Genesis, and at the beginning of every book of the damn thing, over thirteen hundred dollars in all. And he knew I'd never find it."
Norris notes that at the time that the money was put in the Bible, it was quite a sum. Why do you turn to the Bible? For answers...for encouragement...? The Bible is many things for many people. It can even become an idol. Rather than being the finger that points to our God and the Good News of the Reign of God, it becomes the Lord in itself. Odd. And yet, it is within the stories of the Bible that we hear of this God who promises to be our God - no matter what goes on in our lives...whether we want God to be our God or not! I'm not to thrilled with "Bible thumpers" who like to use scripture passages like bullets to shoot people down or win arguments. The Bible is so much more than a bag of ammunition. It is the attempt by many faithful people to record the acts of God among a people who were grasped by God's mighty Spirit and then asked to come and be God's beloved. In those stories we are engaged in the midst of our own stories and here within our communities of faith we wrestle with who we are because of the Good News of the Reign of God. The Bible is a part of our faithful dialogue with one another. If you are ever in a group in which the Bible seems to be used as a way to beat you up or demand complete control of how you are to live and with whom you are to associate and what questions, if any, you are allowed to ask, turn and run away...to the God of Grace who is really the foundation of the life within the scriptures.
Connection: Engage yourself in the reading of scripture. Honor the book as a trusted companion along life's pathway this day. I like to go into a passage with the challenge to find the word of Grace within the text. Sometimes that can take some faithful imagination. Contemplate why a story is being told and what it may be able to offer you today.
Lord of History, you bring to your faithful people the stories of your faithfulness among our ancestors. Encourage us to stay in touch with their journeys as we call on you to be with us on the journeys we will face today. Bless us Lord with vision. Amen!
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