1 February 2006

Again, Thomas Merton has a way of helping us pick up the Bible and begin to read it with new eyes.

In order read the Bible honestly, we have to avoid entrenching ourselves behind official positions, whether religious or cultural, whether for or against the Bible itself. The book is surrounded by every possible kind of myth and superstition, whether religious or anti-religious, theistic or atheistic, scientific or anti-scientific. The modern reader is plunged into a field of conscious and unconscious tensions even before (he) opens the book. (He) has to take this into account, too, and try to live with it. It is nothing new, and it is not even peculiar to modern (man). It was known even in the so-called ages of faith when the Bible was set up, not against Marx, Freud, and Nietzsche, but against Homer, Virgil and Sophocles.

Again within the past day I have been especially aware of the different eyes we bring to scripture. Those eyes are blinded by many things. Issues of the day that we use to define right and wrong throw a veil over the Word...political ambitions distort what the Word may be offering us...fears and anxieties within our cultural setting can send the Word into another world of thought and action, and the Word of God that is there...always there...to make for new life and to bring a vision of the Reign of God within our sight can be overshadowed. This does not mean that we should not study the Bible. It does not even mean that we should not take advantage of biblical scholarship that helps us to unpack what is presented to us. Rather, we may need to be more involved in the more difficult task - checking our cultural, religious, psychological, and political baggage at the doorway of the Book so that we can hear its prophetic and life changing message that is not controlled or motivated by the gods that we usually let have a bit of influence on us. Lately, I have enjoyed playing with a text in the Bible. By that I try to imagine what is not there in the text...what might be the next part of the story...what took place prior to the story at hand...and then...what in the world is this story going to tell me about being a follower of Jesus - one who is transformed by God in the flesh for all people...and the whole creation. I'm not very good at this exercise.

Connection: Pray that the profound simplicity of the Good News of the Reign of God will bring light into our lives...not as we would direct it to shine...but as it shines in each and every generation. And then...we need to talk about that with one another.

Come, Lord, Jesus, be our guest...be our way...be our light...be our starting point...be our ending...be our renewal...be our transformation...be the Christ of God who brings peace to all by being the embodiment of Gracious Love. Amen.