Lent 3: On Reading the Bible Together

As we dive into our strong focus on the Bible, with Sunday morning and Wednesday evening education activities for adults, and our usual Sunday School and Children's Messages for children, I think this review of a book by Timothy Beal comparing Christian and Jewish reading of the Bible is quite helpful as an introduction to some of the ways people think about the Bible.

Compare these two statements on the Bible, quoted from Beal in the review:

"The Bible was 'God’s book of answers, which if opened and read rightly would speak directly to me with concrete, divinely authored advice about my life and how to live it.'"

"The Bible 'hosts the human quest for meaning without predestining a specific conclusion.'"

In the coming months at Lutheran Church of the Savior we will explore the Bible together, finding our shared perspectives on our Holy Scriptures, and likely finding where our individual perspectives deviate from those of our brothers and sisters in this community.

Compare the above statements to one of Martin Luther's most famous descriptions of the Bible from his Preface to the Old Testament.  

"[In the Bible] you will find the swaddling cloths and the manger in which Christ lies, and to which the angel points the shepherds [Luke 2:12]. Simple and lowly are these swaddling cloths, but dear is the treasure, Christ, who lies in them." 

(quoted from p. 1524-1525 of Lutheran Study Bible, which a number of LCS members have purchased recently)

How does Luther's view of the Bible compare with the two Beal posits above?

One more view of the Bible, this time from Lutheran Study Bible's article "Lutheran Insights that Open the Bible:"

"So, the Bible is actually more than a book that says what God wants to say; it is also a book that does what God wants to do: a book that affects us, that transforms us.

Best of all, the Bible reveals Christ to us. It draw us into a living relationship with Jesus Christ, who is risen from the dead. Through the Bible, we come to know Jesus and love Jesus and to experience his love for us.

The Bible opens the very heart of God to us. It shows us what God has done for us - what God still does for us - what God always will do for us. 

That's the first and the last thing we Lutherans want to say about the Bible: the Bible is the Word of God."

These views, from Beal to Luther and beyond, are not mutually exclusive, and we will need to think and pray deeply to find how we relate to each. I am excited to explore the Bible together in the coming months, to see what it means for us that this is our Book of Faith, and to find together God's love for us in these sacred pages.