Bible Study

I had a revelation tonight, as I attended a meeting about the Anabaptist Bible that’s in the works. As part of the formation of this Bible, they are seeking 500 Bible study groups around the world to register. Each group will then be given passages to study, and a brief study guide to work through in the lead-up to publication.

I started to get excited about the project, but couldn’t shake the deflated feeling that was forming as I considered how I might get involved. 

That’s when it hit me. Call me a thoroughly Americanized individualist, but I’m just not that thrilled about studying the Bible with people who want to study the Bible. Yet I feel curiously drawn towards studying the Bible more, not less. Especially when presented with the prospect of an Anabaptist Bible. 

Let me try to explain, as much for myself as for anyone else. 

See, I’ve come to the conclusion over the past 10 or so years, that I’m at my best when I’m in a pastorate. That’s when I get to study the Bible…alone. Then that’s my entrance point into the life of the community that has called me to that particular position. I get to wrestle with scripture, incorporating the richness and the diversity and the vast and varied perspectives that make up that particular congregation (as well as authors, bloggers, and other friends who are not)…I get to cook it all into a sermon, and then inject the result into the life of that particular church, which leads to a back and forth, a dialogue that I always find refreshing, rejuvenating, challenging and enriching.

Conversely, Bible Studies…contrary to what we’d like them to be, tend to be the kind of thing where a bunch of like-minded people get together to toss around their own disjointed opinions on a passage of scripture with (very little preparation or intentional reflection) before deferring to some (typically evangelical) book or scholar (or TV/Radio personality) who seems to have it all figured out. 

They end with fairly predictable litany of prayer requests which are offered up with manufactured hope not unlike pulling a lever on a cosmic slot machine before adjourning for brownies or trail mix as people chat for a few minutes before leaving the host’s home almost completely unchanged, but feeling like their socially constructed ideas about the world and their role in it have been affirmed for another week. 

I assume most car rides home then consist almost always contain some reference about how Bob or Dan or Susan “always” has to bring up her famous uncle or “never” asks about your job or kids. 

Life is too short. 

The Bible (because of the God it reveals) is too explosive.

We’re playing with dynamite when we crack its spine, but I’ve never been to a Bible Study that really seems to do justice to that fact. It doesn’t help that I’m introverted…and while I might have some pretty good thoughts to share, rare it is to have a Bible Study where us introverts are truly valued for our opinions (am I right?). More often the extroverts fill all the pregnant pauses with some awkward gaff that derails the conversation right at a point where it might start getting good. Just when the group is collectively standing at the precipice ready to jump…someone always feels the need to walk us back to safety. 

I guess I’m at a point in my life where I want to jump and see where I land, with people I trust and who know me. I want to dwell in the godforsaken aspects of the cross as those earliest witnesses did, with no certainty…to know what true hope is, that is, hope without certainty; a fragile hope that John Caputo describes as “perhaps”, which is really the only kind of hope there is that’s worthy of naming as “Hope” (or “Hope, perhaps”). We can be sure of what we hope for…certainly. But we certainly can’t be certain, else it would’t be true ‘hope’, isn’t that right, perhaps? 

I want to dig into the Greek and the Hebrew. I want to geek out with the full gamut of the English language, including the theological, philosophical, epistemological terms we have to nuance our understandings to arrive at a deep level of understanding and inner change…and then I want to work with that same group to put those concepts into language that an 8th grader could understand. 

I don’t want your brownies (well…maybe).   

What I really want is for the Kingdom of God to burst upon us; for relationships to be restored, forgiveness extended, our mutuality to be acknowledged and respected. I want empathy demonstrated to homeless people and the mentally ill. I want healthy boundaries maintained for the same. I want healthy communities, which depend on access to quality food. I want more equitable distribution of wealth and justice to be served on behalf of the poor and downtrodden. I want my kids to know we tried something to curb carbon emissions before it’s too late (and I fear we’ve already missed that boat). 

I want to stop being so damn cynical. I want to be a better person; kinder, more compassionate, more humble, less selfish, more loving, more creative. 

I want to be (perhaps) like Jesus; fully human and fully divine. And I want just a few people who want those same things with me, for me, who will wish this upon me. 

So, you might (perhaps) see more activity on this blog in the coming weeks. It’s an aspiration I hold, to re-engage in this space as we continue to settle into our uneasy rhythm in this new place. You’re welcome to check in anytime. 

In the meantime, I wish the Anabaptist Bible and the good folks willing to host a Bible Study all the best in what I think can be a pretty cool thing.