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“Most people are bothered by those passages of Scripture which they cannot understand. But as for me, I always notice that the passages of Scripture which trouble me most are those that I do understand.” Mark Twain
I love these words. I notice how easy I find it to spiritualise away challenging stories of Jesus, which have the potential to subvert my lifestyle choices. Look at Jesus’ challenge to the rich young ruler to sell all his possessions. He couldn’t have meant it literally in my present context! How would my family live? I need to be responsible. Listening to the preacher I momentarily resolve, with fervour to give up some of the addictions which are getting in the way of radically rooting my life in Christ. Uplifted by worship I drop off at the shops to get a few last minute finishing touches to the Sunday lunch, buy a few treats for the kids, notice that the new edition of SHE has some fabulous cruise offers (you can always dream!) and grab a few flowers on the way to the till to pretty up the front hall. Living life in abundance and it feels good. I have worked hard all week. I am worth it. I am not addicted, or am I? I don’t even ask the question; I don’t even notice the question.
Those words of Jesus were in a service of worship, giving worth to God, this is life. Is life worship? Immersed in a consumer society day by day, it is easy to be anaesthetised to the addictiveness. I subtly put pressure on others to keep up with me, and maybe both of us are living beyond our means. To really focus on the challenges of God’s Word, to notice and name how we want to grow in holiness, and encourage, affirm and hold each other accountable for working it out, and keeping going, John Wesley created the small group or class meeting. What about taking half an hour after your worship to meet in a class over coffee and share how God has touched you in worship, spoken through God’s Word?
Freshly engaging in Scripture in Biblefresh Festival workshops through the year, where I have listened to many people’s insights, I have noticed how much more sustained, challenged and excited by Scripture I have become as the year has progressed.
Nevertheless the Year of the Bible, 2011, with its invitation to read the Bible all the way through has provided a challenge for those with very little Christian background. The great saving act of the Old Testament is the miraculous escape of a small band of slaves, from slavery in Egypt, into the possibility of a journey to freedom.
But this is the same God that allows the Egyptian soldiers to drown in the course of doing their job and obeying orders. How can we make any sense of these texts? How can we find tools to wrestle together with difficult texts and find their illumination for, often, hard life situations? People need safe places to wrestle with meaning, ask questions, work out the implications of the parts they do understand, learn how to wait and grow into illumination for the parts they do not understand.
This poem was written by someone attending a one-day workshop on the Bible. At one point we had been wrestling with the story of Abraham’s sacrifice of Isaac, as well as meditating on images of the invitation to abundance of life at the beginning of Isaiah 55:
Layer upon layer
Your word unfolds
fresh pictures,
fresh insights,
older than time
yet fresh
as the dawn’s first light....
Here we find shadows
and illuminations,
questions
and answers,
and answers that lead
to more questions...
+
Layer upon layer,
word upon word,
we understand
and misunderstand
within the same phrases,
the same word
challenges,
inspires,
rebukes
and comforts,
we learn and we unlearn
and we learn again...
+
Layer upon layer
your word unfolds
within and without us,
for we cannot contain it
restrain it
or own it,
it is wild,
and free,
and we are freed by it
if we dare to let it loose
in our lives...
Rev Sally Coleman, York & Hull District
The poem witnesses to the fact that wrestling with Scripture, and hearing God’s word to us through the Word, transforms us. A village woman in Africa used to walk around carrying her Bible. “Why always the Bible?” her neighbours asked her. “There are so many other books you can read.” The woman knelt down, held the Bible high above her head and said: “Yes, of course there are many books which I could read. But there is only one book which reads me”. (Hans-Ruedi Weber The book that reads me.)
Scripture Union has provided the Essential 100 readings in the Bible, which, for those with very little Bible knowledge, offers some core texts to give an outline of the story of Creation to new Creation.
The Year of the Bible (2011) has provided Methodists with a challenge, freshly to engage with the living God in Scripture. John Wesley forged our identity as a people raised up by God to bring “Scriptural Holiness” to the land.
The Bible contains sacred stories, which lie at the heart of our Christian community. Words to be spoken and heard in creative and engaging ways, connecting with our daily struggles to live a good life. The Biblefresh movement has provoked us to reclaim this part of our identity. Research shows that our contemporary culture is losing its Biblical literacy, and many within the Church need to wake up to treasuring this precious means of experiencing the grace and undeserved kindness of God.
The Year of the Bible has been an opportunity to Deepen Discipleship, with Methodists committing together to:
• Celebrate Scripture as a gift from God
• Read the Bible so that it speaks into our lives
• Bear the Word into our communities
The Handwritten Bible project, whereby Methodists facilitated the hand-writing and illustration of the whole Bible has sparked a range of opportunities for community engagement. Many schools have been involved. It has been written in airports, prisons, libraries, on canals, in markets, health clubs and now it is being displayed at celebratory events round Great Britain, and also in Malta and the Caribbean.
The Year of the Bible has provided an opportunity for the Methodist people to re-engage with their heritage as a people raised up by God to spread Scriptural Holiness. “Come then, divine interpreter, the scriptures to our hearts apply.” (Charles Wesley H&P 480)
Jenny Ellis is Co-ordinator of Evangelism, Spirituality and Discipleship for the Connexional Team. Her small creative team work with others to encourage and resource deep, engaged, active, confident disciples of Jesus Christ in the world.