Pages

Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Epic Average!

I had the Bible Content Ord exam this week. I passed. I did not get an A.
Taking it felt weird. Finishing it felt weird….
Part of this weirdness is how very different the Bible knowledge expectation is to what we are guided to believe the core of the Christian life and experience and Scriptural role in that to be is. If we are in a relationship with a relational God, a God who even by Godself is a community and thereby functions only in relative communion, then it would only make sense that the written word….the tangible word on the page….be experienced in some sort of relational way.
I admit I’m in a bad mood because the trivia questions that were new to this year’s exam were trivial enough that I didn’t know them. I’m self-absorbed, I know, but at least honest enough to confess I’d be elated if they were the type of trivia questions that I had picked up on! Many are asking my “score”, my “grade” and I’m finding everyone wants to rejoice in knowing an “awesome” me, and they really are not wanting to hear of a C*… It’s mediocre…It’s Disney Channel… It’s Menudo. Oh well.

This feeling is a shame because it doesn’t reflect the fabulous, un-mediocre learning curve I’ve experienced with Scripture in the last 18 months…..

The practice of the Daily Lectionary and the Sunday Lectionary has brought me to a new place with “The Good Book”, and that place is extremely relational. It’s relational between the page and me and the HG; the page, me, the congregation, and the HG, and also relational between texts given on the day. What speaks here though is not actually any of the literal word (although that’s part of it), but the image and the thought provoked by the connections my mind, or another listener’s mind makes when these are read aloud. Maybe the air and the light….at my house the dust….and the whole environment affect the meaning? Certainly the events of the week and the morning and the other relationships around us affect the meaning.
My understanding of Scripture now has become more like a swim, or a soar, or a free-fall….not so much a multiple-guess on which prophet said “Woe is me because nobody listens or cares much about God anymore” or “Who is Jepthah’s daughter’s veilmaker”…just kidding. It was not that obtuse. I’m trivializing it in an attempt to make myself feel better for not knowing the Bible really, really well.

At the end of the day, you can always do better….but at the end of the day, should you do better?
Peace.