...an epiphany of sorts

I’ve just had a revelation or an epiphany – everything about the Bible is now different for me. The Bible was never intended to be studied by individuals, but to be read and applied by the gathered community of God. The Bible is God’s revelation of Godself to the Church, the gathered community of believers! His word to us, not to me! It can only be properly understood, digested and applied in community. Looking back on the way the canon came into being and the way the early documents and letters that now make up the Bible were disseminated, it was mostly in communal settings, churches, families, folks getting together to read a fragment here and a letter there. It is only since the invention of the printing press and the resulting spread and availability of books that individuals own Bibles for personal (only) use. I think this is a mistake of modernity of the highest degree. We dissect God's word instead of letting it dissect us! We have become the ones who control the Bible (and thus God's work in our lives) instead of allowing God to control and change us from within the community.

I’m intrigued by the Quakers. I think they’ve got it right on many matters, especially on worship and the speaking of the Holy Spirit to the gathered community of believers. I think I’m going to adapt some of their methods in my Bible Studies for the rest of this year to see what happens.

Starting next week I’m not going to teach my Bible studies (one with a group of guys working through Mark and the other with our senior students in First John). We are going to try a new approach – read a section or chunk, mediate on it and see what God says in response to us as individuals and as a group to apply it to our lives, community, group, etc: No critiquing the work; No analysis; Just our response to God’s word in our lives and community. We’ll see how it works. It’s a very postmodern approach. We’ll teach each other. The focus is not to glean information, but to do spiritual formation – to become more like Christ in all aspects of our lives.