We need to learn to play in the Bible’s text.
I’ve touched on this in an article about the way I read the Bible with others, but I’m convinced that what we need to learn if we want to revive our reading of the Bible is the freedom to try things out in discussion. The freedom, if you like, to speculate, or to play.
In most discussions of the Bible, whether a formal Bible study or the looser conversation about the text around the table that I prefer, people are only happy to say something if they are reasonably sure it isn’t wrong. There’s a fear that if we get it wrong we will at best look stupid, but at worst discover we’re a closet heretic and watch our friends turn into maniacal pyromaniacs as they tie us to a stake in the garden.
Overwrought? Perhaps, but I think a lot of people are that afraid of finding out they’re not right about something. If you are heretic, in the sense of actively teaching things that were declared heresies by the ecumenical councils, then you’re not a Christian. I’ve very rarely encountered someone like that in a church. We deal with them accordingly (not with stakes). Plenty of people are poorly taught and so believe things that aren’t true, but they need gently correcting in the context of community.
The sort of ‘wrong’—notice the deliberate scare quotes—that the average person at a Bible study manages is nothing of this sort, it’s an attempt to understand the text in front of them which doesn’t quite follow. It is vital to have this in discussions, someone else will always be thinking the same thing and typically this sort of ‘wrong’ allows the conversation to flow because it gives us something to talk about.
We need to create environments where its OK to have a go. People need to feel that they can make a connection to another part of scripture, or suggest an interpretation, in an environment where everyone is accepting that people are going to throw things out and we’ll see what sticks. This could turn into shared ignorance, the usual reason people who are generally anti-Bible study (very common in charismatic churches, oddly enough) give for their animosity, but doesn’t have to do so if its guided along by someone.
I’m an exegetical maximalist, which means I think every detail matters and that all of the Old Testament points to Jesus, not just the obvious bits. As a corollary, it also means I’m OK with speculation and don’t think each text has just one meaning that we have to find. There aren’t infinite meanings, and mathematically speaking most possibilities won’t be true, but we aren’t looking for just one needle in the haystack that gives us the gold star. The aim isn’t being ‘right’ but rather two things: meeting Jesus in the pages of the text and the inculcation of wisdom.
This could sound like I don’t think what the text means matters. By no means! I simply think it can (and does) have multiple layers for us to peel back, and that reading texts of the Bible alongside other texts of the Bible is instructive even if that isn’t an allusion that the original author meant. Theology is allowed as well as Biblical Studies.
One of my favourite things in a Bible study or reading group is when someone throws out a connection that I hadn’t thought of. The one between Lamentations and the parable of the Good Samaritan that I wrote on was one of these. The young woman who suggested it used to be timid and concerned about the fact she didn’t know much of the Bible, but is increasingly confident to have a go having learned that we are interested in what she has to say.
Is that a connection that Luke intended? Maybe, or maybe not, but as Christians we read the Bible as the text of the church. We are allowed to find new connections that illuminate the text as long as they don’t break the rule of faith. Which is to say if it doesn’t contradict the established teaching of the church and shed light on one or other of the texts, that’s great.
The problem is overcoming our fear of failure, our sense that reading the Bible together is a primarily intellectual activity (it’s not not intellectual, but it’s primarily spiritual), and our conviction that the Bible is a magic instruction manual. Which it isn’t.
Learning wisdom requires meditation on texts, usually with others, as we wrestle with what they mean and what they mean for our lives. Meeting Jesus in the pages requires a different kind of meditation and often learning to spot the shapes and patterns that the Bible speaks in. Both of these are made easier by an attitude of play: pressure off, freedom to have a go, not a big deal if it’s wrong but we get told it is, and a delight in discovering the rich wonders of God’s gift to us in the pages of his word.
We need to learn to play.
Photo by Myles Tan on Unsplash
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