On Tuesdays from 4:30-5:30 I meet with 8-12 people, and we read the bible for an hour. We talk and laugh and ask questions and ponder, but mostly we just read. We have been doing this for a year. We treat the bible like a library. We pull a book off the shelf and read it. So far, we have read Mark, Philippians, Ruth, and Genesis. Right now, we are reading Exodus. Last night we stopped at Exodus 12:14. Next Tuesday we will start there.
We sit at tables pulled together to form a circle. I lead this group, but I try not to lead too much. Each evening begins by checking in, gathering up joys and concerns and praying and then we read. We go around the room, each person reading a few verses out loud. People can pass if they would rather not read. We have different versions of the bible. Of course, we do. We read from our confirmation bibles or the bible from our men’s group or an old family bible or the bible we were required to use at seminary. Even this tells a story of where we’ve come from and who influenced us. We’ve gotten used to the variety. Sometimes we note the different words in our particular version. Last night one person read in Exodus 10 that God “made fools of the Egyptians.” Someone else said that their bible read God treated them “harshly” and in another bible God “made sport” of them. Each word or phrase carries a little different meaning. Hmmm, we think about that.
Mark 1: “As it is written in the prophet Isaiah, “See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you….” 2 The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ.
We begin and it takes weeks and weeks to read an entire book. We are patient, and we savor the words and eventually we arrive at Mark 16:20:
“And they went out and proclaimed the good news everywhere, while the Lord worked with them and confirmed the message by the signs that accompanied it.”
(Sigh.) There is a lot of satisfaction in reading an entire book together. When we finish a book, we talk about what we discovered that we didn’t know or think about before.
And then, with one book barely closed, we debate a bit about which book we should read next. It’s exciting to start anew again. What shall we read? Old Testament or New? One of the Gospels or a letter? We are reading Exodus now because we just finished Genesis and we wanted to know what happened next. Sometimes people lobby for a particular book. I’d like to read Ezra or Nehemiah next, but maybe someone else will make the case for Acts. We’ll see. Sometimes we just pick one.
Before next the Tuesday I will prepare a background sheet on the book. Who wrote it? When was it written? What were the circumstances? Just a half sheet with bullet points. I’ll hand it out at our next session and then we’ll read, word by word, verse by verse. Someone reads the first words aloud. Exodus 1:
“Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah,….”2 These are the names of the sons of Israel who came to Egypt with Jacob, each with his household:
Forty chapters to go. We take a gulp, settle back, and launch ourselves into a new story about people who share our questions about God and life.
In the United Methodist tradition, we believe God is revealed to us through scripture, the traditions of the church, our own experiences, and reason. (That’s called the “Wesleyan Quadrilateral,” but it doesn’t really need a name because it’s really just life.) Scripture, the church, experience, and reason all come to the table with us. We often stop and comment about what we learned in Sunday school or in sermons. We tell stories about our own experiences. Last week when we were reading about the plague of the frogs, we heard a great story about a one-year-old little boy and a frog. And we ask questions, scrunching up our foreheads when reason challenges what’s happening in the scripture. “Why all the plagues?” “Does God harden hearts?” “Did you notice the Passover meal can be prepared from sheep or goats?” We note that centuries later Jesus will talk about separating the sheep and goats. And weren’t goats used as “scapegoats” a means of atonement? And don’t we feel like stubborn goats sometimes? (Laughter.)
We’ve stopped trying to make the bible say what we think it should say or what someone told us it says. Word by word, we just read and let the words have their way with us. We trust the journey. We have more questions than answers. Lots. That’s ok. Our questions range from the deep theological “What does this tell us about the character of God?” to the uncomfortable “So God liked one son better than the other? Does God do that?” to the goofy “What did that ark look like filled with 40 days of manure?” Questions are welcomed, and there is no expectation of definitive answers. In fact, we’ve come to consider definitive answers as suspect. Who knows? Maybe our faith is more experience than logic. We have learned to value what we don’t know and to embrace the mystery of God that is beyond our comprehension.
We are in no hurry. There are 66 books in our bibles. At the rate we are going it will take us 16 years to complete the bible. Probably won’t happen. Early on we realized reading the entire bible was not the goal. When the class began a year ago someone asked how long it would last. How many weeks will we meet? We shrugged. Well, forever, or at least every Tuesday night until we don’t want to meet any more. There’s no homework. The class is a drop-in. When life gets busy, people miss class. Everyone knows what we are reading, and people catch up. Everyone is welcome if they come one time or every time or only once in a while. “Hello,” we say. “Good to see you.” That’s the way we greet one another. We greet the scripture the same way.
I found a quote that reads “We don’t just read the bible. The bible reads us.” We feel that happening. We started this as people just reading the bible. More and more we have become people reading the bible together. We are not trying to conquer the bible. We’ve surrendered. We let the bible and the community we have become conquer us.
This is Holy Communion, but not with bread or wine. Our communion is with the word.
John 1: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”
The Word is our bread.
At 5:25, we close our bibles. We pray ourselves back out into the world where we live the scripture of our lives. Next Tuesday at 4:30, we will open our bibles again, and we will listen to one another’s voices as we read, verse by verse, word by word.
I think God enjoys this.
(With special thanks to the people of, Faith Talk, #JustRead, and Booked who meet weekly to read the bible, ask questions, and immerse themselves in the Word. You’ve opened your bibles with me and your hearts too. I hear your voices as I read the scriptures. You are a blessing.)
Cindy Hickman
The Rev. Cindy Hickman
The Rev. Cindy Hickman is a retired elder having served three amazing churches. She is now "a free agent for grace." She spends her time reading and writing and is grateful for both. She resides with her husband and their hound dog Ike in West Des Moines. Subscribe to From Exile to Hope →