Journeying with Scripture – Part One – From Information to Transformation

Posted on 17/04/2013 by admin

Why do/should we read the Bible? Does it matter how well we know the stories and history, or is that a secondary concern? This post is the first in a series about “Journeying with Scripture”. It is an opportunity to explore further how and why we read the Bible. It will also uncover some of the thinking behind the Bible study books “Journeying With Abraham” and “Journeying With Nehemiah” and how they might differ from other approaches.

For many generations, their first encounter with the Bible has been in the form of stories told to them at Sunday School. These are often the stories with the most action and appeal for children. Some will even remember having had tests or exams on these stories to make sure that they had absorbed all the details of who did what and when.

This approach largely reflects the common education/learning ethos that has prevailed (at least in the UK) for some time: imparting information. Whether it be lists of words in a new language, historical dates, the periodic table or mathematical formulae, education has tended to focus on the giving of and the ability to reproduce information. This has been true not only for children, but has persisted into realms of adult education, including sermons.

Now, clearly this has not been the sole purpose of learning, nor is it an aspect of education that will or needs to go away. However, might it be that the tide is changing and a slightly different focus is emerging, one that new generations may experience and that we may learn from? It seems, at least in some sectors, that information is dropping down the priority list slightly in favour of enabling skills that help people to handle information, think for themselves and grow into well-rounded human beings (in theory anyhow!).

Simply knowing things does not necessarily do the job of equipping us for life. It is an important part of growing up and continuing to learn, but facts and information can so easily slip into “mere theory” or something that can be compartmentalised away, ready for regurgitation at the appropriate time, but not doing anything in the meantime.

How might this apply to our Bible reading and studies? Many traditional approaches involve focussing on reading comprehension – learn who the characters are, what they did, maybe consider historical concerns – then at the end seek to draw out a moral principle, perhaps by posing a vague question as to how this story is relevant to us today. A “good” Christian may even be defined by how well they can regurgitate the information they have been fed – who are the twelve disciples, the twelve tribes of Israel, etc.

Yet, despite the good that learning this information may potentially do, there is a real danger that it is hived off from the rest of life. It may go into an information box that we can call on when quizzed, but doesn’t necessarily do anything the rest of the time. Is the Bible there so that we can learn a load of facts? Isn’t it perhaps more important that it functions as a means of grace through which God may transform us?

Information may of course lead to transformation – this cannot be denied. But, maybe we can work in such a way as to facilitate transformation more readily. Maybe if we engage more personally with the stories, rather than keeping them at arms’ length, and if we keep on asking what it means to us now rather than postponing that to one vague final application, we might help ourselves be more open to ongoing change at God’s hand.

All of us do in fact involve ourselves when we read. We bring our assumptions and theological frameworks and experiences to the text each time we look at it. We can’t help it. So, perhaps we should bring ourselves to the stories in a more conscious way and not pretend that we can look at things in a detached, objective way. Perhaps we should consider how our experiences and ideas are similar to or differ from the characters we meet. Perhaps we should admit that we are reading the Bible with an agenda – to grow into the people God wants us to be. Then, maybe we can and should go looking for how the stories help us to become those people by raising questions, setting examples and more.

Yes, it is easy to get blinded by our own involvement in the reading process and make mistakes in our interpretation and think God is saying something when actually it is only our minds looking for what they want to find. But, if we come with a humble attitude, ready to be challenged, to ask questions and have questions asked of us, then the Holy Spirit can use our muddled attempts to nevertheless mould us and shape us in Christ’s image.

So, if we come away from reading or studying Scripture unable to recount all the details of what we have read, does it matter? If we remained unchanged, unchallenged, not comforted or spoken to, then maybe it does. But, if we emerge as different people, if we have been drawn to see ourselves in a new light, if we have met God, then surely that is what matters and not how much information we have absorbed?

If we take a highly information focussed approach there is the danger that stories become too familiar and we think that we know what they are all about as we’ve read them or heard them many times before. Perhaps we have heard the same application before. Maybe we think we are mastering the text, becoming masters of theology and are all the better for it. But, are we?

Perhaps we are becoming more and more entrenched in one way of seeing the text and don’t realise that it is our way and that we are possibly becoming closed off to seeing it afresh or in new ways that God has for us. Maybe if we focus less on achieving a certain level of knowledge that will help us to keep humble. Maybe if we focus on discerning what God is saying to us at the moment through the text then we can be open to hearing something else at a different time.

The idea of “Journeying with Scripture” is that we remain travellers who are always open to discovering new things, to learning and growing. We may pass familiar landmarks, re-visit favourite spots, but there is always something new to see. Think of places you have been – you may get to know them well, but they are always slightly different each time you go there. Part of the reason is that you are not the same each time you go. Part of the reason is that there are things there you haven’t noticed before or a different part is being more clearly illuminated as the light that day is different to last week. Maybe this metaphor can extend to help us think about our relationship with Scripture.

Next time you read the Bible, why not try focussing less on information and do less of a reading-comprehension style approach. Instead, try to engage with the story, the characters, your life and God through a mixture of approaches. Use your imagination, empathy, experiences, prayer and critical thought as well as historical knowledge, other passages and more to help you to create an ongoing “dialogue” between the ancient text and the present day. If you haven’t already done so, start a journey with Scripture, seek to be transformed as well as informed.

You may find that the “Journeying With…” series of Bible studies are helpful for your own private study or for your group, especially if this method is unfamiliar to you. Each book focusses on trying to help you engage as fully as possible with the Scriptures, being concerned with a lived out faith with many opportunities for you to explore and apply what you read to your own situation(s). You won’t find many reading comprehension questions, but you will find a lot of questions!

There are free sample chapters of the “Journeying With…” books available from the Going Deeper With God homepage. Why not give them a go?

Image: “Ducks & Goose on the Broad at Sunset” used with permission – www.originalartphotography.co.uk

The Otherness of God

Posted on 13/03/2013 by admin

How knowable is God? How like God can we be? If we are in the image of God then why do we seem so unlike God much of the time?

As human beings, we are created in God’s image and designed to bear that image, somehow reflecting God to all around us. By our likeness to God we are to make God known to the world. In Christ we are to grow in likeness to the one who is the perfect image of God in man. But, is this a simple linear development? At what point do we stop taking on God’s qualities?

God is different from us. As well as being revealed to us in creation and most specifically in Jesus, God is at the same time also concealed from us. God is not a man, nor is God a physical entity like anything we know from our experience of the world. We can never fully understand or know God as our minds are just too small.

Theology is built on a great deal of analogy and expanded metaphor. God is said or shown to be like something we know, but then the boundaries of our previous knowledge are shown to be too small when we come to consider God. We can understand something of “love”, but when God is said to be “love”, this challenges our pictures of love. In what sense is the love of God like or unlike our experiences? There is both a sense that, yes God is like this, but God is also so much more.

Each metaphor, each analogy or image can help shed light on who God is. Yet, because they are limited not only by our humanity but by our cultures and even our personal thought processes they fall short. For example, God is like a loving father, but at the same time God isn’t a loving father in the sense that we have ever known. Likewise, God is like a king, but also unlike our ideas of what it means to be a king.

The potential danger behind the very useful side to Christian spirituality that speaks about us being like God and growing into God’s likeness further is that we think we’ve got God figured out too much. Little room may be left for mystery. It is problematic simply to take human concepts or attributes and assume that God is just a nice neat version of them. It is dangerous to assume that we can become so God-like that we no longer see the distinction between Creator and the created.

So, perhaps we might benefit from bringing a little doubt into our theology, allowing room to say “I don’t know” and space for God to move outside of the boxes we try to put everything in. Maybe we could say that as an image of God, we are a little like a reflection in a river. We will never be the real thing, but depending on how good the conditions are, we can bear a good resemblance.

Yes, the water will be disturbed sometimes and the reflection become less distinct. But, even when blurred, it is still a reflection of the reality that lies beyond. At the same time, the reflection may reveal much of the truth, but it will always be just a reflection. It is like but also unlike the original.

How happy are you with the idea of aspects of God being unknowable? Can you see how using metaphors and analogies brings clarity yet also leaves openness with unresolved tensions? Do you think that your ways of thinking about God are too limited, too human or do you perhaps worry that you stress the otherness of God so much that you feel you don’t know God at all?

(Image – “Reflected Tree” – used with permission – www.originalartphotography.co.uk)

Called to be you

Posted on 27/02/2013 by admin

Vocation/calling is a concept that often plagues us. Some might be tempted to dismiss the idea as relevant only to those who are to work in “full-time church ministry”. Others of us may spend anxious hours worrying over the possibility that we somehow missed our vocation, failing to hear God’s call at some point and so doomed to a second-rate life.

The Bible does indeed contain many stories of individuals who heard and responded to a “call” from God to go and do something specific. But, this doesn’t exhaust the idea of what we might understand as “calling/vocation”. It is something that seems to manifest itself on both broad, general levels as well as the more specific. We are “called” to be human beings in the image of God, followers of Christ and pointers to the new creation as well as to our own individual roles.

Once again, our individualistic culture tends to encourage us to think of vocation in individual terms – it is all about me. We also can get caught up in focussing too heavily on its possible relation to tasks – what we are to do. Whilst it is true that tasks and our personal roles matter and can be considered part of vocation, they do not tell the whole story.

The first notion of vocation in the Bible comes in the creation story in the opening chapters of Genesis. Human beings are made in God’s image and tasked with looking after the Earth. Now, we might easily recognise the instructions given by God as a kind of vocation, but what about being in the image of God? Is our nature our vocation?

In one sense, we already are in the image of God; it is part of who we are. Yet, in another sense, it is something we are to aspire to be; it is something we can fall short of. By our choices, we can either become more truly that which we were created to be, or allow that image, that vocation, to wither and become difficult to recognise.

Being in the image of God is a common human vocation, not just an individual one. It is something for all of us to learn about and seek to maintain and grow in to. There is a strange paradoxical sounding element to this, but it is one that re-emerges in the New Testament and is important to begin to grasp; we are to become what we already are.

Moving into Paul’s letters, we often find passages that base their reasons for doing or not doing certain things on this kind of argument. For example, in Colossians 3:1ff, Paul says that as believers have been raised with Christ they ought to think and behave in ways that reflect that. Similarly, in Romans 8, the readers are said to be in the realm of the Spirit, yet are still encouraged to live accordingly. There is a sense in which Paul is encouraging people to become more fully that which they already are.

Ethics and the idea of character formation are certainly not to be excluded from the concept of vocation. God is not interested in simply getting a bunch of tasks done and recruiting us to help. Our calling, first and foremost, is to be or to become more like our God as revealed in Christ by the Spirit’s power. This is a common calling that we learn about and live out together.

All of this comes before we even start considering the idea of individual calling to specific roles. We have a foundation of our calling to be in the image of God and to become what we already are in Christ that we need in place to give our own individuality, our own particular vocations a solid platform.

What if we feel that we haven’t ever had a “call” from God? Well, as we’ve seen, there are plenty of things to get on with being and doing which are all part of our common vocations. Nobody can say they are truly without vocation as that would say that God asks nothing whatsoever of them.

One possible reason that we might not sense God calling us to something is that we are doing ok and don’t need a drastic change. Another might be that the “call” is more subtle, perhaps, or coming in a way that we don’t recognise as a vocation. For example, perhaps you find certain tasks easy and can take it for granted that you can do them well. Maybe you have a real passion for something which has encouraged you to spend more time doing it. These could be ways in which God is revealing to you who you are.

Rather than being suspicious of our desires, maybe we need to reconnect with them to discover more about the people God has made us to be. Not all desires are sinful by any means. Many can reveal facets of our personalities, areas of concern where we may be more effective, or latent skills waiting to bubble up and be discovered.

It is important to remember too that vocation need not be tied up with earning money. In many cases this will be the case, but it is not always so. For a start, some of us may be called away from paid employment to do other things. Moreover, it is possible to have more than one “gift” or “vocation” and use them in different contexts, some of which may be employment related whilst others are not.

If we equate vocation with paid work or a lifelong career then we risk getting very frustrated at God. If we are waiting for a particular life-changing task that we have been made to do then we also risk missing the point. God is calling us first of all to be someone. Yes, that does involve doing, of course, but it prioritises character over tasks. It is also something we can and should be getting on with every day, not just waiting for a bolt from the blue to orientate our lives in a new direction.

Perhaps, as with our vocation to God’s image and Christ’s likeness, our own vocations can be discovered as we find out more about our nature. We are made to be human – we are called to be human. We are in Christ and part of the new creation – we are called to act like it! What has God made you to be? He is calling you to be you.

Pride & Prosperity

Posted on 11/02/2013 by admin

Isn’t it wonderful when life is going well? Prospering financially and in many other ways can be extremely enjoyable. It can even help to dull the pain and memories of the bad times. Yet, paradoxically, we can be highly vulnerable during the good times.

Things were going well for Nebuchadnezzar when the story starts in Daniel chapter 4. He was a highly successful leader. In fact, he was the most powerful man of his day. He could have anything he wanted, when he wanted.

Perhaps some of us are doing rather well at the moment. Maybe we’re healthy, enjoying life and feeling pleased with what we’ve achieved. Perhaps we are well-off and able to treat ourselves to all kinds of nice things. In comparison to many others in our world today, of course, most of us are very wealthy, whether we recognise it or not.

Such times are great and can rightly be enjoyed. God isn’t against pleasure or wealth. However, there is a real danger that we think these things are ours by right. We can drift into taking things for granted, or worse, we can think it is purely down to us.

We can all slip into thinking that it is simply by our power, by our abilities that we have gained prosperity and that it is for the sake of our social standing or reputation. We can forget that these things are gifts. Prosperity is a gift, not a “given”.

In Deuteronomy 8 we hear a warning given to Israel not to forget God when times are better, once they have settled in the promised land. We may wonder how on earth they possibly could. They have been through so much and had a massive turnaround in fortunes, going from slavery to prosperity all thanks to what God has done for them.

Yet, God knew and forewarned them that it is too easy to forget the Giver when there are so many gifts to enjoy. It is too easy to overplay our role in getting where we are today. It is too easy to leave God behind, like a pair of old crutches we only needed when our leg was broken.

We can all forget how we came to achieve success. We can forget the role God has played. We can forget that God gives things to bring glory to Himself and to enable us to advance His kingdom, thinking instead that we have earned these things purely for our own enjoyment and to make us look good.

So, God sends warnings. He warned Nebuchadnezzar in strong terms, firstly through a dream and then again through Daniel when the dream was interpreted. Nebuchadnezzar was terrified by the dream. He wanted to know what it was about. His fear suggests that at some level he already had a suspicion or instinct that it was a difficult message for him. When his religious entourage is unable to help he sends for Daniel to interpret the dream.

Daniel interprets the dream, not surprisingly with a little fear himself as this was not good news to deliver to the most powerful man in the world! But, there is a way out, this dream doesn’t have to come true. Daniel tells him that he could yet avoid this nasty chain of events. Nebuchadnezzar could turn to God, turn from doing wrong. He could stop oppressing the poor and weak, instead of being a proud, self-interested and ruthless man.

12 months later, Nebuchadnezzar looks on his prosperous life and turns not to praise God but himself. The warning has not been heeded, the grisly story predicted in the dream begins to unfold and Nebuchadnezzar goes mad and is made to look a fool.

Yet, even then there is a possibility for change, a way out. When Nebuchadnezzar finally turns his eyes to heaven, when he finally gets a heavenly perspective and praises God, he is restored to health and prosperity.

It wasn’t a certain thing that he would find himself back in power with abundant riches. God graciously chose to make that happen. His change of heart didn’t guarantee a good, easy life for him. But, it opened him up to receive the future God had in mind and it served as a vivid example for others.

It was predicted that Israel would face trouble, destruction of some kind, if the people forgot God. It was predicted that Nebuchadnezzar would suffer being humbled under God’s hand if he forgot God and made it all about himself. Sadly, both stories follow the same pattern. There is a warning, but it isn’t heeded and terrible things result.

These stories, amongst others, serve as warnings to us. If the times are good, that is great. But, don’t forget God. You aren’t the centre of the universe and you haven’t made all this happen all by yourself.

We need to be ready to heed the warnings. We need to look to heaven, to get the heavenly perspective before God chooses to humble us. Nobody is beyond being humbled. God can choose to bring any of us down to the ground with a bump, if need be. For some reason God sometimes chooses not to or at least to delay it. But that doesn’t mean we are immune. At some point, we will reap the consequences of our thoughts and actions if we don’t change and turn to God.

Besides the warnings, there is a positive example that has been set for us. Despite having unimaginable power and untold heavenly riches at his disposal, Jesus chose to remember where it all comes from. He chose to use it all for the sake of God’s kingdom and remain incredibly humble, giving thanks and praise to the Father. With his help, so can we.

Similarly to the story of Nebuchadnezzar, the warnings God gives us do not need to lead to something terrible, they do not mean we have to remain under judgement. No, these warnings are opportunities. We can choose to take the opportunities given to us, to grow and turn to God. Our Father is waiting to help us, waiting for us to turn back to Him.

Whatever good gifts we receive, let’s enjoy them and be thankful. Remember, good gifts come from a good Giver. They point us to Him – they are not ends in themselves.