Knowing the Bible

As a priest, I tend hear more confessions than I make; it goes with territory. But during our Outside Church Walls meeting last Friday, I started to get the sneaking suspicion that I had a confession to make, as well. We were talking about the practices of discipleship are, and how we nurture our lives of faith. And I realized something I'm a little embarrassed to admit: I'm terrible at bible study.* (I'll explain the asterisk in a minute)

Let's be honest: Episcopalians are known far more for our attention to liturgy than our knowledge of the Bible. I grew up in the Episcopal Church, and always knew about the rhythm of the liturgical seasons, and got an amazing theological education through the hymns we sing during worship (The Hymnal 1982 is one of the most important teaching tools we have in the church). I also came to know scripture in the way we tend to encounter it as Episcopalians: the snippets we hear in the Sunday lectionary, and the phrases that come to us through the Book of Common Prayer (which has a ton of scripture in it).

But until seminary, I'd not ever read the Bible systematically, digging deeply into the stories, and making sense of the whole scope of the book itself. It wasn't really done, at least not where I'm from. Once I got to seminary, I dove in head first and swam through my internal conflicts with Paul, and the Gospels, and how they relate to the Hebrew Bible, and what it all means for me, as a Christian today. And I spend lots of time with scripture each week now, especially since I preach pretty much every week, too. But I am not great at just sitting with Scripture as a good unto itself; I'm still working on making that a part of who I am (and that's the asterisk; I spend lots of time with the Bible now, but usually with the eye toward what I'm going to say on Sunday, and not usually as a devotion unto itself). I'm still horrible at pulling quotes and verses out of thin air, unless it's one of the verses that we use in liturgy. (Just today, I came up with a great example for a conversation I was having: "Come to me, all who labor and are heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me; for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light." But I had to turn to the Compline service in the BCP to place the chapter and verse in Matthew's Gospel (11:28-30, in case you're curious.).)

Having been an Episcopalian all my life, I know lots of Episcopalians who have the same sort of story. So often, the actual markers of a life of faith end up falling on the priority list because other things keep popping up, other things become our priority. But if we're going to be serious about our life of faith, as Christians and disciples, knowing the Bible is pretty important; how can we proclaim the Gospel if we don't really know it? And how can we invite others into that life, especially people who have never heard the Gospel before, if we aren't living the life of faith ourselves?

These were all questions we talked about on Friday, and questions that have hounded me through the weekend. I'm grateful to be challenged to engage the Bible more directly, even though it means moving admitting when I'm not as good at something as I think I should be, and things around in my day, and really examining my other priorities. But at its core, this challenge is to be closer to Jesus, to live a life of deeper discipleship, and to proclaim the Gospel by knowing it, and living it.

What is the next step in discipleship for you?

RC