The Discipline of Reflecting on Scripture - By Rev. Charmaine Braatvedt

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The Spiritual Discipline of Reflecting on the Scriptures
by Rev. Charmaine Braatvedt
Sunday 18th March 2007
John 5: 36-44 2 Timothy 3: 10-17

If you were stuck on a dessert island, what one piece of music would you take ; what one book would you take and what one kind of food would you take?

How many people said that they would take the Bible?

That is probably along with Complete Works of Shakespeare the most common choice of book

However there was a famous writer and thinker called G.K. Chesterton and when he was asked what book he would take he replied “Thomas’ Guide to Practical Ship-building”!

From the large number of people who said that they would take the bible we can conclude that most people understand that the Bible is a very important book, especially to Christians. It is important to the development of our faith and forms the basis of our understanding of God. It offers us some answers to the big questions of life and offers valuable pointers as to how we must live our lives.

I wonder whether someone could tell me in one sentence what the Bible is?

The Anglican catechism at the back of the NZ prayer book tells us that the Bible is a library of books divided into the Old and New Testaments.

Why does the Church value the Holy Scriptures?

Because the Holy Spirit inspired their human authors and through the Scriptures God’s word continues to speak to the Church.

We the Church, believe that the Bible contains all that is essential for our salvation and that it reveals God’s living word in Jesus Christ.

What is the Old Testament?

The Old Testament consists of books written by the people of the Old Covenant before the birth of Christ to show how God was at work in nature and in the history of Israel.

What is the New Testament?

The New Testament consists of books written by the people of the New Covenant to set forth the life and teaching of Jesus and the Apostles, the growth of the early Church and the good news of the kingdom for all people.

How do we best understand the Bible?

The catechism tells us that we understand the meaning of the Bible, the Church’s book with the help of the Holy Spirit who guides the people of God in interpretation and understanding.

So we see that the Bible is integral to the Christian walk.

So does having great Biblical knowledge make us good Christians?

From my own experience great knowledge of the bible does not make us of its own more Christlike. I have known many people who have great knowledge of the Bible but who themselves are quite unloving and not very Christlike. I even know an atheist who I am sad to say has a better knowledge of the Bible than I have having done extensive academic study at university in religious studies.

Jesus makes reference to just this in the Gospel passage for today where he says to the Jews that they study the Scriptures diligently thinking that by them alone they will poses eternal life instead of looking to Jesus himself for eternal life. They have he says great knowledge of the Scriptures but do not have the love of God in their hearts.

It would seem that Jesus is making a very important point here. Not that we should disregard the Scriptures or not increase our knowledge and understanding of them for he himself was deeply steeped in knowledge of the Scriptures. Rather he seems to be saying that the Scriptures are the mechanism through which we are transformed and directed to Jesus himself and the love of God. It seems that we are to read and study the Scriptures in such a way that they can wash over us and revitalize us and transform us into more Christ-like creatures. We need to allow the word of God to live and breathe and work in and through our lives our heads, our hearts and our souls.

In 2 Timothy 3:16 we read: All Scripture is God breathed and useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

In Hebrews 4: 12 – 13 we read “For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.”

This it seems is a much more profound approach to the Scriptures than mere academic knowledge. It is reading for transformation not just for information. To do this, we need to develop the practice of reading the Bible reflectively. While studying the Scriptures is critically important we must do more than that, we must meditate on the Scriptures so that our minds may be washed by the word and our lives are transformed.

How do we do that?

Today I’d like to look at 5 suggestions to help us better meditate on the Scriptures so that we read for transformation not just information.

Before you even start reading your Bible, ask God to meet you in the Scriptures. Invite his Holy Spirit to speak to you through the words of Scripture. There are many precedents for this. Throughout the centuries Christians have told many stories of how they met God through the Bible. St Augustine for example tells us in his confessions that he was sitting under a fig tree when he heard a voice saying “Take my book and read it”. Ignatius Loyola who is the founder of the Jesuit or Ignatian spirituality similarly met God through the Scriptures. It is uniquely in the Scriptures that we encounter Jesus. All we know about him comes from Scripture. So before we begin to read acknowledge that Jesus is present and ask him to begin to wash your mind your thoughts with the words of Scripture. As you read certain ideas may strike you. You may be moved or feel convicted or prompted in certain ways. Be open to the possibility that God is communicating with you through his word. The Bible is a means to an end. We read it so that we can encounter the presence of God in its pages.

Read the Bible in a repentant and obedient spirit.

By this we mean be prepared to surrender everything be vulnerable and open to its message. So often we read the Bible to prove a theological point or to find ammunition to craft a clever argument, very much as the religious leaders were doing in the Gospel passage today. Jesus addresses them and disavows them of their belief that their great Scriptural knowledge was proof of spiritual greatness.. We must allow the Bible’s teachings on humility to cleanse our minds of pride and its teachings on love to purge our minds of judgmentalism. Our arrogance can easily blind us to the truth of Jesus and we miss the whole point. The Bible tells us that there is a danger in priding ourselves too much on our knowledge. “Knowledge puffs up while love builds up.”

Meditate on a fairly brief passage or narrative. Now it is very important that we are familiar with the whole Bible and in times of study we may read big sections to come to grips with context etc. However when we read reflectively for transformation, we need to go slowly, to taste and savor what God is saying to us. We need to be a bit like the honey bee that goes into the depths of the flower to remove the life-giving nectar that it needs. We need to read the Bible as we would a love letter, searching the words for meanings emotions and love. Always we should ask of God: “Lord what do you want to say to me in this moment”. Use your imagination to help you. Image how it would feel to have the prodigal son’s father’s arms wrapped around him. How would the wine taste at the feast of Canaan. What would the barbequed fish smell like on the beach when Jesus cooked for his disciples. The goal when we read reflectively is not to get through the Scriptures, rather it is to allow the Scriptures to get through to us!
Take one thought or verse with you through the day. The psalmist tells us the fruitful living happens when we meditate on God’s word “day and night”. Meditation is a slow process like that of a tree which draws up moisture from the ground through its trunk and out into the branches where good fruit is produced. Meditating on God’s word means to think about it, to say it out loud, to share it with others, to repeat it over time like a cow chewing the cud. So we take one small verse, one thought of God’s and live with it for a whole day. As we do this a wonderful thing starts to happen. We discover that this thought starts to infuse our lives and our very beings and in so doing begins to transform us.

Allow this thought to become part of your memory. The psalmist writes: “I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you”. As these and other phrases are buried in our hearts, they start to penetrate even to divide soul and spirit, joints and marrow; to judges our thoughts and the attitudes of our hearts and leads us to life in Jesus Christ and so to salvation.

So it was the when Chesterton asked what book he would take to his desert island he said a “book on how to build a boat.” That makes perfect sense of course. When we are trapped on an island we want a book that will help us save ourselves.

The truth is that we are trapped. We are trapped in patterns of thought and behaviour that make us feel lost and confused. We are trapped as Eugene Peterson put it on an Island, where very often we know neither ourselves nor God and are looking for a word that help is on the way.

The word that incarnates our every day lives.

The Bible offers us that word.

It also gives us the help we need to find salvation, provided we read it reflectively and meditate on it in such a way that its words lead us to Jesus, the word made flesh where there is life and freedom.

John Ortberg: The Life You have Always Wanted.

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