What's the point of reading the Bible?

READING THE BIBLE FOR ALL IT'S WORTH: PART III OF III

This series of articles has been exploring the question posed by Philip when he met the Ethiopian eunuch travelling home from Jerusalem: "Do you understand what you are reading?" (Acts 8:31) in the context of the Bible as a whole. In this final article, the author provides five good answers to his title question, "What's the point of reading the Bible?"

If someone asked you, "So, what's the point of reading the Bible?" how would you answer? I've come up with five, each one building on the one before, to make my case for "eating the book":

FIRST, I THINK we read the Bible in order to be "with it" in our culture.

Every once in a while there is a Bible category of items on the TV game show Jeopardy and its soon obvious which of the contestants has any knowledge about the Bible and its contents. English literature also assumes an acquaintance with the Bible, and there are numerous expressions embedded in our culture that assume awareness of biblical themes: "Doubting Thomas," "thorn in the flesh" "a burning bush," "the patience of Job" "raising Cain," "he saw the handwriting on the wall," and, "let your light shine." Familiarity with the roots of these sayings enables us to understand communication in our culture.

SECOND, I BELIEVE we need to read the Bible in order to become acquainted with a profound storyline - the many- voiced storyline that witnesses to God s involvement with one people, Israel, for the sake of the whole human race.

This revealing storyline begins with Abraham and Sarah, winds its way slowly through the lives of the other two patriarchs, Isaac and Jacob, devotes considerable space to the lives of judges and kings, prophets and priests, and reaches its peak in the coming of Jesus, the Christ, of whom the disciples said is the ftilfillment of all that has gone before and the image of the invisible God. After his ministry, death, resurrection and ascension, the Holy Spirit comes upon the gathered disciples and the church is born whose mission is to carry the message of Jesus to the ends of the earth. It is important to have a firm grasp of this storyline and find oneself in it.

THIRD, I BELIEVE we need to read the Bible in order to learn the language of our faith.

Every discipline, whether it be law, engineering, medicine or computers, has its own unique vocabulary, and every faith has a vocabulary of its own. The abstract terms that appear in confessions of faith - like creation, image of God, redemption, salvation, law and promise, holiness, hope, sin, grace, love, righteousness, justice, neighbour, eternal life - have their source and find their meaning in the biblical story. How can we begin to believe, think and imagine what this unique vocabulary means unless we read the Bible?

FOURTH, I BELIEVE we need to read the Bible in order to learn how to talk with God.

With this in mind, we come across a number of surprises, especially in the Psalms and in the Book of Job. These folks spoke with God in a most conversa- tional way, sometimes ranting and raving against God, declaring their doubts and confessing their failures, complaining about the unfairness of life and arguing against the call of God in their lives, but also praising the Lord for all the gifts of life, redemption, forgiveness, guidance and direction.

When we read the Bible with open eyes we learn that we can pray as our biblical forebears in faith were able to pray. When we have difliculty coming up with our own prayers, not knowing which way to turn, we may use the very words of the psalmists, Job and even Jesus, who used the words of those who prayed before him, even as he died on the cross.

We find in these passages that God is capable and willing to hear whatever we might think or say, and that the Lord will not turn away from us when we turn our attention to God. The Bible invites us into a lively conversation with God, "in whom we live and move and have our being' (Acts 17 :28).

FIFTH, WE READ the Bible as believers in order to get a script for living, now and eternally.

Paul challenged the Romans not to be conformed to the surrounding culture, but to be transformed by the renewal of their minds, so that they might discern what God s will is, his good, pleasing and perfect will. To live on this lifelong path of being transformed so that we may live out-of-step with our culture, it is necessary to read the Bible, for, in the words of theologian Walter Brueggemann, it "redescribes the world," and offers us an alternative script by which to live.

As Christian disciples, our necessary bias is rooted in this set of revealing stories we read in the Bible. There are countless narratives available to us, narratives that shape attitudes and behaviour, but for Christians the storyline peaking in Jesus is to be the dominant one. If we want to be in touch with the biblical way of "doing life," we will need to nurture the capacity to discern a reliable script from an unreliable one.

The prophets Amos and Micah challenged their contemporaries with alternative storylines. When Israel succumbed to a script of injustice and idolatry, Amos reminded them to let "justice run down like waters and righteousness like an ever flowing stream" (5:24). And Micah, writing to those who had sunk to pagan practices of endless sacrifice and defrauding their neighbours, put it this way, "What does the Lord require of you, but to do justice, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?" (6:8).

Jesus updated everyone's storyline when he said, "You have heard it said to those of ancient times, but I say unto you ..." offering fresh guidance on such matters as adultery, honesty, anger, retaliation, enemies, prayer and materialism in Matthew 5-7.

To those who were living by the Pharisees' guidance, Jesus gave an alternative way of imagining truth when he said, "Listen, you honour me with your lips, but your hearts are far from me; in vain do you worship me, teaching human precepts as doctrines, abandoning the commandment of God and holding to human tradition" He concluded by saying, "Nothing that comes into a person from the outside defiles a person, but that which comes from the heart that defiles a person" (Mark 7).

Jesus' message of salvation includes forgiveness of our sins, as well as guidance and insight about living according to his vision for humanity. This is the most important reason for reading the Bible throughout our lives.

'Eat the book'

If this is the point of reading the Bible, we must also pay attention to the ways in which we read. If the point of reading the Bible is that our lives be transformed, then reading the Bible through in a year is not necessarily the thing to aim for; nor is mastering its content; nor is speedreading. The Pharisees, with whom Jesus had repeated encounters, had read the law carefully and knew it forward and backward, but, according to Jesus, they had missed the point!

In Jesus' opinion, the lawyer who knew the law about loving God and neighbour ended up being a poor reader; his quibbling about a definition was dreadfully wrong since he wanted to evade responsibility.

Eugene Peterson has picked up on a biblical expression, "eat the book," and written a helpful book on the nature of spiritual reading. Taking and eating the Bible calls for slowing down, talcing as long as necessary to live with a passage, a story or a Psalm - not only until we think we've got the text "down pat," but until the text that we chew on, meditate on and ponder gets assimilated into our lives in such a way that "it is metabolized into acts of love, into cups of cold water, missions into the world, into healing and justice, and evangelism in Jesus' name, into hands raised in adoration, into feet washed in company with the Son."

Years ago, I heard Eric Booth, a Broadway actor, recite the gospel of Mark at the Playhouse Theater in Chicago, twice a day to packed houses for three weeks. After the performance a few of us students asked him, "What impact has this had on your life?" His reply: "It has changed my life. I find myself responding to others the way Jesus did. I find myself thinking and assessing situations with Jesus "

In other words, the script he had memorized was transforming his life. Now that's the point of reading the Bible, isn't it?

[Sidebar]

English literature also assumes an acquaintance with the Bible, and there are numerous expressions embedded in our culture that assume awareness of biblical themes ....

[Sidebar]

There are countless narratives available to us, narratives that shape attitudes and behaviour, but for Christians the storyline peaking in Jesus is to be the dominant one.

[Sidebar]

Jesus message of salvation includes forgiveness of our sins, as well as guidance and insight about living according to his vision for humanity. This is the most important reason for reading the Bible throughout our lives.

For discussion

1. According to John Neufeld, English literature has many biblical allusions. Can you think of some examples? Can you add to Neufeld's list of English expressions that refer to biblical stories? Can you identify the context of these expressions? Where did you learn the stories of the Bible?

2. Neufeld lists five reasons for reading the Bible. Which of these is most important? Do you have other reasons for reading the Bible? Is there such a thing as too much emphasis on reading the Bible? Under what conditions could our attitude be like the Pharisees and the law?

3. Do Bible stories shape our behaviour? How? Do Bible stories become less effective if they are too familiar? Are they more powerful if they are translated into a modern setting or made into plays or musicals?

4. How do you respond to Neufeld's comment that reading the Bible through in a year is "not necessarily something to aim for"? What are the benefits of Bible games or contests such as Bible quizzing? Are there also drawbacks? How do Bible stories help us to take the Bible seriously?

[Author Affiliation]

John H. Neufeld was president of Canadian Mennonite Bible College (now Canadian Mennonite University) from 1984-97 and before that was pastor for 15 years at First Mennonite Church, Winnipeg. He lives in Winnipeg and continues to preach and conduct seminars.