The Gift of Bible Study
December 2009
by Audrey West
A plain cardboard box lies deep within the linen closet in my parents' house. Every few years, somebody in the family rediscovers the box, and we haul it out to examine the treasures inside: a photo of my mother, at age 15, proudly holding the skin of a rattlesnake; a trumpet mouthpiece, dented and tarnished, that belonged to my grandmother; pictures of my great-grandparents, whom I never knew, but whose features I see in the faces of the nieces and nephews that clamor around as we sort through this cache of family treasures—letters, poems, and mementos from distant times and places.
As we pull each item from the box, somebody tells its story. How my mother and her friend, after a brief skirmish with a rattlesnake that involved several very large rocks, skinned the snake and produced a handsome belt; how my grandmother used to sneak into the barn to play her brother's trumpet because her parents thought trumpet-playing was unbecoming of a proper young lady; how my great-grandmother's parents challenged convention by sending their daughters to college in the 1890s. Sometimes we argue about the details. Occasionally we cannot recall the exact circumstances behind a particular memento, and so we imagine the story that would be told if it had belonged to one of us.
The box and its contents are a gift from our ancestors, reminding us who we are and to which family we belong. As we tell the stories and share a sense of kinship with one another, we remember that so much of who we are and how we engage the world is shaped by people who are other than us, and yet their hearts and minds have become integrated into our own. We learn what it means to be part of this particular family, and how we are gifted by the collective experience represented by the items in the box.
The gift of story
Each month, when women throughout the church gather to study the Bible, we open a gift from our spiritual ancestors, whose stories, poetry, laments, and other writings are contained within its covers. We follow the adventures of Sarah and Abraham, and the generations that followed them—Rebekah and Isaac, Rachel and Jacob (and Leah), and their children—and we note that our faithful forebears’ lives were sometimes exemplary and sometimes not. We experience with them betrayals and disappointment, anguish and fear, joy and celebration, and we learn how their stories shape the whole people of God.
We wander with Moses and the Israelites for 40 years before they reach God's promised land, or we journey with Jesus to Jerusalem, and we are reminded that following the way of the Lord requires trust and perseverance, and sometimes a lot of struggle. We imagine ourselves being forced from our homes during the Babylonian Exile, and we wonder where God might be in that devastating experience. We cry with the psalmist at the apparent absence of God, and then rejoice with hymns of praise that God is faithful even in the face of our doubts, uncertainties, tears, and anger.
As we study these writings, learning about their authors, the cultures they reflect, the messages they convey, and the theologies they embrace, we also learn about ourselves. The stories become our stories. Gathering to read and study these texts is a little like receiving a gift box from the family and being reintroduced to the long-lost cousins whose pictures we find within.
The gift of fellowship
The Apostle Paul writes to Philemon, "I have indeed received much joy and encouragement from your love" (Philemon 1:7). He tells the Philippians that he is praying for them constantly, "because of your sharing (koinonia) in the gospel from the first day until now" (Philippians 1:5). Paul did not have the benefit of meeting in a monthly Women of the ELCA group, but it sounds like he had similar experiences. And his letters may be the next best thing to being there. Through those writings he reaffirms the fellowship that he and his congregations have shared. Paul encourages them (Philippians 1:6), prays for them (1 Thessalonians 1:2), challenges them (Galatians 1:6), reveals emotions to them (2 Corinthians 2:4), eats with them (1 Corinthians 10:6), teaches them (1 Corinthians 4:17), shares his story with them (Galatians 1:13-24), disagrees with them (1 Corinthians 6:7-8), and interprets Scripture with them (Galatians 4:30). The connection between Paul and his fellow believers is forged in their shared experiences and common commitment to the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Paul's fellow Christians do not always agree with him, and sometimes their disagreements are quite heated. But if we learn anything from our careful study of the Bible—or from our experience of studying the Bible with other people—we learn that faithful people of God do not always see things the same way. We should not be surprised. After all, there are two Creation narratives in Genesis and two accounts of the Flood.
Luke acknowledges that others have already written about Jesus, but he is writing "an orderly account" (Luke 1:3), implying, perhaps, that he wants to say things differently. And anyone who reads the Gospel of Mark all the way through in one sitting will discern an image of the disciples unlike the images found in Matthew or John.
One of the exciting elements about studying the Bible in a group is the differing perspectives that frequently emerge. I learn something new every time I participate in a Bible study, whether I am a leader or a participant. What a gift it is to have a safe space in community to ask questions, share insights, or struggle together to comprehend a difficult point of view.
The gift of the "Other"
Included in my family's box is a small envelope of pictures of relatives standing at landmarks around the world: my father in front of the Great Wall of China, a cousin at the Taj Mahal, my grandmother beside an Alaskan glacier, my aunt at an Italian market. Their reasons for travel varied, from vacation to military service, but I suspect that my relatives shared a sense of adventure and wonder—and not a little culture shock—at experiencing places so very different from their own hometowns. Do you ever have those feelings when you study the Scriptures? I hope so!
One of the gifts of the women's Bible study is the opportunity to visit other lands and meet the people there, even while gathering in a neighbor's living room, or the church basement, or a local coffee shop. Guided by our study authors, we enter into a cross-cultural encounter with the languages, customs, and cultures of the ancient Near East, first-century Palestine, and Asia Minor. We learn about levirate marriage (Deuteronomy 25:5) and Jewish dietary laws (Leviticus 11); we study Hebrew poetry (as in the Psalms) and Greco-Roman hymns (Philippians 2).
As we get to know the biblical "others" who lived within these ancient cultures, our eyes are opened to the contemporary "others" who share our own time and place. We may not be able to capture the experience with a photograph, but it is an adventure worth remembering and sharing with the people we love.
The gift of wholeness
Speaking through the prophet Jeremiah, the Lord makes a promise: "I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God and they will be my people" (Jeremiah 31:33). The prophecy reminds us that God's word is not simply a thing to be studied at arm's length, but something to be integrated into the core of our being, as vital to life as a beating heart. Thus, when good scholarship meets the real lives of study participants, something wonderful happens. We are invited to bridge the gap between head and heart, to think critically and feel passionately, to seek understanding about our faith, to become ever more thoughtful believers, to live into the wholeness that God desires for us.
At times our close study of the Bible will affirm our beliefs, and at times it will challenge them. In either case, we trust that God is working within and among us to bring about God's good purpose. As we study the Bible together—sharing our viewpoints, discovering new insights, and challenging one another—we grow in our faith, that we might become "a letter of Christ . . . written not with ink but with the spirit of the living God, not in tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts" (2 Corinthians 3:2). This is not a letter to be stowed away in a box in the back of the linen closet, but one that is lived out in the everyday flesh and blood realities of our lives.
The gift of Jesus Christ
At Christmastime especially we are reminded of God's gift to us in the person of Jesus Christ: born in Bethlehem, the Light of the world. It is said that Martin Luther called the Old and New Testaments “the cradle of Christ,” an image that suggests, among other things, that even as the infant was laid in a manger, so the gospel is nurtured and protected within the pages of our Bibles—but it is not confined there.
Like the shepherds and Magi who gathered around the baby Jesus, we learn more about God's gift as we draw nearer to him. When our studies bring us closer to the Bible, we begin to hear and see details of the text that we might not have noticed before; for example, that the Old Testament sometimes portrays God in female images (Hosea 13:8; Isaiah 66:13); that women are among the first preachers (see, for example, John 4:25-29; Luke 24:22-24); that they supported Jesus' ministry (Luke 8:1-3) and held leadership roles in Paul's churches (Romans 16:3). We want to know more about the lives of women in biblical times and in the experience of the early church.
We ask questions that expand our understanding of God (for example, "What might we learn about God from the parable of the woman and the lost coin?”). We become more fluent in the language of faith, conversant with biblical words and images that help us express our deepest beliefs and guide our most important choices. Along the way, we become the yeast that leavens our churches, impacting councils and boards and helping to shape churchwide discussions about matters of life and faith.
As we gather, learn, explore, discuss, question, and share in our study of the Bible, we grow in our relationships with one another and in our relationship with Jesus. Not only are we the recipients of wonderful gifts left to us by our forebears, but we pass along to future generations the most precious gift of all: the life-saving love of God that comes to the world through God's only begotten Son, Jesus.
Perhaps, one day, our descendants in the faith might be able to say of us, as Paul said of the Thessalonians, "For the word of the Lord has sounded forth from you not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but in every place your faith in God has become known, so that we have no need to speak about it" (1 Thessalonians 1:8). That would be a legacy even greater than the most beautiful photos, the most touching letters, or the most interesting mementos found in any box in the back of someone’s linen closet.
Audrey West is adjunct associate professor of New Testament at the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago and author of the 2004 LWT Bible Study, “Everyday Surprises: The Parables of Jesus.”