Sunday Worship 26 April | Thinking Scripture

Luke 2:41-52

Every year Jesus’ parents went to Jerusalem for the Festival of the Passover. When he was twelve years old, they went up to the festival, according to the custom. After the festival was over, while his parents were returning home, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem, but they were unaware of it. Thinking he was in their company, they traveled on for a day. Then they began looking for him among their relatives and friends. When they did not find him, they went back to Jerusalem to look for him.

After three days they found him in the temple courts, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. Everyone who heard him was amazed at his understanding and his answers. When his parents saw him, they were astonished. His mother said to him, “Son, why have you treated us like this? Your father and I have been anxiously searching for you.”

“Why were you searching for me?” he asked. “Didn’t you know I had to be in my Father’s house?” But they did not understand what he was saying to them. Then he went down to Nazareth with them and was obedient to them. But his mother treasured all these things in her heart. And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man.

Last week we started a new series looking at holy habits or spiritual practices. We began with ‘deepening prayer’, following the pattern of scripture by getting on and praying rather than just talking about it. The title for this morning was originally ‘reading scripture’, but as I thought more about it, I felt I needed to expand it.

In the first place, we do not just read scripture.  We can also listen to it and we can discuss it and we can engage with creative representations of it. For many people these will be additional ways of approaching scripture, but for some people they will be the primary or even only ways in which they approach it. The church has come to prioritise reading, but that wasn't always the case, and neither should it be. What about those who haven’t learnt to read yet, or those who for reasons of condition or circumstance will never be able read, or those who have lost the capacity to read? Their access to and engagement with scripture is no less important or valid.

And we do need to take these difference seriously. You may know that I recently became editor of a small journal, and this month I published an article in which a fellow minister reflected on her experience of learning British Sign Language and exploring its use in worship. She noted that the common refrain “lord hear our prayer” can be difficult for deaf people, because it privileges speech and hearing as elements of prayer, and suggested that “lord receive our prayer” is a less problematic and more inclusive phrase. It is not a big change but it is a meaningful one, rather like our decision to repaint ‘men’ to ‘all’ in the text on the wall at the front of church, and we need to be alert to other areas in which we can amend our language and practice.

So this is not just about reading, but it is not just about scripture either. I remember the minister at the church I belonged to before training for ministry telling the story of a colleague who only had a single Bible on the shelves in his office, because that was all he needed in order to understand and teach the word of God. The minister telling me this sounded impressed, but I was horrified. What arrogance to think that he would benefit nothing from thousands of years of interpretation and wisdom and continued revelation! There is huge value in simply reading scripture and letting the Spirit speak through the text, and we will give some space for that this morning, but so much of the Bible is impossible to understand without some knowledge of context. We need to go wider and deeper.

Of course not all theological contributions are equal, and we have to be discerning about what we consume, but we should absolutely be engaging more widely in order to get the most out of scripture. There is a wealth of books and magazines and podcasts and documentaries out there, and I will share some of my favourites later this week. There is also much we can learn from outside the world of theology which can deepen and enhance our engagement with scripture, and we should be drawing on history and science and philosophy and psychology and culture. Some of you may remember that the latter is a particular interest of mine, and I have drawn on everything from children’s books to Doctor Who to cast new light on familiar verses.

It was tricky to get all of that into a pithy title, so I landed on ‘thinking scripture’ because I hope that captures a sense that we are to actively engage with scripture not just passively receive it, and that means approaching it in a variety of different ways. (Perhaps 'thinking faith' would have been better, but I did want to keep a reference to scripture as part of the holy habits.)

We did a back-to-basics style series on the Bible last year, and I don’t want to repeat that now, although you can of course catch up or refresh your memory right here on the blog. Instead, much like last week, I want to try some practical exercises using our passage, which I chose because it shows us Jesus engaging with scripture.

I said that much of scripture cannot be understood without some wider knowledge, so let’s start with a little research. I didn’t have my commentaries on hand when I was writing this, so I turned to two sources online. One is a lectionary based podcast hosted by two ministers which I have found to be a great source of information and inspiration, and one was the website of a theologian who I disagree with on a number of issues but who is nonetheless a reputable academic.

Here are a couple of important things I took away. First, we are told that Jesus was “sitting among the teachers, listening to them and putting questions to them”. We might imagine that this puts him in the position of pupil, learning from the teachers by asking questions. However, in rabbinic tradition it was the teacher who sat, and in the Socratic method the one asking the questions is the teacher. So it would have been clear to both Jewish and Greek readers that Jesus was the one doing the teaching here, testing the understanding of the teachers by asking them questions. I think this is a really interesting insight into how Jesus engaged with scripture. And not just Jesus, but the culture around him. This was a curious and collaborative approach that thrived on questions and conversation, rather than individual study or public lecture. I think there is a place for those things too, but it’s really important that we keep that curiosity and collaboration.

And second, the modern Jewish practice of bar mitzvah, which recognises a boy coming of age at thirteen, was established by the second century. We don’t know if Jesus had a similar ceremony in the century before that, but it seems likely that the ritual developed from an existing idea that thirteen was the age of maturity. So here we see Jesus on the brink of adulthood, at twelve years old still a child, but already full of enough wisdom to debate with the religious leaders. It would be easy to say “that was Jesus, of course he was extraordinary”, but if Christ’s incarnation was meant to show us what humanity is capable of, then surely what we can take from this that children have the capacity for great wisdom, and there is much we can learn from them. I have certainly learnt much from the children I have been privileged to be mother and minister to. (And this isn't just about children. There is much wisdom to be gained from listening to other voices away from the traditional seats of power too.)

So that has been an introduction to the theme and to our passage, and now I want to offer a few tools that you can use to engage with the text this morning, but also take away and use with any other piece of scripture. Lectio Divina is ‘divine reading’, and is a way of allowing space for the Spirit to guide our attention. If you are practising this on your own, you may like to read the passage for yourself or use an audio Bible to listen to the passage. Vision Divina is ‘divine seeing’ and involves meditating on a piece of art. If you have a particular biblical scene in mind, an internet search will usually return a host of images. To get you started, I have included links to a recording of the text and the picture we used on Sunday. And I may be misremembering, but I believe the two questions come from Baptist minister John Colwell, who said they are always the two most important questions to ask of scripture. You might like to reflect on them on your own, or discuss them with others.

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Lection Divina

-          What word or phrase stands out to you as you listen?

-          First reading

-          What does that word or phrase mean for you this morning?

-          Second reading

-          What do you want to ask or tell God as you reflect on this passage?

-          Third reading

-          What is God saying to you through this text?

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Visio Divina

-          Allow yourself to simply look at this image

-          Notice if there is a particular detail you are drawn to

-          Pay attention to the thoughts and feelings this image invokes

-          Ask if you are being invited to respond in some way

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Two questions

-          What does this passage say about God?

-          What does this passage say about me?