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The metaphor is everything! We all know the Sword metaphor (Heb. 4:12; Eph. 6:17). I grew up on “sword” drills, those odd Biblical contest where speed and agility in finding a text was held with unquestioned importance. But I was also told that the Bible could defeat any argument, disarm any opponent, and destroy the many who sought to challenge God's rule and reign. And perhaps many of us learned this metaphor too well or failed to learn other metaphors. We’ve seen what happens when your only metaphor for Scripture is a sword – exhaustion occurs and violence ensues. We see this sword mentality in Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird: “Sometimes the Bible in the hand of one man is worse than a whisky bottle in the hand of (another)... There are just some kind of men who - who're so busy worrying about the next world they've never learned to live in this one, and you can look down the street and see the results.”
In the movie World War Z, Brad Pitt’s character, a U.N. operative helping a scientist find the cause for a viral outbreak which turns people into zombies, explains to the scientist that the Navy Seal team accompanying them will help keep them safe but are not be able to help them find solutions. “These guys are hammers, and to hammers everything looks like nails.” And friends, if your Bible is a sword only, everything looks like it needs to be slashed and cut. So take a breath. Rest your arm. Put down your sword.
Thankfully, there are other metaphors that are perfect for exhausted people. Other ways of imagining what Scripture is and does. The metaphor matters.
One of the metaphors is a command to eat this book, which God told Ezekiel (3:3), Jeremiah (15:16), and John (Rev. 10:9-10) to do.
Here’s something you know instinctively. You can memorize every bit of a cereal box – its ingredients, its nutritional value, but for that cereal to do you any good, you have to pour it out, top it with milk, and eat it, even hopefully enjoy it. And you don’t fight about it (or, at least acknowledge it's dumb to do so). You also don’t see it do its work, don’t have to concentrate to have it help build muscles, or hair, or provide needed vitamins or fuel.
It’s the same with the Bible. This is a book to be experienced, savored. If we’re only studying something, then we’re going to miss critical parts of it. We must also taste it, enjoy it, gaze upon it. You can describe chocolate but does that replace its taste? These are the ways to come to Scripture exhausted. That’s why perhaps our current moment would be better served by this metaphor of eating rather than fighting. And thankfully, there are other life-giving metaphors as well.
“God-breathed” is what Paul uses in our passage today. The Bible is a place where God’s Spirit continually blows, continually gives life. We’ve already learned that “breath” and “Spirit” in the both the Hebrew and Greek are the same word. And most of us remember that God breathed into human beings (Gen. 2:7), which means that God is the source of our very existence, the One who gives us life. In the same way, Scripture is a respirator for the Christian life, that tank in which God pours out God’s own self. This is also what is meant by Paul when he says in 2 Cor., “the letter kills but the Spirit gives life.” What’s fascinating here is the great sigh that we can encounter God in these words. That God is the life-giving source of this book. So we don’t have to perform mouth to mouth or start doing compressions. We don’t have to defend it or know every answer, we can trust that it is a Spirit filled place, and that God is enough. And God is the one who will use this tool well, and kindly, and effectively. And yet, Paul also gives a warning. There is a “letter” that kills. I think he speaking of an attitude seeks to wield this tool foolishly. It’s those who choose to ignore the warnings and danger of stoking flames of rage around tanks of pure oxygen. It’s those who use it badly, sadly, not to give life but choke people out and steal their breath. And that’s why Paul will offer a number of clarifications in 2 Tim. with regard to Scripture that are very important: he will speak of his own character and the character of those who teach it (if you don’t see the life of Jesus in them, he is saying, don’t listen), he will speak of devotion to Scripture as the habit of a lifetime (vs. 14-15), he will remind us of Scriptures purpose – “to make you wise for salvation through faith in Jesus Christ” and to live as God intended. Always remember, however, that the scalpel cuts but doesn’t do the surgery. The physician does that. The wrench turns bolt but the wrench won’t fix your pipes. The plumber does that.
That’s why I love our denomination. Not because we are always right but because in our Covenant Resource Paper on Scripture, rather than spend endless amounts of ink on how the Bible is inspired or what precise methods of reading or study one should employ we speak mostly about what attitudes one should bring to read it: faithfully, humbly, communally, rigorously, charitably, and holistically?
What will help us relate with the Bible in breath-giving and ingestible ways? What will help us have the proper character to read Scripture well – with all of those lovely adverbs I just mentioned?
The Sabbath practice: Lectio Divina
The ancient practice of Lectio Divina is a way of metabolizing Scripture, of breathing deeply, into acts of love and service in Jesus’ name, praising God, animated by God’s own Spirit.
“Lectio divina is not a methodical technique for reading the bible. It is a cultivated, developed habit of living the text in Jesus’ name.” (Eugene Peterson, Eat This Book, 116) This is the way that the Holy Scriptures become formative in the Christian church and become breath and food for the world.
Then, follow the steps outlined below (adapted from Charles Bello’s Prayer as a Place).
1. Ready (Silencio)
Get comfortable, steady your breathing, and begin to quiet your thoughts.
Ask the Lord to meet you in this time of prayer and sit in silence for a few minutes.
2. Read (Lectio)
Slowly read aloud the passage of scripture you’ve chosen (try to stick with only a handful of verses).
Listen for any word or phrase that catches your attention. I have a friend who collects sea glass at the beach. When I asked her how she does it, she said, “ I look for what shimmers.” That’s what you’re doing here.
3. Reflect (Meditatio)
Read the passage again.
This time, spend a few minutes reflecting upon that word or phrase. Let it sink into your heart and allow God to speak to you.
Be aware of any emotions or memories that are stirred up.
4. Respond (Oratio)
Read the passage a third time.
Respond in prayer to this word or phrase.
Dialogue with God. What feelings do you have? What struggle or longing in your life today is God speaking into? Let His grace meet you there.
What is God’s invitation to you through this passage?
5. Rest (Contemplatio)
Rest in God’s presence. No words are necessary. Just be.
Taste and see the Lord’s goodness to you.
One more metaphor. Always remember the metaphor matters. In our Covenant Statement on Scripture. We note that the words of Scripture must leap off the page. “If the text is not acted out in our lives,” the authors write early on in the 2008 paper, “even though it is the word of God, it is left as merely words on a page.” So it’s important that we not regard reading, discussing, studying, praying about, or meditating on the Bible as somehow disconnected from our overarching commitment to see our faith actively working in love. We are to be the “taste and see.”
We make the leap off the page in order to be changed and to live out the words we read so that the world is as God intended. We follow the example of Jesus himself, who began his own mission because of a encounter with the words of Scripture (Luke 4:16-21). And Jesus’ relationship with Scripture and mission is also ours. Scripture calls us to join him in his work: finding the lost and helping the hurting, restoring the wounded, working for the advance of the good news, and extending God’s kingdom in our world. This leap off the page is an interpretive rule for Covenanters: valid readings of Scripture must lead to greater love and service. Therefore, we read the Bible faithfully, humbly, communally, rigorously, charitably, and holistically in order to leap off the page and demonstrate God’s grace to our broken world.
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