Blessed Lord, who caused all holy Scriptures to be written for our learning: Grant us so to hear them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them, that we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life, which you have given us in our Savior Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
This is one of my favorite prayers. We heard it last Sunday in church, but I wanted to draw more attention to it. It comes up every year around this time and it talks about why we read the Bible, giving thanks for this resource for our own journey of faith. The collect says that scripture is there for our learning, which is really our calling as disciples. A synonym for disciple is student or learner.
So how does the learning take place. The collect lists a series of verbs which describe how we go deeper in the scripture. We hear. We read. That’s a good start. Then we mark, noticing what stands out for us, or perhaps where our questions lie. We then learn, and the best way I know to learn something is to try to apply it, to put it into action. Finally, we inwardly digest. In other words, we let it become part of us.
And as the collect tells us, we do it for a reason. We do it so that we can hold on to hope. Given the events in the news, it strikes me that now more than ever we need hope. We are about to enter the season of Advent, which has as its great theme, the hope of God coming into the world, coming into our world. We see that happening again and again throughout scripture.
In the work I do when I’m not at St. James, as I have conversations with congregations seeking a deeper life with God, one of the great themes that emerges is that engagement with scripture is a strong catalyst for growth in relationship with God. Regardless of whether it is read literally or figuratively, scripture has power to change us. But as one pastor told his congregation: I can’t read the Bible for you. So we each have the responsibility to interact with scripture. Take the upcoming season of Advent as a chance to engage more deeply in scripture. My suggestion: in the coming year, we’ll read the Gospel of Luke on Sundays. Get started by reading a chapter of Luke each day in December. Hear, read, mark, learn, inwardly digest the amazing story told by Luke. If you start on December 1, you’ll finish the book on Christmas Eve and you’ll be ready to celebrate Christmas with great hope.
The Rev. Jay Sidebotham is the executive director of RenewalWorks, a product of his time as rector at Church of the Holy Spirit, Lake Forest, IL. Jay and his wife have two children, both of whom graduated from Wake Forest University. In 2013, Jay and his wife re-located to Wilmington, NC where he also serves as an Associate Rector at St. James Parish. Jay is well known for his cartoons for the Church Pension Group and for his work as an animator for Schoolhouse Rock.
stjamesblog
Between Sundays 