Tuesday, May 18, 2021

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Katie Snipes Lancaster

Scripture: Psalm 119:105
Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path.

Spiritual Practice: Bible Study

Maybe it should be obvious that bible study is a spiritual practice, but it is one often overlooked in our rush to become people in tune with the presence of God. I think of the many times when I resolved to begin at the beginning of the bible and read all the way through, only to be confuddled by the long genealogies or seemingly out-of-date laws in those first books, not finding what I expected: spiritual uplift. Instead just confusion or frustration. Finding a place to start (like the Psalms or the gospels) is as hard when it comes to bible study as the very practice itself.

Studying the bible can be a point of personal devotion: I like the series “The Bible for Everyone” that N. T. Wright worked on, or this CEB Study Bible, which combines the best biblical scholars with a new (2012) translation of the bible. Studying the bible can also be a point of common, communal devotion: we gather for Mid-Day Prayer, which is doused in scripture, on Tuesdays at 12:15 p.m. in the sanctuary (or livestream), and for bible study on Wednesday mornings (email Christine Hides for information on what class is like).

Daily Prayer
God, may the words on the pages of your sacred text
Speak to us across the real, embodied worries and struggles of our own lives,
So that we might be uplifted, inspired, and drawn closer to you.
Amen.