For Further Reflection and Discussion
- The authors, Tony and Charmaine Chvala-Smith, quote theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who said, “…the explora-tion of Holy Scripture takes a lifetime… .” What does that mean for the person who comes to Christ later in life?
- Biblical quotes abound in many cultures. Why is it impor-tant to know the context in which the scripture originally appeared? How can you find out?
- Do you know what the term, exegesis, means? When doing an exegetical study of scripture, what needs to be considered besides the verse itself?
- The authors say that only turning to “scripture that opens us to life, healing, and hope can be called proper.” Why is that attitude so important?
- Do you know anybody who practices lectio continua, “continuous reading” that focuses deeply on scripture? How has it transformed them?
- The church’s mission statement is: “We proclaim Jesus Christ and promote communities of joy, hope, love, and peace.” How does acceptance of this statement affect your study of scripture?
- The authors talk about our fast-food world, in which many of us want answers, and we want them now—if not yesterday. But if finding answers takes a lifetime, what role must trust play in our studies?
- Tony and Charmaine write about searching for the scriptures in hope of encountering a “whom” rather than a “what.” What happens if you approach scripture without seeking to find divine guidance through meeting Christ?
- Sometimes people study scripture and receive what they perceive as a clear understanding. Yet time and further study sometimes alter that understanding. If you’ve experi-ence this, discuss how it changed you.
- What role does the Enduring Principle of continuing revela-tion play in scriptural study?
—Greg Clark
Integrated Communication
A Calling to the Soul-work of a Lifetime
by Tony and Charmaine Chvala-Smith
Disciple Formation Ministries
Herald, February 2011
Faced with difficult questions,
many properly turn to scripture to find insight and inspiration. Search the scriptures for the Living Word that brings life, healing, and hope to all. Embrace and proclaim these liberating truths.
—Doctrine and Covenants 164:6c
…the exploration of Holy Scripture takes a lifetime… —Dietrich Bonhoeffer
(Bonhoeffer’s Works, 16:494)
In a world awash in Bible quotes, Doctrine and Covenants 164:6c cuts through the hypocrisy. We’ve all seen the ubiquitous John 3:16 of stadium fame. Citations from holy writ adorn bumper stickers and billboards, t-shirts and political campaigns, book bags and websites. They appear in the windows of storefronts and cluster on church marquees.
“The Bible says…” is widely used to close down conversation, while others cite texts to underwrite ideologies of all kinds: from bombing clinics to subjugating women to justifying invasions. Our world seems scripture-sodden. What shall we make of all of this Bible-quoting?
Quoting scripture says little about the state of the quoter’s heart. In the temptation story, one of the devil’s chief weapons for testing Jesus is a pair of one-liners from the Psalms:
“If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down; for it is written, ‘He will command his angels concerning you,’ and ‘On their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.’”—Matthew 4:6 NRSV
Had billboards been invented, surely the devil would have rented one in the Judean wilderness. Frankly, it is sobering to see that quoting scripture can be a demonic, as well as a divine, art.
We often tell an old rabbinic story to seminary students who are learning to do biblical exegesis. A pupil came to a rabbi and exclaimed, “Rabbi, I have gone all through the Torah. What more should I do?” The rabbi gently replied, “My child, the question is not whether you have gone all through the Torah, but whether Torah has gone all through you.”
Anyone can quote scripture, and with effort, they also can learn about scripture’s origins, contexts, and meanings. But to be formed by the Word, to let the substance of scripture seep into icy hearts and unredeemed minds, is quite another matter.
Doctrine and Covenants 164:6c restates a two-fold truth. On one hand, it reaffirms that it is proper for us to turn to scripture. In every era the church has refreshed its theological imagination and moral vision by revisiting the sacred story. That is where we are re-rooted in the revelatory saga of God’s mission in the world. Honestly engaging with scripture is intrinsic to Christian identity and is neglected at great peril.
On the other hand, 164:6c warns us not to value the wrong things in scripture. The Bible is not a list of proof texts, and searching it for the biggest hammer to win arguments is to miss the point utterly. To say we love the scriptures, but hate our neighbor, is to reveal a contempt for what the books are about. Only that turning to scripture that opens us to life, healing, and hope can be called “proper.”
Disciples never have lacked difficult questions and puzzling dilemmas. Amid such struggles, turning to the scriptures has always been a productive discipline. Yet 164:6c invites us to a deeper way. It calls us to ponder two questions that should accompany any use of scripture: “How shall we come?” and “What are we seeking?”
How Shall We Come to Scripture?
A phrase from the 20th-century theologian and martyr, Dietrich Bon-hoeffer, began this article. As Bonhoeffer sought to bear witness to Jesus Christ by resisting Nazism, he discovered the Bible flooded totalitarian darkness with light. Regular reading of the Bible sustained his ministry from 1935, when he helped create an underground seminary, until the SS hanged him in 1945, within days of war’s end.
In some of his handwritten lecture notes we glimpse an answer to the question, “How shall we come to scripture?” In a fast-food world, we may not like his answer: “The exploration of Holy Scripture takes a lifetime.”
Bonhoeffer had little time before him. Yet he knew that when it comes to grappling with scripture, haste is a deadly spiritual disease. The canon presents the Living Word to its readers only in slow-motion. We must accommodate ourselves to its glacial speed.
To approach scripture as if it were a drive-up ATM is to demand it to bend to our dysfunction. We don’t like to hear that it takes time—even years—to deeply understand scripture. How will we shore up our political and religious agendas? How will we teach our youth? How will we get that sermon ready? How will we solve our issues? Don’t we need answers now?
Probably not. If we’re going to really hear the sacred story, we need to follow the lead of Bonhoeffer and scores of saints. Lectio continua is “continuous reading,” a slow, patient, prayerful, discerning, reflective, communally engaged reading of scripture, day after day, to which we bring every resource to bear on the sole goal of being transformed by the Word in the words.
Help for this work can come from the desert. Beginning in the fourth century, Christians singly and in groups left the churches and the large cities of the Roman Empire for the deserts of Egypt and Palestine. They went to the desert in imitation of Jesus.
In solitude they cultivated constant prayer, faced their inner demons, and served others in uncompromising obedience to the way of Christ. Collections of their sayings have emboldened radical discipleship in all the centuries since.
A story from these sayings illuminates what it means to turn to scripture. St. Anthony was a towering figure of the desert. Once, he received a visit from some other desert-disciples and decided to put them to a test.
He quoted a passage and asked each to offer an interpretation. The youngest monk gave his opinion first, then each in turn. To each one Abba Antony said, “You’ve not understood it.” Abba Joseph, the oldest one, had yet to speak. Antony asked him what he thought the text meant. Joseph replied, “I do not know.” “Indeed,” said Antony, “Abba Joseph has found the way, for he has said: ‘I do not know.’”
That answer ought to give us pause. Seeking the Living Word means waiting for its slow trek through our lives, our attitudes, and actions. These desert Christians pondered scripture day and night, but learned never to assume the meaning was patent. Instead, they practiced persistent meekness before the text, and, unwearied and uncomplaining, waited on God for insight, clarity, and charity.
Doctrine and Covenants 164:6c offers an antidote like this desert medicine: Getting quick, easy answers is not the same as embracing costly, liberating truths.
What Are We Looking For?
When we turn to scripture, what are we looking for? This seemingly logical question contributes to the misuse of our sacred texts. Looking for “whats” often treats scripture as a magic oracle that will tell us what diet to go on, what plumber to use, what candidate to vote for, and, if we’re especially ingenious, what the furniture in heaven looks like.
Looking for such stuff in the scriptures is sure to do one thing: leave us untouched by its real witness.
What if the question, “What are we looking for?” is the wrong question? When Mary visited the empty tomb on Easter, the as-yet-unrecognized Lord did not ask what she was looking for, but “Whom do you seek?” (John 20:25). This is exactly where Doctrine and Covenants 164:6c redirects our vision: We search the scriptures in hope of being encountered by a whom. “Search for the Living Word,” we are counseled. The Living Word:
Jesus Christ—who lived, was crucified, was raised from the dead, and comes again—is the Living Word of God. It is to Christ that scripture points. It is through Christ that we have life. It is Christ whom we must hear.—Scripture in Community of Christ
We yearn to be addressed and transformed by this Word. This Word is not information to be manipulated, but a relationship to be entered. Our old-time missionaries used to preach about ongoing revelation with the gospel text, “This is my beloved Son, listen to him.” Their instinct was right on tar-get. The “what” of scripture must not sidetrack us from one thing needed, encountering the Who of scripture.
For many years we had a Bible-study group in our home. Once we studied the Gospel of John, working slowly through it week by week.
Participants reflected a wide spectrum of belief. Some struggled with the book, but everyone persevered. Reaching the end of John, one member announced that as the group was exploring this gospel, she had felt a persistent tug. She insisted that this Jesus (whose story the Fourth Gospel so uniquely interprets) was calling us all to do something for the community—like build a Habitat house.
Typically, John’s meditative, symbolic gospel is not associated with a call to just action, but that is due to faulty assumptions. Through John’s witness our friend had heard the Living Word call her to a strange new work. With her vision, and the help of many people, a group of young adults built a house that summer. And the person who heard the Word call to her from the pages of John found a life-vocation: She now works full-time for Habitat for Humanity.
We come to scripture to risk standing before the Risen One, who would infuse us with life, healing, and hope. Doctrine and Covenants 164:6c calls individuals and the whole church to the soul-work of a lifetime: to turn repeatedly to the sacred story. There we will savor psalms and epistles, admit all that we don’t know, and humbly wait on the Word in whose service is perfect freedom.