Luke 1:1-4

 

Introduction

1 Many have undertaken to draw up an account of the things that have been fulfilled among us, just as they were handed down to us by those who from the first were eyewitnesses and servants of the word. With this in mind, since I myself have carefully investigated everything from the beginning, I too decided to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, so that you may know the certainty of the things you have been taught.

I once served a church where the tradition of the bible study was for the Vicar to present, either from their own knowledge or from a prescribed curriculum, the last word on The Word.  This is not at all how I had learned to lead a Bible Study, it did not feed me and as a result, it was not fulfilling for anyone. 

But it was natural.  We so desire to understand, or more accurately, to KNOW what the Scripture is about and what it is telling us. Rabbi's have been arguing about God's word for millennia, Christian and Muslim scholars have spilled thousands of gallons of ink exploring these texts, and Jeff Bezos continues to make millions on daily readers, commentaries and questionable scholarship about the same.  Because we want to KNOW what these sometimes confusing, often conflicting, consistently challenging texts are trying to tell us.  We want to KNOW.

In the book of Genesis, Jacob wrestles with an angel and when it is all said and done, he has a broken hip and anew identity. That story, at least, makes sense to me.  We have to wrestle, actually put our hands on and struggled with, the words of God.  We have to wake in the literal or figurative dark night of our lives and open the book - not a book about the book, but the actual BOOK - and read the words. Any responsible translation will do.  And find in that work, that dedicated, disciplined, personal and tiresome work, our own identity in relationship to God.  And it will leave a mark.