Inhabiting the Scripture
When I first met one of the Shenandoah Bible Story Tellers, I complemented her on how well she memorized and recited so many verses from the Bible. She told me that they do work to commit scripture to memory but it was more than that. She told me that they “inhabit” the scriptural text by living with it daily and allowing it to breathe new life into their lives and to the lives of others as it is lifted out of the realm of reading from a lifeless page.
I scratched my head and wondered just exactly what she meant. How does one inhabit the scripture? I know how you inhabit a house. You just move in and live there. You sleep and eat, and do all the things that you normally do on a daily basis under that roof. In that space, you also wonder and laugh, you cry and meditate, you debate and plan your life. I realized that inhabiting is more than just taking up time and space in a house; it is living life as it comes within the walls of a place that you call home.
So, how does one inhabit the scripture? What a wonderful, familiar and unfamiliar idea. I think that inhabiting the scripture means taking it in, reading it, thinking about it, and meditating upon it just like a dog chews on his bone. We take it with us when we go to work or school and as we take care of the house and family. The Word lights our way just as headlights light the road ahead of us on dark winter evenings. We pull up some of the words of Jesus like a comfortable chair and rest there. We place the weight of our lives upon the promises of God. We remember how all our sins are washed away in the waters of baptism as we do the dishes. We laugh and cry and live as the Word gives us strength and hope for the new day. Inhabiting the scripture means putting ourselves in the events of the Bible, becoming part of the crowd that watches Jesus pass or imagining what it might feel like to receive sight just as the blind man did. I would like to invite you to think with me, to imagine with me, just what inhabiting the scripture means to you. I would love to hear what you think that inhabiting the scripture means and what your experiences of inhabiting the scripture are like.
I look forward to the Wednesday evenings of Lent as we will hear and will hopefully experience the scripture in new ways as it is inhabited by one of the Shenandoah Biblical Storytellers.
See you in the pew,
Pastor Phyllis
When I first met one of the Shenandoah Bible Story Tellers, I complemented her on how well she memorized and recited so many verses from the Bible. She told me that they do work to commit scripture to memory but it was more than that. She told me that they “inhabit” the scriptural text by living with it daily and allowing it to breathe new life into their lives and to the lives of others as it is lifted out of the realm of reading from a lifeless page.
I scratched my head and wondered just exactly what she meant. How does one inhabit the scripture? I know how you inhabit a house. You just move in and live there. You sleep and eat, and do all the things that you normally do on a daily basis under that roof. In that space, you also wonder and laugh, you cry and meditate, you debate and plan your life. I realized that inhabiting is more than just taking up time and space in a house; it is living life as it comes within the walls of a place that you call home.
So, how does one inhabit the scripture? What a wonderful, familiar and unfamiliar idea. I think that inhabiting the scripture means taking it in, reading it, thinking about it, and meditating upon it just like a dog chews on his bone. We take it with us when we go to work or school and as we take care of the house and family. The Word lights our way just as headlights light the road ahead of us on dark winter evenings. We pull up some of the words of Jesus like a comfortable chair and rest there. We place the weight of our lives upon the promises of God. We remember how all our sins are washed away in the waters of baptism as we do the dishes. We laugh and cry and live as the Word gives us strength and hope for the new day. Inhabiting the scripture means putting ourselves in the events of the Bible, becoming part of the crowd that watches Jesus pass or imagining what it might feel like to receive sight just as the blind man did. I would like to invite you to think with me, to imagine with me, just what inhabiting the scripture means to you. I would love to hear what you think that inhabiting the scripture means and what your experiences of inhabiting the scripture are like.
I look forward to the Wednesday evenings of Lent as we will hear and will hopefully experience the scripture in new ways as it is inhabited by one of the Shenandoah Biblical Storytellers.
See you in the pew,
Pastor Phyllis