Studying the Bible from a progressive starting point
Vince and Kalif give a taster of the kinds of discussions happening in BLC’s Bible Study… for the people!
SPEAKER NOTES
Studying the Bible from a progressive starting point
Story
Okay, so today… our topic is studying the Bible from a progressive starting point.
- When I started going to church as a young adult, I loved discovering the world of Bible Studies
- I’m a nerd; and this was nerd heaven.
- But more than that, of course, as most people who have had good experiences in Bible Studies will tell you, it was the relationships I built engaging life’s biggest questions with other people, in the company of God, where people are expectant to find God in the discussion or in prayer. - There’s an unexplainable spiritual thing that happens there. - It’s in the little conversations afterward: I loved that question you asked; can we talk more? Can I pray for you? - The common ground you unexpectedly discover you have with someone. - It’s a non-awkward way to go deep together and end up getting someone’s email or phone number, and then just like that you’re friends!
- However, even as I did build amazing relationships discovering the world of Bible Studies, in the church contexts I happened to be in, I eventually seemed to hit some ceilings.
- There were some questions, criticisms, wonderings I found myself moving toward that were not allowed, or, at the very least, weren’t interesting to anyone else.
- From the extremely specific, to the big and philosophical… - On the extremely specific side: I remember my first experience being encouraged to read the Bible all the way through and I already had questions others around me didn’t by Genesis 12… - Which is the story of Abram being called by God to leave his land to become the father of many nations. - At one point it reads “so he built an altar to the Lord" - And my question was: well how did he know to do that? And what even does that mean?” — Like, I get spiritual experience of God, perceiving God to speak, I’m fine with that, but what’s this “build an altar" business? Where did that come from? Why does the author not explain? Does he not need to? I thought this was an origin story, a Genesis story, shouldn’t the author explain? - This was my first taste of realizing: everything comes from something — religion and the Bible didn’t materialize out of thin air fully formed — they emerged from something that came before. - But then I also had big and philosophical wonderings: Why can’t queer-inclusion be consistently argued from a Biblical perspective? - If Jesus’ ministry is inclusion of the outsider, solidarity alongside the marginalized, - And Jesus is the image of the invisible God, and the Gospels are the heartbeat of the scriptures… - Isn’t the burden of proof actually on more exclusive texts in the Bible to square that with what’s at the center? Not the reverse?
- These instincts of mine ruffled feathers.
- But I couldn’t just turn these things off — they were part of the person I’d been formed into… those questioning, critical, wondering parts of me me only continued to grow and shape as I came of age.
Bible Study in progressive settings
Over time, my exposure to the wide world of Christianity and Christian scholarship increased (it is much wider and more diverse than most people think — most of us, if we’ve spent much time in churches and have been taught any “church history” at all, it is usually with our own tradition or denomination at the center).
And, as my exposure increased, I found myself more at home in some conversations about the Bible than I did in others — more progressive spaces, we might say as a shorthand.
That is, the conversations that said: Questions, criticism, stretching isn’t disrespecting this sacred text or God; it is treating the text and God with the utmost respect — we believe God and this text can handle such pushes and, in the process, speak to today! The Bible is not precious glass needing protection; the Bible is a firm foundation that you can drive some stakes into to set up a home.
But these spaces were not immune to challenges!
They had their own challenges: Bible Studies from a progressive starting point require A LOT MORE prep-work and careful guidance from people who have done a lot of homework with the scholarship.
- It can’t just be a regurgitation of a few simple theological ideas a given church agrees upon read into every single text… more open-ness is required — to diverse view points, to multiple interpretations, to bringing the Bible into conversation with other disciplines.
- And it can’t just be a bunch of people reading a passage and then going around a circle asking “what does this mean to you?” — people are smart and globally aware and have access to the Internet in their pockets and need more than that — so there’s research and knowledge required to provide deeper scholarship people can handle but just don’t always know is out there — especially when it comes to passages that feel problematic to modern sensibilities.
- But then it can’t just be a boring overly-intellectual exercise — where is the Spirit? where is the sense that God is powerfully present in the midst of engaging scripture? Does that get squeezed out?
Because of these challenges, the fact is many progressive Christian settings just avoid studying the Bible… it’s usually not because they don’t care about the Bible (as is sometimes the accusation from the evangelical world toward progressive churches); it’s just because it takes a lot of work that there isn’t always people-power for.
If you play that out over several years, though, it can unintentionally but unsurprisingly lead to people in progressive church settings not caring about the Bible, because we never work those muscles engaging its helpfulness.
AND THIS IS WHY I was so glad to meet my friend Kalif Walker, when he started coming to this church.
Interview with Kalif
Kalif is up for the work and research and care for experience it takes to lead a Bible Study in our context… a Bible Study (for the people!)
Bible Study QR
Kalif, we had you up here back in the Spring before we started our first round of Bible Studies —
Q: How did this first round of meet-ups go? Anything stand out? Anything surprise you?
- Response
I thought we’d do a little taster for everyone — here’s the kind of discussions you can expect to get into in a Bible Study from a progressive starting point.
Q: We had some rules for studying the Bible … what were they?
- Inspired
- Multi-vocal wisdom book
- Legit interpretations can say many things, but not anything
- One part of truth
Q: Was there a specific discussion we had that captures “inspired, not inerrant”?
- The Flood narrative(s)
Q: Was there a specific discussion we had that captures “multi-vocality”?
- Documentary Hypothesis
Q: Was there a specific discussion we had that captures how legitimate interpretation can say many things, but not anything?
- Mustard Seed
Q: Was there specific discussion we had that captures how the Bible is one part of truth, not the whole?
- Markan priority
- Dipping into other disciplines (history, archeology) the whole time
Closing
So if you want more of this kind of interesting and really life-giving engagement with a sacred text from a progressive starting point,
- First off, the really good news is that all you have to do is come to church. These engagements of the Bible are part of the messages Hayley and I plan every week. And if you’re getting a weekly diet of that, I think that’s the makings of a really healthy spiritual life.
- AND doing this engagement in a small group where you can have discussion can be even more potent, so join us for the Bible study… for the people! - memes and QR code - Up next this Sat, Nov 22, 10am to noon at Sojourn: - Atonement theories
Thanks Kalif!
Let me close by praying for us…