Parish Groups and Bible Study
It used to be the case that people just got the “Christian story” in the course of life. It may not have been a deep understanding, but it was there. For instance, think of Christmas plays in the schools. It was once not a social faux pas to wish people, whoever they were, a merry Christmas. And not just Christmas: the characters and structure of the broad story were known to many people. You might tell someone who helped you change your flat tire, “Thanks for being a good Samaritan,” and the person would get the reference.
But for many decades, this has not been the case. I’m not writing to bemoan the loss—it doesn’t matter whether I bemoan it or not, the fact just is that people don’t pick up the Christian story these days unless we intentionally tell it. Here’s my first point: Churches need deliberately to work on biblical literacy. As a new priest I realized that telling the story was going to be the most important thing I did, that biblical illiteracy was the ailment to which I most needed to apply my energies.
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On the other hand, priests have a zillion things that impinge upon their time. People will be sick, facing surgery, dealing with birth and death, love and discord, family strife, and so many other things. Pastoral care summons priestly attention. Then there is the organization of the parish: the finances, the building, the worship, relations with neighbors. This takes a lot of attention too. Also of major importance is how a parish relates to the needs of the community around it and the wider world, what we call “outreach” and which might include food ministries, or youth programs, or “neighborhood organization” to address larger problems, not to mention prayer and financial support of particular missionaries.
This is only a very short list. The real list is as endless as the needs and possibilities of humanity. So how, given all these things that demand the attention of clergy—how are we to have time for that basic need of awakening and deepening biblical knowledge?
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There is a simple way, and it is my second point. Every time any parish group meets, let them begin by studying something from the Bible.The vestry can begin their meetings with Bible study. Likewise the grounds committee, the choir, those who gather to distribute food, and so forth. This study can be coordinated for the whole parish, so that, say, for a few months everyone is studying Matthew. In this way the various members of the church, in various ways, would be studying and (potentially) talking to each other about Matthew.
My proposal is not well-detailed, and I’m sure many could easily improve upon it! Still, I think it is profound in a simple way. Just as much as our bodies need food, work, and rest, so our souls need the story of creation, fall, redemption, and glorification, the story that runs from Genesis to Revelation, the story that gives meaning to everything we do and are.
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Out & About: The talks on Augustine’s Confessions continue: this Sunday (Nov. 23) at St. Matthew’s Cathedral in Dallas, on Books V and VI, in the Great Hall at 10:20 a.m.
The following Sunday, November 30, I am to preach at St. Matthew’s Cathedral, Dallas, at 9 and 11:15 a.m. (with another class on theConfessions at 10:20).