Reading Scripture

My congregation on Staten Island has committed itself to reading the whole Bible in a year.  Many of us purchased the "NRSV Daily Bible" and began our reading on New Year's Day 2015.  In two days we will have read from Genesis through 1 Samuel. We sit and discuss it either on Wednesday evening through Lent or on Sunday morning during Coffee Hour.  You can imagine the dedication of this group of readers who give up most of coffee hour and the socialization that it brings, to sit around a table and listen to others discuss and dispute the meaning of these ancient texts. 

Genesis and its two versions of creation was mulled over for its poetic repetitions in the creation story: "And there was evening and there was morning..." and the wonderful metaphoric descriptions of creation followed by the ordering of the animals, noting the sudden switch of voice and point of view, "...then the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and the man became a living being". Powerfully written stuff, we all agreed, but how factual? Hum...

We milled over the biblical stories of brothers: Issac and the half sibling Ismael,  Jacob and Esau, Joseph and his many brothers, Moses and Aaron, Aarons sons: Nadab and Abihu who foolishly offered "unholy fire" and were destroyed and the remaining sons, probably traumatized for life:

David and his lyre

Eleazar and Ithamer, the corrupt sons of the prophets Eli and Samuel, and David and his older brothers...talk about sibling rivalry! They are all here; the good the bad and the very ugly, fraternal disputes and possible fratricide, good deeds and deceptions, appetites and ambitions. And we noted over and over again the theme of "...and the last shall be as the first."



Leah and Rachael

And those women, at least the ones we meet up close and personal, they are certainly both memorable and formative!  Sarah must have been quite a beauty if her husband tried to pass her off as his sister to avoid being killed by rulers and reckless men desperate for a night of her charms.  And of course, the lesser sister, Leah, whose beautiful eyes are mentioned as her best asset; she is certainly the more fertile of the sisters, although we know her husband, Jacob, preferred her younger sister Rachael. One has to admire the tenacity of Moses mother, Jochebed  and his brave sister, Miriam, although her treatment in the book of Numbers seems rather harsh. She and Aaron have decided that their little bro was getting a bit too big for his britches, and wondered aloud why he got to go and commune with the Almighty. So what happens?  She gets stricken with leprosy for seven days, and Aaron is left crying  and making atonement for this sin in his priestly role! Of course we get to read about Deborah, one of the wisest judges of Israel and the lovely heartfelt story of Ruth and Naomi.

We have read about some memorable men: Abraham, of course, the father of nations, but also Esau, the cheated brother and Ismail, the deserted son, and Boaz the loving second husband of Ruth and savior of her mother-in-law Naomi, and finally Jonathan, Saul's son and confidant of David, doomed to neither rule or thrive. Saul and David and Isaac and Jacob may get the big press, but the lesser guys of Scripture have quite a lot to offer us in learning about human nature, ambition and loss.


I will say that I have found the  readings to be both phantasmagorical and extremely bloody, but some are surprising to me.  I had always thought David killed Goliath with his blow to the forehead.  I was wrong.  In reality, the slingshot stone knocked him out and the stabbing into his back and the beheading really done Goliath in.  It makes sense to read the whole account and not just the abbreviated Sunday morning version.


So we will continue on our reading journey, and I suppose, I will be musing more on this as the year goes on.  If you want to join us, we are about to begin 2 Samuel in a few days.