BibleWorm

This week we are reading Revelation 5 – the whole thing, which is only 14 powerful verses long. We encounter the image of a scroll covered with words that might change the world as we know it -  but it has been sealed tight, with nobody to open it. We encounter the Lamb, in a series of images that just make no sense – this lamb who is the lion, this lamb who stands as if slaughtered. This slaughtered lamb who can open the scroll, who redeemed the people not for their own sake, but for God. Is the imagery frightening, or hopeful, or weird? Can it be all 3? 

This week we’re continuing our series on Revelation and Resistance series with Revelation 13:1-18 and 17:1-6. We examine the grotesque images of the Beasts rising from land and sea as images of the Roman Empire, a misshapen, deceptive, and violent creature trapping people unknowingly in the worship of Satan. Then we turn our attention to Woman Babylon, the beautiful seductress whose goblet is filled with the blood of the saints. Having these images before us gives substance to our unknown fears, we think, making visible that which lurks at the edges of our consciousness. More than that, perhaps, these images invite us to unmask the beastliness and seduction of the Empire in our own day. How are we unwittingly seduced and coerced into the worship of violence?

Welcome to our summer series, Revelation and Resistance. This week we begin at the beginning, with Revelation 1:1-20, which sets the stage so beautifully for us and especially for me, who has never read Revelation before. We contemplate the “is-ness” of God – one that is beyond time as we know it – and hold all of the evocative images and sound metaphors like complex treasures. We relate to the pain of holding in your awareness both the world that is and the world as it should be. And we wonder at the awe and fear that will follow when the veil is finally pulled back. 

This week we’re reading the Pentecost text in Acts 2:1-4 and then Galatians 4:1-7 and 5:13-26. We talk about the experience of the Holy Spirit, who transitions us from disciples to apostles, sent into the world to show the way to others. We wrestle again with the relationship of faith and Torah and to what extent the faithful need guidelines to show us the right way to live. And we ponder the fruits of the Spirit, wondering how we measure up and whether we can see the Spirit at work today in unexpected places.

This week we are reading from Galatians 3:1-9 and 23-29, which may be the most challenging and vulnerable interfaith conversation we’ve had over the years. What exactly is Paul saying about Torah Judaism and those who follow it? Is there a way to talk about this fundamental shift in history that he perceives without erasing or degrading everything that was before – everything that set the stage for his cherished moment? How can Christians today take the real power and beauty at the core of Paul’s message, and also recognize and mitigate the hurt that his words can cause? 

This week we’re beginning our foray into Paul’s letter to the Galatians with Galatians 1:13-17 and 2:11-21. This is a difficult text, particularly for an interfaith podcast, as Paul pushes back against the Judaism of his past as he wrestles with the significance of Christ for the Gentiles. As we read, though, we begin to realize that what Paul rejects is not Judaism, per se, but rather against the sort of religious striving that makes a person’s worth before God dependent on our own actions rather than on God’s gracious commitment to us. For Paul, and for Christians today, that graciousness takes the form of the faithfulness of Jesus Christ, who lives in and through us, insisting that indeed we are enough, just as we are.

This week we are reading Acts 15:1-18. The community of Jesus followers is quickly expanding, and as they welcome gentiles, they are faced with a pretty existential question: must new followers of Jesus come into the faith of Israel first, taking upon themselves the commandments of the Jewish people - or not? The text made us ask ourselves – what is the role of boundaries, standards, and rules within a faith community. What do they make possible ... what might they hinder? And how do community leaders keep their finger on the pulse of what God is doing in the world right now, without fear of change, and also without dismissing the testimony and teachings of all the generations before us?

This week we’re reading the story of Philip, and the Ethiopian eunuch as told in Acts 8:26-39. In that story, an angel tells Philip to approach the chariot of an Ethiopian eunuch who is heading home from his visit to the Temple in Jerusalem. When he approaches the chariot, Philip hears the eunuch reading Isaiah 53, one of the songs of the suffering servant. When the eunuch asks Phillip to help him understand, Phillip interprets the gospel for him, leading the eunuch to ask for baptism. We discuss the role of Philip in this text as a human intermediary for the Holy Spirit, going where he is called and meeting people where they are. And we discuss the eunuch, who has been seeking community elsewhere but finally finds full welcome in the community of Christians. And we wrestle with our own offerings of the welcome, and the ways that we, too, can be conduits of the Spirit, knowing when to teach and when to get out of the way.

This week we reading Acts 6:1-7:2a and 44-60. This is a reading that really reflects the complexity of communal faith life in ways that are both inspiring and sobering. What is possible when religious leaders recognize how the spirit moves within members of our community, and freely empowers new leaders to serve in new ways? And speaking of new ways ... Can any community hold the particular ferocity of argument that erupts when an established form of religion is confronted by a disestablished form of that religion? Communal faith life is tricky, isn’t it. 

This week we’re reading the continuation of Luke’s Easter story as told in Luke 24:13-35, a text commonly known as The Road to Emmaus. In that story, an incognito Jesus walks along with two unknown disciples, who cannot recognize him even as he interprets the scriptures about himself for them. It is only when they invite him into the house to share a meal that he is made known to them in the breaking of the bread. We wonder in what ways we, too, are slow of heart, like those disciples unable to recognize what is truly happening right in front of us. We ponder the relationship of scripture, experience, and ritual in making Jesus known to those disciples and to us. And we reflect on the nature of truth, which is often revealed only in bits and pieces until we talk to others whose experiences can affirm and extend our own.