Prospecting for Gold: finding Treasure in the Bible Week 1

July 8, Week 1

Series: Prospecting for Gold: Finding Treasure in the Bible
Anchor: Prospectors and Miners
Frame: Flakes and Nuggets
Thread: Prospectors skits, “God Is Still Speaking” song

            I am struggling with the question, “how do we invite people to experience the bible as a treasure?” I know many of us are intimidated by this arcane book and the expectations that religious people have and continue to put upon it. Most people are not particularly excited by the idea of reading the bible. A friend of mine reminded me that the bible for most of its life has been a community experience. It was not read in private by an individual. Private, personal copies of the bible have only existed for a few hundred years. Prior to that, it was always heard in community, read to the gathered crowd. She also reminded me that it was an auditory experience: they heard it. Even when we present scripture in worship but put the words on the screen, it becomes a visual experience: our eyes read the words. Our brains apprehend it in a different way. So I hope we can find ways of using the bible communally in this series.

                I’m now thinking that we begin by looking at the tools we are using. In prospecting and mining the tools are pans, picks and shovels, and (when mining large scale) dynamite and heavy machinery. In approaching the bible, Marcus Borg also gives us some tools. Borg asks two important questions when studying the biblical texts:

1.       What did this text mean in the ancient historical setting in which it was written?

2.       What does this story mean as a story, independent of its historical factuality?

Asking about the historical setting enlivens the texts, informs them, and acts as a safeguard preventing us from projecting any meaning or agenda we want on a text. The second question draws the text out of its ancient crypt and breathes life into it and us. Asking what the story means gives room for God to continuing speaking, for the Spirit to reach out to us in the context of our own day and lives.

                These 2 tools are essential for approaching any biblical text. They are our pans, picks, and sometimes dynamite when our assumptions and agendas get blown apart.

                Which brings me to one other thought from Borg. I was reminded in reading his book that in the context of this series, we are digging for gold. Often we in the liberal camp have found ways to deconstruct the problematic parts of the bible. Some of us are pretty good at defusing the racist, elitist, misogynistic parts of the bible. But too often when we get to the end of that process, we are not too sure what use there is in what we have left. Can the bible really be a treasure for progressive Christians?

                Borg clearly and strongly affirms that the bible is sacred and sacramental. Borg reminds us that the bible is sacred because we make it so. Borg says, “To speak of the Bible as sacred addresses not its origin but its status within a religious community. (RTBAFTFT, p. 29, emphasis mine)” He continues: “For Christians, the status of the Bible as sacred scripture means that it is the most important collection of writings we know. These are the primary writings that define who we are in relation to God and who we are as a community and as individuals. This is the book that has shaped us and will continue to shape us.” Just as the bible was created by human beings and reflects human understandings of God and each other so too human beings have made the bible sacred—not because it came from God but because it is the place we continue to find God.

                Borg also affirms that the humanly created bible is a means of experiencing the presence of God. “The bread and wine of the Christian sacrament of the eucharist are manifestly human products. Somebody made the bread and somebody made the wine. We do not think of the bread and wine as ‘perfect’ (whatever that might mean). Rather, to use a common eucharistic phrase, we affirm that ‘in, with, and under’ these manifestly human products of bread and wine, Christ becomes present to us. So also ‘in, with, and under’ the human words of the Bible, the Spirit of God addresses us.” (p. 32-33)

`               We are prospecting the bible because there is gold worth finding there.

Outline  version 2.0

Gathering - Jazz/Candle lighting

Threshold: Miners’ Chorus – to the tune of Oh, My Darling Clementine” (forthcoming)

Welcome

Song

Series Intro

Meet Greet / Children’s Church

Panning for Gold: Flakes and Nuggets
Prospecting Demo – See if Colin can show how panning is done, there are also lots of videos on youtube

Nugget Scriptures – bits and pieces people carry with them:
                Psalm 23, John 3:16, Mark 12:30-31 (The Greatest commandment)

                Maybe invite people to name their favorite scriptures, and read them aloud

Song?

Digging Deeper

Mining dialog – how mining differs from prospecting – Ray or Mike?

talk about the tools we will need to mine for gold in the bible: time, meditation, resources (commentaries, etc), openness, imagination... (like a miner’s pick, shovel, helmet, light, coat, etc)

Bible Mining tools – a la Borg

Intro to Reading the Bible Again for the First Time

                Testimonials from a couple of folk who have read the book (or at least gotten into it) (I’d prefer not to be the only voice speaking about the book -Doyle)

                1. Why did the ancient authors tell this story?

                2. What does the story mean to us as a story?

                Invite people to a discussion group after the Studio (lunch?)

The Bible as a Community experience

                for most of its existence, the bible has been experienced in community, not individually. We hear it and experience it together.

Telling the Story (Doyle)

1 Kings 17:1-6

Now Elijah the Tishbite, of Tishbe in Gilead, said to Ahab, ‘As Yahweh the God of Israel lives, before whom I stand, there shall be neither dew nor rain these years, except by my word.’ The word of God came to him, saying, ‘Go from here and turn eastwards, and hide yourself by the Wadi Cherith, which is east of the Jordan. You shall drink from the wadi, and I have commanded the ravens to feed you there.’ So he went and did according to the word of the Lord; he went and lived by the Wadi Cherith, which is east of the Jordan. The ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning, and bread and meat in the evening; and he drank from the wadi.

Congregational Dialog (Using our mining tools)

                1. Why did the ancient authors tell this story?

                2. What does the story mean to us as a story?

Historical Context:

                New linguistic work suggests that an alternate reading of the word “ravens” may be “Philistines.” (Kind of like calling them buzzards).The Philistines were the enemies of Israel, who was in rebellion to God (their king was worshipping the false god Baal). Might this alternate reading change how you hear the scripture?

Lection Divina #                1 Kings 17:1-6 (edited) (read twice)

Now Elijah the Tishbite, of Tishbe in Gilead, said to Ahab, ‘As Yahweh the God of Israel lives, before whom I stand, there shall be neither dew nor rain these years, except by my word.’ The word of God came to him, saying, ‘Go from here and turn eastwards, and hide yourself by the Wadi Cherith, which is east of the Jordan. You shall drink from the wadi, and I have commanded the Philistines to feed you there.’ So he went and did according to the word of the Lord; he went and lived by the Wadi Cherith, which is east of the Jordan. The Philistines brought him bread and meat in the morning, and bread and meat in the evening; and he drank from the wadi.

Time to reflect.

Gathering responses: which words or phrases spoke to you? What did you see or hear? What surprised you?

Song

Joys/Concerns, Box, Basket and Connection Card

Seeking the Vein of Gold

Lectio Divina #2

                1 Samuel 3:1-4

Now the boy Samuel was ministering to the Lord under Eli. The word of God was rare in those days; visions were not widespread. At that time Eli, whose eyesight had begun to grow dim so that he could not see, was lying down in his room; the lamp of God had not yet gone out, and Samuel was lying down in the temple of the Lord, where the ark of God was. Then God called, ‘Samuel! Samuel!’ and he said, ‘Here I am!’

Time to reflect.

Gathering responses: which words or phrases spoke to you? what did you see or hear? What surprised you?

Communion

Our Creator

Blessing

Benediction