Day 5: Take the Leap! Find YOUR Place!

I often hear from people, “The Bible is boring.  I don’t get it.  I’m not sure how it’s even relevant to me.”  While there are a number of contributing factors to such statements, the one factor that I want to address today is disconnection.  Too many of us read the bible as casual observers or passive spectators.  We come to the text to read stories, stand outside, peer in like disconnected voyeurs and try to figure out why what’s happening "in there" has anything to do with what’s happening in my "out here."

Disconnection is a problem.  There are many reasons why we remain disconnected.

1. We read the Bible like we would any other form of literature.  Entertainment.  The value of the text is found in its ability to keep my attention, move me emotionally, make me feel a certain way.  We’ve grown up in an entertainment culture that lacks the abilities of critical thinking and intentional engagement.  We pass through the Bible as we would flipping through the channels of the television.
2. We’ve become afraid of the text.  We don’t want to mess it up.  We don’t feel qualified.  Bible interpretation, so we’ve been told, is best left to the seminary educated.  They know how to get it right.  The rigid interpretations we find in our churches give us already prescribed answers to our looming questions.  We’ve lost our ability for playfulness and imagination in the text.
3. Disconnection keeps us safe.  To read the Bible as a casual observer means I can tell you what it said but remain safe from a deep encounter with what’s being said and who is saying it.  Standing outside is a self-protective posture.  It’s almost as if we are wired to know that if I get too close to this Sacred Living Text that demands might be made on my life.  Something might happen.  
4. For those that have been in the church for quite some time, one of the factors contributing to disconnection is familiarity.  We’ve read the text so often, heard it spoken so many times, we stop expecting anything new or fresh.  We read the Bible and we are already filling in what’s coming next before it arrives.  Our familiarity has stolen from us the freshness of disruption.   

So what’s the remedy?  Deep engagement is the only way forward.  I often share with people that reading the Scriptures is not about standing on the outside and peering in, it’s about leaping into the text.  It’s about taking a journey, leaving the familiar land of the world of your own making and entering into the strange new land of God’s making.  It’s about involvement.  We step into the text.  We wade around close to the shore at first, splashing around in the stories.  But then, we allow ourselves to get caught up in the waves of disruptive grace and carry us out into the deep waters where we are now in over our head.

Everywhere we look is the story.  I’m now in it.  I’ve got a place in the story.  I can see the action around me, smell the smells, feel the bitter winds blow or the scorching heat.  I’m not standing outside the text criticizing the characters for their lack of faith.  No, I’m in it.  I can feel the uncertainty, encounter the fear.  I get it.  I’m there.  I too am tangled up in the web of stories that reveal this remarkable, unpredictable, amazing, mysterious God.  I’m now forced to respond.  I ask questions like,

• What’s not being told in the story?  
• What’s the back story? 
• What are the other onlookers and participants thinking and feeling?  
• Which character in this story do I most closely align to?  
• How would I experience God in this moment?
• What is confusing?
• What is intriguing? 
• What is inspiring?
• What is challenging?
• What specifically is God trying to say to me, right now, through this story?

This is Deep Engagement.  It’s the only way forward.  The church needs more Christians who are willing to take the risk of being lost in the stories of Scripture.  Instead of resting on the dry, dead, stale interpretations of others, we need Christians who step into fresh encounters, Christians who are overcome by the power of the story as the Spirit of God leads this process (We will discuss this more tomorrow and in this weekend’s message).  Casual observation won’t work.  Passive spectating might tell you what it said, but it leaves us safe.  We must be willing to risk the leap.

So let’s practice…
Step 1:  First off, I want you to go ahead and read Luke Chapter 5 in it’s entirety.  We left off with Chapter 4 yesterday and really focused on Jesus mission statement in verses, 18-19.  You should notice that the stories at the end of Chapter 4 and the stories in Chapter 5 give expression (in a physical way) to what Jesus said in those verses.  Read the Chapter to familiarize yourself with the chapter.
Step 2:  Pick 1 of the smaller stories:
Jesus Calling the First Disciples 5:1-11
Leper Healed 5:12-16
Paralyzed Man Forgiven and Healed 5:17-26
Dinner with Sinners 5:27-32
Jesus Breaks Religious Duty 5:33-39
Step 3:  Read the story you felt led to pick slowly (this might take a couple of times – DON’T FORGET to PRAY!  Ask the Spirit of God to lead you well).
Step into the story…Look around.  Where are you standing?  What are you hearing?  What grabs your attention (what moment, statement?)  What’s happening to you?  What’s Jesus saying?  What’s Jesus saying to you?
Step 4:  Write it down.  As Jesus speaks specifically to you…write it down and keep track.  Pray about how you can take what you’ve experienced and put it into practice.