Dear Friends,
Pastor Alyce’s sermon this past Sunday was a helpful reminder that we are called to read and reflect and re-read Scripture continuously as a way of coming more fully into the understanding of who God is through Jesus Christ by the guidance of the Spirit. As Wesleyans, we believe in a dynamic view of Scripture, such that every time we read a piece of Scripture “the Bible becomes the living Word as we engage it under the guidance of the Spirit and are transformed into the image of Christ” (see more at wesleyanrooted.org/read-faithfully).
I think specifically how this applies to my new Bible study, “Bible Stories You Learned (or Didn’t Learn) in Childhood”. This is a great example of taking texts that we have read multiple times and looking at them with fresh eyes, knowing that each time we read God is revealing something new to us in that reading. How many times do we just skip the familiar stories altogether? We think “I already know this like the back of my hand” only to find that some new detail sticks out and bears meaning for us because we are now reading with a different time and context in mind.
As we read the two flood narratives on Wednesday (did you know that there are two narratives in Genesis 6-9?) we reflected how different details stick in our mind from each, molding together to give us the overarching story we recall. One narrative has Noah bringing pairs of animals; the other has seven sets of clean animals. One narrative mentions rain for forty days and nights (are you all starting to feel like Noah here in Nassau County?); the other mentions 150 days of water springing up from the Earth.
My encouragement to the group was to not get hung up in the details because even as we interpret these narratives without taking every detail literally, we find that the message of the overarching story points us back to God’s relationship with humanity. Rather than go through all of it here,
I want to challenge you to go back and read the Flood narratives (Genesis 6-9). What stuck out to you in your reading this time? Did you learn anything new? I’d love for you to email me and let me know what you learned!
With Peace and Love,
Pastor Rachel
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