Does familiarity breed contempt? I don’t think so. Rather,
it breeds apathy. Have you noticed how the most familiar things in your life
are the things you really care most about – but pay the least attention to?
Until, of course, it is lost. Relationships, precious items, special
traditions. We often fail to plumb their depths until it is too late. Perhaps
our relationship with Sacred Scripture is that way. I know it was for me. At
times I thought I knew most of what was important about the Bible for my life –
and then I had to start teaching it again. Before long, I fell in love all over
again - deeper, newer – discovering an old love – something I thought I knew
and now realized I didn’t know the half of it. Layer upon layer, its words
delve ever more deeply into the human spirit. Book by book, it tells a story
that humans can never grasp fully. Why, because it genuinely is the Word of God
– not a manual, handbook, or compendium of law, but the self revelation of the
Other. Now when I approach Scripture, I often feel like someone who saw their
spouse across the breakfast table as if for the very first time. You can see
someone or something daily for decades – and then one moment you look at it and
it’s there in a way you never imagined. It’s familiar but new. Familiar and
comforting. New and challenging.
“Blessed Lord, who caused all
holy Scriptures to be written for our learning: Grant us so to hear
them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them, that we may embrace and ever
hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life, which you have given us in our
Savior Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one
God, for ever and ever. Amen” (BCP,
Collect, Proper 28)
No comments:
Post a Comment