Eat This Book: Let Anyone with Ears to Hear Listen!

"Listening is what we do when someone speaks to us; reading is what we do when someone writes to us." - Eugene Peterson, Eat This Book, p. 87

For the past 24 hours, I have pondered this quote and what it means to my reading of the Bible.  In one sense, it is a book and it has ink on the pages, so it is something that has been written.  However, it wasn't written to me.  I mean, it doesn't say, "Dear Brad, I write this letter to you..."  I am reading letters written to other people at other times in other circumstances.  It's like eavesdropping on someone else's correspondence.  I've heard preachers my whole life tell me that the Bible was written to me and for me, but after three years in seminary and several classes on the structure of the Bible, I discovered that my name is nowhere to be found!  Moses didn't know me, Solomon didn't know me, David didn't know me and none of the prophets knew me.  Neither did Matthew, Mark, Luke or John, Paul, James and whoever wrote Hebrews.

I am just now finding a certain "okay" about this, too.  It's okay that my name isn't written in the pages of the Bible because the Story written in the pages of my Bible is not contained to those pages.  The revelation of God in my life did not stop when John set his pen down after writing the final word in Revelation.  God continues to reveal Himself to me, He continues to show us who He is and what He is doing in our world today.  More often than not, He speaks to us through the stories that He made sure were included in what we call The Bible.  The Holy Scriptures serve as the divine plum-line for our stories.  Everything is to be held up to the Text, to determine whether or not it is true and part of the bigger revelation of God.

If I view the Bible as mine, then I have missed something important and it could be potentially dangerous.  I bought a leather covered bible, but I don't own the Word of God.  God is the one who is sovereign in this Story, not me.  I cannot pick and choose to do with the words whatever I want.  I must approach the Bible as it is, a living revelation of God - extending into my world today.  As I read with this sort of understanding, I find not that the books contained were written to me, but that God is actually "speaking" to me.  I am not just reading the Bible, but I am also "listening" to the biblical story.  Hearing the Story, allows us to participate.  Hearing the Story is what moves the Bible from a book on our night stand to a living conversation with the One who put it all together and is involved in our daily lives.  Hearing the Story is listening to God.

Listening often involves more details than reading.  Last year, I read a book called A New Kind of Christian (in my book list).  I thought the book was good and I was engaged.  But then, I decided to get the audio format to carry with me.  I listened to the book the second time.  I was much more engaged in the story as I listened then when I read.  When I read, I was analyzing and critiquing, but when I listened, I felt like I was in the coffee shop with the two men.  I could hear the inflection in their voices, and I could imagine the settings where they walked and talked - and I was there, too!

Listening to the Story of the Bible involves more than just reading.  It means we need to dig a little deeper and know a little more than just what is written on the pages.  Each part of the Story is written in a particular context.  The more context we know, the more the Story comes alive.  All of us have probably experienced this in a sermon or a bible study where the teacher opened up the Story by telling us details of the author and recipient, the locale and the circumstance, that made the Story jump off the page.  The great thing about today is that no one has to have a seminary degree to learn the context of the Story.  There are plenty of tools in our bookstores or online that will help us open up the context of the Story so we can listen rather than just read.  I will work on a post with some of the tools later.

For now, are you tracking with me?  Are you feeling the difference I'm talking about?  Can you hear  what I am writing, or are you just reading?  I'm tired of reading the Bible and I'm ready to listen to the Story!