We had a great conversation Wednesday evening, Feb. 24 (our first Wednesday session of the study, which continues on Sunday mornings through March 21). I'm impressed at how often the question "Where do I start?" comes up. And related to that question is the experience of having read a portion of the Bible and feeling more confused and alienated that before you started reading!
I've been roller skating for about a year now. When I began, I fell a lot. After suffering from many nasty encounters with the floor, I realized that I had to wear protective gear and take it easy on the things I was trying to accomplish if I were going to be able to continue skating. Everyone around me seemed to be skating with ease. I got advice from people (not all of it helpful or welcome), and experienced the reality of the old saw: "It's going to get a lot worse before it gets better."
Getting into any new practice comes with that kind of cost. For one thing, you have to make time for reading scripture in a schedule already too crowded for such reflection. And if you can balance the time, so much of the vocabulary and "culture" of scripture feels foreign and ill-fitting to you. People like me (pastors and teachers) make it seem easy, and our advice about how to go about reading the Bible can sometimes make you feel inadequate and ignored.
Relax. You're trying something new and this kind of break-in (steep learning curve) is normal and appropriate. So take it easy and realize that continuing to show up, adjusting your approach when appropriate (when you have a pretty good idea of how a certain approach is trending - in either a helpful or unhelpful way), will bear fruit in your life. My skating got better - and it continues to get better, because I practice and enjoy it a lot. Your experience of reading scripture and encountering the God to which scripture bears such eloquent witness will get better too!
In the meantime, I'm planning a series of helps to get you better acquainted with the lay of the land in scripture. A great place for Christians to begin is in any one of the Gospel accounts of the life and ministry of Jesus Christ: Matthew, Mark, Luke or John. Or read all four! But take it slowly, and be prepared to go where the Spirit of God leads you in your reading. I like to suggest reading with a journal in hand, so that you can write down notes and reflections. And don't be afraid of writing some of those notes and references in your Bible. (Don't own a Bible? Take one of the pew Bibles in the sanctuary! We'll also discuss approaches to purchasing a good study and devotional Bible).
One of the best ways to get aquainted with the lay of the land - the culture of the Bible - is to learn about the way the Bible is structured. More a library of 66 books than a single volume, the Bible contains many different forms of literature (law, history, poetry, wisdom sayings, prophetic writings, genealogies, stories, parables, letters, gospels, apocalypses, morality tales, collections of sayings, and commentaries). Knowing where you are and what to expect (these different literary forms require different reading strategies) is more than half the battle of getting comfortable in the culture of scripture.
Stay tuned for an explanation of the structure of the Bible in the next Blog installment!
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I agree, getting to know the genre of the book will give you a heads up on the direction of the text and what you should be expecting as a subject. Of course there are other things to consider when it comes to "Where do I start reading the Bible." I've always found that starting at Romans has been the best starting point. Why? Because Paul says that his mission is to the Gentile...since I'm not Jewish, I'm considered a Gentile. Paul's message was meant for me.
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