Reading the Map

How many of you remember traveling before GPS, when we had these huge pieces of paper that we unfolded and tried to figure out the best route to our destination? And how many of you remember being pulled over with two adults in the car having a “discussion” about the best route to take? GPS has not necessarily made it easier. In one of my favorite scenes from the television show “The Office,” Michael and Dwight are in the car together and the GPS tells them to turn right. Dwight tries, unsuccessfully, to convince Michael that it means to bear right at the intersection ahead. But, Michael turns right, insisting that the GPS system knows best, and drives straight into a lake.

Every Sunday we sing the words from the 119th Psalm, “Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path.” We know that like a map, if we study Scripture we will find the best ways through life. But, the Bible is kind of like one of those giant maps. It’s unwieldy, and there are lots of little side roads that you could take, and which way is the best way, which interpretation is the correct interpretation or the best interpretation? And sometimes we wind up beside the road having a “discussion” about how we should go. And now we have GPS systems to guide us through Scripture – tools like commentaries and Bible studies.

Ruth Haley Barton is a spiritual director and author and she shares her experience of, in a way, turning into a lake, as she studied Scripture. She writes, “Somewhere along the way I figured out that you could get really good at studying and memorizing verses, filling in the blanks of Bible study guides, checking chapters off a reading list, coming up with creative approaches for Bible study and message preparation….And somewhere along the way I got tired. Very tired. When I was alone with the Scriptures, they began to feel lifeless and boring, irrelevant and obligatory.” Over time, she says, she had fallen into a pattern of reading Scripture like we read the news – gathering information, analyzing the biases, picking and choosing what was important or interesting, applying the lessons – instead of reading them like a love letter. It’s not that reading Scripture critically is bad, it just is not where we turn off unless we want to wind up in a lake, we need to go on a little farther.

Do you remember getting a love letter? You wanted to know what it said. But, that’s not all you were interested in. When we were dating, two summers, Chris worked in a Summer Stock Theatre on Cape Cod and I worked in Oxford, England. When a letter came, I wanted to go to my room to open it. I didn’t want to skim it for content. I was interested in more than what show they were doing and what role he was playing. I wanted to hear his voice telling me about the lobster ice cream he tried. I wanted to laugh where he would have laughed. And, I didn’t read them and throw them away, either. Those letters got read and reread. In fact, I still have them.

Scripture is more like a love letter than a newspaper. Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote, “The Word of Scripture should never stop sounding in your ears and working in you all day long, just like the words of someone you love….ponder [the words] in your heart….that is all…Do not ask, ‘How shall I pass this on?’ but ‘What does it say to me?’ Then ponder this word long in your heart until it has gone right into you and taken possession of you.”

“Wisdom will enter your heart (Proverbs 2:10).” But only as you seek it. The writer of Proverbs compares seeking wisdom to searching for hidden treasure or looking for silver. Looking for silver in the ancient world was not easy. You would have a rope tied around you and be lowered deep into a narrow, dark shaft, where you would look for silver to mine. But the one who searches, will find wisdom from God.

So, how do we approach Scripture like a love letter, or like looking for hidden treasure instead of like reading a map or following our GPS system? Well, I’ve been doing a little more research on sailing. It turns out that navigating a sailboat and studying Scripture are alike in many ways. For one thing, a sailboat is either moving or it is not. And we are either seeking God’s wisdom, or we aren’t. And when a sailboat is moving, it isn’t because of the effort of the people on the boat, it is because they have positioned the sail to catch the wind. When we are growing in wisdom and understanding, it isn’t because of our effort, but because we have positioned our sails to be filled by the wind of God’s Spirit. So, how do we do that? Sailing and seeking wisdom in Scripture both require basic skills that can be mastered only with practice.

The website “do-it-yourself.com” says of navigating a sailboat, “To a certain extent, sailing knowledge can be learned theoretically, but that must be followed by hands-on practice or else the student will have no point of reference….Navigating a sailboat takes a lot of practice, but it really only involves a few maneuvers that are repeated over and over again. Learning to perform them accurately on a moment’s notice and without losing speed is what separates experienced sailors from novices.”

In a few weeks, we will enter the season of Lent, a season when many people give something up or take something on in preparation for Easter. It is a time of intentional preparation, a time of seeking to go deeper, of searching ourselves for what hinders our sailboat from moving forward, a time of adjusting our sails. This year, I invite you to consider reading the Gospel of Luke during Lent. But, not in a way that you might have read it before. We will have calendars for you with just a few verses each day and instructions for a particular way of reading Scripture called lectio divina or “Divine Reading.” Christians have been catching the wind of God’s Spirit in their sails through lectio divina since the early 200’s, so for 1800 years. This way of reading the Bible is “rooted in the belief that through the presence of the Holy Spirit the Scriptures are…alive and active as we engage them for spiritual transformation.” (Barton)

Each day, you will have just a few verses of Scripture to read and reflect on, to consider what God is saying to you, how these words shape and form you into a disciple of Jesus. In a way, it’s like refolding the map, so that you are just looking at a part, and finding where you are and where you are going. Conveniently, there are 24 chapters in the Gospel of Luke and 24 days until Lent, so if you are so inclined, you could begin today reading a chapter each day in preparation, just to re-familiarize yourself with the way Luke tells the story of Jesus before we begin our Lenten practice of reading just a few verses each day to listen with our heart, hoisting our sail to catch the wind of God’s Spirit to direct our lives.

In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.