Without the usual contours of dressing up, getting in a car, and attending Sabbath school, church, and an array of church-sponsored activities, some people really struggle with how to fill the Sabbath hours. There are many great ways to do this, but I would like to start with something so basic, it almost seems too obvious: get reacquainted with your Bible.
If you have never read this fascinating book in a smooth, comfortable translation, you might be stunned by what’s actually in there—as well as what isn’t. If the only way you’ve experienced the Bible has been through sermons, prepared Bible studies, children’s movies, and devotional or even theological books, chances are that you’ve never been exposed to some of the most delightfully fascinating and bizarre stuff in there. In the process of adapting the thing for general audiences that usually include young children, by necessity some of the most interesting things in the Bible never make it into anyone’s sermons. When I started reading the Bible on my own around 4th grade in a translation I actually understood, I was kind of shocked by how much truly fascinating stuff was in there that no one had ever told me about. This began a life-long love affair with the Bible as written, with all of its messy gray areas and weird stories that spare no punches in talking about the faults of any of the supposed Bible “heroes.” A part of why so many people give up on reading the Bible after Genesis is that the law books really are heavy reading, and kind of act as a barrier between the incredible stories of the Exodus and the truly wild stuff in Judges and beyond. Maddeningly enough, frequently really interesting stories in, say, Numbers or Chronicles are bookended by boring lists that make people give up. For my money, the most interesting parts of Paul’s letters are tucked in between paragraphs of heavy theology that all the guys I went to school with nerd out over for some reason but I have to work to care about. So let me set you free just a little: start someplace interesting and feel free to skim when you hit something dull. Reading the Bible for pleasure is different than reading it for study—a worthwhile pursuit that I do a lot of, but one that can bog people down from the simple joy of just experiencing the Bible as a book. The first books I read in their entirety (during a boring sermon, ironically enough) were Ruth and Esther because they’re short and digestible, with a surprising amount of fun. The book of Esther is downright delightful to read out loud, and if you’ve never experienced it that way, it’s worth the 45 minutes with your family to do it properly. The Bible was originally written to be listened to, rather than read silently. In the centuries before widespread literacy, the vast majority of people heard the Bible read aloud and rarely had access to physical copies of the books themselves. Anyone with that kind of treasure was expected to share it by reading it out loud for the community. The beauty of this is that it makes the Bible fabulous fodder for the audiobook format that has become more accessible in recent years. Two of my favorites are the Dramatized NIV and the Word of Promise NKJV, which has sound effects and celebrities reading the different characters. There’s nothing quite like hearing the part of King Saul read by what I think is John Rhys-Davies. Undoubtedly, some parts of the Bible are easier to digest than others, and I would not recommend that anyone start in, say, Ezekiel. (After years of theological training, I still don’t understand at least half of what’s in there.) But for someone just starting to read the Bible on their own, the four gospels at the start of the New Testament are really fun, as are 1-2 Samuel because they’re all story and a bit lighter on the dense stuff that makes some of the rest of the Bible so hard. The point of the exercise is not to read the Bible for information, though there’s plenty of it in there, or even to deliberately search for devotional or moral tidbits, but to take pleasure in this incredible, bizarre, and wonderful masterpiece that has somehow survived millennia of wars, persecutions, plagues, and even the most dangerous threat of all: ease. The ease with which we can access the Bible makes it all too easy to take for granted. It’s easy to forget that so many people have given their lives so that we can enjoy that privilege. Let’s not waste their sacrifice, but celebrate it by drinking deeply of the riches they have preserved for us.
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AuthorJillian Lutes is the youth pastor at West Covina Hills Seventh-day Adventist Church. Archives
May 2020
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