How do we continue to learn and grow in our Christian identity?
Most of us learn and grow in worship, one hour out of 168, or .6%, less than 1% of our week. So how can we get the most out of this valuable time?
In typical worship services we might hear four bible texts, like a shopping list to keep a balanced diet: 1 Old Testament, 1 Psalm, 1 New Testament, and 1 Epistle (a sprinkle of Paul’s letters to keep us regular). Each text is a tiny taste of a book rather like having a sampler--a few verses of a Will Shakespeare play, a smattering of Keats, a soupçon of Dickens, rounded out by a verse or two of Emily Dickenson--to say we know English literature. If we come to worship every week for years and years and years, we might get to know these ancient texts that inform and shape our beliefs. However, a few verses a week of Will’s plays, randomly chosen, do not give us any sense of a whole play--its story, its meaning, its humour, or its tragedy.
So to address this learning challenge of only knowing snippets of ancient texts, we are going to explore the whole gospel of Matthew throughout our season of epiphany, from January 9 to March 6. We won’t be able to read the whole book in worship, but what we will read are sections each week. To fill in the gaps, you might want to try out reading this book from beginning to end as a whole to get its full flavor. You could read it out loud as a family or a couple--it was meant to be read out loud. With 662 verses in 28 chapters, it’s only 20 pages in my bible--a quick read by book standards.
Here are a few factoids to whet your appetite:
· Matthew is the first book in the New Testament so it’s easy to find
· Scholars have many ideas about who might have written this book; it was most probably a Jewish writer for a Jewish audience
· At this point, Matthew is about one thousand, nine hundred and thirty years old making it the oldest book you may have read so far
For those who prefer to read a book by watching a movie, keep posted for two interesting viewings of Matthew’s gospel later in January:
“Gospel According to St. Matthew” by director Pier Paolo Pasolini (http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20040314/REVIEWS08/403140301/1023 )
“The Visual Bible: Matthew” by director Reghardt van den Bergh (http://www.amazon.com/Schoonhoven-Marchiano-Charlton-Jonathan-OShuaghnessy/dp/B0002UBX54/ref=lh_ni_t_ )
Happy Epiphany!
Abigail
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