And So, Without Further Ado...

This will be short and jumbled, because it's late, but she who blogs blogs best.

I'm taking an Old Testament class on Wednesday nights-- it started in early September and goes through May. That's the easiest way to explain it. It's not a straight up OT class, exactly-- it's part of Sewanee's Education for Ministry program, which you can learn more about via the link at the bottom of this page. It sort of freaks me out that I'm involved in something related to Sewanee, as Sewanee is my father's alma mater and he and I are like night and day theologically, but I guess that's kind of a beautiful thing, too.

Anyway, I've spent the majority of my life as a church-goer avoiding reading the Bible. Yes-- the Bible is "important," and yes, I would have told you that, but Episcopalians are so liturgically minded and so in love with our little rituals that there really is kind of a culture that finds the liturgy sufficient. And for a long time, for me, it was.

But then I joined a church I loved, with a Bible study full of thinking people who weren't going to insist that the Noah story actually happened or that gay people are sinners, and I became more involved in that church through its soup kitchen, and got to know one of the priests a little bit, and...well...got kind of curious about the Bible.


Mr. Milkweed and I play "Where's Waldo?" amidst the parishoners at our annual church retreat. Taken in front of the Cathedral Shrine of the Transfiguration at Shrine Mont.

So now I'm reading it. Not just reading it-- I'm actually studying it, with course materials and assignments. I'm learning about the documentary hypothesis, and what ancient pre-Israelitic stories are echoed in parts of Genesis, and I'm examining what was happening in Hebrew society at the time these writers were writing.

Here's something important-- the Bible is full of myths. Not myths like fairy tales or quaint childish stories, but myths like the deepest expressions of truth of which a people can speak. All of this zany stuff in the OT-- the idea of Adam and Eve, arks crash-landing on mountains, wise old men supposedly living hundreds of years-- is grounded in the cultural and political world of the ancient Hebrews, but there are still things in it relevant to my life today. (My life-- maybe your life, and maybe not, but definitely my life.) Is all of it relevant? Not in any kind of one-to-one relationship. Some of it is just puzzling.

At any rate, though, I love studying this stuff. I love how sometimes it's immediately obvious what we should take away as thinking, science-loving, modern readers, and sometimes it's just a matter of understanding why these writers needed to write these things. I love what actually reading the Bible has done for my faith-- not shatter it, as I was afraid it would, but deepen it. I especially love the community of women with whom I share my weekly class. The community there is one of the most powerful segments of this whole experience.

There's more to write-- much more. About how disgusted I am with the evangelical wing of the church, and how it's clouded Christianity in general. About how much I think liberal protestant churches need some easily identifiable leaders who can speak up and out about the fact that their version of Christianity ISN'T THE WHOLE PICTURE. But, like I said, it's late. More when I have a chance.