Rooted in the Word

Finally! This month I get to write about something truly near and dear to my heart. Something I think I’m half way good at. Not that prayer and inviting aren’t important. They are, and I won’t go into that again. But ‘study,’more specifically, Bible study. Ah. For me, that is where it is at.

It is in Bible study where I find my deepest fellowship. Every week I get to gather with the Seekers, those people I love so very dearly, and we sit around our square round table - it’s 4 long banquet tables set in a square – and we read The Word, and we talk, - over, around and with each other. We debate and share and laugh and cry. And we question: “Why wouldn’t Jesus let that poor man bury his father?” “Why does Jesus use yeast to represent evil in one chapter and then turn right around and use it to represent good in the next? It’s very confusing.” "Is there such a thing as an unforgivable sin?”

A couple of years ago I was asked to give a Lay Bible study at the Synod assembly. My first thought was: what in the heck can an old broad like me who hasn’t had a lick of theological training teach a bunch of pastors and really smart lay people? What can they possibly learn from me?  I had no idea. So, my first question was,

            “Why me?”

            “Because” she said, “you have a passion for Bible Study.”

Well... that’s true. I do. I love it. I really do. I love this stuff. These Scriptures, this word  of God, this Book of Faith. I love growing in the language of faith.

So, I said to the assembly, and I’m saying to you, let’s turn to Scripture, open our Bibles, our Books of Faith, and have some fun! – Bible study is supposed to be fun, you know. . . If you don’t, you should. Even if you are Lutheran, and maybe even, Gosh! Scandinavian. (I actually said this. But that’s neither here nor there.)

The theme of the Assembly was: Rooted in the Word. The Bible passage: Psalm 1:1-3. Since we aren’t sitting around that square round table reading the Scripture lesson together a verse at a time, and since I can’t quite picture you running to get and open your Bible to follow along with what I’m going to say, I’m including it from three different interpretations/translations:

Happy are those who do not follow the advice of the wicked, or take the path that sinners tread, or sit in the seat of scoffers;

            but their delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law they meditate day and night.

They are like trees planted by streams of water, which yield their fruit in its season, and their leaves do not wither. In all that they do, they prosper. NRSV

Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers.

            But his delight is in the law of the Lord, an on his law he meditates day and night.

He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers. NIV

How well God must like you – you don’t hang out at Sin Saloon, you don’t slink along Dead-End Road, you don’t go to Smart-Mouth College.

            Instead you thrill to God’s Word, you chew on Scripture day and night.

You’re a tree replanted in Eden, bearing fruit every month. Never dropping a leaf, always in blossom. MESSAGE

What we have here is a Sage passing on a bit of Wisdom - this is after all, a Wisdom Psalm.

Verse 1 says: Here’s how life is.

Verse 2: Here’s how to live it.

Verse 3: Here’s how it will be for you if you do.

The key word here is the first word. Not only is it the key word of Psalm 1, my Rabbi friend, Simcha, tells me that it is the key word for the entire Book of Psalms.

            Your Bible may read:  Blessed

            Or: Happy 

                                   

In the Hebrew Bible, the first word is AWHSH RAY, (that’s the phonetic spelling!) which means, Fortunate. Fortunate is he or she. Or they. What does it mean to consider someone fortunate? It would have to be someone substantial in a way we respect, or at least admire. Right? Someone with status, recognized in the community, a role model.

Someone who has been there, done that and has the scars to show for it. Who can say with authority:

            In this world there are wrong-doers, don’t take advice from those guys.

            Some people are just downright evil, don’t throw in with them.

            And some people get their greatest kicks from making fun of you, putting you down and making you  

            feel like – a loser, stupid, dumb, ugly, clumsy, inept, inadequate, that people won’t like you, you 

            won’t ever be part of the crowd. Don’t listen to them.

That last may seem like the most innocuous of the temptations, but it’s really the most insidious. It strikes at who we are. Who we want to be.

Some of the most frequent words out of my 15-year-old granddaughter’s mouth are: “Justin made me do it," or ‘Mackensie made me do it.’ And I keep saying, “Sweetie, nobody can make you do something you don’t want to do, or know is wrong. You can say ‘no.’ You can say, ‘that’s not how I want to act.' You can walk away. Or, if none of these work for you, you can always fall back on the greatest of earthly scapegoats - parents. Dad and Mom!” And of course her response is, “Like duh, no, then they won’t want to be friends with me.”

We smile and we laugh and take some smug and maybe perverse satisfaction in the fact that we’re no longer that age and therefore no longer susceptible to such pressures.

But we are, aren’t we? We all make similar choices, rationalize in similar ways, in large and small situations. I mean, what if I speak up about what I believe and people didn’t agree with me, or get uncomfortable, or upset, or worse, are offended, then what?

Among the Seekers is a life-battered, faith sustained saint with a crooked and tarnished halo and a salty vocabulary who’d say, “Yeah, and Jesus said, you stand up for me, I’ll stand up for you. So what if people think you’re looney tunes.” (I cleaned that up for your tender eyes/ears.)

The point is: We all crave approval and acceptance. I do. And if you’re honest, with yourself, you’ll admit that you do, too. Much as we like to think we do, could, would, want to and will, we all hesitate and too often fail to take risks for and with the Word,-- in our prayer life, our personal lives, our public lives, and yes, even from the pulpit.

I think this fortunate man or woman of Psalm 1 failed, too, and paid the price so they’re able to say:

            Don’t make the same mistakes I did, you’ll have plenty of time and opportunity to make your own..

            Hold fast to, and find joy in what you know, what has stood you in good stead to this point,

            Pick up this Book of Faith, grow ever more fluent in this language of faith, faith that has and does and 

            will sustain you.

            Open it up everyday, read, underline, highlight, make margin notes, dog-ear it, have fourteen  or twenty book marks or however many you need to mark the passages that speak most 

profoundly to you.

"Read, underline, highlight, make margin notes..."  Our 3rd grade Sunday School class received
their Bibles yesterday at worship and this was the same message given to them.

Keep reading this Law, this Gospel, the Psalmist is saying, keep learning. Keep in mind and practice what you learn and life will go well with you. You will be dug up from a life without God in it, and transplanted into a life in and with God, where all you need will be yours for the asking and in all the ways that matter, you will thrive and flourish, and because you do, others will, too.

I love that image of being transplanted, of being re-Rooted in the Word. If you’re a gardener, you know that when you transplant a tree, you dig a million$ hole for a $10 tree. You fertilize it, water it, mulch it and then you wait, eagerly, anxiously, with hope. The first year it sleeps, the second year it creeps, and finally the third year it leaps. It takes time to settle roots in new soil and to learn how to draw water from those ever-flowing streams.

What does it mean to delight in the word, to meditate and  gnaw day and night on the Law, the Word, God’s Not So Little Instruction Book? For me, alone, but especially when I open this Book of Faith with others is when I most often feel that I’m in God’s presence. Somehow, by the grace of God, week by week, year by year, I feel myself becoming more firmly rooted in the word, and my heart growing closer to the heart of God. I figure if I ever get to the point when I think I know it all and understand exactly what everything means, chapter and verse, I’ll be in real trouble. Somebody once said, when you get to that point, you definitely need a second opinion.

May your life’s walk through this Book of Faith be a sacred journey. And at each step along the way may you grow more deeply and fully Rooted in the Word.

Blessings as you continue to walk in the mystery.

Janet M