by Emily Joye Reynolds
Koinonia is focusing its Lenten journey on The Book of Job. We will spend 6 weeks in a sermon series on the text, and then culminate our study with an improvisational "trial" held the week before Easter. I've asked all those who worship in Koinonia to pick a particular character from Job, to follow and deepen their study of that character each week, and to then participate in the trial as that character. We've never done anything like this in Koinonia before. Here's why I am excited about it.
Too often we read the Bible as observers, with our heads, distanced from the Biblical content by history, geography, culture and bodily space. We rarely feel with the characters, or enter into those stories body, mind and soul. Some of the stories are so familiar to us after a lifetime of sitting in church, that we barely pay attention to the details. We hope for a new angle of interpretation if the preacher is really on her game. But how often do we get into the Bible, into the stories, with our whole selves?
I remember attending a workshop on transgressive Biblical interpretation at the U.S. Social Forum, hosted by World & Word, in 2010. It was my first year as your pastor. I drove all the way to Detroit to attend this workshop. I didn't get anything out of it, except the importance of using drama as a means of entering the Biblical world. I watched a group of adults do an improvisational enactment of the "Parable of the Shrewd Manager" that totally changed the way I understood that story. It was profound. We tend to think of skits, role-plays, and theatrical exercises as kid’s stuff. That day showed me what a huge spiritual misconception that is for adults. When we enter the biblical world, creatively, mind body and soul, those stories change us and we change them.
On Maundy Thursday we are going to put "God on Trial" as part of our Lenten series on Job. If you've read the book, you know the overarching themes are: human suffering, faithfulness, endurance, questioning and God's role in the world's affairs. The story doesn't end in neat and tidy little boxes for us. Some questions go unanswered. Others are answered insufficiently. The reader comes away in wonder, wandering still. One of the things I hope will happen as we put God on trial, is that members of Koinonia will experience a new way of relating to our tradition. I hope they will orient to scripture and tradition as participants, not just observers. There's so much meaning to be had in participating, in struggling, with what gets unearthed in Job.
But here's a kick: what gets unearthed in Job is what gets unearthed in us as we live this life. Entering that story is entering into our own story and God's story in an attempt to figure out what we know, what we don't know, and why it all matters. Blessings to you on the (bumpy, rocky, rough and rugged ) road to Easter.
Too often we read the Bible as observers, with our heads, distanced from the Biblical content by history, geography, culture and bodily space. We rarely feel with the characters, or enter into those stories body, mind and soul. Some of the stories are so familiar to us after a lifetime of sitting in church, that we barely pay attention to the details. We hope for a new angle of interpretation if the preacher is really on her game. But how often do we get into the Bible, into the stories, with our whole selves?
I remember attending a workshop on transgressive Biblical interpretation at the U.S. Social Forum, hosted by World & Word, in 2010. It was my first year as your pastor. I drove all the way to Detroit to attend this workshop. I didn't get anything out of it, except the importance of using drama as a means of entering the Biblical world. I watched a group of adults do an improvisational enactment of the "Parable of the Shrewd Manager" that totally changed the way I understood that story. It was profound. We tend to think of skits, role-plays, and theatrical exercises as kid’s stuff. That day showed me what a huge spiritual misconception that is for adults. When we enter the biblical world, creatively, mind body and soul, those stories change us and we change them.
On Maundy Thursday we are going to put "God on Trial" as part of our Lenten series on Job. If you've read the book, you know the overarching themes are: human suffering, faithfulness, endurance, questioning and God's role in the world's affairs. The story doesn't end in neat and tidy little boxes for us. Some questions go unanswered. Others are answered insufficiently. The reader comes away in wonder, wandering still. One of the things I hope will happen as we put God on trial, is that members of Koinonia will experience a new way of relating to our tradition. I hope they will orient to scripture and tradition as participants, not just observers. There's so much meaning to be had in participating, in struggling, with what gets unearthed in Job.
But here's a kick: what gets unearthed in Job is what gets unearthed in us as we live this life. Entering that story is entering into our own story and God's story in an attempt to figure out what we know, what we don't know, and why it all matters. Blessings to you on the (bumpy, rocky, rough and rugged ) road to Easter.
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