Contemplating Luke

Here’s what we’re doing in the Wednesday night class I teach.

We begin with about ten minutes of introductory conversation/teaching. This usually has something to do with contemplative prayer or “lectio divina.” It’s part history lesson and part instruction.

Then we spend fifteen minutes in contemplative prayer/silence. I turn down the lights and we sit in silence as a group.

Then I read a chapter from the Gospel of Luke. I read it very slowly, paying attention to every phrase. I encourage the class to listen to the text being read, not follow along with me in their Bibles. Last Wednesday it took me nearly fifteen minutes to read Luke 7.

Then we spend the final minutes of class discussing what we heard in the text. This may happen in small groups or we may do it together as a class. The question I ask is “What did you hear in tonight’s text?” As the conversation develops I begin to sharpen the focus of the question to “Did you hear a Word in this text directed to you personally?”

Then we finish with a prayer.

So far the feedback from the class has been extremely positive. The silence has been hard. We sometimes find ourselves talking about the text in ways that are meant to distract us from whatever claim the text might be making on us personally. For the most part, this experience is being received as a welcome change to the usual Bible class format.

The reason I’ve taken the class in this direction is because I came to the conclusion last fall that all that was really happening in my class was a transfer of information. I was co-teaching a class on “How to Read the Bible for All It’s Worth” and it was obvious to me that while the class found the material interesting, something was missing. So we’re trying something different.

In no way am I wanting to abandon the sound Bible study principles I was taught in seminary. I’m just acknowledging that faithfully practicing and even teaching those principles is not enough. It’s good to study the Bible and I spend plenty of time doing that. On Wednesday nights, we’re giving Scripture some time to study us.