Tuesday I had the pleasure of joining St. Anne's Chapter to present some thoughts on the topic "The Bible as Literature." Glenda Hogg had invited me months ago. From then to this week, I was sifting through piles of ideas every spare moment.
For a warm-up, I brought out examples of published writing from the past 100 years. Since St. Anne's chapter is part Bible study, I asked if anyone could think of any scriptures that corresponded. So, instructions for a DIY building project reminded them of chapters that describe the building of the tabernacle and the temple. Photos of Martin Luther King's original Letter from a Birmingham Jail reminded us of Paul's letters from jail, and also prophetic writings (as King foretells what's going to happen with Civil Rights). A barebacked cowboy with a pretty young woman reminded us of forbidden romances in Song of Songs and Jacob's ordeals trying to win Rachel in marriage. The group was stumped by a Batman comic from the 1940s that displayed Hitler, Mussolini, and Tojo exploded by a giant stick of dynamite. I asked how that cover made a person feel? "Good. Satisfied. Encouraged." Then we saw the relation to Revelation and Daniel and some revenge fantasies in the Psalms, written to give encouragement to believers under state persecution.
Then we studied an acrostic poem about B-A-S-E-B-A-L-L. Some were surprised to learn that many Psalms, all of Psalm 119, and portions of Lamentations are acrostics. That segued to our first activity.
Everyone wrote write an acrostic poem about the blessings in their lives, beginning each new sentence with one of the letters B - L - E - S - S, in that order. There was some dismay at first, but then people got into it. The results were clever and moving. A participant who said, "I'm no good at this," got applause when she read her poem. Hers was the only one that concluded with a rhymed couplet!
We also did some acting, getting into the minds of minor characters in a famous piece of literature, King Lear. It got pretty emotional, even for "Servant 2" who had no lines. As he has tied an old man to a chair that he stands behind as his king blinds the old man, what is he thinking? What is he feeling? Then Servant 1 steps forward to defend the old man from torture: does Servant 2 feel scared for his friend? ashamed of himself for not helping? When Regan demands his sword, he gives it to her without a word. In our meeting room, everyone was deeply involved in the emotions unspoken during this unspeakable act.
We wondered: Shakespeare's play is a fantasy about a legendary king, but is this scene "true?" After a pause, the room erupted with answers, reaching a consensus that "it's always true," because criminals and unchecked authoritarians resort to torture and put their guards and their citizens in the same situation somewhere in the world every day.
We related this imaginative experience with literature to the way Mother Mariclair had put herself in the roles of Mary, Joseph, and 12-year-old Jesus for her sermon Sunday.
Bottom line: We sell Scripture short if we read it only for lessons and instructions from the past. When we read the Bible the way we read literature, we are bringing God into the present with us.
The group had so much to say that I only got through half of my material!
No comments:
Post a Comment