Charles Campbell recently spoke at the church where I am blessed to pastor--May 21st to be precise (http://rccaudio.christianwitness.us/).
His class "Reading the Bible in Dislocation" greatly impacted our church and some of our small groups are taking seriously the challenge of reading the Bible in multiple settings and spaces.
Campbell's premise is that the location, the very location, one reads Scripture in, will drastically shape the experience one has with the holy text. For instance, if I read Luke 4 (a prime story in the Luke narrative) in Starbuck's in downtown affluent Rochester, my experience, my understanding of the text, will be drastically different than if I am reading the text in say, a shelter for abused women. The words "The spirit is upon me to preach good news to the marginalized" can best be heard when it is read among the marginalized.
The key: remember that the goal is not "evangelism" per se but an opportunity for those who normally read the Bible in church, home, etc. to be changed by reading the Bible in the places in which most of Scripture's stories take place: market place, streets, foreign spaces.
One of my favorite lines from Cambpell's teaching time: "It is not that we good Christians posess Jesus in here and then somehow take Jesus outside to others. Jesus is already there--he's already outside! We are simply invited to go (outside) and meet him there," referencing Hebrews 13, "And so Jesus also suffered outside the city gate to make the people holy through his own blood. Let us, then to go to him outside the camp, bearing the disgrace he bore. For here we do not have an enduring city, but we are looking for the city that is to come."
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So our small group went yesterday to Metro Beach on the outskirts of Detroit to read the text in dislocation. Metro Beach just might be the most visible public space of the melting pot that is Detroit: Arabs, Eastern Europeans, affluent white and black, poor white and black, Asian, Laocian--we read the Creation Psalms and passages about community in Paul's thinking, etc.
It was a subltle shift, not as drastic as reading the text in the other places we plan on doing this summer, but a shift I consistently need in my life. I need the pace and rythym of my sheltered suburban life to be interrupted. And in the process, I hope to meet Jesus.
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2 comments:
Josh- His class has also rattled my worldview, my reading of scripture, and renewed the promise that Jesus is indeed already outside the camp, we just need to go meet Him there. We just sent another group on city search and had them do some of this reading throughout NYC. I'm interested to see their reactions. Keep it up!!!
But...but...you took the Bible outside of the sacred church walls!!! Are we allowed to do that?
Thanks, Josh. I wasn't able to hear Campbell so these tidbits help a lot.
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