Summertime, for me, includes an opportunity to catch up on my reading, which tends to be fairly eclectic. Although I’ve just started Josh Scott’s Bible Stories for Grown-Ups: Reading Scripture with New Eyes I feel comfortable recommending it to diocesan leaders, both lay and ordained.
Too many folks in our pews stopped doing formal Christian formation after Confirmation. Our skills at reading poetry and history and learning physics and creation care continue, but we are still stuck in time in a Sunday School classroom when it comes to opening the Bible. This little book offers a step forward, especially for beginners. But it also offers a nice review for people who lead or participate in Bible Studies across our diocese.
Scott looks at familiar Bible stories for an adult audience. He includes stories many of us first read as children, including Noah's Ark, the binding of Isaac, Jonah and the big fish, Jesus and Zacchaeus, Jesus healing a blind man, and the parable of the talents. In Bible Stories for Grown-Ups, Scott reimagines these stories and opens new visions for readers to understand well known pieces of Scripture in our current cultural environment.
This could be offered as a six-week study. One of the nice things about Zoom is that even when folks are traveling they could be connected to conversation with fellow parishioners through this. Or maybe some vestries will read this – and remember that vestry members are not just there to make decisions about money and buildings but also to serve as spiritual leaders, which includes some level of Biblical literacy.
RMS
