Opening the Word

Today, I just want to quote at length from the introduction to one of my favorite books, The Great Themes of Scripture -- Old Testament, by Richard Rohr and Joseph Martos:

It is so hard for us as educated and sophisticated, scientific and technological people to come to know the power of the Word of God.  One reason for this is that we cannot let go.  We do not really trust and believe that the Lord will speak to us, and so we remain forever outside of the dialogue. 

If you go to the Scriptures seeking an onlooker's knowledge of God, you will never grow in true knowledge of God.  If you stand back from the Scriptures like a cool critic and force the Word to prove itself in your life, you will never know its power to change your life.

The Bible was written in faith and it can be understood only in faith.  We must seek first the Kingdom.  We must allow ourselves to be children.  We must ask for the gift of the Spirit.  When we approach the Bible with this kind of faith, the words leap off the page and the Word speaks to our hearts. 

Franciscan theology tells us that love precedes knowledge.  We truly know only that which we love.  When we stand back analyzing and coolly calculating, we can never truly come to know anything.  It is only in stepping out and giving ourselves to a person or to an experience or to a word that the person or experience or word can speak to us.  You have to make the leap of faith, that act of love, that act of self-gift if you want to hear the Word of God speaking to you.

I cannot prove to you with any kind of logic or by any bit of philosophy that the Bible is, in fact, the Word of God.  But I call you to step out and trust, to listen and say, "Lord, if you are in fact the Lord, then show yourself in my life and speak to my heart."  Only when we have trusted God, put Him first and allowed Him to be the Lord, have we in fact known the power of His word.  Only then have we seen the power in our lives (p.9).

I can think of absolutely no better way to begin studying the Bible than with this prayer and attitude.  In fact, Rohr's words are the best explanation I have seen of the dividing line between being able to read the Bible and not being able to read more than just a little at a time -- and that only with determination.