Binge Lit
While the idea of “binge-watching” the latest series on Netflix has been possible only for the last decade or so (are you old enough to remember having to wait an entire week for the next installment of your favorite show to arrive?), folks have been “binge-reading” their favorite books and novels for centuries. I have happy memories of getting lost for evenings - even days! - when I first discovered The Chronicles of Narnia or my elementary school favorite, the Encyclopedia Brown series. Later, my tastes matured a little bit: Lord of the Rings and Sherlock Holmes, and there are still times - a cold winter afternoon, for example - when a cup of tea and a great book are just the thing for me.
God wants us to have that kind of relationship with the Bible: a book that we love to read, that we love to devour, a book that we can’t get enough of. Do you know anybody who loves the Bible like this? Who not only wants to “eat the Book” as we’ve been saying around church lately, but who delights in bingeing the Bible as well?
When my home church gave me my first Bible in the second grade, I fell in love with Psalms and the Proverbs. I read and reread them over and over. (A little weird, I admit). At that point in life, I wanted to be either a professional baseball player or a Biblical poet – can’t say that either has panned out – but a boy can dream, can’t he?
What attracted me to the Psalms and Proverbs (aka “Wisdom Literature” of the Bible in general) was that it didn’t sound like anything else that I was reading in school or in my free time. The words, images, and style seemed otherworldly and transcendent to my little imagination. I still feel the same way. Hands down, in my daily Bible-in-a-year reading, the Psalm reading always gives me a little rush of energy.
Unlike poetry in the English language, where words often rhyme, the Hebrew language poetry of the Bible (Psalms, Proverbs, Prophets, and others) has ideas that rhyme. Again, this is not the way we typically do things in English. Sometimes, the Bible’s poetic ideas mutually reinforce each other - almost saying the same thing twice, but with a twist. Sometimes, rhyming ideas progress in depth and significance. Sometimes rhyming ideas actually clash with one another - one amazing example of this is from Proverbs 26:4-5
Do not answer a fool according to his folly,
or you yourself will be just like him.
Answer a fool according to his folly,
or he will be wise in his own eyes.
Well, Bible, which is it?! That’s the point… you need wisdom and discernment! Speaking of which, there is a character in the book of Proverbs, Lady Wisdom, who appears in the pages of that book to invite God’s people to heed God’s ways (1:20ff) and even invites the simple (that’s you and me!) to come over to her house to eat her bread and wine (9:2).
Wonderfully, this Sunday’s worship service embodies the call of Lady Wisdom as we get to come to Jesus’ table for Communion together. And we have Erin Pacheco, a wise woman in her own right, who will open up Psalm 1 in this Sunday’s sermon to help us savor the Poetry and Wisdom Literature that comprises nearly 33% of God’s Word.
– Pastor Gregg