The Bible is a Drama

Last Tuesday I got to hear N.T. Wright speak, thanks to this event. I had seen the theologian's quotes plastered around the Internet and maybe a little bit of print media, but the presentation shed a bit more light about the man's views, which I generally find myself supporting. The presentation's title indicated that it was going to be a debate...why else would a UT philosophy professor take the stage with him...but as it turned out the philosophy professor was Christian as well, so the result was more of one person asking the other some rather hard questions and agreeing with the answers. A bit less interesting, and not what I, nor my pastor (who ran into me at the local taco shop that evening and invited me to the event), expected, but still worthwhile. In the next few posts I'll relay on some of the more interesting, or encouraging, things that Wright said during the event...I took notes.

For starters, there was the question toward the end of the event of why one should take the time to read the Bible.

Wright put it something like this: the Bible is a drama, a story of the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob promising to redeem a fallen world, and then making good on that promise. But this drama isn't simply a good story, to be read passively by an observer. It's one in which the reader can actually take part, where they can be a part of the process of bringing God's kingdom onto earth. The Bible informs the reader of their part, should they choose to accept it, and invites them to take on this dramatic mission. Reading the story, and internalizing it, is life-changing at a level that no other book can match.

So why do I bring this topic up as my first post, since I'm obviously not going chronologically through the talk? Quite simply, I need to hear this more often.

One of my goals for this year is to read the Bible all the way through. I decided to use the Chronological plan put together by Blue Letter Bible by way of YouVersion/Bible.com...and I'm currently about a month behind where I should be. Unlike in previous years though, I'm not dropping the plan just because I missed a day...or a week...or more than a week; I'll figure out a way to catch up to where the plan says I should be, hopefully by Easter. But let me tell you, sometimes putting forth the effort to read on a regular basis is a struggle.

That's why every so often I need to be reminded of the correct perspective on the Word: it's an inspired, living document with direct, transformative application to my life. It's a story with a full spectrum of emotion, one in which I can be an actor, but at the same time my most real self, if I choose to accept that mission. That's powerful stuff.

Where does that leave me right here, right now? The beginning of Numbers, at the moment. But somehow I found Levitical property law (every fifty years fields revert to their original owner if they're sold, and sold property can be redeemed for a price proportional to the time remaining until the fiftieth year, see Lev 25:23-34) quite interesting, so with a healthy dose of Divine intervention I'll make it all the way through the Bible, and gain a new perspective as a result, by year-end.