To celebrate today’s holiday, I’m going to forgo candy and instead eat plenty of my favorite sweet – my kind of chocolate cake.
The holiday I’m talking about, as you might guess, is not Halloween. For me, ghosts and goblins, or even folks dressing up as the latest pop sensation, misses the real excitement of today.
Rather, the holiday I’m going to celebrate today is Reformation Day. Today remembers that day in 1517 when Martin Luther posted his 95 theses on a church door in Wittenberg, thereby challenging the received religious wisdom of the day.
His bold action was prompted by his own Bible reading, and helped set off a new enthusiasm for that practice. As I like to tell my friends, reading the Bible is not the religious “chore” some people think. Instead, reading the biblical text is like eating chocolate cake: just plan scrumptious. And, unlike indulging in a carbohydrate-rich extravaganza, Bible reading is not fattening.
I have never quite understood why some people don’t like to read the Bible. Maybe it reminds them of an unhappy childhood in Sunday school class. I suspect one of the reasons is that they assume that the Bible is too hard to understand, so why bother when the easy stuff (videos or pop novels) is so readily available.
But think about it. The book has a compelling protagonist: God, maker of heaven and earth. So maybe a little effort is in order. It’s also not as difficult as many people assume.
Let’s do the math. About 1,200 chapters: some 900 in the OT, just under 300 in the NT. That means that by reading just two chapters a day (at most a 20-minute project), you can polish off the entire text in under two years.
Me, I like to jump around. I’ll read a New Testament gospel (maybe Mark – 16 chapters, how hard can that be?) followed by an Old Testament history book (I Samuel, anyone?). Then I’ll zip through an Old Testament “minor” (i.e. shorter) prophet. (What does Micah have to say?)
For heaven’s sake (pun intended), don’t start at the beginning and hope to plow through to Revelation. If you do, you’ll probably feel like you’ve fallen into quicksand when you get to Leviticus (the third book) because it is mostly a detailed list of ceremonial laws and feasts. (By the way, Leviticus is a very interesting book, mostly for prophetic reasons. But it will likely overwhelm a first-time reader. So maybe wait until you’re a more experienced text traveler.)
Might I also suggest that you read each day’s two chapters twice: first, in a paraphrase (which puts the text in easy-to-understand “your own words” language) and then in a literal translation. It takes a few extra minutes, but it is well worth the extra effort. Reading a Bible that breaks up the text with chapter “headlines” also helps.
But why do I say that reading the Bible is like eating chocolate cake? Isn’t it just a bunch of children’s stories with a lot of do’s and don’ts thrown in?
Well, for one thing, the protagonist (remember him?) makes an audacious claim. If you are open to hearing what he has to say to you personally while you’re reading the text, he will talk to you. Not audibly, of course, but in a way that is unmistakable.
Even John Grisham’s heroes, as interesting as they might be, won’t do that.
And if you follow politics, you might also find your views changing on the hot topics of the day, from amnesty for undocumented workers to how Mark Zuckerberg’s gift to the Newark schools is working out.
You will also stop saying such biblically illiterate things like “Jesus never said anything about homosexuality” or (my favorite bad example) “the Bible says God helps those who help themselves.”
Reading the Bible regularly will also help you see though much of the nonsense we get from Washington and the nation’s media these days. Think of the biblical text as a way to measure the truth of what you’re hearing.
In an earlier time, Martin Luther discovered much the same thing. His Bible reading led him to conclude that the powers that be weren’t being entirely honest with him. Reading the biblical text enabled him to discover the truth for himself.
You don’t have to be of that time period, or of any particular denomination, to make the same discovery. The biblical text will set you free. And the meal is delicious. Think chocolate cake.