Quaker Bible Study at Philadelphia Yearly Meeting's 2020 annual sessions

Last summer I led two online Quaker Bible studies during Philadelphia Yearly Meeting's annual sessions in summer 2020. It was PhYM's 340th annual sessions, and their first-ever conducted entirely online.

Earlier in the week, civil rights leader and US Representative John Lewis had died, and his memorial services were held as PhYM sessions were starting. I remembered a clip of Rep. Lewis giving words of encouragement to a young man who asked him to record a message for his sister:

Last year I got to ask @repjohnlewis to record a brief video message for my little sister, who had been learning about him in class. Many politicians wouldn't have taken even the 20 seconds he did to make a stranger's day, let alone been so profound. Keep fighting, Congressman. pic.twitter.com/WLwHOpo7gF

— Elijah Jacob Mears (@ElijahJMears) December 30, 2019

For the first session, on 7/31/2020, I embedded the video in my slide deck, and found biblical passages that resonated strongly with many of the phrases he used. In the context of that week, and the presence in mind of Rep. Lewis's legacy, it was a very powerful time together.

Here's the slide presentation from that session.

For the second day, on 8/1/2020, I looked at some passages from Psalms and explored how they may resonate for us today. Here's that slide show.

To be honest, it did not feel nearly as focused as the first session.

Here's an interview that PhYM staff did with me by email afterwards.

Truly, it was a privilege to be able to lead Bible study with Philadelphia Friends. This library of ancient texts from very different cultures and societies can still speak to us today, if we enter into that Spirit that still inhabits those texts.

Origen's Goal Was Different

I've been meaning for some time to post about some of the interesting books I've read lately, by Geza Vermes, Shane Claiborne and Chris Haw, Doug Pagitt, and the editors of Plain magazine.

However, this week while Robin and the boys are away, I had time to attend midweek meeting for worship, and go to dinner with a friend afterwards for two hours, for some tasty Vietnamese food; and then to attend the Thursday night Quaker study group tonight. So I haven't had as much time for writing as I might have.

The Thursday night group is reading Quakerism: A Theology for Our Times by Patricia Williams. They're on page 60. Our group was bristling at some of the assumptions, and some of the projection of contemporary Quaker views back in time onto Fox and Barclay as quasi-original universalists.

On the BART ride home, I was reading Karen Armstrong's The Bible: A Biography and found passages in there that spoke to what we had been discussing. So I typed a couple of passages up and emailed them to people in the group. And I wanted to share this one here, too, since it's typed up already, from pages 111-112:

Exegesis brought the interpreter and his students a moment of ekstasis, a ‘stepping outside’ of the mundane. Modern biblical scholarship seeks to place a text in the worldly economy of academe, treating it like any other ancient document. Origen’s goal was different…. ‘The contents of scripture are outward forms of certain mysteries and the images of divine things,’ he explained. When he perused the New Testament, he was constantly ‘amazed by the deep obscurity of the unspeakable mysteries contained therein’; at every turn he came upon ‘thousands of passages that provide, as if through a window, a narrow opening leading to multitudes of deepest thoughts.’

For me, modern biblical scholarship definitely opens fascinating windows into the texts of the Bible. Yet the purpose in the end is to open the mysteries, not to figure out "the facts" underlying all these manifold bits of spirituality, morality, allegory, ritual, poetry, folklore, myth, history, and wisdom teaching which have been put together in the sprawling, puzzling, inspiring, and fascinating book called the Bible.

Guest Post: Our Relationship with God

From a flyer distributed at SF Friends Meeting:

Our relationship with God, with the Bible as Record and Guide
5 sessions facilitated by Krista Barnard

Have you been intending to do some Bible reading, but feel like it’s too difficult? Or too conservative?

Have you wondered what the Bible has to do with the spiritual life of a 21st century Quaker?

If so, you aren’t the only one. The Bible belongs to us, not just to people in the distant past or to some of our contemporaries who want to use a literal reading of the text to shape the science curriculum. Our Quaker faith is deeply rooted in the Bible, and exploring the Bible can nourish our faith, enrich our understanding of our history, and provide language for communicating about the ineffable. Join us at the Quaker Meetinghouse in San Francisco to consider a series of aspects of our relationship with God, as illuminated by stories and images from the Old and New Testament. Ours is an experiential religion, in which George Fox urges us to come to understand the scriptures by the Spirit of God in ourselves, and I will weave in examples of my approaches to the Bible and its impact on my spiritual life over the last decade, and encourage your participation in group discussion, writing, and vocal ministry.

This series is in part a basic introduction to the Bible, and I will not assume participants have much background. I intend each session to be self-contained, with no outside preparation or attendance of prior sessions expected. The first, introductory session, held after Sunday meeting for worship, will be primarily a lecture. The following four sessions, held on Tuesdays after our regular evening meeting for worship, will be more interactive. Bring a Bible with you, or use one of the ones that will be available for use during the sessions.

(1) Introduction – Sunday, January 20, at 1 p.m. – The place of the Bible in my own spiritual life, an introduction to the Bible itself (parts, languages, dates, types of writing, etc.), and the Bible as a history of a changing relationship with God and a guide to ongoing relationship.

Tuesday evening sessions – bring a bag dinner to eat if you wish.
» Worship then time for dinner: 6:00 – 7:00 p.m.
» Program: 7:00 – 9:00 p.m.

(2) Hallowed Be Thy Name: Who is God? – Tuesday, January 29, 7:00 p.m. – A kaleidoscope of views of God found in the Bible, including God as one with whom we argue, one in whose image we are made, one who asks us to do things (even things we don’t think we can). Yahweh is as close as a spouse or parent, yet is one whom we cannot understand or look directly upon. God the Father/Son/Holy Spirit guides us, prays for us, gives us strength, loves us, forgives us, baptizes us with spirit and fire, and tells us to rest.

(3) Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread: Prayer – Tuesday, February 5, 7:00 p.m. – A survey of some of the prayers that are in the Bible, particularly in the Book of Psalms; some of what Jesus and Paul say about prayer; and some ways passages in the Bible can be adapted as prayers. Prayer can take other forms than spoken words. Vocal prayer is rare in our meetings for worship, and we tend to be more comfortable saying “hold in the Light” than “pray for”.

(4) On Earth as It Is in Heaven: Discerning and Obeying God’s will – Tuesday, Feb 19, 7 p.m. – Learning what God wants us to do is done in a variety of ways in the Bible, including drawing lots, interpreting dreams, asking for signs, and hearing from messengers (angels and prophets). While none of these look much like meeting for business, there are many instances of something we Quakers are still creating: epistles to other people trying to follow the Way.

(5) Forgive Us Our Sins – Tuesday, Feb 26, 7 p.m. – Actually doing what we are told is even harder. Sin is that which draws us away from God. Early Quakers spoke of being convicted. Now we don’t speak much of sin and confession and repentance and forgiveness. But God’s forgiveness is an essential part of our relationship with the Divine and with one another. We can see it throughout, from the penitential psalms to Jesus’s instruction to forgive 70 x 7 times. Powerful stories include Jesus’ washing the feet of the disciples and Jesus’ praying, “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.”

[Updated 1/22/08: Corrected date for session (5), 2/26/08.]

Echoes

This year, I've been reading the books of the Bible that I've never read in whole before. That included the minor prophets earlier this year.

Just this month I've read Proverbs in its entirety for the first time. Here is the passage that stood out for me (from the Oxford study edition of the Revised English Bible):

Two things I ask of you --
do not withhold them in my lifetime;
put fraud and lying far from me; give me neither poverty nor wealth,
but provide me with the food I need,
for if I have too much I shall deny you and say, "Who is the Lord?"
and if I am reduced to poverty I shall steal
and besmirch the name of my God.

-- Proverbs 30:7-9

Could this be an echo?

Give us this day our daily bread.

-- Matthew, Chapter 6:11