Mtr Taylor Devine

Dear Friend,

When I was growing up I was not very Biblically literate. The parables and stories of Jesus were not normatively shared in my family, the stories of the Hebrew Bible seemed very far away, and it was not until later that I learned that so many sayings in our vernacular come from scripture. Because of my limited Biblical literacy as a child and teen, I had the experience of a new convert in later high school as the pieces started to come together through Church, youth activities, through reading the bible and about it. All the pieces that were just a given to many peers were a wonder to me - the prophecies that lined up, the tangled begats that lead to Jesus with a particularly beautiful family history. Then there are some surprises - how many Marys and Johns! How many different types of literature - prayer, prophecy, oral history, cautionary tales, regional admonitions, covenants, poetry, love songs!  How many regions’ philosophies making contact with this new Way! There’s lots to learn, to love, and with which to wrestle. 

When engaging with scripture afresh-be that in a new part of life, in today’s circumstances, or after some time apart, I wonder what can be done to form good soil into which the word of God can take root? How can we receive it with joy as our Gospel passage says today? I was excited to hear that this week our Women’s Bible Study is starting on Rachel Held Evans’ Inspired. The group has been meeting for a little over two years and has studied many of the books of the Bible, an abridged version called The Path and has been a place of spiritual, theological and relational growth. The author of Inspired had a very different path than mine. She was steeped in the scriptures, her whole worldview and vocabulary shaped by it. She had the content with which to wrestle ready at hand. And still she had to cultivate rich soil for it to be able to take root in new ways in new seasons with new responsibilities and callings.

I have a few practiced guesses for what might help us to build that good soil with God’s help so that we can hear God’s word through scripture and through our neighbors, and I bet you do too.  Practicing listening together in some kind of community be it a close friend over the phone or with family, listening to scripture read aloud or reading it aloud yourself, starting in the Psalms when you're not sure where to start, pray with and write or get creative with phrases you want to remember. Look for patterns of hope, faith, redemption. It can feel like having to start anew when our lives change and we seek the word of God again. May the soil of your heart be nurtured so that the word can take root today.

In Christ,
Mtr Taylor