Mtr Beth Clarke

Friends in Christ,

On a recent episode of one of my favorite podcasts, Ask N.T. Wright Anything, a listener asked why it can be challenging to get much out of certain books of the Bible when we encounter them a little bit at a time in the Daily Office. I found this question profoundly relatable.

The renowned English theologian offered an answer I knew to be true, but the reminder helped my prayer life this week: some books of the Bible lend themselves well to being broken down lectionary-style. Others, really, do not.

Leviticus, Wright’s example, can feel like an odd, disconnected collection of things you should and should not do when encountered piecemeal. Read as a whole, however, a larger vision emerges: a story about holiness, worship, community, and a people learning to order their lives in God’s presence.

I find this deeply true of Job.

We have been reading Job in the Daily Office for more than a week. Taken as individual passages, it can feel disconnected and a bit relentless. Today, Job is furious with his friends and demands an answer from God: “How many are my iniquities and my sins? Make me know my transgression and my sin.” But there is no answer, at least not yet. For that, we have to wait another two and a half weeks.

Feeling myself plodding through, I took Wright’s advice and read Job all at once, like a story. I have done this before, but I confess, it has been a while.

What emerged was a coherent story. Job’s anguish, his conversations, his arguments with God: suddenly, they were engaging rather than disjointed. The raw, strangely relatable narrative evoked questions of cosmic size, and when God finally spoke, his response was profound. The story was alive and anything but disconnected.

And it only took about 45 minutes.

So my food for thought this week is really Wright’s: perhaps the answer to struggling through small bits of Scripture isn’t less Scripture, but more. Try reading or listening to the entire book in one go. Many are quite short.

After all, these books were not written for the lectionary; the lectionary was written for the books. They were composed as complete texts, with their own unique shaping and movements. Sometimes understanding Scripture requires us not to scrutinize one passage more closely, but to step back and appreciate the whole.

Yours in Christ,

—Mtr Beth