As Lent has begun, I pause to reflect on what we’ve covered over the past two months in thinking together about How to Read the Bible. The biggest takeaway, for me, has to be a bit simplistic, and yet ultimately the truth of the matter: the only way to read the Bible is to read the Bible. Take the plunge. Try a different end of the pool. Splash around. See what a different stroke accomplishes. Try it with one of our groups. Know that God, like a parent with a child in the water, loves watching.

Know also that you can trust this book, the Bible, and the endeavor of reading. It has its way of engaging in secret work inside you, over time, and surprise, surprise: after a long while, you begin to think biblically, and live biblically. Your holiness inches upward. Your wisdom soars. Your actions are spurred on for God.

Theologian Kevin Vanhoozer reminds us that the Bible once shaped civilization – and believes it could again. A stretch? What else could reshape our culture in healthy, hopeful ways? There’s so much shabbiness, disgust, blame, and darkness. Morals are only spoken of when faulting other people. It’s as if we’ve forgotten how to be good, and to love and rise above pettiness. Everything’s about me, or my tribe, forgetting I’m here and we’re all here, even our country, for the good of others.

Human authors writing very human words about God become God’s voice to us – if we don’t begin with what we hope to find in there or what in there we’ll test to see if it suits or not. We let it be what it is and bring love and wonder and openness to the impossible when we read, or, as Vanhoozer puts it, “the Bible is a sleeping message awaiting the princely reader’s kiss of life.”

The princess in his analogy doesn’t spring to life and run away. The two bond. Vanhoozer suggests that in the Bible we can detect words that are nothing less than God’s vows to us. What more sacred words do we utter than “I James take you Lisa to be my wedded wife… in sickness and in health… til death do us part”? God makes promises, and keeps them. God is with us, period, and weaves holiness and wisdom into us, which we need more than our retirement portfolio or a fun getaway.

Maybe we’re the ones sound asleep, needing the Bible to kiss us into wakefulness. A little more from Vanhoozer: “The Bible questions us – places us before God, and renders us accountable to God.” Isn’t that the best possible use of whatever freedom we think we have? And then, “To read the Bible is to have one’s politics, agenda, and identity – one’s very sense of self – stripped bare before the text.” Our politics, whichever “side” you’re on, usurp God’s place, but the Bible offers a wiser, more hopeful politics. My agenda needn’t be driven from outside myself; the great saints made what they read in Scripture their to-do list for the day. And who are you, after all? A consumer? A victim? A worker? A burden? You are God’s precious one who can be a part of changing the world, restoring the world to what God intended it to be.

So read. And keep at it. Beware of pride in reading, but also of sloth. Trust God as you trust God’s gift of this book. Sustained reading will become the beating heart of your life. Sustained reading with others will become the beating heart of the life of the church. And who knows? If you, and others, and more others engage in sustained reading, God’s goodness, mercy and strength, God’s vision for the flourishing of all humanity and of all creation, might become the beating heart of the world.