Narrative Lectionary Key Verse for Today
“So Philip ran up to it and heard him reading the prophet Isaiah. He asked, ‘Do you understand what you are reading?’ He replied, ‘How can I, unless someone guides me?’ And he invited Philip to get in and sit beside him.”
NL Daily Devotion for Wednesday, May 1, 2024
by R. M. Fergus, Clergy Stuff
Scripture is meant to be read communally. I don’t read Hebrew or Koine Greek. I can’t parse the nuances of translation, through which meanings can be changed inadvertently. And even if I was entirely literate in these things, I would still be in the same chariot as the Ethiopian Eunuch. How can I understand what I am reading unless someone guides me? Not necessarily in the literal sense—I personally don’t believe that’s how scripture is to be read anyway. It’s easy to get so bogged down by the need to nit pick specific word choices that the underlying meaning is lost.
Yes, we can read scripture on our own. It’s fun and challenging and inspiring! But I find that when I sit down with another person or persons and dig into what a passage might be saying to me or to us within the context of the “right here and now,” it shifts from an informative and thoughtful practice to a much broader, life- and thought- and even reality-altering experience. It reminds me that the Body of Christ is a “we” concept. I get to encounter Jesus in the faces and words of my fellows. It’s immersive in a way that individual reading just cannot be. We all need Philips in our lives—multiple Philips!, as we can’t just rely on one other person’s interpretation of things. May we have the good fortune of inviting lots of cool people into our chariots!
Who do I find it most engaging to discuss scripture with?
