Home » Learning » Confirmation » Unit 10: Introductory Article

---

Personal Spirituality

Much of what we've been working on in this confirmation class has been related to how you will fit in and begin to lead the church both here at St. James and as a member of the Church as it exists beyond denominational and national boundaries.  We've studied history, liturgy, ethics, and a little about the political structure of the Presbyterian Church.  What we haven't spent much time on is the experience you have personally of meeting with God.

At St. James, as in most Protestant churches, we recognize two things as "means of grace" or actions that we can take that can be points where God can shape us and through which we can gain strength and wisdom.  These two "means of grace" are prayer and Bible study.  A third activity that is essential to our growth in character and spirituality is service to others.

Prayer

Prayer as we're going to discuss it here is more than just talking to God.   Personal prayer is also about listening, about being quiet with God and being prepared to have the contradictions in your life and the teachings and stories of the Bible to bubble through your mind and reorganize into challenges to you and challenges for you to bring to the larger church.

God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; the courage to change the things I can; and the wisdom to know the difference.   The Serenity Prayer written by Dr. Reinhold Niebuhr, of the Union Theological Seminary, NYC, in about 1932. Since 1939 it has been an integral part of the Alcoholics Anonymous treatment community.

Many of my personal heroes in the history of People of Faith were women and men who became convinced during their prayer time that the way the church and the world had been doing things for centuries was wrong.  When Cotton Mather wrote the groundbreaking book The Negro Christianized, in 1706, he broke with a huge tradition by teaching that God is colorblind and that slavery was wrong.  He didn't get to that position by reading someone else's argument.  He got there through his own quiet reflection on what he was reading in Scripture and seeing in the world around him.   It is my hope that each of us would have the courage to sit quietly as a part of our devotional life and be willing to share with the wider community what we learn in that silence.  This may be the only way the Church moves forward.

If my own life is any indication, We are often tempted in our prayer lives to make God into some sort of divine Santa Claus.  We go in prayer with some kind of wish list like a little kid sitting on the lap of the some local mall's Rent-a-Santa.

We are indeed invited to bring our needs, our fears, and our hopes to God in prayer.  But prayer is for more than merely asking for things.  I suggest you think of the kinds of requests in prayer using the letters ACTS I.  The letters stand for

"Prayer is none other than an expanding of our hearts in the presence of God." John Calvin

• Adoration,
• Confession,
• Thanksgiving,
• Supplication, and
• Intercession.

We often simplify these for little kids into

• Adoration: "I love you, God."
• Confession: "I'm sorry for . . . ."
• Thanksgiving: "Thank you, God, for the . . . ."
• Supplication: "Please give me . . . ."
• Intercession: "Please give my friend the things she or he needs"

Prayer of St. Francis of Assisi Lord, make me an instrument      of your peace. Where there is hatred let me sow love; Where there is injury, pardon; Where there is discord, union; Where there is doubt, faith; Where there is despair, hope; Where there is darkness, light; Where there is sadness, joy.    Grant that I may not so much seek To be consoled as to console; To be understood as to understand; To be loved as to love.     For it is in giving that we receive; It is in pardoning that we are pardoned; And it is in dying that we are born to      eternal life.    Amen.

The wish list you wanted to bring of your requests still has a place (supplication) but it is accompanied by other kinds of relating to God which helps keep you from making prayer just a "gimme" time.

How you pray is sometimes a question.  Some people choose to pray in a specific posture: kneeling with eyes closed and hands folded, or rocking your whole body as in some forms of Jewish prayer.  As Presbyterians we do not prescribe any specific posture but we do understand that most of us struggle to stay appropriately attentive during prayer.  For many of us kneeling or closing the eyes and folding the hands just helps us stay more focused on what we're doing.  I often pray while driving on the interstate.  I obviously need to keep my eyes open and my hands on the steering wheel, but I also know that I am often distracted from the flow of my prayer by the scenery or the traffic.  Some people choose to help themselves focus in personal prayer in their homes by focusing on candles or using incense or quiet music.   Whatever works for you and helps you organize your thoughts is great.  The problem for most of us is not how we pray but that we pray regularly enough.

Bible Study

There is a temptation to study the Bible like you might study any other subject.  You read, you memorize, and you create a series of associations based on what you have learned from external sources.  This is a logical method of study and has its place in some situations, but it also is very limiting if it is your only method of Bible study.

First of all it ignores the fact that we understand the Bible to be a gift from God and as such it needs to be approached prayerfully and respectfully.  It is more than a history book; it is the primary way we experience the voice of God.   Historically the Bible is studied or interpreted in two ways that are particular to religious documents.

Bible Translations The Bible has been translated from its original languages into the languages of people throughout the world. The first translation into English was by John Wycliffe in the 14th century. Since that time, there have been a myriad of English translations. One of the most familiar, the King James Version (KJV), was commissioned by James I of England and published in 1611. Although the language of the King James Bible reflected the everyday speech of England in the 17th century, changes in speech patterns and the meaning of certain words have made it more difficult to understand than more modern translations. Since the 1950s, there have been many translations of the Bible into contemporary English. Translations frequently used by Presbyterians in their worship services include the Revised Standard Version (RSV) and the New Revised Standard Version (NRSV). Both are considered excellent translations that are faithful to the original texts insofar as scholars can determine. From Presbyterian 101 To check out a variety of translations online, go here.

Allegorical Method

An allegory is the description of one thing under the image of another.   It is the exact opposite of a literal discourse.  The term is used only once in Scripture.  It is used "in Gal. 4:24, where the apostle refers to the history of Isaac the free-born, and Ishmael the slave-born, and makes use of it allegorically. Every parable is an allegory. Nathan (2 Sam. 12:1-4) addresses David in an allegorical narrative. In the eightieth Psalm there is a beautiful allegory: "Thou broughtest a vine out of Egypt," etc." (Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary)  Jesus used allegories in his teaching.  But that doesn't mean all of the Bible is an allegory.   Usually the teachings in the Bible are very straightforward.

Historical-Critical Method

Who was this writing produced for and what was their cultural expectation of this writing?  When a student of religion studies the original languages of the Bible passage or uses information from archaeology to help interpret a passage she is using the historical-critical method of interpretation.  This method also studies the changes that are evident within the pages of Scripture for instance the differences between Matthew, Mark, and Luke in describing the same event.  The historical-critical method asks why the differences exist and what they tell us.

Scripture was written over a long period of time by a variety of writers who wrote in styles appropriate to their time and place.  One aspect of the historical-critical method is the analysis of how different types of writing assume different expectations from the readers.  For instance today you read an email much differently than you read a novel or a recipe.  When you see the script of a play printed on a piece of paper you understand how to read it and visualize the play in your head.  When we read Scripture we need to ask, "Is this a letter?  Is this a poem?  Is this a sermon?

One major, and controversial, part of the historical-critical method of interpretation involves the assumption that the Bible books we have today were often compiled or even rewritten over several generations.  This part of the study analyses the changes that the different generations made and asks why.  The controversial part of this theory is that the different generations did not often identify their changes.  It is always possible that the student will organize the changes according to what he wants to see rather than what can be positively identified as a later addition.  (For instance, if I don't like something Paul wrote I can always claim it was added by someone else later.)

At St. James we usually use the historical-critical method of interpretation.  We try to be aware of the archaeological and cultural background of the passage, we try to be aware of the literary form of the passage, and we keep our minds open to the possibility that the passage reflects more than just one person's understanding of what God was doing.  But we also use the allegorical method from time to time.  For instance, we often refer to Jesus as the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.  This is a reference to the Passover story from the book of Exodus. Its use makes the Passover story from the Old Testament an allegory of the story of Holy Week.

Literalism

At this time we should also discuss what is meant when some Christians refer to their method of interpreting the Bible as "literal" as opposed to how we might interpret it at St. James.  It is important to remember that even when you are visiting with your friends you recognize a host of different figures of speech.   When one of your friends says after hearing a really funny joke, "You kill me!" You don't go running to get a policeman or a paramedic.  Historically people your age often use a huge amount of figurative language.  Sometimes people derogatorily call it "slang" as if it were lower than standard English, but actually, slang is very complex and demonstrates a wide variety of figurative language forms.  The poems and the parables of the Bible include a host of metaphorical elements that were not meant to be understood literally.

Other passages may apply specifically to the ancient context such as how women's lives and ministry were to be appreciated and how homosexual persons were to be valued.  We may have different views at St. James than some other Christians do about certain passages of Scripture but that is because of how we interpret the whole of Scripture including certain passages which talk about inclusion (e.g. Acts 8, Acts 10 and Galatians 3) which we believe have superseded less welcoming passages.

Practically all Christians understand some passages to be figurative and others to be literal and practically all Christians believe some passages do not apply today as they may have in the ancient context.  In fact there is mostly agreement on which passages are which.  Some people divide all Christians into literalists and liberals on the basis of how they interpret a handful of passages.  We believe that liberal interpretation is more complex than how a few isolated texts are used.

Remember when someone says they take the Bible literally that what they are usually saying is that they interpret certain passages differently than we do and they may be implying that they are closer to God's will because of their interpretations.  We should only be uncomfortable with their claim if we are not close to God.  If that's the problem, we should fix that relationship immediately.   However, merely adopting someone else's method of interpretation will not help us be closer to God.  If you are concerned by a disagreement with someone else's interpretation, that is a challenge to spend more time in Scripture and figure out what you believe and why.  Ultimately you need to be sure of your relationship with God not whether you agree with someone else about what they believe about God.

Service to Others

Christianity is a matter of word and deed.  What we say only has life if it is matched with our actions.  That is the obvious usefulness of our service to others.  It is important for us to give money and time to make sure others are fed, educated, and cared for; however, another very important reason to serve others is less obvious.

When we serve others, particularly when we see persons with special needs, we are changed ourselves.  When we serve alongside those who are recovering from a disaster like a hurricane, we experience their pain and build a bond with them that changes us.  When we provide clothes or food for those in financial need, we begin to understand the economics of brotherhood at the heart of our faith.  When we visit with persons in a hospital or in a nursing home and share friendship and emotional support we give the Holy Spirit the opportunity to change our own hearts.

It is important to serve because it is important to take the needs of our neighbors seriously.  But the change in our own hearts and in developing our own character may be even more important in the greater scheme of things than the service we provide.  Serving is central to what a Christian should be.

For Further Study

PCUSA Spiritual Formation
Presbyterian 101: The Bible
The PCUSA Mission Yearbook for Prayer and Study

< Back

Next >