LECTIO DIVINA

Shema.

Hear, O Israel.

 

For centuries, the Word of the God was spoken and heard.

 

The people of God would listen as their parents and grandparents and leaders and shepherds would recount their creation stories, their deliverance stories, their war stories, their resistance stories. They sat under the stories of God together.

 

Poems. Songs. History. Everything Israel knew of Scripture was experienced within the context of community. After hearing the Scriptures, they would bring their questions, ideas, confusion and clarity into that same community and wrestle with God and one another for a revelation of truth that would shape them.

 

The early Jesus followers were no different. With the Holy Spirit as their guide, they were faced with the task of wrestling with the Jewish Scriptures anew in light of the reality that the Messiah had come.

 

Every year, we explore what it means to be a Spirit-empowered community in our own context and approach to scripture. Week by week, we will engage and respond to a different text (this year from a variety of Paul’s letters to different churches) through the ancient spiritual practice of Lectio Divina (learn more here).