Performing Scripture

A notable feature of a number of gimmicky debates in the church is the lack of well-informed use of Scripture. It's not unusual to hear one political party or other either trot out a proof text, or write Scripture off on the basis of such proof texts—or here views expressed which demonstrate basic lack of familiarity with the biblical witness.

In part this comes down the reduction and diffusion of engagement with Scripture, starting with their training, on the part of leaders in the church. Just it is also the result of a decline in the report of Scripture, perhaps in small groups, within congregations. For some churches, there has only been a loss of interest. For others, Bible study groups are seen equally inward-looking and dull, and are displaced past 'missional' action or a focus on feel.

But the most obvious sign of this alter is the loss of reading Scripture every bit part of public worship. I am constantly amazed at the paltry amount of Scripture actually read in evangelical churches—when 'center of the road' Anglican churches will hear five or more passages in the grade of a liturgical service. At present, simply hearing Scripture read is no guarantee that we understand it, still less that we live information technology out. Simply it seems to me that hearing Scripture read is a necessary pre-requisite to the other 2. And doing this together, in public worship, engages the breadth of responses and perspectives not present in other contexts.

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This raises a real practical challenge, one nosotros are reluctant to admit to: for about people, listening to endless Bible passages read is so boring!

I was confronted with this several years agone when leading the all-historic period part of a Dominicus service. (We always had the first 20 minutes with all ages together, so we could praise, confess, pray, read Scripture and learn from information technology all together earlier doing this in separate groups.) The reading set was Matt 25.31–46, the parable of the sheep and the goats. The passage fills one cavalcade in English language translations, and my immediate reaction was 'Oh my goodness—it is so long! How on earth will I keep the attention of the children?' (Children show you if they are bored; adults just sit their politely waiting to the end to tell each other how bored they were.)

Then it struck me:

Did anyone always complain that Jesus' teaching was deadening?

In fact, did anyone who listened to the gospels or messages when they were first being read always think that they were boring? Difficult to sympathise, peradventure (two Peter 3.16); but dull—never! What take we done to the reading of Scripture to brand it and so dull?

And then I decided to do what Jesus did—to simple teach, to 'perform' the passage. I prepare aside an hr and a half on the Sat evening to learn the passage, and on the Sunday morning time only removed my neckband, rolled up my sleeves, and without whatever announcement, started: 'When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and his angels with him…' I learnt four important things:

• Jesus' pedagogy is far from irksome! Everyone was gripped; those on my left were specially engaged past the second half of the passage. The children did not movement a muscle.
• Jesus' teaching is very easy to memorise, because it is very carefully structured. The 'least of these my brothers and sisters' are described past six terms, which come in three pairs, and are referred to with increasing brevity in the four repetitions (two past the king, ii in response by each of the groups of sheep or goats).
• It is easier to call up things than I thought. Nearly 20 years on, I can still remember the passage more than or less give-and-take for word. Memory is a musculus which gets stronger with use.
• Memorising the passage was a powerful style of abode in it, and as a effect I completely changed my mind on what the passage was all most, equally I explain here.

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There are some skilful reasons to think that performance of texts was a key part of the do of the early Christian communities.

Nosotros take the odd clue in the texts themselves. So Rev ane.iii includes a blessing for the lector (atypical), the person reading aloud to the associates, every bit well as to those who hear the lector'southward reading. We know that letters would have had designated letter of the alphabet carriers (such every bit Pheobe in Romans xvi.1), and there is some debate nigh whether this person would also be the lector, or whether this would exist a local member of the congregation.

Secondly, the social context also supports this. Although many New Attestation documents were written for farther report (witness the conscientious structure in Luke, Acts and Revelation which would not be evident on hearing), in the first instance they would have been read out loud, not least because literacy would not have been uniformly high, and because copying manuscripts was a relatively expensive business. (Are the 'attendants of the word' in Luke 1.two those who looked after the communities' documents, including the get-go copies of the gospels?)

Thirdly, some NT texts are evidently written for oral performance. Hebrew is perhaps the best instance of this, but the letter of the alphabet of James, with the links between different sections based on give-and-take plays rather than logical progression, is another possible example. (The qualities of wisdom in James iii.17 are linked by alliteration, the start grouping starting with epsilon, and the second with alpha—something that is lost in translation.) And of course the gospels record Jesus' teaching which was first offered as performance. Even where the gospels diverge on other details, they tend to converge when recording Jesus' own words, suggesting that we are hearing what was said, even if in translation.

Fourthly, some scholars (such as Tom Thatcher) are arguing that we should understand that the gospels were widely performed prior to existence written in a final form, which might explicate some of the differences between early manuscripts. We might again detect some hints of this in the text, such equally John iv.six, where Jesus sits down at the well 'in this style' (omitted in most English translations)—though this estimation is contested.

5th, in many means the proof of the pudding is in the performing. When pedagogy John's gospel, I used to take John 9, print information technology as a script, and get unlike readers to simply act information technology out in grade, unrehearsed. Information technology works perfectly! And the performance, with characters moving on and off phase, demonstrates its careful chiastic structuring. Scout this performance Hebrews 9 and 10 past Ryan Ferguson:

And some years ago the histrion Alec McCowen filled a West End theatre with his performance of Mark'southward gospel in the Authorised Version (which I remember watching on television i Christmas solar day afternoon every bit a teenager).

When in 1978 he gave his showtime public performance of "St. Mark'southward Gospel" for a nervous management in the northern city of Newcastle, at that place was definitive proof of the Gospel's power to arrest and intrigue. The central moment came when a picayune sometime lady seized him after he had finished 1 evening and said with open astonishment what critics and audiences were before long to exist repeating all over England and America: "Information technology was every bit practiced as a play."

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So, what tin can we practice to make the reading of Scripture more engaging? 4 things:

1. Actually read it! Don't put information technology on screens or print in service sheets. Include several readings of Scripture in your services, and get people to open their Bibles to follow the reading if they can.
2. Train your readers to read well. This means planning who is reading carefully, letting them take the readings ahead of time, and offering some grooming in reading well.
3. Occasionally detect someone who is willing to learn and perform the reading without reference to a script. It is non every bit hard as yous might imagine!
4. Put on a performance of a whole gospel as an evening events—perhaps replacing a Dominicus evening service. Sell tickets to people who would not normally come to church.

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