Aloha, Keawalaʻi ‘ohana,
Our weekly Wednesday “Zoom Room” continues to astonish and delight me. What began (I’m told) as a way for our church folks to connect during COVID and explore the lectionary text(s) for Sunday has turned into one of the highlights of the week for me. Each week, it seems, we have someone new with us. Though attendance varies from week to week, we can count on a critical mass of Keawala’i members and friends gathering online to discuss the Sunday lectionary preaching text, relating the scripture to what is going on in the wider world.
Zoom Room participants are asked to volunteer to read the scripture out loud for everyone to hear, then ask a simple question. We read the text three times, with a different volunteer reading from a different translation each time. I’ve learned that THE MESSAGE (Eugene Peterson’s highly readable version of the bible) is the favorite. So: three readers, three versions of the text, three questions posed, with discussion after each reading/question. The questions become increasingly more challenging.
I am grateful for Kahu Scott (who Resea and I saw today out on the water paddling with us in an Outrigger canoe—the three of us are all members of the Kihei Canoe Club) for starting the Wednesday Zoom Room, and I am thankful to Kahu Bob Nelson, who first suggested that we use this highly participatory method of study together. What I like about it is that everyone gets to share what the text might be saying to them, and what would need to change in us or in the world if we took this text seriously. Reading the bible seriously (if not literally) is one of the most important ways we can feed our souls and listen for the voice of God. This method we use is designed to avoid the trap that many church bible study programs get into, where there is one teacher and a bunch of “students,” and each participant strives to give the “correct answer” to the question, rewarding the one who “knows,” and making the rest of us feel foolish or even stupid.
If you have ever felt “allergic to bible study,” you are not alone! Traditional ways of studying the bible can be a real turn off. The way we do it in the Wednesday Zoom Room, by contrast, feels liberating. We are free to be ourselves, listening to what the Stillspeaking God may be saying to us through the scripture. No one gives an “incorrect answer.” There is a genuine spirit of Aloha in the Zoom Room, as we participate in a joint project of interpretation, making us teammates or partners, not competitors competing for a scarce resource (the “correct answer” that “pleases the teacher!”).
This week’s Zoom Room was fascinating, because after we read the text (Ephesians 2:11-22), everyone in the room felt like—gah! No one liked it much. Something seemed…off, about the text. When the first volunteer asked the first question, not much was said. Second reading, same thing. People were having difficulty relating to the text, primarily because it spoke of peace, and the general feeling in the room was, “What peace?” One participant said, “This just sounds so idealistic.” The implied message was: the real world is just not like that; the world is a mess, and this writer seems not to recognize that! He just doesn’t get it.”
But as we probed deeper, the conversation deepened as well. The familiar became strange, as participant after participant shared their perspectives, and the “multiplied perspectives” made the text come alive. It was not dead after all.
By the end of our Zoom session, I had a much better idea of what I needed to do as a pastor in a Sunday sermon. We had wrestled with the text—resisting it!—until it opened to us in surprisingly new ways.
Feminist scholars often talk about being “resisting readers”—that is, readers who resist traditional, often patriarchal interpretations of the bible. “Resisting readers” remind me of Nicodemus in the gospel of John when he says, “How can these things be?” That is my usual starting point when I encounter a biblical text: are you kidding me, God?
The Wednesday Zoom Room is open to all every week at 11 AM (HI time). If we have your email address, you receive the recurring link each week.
This next Wednesday at 11, why don’t you challenge yourself to click the link? Come check it out. You will be warmly welcomed.
If you’ve had bad experiences with bible studies in the past, or think you are still allergic to bible study, try asking yourself this question: Why am I resisting this? The answer may surprise you.
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Our theme in worship this Sunday is “Whose Church Is This?” Naturally, the passage we will explore in the sermon is Ephesians 2: 11-22.
Whether livestreaming from home or at Keawala’i Congregational Church in person, I hope to see you in church!
Gary Percesepe
Me ke aloha pumehana,
Gary Percesepe
Click to view: Sunday, July 21, 2024