Dwelling in the Word
Jerry Wolfe, elder at the Federal Way Church of Christ in Washington, has written these rich words about the spiritual practice of lectio divina on his personal blog. He has graciously given us permission to reprint them here.
Listen. Listen. Listen. That’s what our first Partnership for Missional Church weekend was about. In the three year process the entire first year is dedicated primarily to listening. We listen to Scripture — Luke 10:1-12. ‘Dwelling in the Word’ is new language for most of us. If you wanted the ancient church language it would be ‘lectio divina‘ which means ‘divine or spiritual reading’.
Our practice of reading Scripture is to read a passage, figure out its meaning, perhaps, although not always, make some application to our personal life or the church, and then move on to another passage. And then when we have done that we ‘know what is in the Bible’. Now get this. This is a good and important way of reading Scripture. This is not something we want to lose. Knowing what is in the Bible is vital.
However, knowing what is in the Bible is a far different thing than having the Bible know what is in us. Knowing what is in the Bible, if we are not careful, turns the Bible into little more than a tool for our own purposes, to prove our own points, to set our own agendas, to create our own categories. That doesn’t have to happen, but if we are honest, we have all done it.
Dwelling in the Word — lectio divina– on the other hand is a way of reading that refuses the approach of ‘figuring out the meaning’. Not that we don’t find meaning in lectio divina, but we allow meaning to surface over time and space. We read, slowly, thoughtfully, pausing over words, phrases, thoughts, allowing them to speak deeply to us. And after reading we sit, quietly, reflectively, with the Spirit, avoiding distractions and allowing the Spirit in the text to sink in and to work on our human spirits. Over time that way of reading will bring multiple meanings to the surface and will open us up and enter our hearts and minds in deep places that a Bible class reading of Scripture will seldom find. Lectio divina — dwelling in the word — is simply listening to God tell us about Scripture rather than us telling him about Scripture. As I spoke about on Sunday, it is counterintuitive.
‘Dwelling in the Word’ is not a replacement or a substitute for our more familiar methods of reading Scripture. To exchange one for the other would be a gross mistake. But used in concert with one another they give us a richer experience of being ‘people of the book’.
Listen. Listen. Listen. Where better to start than Scripture?