Jitterbugging for Jesus

The bishop is leading an online study of the Gospel of Luke and the Book of Acts (also written by Luke the physician and the best writer in the Bible in my humble opinion) this year, and recently posted the first lesson.

In addition to commending the bishop’s study to you for you to join in, I recommend something for your consideration that the bishop advises about how to study the Bible.

This is what Bishop McKee recommends:

For your study, I invite you to read the chapter several times. What words resonate with your soul? What themes emerge for you? If this account of the life of Jesus is written to you, a lover of God, what are you sensing God is saying to you?

Whether you are studying this privately or with a group, I commend a set of questions that I have been using for 40 years when I read a Biblical text. These questions do not probe at a historical-critical method, but they can make the reading of the Bible deeply and faithfully meaningful. The questions are not mine, but I remember Dick Murray, a Perkins professor,** sharing them with groups.

— What does the text say about God?

— What does the text say about human beings?

— What does the text say about the relationship between God and human beings?

— What am I going to do about or what will I change about myself? This is the so-what question. I am reminded that we can possess all knowledge but if we have no love then . . .

May God bless you in your studying.

Bishop Michael McKee
Bishop of The North Texas Conference
The United Methodist Church

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*For those new to the blog: I’m an ordained United Methodist deacon, currently on voluntary leave of absence from the church, but still accountable to my conference and its episcopal leader Bishop McKee.
**Perkins is Perkins School of Theology at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, where I attended seminary and obtained the Master of Divinity degree.