The
voice said to me, "Son of man, eat what I am giving you—eat this
scroll!
Then go and give its message to the people of Israel."
"Eat it all," he said. And when I ate it,
it tasted as sweet as honey.
Ezekiel 3:1, 3 (NLT)
Then go and give its message to the people of Israel."
"Eat it all," he said. And when I ate it,
it tasted as sweet as honey.
Ezekiel 3:1, 3 (NLT)
“To
know much and to taste nothing- of what use is that?”
St. Bonaventure
St. Bonaventure
Have
you ever wondered why Jesus said, “I am the bread of life”?
Have you ever thought of Communion or the Lord’s Supper as kind of a
weird practice, taking into ourselves in some kind of a quasi-real sense the
body and blood of Jesus Christ?
Of
the many things we can say about this, there is this:
in the end Christianity is not about head knowledge.
It’s not about getting doctrine right as our endgame.
The endgame is connection with God.
This
is why Ezekiel tells us that scripture is all about tasting, experiencing,
imagining, taking it into our hearts, and souls and life and letting it merge
with our will, our vision, our attitudes, our yearnings, our hopes, and our
dreams.
Scripture is to be devoured as a nourishment to the soul.
God designed it to be meditated on, reflected on, thought about,
considered, remembered in a way that it re-members
us, takes us apart and puts us back together again in a new way.
If
God is the artist then he wants his “art” to shape us.
CS Lewis puts it this way:
“When
we receive it we exert our senses and imagination and various other powers
according to a pattern invented by the artist.
When we use it we treat it as assistance for our own activities.
Using is inferior to reception because art, if used rather than received
merely facilitates, brightens, relieves or palliates our life, and does not to
add to it.”
Choose
a passage of scripture today or as soon as you can and chew on it.
“Eat the passage”.
Let it sink in.
Go on a meditative adventure and see what it, God actually, does to you.
“Lord,
take me to a brand new place with scripture.
As I “chew” on your Word this week give me the Grace of experiencing
the nourishment that You want it to provide.
Amen”
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more:
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