Reading the Bible, now that's a novel thing for Christians to do. At PTC chapel yesterday that's what we did. John Davies read us 1 Kings 11-16, for the first week of a series looking at the second part of 1 Kings. John read the "Davies version" which was colloquial, dramatic, expressive and very earthy. It was great to sit and listen to the story unfold, though of course the story itself is depressing in the extreme. The tragic failure of the people of God doesn't make easy listening. Two things struck me. One was how angry God was with Judah and Israel, with very good reason. The other was how awful chapter 14 is, in which Jeroboam's wife hears that their son will die and their whole family will be destroyed because although the Lord had given Jeroboam the kingdom, Jeroboam had completely ignored the Lord. It is interesting that he says that Israel could have been faithful as well as Judah.
John told me before hand that preparing the reading took as much time as preparing a sermon. Not only had he prepared the text but he had obviously put a lot of work into getting the expression and timing right. I hope that John might comment on how he went about the preparation and any thoughts he has about doing this kind of reading in churches.
In lots of churches which say they take the Bible seriously we read 10 verses and they listen to someone talk about the Bible for half an hour. Maybe we'd do better to read more and preach less. What do you think?
