Blessed senses

Matthew 13 : 10 - 17

Blessed are your eyes.....your ears

I was at a class on "Praying with Scripture" last night and we were reminded about how the Word of God cannot be taken for granted, especially if we have 'studied' it well and think we understand it well. Not everyone who hears will truly understand, not everyone who sees actually perceives. There is a great danger in making assumptions about how to "attend" to Scripture. This is not to say that there is a secret code or hidden doctrine in it that we have to discover. The opposite is true. Scripture 'reads us', rather than we read it. We 'stand under it' humbly rather than 'over it' with our methods of study.

I believe Jesus was addressing those for whom familiarity with their sacred text had blinded them and made them deaf and insensitive to its reality in their lives. They could not read his coming in the text - and therefore rejected his teaching. His very challenging presence did not draw them to search deeper - for they thought they knew it all.

For Scripture to 'read us' is a risky business!! We must be willing to lose control, with humility and openness to the Spirit, for our defenses will be broken into (If we would allow). We need to let go the habitual ways of thinking about God. As it reads us, as we find ourselves weak, fragile and broken - we arrive at the place of grace. And only in this utter dependency on God does our response emerge from a place of freedom.