A travel Bible, what am I doing with a travel Bible?
It was a high bright Memorial Day in Oakland and we headed Up the Hill. This means the three-hour trip to Murphys and wine pickup and the three-hour trip home. The music was chosen and I was stoked. As I’ve said before, I do love a drive in the car. If my ears and tongue were longer, I’d just stick my head out the window and let them flap in the wind. But, as usual, I digress.
The travel Bible was bought in a lovely little used bookstore in Mendocino. Philip was rehearsing with the Music Festival; I was on my own and found, of course, a bookstore. In a tall narrow clapboard house there was a fine collection of children’s books but nothing I needed. But there was a lovely small Bible, in leather that hadn’t started to crack. It was so pretty and cheap. What’s a girl to do but buy it and call it a travel Bible. On last Memorial Day, on the road, I read, out loud, St. Paul’s letter to the church in Rome from the Travel Bible.
Why? Because D is in recovery and is hearing a word that he doesn’t understand, Grace. He did me the honor of asking me about the word and what it means. I stood there, at the cash wrap, and started to talk. Very soon I realized that Grace is a subject that cannot be described in a sentence, or paragraph. It is first delineated in an introductory letter from an itinerant evangelist to the nascent Christian church at Rome. Why D agreed to study this text with me is a gift that I don’t understand. But he did. So the Harvard classics scholar, non-believer and recovering Baptist from West-by-God-Virginia will sit with me and the other recovering-Baptist West Virginian and examine St. Paul’s Letter to the Church at Rome. (What is it about recovering Baptists?)
An epistle is a public statement, to be posted in any open forum, for all to read. St. Paul’s letter to Rome is his only true epistle. (The other authentic Pauline letters are personal, addressing specific people, congregations and questions.) The letter to the church at Rome is a self introduction, from St. Paul to a congregation he knew only by reputation. Here he is, introducing himself to people he does not know and wants to know. He wants to know them and he wants them to listen and believe what he says. He also wants them to support him. St. Paul wants to go to Spain and he needs the funds for his mission. For this purpose, the second most important person in Christianity writes the most important letter in our history.
The Little Blue Opera House, with my West Virginian at the wheel, passed the Seminary exit on 580 East and I waved at Bishop O’Dowd High School, go Dragons. Then I picked up the Travel Bible, turned to St. Paul’s letter to the Roman Church and began to read it out loud, I had to. Unlike my beloved, I was not raised in the Baptist Church and don’t have reams of Scripture memorized. To prepare for our bible study, I needed to address Romans as a complete statement. For a Christian to read the Book of Romans straight through is rather difficult. You can’t stop and break it down. You can’t ask for direction other than that which St. Paul gives in his complex, lawyerly way. There is no way to ask, why insert the question of sexuality? Why does he talk about it all the time? Why is he so hung up about it? The great soul does get to the point of Grace in chapters 8 & 9. And it is a hard point to make because Paul, who believes in the Risen Lord, in Christ Jesus and Him crucified, is still a Pharisee. He is at war with himself, trying to hold on to free will and accept Grace at the same time. Welcome to Christianity, Father Paul. This work is tough.
In our little bible study, we will use Martin Luther’s commentary on Romans as our guide. Three translations will be used: the KJV (known to the West Virginians as the One True Word of God); the Jerusalem (my college notes are in that); and the Moffatt (because I always turn to James Moffatt, 1870-1944, a great scholar who translated the whole Bible). From these translations and commentary we will try to understand Grace.
Thus we begin this work. The three of us are reading the text, from three different directions. I don’t know what the Mountaineers are getting out of this, but this believer is looking forward to a very good time. It just shows one the value of a travel Bible.
