I once heard that pastors preach themselves into belief. I don’t know if this is true, but I can attest to the transformative power of proclaiming the gospel week in and week out. The stories of Scripture become embedded into one’s brain and verses bubble up unbidden. Inadvertently, I sound like the church lady of comedy videos reciting a Bible passage in response to most any stimulus. I spend a lot of time in God’s Word — not just preaching, but studying it, writing about it, praying with it. Such practices do not reveal my discipled piety so much as an occupational hazard, biblical literacy being the carpal tunnel syndrome of ministry.
Occasionally, I wish the divine speech would not echo so loudly in my head. I do not always want to be reminded that I am to be perfect as my Father in heaven is perfect. I would like to ignore the holy decree that love of money is the root of all evil or that love of enemies is critical to discipleship. When the epistles invade my daily living, I must reckon with my inability to give thanks in all circumstances and my propensity to allow destructive words to spill from my mouth and keyboard. Would that I could plead ignorance and imagine that if I’d only known, I would have made different choices.
Such denial would be wholly false. While I still have much to learn about the inspired Word of God, I know the major themes, the arc of the narrative, all of the parables, many of the Psalms and a no doubt conflated version of the prophets. Moreover, I know all of this is God’s Word to me. God’s Word that is to shape and influence my attitudes and actions — not to only captivate my curiosity and occupy my intellect. But does biblical knowledge translate into faithful living?
I read recently that actors’ brains are changed through the portrayal of characters. Pretending to be someone else informs and shapes who they are. “Acting changes the brain: It is how actors get lost in a role,” an article in Aeon by Christian Jarrett, reports that experiments reveal “the ease with which the self can be weakened or overshadowed.” Further research showed that even with non-actors, “by simply thinking about another person, we may adapt our self to take the shape of that person.” It is no wonder then that Paul calls us to imitate him as he imitates Christ. Learning about God through Scripture does indeed change us, if we think about it and enact it.
As this new year begins and we consider resolutions and life goals, what if we attempted some discipleship role play? Could we learn the divine script and act it out until it becomes embodied in us? At the very least we should pay attention to who it is we emulate. As the election season heats up and tensions rise, to whom and what are we attending? It is sobering to realize that those we merely think about shape us. The self, as it turns out, can be overshadowed more readily than we thought. We ought, then, to seek to be overshadowed by the power of the Most High and not the lowest common denominator of our culture.
I believe God’s Word is performative; it does what it says. I believe God’s Word does not return to God empty but accomplishes the purpose for which God sends it. I am hopeful that all the biblical fragments floating around my head are somehow written on my heart and subsequently steer the work of my hands. I am reminded that Scripture tells us that when we love one another Jesus abides in us, thus making of us much more than method actors of the faith.
As one of the researchers cited in the Aeon article notes, “As each of us chooses who to befriend, who to model, and who to ignore, we must make these decisions aware of how they shape not only the fabric of our social networks, but even our sense of who we are.” Jesus tells us we are his friends when we do as he commands. Perhaps he was on to something.
Grace and peace,
Jill
