Summer Bible Study

So, despite not being sure that I was going to be having a summer Bible study for the last month or so, it looks like we will be having one for the Newman Centre - at least for May and probably June. I will admit I had thought it would be nice to take the summer off for Bible Study, but when faced with the fact that several of the regulars would still be around, and there doesn't always tend to be a lot of things out there in general for people wanting to develop spiritually as Catholics, I figured - why not? Besides, the topics is always a good one.

I told them that the focus for the summer will be on figures/stories in the Old Testament, which is something that I love! I grew up on the Bible, and the OT always fired my imagination with all of the wonderful stories, and characters, and themes - it will be hard narrowing down what we will be looking at! I figure regarding that, at least, I will require input from the people who already expressed interest in the Bible study: what are the stories or people they want to look at. It should be a lot of fun! Then again, how couldn't it be fun!

- Abraham, the knight and father of faith; so often wondering about that laugh when God spoke to him about the covenant - a laugh that is revelation, is paradox and so prepares for revelation, itself.
- Sarah, the matriarch of the faith, the mother of so many hopes and expectations along with Abraham
- Issac, poor Isaac; what did his heart and eyes see on that mountain alone with his father? How did that change him?
- Jacob! Wow, Jacob is definitely a story for the ages too! Lying, treachery, redemption, wrestling with God, heartache, love - it has it all! Even a heart-breaking love triangle! And then when he spends the night contending with the angel of God, it speaks so well to so many other such turns to God that have happened throughout the ages. God is external, something that can be dismissed, or at least not taken into oneself, on the periphery. Then, troubles come, there is tension, and God becomes more present. Then the night of wrestling, of searching and crying, and in the morning ... we are never quite the same again ...
- Joseph (the the coat-of-many-colours fame): bratty, arrogant Joseph ... or maybe we don't let him tell his whole story, maybe we don't listen to him carefully enough. I admit, I had problems understanding Joseph for a very long, until I re-read the story, letting myself try and understand Joseph, and then I caught a glimpse of a different Joseph. There, in the silence so easily glossed over, in what he never said and when he never said it, there seems to be something else going on - the person Joseph once was in transformed into something else. It's so easy to keep remembering the bratty Joseph, but isn't that more my failing to accept change in another rather than anything to do with Joseph?
- Moses, another 'wow' of a story. One of the few people to be given labels in the Bible that should make us pause, that MUST make us pause: Moses, the humblest man that lived. Moses, the leader of the Israelites out of bondage in Egypt to a new life in the Promised Land. (sigh) If his story, if the end of his story, does not bring a tear or two to the eye, I don't know what will.
- David and Elijah, two of my favorites, with stories that are better and more poinant than the VAST number of books out there, without having to be book length either! Then there's Tobit, Judith, Job ... the list goes on!

All of that to say, I'm still trying to figure out what to focus on for the summer for the Bible study. Currently, I am thinking about 3 or 4 ideas, but more are welcome! They are:
- Looking at some of the women in the Bible that too often get glossed over, or are given too minor a role in first glances (Sarah, Rebecca and Leah, Naomi and Ruth, Esther, etc.).
- The prophets (major, and or minor)
- Moses - heck, he could easily fill the summer!
- The love stories of the Old Testament. Yes, sappy, but they tell us so much about human interaction and our relation to God!