Stitions?
Wednesday, 23 March, 2005
This is an unfinished thought.
Last week in World Religions and the Gospel, Mike was lecturing on the Quran. One of the things he mentioned was that Muslims see the Quran as being divine. The Quran we have is a perfect replica of the true Quran in heaven. Christians believe that God came to us in the flesh (incarnate). Muslims believe that God came to us in a book (inlibrate). This explains why Muslims treat the Quran with such reverence. They would never put it on the floor or under another book. They would never hold it below their waistline (because then it would be near their backside). They kiss the Quran before reading it, they keep it in a cover and they won't read it while smoking or while imbibing alcohol. Very devout Muslims will not even let infidels or ritually unclean Muslims to read it. And when the book wears out, they wrap it up and bury it (or store it). They wouldn't just throw it in the bin.
Mike then asked us what we do with our old Bibles when they wear out. “Has anyone ever thrown their Bible in the bin?” he asked. Immediately I thought of Ben's “scroll” (this is the Bible he used all the way through high school). (Later I asked him why he kept it—he just said that he liked it and it was a momento of that era.)
I don't think I've ever worn out a Bible. I've spilt yoghurt on one, stepped on one and accidentally folded some of the pages. The cover of one of my old Bibles started to fall off and I stuck it together with electrical tape. I've still got every Bible I ever owned (Gideons New Testament, Good News New Testament, NIV Study Bible, NIV pocket Bible, NKJV, KJV, ESV, NASB, etc.) Would I throw any of these away? I think I would if they were seriously falling apart and losing pages ... but it's never gotten to that stage yet.
Do I treat my Bible as though it is something special? I don't think I do. I think I treat it the same as all my other books—I try to take care of it in the same way as I take care of my other books. So I'll try to keep it clean and dry, I won't fold or squish the pages or corners, I won't bend the spine and I won't write in the margins (I really don't like writing in books. How do you feel about this practice?) I covered my pocket ESV with clear contact so it wouldn't get grubby (unfortunately I didn't do a very good job—there are a number of air bubbles on the cover). I did get a little bit upset when 1 and 2 Timothy got rained on during one afternoon Bible study group.
But I know that my Bible is not divine. My Bible is not God. It's just a book, it's just words on paper stitched together. I know that it doesn't matter how I treat the physical object. I don't think God is offended if I spill yoghurt on it or get it dirty or rip the pages. Not that I'm going to go out of my way to do these things to my Bible—that's just not the sort of person I am—but I'm certainly not going to look down on someone else for the kind of condition their Bible is in.
Then I started thinking about other areas of life where I might behave in ways which indicate that I adhere to certain beliefs about things that aren't really true. For example, not opening an umbrella indoors because it will bring you bad luck (I have to say I thought twice about doing it today which is kind of silly because as if an open umbrella indoors could bring you bad luck! I wonder who invented that one.) Or thinking that God is punishing me for something if I fall sick. Or thinking that because China keeps popping up in Ben's life, God is telling him to go there as a missionary. I wonder how much “superstition” I have taken on board and how much they govern my day-to-day actions and decisions. Do I regard Friday the 13th as being different to other days? Do I feel like God is particularly pleased with me when I pray for three hours straight? Or that he is really blessing me when I get five green traffic lights in a row?
Do you?
Current:
Bible: Isaiah (ESV) 28/09/2010
seen: Tropic Thunder 26/09/2010
seen: The Life of Mammals 24/09/2010
seen: What a Girl Wants 19/09/2010
seen: Jerry Maguire 19/09/2010
seen: The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 06/09/2010
seen: Tomorrow Never Dies 05/09/2010
seen: Nanny McPhee 28/08/2010
read: Mercury (Hope Larson) 27/08/2010
read: Spellcheckers Vol 1 (Jamie S Rich, Nicolas Hitori de, Joelle Jones) 16/08/2010
read: Solipsistic Pop Vol 2 (Solipsistic Pop) 16/08/2010
read: Chiggers (Hope Larson) 15/08/2010
seen: Josie and the Pussycats 14/08/2010
seen: Mr & Mrs Smith 14/08/2010
seen: Step Up 2 13/08/2010
Blinks:
How to recalibrate the home button on your iPhone.
Unsolicited manuscripts accepted by Pan Macmillan with certain conditions.
Thought Balloon is a group blog in which the writers tackle a new theme every week? month? with one-page scripts. This URL is for their Phonogram ones.
How to sew a zipper on a knitted garment.
Issues organised by tale.
Online magazine that publishes fairy tales that are not reworkings of old tales.
Journal that publishes fairy tale writing.
|
|
Disqus comments
Other comments
another unfinished thought, from me to you…
i’ve kept all the Bibles i ever had, but mainly because they’re like a visual history of my Christian life, if that makes sense. just seeing their spines lined up on my bookshelf gives me a strangely comforted feeling. i don’t think i’d ever throw one out, but only because i’m a hopeless packhorse and i like mementoes, and not through any superstition about the actual book’s properties - i certainly wouldn’t bury one (how is this any better than throwing it away?). the only one i don’t have anymore is a NASB i was given at my baptism that i loaned to someone at a Bible study once and it disappeared - you’d think of all mementoes that would have been the one to hang onto! oh well.
i don’t like writing in the margins either but my Bibles are usually crammed full of scraps of paper with random notes, doodles and thoughts, so there’s plenty to be going on with.
as for umbrellas indoors being bad luck, maybe this was something dreamed up by mothers with clumsy or accident-prone children who were likely to knock things over with an open umbrella. maybe not.
I tried writing in the margins in one of my two identical NIV study Bibles, but I can’t make myself do it. It looks messy and unkempt next to all the neatly set type.
I feel so un-Sydney Anglican.