Pulling Threads: Unraveling the Scriptures

Young people, and adults as well, often feel inadequate when reading the Scriptures. Many believe that the Bible is something you only hear in church, not something you read on your own as well. They fear misinterpreting it or not being able to understand it at all. Fortunately, however, most students in our schools have the opportunity to take a course in the Scriptures that can give them the confidence to pick up the Bible and read it.

To foster such confidence in our students, we need to provide them with good study aids, but we also should encourage them to bring their own insights, needs, and wisdom to their reading. If indeed we believe that the Spirit moves over the chaos and blows where it will, we need to believe also that the Spirit continues to move over our own chaos, our own experiences, and continues to blow and breathe on us as we read the Scriptures.

One technique in teaching the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures that seems to help my students develop this confidence is what I call "pulling threads." I introduce the idea by relating that if we had a woven garment here in class, and we were to loosen a thread and then pull it, pretty soon we would disassemble the whole thing and be left with a pile of yarn. (I have often wanted to ask a student to wear an old sweater to class so that I might demonstrate the undoing of a sleeve or two!) It is amazing how yarn or thread tightly interwoven makes up a whole piece of cloth, and equally amazing that the tapestry we call the Scriptures is tightly interwoven with remarkable skill and beauty. When we pull some common threads of the Bible, we begin to understand the marvelous weaving that it is.

In this article I'll offer some examples of the threads that we pull in my classes on the Scriptures and how this technique can lead to personally relevant reflection. One useful aid for pulling such threads is a biblical concordance. Students can become familiar with words or significant terms frequently used in the Scriptures by looking them up in the concordance's alphabetical listing. There they can find the chapter and verse citations of the many different contexts in which a particular word or phrase is used in the Bible.

Barren Women

One thread we pick up is the significance of barren women in the stories of the Hebrew Scriptures and Christian Testament. Sarah is barren but she eventually has a child, Isaac (Genesis 17:15–21; 21:1–7). Isaac's wife, Rebekah, is barren but she later has twins (Genesis 25:19–26). Rachel and Leah, Jacob's wives, are barren but they go on to have many children (Genesis 29:31; 30:17–24). Samson's mother has been barren before she conceives Samson (Judges 13). Hannah is barren, and indeed is accused of being drunk because of her despondency over her barrenness. Later, when she has a child, Samuel, she dedicates him to the Lord (1 Samuel 1).

Moving into the Christian Testament, Elizabeth is barren, but as the angel foretells it, she later has a son, John the Baptist (Luke 1:5–17, 57–66). Just when we are getting accustomed to barren women having children, the Bible throws us a real curve: Mary, a young virgin, has a child (Luke 1:26–35; 2:4–7). The reader begins to wonder, Is there more to this thread of barrenness than meets the eye?

As the students and I explore the lives and significance of these women for whom it seems impossible to have children, we begin to unravel ideas about "lifelessness" and how life is brought forth from seemingly hopeless situations of barrenness. Delving below the surface of the stories, we get personal. We list all the things that cause "barrenness" in our own life. In other words, what in our life prevents the miracle of being a life-giving person? Going back to the Bible stories, the students begin to see what overcomes barrenness in these women. The biblical women become life-bearing because of their faith and trust in God even in situations that most would dismiss as hopelessly infertile. The Scriptures finally presents us with the most impossible situation of all--a virgin who is with child. Not for the faint of heart, nor for the faint of faith.

The lesson from this biblical thread of barrenness is that if we would be truly filled with life, we must be willing to deal with the impossible as possible, with the contradictory as plausible. The Bible confronts us pragmatic North Americans with an impractical God who cannot be controlled and who also refuses to control human beings. So much for domesticating Yahweh. We would still like to think we have God under wraps. But when we meet in the Scriptures all the barren women, and the young virgin, and God breathing life into them in response to faith, we realize that here is a God who does not abide with our penchant to package everything in neat plastic sandwich bags.

Women at Wells

So many threads are woven in and out of the pages of the Bible. Another thread we study in my Scripture class is the mention of wells, and the frequency with which women are met at these wells. Isaac's eventual wife, Rebekah, is found by his servant at a well. Interestingly, the servant asks her for a drink and she gives not only this stranger but also his camels a drink (Genesis 24:10–27). It does not take a zoological expert to realize that watering ten camels would be a rather daunting task. This simple--or not so simple--act of generosity and hospitality is a sign to the servant that this is the woman for Isaac.

Likewise, Jacob meets Rachel at a well. In this case, the mouth of the well is covered by a stone so heavy that it takes many men to move it so the shepherds can water their sheep (Genesis 29:1–14). Moses meets Zipporah, his future wife, at a well. He comes to the defense of her and her sisters, enabling them to water their sheep when some other shepherds were trying to drive them away from the well (Exodus 2:15–22).

As the students continue to explore biblical stories involving wells, they become aware of the importance of the well as a source of life-giving water. What happens if the well runs dry? What happens if no one is there to help move the huge stone away from the opening of the well?

Is it a coincidence in John's Gospel that the well where Jesus, a Jew, asked the Samaritan woman for a drink is the very well of Jacob the patriarch? In this incident, the Samaritan woman goes on to have a conversation with Jesus about "living water" (John 4:1–15).

The students, accustomed now to looking for symbolic meaning, begin to question, Are all the wells in these stories simply wells, or do they point to life-giving water, water that is as necessary for our spiritual life as ordinary water is for our physical life? They are led to wonder, too, what happens if we lose sight of the "wells" in our life, or if our well runs dry?

I like to think that in these well stories the Bible means to imply that women are apt to be close to the source of "living water." Certainly in the pages of the Hebrew Scriptures, women do a lot of well-sitting!

Significant Numbers

Once students get into the patterns or interweaving of symbols in the Scriptures, they begin to look for them. They cannot help but notice the preponderance of the number three. People in the Hebrew Scriptures are often taking three-day journeys. Jonah is inside the big fish for three days, and he walks through Nineveh in three days. Three strangers come to visit at Abraham's tent. In the Christian Testament, Jesus is tempted three times, he hangs on the cross for three hours, and he is raised from the dead on the third day. Then there is the number forty: It rains for forty days and forty nights while Noah and his family are in the ark. The Hebrews wander in the desert for forty years before reaching the Promised Land. Jesus fasts for forty days in the desert. Likewise, the number twelve is significant. There were twelve tribes of Israel, so it comes as no great surprise that there are twelve Apostles of Jesus. The numbers three, twelve, and forty were all indicators of completeness for the Hebrews. Once students are encouraged to notice these numbers, they become adept at picking up on them and recognizing their symbolic value.

Famines

Another thread worth pulling in the Scriptures is the occurrence of famines. How often in the Hebrew Scriptures does the text state words to the effect that "there was a great famine in the land"? A few examples are found in Genesis chapters 41–45; Genesis 12:10; 2 Samuel 21:1; 1 Kings 18:2; 2 Kings 4:38; and 2 Kings 6:25.

Perhaps it is famines in the land that shake us into facing reality and questioning what really provides us with sustenance in life. Certainly famines of the spirit are part of life for all of us. Where we go for nourishment when such famine strikes is a key issue. Students can reflect on what nourishes them when they are experiencing spiritual famine, when their life seems to lack nourishment or nurture.

In the story of Joseph and his brothers, to survive a famine (Genesis chapters 41–45), the brothers are brought face-to-face with the younger brother they had dismissed as dead. They are confronted with the need to be forgiven, to express sorrow, to be nourished. Forgiveness and sorrow perhaps relieve many famines of the human spirit. An exploration of famines in the Hebrew Scriptures brings home for students the lesson that not by bread alone do we live but by every word that comes from God.

Deserts

Along with famines, students in my Scripture class pick up on the importance of deserts. When do the biblical people wind up in deserts? And when do we wind up in a desert? What are some of the deserts in our own life, and how do we get through them? What do deserts do for us? Again, lessons are to be learned from the biblical people's experiences with deserts.

Why does spending time in desolate places seem to be important to the people of the Bible? Jesus goes off to a lonely place to pray, the Bible says (Mark 1:35). Perhaps all the desert experiences of the Hebrew Scriptures--like wandering in the desert for forty years before reaching the Promised Land--are the lonely places where the Israelites learned to find and rely on God. Maybe we need some desert time as well--to seek out lonely places at times. Students can learn that when we visit deserts, they can become life-giving places.

Sacred Moments on Mountains

Mountains, too, are important places in the Scriptures for encountering the sacred. Moses has his first encounter with Yahweh on a mountain (Exodus 3:1­6), Mount Horeb (Mount Sinai). When we read the story of the burning bush, our tendency is to inquire lamely about what the bush actually was instead of what it means. Moses, however, turns aside to see the burning bush, and in so doing discovers what it means--that he is standing on holy ground. In a class on the Scriptures, students can be asked to identify the burning bushes in their own life--the places, people, and events that, when they take the time to turn aside and look closely, are obvious opportunities to encounter God on God's sacred turf. "Take off your Nikes; you are on holy ground." As Elizabeth Barrett Browning put it so aptly:

Earth's crammed with heaven,

And every common bush afire with God:

But only he who sees, takes off his shoes;

The rest sit round it, and pluck blackberries.

(Aurora Leigh, bk. 7, 1.821)

Later in Exodus we have the marvelous scene on Mount Horeb when God gives Moses the Ten Commandments and makes the Covenant with him. Yahweh passes before Moses, who bows low in worship; later Moses comes down the mountain with his face shining because he has been talking with God; his skin shines so brightly that he has to cover his face with a veil so as not to frighten the people (Exodus 34).

A further sacred encounter happens on Mount Horeb. In an account of another prophet centuries after Moses, Elijah flees for his life back to Mount Horeb, as if to try to capture once again that special presence of God. Here it is that Elijah experiences God--not in the strong wind, or the earthquake, or the fire, but in a still, small voice (1 Kings 19:1­13).

Jesus is transfigured on a mountain top, and interestingly, it is Moses and Elijah, no strangers to mountains, who accompany him (Matthew 17:1­9; Mark 9:2­9; Luke 9:28­36). Now it is time for Peter, James, and John to try to understand once more that still, small voice.

Moments of transfiguration are followed by moments when we must come down from the mountain top and confront the reality of our life with its conflicts and dilemmas. Students are quite able to identify similar times in their own life, when sacred experiences of high points inevitably must yield to everyday realities and struggles.

Lambs, Sheep, and Shepherds

My students also move through the Scriptures with shepherds and sheep. We read of the Passover lamb that is slain so that doorposts can be marked (Exodus 12:1­28) and people can be liberated, and read again about our own Passover Lamb, who was slain so that we might be freed (1 Corinthians 5:7). We move from the lambs slain yearly in memory of this Passover, to the Baptist's cry: "'Look, here is the Lamb of God!'" (John 1:36), to the ultimate sacrifice of this very Lamb of God (Revelation 5).

We traverse the road from Nathan's parable of a lamb, told to King David to point out his greed and guilt (2 Samuel 12:1­13), to Jesus' parable of the lost sheep, told to help us deal with our own David-like meandering (Matthew 18:12­14; Luke 15:4­7). Interesting, isn't it, that it is the gentle lamb that runs through the pages of the Scriptures?

Joining the preponderance of sheep are simple shepherds, who come to the birth of the child--a shepherd who is king. The psalmist declares eloquently that "The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want; he makes me lie down in green pastures" (Psalm 23:1­2). And then there is the child, who was once visited by adoring shepherds and is now grown, who announces to all that he is the Good Shepherd and his sheep recognize his voice (John 10:1­18).

Washing Feet

The scene of Jesus washing the feet of his disciples (John 13:1­14) takes on additional meaning for the students when they discover that Abraham, too, washed the feet of the three strangers who came to the entrance of his tent (Genesis 18:1­5). When Jesus washes the feet of his disciples, he lives out for us the continuing importance of service and hospitality, as it was in Abraham's time, when welcoming strangers in the desert meant survival for them. Addressed to the society of our times, caught in the throes of violence, greed, and consumer frenzy, the message of hospitality, graciousness, gentleness, and service stands in stark contrast to the prevailing norms. It is like a still, small voice in the din.

Conclusion

I would encourage all those who teach the Scriptures, and all of us who remain students of the Word, to be bold in pulling the threads that weave their way in and out of the books of the Bible. We need to be ever more like the woman with the hemorrhage, who knew she could be cured even if it was only the hem of Jesus' garment that she touched. Somehow, thread-pullers and hem-grabbers are soul mates in trying to touch the Spirit of God.

Jane McAuliffe is a former religion teacher and a campus minister at Dominican High School in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.