Reading the Bible together

I always feel that reading the Bible is like coming home.  It’s somehow authentic, honest.  It reveals.  It challenges.  It stirs.  It comforts.

Some years ago, a young Chinese passer-by popped her head into our Reading Room door (in the south west of Sydney) and said: This door is never open!  We replied: Well, it’s open now.  She responded: Do you do Bible study here?  We said (after a short pause): Yes of course.  Come along on Wednesday nights.

Well, she came, many times.  And so, to accommodate her request, we included some time for reading the Bible together in our regular mid-week meetings.  We sat around in a small circle, each with our Bibles, taking turns to read 5 verses each.  Our new friend, a Buddhist, has a Christian mother back in China.   She wanted to understand.  She asked about Revelation; we suggested starting with something a bit easier and chose one of the Gospels.  She read from a different version from the rest of us, and was unfamiliar with lots of the pronunciations, but it was so wonderful to journey together in this reading.

That reading together changed us, and changed the church.