Know the Big Picture: God is loving everyone into wholeness, through Jesus Christ, so that we can enjoy and participate in God’s reign forever.
See Jesus as Central Character: the Old Testament is preparing our understanding of who Jesus is and why he comes; New Testament reveals Jesus and what it means to bear witness to Christ participating in God’s reign.
Read With: Holy Spirit—we trust Spirit to guide and teach,
Questions—What questions does the passage prompt?
Others- we read with community and for community; not just for ourselves
-how do I hear this scripture for another person?
-what is this saying to how we live together?
-what is this text asking of us as a community?
Anticipation—expect challenge, insight, comfort, mystery…
What is the Context? What happened before this text? After? What is the historical setting? What did the text mean in its original setting?
Narrative is not normative: just because someone did something in scripture it does not mean it is meant for us to do same e.g., Gideon setting out a fleece or the disciples “drawing straws” to determine God’s will.
Read scripture in light of scripture: Let your reading of scripture be informed by other scripture.
Choose Hardest: when you have a choice in translation between two words, choose the hardest one and wrestle with it. Likely the softer” word is a historic scribal error or a modern help to smooth reading for less rigorous readers.