Reading scripture is important. One of the most fundamental arguments of the 16th century Protest Reformation was that scripture should be available beyond the clergy. All should have access to it. And if you ever come to a Bible study I’m leading, you’ll hear me say this: you can read scripture. Your encounter of it is unique, valid, and valuable. But the thing about reading scripture is that there are lots of ways to do it, and not all of them are faithful. So how we read scripture matters. It’s not about the different processes or procedures. Whether you’re reading it as a daily devotional, through the practice of lectio divina, or reading it from the slides on Sunday and sitting with it in worship… all of those and so many other options are valid. Reading scripture is important, and I’m glad you’re doing it (and if you’re not, I encourage you to start). And however you do that, it works. Not least because what matters more than how is why. In John Wesley’s sermon “The Means of Grace”, he considers our use of scripture. Does it seek to serve us, or do we engage it so that we might come to know and serve God? He evokes the passage from 2 Timothy we’ll consider Sunday, but also notably Matthew 7:7-8: Ask, and it will be given to you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you. For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened. To this he reflects: “Here we are in the plainest manner directed to ask in order to, or as a means of, receiving; to seek in order to find the grace of God… to knock, to continue asking and seeking, if we would enter into his kingdom.” The condition of Matthew 7 – asking, seeking, knocking – is one of diligence and intention, to be sure, but it is also, and fundamentally, one of curiosity and humility. One that dares to ask rather than quietly stagnating with what we already know or believe. One that seeks rather than comfortably keeping a status quo. One that knocks, knowing that we stand at a precipice for which we are being invited in, and not for our doing. This is a more difficult way to read scripture, certainly one that requires a great deal more vulnerability. And it’s also a more faithful way, as we seek to let it form us. Each of us, and First United Methodist Bonita Springs. I pray that we would allow the word of God to move and shape us, instead of the other way around. See you Sunday. -Ben | 
