Tuesday, November 1, 2022
Solemnity of All Saints
All Saints Day
Memorizing the Bible, part by part
(click here to listen to or read today’s scriptures)
I had a vision of a great multitude, which no one could count, from every nation, race, people, and tongue. They stood before the throne and before the Lamb, wearing white robes and holding palm branches in their hands. They cried out, in a loud voice.
Miles stood straight with his eleven kindergarten classmates and, using sign language and his voice, recited the first twelve verses of James. They finished strong.
Blessed is the one who perseveres under trial because, having stood the test, that person will receive the crown of life that the Lord has promised to those who love him.
OK, this is not something I could do. But watching those 5 and 6 year olds do it perfectly, I thought, “Well, maybe I could!”
Afterward, eating donuts with Jasper and drinking Veranda from Starbucks, we talked with Kristin, who spearheads the memorization work assigned to every class at Austin Classical School. I asked how she does her own memory work.
One idea she uses is to write the first letter of each word of a verse or passage on a card, and then memorizing through association with those letters. She also does what I did for years, writing down verses on a card, carrying the card with her, and repeating the verses over and over.
Who can ascend the mountain of the Lord, or who may stand in his holy place? One whose hands are sinless, whose heart is clean, who desires not what is vain. Lord, this is the people that longs to see your face.
A seminary professor in New Orleans teaches a class on memorizing Philippians. At a conference a few years ago, we sat in a large audience as thirty college students lined up on the edge of the stage. They began without preamble, reciting the first chapter of Philippians, and then the second chapter … when they stopped the applause was spontaneous and deafening. They could have finished the book, if we had given them the time.
See what love the Father has bestowed on us that we may be called children of God. Yet so we are.
Today’s lectionary passages are all memorizable. All Saints Day brings out the best in the men and women who choose these verses. Revelation 7, Psalm 24, 1 John 3, and then Matthew 5, and Jesus’ Beatitudes. Such familiar verses, and how easy they would be to carry around in our minds.
The professor from New Orleans said to us: “Memorizing one verse is like carrying a flashlight through a dark night. Memorizing a passage is like a headlight piercing the darkness. And memorizing an entire book of the Bible is like holding a bank of lights above the stadium of your life, always ready to light your way.”
I have chosen the way of truth, I have set my heart on your laws.
I hold fast to your statutes, O my Lord, do not let me put to shame.
I run in the path of your commands, for you have set my heart free.
Thirty years ago I wrote a short song using the above words from Psalm 119:30-32 (NIV). I think Jasper and Margaret and I can sing that song together often, and start him on his own highway of memorization, give him a headlamp to carry, ready for the darkness when it comes.
As it always does.
Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be satisfied.
(Revelation 7, Psalm 24, 1 John 3, Matthew 11, Matthew 5)
(posted at www.davesandel.net)
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