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S. MW Lent 5.25 Deut. 32:36-39

Luther sees a causal connection between God’s killing and making alive, his wounding and healing that is proved by the cross and resurrection of Jesus—a connection that most readers miss.

Being a good reader in general—and of the scriptures in particular, is the great (though little appreciated) gift that makes a good pastor like Dr. Luther. St. Paul prizes it as the highest gift a pastor can have. He tells Timothy in the first pastoral epistle there’s just 3 things a good pastor devotes himself to: reading, exhortation, doctrine. Reading comes first! (visitation and administration aren’t even mentioned, just sayin’ 😉 Because, without being a good reader of great books, the exhortation and doctrine will not be worth much to anyone.

What is it to be a good reader? Where does it come from? Can it be learned? Great questions worthy of a moment’s consideration.

I say it’s a pure gift, being a good reader—but a gift neither of nature nor nurture, I think. I have it, have always had it, but neither my father, nor mother, nor sister have it. Talking with my friends who have it (most are pastors, professors, or lawyers BTW) they are most often outliers in their families, as am I. So, that’s why I rule out heredity or environment as the source of this gift…

I say it comes purely from God! and is given out in an apparently unpredictably random fashion.

That said, being a good reader is a gift that can be cultivated, to some extent—or squashed. My mother took my sister and me to the library every Saturday morning from as early as I can remember, and I was never discouraged from reading. I think my mother saw reading as a means to the end of gathering information that could be useful in life—a process she at least found enjoyable in a way my father or sister never really seemed to. None of them loved reading the way I do.

Mom did enroll me in a speed reading class when I was 12. It’s a fad that has passed and is much scorned, but, along with a typing class in high school, it enriched my life immeasurably. It dramatically increased the speed at which I could tear through books if I needed to, and honestly was the main reason I excelled in school (which I hadn’t before taking the class in 8th grade, but did ever after 😉

Now, speed reading is not fun. It takes a good bit of the joy out of reading (I hardly ever do it anymore). But when you’ve got to get through a lot of material to figure something out for a test or class, it’s highly useful. Which shows the gift of reading can be cultivated, in lots of ways. But if you don’t have the gift of being a good reader, I doubt it can be learned. ;-(

The gift of being a good reader is more than just processing the written word quickly and well. At least, if not more important, is a mysterious inclination to read THIS BOOK and not THAT ONE, to re-read a certain small group of books, over and over. Luther says “it is not the reading of many books that makes one learned or wise, but a good book frequently read.” That is most certainly true!

I still don’t know why I’m drawn to read what I do. I think it’s something to do with Donna Tartt’s imp? Or maybe the Holy Spirit? Or maybe “YES!”?

I will say that the books I love are all of them trying to figure out what life is all about, at some level. They are all after the TRUTH! But it’s not utilitarian. A good reader loves the chase as much (or more?) than the joyful ending.

A truly good reader, like Luther, is, first and foremost, a truth-seeker. But because beauty and truth are so closely linked, there’s an aesthetic aspect here that’s not easily defined, as Ted Lasso said when asked to explain the offsides rule: “I cannot define it for you, but I know it when I see it.” True of good books as well. If you love truth and beauty, they will find you!

And the truth is often paradoxical, just as the greatest beauty is often hidden under outward ugliness and terror. A good reader has learned this lesson above all!

So, Luther could see in our text the crucifixion of Jesus Christ is what we’re talking about when we talk about God’s killing and making alive. God gives us over, as he did ancient Israel, to our own devices and desires; and when we find our native gods all disappoint and leave us in the lurch, we’re ready for Christ’s killing and making alive.

See now!

God offers himself—the only begotten Son in whom all the fullness of the godhead dwells bodily—up to death on the cross in order to kill the sin in us that keeps us from his joy. He kills, not out of wrath or anger, but out of love and mercy. He kills in order to make alive.

He wounds in order to heal…

When we hate our sinful lives—because of the ugliness and deceit in them, we’re off on the quest for something… better. We’re finally ready for the cross, for the killing that makes alive, the wounding that heals.

We’re ready for the holiest week of all. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.