Familiar stories. Luke 8.

After Luke's introductory comments about the women who were supporting Jesus, he tells us about six incidents and teachings in the life of Jesus. These are very familiar stories. Not only are they preached about often, but they are recorded in all the gospels. Just this year, then, we've already read about the parable of the soils and the lamp, the declaration that those who believe in Jesus are His family, the storm on the sea, the naked guy in the cemetery, the raising of Jairus' daughter, and the healing of the bleeding woman. Twice. Some of you may have read and heard these stories hundreds of times.

I'm wondering what you do when you encounter a familiar story? How do you read through it? Do you zip through it, almost skimming? Is there a comfort level, and you relax into the story? Are you able to "get" anything from the passage? Does the familiarity draw you closer to Jesus, like a family story can do? ("Remember the day when Uncle ...? That was so funny. And you ended up ... Uncle ... is a great uncle, isn't he?") Or does the familiarity distance you, because you don't engage with the text because it's so familiar? Like a family story can do? ("When is she going to finish this story? I've already heard it four times today. Hmmm. Wonder how the Blazers will do with that new draft pick? What? Did I hear you? Of course I did. Just not this time.") So how about it? What was your response to these familiar passages today?

You may have noticed that I called the incident that takes place in the Gerasenes, when Jesus is confronted by the man possessed by multiple demons, and sends the demons into a herd of pigs, "the naked guy in the cemetery." That was purposeful. It's one of the ways that I personally work with familiar stories -- shake them up in some way to place a fresh emphasis on a particular aspect, add some fun to them, or some drama, or make connections to our life today or my life in particular. Thinking about someone so nuts he lives naked in a cemetery is one way to highlight the profound change that Jesus made in this person's life by casting out Legion. Maybe another time, I might want to highlight Jesus authority over the demonic by highlighting what happens to the pigs.

I really am curious about what happens when you read familiar passages. I have no idea if what happens to me is typical or not. And it does vary from time to time and passage to passage. This morning I really had to work at staying in the text, and not just rip through it. When that happens, here are some things I may do to take a fresh look.

• Stop and pray. This might be all you do, and come back to the text later. At a minimum, ask God for one specific teaching you might take away from the text for the day. What is it He wants me to know?
  
• Slow down.
• Read out loud.
  
• Read a bigger chunk of text. Big pictures help us see patterns and connections that are a part of God's message for us not contained in the details. In today's reading, for example, it might be helpful to remember the "sinful woman" at the end of chapter 7.
  
• Read a smaller chunk of text. Narrowing our focus allows us to expand the way we can think about the passage. This is something like slowing down, and might include doing some of the following tips.
• Put oneself into the picture. I may have shared this in the past, but the full story of Jairus, his daughter, and the hemorrhaging woman, is one that has always been a fruitful one for me to use my active imagination.
• Compare parallel accounts, if there are any. In the case of Luke 8, it's possible to do this for every episode. Here, you can look for God's message as spoken through the writers. Why did Mark give us this particular detail, for example?
• Lookup quoted material, when applicable. Take advantage of the cross references in your Bible to find the Old Testament references and read those references with surrounding context.
• Rewrite the passage in your own words. If the passage is really familiar you should be able to do this easily. Do it from memory, and then go back and compare your version to the text. Did you leave anything out? Did you add anything to the story? Reflect on that.
• Write a targeted paraphrase. What I mean by that is to think of particular audiences that might read your paraphrase, or that you might tell it to --- like 2nd to 4th graders, or movie fans.
  
• Memorize the passage. The more familiar the passage, the easier to memorize.
• Examine your life, and see if you've made any progress since the last time you read the passage. Ouch. From Luke 8, am I a better listener to God's message than I was when I last read about the light on the lamp stand?
  

This is by no means an exhaustive list of ways to overcome a disengaged reading of familiar stories, but it's a start. It's a real treat when the opposite reaction happens -- a fully engaged reading of the familiar. These are the moments when God's Spirit really illuminates a passage, because we're not getting in the way. Like a family story, like a moment actually experienced in our own life, we're sitting in the boat as it approaches the shore, with the fishermen and the tax collector and the others, and the teacher asks us to, "Come." with Him as He steps ashore. And the naked guy comes storming out of the cemetery, screaming, "leave me alone", and we can't wait to see what happens next, because we've learned that Jesus is master over everything.