I was thrilled when I first read Bethany Stolle’s “Messy Midrash.” While it may not have gone into deep detail about this rich historical practice that is the root of the growth and change seen in the tradition today, it did draw my attention to an aspect of Midrash that we are missing in the Christian tradition: story.
Midrash is story. It is people gathering together not only to tell the story of the Bible but to tell stories that give new levels of connection between the biblical stories being told and the people who listen to them. Midrash takes the stories we find in the Bible and changes them from black and white to full color or, as Paul Harvey used to say, they tell us “the rest of the story.”
The church I currently serve has a “remember when” story of a VBS from years ago that continues to circulate. In this VBS, there was a tabernacle. Most folks at the church don’t remember specifics about the tabernacle. But they do remember how great VBS was that year. When you ask them about it, they often recall it as “really neat” and “so inspiring;” some even say they will never forget it.
So when Bethany wrote about the detail and feelings she encountered as she journeyed through this tabernacle, she filled in a lot of what I missed by not being at the tabernacle at my church. She helped me feel those emotions; she unleashed the smells; she painted colors, and I saw them. All of these things are part of a historical tabernacle, but I did not get to experience them directly.
Did all the details in Bethany’s story likely happen at the VBS at my church? No. Does it matter that her tabernacle experience was different from the one that occurred at my church? Not to me. Her story transported me back to the “best VBS ever.” It gave me insight and raised emotions I didn’t know. It made the best VBS I never attended come to life for me.
Story is vital to who we are as a people. Story is what ties similar people together, despite being separated by time or space. Story ties us all to something larger and beyond each of us. Story ties us to God.
Bethany’s article worked in my mind long after I finished reading it. I began to think about the students I serve. I recalled the way they aren’t aware of many of the basic stories found in the Hebrew Scriptures. They seem to know who Joseph is, but they don’t know about his Technicolor Dream coat. They know who Moses is, but they don’t realize this was the “Prince of Egypt”.
As I look at the way many of us do church, I see important aspects of story missing. Many of these aspects have been thrown out as old, too traditional or irrelevant. The problem is, many of these stories tell us who we are. They tell us where we came from. They tie us to a tradition that is thousands of years old. Without them, we are a ship set adrift.
So much of our culture still views Scripture as Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth and nothing more. The Bible is no longer story. I think this has had an impact on our youth. They don’t feel tied to something that is bigger than themselves. Mark Yaconelli speaks to this in his book Contemplative Youth Ministry.[1] He writes that students need to know the history of who they are and where they come from. Students need to know that their faith is much deeper and older than their grandparents.
What’s the impact on the lives of students who don’t understand God’s story as their story? They’re unable to read the story of the Bible. The Bible becomes an inaccurate encyclopedia of facts or a history textbook. It has to be either 100% factual, or it’s not true at all. Our culture has relegated stories down to the stuff we tell kids before bedtime.
As an old Native American saying goes, I don’t know if it actually happened this way, but I know it’s true. This goes for our Bible too. It is a collection of stories. They are intended to tie us to the people and time they are about. They are what make us the people of God.
Bethany tells of a recent experience she had preparing a Bible study. She began to ask searching questions, questions that fuel midrash. When she invited students to think about what was missing from the story, they entered into the story. They became part of it. It was no longer the story of some ancient guy; it was a story about their ancestor.
This is crucial to note. Much of our current biblical tradition won’t allow students to become part of God’s story. Doing so feels blasphemous, inappropriate and wrong. Students desperately need to know that God wants us to be part of God’s story. We aren’t supposed to be outside observers looking in on what God is up to. Following Jesus is about being active participants in the work of God in the world.
I do differ with Bethany on this one point: “Midrash often reflects the reader’s view and values more than the biblical context, and I wouldn’t use midrash interpretations to replace the authority of the biblical testimony.”
I think she may have missed an important point of midrash. Midrash occurs every time we read the Bible. It occurs when we try to interpret for ourselves or exegete it for our students. One difference is that, instead of sitting in a room with others around us, we turn to biblical commentaries or other theological works of our tradition. When we add in illustrations to our talks or sermons, we are making our story part of the biblical story, even if we don’t realize it. To do midrash is to propose new influence to the biblical testimony.
We often don’t invite students into these discussions. Instead we do the midrash without them, thinking that in doing the work for them, and reporting on what we learned, we’re participating in the tradition of the midrash. But that’s not entering into the tradition. Students need to be allowed to ask questions and unleash the thoughts in their minds. Doing this helps them enter the story.
In his book Enter the Story,[2] Michael Novelli suggests that, instead of dumbing down the Bible, we should invite students to become part of the story. He says we need to invite students not only to know the story as a biblical passage but also the context that story is in, which includes the surrounding stories. Eventually the entire Bible can be seen as one meta-story composed of many smaller stories. As we begin to get all these stories, the story becomes part of us. We begin to understand the entire Bible as true to us.
When students become part of God’s story, they don’t forget it. The story is always with them. With this truth in them, there’s no need to set Scripture aside when they step into the biology lab or an anthropology class. The Bible can help them understand the history they are taught from textbooks. The Bible shows them how God has always been active and part of us through all time, regardless of whether that is 4,000 years or 40 billion.
As we practice midrash with students, we grow closer to each other while we grow closer to God. This closeness helps us seek out where God is in our lives today and directs us in the struggles we face to determine how to best live as the people of God.
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