One of the reasons we are so reluctant to engage in serious Bible study is that it forces us to examine our faith. A serious encounter with Scripture demands that we acknowledge that some, perhaps much, of what we believe about God has very little to do with the Bible.

For instance, the very idea that faith is ever just a private matter between ourselves and God is as foreign to Scripture as strawberry ice cream. The whole course of Biblical history involves community. Out of the wilderness of Sinai, a people emerged. They were chosen by God to be proclaimers of truth. A people not a person.

Out of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus the Christ, a people was called to be the church. Never in isolation and always in community. One of the most anti-Biblical theses is this preposterous understanding of privacy as somehow being a sacred right. If we really read the Bible, we discover over and over again that to be a follower of the God of Israel and the God of Jesus is to be responsible to the community. It is to not stand idly by when people are suffering. It is to never allow disagreements to separate us from our sisters and brothers. It is to speak out and act out when political, economic, social, even religious forces continue to oppress the poor and weak, the outcast and hungry.