The other morning I woke up to this thought, which came from nowhere (at least so far as I can tell): “Reading Scripture is not like hunting a golden stag; it’s like fishing for the one fish with a coin in its mouth.”
Every detail matters, including the contrasts between hunting and fishing, shared adventure and personal mission, spectacle-sport and folk-play. Tellingly, the royal hunt, if successful, ends in sacrifice, and the proud hunter takes a trophy. The apostolic undertaking, however, ends in an offering, and the chastened finder is left empty-handed.
Selah.
†
Early on, Eugene Peterson, inspired by Kafka, wanted his congregation to think of Scripture as “a fisticuff book, an ice-axe book.” Later, however, challenged by a Wendell Berry line, he began to question the violence of those metaphors, He decided the better image was St John eating the scroll. But while it may be true that we, as a rule, are expected to eat the book, sometimes the truth is that the book eats us, no?
New thoughts much appreciated
Boersma's comments on the Eucharist..." we become Christ's body as together we 'eat ' Christ's body"... so we eat the Word...and become the word?
" man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from God."
Love your analogy of the fish with the golden coin...