Cramming

I haven't been in school for almost 8 years now. I have friends and parishioners who are still in school, and friends who now teach in schools. So I am still sort of aware of the cycles of the semesters. So perhaps this week can be an act of solidarity with all those struggling to finish term papers, whether writing or grading them.

I have to start teaching a five-session class on the Book of Revelation on Sunday. I am nowhere close to ready. And I'm a little terrified.

Why am I doing this, you ask? Hmmmm... that is a very good question. I have no good answer.

It was completely and totally my own fault, um, idea. No one asked me to do it, or even suggested it, exactly. There was a moment when someone was talking about the Left Behind series in disturbing ways, which may have had something to do with it.

I just thought, "ooo, I bet if I taught a class about Revelation it would get people's attention!" And at the time (somewhen in March), May seemed really far away.

But now the first Sunday of May is five days away. (As it turned out, April - my month to prepare - had Easter in it!) I have a vague outline of the five sessions in my head, but I have no content yet. Yesterday, I got three great books. But I haven't even really read the actual Book itself yet. I have a lot of reading to do, eh?

The good news is that it has caught people's attention. I'm even offering the class on Tuesday nights, in addition to Sunday mornings, because supposedly people are interested. We shall see. I'm glad people are interested and excited, but I'm also feeling a lot of pressure to do the class as well as I possibly can, that is, make it interesting and yet give people the information they so desperately need about this book. As Luke Johnson puts it, no other piece of literature has been "so obsessively read with such generally disastrous results."

If mainline Protestantism is guilty of anything (and we are), neglecting the educational needs of our flock is a major one. We have not given them the tools to explain their understanding of the Bible, even to themselves. So why are we surprised that so many folks in our churches are practically literalists, even when they have a vague idea that doesn't make sense? It's the default setting in this country, because nobody's being loud enough about the other options. It's one thing to learn not to be a literalist with the Letter to the Ephesians. Revelation is another thing altogether. But that's the point, I guess.

So. I shall throw myself to the lions. This one goes out to all you final week crammers out there -- I'm right here with you!