Bible Study as Resistance

Last week I started a Bible study at Shamrocks in St. Paul to study Colossians, Philemon, and Ephesians. I almost canceled it because our Cities are in a state of war, people are scared to go out, and honestly, a Bible study felt frivolous. As I prayed about it, I had a deep peace that I could hold a space for anyone who wanted to show up, pray together, and dig into the Word of God so that we could better reflect the love of God to a world filled with violence and evil. Instead of feeling frivolous, it became an act of resistance.

A small group gathered in the pub and every person at that table had stories of grief, fear, and deep sorrow. One person’s son had woken up to nine ICE agents in his hallway and watched his next-door neighbor be taken. International students, who live with a woman in the study, are afraid to ride the bus and go to school. A woman’s 98-year-old mother was having horrible flashbacks of growing up in Denmark and the Nazis coming into her town. Two people had Green Cards and feel fear. Another person has adopted sons that are not white and one works in a grocery store where ICE has been active. People are living with the normal difficulties of life—grief from a mother’s recent death and another for whom mental health struggles are present in their home—all while helicopters fly overhead. One person is on the front lines of care for immigrants and refugees and was receiving covert calls from the police asking for help with food for kids whose parents had been taken. She packed eight boxes for eight different children last Wednesday.

I named the study “Maturity in Christ” because Paul has a vision of Christian maturity as becoming who we are. It could feel self-indulgent or beside the point to think about what it means to personally and corporately “become who we are” in Christ when neighbors are being taken away by nine masked, armed guards. But actually, as believers in Christ, we are the Body of Christ sent to love God, love each other, love our neighbors, and impossibly, to love our enemies—even the masked kind. We need the presence of Jesus with us. We need the power of the Holy Spirit filling us and moving through us to do the impossible work we are incapable of doing. In order to do that, we need to saturate ourselves in the Word of God. We need to pray for the true peace of Christ to hold back evil, bring justice and mercy, and bring healing that we are incapable of bringing on our own.

If you want to join in this kind of resistance work—the work of studying scripture, sharing stories, and praying together so God can help us love our neighbors and enemies—come join us every Wednesday night at Shamrock’s Pub in St. Paul from 6:30-8pm. We need you.

Maturity in Christ Bible Study (Colossians, Philemon, and Ephesians)

Shamrock’s

995 7th St W, St Paul, MN 55102
 

Wednesdays, 6:30-8pm | Free (and feel free to buy drinks, apps, or meals to be good patrons)