We have all seen the movie or television show where someone is in a coma. Maybe the character was in a car accident or suffered a stroke.  These shows can be quite intense as we empathize with the family surrounding the hospital bed of their loved one, waiting to see if they will ever talk again.

But for a moment, put yourself in the place of the person in the coma.  There are some questions I want to ask that pertain to the study of scriptures and history and I think if you can imagine having awakened from a coma, you might gain some insight as to why studying is so crucial for us.

Let’s say you were in a coma even one day—I think the questions would be about the same as if you were in a coma for a year though for my purposes (to convince you that study of scripture and history is a vitally important endeavor), the longer the better. So you’ve been in a coma for one year and one day, you awaken.  You awaken in the middle of the night and can hear chatter in the hallway from the nurse’s station but you’re not sure who it is talking or even where you are.  A little light from the window spills across the room.  You aren’t sure who you are, where you are, what this is.  Everything is a mystery to you.  Blinking you see on a table beside your bed a vase of flowers and a card.  The flowers gesture to you care and concern but also clue you in that you’ve been ill.  You reach for the card and open it.  There you find your name.  You now know who you are.  And you read a sentiment signed by a loved one.  You awaken to the truth that you have been ill and you are reminded to whom you belong, to what family you are a part.  Unaware that your loved one is sleeping in a chair in the corner of the room, you make a whimper and cry out for help.  Your loved one, startled, immediately awakens and rushes to your side and embraces you.  You have been found! You no longer feel as lost.  And the questions pour out of you:

*who am I?

*why am I here?

*what happened to me?

*who are you?

*where is this place?

*what is the world like right now?

And your loved one patiently and joyfully explains each question to you taking time to remind you that you are loved.

Note:  the questions you ask coming out of a coma are the religious questions we ask when we begin to awaken to the world around us and God.  Bible study and the study of Christian History is an effort to wake up.  We study in order to wake up to ourselves and to discover the truth about the world.

In the coming weeks, I will be discussing with any number of you how we offer study at Riverside. My hope is that by Labor Day Sunday, we’ll have some opportunities both old and new to offer you as you wake up to the truth of yourself, the truth of God in Christ and the truths of our world.  In the mean time, I highly recommend you read a story about two disciples who awakened from their “coma” as the Lord himself explained the scriptures and answered their questions. You can find the story in Luke 24:13-35.

~Pstr

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