Read the Bible with Atheist Jesus

Here is a suggested exercise for reading the New Testament: Imagine Jesus was an atheist or agnostic, but one aware the people of the time wouldn't accept that, so He tried a different tack to get people to see things in a new way. Weirdly, it works really well a lot of the time — even though I do believe in God. It brings yet another dimension to the NT that I find particularly helpful and even comforting. That said, I know it won’t be for everyone….

The Hitchhiker's Psalm for my galaxy

From today's noonday prayer at my friendly neighborhood monastery. Seems especially fitting for me…

As a deer longs for flowing streams,
so my soul longs for you, O God.
My soul thirsts for God,
for the living God.
When shall I come and behold
the face of God?
My tears have been my food
day and night,
while people say to me continually,
‘Where is your God?’

These things I remember,
as I pour out my soul:
how I went with the throng,
and led them in procession to the house of God,
with glad shouts and songs of thanksgiving,
a multitude keeping festival.
Why are you cast down, O my soul,
and why are you disquieted within me?
Hope in God; for I shall again praise him,
my help and my God.

My soul is cast down within me;
therefore I remember you
from the land of Jordan and of Hermon,
from Mount Mizar.
Deep calls to deep
at the thunder of your cataracts;
all your waves and your billows
have gone over me.
By day the Lord commands his steadfast love,
and at night his song is with me,
a prayer to the God of my life.

I say to God, my rock,
‘Why have you forgotten me?
Why must I walk about mournfully
because the enemy oppresses me?’
As with a deadly wound in my body,
my adversaries taunt me,
while they say to me continually,
‘Where is your God?’

Why are you cast down, O my soul,
and why are you disquieted within me?
Hope in God; for I shall again praise him,
my help and my God.

Why do I call it the Hitchhiker's Psalm? Because it's number 42.