Sword drills in Sunday School class? – Sword of the Spirit, Preview

Did you participate in sword drills as a child in church? Yes, in church. But I’m not talking about swords with metal blades.  When I was growing up in children and youth Sunday School classes, we had sword drills with our Bibles. No, we didn’t slam each other with Bibles.  Here’s how sword drills worked:

All the students in the class would sit in their chairs with their Bible closed on their laps, and their hands at their sides or folded.  You were not allowed, yet, to touch your Bible.  The teacher would start the drill by calling out a scripture reference.  Book, chapter and verse.  Then the teacher would wait a second or two as we students were shaking with anticipation.  Why were we shaking?  Because as soon as the teacher said, “Go!” we were allowed to open our Bibles and frantically search for the reference.  You could hear pages ruffling and crinkling as we feverishly wracked out brains to remember the order of the 66 books of the Bible.  The first person who found the reference would shoot up out of their seat and start reading it.

Sometimes it was an everyone-for-themselves sword drill.  Sometimes it was girls versus boys.  Whoever found the verse first earned a point for themselves or their team.  I remember so deeply wanting to be first to find references.  We Americans can make a competition out of anything, can’t we?

I wonder if sword drills are still a thing.  Maybe you’re wondering, “Hold on a minute, Joel. Those Bible sword drills sound like a fun way for kids to learn the books of the Bible, but what is the connection between Bibles and swords?  Isn’t that a bit odd?  Didn’t Jesus tell Peter to put away his sword?”

Yes, Jesus did tell Peter to put away his sword, after Peter had cut off the high priest’s servants’ ear there in the garden as the people took Jesus into custody. There is no doubt in Christian theology that the church is never to take up arms in its pursuit of the mission of Jesus.  Yet there is a teaching that connects the Bible to swords.  That teaching is in the Armor of God passage that we have been studying for the past few months.  This coming week on the blog, I investigate the next piece of the armor, the Sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God.

How is the Bible like a sword?  Join me back here on the blog next week as we talk about it.

Photo by Casper Johansson on Unsplash