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bratcher_md@mercer.edu

Margaret Dee Bratcher

Of all the things I love to do, nothing surpasses teaching the Bible to Mercer students. I love to read its stories and talk with my students about the people whose lives are written on its pages. Saints and sinners all, they hoped and dreamed and doubted and feared. They knew moments of triumph and celebration and times of defeat and mourning. They struggled to find their way in the world—to live right and keep their promises, to do good work and raise their families. They prayed that life would mean something. These people are not so very different from any of us.

We grow and develop and make our way in the world by experience and imagination. In the stories of Moses, Ruth, and David, of Peter, Paul, and Mary, we may learn, as they did, the lessons of experience. Along with them we are invited to imagine—to dream, to envision, to hope for—the life toward which God calls us all. Reading their stories can help us hear the call of faith that beckons us. That’s certainly true for me.

I teach the Bible, Greek, Hebrew every now and then, and interdisciplinary courses in the General Education curriculum. My teaching reflects my training in narrative interpretation and biblical languages, and also my long-time interest in the study of people (in my college days I took a lot of courses in psychology, sociology, anthropology, and history, and I continue to read in those fields as a hobby). Presently I’m studying vocation and the call stories in the Bible.