Matthew 12 begins
1At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the Sabbath. His disciples were hungry and began to pick some heads of grain and eat them. 2When the Pharisees saw this, they said to him, "Look! Your disciples are doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath."
It wasn't unlawful for the disciples to eat grain from someone else's field. (see Deut. 23:24,25)
Nope, it wasn't stealing that the Pharisees deemed unlawful for the Sabbath. It was the fact that they picked grain and rubbed it in their hands before eating it. Why?
In their tradition these actions "constituted reaping and threshing" which was work, and therefore, not lawful to do.
Sabbath (from sabat meaning "repose or rest") was a day God instituted for the Israelites and all animals and aliens living within their land as a sign of the children of Israel's relationship with God and a "lasting covenant" (see Exodus 31:16). It was also "an act of mercy for both man and beast, to give them needed rest each week." (Wiersbe, pg. 42) Indeed keeping the Sabbath was important enough to be included in the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20).
Jesus answered their charge by reminding the Pharisees of the actions of King David, the priests and words the prophet Hosea records, "I desire mercy, not sacrifice."
Indeed Jesus says if the Pharisees knew what these words meant they would not have condemned the innocent! (Mt. 12:7)
How could Jesus declare his disciples innocent when according to Tradition (the Law?), they were guilty? Appalling!
I'm sure his next words really pushed their buttons!
8"For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath."
What?! Is Jesus calling himself the Lord of what God instituted (the Sabbath) and gave as Law to Moses? Does Jesus get to set the rules of what does and does not violate Sabbath rest?
But wait! He doesn't stop there! Next he goes into their synagogue and meets a man with a shriveled hand.
10...Looking for a reason to accuse Jesus, they asked him, "Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?"
Since they were wanting to accuse Jesus, it seems the Traditional answer would be an emphatic "no!" At least according to the legalists' Tradition.
But as Wiersbe puts it in his commentary, "Any religious law that is contrary to mercy and the care of nature should be looked on with suspicion. God wants mercy, not religious sacrifice. He wants love, not legalism."
Jesus answered them with this:
11He said to them, "If any of you has a sheep and it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will you not take hold of it and lift it out? 12How much more valuable is a man than a sheep! Therefore it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath."
Read that? Humans are more valuable than sheep!
And it's lawful to do good on the Sabbath which probably means it's a great idea to treat others kindly and mercifully any day of the week - holy day or not.
Jesus didn't just stop with saying those wise words, but he healed the man.
13Then he said to the man, "Stretch out your hand." So he stretched it out and it was completely restored, just as sound as the other.
Can you imagine the man there? Just happened to be in the synagogue that day probably never realizing his hand - his withered, crippled hand - was going to be healed!
My pastor often points out this man's faith. Surely over the years he'd tried to stretch out that hand, willed it to be whole, to move, to grab - all to no avail. He couldn't play ball with the kids...at least not any that involved catching. It was difficult to steady and carry a hot bowl of soup from the stove to the table. Yet, here one Saturday when told by Jesus to stretch out his hand, he did..."and it was completely restored"!
Hallelujah!
Yet not everyone can celebrate your miracle with you...are their hearts just that cold?
14But the Pharisees went out and plotted how they might kill Jesus.
I say legalists are just party poopers, eh? Jesus did a good deed yet they scurry away making plans about how they might rid the world of him.
What do you think about this passage? What does Jesus declaring himself "Lord of the Sabbath" mean? How do you think the Pharisees took those words? Why do you think they wanted to kill Jesus? Might he be disrupting their Tradition in a way that made them furious?
Noted quotes from The Bible Exposition Commentary, volume 1 by Warren W. Wiersbe
Friday, July 16, 2010
Thursday, July 15, 2010
Matthew 11:28-30 -- Come, Take & Learn
Finally! Finally I reached the end of Matthew 11 after dragging it out all these days! Remember Jesus had said that puzzling thing about the Son knowing the Father and the Father knowing the Son which compelled me to write "what part of 'know' don't you understand." Jesus said, "...no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him," then he offers this invitation.
28"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30For my yoke is easy and my burden is light."
Rest for our souls? Ahhh, divine! Sounds rather nice in this age of conflicts abroad and at home, doesn't it? Some commentary ...
28"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30For my yoke is easy and my burden is light."
Rest for our souls? Ahhh, divine! Sounds rather nice in this age of conflicts abroad and at home, doesn't it? Some commentary ...
Monticello, Virginia ~ July 3, 2010Picture taken by my brother
"Come." The Pharisees all said "Do!" and tried to make the people follow Moses and the traditions. But true salvation is found only in a Person, Jesus Christ. To come to Him means to trust Him. This invitation is open to those who are exhausted and burdened down. That is exactly how the people felt under the yoke of pharisaical legalism.
1Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples: 2"The teachers of the law and the Pharisees sit in Moses' seat. 3So you must obey them and do everything they tell you. But do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach. 4They tie up heavy loads and put them on men's shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them. (Matthew 23)
and also Peter:
10"Now then, why do you try to test God by putting on the necks of the disciples a yoke that neither we nor our fathers have been able to bear?" (Acts 15)
"Take." This is a deeper experience. When we come to Christ by faith, He gives us rest. When we take His yoke and learn, we find rest, that deeper rest of surrender and obedience. The first is "peace with God" (Rom. 5:1); the second is "the peace of God" (Phil. 4:6-8). To "take a yoke" in that day meant to become a disciple.
1Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, (Romans 5)
and this is one of my favorite passages in the Bible. It's another that I tend to quote to myself when I'm troubled by those crazy nighttime fears of "what if something happens to my family?" and so forth. Notice the reference to "the peace of God" and about what things we should think.
6Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
"Learn." This step is a process. As we learn more about Him, we find a deeper peace, because we trust Him more. Life is simplified and unified around the person of Christ.
Simplicity, unity, peace and rest ... sounds pretty stinkin' good, doesn't it?
28"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30For my yoke is easy and my burden is light." ~ Jesus Christ
Bolded gray stuff from pg. 41, The Bible Exposition Commentary, volume 1 by Warren W. Wiersbe
1Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples: 2"The teachers of the law and the Pharisees sit in Moses' seat. 3So you must obey them and do everything they tell you. But do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach. 4They tie up heavy loads and put them on men's shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them. (Matthew 23)
and also Peter:
10"Now then, why do you try to test God by putting on the necks of the disciples a yoke that neither we nor our fathers have been able to bear?" (Acts 15)
"Take." This is a deeper experience. When we come to Christ by faith, He gives us rest. When we take His yoke and learn, we find rest, that deeper rest of surrender and obedience. The first is "peace with God" (Rom. 5:1); the second is "the peace of God" (Phil. 4:6-8). To "take a yoke" in that day meant to become a disciple.
1Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, (Romans 5)
and this is one of my favorite passages in the Bible. It's another that I tend to quote to myself when I'm troubled by those crazy nighttime fears of "what if something happens to my family?" and so forth. Notice the reference to "the peace of God" and about what things we should think.
6Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
8Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. (Philippians 4)
"Learn." This step is a process. As we learn more about Him, we find a deeper peace, because we trust Him more. Life is simplified and unified around the person of Christ.
Simplicity, unity, peace and rest ... sounds pretty stinkin' good, doesn't it?
28"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30For my yoke is easy and my burden is light." ~ Jesus Christ
Bolded gray stuff from pg. 41, The Bible Exposition Commentary, volume 1 by Warren W. Wiersbe
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
The Bible -- Stoning, Slashing, Loving
You may recall last week as I was rethinking idols, I quoted from a book From Stone to Living Word by Debbie Blue. I copied several thoughts from her and I've shared most of them, but not quite all. In a discussion about the Bible and what it is or contains (or doesn't contain), she wrote:
"This is what the scripture of people undergoing revelation of the living God by the living God looks like. Not linear history, not science, nothing like a formula, but rather more of a struggle. The Bible isn't really at all good at being an instructional manual. It's good at leading us into a tangle of wild poetry, heartbreaking stories, contradictions, twists and turns, the concrete struggles of a vast array of unruly, disparate humans being sought after by God. It's what the scripture of humans living not with a fixed point, a master ideology, an answer, a cultural code, but with a radically alive Other looks like. The Bible isn't a cage that contains God, making God available to take out or hang in our living room, it's a witness to the fecund, ungraspable Other (and our relationship to that Other.) (pg.35)
On Bible idolatry (bibliolatry) ... "Instead of somehow inducting us into relationship with the living God, the Bible as an idol helps to uphold our ideologies, what we already know and think and believe (and provides justification for slashing* and smashing* what opposes that.)" (pg. 39)
* reference to the Bible as a sword and a rock
In the past I've heard reference to "putting God in a box" meaning we have a set way we believe He is and works, thinks and reveals Himself and we believe He doesn't work outside of those parameters. This reference to the Bible not being a cage that contains God reminded me of this.
I do believe the Bible has often been used wrongly to oppress others, justify gross sins and urge people on to wars. Why is this? Do people look for justifications for their pet sins and read verses out of context, out of cultural practices at the time those particular verses were penned and they use them to justify practices in their own times?
Because the Bible does talk about rocks...and being a firm foundation, a fortress in a world full of shifting sands and - what? maybe relativism. At least that's how I've always understood it. Not in the let-me-throw-stones-at-you way though I would be silly to argue that people do not use it to strike and crush others!
As a sword, for me it's always been in the context of the Bible's affect on me, the reader. It convicts me of sin (pierces me; makes me uncomfortable doing wrong) and shows me how to live as the Spirit of God makes it come alive and he uses it to guide me in how to treat others and abide closely with God. As a weapon the Bible is good in standing up to those temptations hurled at us. How often have verses I memorized as a child come back to me as a weapon against Satanic attacks on my mind? Struggling with irrational thoughts and fear when I really need to be sleeping? How about verses such as "God does not give me a spirit of fear, but of power and love and a sound mind" and "You will keep me in perfect peace as my mind is fixed on You...because I trust in You." and "Perfect love casts out fear" and you get the idea. So the Bible - to me - can be a sword in this way: fighting off spiritual struggles that I have. I try not to use it as a weapon to cut and hit others... too much anyway. :-)
In Matthew 22 when an expert of the Law asked Jesus
36"Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?" 37Jesus replied: " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' 38This is the first and greatest commandment. 39And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'
Jesus was only asked to give the greatest commandment - which dealt with our attitude and love for God. Why then did he go ahead and include the second? Maybe because "the second is like it" and those two commands are so important that
40All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments."
Hear that? ALL the Law and all the Prophets hang - does this mean they are summarized? dependent on? what? - on these two things! They are The Big Two!
One publication I read answered it like this:
"True love for God is inseparably connected to sacrificial love for man ... Our interactions with others reveal the sincerity and genuineness of our love for God...[Therefore] it is critical that we see that Christ affirms that loving God and our neighbor are not options."
(Bob LaTour in The Beacon Beam, July 2010)
And we all remember when asked "who is my neighbor" Jesus didn't keep it as local as the family next door or the people like me in my own community when he gave the parable of the Good Samaritan and made a despised enemy as an example - to us even now - of how we are to treat others regardless of who they are and what you feel about them on a personal or national level.
Not much slashing and stoning going on when you are loving God and loving others as we love ourselves!
Why is loving our neighbor not an option, but a necessity?
7Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. ...
"11Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us."
(I John 4)
"This is what the scripture of people undergoing revelation of the living God by the living God looks like. Not linear history, not science, nothing like a formula, but rather more of a struggle. The Bible isn't really at all good at being an instructional manual. It's good at leading us into a tangle of wild poetry, heartbreaking stories, contradictions, twists and turns, the concrete struggles of a vast array of unruly, disparate humans being sought after by God. It's what the scripture of humans living not with a fixed point, a master ideology, an answer, a cultural code, but with a radically alive Other looks like. The Bible isn't a cage that contains God, making God available to take out or hang in our living room, it's a witness to the fecund, ungraspable Other (and our relationship to that Other.) (pg.35)
On Bible idolatry (bibliolatry) ... "Instead of somehow inducting us into relationship with the living God, the Bible as an idol helps to uphold our ideologies, what we already know and think and believe (and provides justification for slashing* and smashing* what opposes that.)" (pg. 39)
* reference to the Bible as a sword and a rock
In the past I've heard reference to "putting God in a box" meaning we have a set way we believe He is and works, thinks and reveals Himself and we believe He doesn't work outside of those parameters. This reference to the Bible not being a cage that contains God reminded me of this.
I do believe the Bible has often been used wrongly to oppress others, justify gross sins and urge people on to wars. Why is this? Do people look for justifications for their pet sins and read verses out of context, out of cultural practices at the time those particular verses were penned and they use them to justify practices in their own times?
Because the Bible does talk about rocks...and being a firm foundation, a fortress in a world full of shifting sands and - what? maybe relativism. At least that's how I've always understood it. Not in the let-me-throw-stones-at-you way though I would be silly to argue that people do not use it to strike and crush others!
As a sword, for me it's always been in the context of the Bible's affect on me, the reader. It convicts me of sin (pierces me; makes me uncomfortable doing wrong) and shows me how to live as the Spirit of God makes it come alive and he uses it to guide me in how to treat others and abide closely with God. As a weapon the Bible is good in standing up to those temptations hurled at us. How often have verses I memorized as a child come back to me as a weapon against Satanic attacks on my mind? Struggling with irrational thoughts and fear when I really need to be sleeping? How about verses such as "God does not give me a spirit of fear, but of power and love and a sound mind" and "You will keep me in perfect peace as my mind is fixed on You...because I trust in You." and "Perfect love casts out fear" and you get the idea. So the Bible - to me - can be a sword in this way: fighting off spiritual struggles that I have. I try not to use it as a weapon to cut and hit others... too much anyway. :-)
In Matthew 22 when an expert of the Law asked Jesus
36"Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?" 37Jesus replied: " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' 38This is the first and greatest commandment. 39And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'
Jesus was only asked to give the greatest commandment - which dealt with our attitude and love for God. Why then did he go ahead and include the second? Maybe because "the second is like it" and those two commands are so important that
40All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments."
Hear that? ALL the Law and all the Prophets hang - does this mean they are summarized? dependent on? what? - on these two things! They are The Big Two!
One publication I read answered it like this:
"True love for God is inseparably connected to sacrificial love for man ... Our interactions with others reveal the sincerity and genuineness of our love for God...[Therefore] it is critical that we see that Christ affirms that loving God and our neighbor are not options."
(Bob LaTour in The Beacon Beam, July 2010)
And we all remember when asked "who is my neighbor" Jesus didn't keep it as local as the family next door or the people like me in my own community when he gave the parable of the Good Samaritan and made a despised enemy as an example - to us even now - of how we are to treat others regardless of who they are and what you feel about them on a personal or national level.
Not much slashing and stoning going on when you are loving God and loving others as we love ourselves!
Why is loving our neighbor not an option, but a necessity?
7Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. ...
"11Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us."
(I John 4)
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
What Made Me Die Laughing!
Yesterday I took Michael to visit my grandparents (Mema and Pop) for a couple of hours and then we dropped by my parents' house for a while. A few years ago my mom was given a Grandmother's Journal: Your Cherished Memories in Your Own Words where you are asked questions - humorous and serious events, life lessons about your growing-up years, your family life and on through school, dating, the wedding, your spouse, your house, children and so forth. Mama said she started it four years ago when she was in South Carolina one summer. (Prior to my grandparents moving up here - which will be exactly one year this Sunday, July 18 - she would often go down to their house for a few weeks in the summer to spend time with them and help them out.)
In this April 17, 2010 photo taken at Daniel's house, Pop looks on as Michael gives Mema a lesson on identifying characteristics of Lego men in her ongoing quest to know, "Is this a good or bad guy?" This is a lesson she often gets when Mike and I visit Mema at their apartment. Lucky her! :)
So the summer of 2006 she had this book and decided to work on filling out some of the two-hundred pages detailing stories from her life. She was recently cleaning out her walk-in closet and came across this journal, realized it wasn't quite complete and finished writing in all but maybe two entries. Anyway....she told me to take it to my sister when I dropped off Michael. Since Michael is her only grandchild and this is "Grandmother's Journal" it was for him when he grew to appreciate it. I decided first I wanted to read it so I brought it home with me. Read interesting tidbits about memories she has of her own parents and grandparents and also her growing up years in the Sahara region of Africa - mostly in Nigeria. My mom attended boarding school six hundred miles from her parents and she had many good stories to share about life with other missionary children. I laughed at many of her recollections especially when she said in high school she took a sewing class from a German teacher and managed to make a "lopsided dress." Also I enjoyed details of her and two friends dressing up as the three little kittens for Halloween, having a pet chameleon in a cage, having a "girls gang" that hid treasure and made complicated maps for the boys to find the treasure, playing games, learning silly songs....really, I was impressed at how creative and fun it all sounded. So much better than playing video games and watching television** that most kids seem to do today! I loved the stories about her favorite "family day" trips in Africa - to the beach, or Bower Tower for picnics, zoo trips in Ibadan, swimming in Green Springs. Also I enjoyed reading of their time in Europe among the friendly Dutch people and how the chef and waiters at one restaurant enjoyed their friendly, fun family so much, they sent out cupcakes with happy faces for dessert "compliments of the chef."
But I didn't really cackle or as my friend Samer would put it "laugh to death" until I read page 103 about a humorous incident from my parents' wedding. First, my parents were married in a conservative Baptist church in conservative Greenville in conservative South Carolina in the conservative South. Annnnnd back when they married - 1973 - conservative men just didn't wear beards. Now things have changed a great deal, but back then it was a bit...oooohh, probably hippie-ish to have a beard and long hair.
Enter my grandfather's brother - Uncle Don - from California. (You know how those Californians are!) Arrived at the wedding to sing. Yet, oh no...he had a beard and long hair! (Not sure, but likely "long hair" meant it touched his collar! *gasp*)
Mama said her wedding director is the one who brought this to her attention. And said wedding director had a possible solution!
Here is the entry. Likely you won't find it so funny, but it just struck me as hilarious when I read it last night on the porch.
"My Uncle Don showed up to sing with a full beard and long hair, which just wasn't done in my church. The wedding director offered to hide him behind some shrubbery, which she managed to do. I think my uncle felt snubbed, and I felt bad for him."
First you must know my mom is a non-confrontational person. She's so laid-back and easy going and sweet. So unlike her feisty, unpredictable, often argumentative first born child (that'd be me). And I know her wedding director so, it's not surprising that my mom just quietly agreed to let Mrs. S have her way. Especially when my mom was, ohhhh, just a little preoccupied with having to get married in a short while! The whole hiding someone behind shrubbery just made me giggle. You all know I like to visualize things so I am imagining some bearded guy standing to the side of the church with Wedding Director making sure this fake shrubbery covers him sufficiently. Why do I find this so funny?!
Something else I read recently that made me laugh. Our local paper runs a "Dear Amy" column. It's similar to "Dear Abby" or "Dear Ann Landers" only it's Amy who does this advice column. Recently she didn't run her normal readers' questions/comments followed by her own answers/comments. She just ran about 10 comments she'd received and let them sort of speak for themselves. You can click here to read more of them if you want. But here is the one that made me smile for some reason.
** I saved this stat from the paper. I read it back in May of this year.
In this April 17, 2010 photo taken at Daniel's house, Pop looks on as Michael gives Mema a lesson on identifying characteristics of Lego men in her ongoing quest to know, "Is this a good or bad guy?" This is a lesson she often gets when Mike and I visit Mema at their apartment. Lucky her! :)So the summer of 2006 she had this book and decided to work on filling out some of the two-hundred pages detailing stories from her life. She was recently cleaning out her walk-in closet and came across this journal, realized it wasn't quite complete and finished writing in all but maybe two entries. Anyway....she told me to take it to my sister when I dropped off Michael. Since Michael is her only grandchild and this is "Grandmother's Journal" it was for him when he grew to appreciate it. I decided first I wanted to read it so I brought it home with me. Read interesting tidbits about memories she has of her own parents and grandparents and also her growing up years in the Sahara region of Africa - mostly in Nigeria. My mom attended boarding school six hundred miles from her parents and she had many good stories to share about life with other missionary children. I laughed at many of her recollections especially when she said in high school she took a sewing class from a German teacher and managed to make a "lopsided dress." Also I enjoyed details of her and two friends dressing up as the three little kittens for Halloween, having a pet chameleon in a cage, having a "girls gang" that hid treasure and made complicated maps for the boys to find the treasure, playing games, learning silly songs....really, I was impressed at how creative and fun it all sounded. So much better than playing video games and watching television** that most kids seem to do today! I loved the stories about her favorite "family day" trips in Africa - to the beach, or Bower Tower for picnics, zoo trips in Ibadan, swimming in Green Springs. Also I enjoyed reading of their time in Europe among the friendly Dutch people and how the chef and waiters at one restaurant enjoyed their friendly, fun family so much, they sent out cupcakes with happy faces for dessert "compliments of the chef."
But I didn't really cackle or as my friend Samer would put it "laugh to death" until I read page 103 about a humorous incident from my parents' wedding. First, my parents were married in a conservative Baptist church in conservative Greenville in conservative South Carolina in the conservative South. Annnnnd back when they married - 1973 - conservative men just didn't wear beards. Now things have changed a great deal, but back then it was a bit...oooohh, probably hippie-ish to have a beard and long hair.
Enter my grandfather's brother - Uncle Don - from California. (You know how those Californians are!) Arrived at the wedding to sing. Yet, oh no...he had a beard and long hair! (Not sure, but likely "long hair" meant it touched his collar! *gasp*)
Mama said her wedding director is the one who brought this to her attention. And said wedding director had a possible solution!
Here is the entry. Likely you won't find it so funny, but it just struck me as hilarious when I read it last night on the porch.
"My Uncle Don showed up to sing with a full beard and long hair, which just wasn't done in my church. The wedding director offered to hide him behind some shrubbery, which she managed to do. I think my uncle felt snubbed, and I felt bad for him."
First you must know my mom is a non-confrontational person. She's so laid-back and easy going and sweet. So unlike her feisty, unpredictable, often argumentative first born child (that'd be me). And I know her wedding director so, it's not surprising that my mom just quietly agreed to let Mrs. S have her way. Especially when my mom was, ohhhh, just a little preoccupied with having to get married in a short while! The whole hiding someone behind shrubbery just made me giggle. You all know I like to visualize things so I am imagining some bearded guy standing to the side of the church with Wedding Director making sure this fake shrubbery covers him sufficiently. Why do I find this so funny?!
Something else I read recently that made me laugh. Our local paper runs a "Dear Amy" column. It's similar to "Dear Abby" or "Dear Ann Landers" only it's Amy who does this advice column. Recently she didn't run her normal readers' questions/comments followed by her own answers/comments. She just ran about 10 comments she'd received and let them sort of speak for themselves. You can click here to read more of them if you want. But here is the one that made me smile for some reason.
DEAR AMY: Why do people always tell single women to "volunteer" when they are lonely for a relationship? Such a thoughtless suggestion. Other stupid suggestions -- join a church, make new friends, travel, get a hobby.
What the heck do any of those things have to do with wanting a committed relationship? I am always tempted to sarcastically retort, "Fine, you join a book club and I'll take your husband." -- Tired
** I saved this stat from the paper. I read it back in May of this year.
Americans watch 58 hours 29 minutes of TV per week
black households 78 hours 44 minutes
Monday, July 12, 2010
Thoughts on Midrash
Several books ago, I was introduced to the subject of Midrash. Since it was in the context of Jewish rabbis I took it as a foreign word and tried not to giggle as I had a sudden urge to scratch my stomach. So, yeah, I was late to the party since I only recently learned a bit about Midrash or
Midrash (Hebrew: מדרש; plural midrashim, lit. "to investigate" or "study") is a homiletic method of biblical exegesis. The term also refers to the whole compilation of homiletic teachings on the Bible.
Midrash is a way of interpreting biblical stories that goes beyond simple distillation of religious, legal or moral teachings. It fills in many gaps left in the biblical narrative regarding events and personalities that are only hinted at.
as Wikipedia so nicely puts it.
The two books I've posted on lately had stories from these rabbinical interpretations. Here is one from Original Sinners by John R. Coats on the story of Abraham and Isaac. The author is discussing this verse.
2 Then God said, "Take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love, and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains I will tell you about." (Genesis 22)
and writes,
Classical Midrash suggests that the chain of words used by Elohim seem to be the record of a one-sided dialogue; they imply the attitude of the one being addressed. Using that implied attitude, they imagine a dialogue between Elohim and Abraham. Rashi's version of that dialogue is:
"[Take] Your son."
"I have two sons."
"Your only one."
"This one is an only one to his mother and this one [read, that one] is an only one to his mother."
"[The one] Whom you love."
"I love both of them."
"Isaac." (pg. 124)
In From Stone to Living Word, author Debbie Blue claims as one who is used to Christian commentary, she was "struck by how the rabbinic mode of reading seems to counter many of our idolatrizing tendencies" and quoted Susan Handelman in her book The Slayers of Moses who "discusses how the interpretive methods of Christianity were poised to go in a certain direction when it 'severed its ties with Judaism, [and] became allied with Greek philosophy.'" (pg. 50)
Seemingly unpropelled by the anxiety that often propels Western interpretation, the writers of midrash didn't fear the gaps or try to brush over them. The silences weren't locked vaults, but open caves....So they tell stories to fill in the gaps. Wild ones. About Og the Giant, the pursuer of ecstasy, condemned in the flood but clinging to the side of Noah's Ark. Noah pokes a hole in the side of the boat and feeds the giant to keep him alive.
The rabbis speculate about what exactly it was that Adam and Eve ate, or what Noah fed the animals, or what the fight between Cain and Abel was all about. Midrash doesn't consider this unimportant or silly or absurd. God speaks and pauses, and even the pauses are full of redemptive possibility." (pg. 56,57)
While I'm not so sure of my stance on Midrash, I do admit I love the thought that "even the pauses are full of redemptive possibility." Shows that God is merciful and loving and eager to redeem fallen creation.
What do you think?
Saturday, July 10, 2010
"God is a God of life"
These words may challenge those who think of God as uninvolved or not very concerned about His creation or as one who is just sitting back to see how badly we mess up or how good we can make the world on our own. I just thought this was worth sharing. What do you think?
"We cannot comprehend God's presence, not because it is somehow lacking, but because of its surplus. ... We're tangling with the Other nonstop all the time. It's what is all along creating, sustaining, and redeeming us. We don't live or breathe or walk or talk outside of our relationship with God. We are so tangled in it, so thoroughly and completely in it, we can't comprehend it. It comprehends us. This is all outrageous and odd and pretty much the central point of Christianity. We live by the grace of God."
"We seem to have idolatry in our DNA. But maybe at the deepest level we are not idolaters; we are people who need relationship. We are created in and for communion. We need love and relationship to breathe. But somehow, allowing ourselves to enter into communion, or to be who we really are, is more difficult or scary or unsettling than giving our lives to our belief systems, cultural codes, ideologies -- our idols that aren't alive. And our idolatry freezes and fixes and suffocates and knots and nooses and guts and stuffs and kills.
"The Bible witnesses, however, to a God who keeps calling us into life; keeps creating life, life, and more life, bringing life from barren wombs and shoots out of dead stumps; actually resurrecting.
"This may seem like a bit much, but the Bible presses on and on: God is a God of life.
"What could God be thinking, calling us into everlasting life? It might seem more responsible of God to call us to a simple coherent system, to organize a schedule of burnt offerings, to give us a way to redeem ourselves by following orders or rules or whatever, instead of redeeming us in relationship through love. It's frustrating. It's gorgeous.
"The Bible witnesses to the entirely deathless one, to the living Word. It calls us to relationship with the Other." (pg.31-32)
"The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. " -- Jesus (John 10:10)
Quotes (stuff in green) by Debbie Blue in From Stone to Living Word
"We cannot comprehend God's presence, not because it is somehow lacking, but because of its surplus. ... We're tangling with the Other nonstop all the time. It's what is all along creating, sustaining, and redeeming us. We don't live or breathe or walk or talk outside of our relationship with God. We are so tangled in it, so thoroughly and completely in it, we can't comprehend it. It comprehends us. This is all outrageous and odd and pretty much the central point of Christianity. We live by the grace of God."
"We seem to have idolatry in our DNA. But maybe at the deepest level we are not idolaters; we are people who need relationship. We are created in and for communion. We need love and relationship to breathe. But somehow, allowing ourselves to enter into communion, or to be who we really are, is more difficult or scary or unsettling than giving our lives to our belief systems, cultural codes, ideologies -- our idols that aren't alive. And our idolatry freezes and fixes and suffocates and knots and nooses and guts and stuffs and kills.
"The Bible witnesses, however, to a God who keeps calling us into life; keeps creating life, life, and more life, bringing life from barren wombs and shoots out of dead stumps; actually resurrecting.
"This may seem like a bit much, but the Bible presses on and on: God is a God of life.
"What could God be thinking, calling us into everlasting life? It might seem more responsible of God to call us to a simple coherent system, to organize a schedule of burnt offerings, to give us a way to redeem ourselves by following orders or rules or whatever, instead of redeeming us in relationship through love. It's frustrating. It's gorgeous."The Bible witnesses to the entirely deathless one, to the living Word. It calls us to relationship with the Other." (pg.31-32)
"The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. " -- Jesus (John 10:10)
Quotes (stuff in green) by Debbie Blue in From Stone to Living Word
"Original Sinners" on God and Abraham
Sometimes I see a religious book at the library and even though it's not by a familiar author, I think, "Maybe I'll give this book a try just to see what other views are out there." At times I've rather enjoyed the unusual approaches [read: not my normal evangelical/Baptist views on things] and lessons I've learned looking at biblical topics from other perspectives. Still, other times I've been left shaking my head at people and their ideas. Latest case in point:
Original Sinners by John R. Coats...it comes with the tag line: A New Interpretation of Genesis. So I thought I'd see what the people who believe Genesis more as an allegory believe. Right?
This man grew up attending a Southern Baptist church in Texas in the fifties. I assume his mother took them to church since he said his father was nonreligious. Anyway, the author questioned a lot of what he was taught in Sunday school and later rejected much of those interpretations of the Bible and became an Episcopal priest. For those not understanding what this means because denominational labels confuse you, I'd translate it to mean he liberalized his views on Scripture quite a bit. Now, I have read books and ideas from others who have undergone similar changes in life and found I could appreciate many things they believe. And while this guy does have some interesting thoughts on Genesis -- I especially enjoyed some of the talk of certain Hebrew words and customs of the time as well as the rabbi interpretations (Midrash) -- I can't help but ponder how such a person could ever lead a church. (Yes, I know this shows my intolerance perhaps, but I'm keeping it real as to what thoughts I had.)
While some, no doubt, love him and his style, I find him way too cynical and irreverent for my tastes.
For instance, concerning the story of the Tower of Babel where God sees the people building a tower towards heaven and then confuses their language and scatters them, the author writes, "J's Yahweh being so like us in his emotional makeup, it's not all that surprising that rather than asking them what they're up to, he simply goes with his assumptions. " (pg. 68)
My thoughts were more along the line, "Um, if God knows everything, don't you think He knows what they are up to without asking?"
I suppose his God is not all-knowing. Mine is.
He also wrote, "Yahweh, Creator of the Universe, Giver of the Law, et cetera, was something of a situational ethicist when it came to playing by his own rules. Mind you, he himself did not violate the rules, but he used proxies instead, people with flexible character whose moral fiber could be woven into whatever cloth was most appropriate to the situation...In short, young Jacob's sorry character was a divine asset." (pg. 142)
Written as if God needed Jacob's deceitfulness in order to put Jacob into the position God had promised. I always thought God could accomplish His will without Jacob's duplicity and Jacob just took things into his own hands much like we are prone to do. Hello, Abraham, Sarah, Hagar and Ishmael.
Also this gem:
"I continue to bump up against this certainty that Yahweh should clean up his act....On the other hand, I find this portrait of the creator's slick side ironic, amusing, and even soothing with its implication that my own smarmier side is but the result of spiritual DNA inherited from that One in whose image I was made." (pg. 143)
Y'know...I wouldn't mind this stuff if an atheist wrote it. I have a few blogging acquaintances from whom I could hear these mocking paragraphs and it not bother me so much. But this is a man who lead a congregation of Christians and he can speak this way about God? This is what I find baffling!
Also his thoughts on Abraham are ....um, well, you can see for yourself. As one reading from a 21st-century point of view without good thoughts of God, I guess I can see his perspective on the sacrificing-his-son story.
"Abraham is not a nice man, which can be said of many secular and religious leaders. Unlike other leaders who rise to power, however, he has no particular charisma, no warmth to draw the reader to him. ... In the confidence game he runs on Pharoah, a wild, risk-taking side emerges, but in the game he runs on Abimelech, he shows an absence of concern for the consequences of his actions on the population of an entire kingdom, which is different only in scale from his lack of concern for Hagar and Ishmael when Sarah decides to leave them in the desert to die. Again, these are characteristics of many 'great' men and women throughout history -- the disregard for other people's money, safety, dignity, jobs, and the willingness to play risky games for uncertain affect, plodding along for three days on the way to Mount Moriah, where he will kill his son. By the normative standards of our own time, were the events on Moriah made known, Isaac would be removed from the home, while Abraham would almost certainly be judged as a danger to society and placed for an indeterminate time in a state mental health facility. Yet three of the world's religions are rooted in him, and whether one regards him as a historical figure or a literary character, he remains one of the most influential figures in human history." (pg. 131)
Is there any wonder so many of us Jews, Christians and Muslims are crazy? Look at our chief patriarch and God! No wonder the world is a mess!
Really, after reading one book from both this guy and Bart Ehrman, I'd choose the latter as my pastor. And Ehrman is agnostic.
Original Sinners by John R. Coats...it comes with the tag line: A New Interpretation of Genesis. So I thought I'd see what the people who believe Genesis more as an allegory believe. Right?
This man grew up attending a Southern Baptist church in Texas in the fifties. I assume his mother took them to church since he said his father was nonreligious. Anyway, the author questioned a lot of what he was taught in Sunday school and later rejected much of those interpretations of the Bible and became an Episcopal priest. For those not understanding what this means because denominational labels confuse you, I'd translate it to mean he liberalized his views on Scripture quite a bit. Now, I have read books and ideas from others who have undergone similar changes in life and found I could appreciate many things they believe. And while this guy does have some interesting thoughts on Genesis -- I especially enjoyed some of the talk of certain Hebrew words and customs of the time as well as the rabbi interpretations (Midrash) -- I can't help but ponder how such a person could ever lead a church. (Yes, I know this shows my intolerance perhaps, but I'm keeping it real as to what thoughts I had.)
While some, no doubt, love him and his style, I find him way too cynical and irreverent for my tastes.
For instance, concerning the story of the Tower of Babel where God sees the people building a tower towards heaven and then confuses their language and scatters them, the author writes, "J's Yahweh being so like us in his emotional makeup, it's not all that surprising that rather than asking them what they're up to, he simply goes with his assumptions. " (pg. 68)
My thoughts were more along the line, "Um, if God knows everything, don't you think He knows what they are up to without asking?"
I suppose his God is not all-knowing. Mine is.
He also wrote, "Yahweh, Creator of the Universe, Giver of the Law, et cetera, was something of a situational ethicist when it came to playing by his own rules. Mind you, he himself did not violate the rules, but he used proxies instead, people with flexible character whose moral fiber could be woven into whatever cloth was most appropriate to the situation...In short, young Jacob's sorry character was a divine asset." (pg. 142)
Written as if God needed Jacob's deceitfulness in order to put Jacob into the position God had promised. I always thought God could accomplish His will without Jacob's duplicity and Jacob just took things into his own hands much like we are prone to do. Hello, Abraham, Sarah, Hagar and Ishmael.
Also this gem:
"I continue to bump up against this certainty that Yahweh should clean up his act....On the other hand, I find this portrait of the creator's slick side ironic, amusing, and even soothing with its implication that my own smarmier side is but the result of spiritual DNA inherited from that One in whose image I was made." (pg. 143)
Y'know...I wouldn't mind this stuff if an atheist wrote it. I have a few blogging acquaintances from whom I could hear these mocking paragraphs and it not bother me so much. But this is a man who lead a congregation of Christians and he can speak this way about God? This is what I find baffling!
Also his thoughts on Abraham are ....um, well, you can see for yourself. As one reading from a 21st-century point of view without good thoughts of God, I guess I can see his perspective on the sacrificing-his-son story.
"Abraham is not a nice man, which can be said of many secular and religious leaders. Unlike other leaders who rise to power, however, he has no particular charisma, no warmth to draw the reader to him. ... In the confidence game he runs on Pharoah, a wild, risk-taking side emerges, but in the game he runs on Abimelech, he shows an absence of concern for the consequences of his actions on the population of an entire kingdom, which is different only in scale from his lack of concern for Hagar and Ishmael when Sarah decides to leave them in the desert to die. Again, these are characteristics of many 'great' men and women throughout history -- the disregard for other people's money, safety, dignity, jobs, and the willingness to play risky games for uncertain affect, plodding along for three days on the way to Mount Moriah, where he will kill his son. By the normative standards of our own time, were the events on Moriah made known, Isaac would be removed from the home, while Abraham would almost certainly be judged as a danger to society and placed for an indeterminate time in a state mental health facility. Yet three of the world's religions are rooted in him, and whether one regards him as a historical figure or a literary character, he remains one of the most influential figures in human history." (pg. 131)
Is there any wonder so many of us Jews, Christians and Muslims are crazy? Look at our chief patriarch and God! No wonder the world is a mess!
Really, after reading one book from both this guy and Bart Ehrman, I'd choose the latter as my pastor. And Ehrman is agnostic.
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