Well, friends, our reading program is exactly one week away. Ready?
Here are the readings for Week #1:
Sept 15: Gen 1-3; Matt 1
Sept 16: Gen 4-6; Matt 2
Sept 17: Gen 7-9; Matt 3
Sept 18: Gen 10-12; Matt 4
Sept 19: Gen 13-15; Matt 5:1-26
Sept 20: Gen 16-17; Matt 5:27-48
Sept 21: Gen 18-19; Matt 6:1-18
As you will recall, by reading three chapters from the Old Testament and one chapter from New Testament daily you can read the entire Bible in a year's time. So, let's do it.
We are beginning our journey in Genesis and Matthew.
Genesis, the first book of the Bible, is a story of beginnings -- the beginning of the world, the beginning of Israel, the beginning of faith. Theologically, Genesis affirms everything that is begins by the purpose and speech of God.
Matthew, though not the earliest gospel, is the first book of the New Testament. Matthew tells the story of God drawing near to humanity in Jesus to dwell with us. Matthew summons us to see God uniquely at work in Jesus and to trust Jesus. Through trust we become God's children and citizen's of God's rule and way in the world.
Happy reading! I look forward to hearing about your journey.
Peace.
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
The Gospel
Gospel means simply "good news." Many of us have probably been asked whether we believe the gospel. The better question would be do we live it. Let me explain.
I belong to a Christian tradition -- Presbyterian -- that has equated gospel with the watch words of the 16th Protestant Reformation, namely "justification by grace through faith." Those are good watch words. They are true. They are right out of Paul's letter to the Christians in Rome. But they don't equate with the gospel.
According to Jesus, the gospel is embodied in his words "The kingdom of God is at hand." Jesus says these words repeatedly right before very important things happen in the gospels of the New Testament. In other words, the kingdom is in and through him. The kingdom announced by Jesus is a new way of life, that looks and sounds and feels like the life Jesus lived.
Affirming theological truths has its place, but it's only one patch on the quilt. Living in the way of Jesus, with the aid of the Holy Spirit, is the quilt's border that gives meaning to each and every patch within the quilt.
I belong to a Christian tradition -- Presbyterian -- that has equated gospel with the watch words of the 16th Protestant Reformation, namely "justification by grace through faith." Those are good watch words. They are true. They are right out of Paul's letter to the Christians in Rome. But they don't equate with the gospel.
According to Jesus, the gospel is embodied in his words "The kingdom of God is at hand." Jesus says these words repeatedly right before very important things happen in the gospels of the New Testament. In other words, the kingdom is in and through him. The kingdom announced by Jesus is a new way of life, that looks and sounds and feels like the life Jesus lived.
Affirming theological truths has its place, but it's only one patch on the quilt. Living in the way of Jesus, with the aid of the Holy Spirit, is the quilt's border that gives meaning to each and every patch within the quilt.
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
The God of the Bible
If we are candid, there are depictions of God in the Bible that are troublesome. God comes off as tribal and militaristic in places, even violent. It is difficult to reconcile such depictions with the God revealed to us in Jesus Christ.
Brian McLaren, as well others, suggest that we understand less than savory depictions of God in scripture as particular ways in which our ancestor perceived God in their given time in geography and place in history.
In A New Kind of Christianity, McLaren writes: ". . . [H]uman beings can't do better than their very best at any given moment to communicate about God as they understand God, and the Scripture faithfully reveals the evolution of our ancestor's best attempts to communicate their successive best understandings of God. As human capacity grows to conceive of a higher and wiser view of God, each new vision is faithfully preserved in Scripture like fossils in layers of sediment."
Peace.
Brian McLaren, as well others, suggest that we understand less than savory depictions of God in scripture as particular ways in which our ancestor perceived God in their given time in geography and place in history.
In A New Kind of Christianity, McLaren writes: ". . . [H]uman beings can't do better than their very best at any given moment to communicate about God as they understand God, and the Scripture faithfully reveals the evolution of our ancestor's best attempts to communicate their successive best understandings of God. As human capacity grows to conceive of a higher and wiser view of God, each new vision is faithfully preserved in Scripture like fossils in layers of sediment."
Peace.
Monday, August 9, 2010
The Bible's Story Line, III
In the previous post I called attention to the predominant way in which the Bible has been read, namely as an account of a perfected creation marred by human sinfulness but rescued by God that resulted in salvation/heaven or damnation/hell.
In this post, I wish to suggest another reading, a reading articulated by Brian McLaren in A New Kind of Christianity.
According to McLaren, the biblical narrative is "a story of human foolishness and God's faithfulness, the human turn toward rebellion and God's turn toward reconciliation, the human intention toward evil and God's intention to overcome evil with good. It begins with God creating a good world, continues with human beings creating evil, and concludes with God creating good outcomes that overcome human evil."
In this post, I wish to suggest another reading, a reading articulated by Brian McLaren in A New Kind of Christianity.
According to McLaren, the biblical narrative is "a story of human foolishness and God's faithfulness, the human turn toward rebellion and God's turn toward reconciliation, the human intention toward evil and God's intention to overcome evil with good. It begins with God creating a good world, continues with human beings creating evil, and concludes with God creating good outcomes that overcome human evil."
Thursday, July 29, 2010
The Bible's Story Line, II
According to Brian McLaren, since the fifth or sixth century Christians in the West have read the Bible from the perspective of one particular story line -- paradise, fall, condemnation, and salvation/heaven or damnation/hell.
I believe McLaren is on to something. That story line is doubtlessly there. But it is not the only one. In large part, it is the result of a "backwards" reading of the Bible; backwards in the sense of reading back across centuries and centuries of interpretation to Jesus. McLaren suggests a "forwards" reading of the Bible; forwards in the sense of reading forward through centuries and centuries of interpretation to Jesus.
This sounds rather semantic and perhaps even esoteric. But, really, it is not. A backwards reading allows one set of sources to interpret the Bible for us, for example Pope Benedict, Billy Graham, Jerry Falwell, John Calvin, John Wesley, Martin Luther, Erasmus, Aquinas, Augustine, St. Paul to mention a few. A forwards reading allows another set of sources to interpret the Bible for us, for example Abraham, Moses, King David, Amos, Isaiah, Jeremiah, John the Baptist, again to name a few.
Peace.
I believe McLaren is on to something. That story line is doubtlessly there. But it is not the only one. In large part, it is the result of a "backwards" reading of the Bible; backwards in the sense of reading back across centuries and centuries of interpretation to Jesus. McLaren suggests a "forwards" reading of the Bible; forwards in the sense of reading forward through centuries and centuries of interpretation to Jesus.
This sounds rather semantic and perhaps even esoteric. But, really, it is not. A backwards reading allows one set of sources to interpret the Bible for us, for example Pope Benedict, Billy Graham, Jerry Falwell, John Calvin, John Wesley, Martin Luther, Erasmus, Aquinas, Augustine, St. Paul to mention a few. A forwards reading allows another set of sources to interpret the Bible for us, for example Abraham, Moses, King David, Amos, Isaiah, Jeremiah, John the Baptist, again to name a few.
Peace.
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
The Bible's Story Line
Currently, I am reading Brian McLaren's A New Kind of Christianity. In his book, McLaren identifies what he believes are central questions for the new kind of Christianity that is emerging. One of those questions has to do with the biblical narrative.
According to McLaren, formerly persons read the Bible "as a series of disconnected quotes and episodes yielding maxims, rules, formulas, anecdotes, propositions, and wise sayings . . . [with] little or no sense of the larger story into which the statements fit and in which their meaning took shape." McLaren notes that reading the Bible is such a way shrinks the text and in doing so shrinks us as well. He suggests exploring whether there is a discernable plotline of the biblical library. [By the way, there is one -- that will be another post.] What might the deep problems the original Christian story was trying to solve have been? According to the Bible, what is the big picture, like where did we come from and where are we going and where are we now?
According to McLaren, formerly persons read the Bible "as a series of disconnected quotes and episodes yielding maxims, rules, formulas, anecdotes, propositions, and wise sayings . . . [with] little or no sense of the larger story into which the statements fit and in which their meaning took shape." McLaren notes that reading the Bible is such a way shrinks the text and in doing so shrinks us as well. He suggests exploring whether there is a discernable plotline of the biblical library. [By the way, there is one -- that will be another post.] What might the deep problems the original Christian story was trying to solve have been? According to the Bible, what is the big picture, like where did we come from and where are we going and where are we now?
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
Paine on the Bible
Here is a challenge to undertake not only reading the Bible through in a year, but also seeking to better understand it. Eighteenth century revolutionary pamphleteer Thomas Paine, best known for Common Sense, wrote: "The Bible is a book that has been read more and examined less than any book that ever existed."
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