So I finally received my copy of Gerhard Von Rad's Old Testament Theology a few days ago. Of course it is dense, crazy, and thoroughly German all-over. But it's also extremely thought-provoking. On page 64, referring to the formation of the state of Israel and the emergence of the prophets, he wrote this; "the emergence of the prophets is very closely connected with four data which were all prepared long in advance." So let's look at these now, because honestly I think we are more than ready for a prophetic emergence in our culture today!
First, there was "the degeneracy of Jahwism because of syncretism." A friend of mine was listening to a lecture the other day from Michael Frost, who claims that we have continually done church wrong since Constantine. I would agree, and would claim that sycretism is behind it. It's more than morality in the church, it's ethical. It has to do with taking bold, counter-cultural steps of faith rather than simply sinning less.
"The second was of a political nature, the systematic emancipation from Jahweh and the protection which it offered, due to the formation of the state." The state had "her armaments and alliances," and consequently did not need to trust Jahweh anymore, since she could trust her strength and wits instead. Does that sound like any countries you know?
Thirdly, the divide between the rich and the poor was growing at breakneck speeds, due specifically to taxation to keep the monarchy in power and powerful. Of course for the subsistence farmer this made mere subsisting more difficult and caused them to move from getting by to poverty levels, no doubt forcing them into an economic system that exploited them or else having to become slaves to their fellow Israelites. Of course our government and their big business friends have no relation to all of this...
The last development was the rise of other powerful nations. Israel grew strong during a time when there were no real superpowers in the world. But then Assyria grew to power, followed immediately by "neo-Babylon," then Babylon herself. The prophets saw God's judgment within the growing strength of these nations.
Could it be that God is raising up powers to humble our strong nation? The Puritans came here to be a city on the hill, but instead we have become a place of sycretism, where there can be rich Christians in a world of poverty and idolatrous views of nation and possessions are encouraged and welcomed in the church. We have the most powerful army in the world, no doubt to protect our massive amounts of wealth, never realizing the amount of fear and anxiety that are burried within our desire for a stronger military, not to mention our complete lack of faith or trust in God. It reveals our inability to even understand who God is and how he works.
As our "Christian" nation continues to exploit the people and resources of the world for itself, I wonder if God will begin raising up prophets right here. I wonder what will happen to them. I can't imagine that they'll be invited to the Presidential prayer breakfast...or the Willow Creek Leadership Summit...or even into most churches. But all the same, I believe that it is time for the prophets to reemerge.
Peace,
Matt
Currently Reading: Von Rad's Old Testament Theology, Volume I.
Wednesday, May 31, 2006
Tuesday, May 30, 2006
One More Poem from John of the Cross
Without a place and with a place
to rest-living darkly with no ray
of light-I burn my self away.
My soul-no longer bound-is free
from the creations of the world;
above itself it rises hurled
into a life of ecstasy,
leaning only on God. The world
will therefore clarify at last
what I esteem of highest grace:
my soul revealing it can rest
without a place and with a place.
Although I suffer a dark night
in mortal life, I also know
my agony is slight, for though
I am in darkness without light,
a clear heavenly life I know;
for love gives power to my life,
however black and blind my day,
to yield my soul, and free of strife
to rest-living darkly with no ray.
Love can perform a wondrous labor
which I have learned internally,
and all the good or bad in me
takes on a penetrating savor,
changing my soul so it can be
consumed in a delicious flame.
I feel it in me as a ray;
and quickly killing every trace
of light-I burn my self away.
Thursday, May 25, 2006
St. John of the Cross
I read this the other day in the poems of St. John of the Cross and for some reason these few lines really stuck out to me. Enjoy!
I gave my soul to him
and all the things I owned were his:
I have no flock to tend
nor any other trade
and my one ministry is love.
If I'm no longer seen
following sheep about the hills
say that I am lost, that
wandering in love I let
myself be lost and then was won.
Peace,
Matt
Currently Reading: The Poems of St. John of the Cross (obviously), though I have a different translation than the one linked here (bought it at a thriftstore, not surprising if you know me at all). I'm still waiting very impatiently for my used copy of Gerhard Von Rad's Old Testament Theology to show up in the mail. It's gonna be great!
Monday, May 22, 2006
The Alien Amongst Us
"Do not mistreat an alien or oppress him, for you were aliens in Egypt."
Exodus 22:21
"Do not oppress an alien; you yourselves know how it feels to be aliens, because you were aliens in Egypt."
Exodus 23:9
"Do not go over your vineyard a second time or pick up the grapes that have fallen. Leave them for the poor and the alien. I am the LORD your God."
Leviticus 19:10
"When an alien lives with you in your land, do not mistreat him. The alien living with you must be treated as one of your native-born. Love him as yourself, for you were aliens in Egypt. I am the LORD your God."
Leviticus 19:33-34
"You are to have the same law for the alien and the native-born. I am the LORD your God."
Leviticus 24:22
"...the land is mine and you are but aliens and my tenants."
Leviticus 25:23
"The community is to have the same rules for you and for the alien living among you; this is a lasting ordinance for the generations to come. You and the alien shall be the same before the LORD. The same laws and regulations will apply both to you and to the alien living among you."
Numbers 15:15-16
"He defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the alien, giving him food and clothing. And you are to love those who are aliens, for you yourselves were aliens in Egypt."
Deuteronomy 10:18-19
"And rejoice before the LORD your God at the place he will choose as a dwelling for his Name—you, your sons and daughters, your menservants and maidservants, the Levites in your towns, and the aliens, the fatherless and the widows living among you."
Deuteronomy 16:11
"Do not take advantage of a hired man who is poor and needy, whether he is a brother Israelite or an alien living in one of your towns...Do not deprive the alien or the fatherless of justice, or take the cloak of the widow as a pledge...When you are harvesting in your field and you overlook a sheaf, do not go back to get it. Leave it for the alien, the fatherless and the widow, so that the LORD your God may bless you in all the work of your hands."
Deuteronomy 24:14, 17, 19
"Cursed is the man who withholds justice from the alien."
Deuteronomy 27:19
"The LORD watches over the alien."
Psalm 146:9
"This is what the LORD says: Do what is just and right. Rescue from the hand of his oppressor the one who has been robbed. Do no wrong or violence to the alien, the fatherless or the widow, and do not shed innocent blood in this place."
Jeremiah 22:3
"'In whatever tribe the alien settles, there you are to give him his inheritance,' declares the Sovereign LORD."
Ezekiel 47:23
"'So I will come near to you for judgment. I will be quick to testify against sorcerers, adulterers and perjurers, against those who defraud laborers of their wages, who oppress the widows and the fatherless, and deprive aliens of justice, but do not fear me,' says the LORD Almighty."
Malachi 3:5
Okay, okay, I know that was a lot of Bible verses, and most people will probably just skip over half of them. The point, though, is that the Bible obviously has something to say about caring for the alien in our presence. It is a no-brainer in my book and I am eagerly waiting to hear somebody tell me otherwise!
A recent AP article spoke of evangelicals being tightlipped over current immigration issues and the nation wide debates currently raging. The reason why, according to the article, is not what I would have expected. Apparently even I don't have a negative enough view of my evangelical brothers and sisters. The issue is that they want to support the legislation, but don't want to piss off their hispanic members. It has nothing to do with any sort of inner war within Dthem, wondering if maybe they should follow God's guidance rather than American racist policies.
Honestly it just makes me sick. I love Jesus, I really do. I do not know how much longer I can stand to live amongst those who ignore him, trying to be a subversive presence rather than an angry, outloud opponent of idolatrous patriotism and arrogant hatred. How could we do this with no shame or repentance? What will become of us? Biblically, it's a frightening concept to me.
Peace,
Matt
Currently Reading: Dakota: A Spiritual Geography by Kathleen Norris.
Exodus 22:21
"Do not oppress an alien; you yourselves know how it feels to be aliens, because you were aliens in Egypt."
Exodus 23:9
"Do not go over your vineyard a second time or pick up the grapes that have fallen. Leave them for the poor and the alien. I am the LORD your God."
Leviticus 19:10
"When an alien lives with you in your land, do not mistreat him. The alien living with you must be treated as one of your native-born. Love him as yourself, for you were aliens in Egypt. I am the LORD your God."
Leviticus 19:33-34
"You are to have the same law for the alien and the native-born. I am the LORD your God."
Leviticus 24:22
"...the land is mine and you are but aliens and my tenants."
Leviticus 25:23
"The community is to have the same rules for you and for the alien living among you; this is a lasting ordinance for the generations to come. You and the alien shall be the same before the LORD. The same laws and regulations will apply both to you and to the alien living among you."
Numbers 15:15-16
"He defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the alien, giving him food and clothing. And you are to love those who are aliens, for you yourselves were aliens in Egypt."
Deuteronomy 10:18-19
"And rejoice before the LORD your God at the place he will choose as a dwelling for his Name—you, your sons and daughters, your menservants and maidservants, the Levites in your towns, and the aliens, the fatherless and the widows living among you."
Deuteronomy 16:11
"Do not take advantage of a hired man who is poor and needy, whether he is a brother Israelite or an alien living in one of your towns...Do not deprive the alien or the fatherless of justice, or take the cloak of the widow as a pledge...When you are harvesting in your field and you overlook a sheaf, do not go back to get it. Leave it for the alien, the fatherless and the widow, so that the LORD your God may bless you in all the work of your hands."
Deuteronomy 24:14, 17, 19
"Cursed is the man who withholds justice from the alien."
Deuteronomy 27:19
"The LORD watches over the alien."
Psalm 146:9
"This is what the LORD says: Do what is just and right. Rescue from the hand of his oppressor the one who has been robbed. Do no wrong or violence to the alien, the fatherless or the widow, and do not shed innocent blood in this place."
Jeremiah 22:3
"'In whatever tribe the alien settles, there you are to give him his inheritance,' declares the Sovereign LORD."
Ezekiel 47:23
"'So I will come near to you for judgment. I will be quick to testify against sorcerers, adulterers and perjurers, against those who defraud laborers of their wages, who oppress the widows and the fatherless, and deprive aliens of justice, but do not fear me,' says the LORD Almighty."
Malachi 3:5
Okay, okay, I know that was a lot of Bible verses, and most people will probably just skip over half of them. The point, though, is that the Bible obviously has something to say about caring for the alien in our presence. It is a no-brainer in my book and I am eagerly waiting to hear somebody tell me otherwise!
A recent AP article spoke of evangelicals being tightlipped over current immigration issues and the nation wide debates currently raging. The reason why, according to the article, is not what I would have expected. Apparently even I don't have a negative enough view of my evangelical brothers and sisters. The issue is that they want to support the legislation, but don't want to piss off their hispanic members. It has nothing to do with any sort of inner war within Dthem, wondering if maybe they should follow God's guidance rather than American racist policies.
Honestly it just makes me sick. I love Jesus, I really do. I do not know how much longer I can stand to live amongst those who ignore him, trying to be a subversive presence rather than an angry, outloud opponent of idolatrous patriotism and arrogant hatred. How could we do this with no shame or repentance? What will become of us? Biblically, it's a frightening concept to me.
Peace,
Matt
Currently Reading: Dakota: A Spiritual Geography by Kathleen Norris.
Thursday, May 18, 2006
Justification
"If we may be freed by self-critical scholarly objectivity no longer to have to assume that the authority of the Bible resides in its saying things that we agree with, we may be free as well to hear more clearly what it really says instead of giving it credit for saying what we already think."
John Howard Yoder wrote this in The Politics of Jesus in a chapter called Justification by Grace through Faith. The chapter title was not very appealing to me, but I pushed on and was astounded by what I read! Yoder begins with the hypothesis "that for Paul righteousness, either in God or in human beings, might more appropriately be conceived of as having cosmic or social dimensions. Such larger dimensions would not negate the personal character of the righteousness God imputes to those who believe; but by englobing the personal salvation in a fuller reality they would negate the individualism with which we understand such reconciliation." In other words, it's not this big issue about whether or not we are now right in the eyes of God, but what to do in community knowing that we are in the grip of a gracious God.
Yoder positions Paul's argument about justification in the context of the early church's issues between Jewish and Gentile Christians. "In sum: the fundamental issue was that of the social form of the church." It seems that we have often over-spiritualized some passages of scripture that were meant to govern how we live in community.
In Ephesians 3 Paul writes about a "mystery" made known to him. Mystery here implies a strategic purpose of God which is now made known to everybody. This is prefaced with Ephesians 2:11-26, which speaks of Gentiles being "seperated from Christ" at one time, but also says they were seperated from "the commonwealth of Israel," but Jesus "is our peace, who has made us both one, and has broken down the dividing wall of hostility." So Christ eliminates the once existing hostility between different groups of people, becoming their peace and creating a new kind of community that would not have existed otherwise.
We can see how this works regarding justification in Galatians 2. Verse 14 says we are "justified by faith in Christ," but what does it mean to be justified? Verse 14 cannot be divorced from the earlier verses of Galatians 2, which pushes for Jews and Gentiles to "live together acceptingly in one fellowship. To be justified is to be set right in and for that relationship." This is the same, then, as the making peace of Ephesians.
One more thought before wrapping up with my own thoughts on all of this. Yoder points out that in the book of Romans, Paul never addresses the total Roman community as a "church," only the group that met in the house of Aquila. Could it be that they cannot be a true church until their differences have been set aside and they embrace the other as equal and worthy? As Yoder wrote, "it is the Good News that my enemy and I are united, through no merit or work of our own, in a new humanity that forbids henceforth my ever taking his or her life in my hands."
In a word, what Yoder is claiming, and I thinkI agree, is that to be justified isn't all pie-in-the-sky, I look good to God now, types of thinking about our faith. It is ethical and sociological, involving neighbor love, calling us to embrace the other. It isn't accepting Jesus Christ as your personal lord and savior and then remaining the same person you were before. This is radical life change that involves being a part of a new community that signals a new creation, the Kingdom of God being glimpsed in the way people who should not even like each other are living in unity. In the middle of this chapter, Yoder disects 2 Corinthians 5:17, which typically says something along the lines of "If anyone be in Christ he is a new creature." The truth, though, is that "he is" is not in the original text. The literal translation of this would be more like "if anyone is in Christ, new is creation," or "there is a whole new world." For us to be justified means we begin finding new patterns and ways of life which demonstrate and provide a foretaste of the Kingdom. Wow.
Peace,
Matt
Currently Reading: A Social Reading of the Old Testament by Walter Brueggemann. It is mind-blowing. I also just read A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson, which was quite entertaining.
John Howard Yoder wrote this in The Politics of Jesus in a chapter called Justification by Grace through Faith. The chapter title was not very appealing to me, but I pushed on and was astounded by what I read! Yoder begins with the hypothesis "that for Paul righteousness, either in God or in human beings, might more appropriately be conceived of as having cosmic or social dimensions. Such larger dimensions would not negate the personal character of the righteousness God imputes to those who believe; but by englobing the personal salvation in a fuller reality they would negate the individualism with which we understand such reconciliation." In other words, it's not this big issue about whether or not we are now right in the eyes of God, but what to do in community knowing that we are in the grip of a gracious God.
Yoder positions Paul's argument about justification in the context of the early church's issues between Jewish and Gentile Christians. "In sum: the fundamental issue was that of the social form of the church." It seems that we have often over-spiritualized some passages of scripture that were meant to govern how we live in community.
In Ephesians 3 Paul writes about a "mystery" made known to him. Mystery here implies a strategic purpose of God which is now made known to everybody. This is prefaced with Ephesians 2:11-26, which speaks of Gentiles being "seperated from Christ" at one time, but also says they were seperated from "the commonwealth of Israel," but Jesus "is our peace, who has made us both one, and has broken down the dividing wall of hostility." So Christ eliminates the once existing hostility between different groups of people, becoming their peace and creating a new kind of community that would not have existed otherwise.
We can see how this works regarding justification in Galatians 2. Verse 14 says we are "justified by faith in Christ," but what does it mean to be justified? Verse 14 cannot be divorced from the earlier verses of Galatians 2, which pushes for Jews and Gentiles to "live together acceptingly in one fellowship. To be justified is to be set right in and for that relationship." This is the same, then, as the making peace of Ephesians.
One more thought before wrapping up with my own thoughts on all of this. Yoder points out that in the book of Romans, Paul never addresses the total Roman community as a "church," only the group that met in the house of Aquila. Could it be that they cannot be a true church until their differences have been set aside and they embrace the other as equal and worthy? As Yoder wrote, "it is the Good News that my enemy and I are united, through no merit or work of our own, in a new humanity that forbids henceforth my ever taking his or her life in my hands."
In a word, what Yoder is claiming, and I thinkI agree, is that to be justified isn't all pie-in-the-sky, I look good to God now, types of thinking about our faith. It is ethical and sociological, involving neighbor love, calling us to embrace the other. It isn't accepting Jesus Christ as your personal lord and savior and then remaining the same person you were before. This is radical life change that involves being a part of a new community that signals a new creation, the Kingdom of God being glimpsed in the way people who should not even like each other are living in unity. In the middle of this chapter, Yoder disects 2 Corinthians 5:17, which typically says something along the lines of "If anyone be in Christ he is a new creature." The truth, though, is that "he is" is not in the original text. The literal translation of this would be more like "if anyone is in Christ, new is creation," or "there is a whole new world." For us to be justified means we begin finding new patterns and ways of life which demonstrate and provide a foretaste of the Kingdom. Wow.
Peace,
Matt
Currently Reading: A Social Reading of the Old Testament by Walter Brueggemann. It is mind-blowing. I also just read A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson, which was quite entertaining.
Thursday, May 04, 2006
The Mark
Heard an interesting report on my way to work this morning on NPR. In New Hampshire, many are rejecting the Real ID Act and may even start up a rebellion, which is apparently legal in the state whose motto is "Live free or die." There's a small article here on it as well.
So why am I posting this? Partly because I find our continual fear somewhat humorous. More importantly, though, is the one mention of Christians on the NPR broadcast. Of course it's not followers of Christ looking out for the alien among us, or discussing the dangers of over-involvement with the government when the Kingdom should be their first priority. No. As usual, we're afraid of the mark of the beast. Why? Because we preach absolute ignorance from the pulpit and arrogance in our daily lives. I'll say it one last time: ignorance and arrogance are a dangerous mixture.
Peace,
Matt
By the way, I went to the Church has Left the Building conference last weekend in Seattle. I'd love to blog a bit about it, but have a retreat this weekend and am simply too busy to put much thought into anything else...
So why am I posting this? Partly because I find our continual fear somewhat humorous. More importantly, though, is the one mention of Christians on the NPR broadcast. Of course it's not followers of Christ looking out for the alien among us, or discussing the dangers of over-involvement with the government when the Kingdom should be their first priority. No. As usual, we're afraid of the mark of the beast. Why? Because we preach absolute ignorance from the pulpit and arrogance in our daily lives. I'll say it one last time: ignorance and arrogance are a dangerous mixture.
Peace,
Matt
By the way, I went to the Church has Left the Building conference last weekend in Seattle. I'd love to blog a bit about it, but have a retreat this weekend and am simply too busy to put much thought into anything else...
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