Perspectives: Enough Already

 

This is not an image from this year, but can I just say, I'm tired of snow?

Biblical Genre

 The New Testament (and the Old Testament as well) contain writing of a wide variety of genres, including narrative text, poetry, parables, prayers, songs, apocalyptic writings, and letters. In addition, in the New Testament, some of the writing records quotes from the Old Testament. Knowing the genre of the writing we are reading can increase our understanding of the text in several ways. 

·        Knowledge of the genre can help us understand the purpose of the writing. For example, a parable would not be used to share historical information, but instead to make illustrate a point that might be hard to grasp without the illustration the parable provides.  When we know that purpose of a parable, we can let go of the idea that a historical event is being shared and instead look for the deeper truth conveyed.

·        Another way knowledge of the genre is helpful is that each genre uses different tools to convey a point. Apocalyptic writings could use symbolism; knowing that helps us to understand the message in the text. If we approach Revelation as narrative text instead of apocalyptic writing, then I think we are bound to misunderstand what is being written.

T   The genre can also help us to understand the targeted reader of a text. A letter is written to a person or a group of people.  When we know that, we can take time to learn about the intended audience of the writing, and this will help us to understand the message and why it was written.

In short, I think we get caught up in defending the Bible as true, when what we should be doing is searching for the truth in it. Genre can help us to find the truth.

Miracles

I keep a notebook in Evernote called "Blog Ideas." In it are little kernels of thought that may or may not become actual posts.  I was looking through them today and found this:

Buechner: Faith in God is less apt to proceed from miracles than miracles from faith in God.

I'm assuming that is a quote from Frederick Buechner.  What do you think about it?

As I consider how I see the acts of God, I think it all begins with the faith that God can act.  When I think about that, then the idea that miracles can be seen when we have faith in God makes sense.  I contrast that with what Jesus said - that certain things happened so that others would have faith.

Maybe it all comes down to prevenient grace. We can see a miracle - an act of God - because grace has opened our hearts to the belief that God does act.  We can have faith when we see God at act because grace has opened our hearts to the belief that God does act. 

It is all from grace - we see God at work because God is at work.

 

Perspectives: San Antonio

 

This is San Antonio.  Is it wrong of me to feel like the Riverwalk area is kind of like a Disney ride?

Old and New Testament

What are your reflections on the relationship between the Old and New Testaments?

I believe the relationship between the Hebrew Scriptures and the New Testament begins with Jesus. Jesus, his family, his ancestors, and his followers were Jewish. The Hebrew Scriptures were the holy word for the chosen people. Jesus studied them and proclaimed from them. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus says, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have come not to abolish but to fulfill (Matthew 5:17). The early church looked to the Hebrew Scriptures with new eyes, searching for passages that foretold the coming of the Messiah, and how Jesus was the fulfillment of those words. The Gospel of Matthew devotes time to demonstrating how Jesus was the fulfillment of prophecy. Our beginning as a Christian Church is rooted in the Hebrew Scripture.

Those of us who are Christian find the revelation of God’s nature and character in both the Hebrew Scriptures and the New Testament. For us, we find a new covenant in the words of the New Testament – a new way to relate to God, new promises of salvation, new revelations of the nature of God. We learn about the grace, love, and forgiveness of God. While we do not follow the laws of the Hebrew Scriptures (Paul saw to that), we are inextricably linked to both Testaments. Our God is the God of both Testaments.

Go to the Priest

 

From Adam Hamilton's book, Luke, as Hamilton describes what Jesus told the 10 lepers in Luke 17:

He told them to go find the priest - the biblical requirement for a leper who had been healed.  Jesus told them this before they were healed, and the act of going to find the priest would be an act of faith.  On the way, they were healed.

Maybe I've known this before, but I don't remember it, and was startled by it as I read this paragraph this morning.  Jesus sent them to the priest - which would be what a healed leper would do - before they were healed.  What could have been their response? "Sorry, Jesus, I can't go to the priest. I have leprosy.  Maybe you haven't noticed?"  But, no, they have enough faith to go to the priest, and when they get there, they are healed.

What path do we avoid because we don't have enough faith in the power of God? 

Perspectives: A heart on stone

 

Kyrie Eleison

Kyrie eleison down the road that I must travel
Kyrie eleison through the darkness of the night
Kyrie eleison where I'm going, will you follow?
Kyrie eleison on a highway in the night

Kyrie eleison.
Lord have mercy.
I remember those times when that was the only prayer.
When there could be no other prayers.
When even that prayer evaded my mind.
Kyrie eleison.
Lord have mercy.

And yet, Lord have mercy?
The Lord is mercy.
Why ask the Lord to have something that the Lord already is?
Lord have mercy?
No. Lord, share yourself with me.

Lord, cover me with who you are.
Lord, blanket me in your mercy.
In the times when the spirit prays,
When the holiness in me
groans,
Lord, be who you are.
Be the steadfast pillar you already are.
Show me your mercy.
Show me yourself.

As I walk down the road,
in the darkness,
lead me where I'm going,
down the highway in the night.
Lord, surround me in yourself.
In your mercy.

First stanza and inspiration from Kyrie Eleison
 Lyrics by Richard James Page / John Ross Lang / Steven Park George.

Cleansing Generosity

 

Read the following Adam Hamilton's book, Luke. He's talking about Jesus' response to the Pharisees criticizing Jesus for not ritually washing his hands (Luke 11:37-38).  Jesus tells them that they are foolish for worrying about what is outside when it is what is inside that is unclean:

It would be like, he says, washing the outside of a cup but not the inside.  Then he offers this one little line that touches on what we learned in the last chapter, "Give to those in need from the core of who you are and you will be clean all over." (11:41). The act of generosity to the poor actually serves to cleanse our hearts and souls?  Yes, in that act we lift up the lowly, we become instruments of God.  We deny ourselves and take up our cross.

I talk about generosity a lot in the work I do.  I often talk about generosity as part of discipleship, and I talk about how being generous is one of the ways we fulfill our potential of being the image of God, God who is generous.  I talk about generosity as one of the ways we respond to God's generosity towards us.  Amid all of that, I've never thought of generosity as a way we are cleansed. 

It does make sense, though. I do believe generosity is transformational, and what is transformation if it is not changing who we are on the inside.

Perspectives: Hopeful boxes

I think this image of assembled and empty pizza boxes demonstrates what happens when we are optimistic about the future. They anticipate the sale of many pizzas.

Do we see the women?

What is the status of women in today's United States?

1. The National Gender Gap widened in 2023 for the fist time in 20 years. Women make 82.7 cents on the dollar compared to men.  (link)
2. Abortion bans not only remove women's choice regarding their bodies, but they also endanger women's health and harm state economies.  Most states with the lowest gross domestic product per capital also have total abortion bans.
3. Women experience higher poverty rates than men, women face specific adverse health conditions, and women are under represented in political office (link)
4. According to Pew Research, there have been gender gap gains  and gaps.  Women outnumber men in the U.S. college-educated workforce.  While women have increased their presence in almost all of the higher-paying jobs, they are still a minority in many of them.  The gender pay gap has remained flat over the last 20 years, and women still lag in leadership positions in business and government. (link)
5. In 1994, the Violence against Women act was signed into law (with bipartisan support).  This law improved law enforcement response to violence against women and provided critical services to women.  Since 2019, it has not been extended due to political disputes (Link)

Adam Hamilton, in the book Luke, says, "Regarding violence and harassment against women, the United Nations reports that 741 million women around the world have been victims of some kind of violence, usually at the hands of a spouse or boyfriend.  In the United States one our of every six women experience either attempted or completed sexual assault - this is over 463,00 women in the US every year. In a recent national survey of 2,009 Americans, eight-one percent of women reported that they had been sexually harassed at some time in their lives."

The full title of Hamilton's book is Luke: Jesus and the Outsiders, Outcasts, and Outlaws. The second chapter is called, "Simon, do you see this woman?"  In it, Hamilton makes the point that one of Luke's themes is that Jesus saw the women.

Do we see the women?

 

Prayer

Annette (our pastor) preached about prayer a few weeks ago.  She emphasized that prayer is God's way of connecting with us. She said prayer is "the involvement of God.'  I thought the ways she spoke about prayer were illustrations of this idea:

• We are invited to pray (just see scripture for that one)
• God delights in our "asking."
• The Holy Spirit intercedes for us in our prayer - this indicates how much God wants to connect with us
• We are called to seek, find, knock - constant communion with God

Our prayers move us to grow in faith, so much so that we begin to perceive others' needs and to pray for that.  She drew a parallel here the Golden Rule.  Nothing is too small or too large to pray about - to think otherwise is to have a distorted image of God.  In fact, we learn to have the mind of God through our prayer.

It occurred to me as I listened that we judge God (and maybe the effectiveness of our prayers) by what God does in response to our prayers.  Did God answer my prayer? We answer that question through the observation of effect - did what I pray for happen?  We tell others that God said "yes" or "no" and sometimes we make excuses for God.

Maybe what we need to ask instead is whether God was present for us in prayer? We need to ask if our prayers changed us or changed our action? Are we saying "yes" to God's desire for connection? Or are we saying "no?"