Christ-centered Bible reading

A worthwhile thought-starter here on the difference between modern ways of reading the Bible and the approach taken by the ancient Fathers, including the writers of the New Testament.

Here’s an excerpt, but I really suggest you follow the link and read the excellent comments as well:

….several key points about the Fathers’ nonliteral and image-laden reading of the Bible.

1. The New Testament authors clearly applied Old Testament texts in ways that departed seriously from the plain, surface meaning of the text. When Paul cites Psalm 19 in Romans 10 (“their voice is gone out into all the world”), he applies the Psalmist’s statement about the heavens to the preaching of the apostles. This runs against the plain meaning, said Wilken.

2. The books of Scripture do not bear their own significance. They must be united to something greater, which is Christ. Thus Paul interprets the creation of man and woman as a great mystery, which is Christ and the church; and he interprets the water-giving rock in the Sinai desert as Christ.

3. Typically, such creative renderings of the Bible are focused on the Old Testament. That is because the Old Testament text signifies Christ, but the New Testament text does not signify another Christ. It requires no allegory or analogy to reveal the Incarnate Word.

4. The Fathers also understood the interpretation of Scripture to require the reader’s participation in the spiritual reality of the text. Thus it is not enough to say that Christ was crucified. We must also say, “I am crucified with Christ,” and thus also I am raised with Christ.

On point #3, above, I’d like to make a further comment.  While it is true that it is not “another Christ” that the NT signifies, we do see Paul saying, “even if we had known Christ according to the flesh, we now know him [in that way] no more; therefore if anyone be in Christ there is a new creation… (2 Corinthians 5:16-17),  Thus Christ in the NT is not just the historical figure of the rabbi from Nazareth, but is the salvation of the world, good news to the nations (ethne, Gentiles), the beginning and end of history.  As such, the full application of the meaning and presence of Christ in all situations, “in whom is hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge,” requires, it seems to me, a continual re-envisioning of the world as it is (not just as it was in the first century) and, it seems to me also, we have ample precedent in scripture and in the work of the Fathers for  applying by extension and analogy the truth of Christ to emerging circumstances, just as the Fathers and the NT writers did with respect to ancient Hebrew texts.

Jabez revisited

One of my online friends has posted a very thoughtful take on the Prayer of Jabez.  You should read it. An excerpt:

Many people interpret this as, “If you ask God to bless you, He’ll shower you with material wealth and whatever else you want.” But as I learned Sunday at Amy’s church, that’s not the case.

Did you notice verse 9 when it says Jabez got his name because his mother “gave birth to him in pain?” As the pastor explained, the name Jabez basically means “pain.” Can you imagine being called “Pain” all your life? That’s where verse 10 comes in, where Jabez prays that he would be “free from pain.” He wasn’t asking God for a life free from trouble (which is dumb, because Jesus said in this world we’ll have trouble), but that He would be able to turn Jabez’s curse into a blessing. And He did.

I like it when people think.  Especially preachers.

Verse of the Month — November 2009

Thanksgiving

O give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; for his steadfast love endures forever.

Psalm 118:1

Verse of the Month — October 2009

Generosity

Give, and it will be given to you.  A good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap.  For the measure you give will be the measure you get back.

Luke 6:38

Verse of the Month – April 2009

Ambition

He sat down, called the twelve, and said to them, “Whoever wants to be first must be last of all, and servant of all.”

Mark 9:35

Observation

Seen on the wall of a Sunday School classroom

3:16, OT version

Just for interest’s sake: a look at how the sixteenth verse of the third chapter of every book of the Bible (where such a reference is applicable) provides a surprisingly useful snapshot, a different way of looking at the “Bible in a nutshell.” I’ve already done this for the New Testament, so here we go, from Genesis to Malachi. Some of the results will seem a bit bizarre, but it’s quite remarkable the extent to which the overall thrust of each particular writing is encapsulated in this seemingly semi-random fashion. (All scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version [NRSV]):

Genesis 3:16
To the woman he said,
”I will greatly increase your pangs in childbearing;
in pain you shall bring forth children,
yet your desire shall be for your husband,
and he shall rule over you.“

Exodus 3:16
”Go and assemble the elders of Israel, and say to them, ‘The LORD, the God of your ancestors, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and of Jacob, has appeared to me, saying: I have given heed to you and to what has been done to you in Egypt.“

Leviticus 3:16
Then the priest shall turn these into smoke on the altar as a food offering by fire for a pleasing odor.
All the fat is the LORD’s.

Numbers 3:16
So Moses enrolled them according to the word of the LORD, as he was commanded.

Deuteronomy 3:16
And to the Reu´ben‧ītes and the Gad´ītes I gave the territory from Gil´e‧ad as far as the Wadi Ar´non, with the middle of the wadi as a boundary, and up to the Jab´bok, the wadi being boundary of the Am´mon‧ītes;

Joshua 3:16
…the waters flowing from above stood still, rising up in a single heap far off at Adam, the city that is beside Za´re‧than, while those flowing toward the sea of the Ar´a‧bah, the Dead Sea, were wholly cut off. then the people crossed over opposite Jericho.

Judges 3:16
Ē´hud made for himself a sword with two edges, a cubit in length; and he fastened it on his right thigh under his clothes.

I Take This Personally

To Another Poet

Write. Just write. Write your heart, write your soul. Write volumes and reams and write without scissors. Write blindly, without looking. Write what you feel, write what you know. And if you feel nothing, if you know nothing, then write what you see. Write, write, if you must, about me. Write, write, write. Write until you drop. Next week you can edit. Don’t stop.

~XineAnn

 

I don’t know if this online friend had me in mind, or someone else —most likely someone else, she has many online friends, and not a few of them write poetry — but since she posted it in a place that she knows I read, I’ll take it as targeted in part, at least, to me. In any case, it’s good advice, and suggests something of the passion that is required for someone to undertake the foolish quest of turning the soul inside out, to reveal one’s heart to a cold and mostly unlistening world, or, more significantly, perhaps, to oneself.

Spiritual amphibians

About a year and a half ago, I stood at the graveside of a near relative and tried to provide some inspired words of comfort for the gathered family and friends. At such a moment, short on sleep and feeling quite vulnerable, it pays to look to Divine inspiration rather than one’s own genius (although anyone who has admired the works of William Blake might well argue that the two are indistinguishable: a discussion for another day). Be that as it may, one of those curious things that happen from time to time occurred on this occasion also. As I spoke, groping for words, what seemed an apt image appeared before my consciousness, and without any time to analyze or filter it out, I just let the words come. I hope my readers will not be offended at the result, in which I compare the likes of you and me to, well, frogs.

What I heard myself say was that we as humans are a sort of spiritual amphibian, belonging both to time and to eternity, in more traditional terms to earth and heaven, but because of that, exclusively to neither. It is that image that I’d like to expand upon for a moment or two here. Call it a parable, or an imaginative metaphor. Let’s see where it takes us.

We live in time, and we are destined to live in eternity.

Heaven and Hell

The following tidbit from Carl McColman pretty much sums up the way I have thought about the whole eternal reward/punishment thing for years and years. It’s in the book, too: see if there is any divergence between the following comment and, say, John 3:19-21.

It’s impossible to be separated from God. Hell is not about being separated from God, it’s about choosing to resist the fire of Divine Love. Then, instead of making us incandescent, it burns. Integral consciousness recognizes that the key to heaven and hell lies within our heart. We are all predestined to spend eternity immersed in the presence of God, bearing the beams of God’s love. How we experience those beams — as heavy and burdensome, or as joyous as light — is, thanks to the free gift of grace, pretty much left up to us.