The Week of March 31, 2014

Read The Bible In A Year:

Exodus 14-16
2 Chronicles 1-9
Psalms 52-54
Proverbs 14-15
Mark 13-14

The Revised Common Lectionary:

Ezekiel 37:1-14
Psalm 130
Romans 8:6-11
John 11:1-45

Did Jesus Exist?

A quotation from Bart Ehrman's Did Jesus Exist?: The Historical Argument for Jesus of Nazareth:

Because of where I teach, almost all of my students come from conservative Christian backgrounds and already have both a vested interest in and a firm set of opinions about the subject matter. That makes biblical studies unlike almost any other academic discipline in the university, and it is why courses in the field are perfect for a liberal arts education. Students who take courses in other areas of the humanities... do not usually hold fixed ideas about the subject. As a result, they simply are not shocked by what they learn.... [Their] opinions [about biblical studies] can be challenged in class, and when they are, students are forced to think. Since one of the goals of a liberal arts education is to teach students how to think, courses in biblical studies are perfect.

Particular Examen

A quotation from Thomas Dubay's Seeking Spiritual Direction: How to Grow the Divine Life Within:

Particular Examen. Ideally suited to what we have just remarked is the practice promoted in many religious orders of a daily checkup on one specific virtue to be acquired or fault to be overcome. At a regular time each day a person, lay or religious, examines how he or she has done during the previous twenty-four hours regarding a fault (impatient reactions or idle words or coldness toward another) or a virtue (temperance at meals, thinking before speaking, recalling God's presence). Then, for a few more moments, the particular individual plans specifically how to improve on that point during the next day. The examen closes with a brief prayer for success. Fidelity to this exercise obviously is a great aid to steady growth.

The Passion of Jesus

It's very interesting that the word "passion" continues to be used by Christians to describe the last moments of the life of Jesus. The language is traditional and comes from the use of the Greek verb paschein in the New Testament, which means "to suffer". The word is used frequently in the New Testament, including thirteen times in the synoptic gospels. Although nine of those instances are descriptions of the suffering that Jesus will endure at the end of his life, it is not used in the same way that we might use "The Passion" today to encapsulate both the suffering before Christ's death as well as the death itself. For instance, Mark 8:31 puts the following on the lips of Jesus:

The Son of Man must suffer many things, and be rejected by the elders and the chiefs priests and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise up.  

There's a distinction there between the suffering he expected to endure and his actual death. This understanding is supported by the other four usages of the verb paschein in the synoptic gospels, which all describe the suffering of other people in circumstances that will not lead to death. But it didn't take long before Christians began describing the period of suffering between the garden of Gethsemane and the crucifixion as "The Passion" and this usage was clearly understood by Christians for several centuries.

Of course, the English word "passion" (which comes from the Greek paschein and Latin passio) is used very differently today. We rarely if ever use it to describe suffering outside the context of Christian theology. Instead, we use the word to describe intense feeling, usually positive, especially though not exclusively in romantic contexts. No one would question me being, say, passionate about my wife, but I could also be passionate about my work or my faith so long as I have a deep felt sense of my commitment to both.

It seems to me that this new meaning is having a significant impact on our understanding of the suffering and death of Jesus. Because we describe the suffering and death as "The Passion" we can't help but hear it as being deeply connected to the love that Jesus has for humanity, perhaps even as an expression of that love. This certainly isn't a bad thing, but it's a connection that's made so easy for us because of the way our language has developed, which is certainly a happy accident!

It also leads me to wonder. If we understand the word "passion" in this way it seems to me that we could use it more broadly for the life of Jesus as a whole. We could easily understand the entire ministry of Jesus as "The Passion", an expression of the deep felt sense he had about his purpose in the world and the love that he had for all people. I say that not to take away from the very real suffering he endured at the end of his life, but rather to highlight the fact that the suffering is intimately connected to the way he lived.

10,000 Reasons (Bless the Lord) - Matt Redman

This song is already extremely popular in part because of its wonderful chorus, but I wanted to highlight it because of the first verse. The idea that we rise each day to sing God's song in the world is a beautiful metaphor for the Christian life. It speaks to a playful, dynamic, and yet structured life with God. The last line in the verse is a prayer for faithfulness: "whatever may pass and whatever lies before me, let me be singing when the evening comes." Remembering that faithfulness to God is the definition of a successful day strikes me as being particularly helpful for Christians living in a world where success is so often measured differently!

The Week of March 24, 2014

Read The Bible In A Year:

Exodus 12-13
1 Chronicles 10-29
Psalms 49-51
Proverbs 12-13
Mark 10-12

The Revised Common Lectionary:

1 Samuel 16:1-13
Psalm 23
Ephesians 5:8-14John 9:1-41

The Week of March 17, 2014

Read The Bible In A Year:

Exodus 4-11
1 Chronicles 1-9
Psalms 46-48
Proverbs 10-11
Mark 7-9

The Revised Common Lectionary:

Exodus 17:1-17
Psalm 95
Romans 5:1-11
John 4:5-42

Being Specific

A quotation from Thomas Dubay's Seeking Spiritual Direction: How to Grow the Divine Life Within:

Being Specific. It is easy enough to aspire to great things in general, to entertain grandiose ideas of holiness in other circumstances or later in life, but it is quite another matter to live a perfect life in this present place, with this husband or wife, with this illness or weakness or handicap, in these circumstances. When St. Therese of Lisieux was interrupted in her work by a troublesome nun, she prepared herself specifically to react lovingly in coming episodes which she could foresee. Therese was not content with "I shall be better" in a vague sort of way. She thought out and decided what she had to do in particulars: smile and be gentle. She prepared herself in advance to do just that, to be ready for the annoyance. She was specific. Are my hopes for holiness nebulous and thus ineffectual? Or do I develop concrete plans to be rid of my faults and to acquire the virtues I lack? Do I plan?

With Every Act of Love - Jason Gray

This is a song that I've really enjoyed over the last several weeks. A lot of contemporary worship speaks about individual relationship with God, and while that's a component of this song as well, it sets individual discipleship in the context of community, and encourages us to see the coming kingdom of God in the way that we love one another. What a wonderful articulation of our faith.

The Week of March 10, 2014

Read The Bible In A Year:

Genesis 48-50
Exodus 1-3
Psalms 43-45
Proverbs 1-9
Mark 4-6

The Revised Common Lectionary:

Genesis 12:1-4a
Psalm 121
Romans 4:1-5, 13-17
John 3:1-17 or Matthew 17:1-9

The Nature of Doctrine

A quotation from George Lindbeck's The Nature of Doctrine: Religion and Theology in a Postliberal Age:

Different religions are likely to have different warrants for interreligious conversation and cooperation. This lack of a common foundation is a weakness, but is also a strength. It means, on the one hand, that the partners in dialogue do not start with the conviction that they really basically agree, but it also means that they are not forced into the dilemma of thinking of themselves as representing a superior (or inferior) articulation of a common experience of which the other religions are inferior (or superior) expressions. They can regard themselves as simply different and can proceed to explore their agreements and disagreements without necessarily engaging in the invidious comparisons that the assumption of a common experiential core make so tempting.

On Psalm 32

Psalm 32 begins as follows (New Living Translation):

Oh, what joy for those
whose disobedience is forgiven,
whose sin is put out of sight!
Yes, what joy for those
whose record the Lord has cleared of guilt,
whose lives are lived in complete honesty.

The author of 1 Clement, a text probably written near the end of the first century C.E., reads this passage in an interesting way in 1 Clement 50.5-7 (Translated by Michael W. Holmes in The Apostolic Fathers in English):

Blessed are we, dear friends, if we continue to keep God's commandments in the harmony of love, so that our sins may be forgiven us through love. For it is written: "Blessed are those whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the one to whom the Lord will reckon no sin, and in whose mouth there is no deceit." This declaration of blessedness was pronounced upon those who have been chosen by God through Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen.

The author of 1 Clement hears the beginning of this Psalm as a prophetic declaration about the work of Christ in the lives of those he has chosen. The first three statements are easy for us to hear in this way. We are blessed because our iniquities have been forgiven through Christ, our sins covered over by the work of Christ who brings us back into right relationship with God. We are indeed a forgiven people.

But all too often, we stop there and forget that we must hear the last phrase as part of the work of Christ as well. We are blessed not only because we are forgiven, but because we have been freed to begin our lives as disciples. We are freed to reject deceit and to live prophetic lives of love because, as the psalmist says a bit later, "unfailing love surrounds those who trust in the Lord."

During this season of Lent, let us open our hearts again for that guidance. Let us thank God for the forgiveness we have received through Christ, ask God to shape us into a people of honesty and love, and take the time to listen for God's voice so that the scriptures might be fulfilled in our lives.

Radicality

A quotation from Thomas Dubay's Seeking Spiritual Direction: How to Grow the Divine Life Within:

Radicality. While we should follow the advice of our confessor or director in our choices of specific practices and penances, and thus avoid attempts beyond our present strength, we ought at the same time to shun half-hearted lukewarmness. Radicality (from the Latin radix, root) means here that we take means suited to the end, that we get to the roots of our problems and deal with them adequately. If we wonder what this means in practice, we need only read the lives of the saints. They are not timid. They do not operate by fractions. Do I?

 

An Ash Wednesday Beginning

It seems right to me that this blog will begin on Ash Wednesday, the beginning of a communal journey toward the cross, and the beginning of a season of individual repentance. Lent reminds us not of the universality of God's grace (an important truth, no doubt), but of the difficulty of the Christian life, which we so often want to make easy. Lent is a time to be reminded of some of the more difficult teachings of Jesus, to hear the challenging call that Jesus offers to anyone that might want to follow him:

If you want to be my disciple, you must hate everyone else by comparison--your father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters--yes, even your own life. Otherwise, you cannot be my disciple. And if you do not carry your own cross and follow me, you cannot be my disciple.

But don't begin until you count the cost. For who would begin construction of a building without first calculating the cost to see if there is enough money to finish it? Otherwise, you might complete only the foundation before running out of money, and then everyone would laugh at you. They would say, "There's the person who started that building and couldn't afford to finish it!"

Or what king would go to war against another king without first sitting down with his counselors to discuss whether his army of 10,000 could defeat the 20,000 soldiers marching against him? And if he can't, he will send a delegation to discuss terms of peace while the enemy is still far away. So you cannot become my disciple without giving up everything you own.

This is an awfully hard teaching, especially for those of us accustomed to measuring success by what and how much we accumulate. Lent offers an invitation to listen to these words again, to have ears to hear that we might actually receive life by denying ourselves the luxury that our culture so often calls success. The life of Jesus is a testimony that such denial doesn't mean a life devoid of laughter, feasting and joy, but rather a life where the decisions we make are touched by our love for and commitment to God. 

We demonstrate this love and commitment through words, but even more through our actions. Participation in the Lenten fast isn't an obligation, but an act of love. It's a reaching out to the one we love and declaration that he is more than food or drink or whatever other good thing we might deny ourselves for a time. When we do this, we are transformed because, best of all, God responds. As it turns out, he loves us too.