#AdventUS ~ BREACH

BREACH

A breach of contract happens when one party doesn’t keep their part of the deal.  By law, Judah owed his daughter-in-law a husband and a son.  His failure to find her a husband was a breach.

Her solution (seducing him and conceiving his son) was another kind of breach.  Tamar's act is a breach in  patriarchy that silences women.  

Scripture is full of those breaches.

It’s true that much of the Old Testament is disturbing stories of violence and oppression against women and other marginalized people.  The Old Testament reflects the world in which it was written.

But what I find amazing are the cracks, the breaches in that world that many of the stories reveal.  

The story of Tamar outwitting her father-in-law is a breach.  Rahab the prostitute that saves herself and her family is a breach.  

Ruth, the story of two women who find a way to survive in a man’s world is a breach.  

The inclusion of these women in the genealogy of Jesus is a sign that the kingdom of God that Jesus brings is going to rip that breach even further.

#AdventUS ~ Whore

WHORE

Today’s word is not your usual devotional word.  

It’s an ugly word. 

 It’s an ugly word that is often applied to women that men cannot control.  

Tamar was a whore because she took control of her situation and used what she had (her sexuality) to get what was due her.  

Throughout history powerful women have been given this name as a way to dismiss them.  

By adding Tamar and other whores to Jesus’ genealogy, Matthew turns that around. 

Friday Five - Favorite Verses

The RevGalBlogPals have a fun Friday Five - Favorite Bible verses!

This is the one I always put on my mobility papers and is the is my standard answer for favorite verse:

 For I am not ashamed of the gospel; it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who has faith, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. Romans 1:16

The gospel is the power of God.  God's love, forgiveness and acceptance for all people is what will overcome all that is wrong with this world.  Grace is everything.  And that first part "I am not ashamed" was especially meaningful for me when I was being hammered and argued with and pressured to "tone down that grace stuff" at my former congregation.

For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God—Ephesians 2:8

Faith is a gift.  It is not your own doing.  Too many people have turned faith into a work,  just another way to try to grab some credit, take some control, manipulate God "God has to save me because I made a decision for Christ"  Nope, no credit, no control, no manipulation.  You didn't make any decisions for Christ.  "This is not your own doing, it is the gift of God"

 The next one depends on the translation - I've always like "Where there is no vision, the people perish"  Proverbs 29:18 which is not at all how the NRSV puts it but I kind of like the Message version:

If people can't see what God is doing,
   they stumble all over themselves;
But when they attend to what he reveals,
   they are most blessed.

You need a vision but it has to be God's vision.  I've seen too many congregations stumbling all over themselves because their vision was to be their own little private club.  But when they do get a glimpse of what God is doing and attend to it, they are indeed most blessed.

And I have to steal Revgalblogpals favorite and this Sunday's OT lesson:

He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?  Micah 6:8

I have a funny story about this verse.  I went to Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary in Berekley and we were part of the Graduate Theological Union which meant you could take classes at some of the surrounding seminaries of other traditions.  I took an Old Testament class at the Baptist Seminary.  (I figured Baptists knew their Old Testament!)  So the teacher asks "What is Micah known for?"  And in my usual teacher's pet kiss ass way, I shot up my hand and proudly answered "What do your Lord require of you but to do justice, love kindness and walk humbly with your God"

 The teacher looks at me strangely.  "No....someone else?"  and someone else says "Micah predicts Jesus will be born in Bethlehem"  That was the correct answer.  Oh.

And though I struggle with the Gospel of John I really really love the first 18 verses of John, especially these two:

...in him was life,^* and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.   John 1:4-5

⁵

From his fullness we have received grace upon grace.     John 1:16

And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son,^* full of grace and truth"  John 1:14

I've lived through a lot of dark times and this promise, this assurance that there is light, there is grace, there is truth, there is love is what has pulled me through. 

This Sunday's Text is NOT an Evangelism Text

 Behold the Lamb of God,  Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld

It's probably too late for you over achievers who have written your sermons already, but please don't grab unthinkingly on "Come and See" and turn your sermon into a rally to encourage people to "get people to come to church to Come and See"  That is NOT what is going on in the text.

If you are all excited about "Come and See" as an evangelism text then you have to wait until  a few verses later when PHILIP says it to Nathaniel after he wonders what is so special about someone from Nazareth. (John 1:46)

In this Sunday's text "Come and see" is JESUS' answer to the question, "Where are you staying?"

Now I grouse about John a lot because I am a plain speaker and I don't care for all the riddles and double speak and layers of meaning that you must plow through in John.  In other words I'm lazy and John makes me work.  To just jump to "Okay everyone just tell your friends to 'come and see!'"  is REALLY lazy.

What is going on here?  Who cares where Jesus is staying?  The people in the pews care.  They want to know where Jesus is.  

Where is Jesus in a world where a mentally tortured man gets out of a taxi and shoots up a bunch of people in front of a safeway.  

Where is Jesus in the aftermath of the devastating earthquake in Haiti where women are still being raped every day in the refugee camps and police have given up trying to stop it?

Where is Jesus  in the home of the single mother who is trying to decide to pay the mortgage or pay the heating bill?  Where is Jesus for the parents who see their son going through a divorce and don't know how to comfort him?  

"Come and See"  JESUS answers OUR question.  And the answer is he's right here, in the midst of the pain and suffering.  And we are invited to stay with him where he is.  Here.

Behold the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.


Preach THAT.

The Bible is Unsanitary

I just got a letter from our local hospital informing me I need a  name badge.  To get a name badge I have to provide a letter proving I really AM a pastor, get a background check and participate in a "brief" (for which they recommend I schedule an hour) educational program on how to wash my hands.

Much as I'd like to engage in a rant about how STUPID this is and a waste of time (Thank you I do wash my hands and pastors that don't wash their hands are not going to change after your "brief" education on the matter)....what caught my attention was the explanation in the letter as to why they will no longer provide bibles in the patient rooms.  No bibles because "there is no way to properly sanitize the bibles".

Funny the hospital finally figured out something many Christians haven't figured out.   You cannot sanitize Scripture.  It's dirty, ambiguous, disturbing and downright dangerous.  You can't clean it up. 

John Wesley, 1791; Charles Wesley, 1788; Renewers of the Church

Wow.  I've been blogging for more than a year.  This is what I wrote last year about the Wesley brothers.  It's still good.

The Lord got his oysters tonight.

Actually when you read the lay preacher's allegory of Christ fishing for oysters ---it's not that much different than what Origin and some of the early western church fathers did with scripture.

On my trip to and back from Omaha I listened to some lectures from the Teaching Company.    I LOVE these lectures.  Right now I'm on the History of Christian Theology taught by Phillip Cary - he's one of my favorite.  He's got an excellent series on Augustine.  One of the lectures was on Christian reading that explained the difference between Typology and Allegory in Christian interpretation, which was always a little confusing to me and this was very helpful.


So I know that Luther did away with allegory and brought back the literal meaning of scripture which was a good thing.  To a point.  But you know you have to give those guys credit for trying to make ancient stories about a desert God and a desert people relevant to Greeks and Romans.  And it makes me feel kind of good to know that Augustine was a little perturbed by verses about dashing babies heads against rocks that he found a less literal way to make that helpful.  Which just goes to show you that Augustine and other church fathers were NO fundamentalists!


oh and BTW, if you decide to buy some lectures from the Teaching Company - NEVER pay full price!  At one time or the other during the year they all go on sale.  If a series you like is not on sale, just wait - it will be after a while.

Almond Trees, Crocus and God's Sure Promises

The word of the Lord came to me, saying, ‘Jeremiah, what do you see?’ And I said, ‘I see a branch of an almond tree.’^{* 12}Then the Lord said to me, ‘You have seen well, for I am watching^* over my word to perform it.’

Jeremiah 1:11-12

In English this passage from Jeremiah doesn’t make a lot of sense.  But the word for the flowering almond in Hebrew is “watch”.  So God is playing a little word game with Jeremiah.  There are actually a lot of puns and plays on words in the Old Testament.  The almond tree flowers in early spring.  When you see the almond tree flower, you know that spring is coming.  You can count on it.  Like the crocus here.  They may be buried in snow, you may still be wearing your boots and coat but when you see the crocus, you know that it will not be winter forever.  Spring will come.  The crocus and flowering almond are signs of that promise.

In the same God’s promise of his love and care and redemption can be counted on.  Although we look around and see injustice and pain and darkness, God is with us and watches over us. We can count on that as sure as we can count on spring.

Jeremiah

Every winter and summer I do a 5-6 week bible study.   It's not ongoing so that people don't feel like that have to commit to coming every Sunday night for their rest of their lives.  Even I would find that daunting.  It's good for me because it makes me really get into a book of the bible.  I did Revelation a couple of years ago and learned a LOT.

This winter I'm taking on Jeremiah.  I love Jeremiah.  I relate to Jeremiah.  Nobody listened to him.  Nothing changed because of him.  He didn't "turn his church around".  He didn't grow his church. 
He whined a lot to God about how hard his job was and God told to shut up and get on with it.  And he did.  He stayed on target.  he loved his people.  He was often discouraged but he did not despair.  

Everybody likes to point to Acts where the church grew daily and everybody listened to the apostles and were brave and nobody whined as the ONLY model for ministry.  But I think more often ministry is like Jeremiah.

Marcus J. Borg - "Redeeming Christian Language"

Thursday a friend and I drove (about 3 hours) to Wartburg Seminary to hear Marcus Borg speak on the subject of a new book he's working on, "Redeeming Christian Language". If you follow theology and biblical studies at all, you will have heard of him. He's written a LOT of stuff and is member of the infamous Jesus Seminar.

Some may accuse me of understatement when I say, he's a little outside of mainstream Christian thinking. Or maybe he's not. I don't agree with everything he says but I will say this, this was one of the most intellectually challenging, interesting, well presented, thought provoking continuing ed event I've been to in a few years. Which certainly doesn't say much for our orthodox theologians does it?

The premise of Borg's lectures and his upcoming book is that much of Christian language is poorly understood by people today, both within the church and certainly by those outside the church. He's seeking to reclaim and (and sometimes I think redefine) basic Christian concepts like salvation, sin, redemption, repentance, righteousness.

I agree with his premise, and am with him in a lot of what he says. I totally agree with him that substitutionary atonement makes absolutely no sense to most people who did not grow up in the church. I did not grow up in the church and that is just not an understanding of what happened on the cross that has ever made sense to me. However, his understanding of Jesus' death makes what happened little more meaningful than Martin Luther King jr.'s death. Yes, the dream lives on. But nobody was saved by MLK jr's death. And I'm not sure Borg believes anybody was saved by Jesus' death.

He's pretty down on heaven or what he calls the "afterlife" -"Agnostic on the Afterlife" I'd wanted to say to him "tell me about this afterlife you don't believe in because I don't believe in it either." (Which I stole from his line "Tell me about this god you don't believe in because I probably don't believe in him either)

I agree that salvation, transformation begins in this life, today. I totally am on board with his impatience with a faith that is so terribly focused on going to heaven when you die because you believe Jesus died for your sins. But I really resonate with N.T Wright's understanding of heaven as another dimension of reality that exists now and that it is the vision and the hope of THAT reality that is the impetus for living out the values of God's Kingdom in this world. But the problem with it all being about what happens in this world is...well, people still live and die in slavery and oppression and war and hunger. And there's got to be more than just what we see. I need the promise that God's Kingdom will prevail and there is a place where God's Kingdom does prevail and it is present here though not totally fulfilled, whenever God's people live by the values of the Kingdom.

I tried to ask him that question and he got all caught up in this understanding of "afterlife" that I certainly don't subscribe to. And then he said Wright was a good friend but he didn't think his understanding of heaven made any sense.

And there's that whole "bodily resurrection" thing that gets some of the more orthodox twisted in knots. Let's not go there today.

But Borg is right about this. We have to get out of the church language and speak and do theology in a way that makes sense to people who aren't hearing and understanding our "church speak" And if Borg's understanding of God and Christ and salvation isn't exactly the way I understand it, or even if it's outside what the church deems "orthodox" but it brings Christ and the message of freedom and grace and transformation to people who otherwise wouldn't hear it...well then he's doing a heck of a lot more for the Kingdom of God than most of us who are arguing about stuff that makes no never mind to those on the outside.

Joseph of Arimathea

According to James Kiefer's Hagiographies, this is Joseph of Arimathea's Day.

He's not on the Lutheran calendar. Probably because what we know of him from scripture is pretty sparse. According to all four gospels, (M 27:57-61; P 15:42-47; L 23:50-56; J 19:38-42) after the death of Jesus, Joseph of Arimathea, a wealthy member of the Council, asked Pilate for the body of Jesus, and buried it with honor in the tomb he had intended for himself. That's all we know from scripture but there's lots of good stuff in legends.

Joseph is all wrapped up in medieval legends of the Holy Grail because he is said to have brought it to Britain. He is credited with evangelizing Britain and indeed Christianity came to Britain very early - so who knows?

I love ancient legends and saints stories. I think it's a shame we have this weird modern notion that if something didn't actually happen in history, the story is of no value. That's the kind of thinking that leads to fundamentalists insisting that if Jonah wasn't really swallowed by a fish then Jesus didn't rise from the dead and God is a Big Fat Liar.

When I went to Israel on one of those cheap Pastor tours, we visited competing spots that claim to be the tomb of Jesus --the church of the Holy Sepulchre and the Garden Tomb.
The Church of the Holy Sepulcher is the oldest, discovered by Constantine's mother herself, Helena, who embarked on a very successful tour to discover ancient landmarks in Christ's life. I believe she found every thing she was looking for, so fortunate was she.

The Church of the Holy Sepulcher is very dark, full of candles and incense and icons and statues. It's very "Catholic" (although it is shared by several different ancient church bodies)


But it is small wonder that some Protestant sensibilities were offended by this old mysterious and dark church and preferred the quiet simplicity of the Garden Tomb which resembles a respectable English Garden.

They are both lovely places in their own way. But it really is the Holy Sepulcher that gives me goose bumps.

Mary Magdalene

I was too busy last week to blog about one of my favorite Bible characters on her feast day- July 22.

I remember visiting an elderly lady many years ago who said she didn't have any problem with women pastors "Because look at Mary Magdalene....Jesus sent her to preach to his own disciples!"

Mary Magdalene was the first witness to the Resurrection and yet throughout the years the church has tried to downplay her role by sexualizing her and calling her a former prostitute. Which she was not. Although, as Seinfeld would say, "not that there's anything wrong with it..." but in fact, no where in scripture is she identified as a prostitute. (Even the woman who was called a "known sinner" who washed Jesus feet wasn't necessarily a prostitute. There ARE other ways women can be sinners, you know)

I think modern "liberal" views of Mary as Jesus' lover or suffering from unrequited romantic love for him also diminish her by sexualizing her as well. Why can people not just accept that Mary followed Jesus for the same reason the men did? Because she was excited by his teachings and the promise of the Kingdom of God? Why do we have to assign girlie romantic notions to her? I find that insulting to her and women in general.

So please - no more stories of romantic liasons between Jesus and Mary.

Busy Busy Busy

So all the articles about blogging say how you are not supposed to write a blog about how you are too busy to blog. Well sorry, but I've been busy! My sister is visiting from California. I'm in charge of the Figure Skating Competition portion of the Iowa Games - that is coming up next weekend. That's a lot of work. I've been skating every afternoon at our summer Skate Camp and when I get home from that I'm exhausted.

And then there's work. I'm doing a Summer Evening Bible Study on Romans. That's hard. I knew it would be hard when I took it on but it's harder than I thought. Augsburg Fortress has a pretty good one on Romans in it's Book of Faith series, but it's pretty light weight. My summer bible studies are hard core. But Romans may be just too hard core for me.

Dr. Duane Priebe reflects on "controversial" notes from Lutheran Study Bible

So I didn't think it was such a big deal but some people have been upset/confused by some of the notes in the new Lutheran Study Bible. One particular note says the following re the "Great Commission"

Jesus now sends the disciples to make disciples of all nations. That does not mean make everyone disciples. Most people who are helped by Jesus and believe in him never become disciples. Jesus includes in salvation people who do not believe in him or even know about him. Disciples are students, called for the sake of the world to learn from Jesus and to bear witness to the kingdom.

Makes sense to me but apparently this is some sort of evidence the ELCA is going to hell in a handbasket. Erik Ullestad over at Koinonia went to the source and got an explanation from Dr. Priebe himself. It's worth a read!

It is God who Justifies - Who is to Condemn?

So I write a daily (well Tuesday-Sat) email devotion - mostly for some congregation members and some others. Usually I use a text from the Daily Lectionary. I'm leading a summer bible study on Romans so lately I've taken the text from Romans..

I started out writing it every single morning but that got to be too much so first I cut out Sunday and then Monday, my day off. But it is still quite a commitment. Sometimes I forget or blow it off. Or write what I think it's pretty much fluff. But my wonderful secretary will often give me some feedback that shows she's been thinking about what I said. And I got feedback from my never met facebook friend Ruth that she found today's devotion particularly meaningful. So I think I will work harder on these devotions. It is good discipline and prayerful for me to do as well. This was today's

What then are we to say about these things? If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not withhold his own Son, but gave him up for all of us, will he not with him also give us everything else? Who will bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? It is Christ Jesus, who died, yes, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed intercedes for us. Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, ‘For your sake we are being killed all day long; we are accounted as sheep to be slaughtered.’ No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

This is probably one of my favorite verses to read at a funeral. But it is a message of hope and encouragement for us today. If God is for us who is against us? Who dares to say that you are not good enough, not pretty enough, not smart enough, not “spiritual” enough, not strong enough, not skinny enough, not popular enough, not wealthy enough, not cool enough, not well read enough, not educated enough, not “straight” enough, not American enough, to stand before God and your fellow creatures as a beloved child of God set apart to love and serve God and your neighbor?

Anyone who would dare say that needs to be forgiven because they don’t know what they are talking about. It is God who justifies. It is God who created and breathed us into life and Christ who lived, rose and died to bring us into new life and it is the Holy Spirit that sanctifies and strengthens and encourages and keeps us in this new life to which we have been born anew. No one can contradict what God has said and done. You are God’s new creation. You have been called to new and abundant life. Go and serve the Lord. Thanks be to God!

Prayer:
Gracious loving God, open our hearts to hear and accept only your message of grace and to those who would condemn us, close our minds to their condemnation but open our hearts to pray for the message of your Gospel to reach their hearts as well. Amen."

N.T Wright on Phillippians

I found some lectures from theologians you can download at Truett Theological Seminary.

See I'm about as South west as you can be in the North East Iowa synod so it's about a 31/2 hour drive to go anywhere. So on the way to our Synod Assembly I listened to a short gem by N.T. Wright on Philippians. (It's the one from 10/22/2002).

It's the best explanation of that odd saying from Philippians 2:12 "work out your own salvation in fear and trembling" I've ever heard. He puts the Christ hymn "he did not consider equality with God a thing to be grasped but emptied himself" in the context of the PR Roman emperors put out about themselves. Turns out the Roman emperor said something very similar about himself - he was a humble person who sacrificed himself for the sake of the people so they could have "salvation". The working out of salvation Paul is talking about, sez Wright, is not going to heaven when you die, but figure out how you are going to live the gospel in this life in the midst of Roman claims of salvation. You should listen to it yourself. I love listening to him talk!

I have to say I just really am taken with much of what I read by Wright. Although I do think he has it wrong about homosexuality in the church but perhaps he'll come around.

Bart Ehrman Needs to Get Over It.

Hey Bart - lots of people grow up in fundamentalists churches and later find out God is not the big bad judge in the sky and that maybe the earth wasn't created in six 24 hour days and maybe the four gospel writers all had different perspectives and don't spend the rest of their lives taking it out on the church. Even Steven Colbert doesn't want to hear your whining about it anymore!

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Lutheran Study Bible

It's here! The New Lutheran Study Bible published by Augsburg Fortress.

I got mine a few days ago and have had a chance to look through it and I'm really liking what I've seen so far. It's a nice powder blue color. Who says bibles have to be black? It's got a lot of good scholarly, but accessible articles and introductions. It has side notes that deal with context, history, and artifacts, bible concepts, Lutheran perspectives and Faith Reflection questions.

Speaking of Lutheran insights, there's a whole section on how Lutherans read the bible, and how Martin Luther viewed the bible. I think it's important Lutherans understand that we are not fundamentalists and there is a "Lutheran" way of interpreting the bible.

I pre-ordered 20 for my congregation because it meant a substantial discount and now I am really looking forward to getting these bibles into the hands of my folk. This is going to be so nice after having to deal with people bringing up some off the wall point brought up in some fundamentalist "study bible".

I really hope this will deal with the disconnect between what pastors are learning in seminary and what gets to the folk in the pew. Don't get me wrong, this is the pastor's responsibility and many of us have fallen down on the job with the excuse that "people can't handle it" or "this will hurt their faith" Nonsense. I've been bringing solid bible scholarship to my bible studies here in the midwest and people can handle it. Mostly what is shocking to them is "How come we never heard this before?" How come indeed?

Lutherans are Losing their Grip....

...on Pauline theology apparently. I took a two and a half hour road trip for some continuing ed yesterday. I'm about as South West as you can get in the Iowa Northeastern Synod, so anything I want to do is going to be a few hours away. I went to a presentation by Dr. Phil Quanbeck II, Chair of the Religion Department, Augsburg College, MN on "New Perspectives on Paul"

So apparently Lutherans have pretty much dominated Pauline interpretation up until recently. 

Unfortunately Lutherans have not done much in this area recently and there's some new folks in town like N.T. Wright and Dominic Crosson who are suggesting (horrors!)-- that justification was not the central concern of Paul.

This new perspective pays more attention to the context of Roman imperial propaganda, Paul as a rhetorician and the social world of Pauline congregations, as well as the importance of honor and shame in Mediterranean culture.

I had been thinking about doing my summer Bible Study on Romans and now I think I will for sure. I'll pick up Wright's book on Paul. I think there is something to his insight that Paul is staking a claim for the Lordship of Christ over and against the claims of Caesar. 

A couple of summers ago I did a study on Revelation and that seemed to be a clear theme as well. I was also found interesting Paul's use of "ekkelisa" is a town council - a political union where there would be free speech and open discussion. Another blatant slap against the Empire. Not exactly what we think of when we read "church".

I'm also intrigued by the work that compares Paul's writings to the standards of rhetoric at the time...if you look at it in terms of logical arguments he's making - it seems less like a lot of run on sentences that can drive you crazy.

And seeing Romans Romans 1-5 in the light of Mediterranean concepts of honor and shame is very helpful especially if you translate "hope does not disappoint us" to "hope does not put us to shame" Our claim to honor is based in our future, not our past.

All of this is good stuff and I'm going to try to at least read Wright's book on Paul (Jewett's commentary is a little out of my budget right now).

 I don't think any of it negates the centrality of justification and grace. I think the Lutheran grip is still pretty secure...