This the title of a book by Lloyd Peitersen. Sad, depressing read about the downside of Christendom and its dominance of the Christian message and understanding.
His focus is on the place of the Anabaptist in the life of the church and its way of reading the Bible. Indicating his indebtedness to them he writes: "I shall advocate that reading the Bible after Christendom requires an approach that is Jesus-centered, rooted in Community reading, open to the Spirit and orientated to Obedience. .... I depart from them on their refusal to accept ambiguity in the text and their approach to the two testaments." ( pp 65 -66) The Anabaptist insistence on Obedience as an integral part of reading the Bible is I believe essential given what we understand the Bible to be.
In Part 2 of his book he commences with a chapter on "Jesus as the Centre of Biblical Interpretation" He writes in part: "First, Jesus exemplifies what the Old Testament means by loving God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might and loving your neighbour as your self (Deut 6:5, Lev 19:18) which He states are at the heart of the Old Testament (Matt 22:40) Second, Jesus expands on this by speaking of "justice and mercy and faith" as the weightier matters of the law" (Matt 22:23) So any reading of Scripture which claims to be Christocentric should enhance our love of God and neighbour and contribute to human flourishing in terms of justice, mercy and faithfulness .... This brings ethics and praxis to the fore front of biblical interpretation.
Finally reflection of the person of Jesus can provide us with particular lenses with which to read the Bible .... customary to see this through Christ as Prophet, priest and king. These are too connected to Christendom ... so I propose to use Prophet, Pastor and Poet as angles of vision with which to view the Biblical text" ( p 69 - 70 ) and so he proceeds.
I find this framework to read scripture very persuasive. Echoes of Walter Brueggemann sound as I read this. It is not surprising that the same Walter Brueggemann writes a Foreword to this book. You will note that this post appears under the general label of Narrative Explored which gives a hint of the influence of Bishop Tom Wright as well.
It is to be noted that I now view the first chapter of Genesis to be a declaration contra Idolatry and false religion. That Light is declared to be independent of the Sun and Moon is critical to this. They appear on Day 4, yet light is provided on Day 1
Showing posts with label NARRATIVE EXPLORED. Show all posts
Showing posts with label NARRATIVE EXPLORED. Show all posts
Sunday, 12 February 2012
Saturday, 11 December 2010
C.K.BARRETT: CHURCH, MINISTRY AND SACRAMENTS in the N.T.
While I reflect on my connection with Church - as in local Anglican Church - I have been reading the book: CHURCH, MINISTRY, SACRAMENTS IN THE NEW TESTAMENT written by C.K.BARRETT. It arose out of his presentation of The 1983 Didsbury Lectures. The embarrassment is that I purchased it in 1987, read parts of it then ...but ...
While I will flesh out this Post in the next few weeks what I am finding is the serious disconnect between Jesus' intentions for the New Israel - Church -, the New Testament presentation of the developing framework of Church AND present day church (deliberately in lower case) There is NO gathering of church today in Brisbane that one could say - There it is!
1. All Christians are ministers of the Gospel - yet as our parish priest noted to a visiting priest from Singapore ... on learning he was priest .. Oh, you are really one of us! There is reference to bishops and deacons acting in informal roles in the early Church. No priests.
( I must needs to write carefully here. The disconnect I find profoundly disturbing. What do I do, can I do during the rest of the years I have to live? Reading the Gospel of MATTHEW and reflecting through Bishop Tom Wright's commentary is seriously challenging. This is Jesus, who is about to be declared the Risen Lord and Saviour, calling the shots.) Jesus call to take up my cross and follow Him remains the defining call. Apart from contacts with folk after the Sunday service I remain a spectator in maybe a charade.
.... more to come. I cannot ignore the Epistle to the Hebrews as well.
While I will flesh out this Post in the next few weeks what I am finding is the serious disconnect between Jesus' intentions for the New Israel - Church -, the New Testament presentation of the developing framework of Church AND present day church (deliberately in lower case) There is NO gathering of church today in Brisbane that one could say - There it is!
1. All Christians are ministers of the Gospel - yet as our parish priest noted to a visiting priest from Singapore ... on learning he was priest .. Oh, you are really one of us! There is reference to bishops and deacons acting in informal roles in the early Church. No priests.
( I must needs to write carefully here. The disconnect I find profoundly disturbing. What do I do, can I do during the rest of the years I have to live? Reading the Gospel of MATTHEW and reflecting through Bishop Tom Wright's commentary is seriously challenging. This is Jesus, who is about to be declared the Risen Lord and Saviour, calling the shots.) Jesus call to take up my cross and follow Him remains the defining call. Apart from contacts with folk after the Sunday service I remain a spectator in maybe a charade.
.... more to come. I cannot ignore the Epistle to the Hebrews as well.
The GOSPEL - What was preached?
While studying at Moore College in the mid 1960's a book written by ? impressed many with a call to acknowledge the Gospel was to be found in what was preached. Obvious? Of course. But this has often been forgotten. So here is what I wrote out then.
1. Old Testament Prophecy has been fulfilled AND The Messianic Age has Dawned Acts 2: 16 - 21
2. The fulfillment has taken place in the Ministry, Death and Resurrection of Jesus, who was descended from David. Acts 2: 22 - 32
3. Jesus has been exalted as Lord and Christ (Messiah) AND as Messianic Head of the New Israel Acts 2: 33 - 36 4: 11
4. This Fact has been confirmed by the Gift of the Holy Spirit to the Church (meaning all believers). Acts 2: 33, 38
cf 2: 17 - 21 where Peter sees Pentecost as the Fulfillment of Joel 2
5. Jesus will Return to bring God's purposes to their consummation Acts 3: 30 and see Acts 10: 32
6. Meanwhile people are to Repent, so that they can receive Forgiveness of Sin and the Gift of the Gift of the Holy Spirit. Acts 2:38 - 40, 3: 19f
SERMONS:
PETER: ACTS 2:14 - 41. 3:12 - 26. 4:8 - 12; 24 - 30. 10:28-29, 34-43. 11:5 - 17
STEPHEN: ACTS 7
PAUL: ACTS 13: 16 - 41, 17:22 - 32. 22: 3 - 21. 24:10 - 21. 26:2 - 29.
JAMES: ACTS 15:13 - 21
It is with the word MEANWHILE that Bishop Tom Wright has a great contribution to make because once we have repented and received the Holy Spirit what are we to do while we wait?
1. Old Testament Prophecy has been fulfilled AND The Messianic Age has Dawned Acts 2: 16 - 21
2. The fulfillment has taken place in the Ministry, Death and Resurrection of Jesus, who was descended from David. Acts 2: 22 - 32
3. Jesus has been exalted as Lord and Christ (Messiah) AND as Messianic Head of the New Israel Acts 2: 33 - 36 4: 11
4. This Fact has been confirmed by the Gift of the Holy Spirit to the Church (meaning all believers). Acts 2: 33, 38
cf 2: 17 - 21 where Peter sees Pentecost as the Fulfillment of Joel 2
5. Jesus will Return to bring God's purposes to their consummation Acts 3: 30 and see Acts 10: 32
6. Meanwhile people are to Repent, so that they can receive Forgiveness of Sin and the Gift of the Gift of the Holy Spirit. Acts 2:38 - 40, 3: 19f
SERMONS:
PETER: ACTS 2:14 - 41. 3:12 - 26. 4:8 - 12; 24 - 30. 10:28-29, 34-43. 11:5 - 17
STEPHEN: ACTS 7
PAUL: ACTS 13: 16 - 41, 17:22 - 32. 22: 3 - 21. 24:10 - 21. 26:2 - 29.
JAMES: ACTS 15:13 - 21
It is with the word MEANWHILE that Bishop Tom Wright has a great contribution to make because once we have repented and received the Holy Spirit what are we to do while we wait?
Friday, 22 October 2010
The Fifth Act
There is a significant change which gives better direction to what I aim to achieve.Previously this blog was called Third Day Dawning indicating the New had commenced through the Death and Resurrection of Jesus the Messiah. While I still hold to that I think the new Heading - Fifth Act - focusses my attention on what I should be engaged in and to what I am committed.
Bishop Tom Wright portrays the Biblical story as a five act drama. CREATION ... FALL .. THE STORY OF ISRAEL ... THE STORY OF JESUS [GOSPEL] ... the FIFTH ACT ... the Church and what it ought to be doing.
The first four acts are there to read, consider ... but what is to follow in this Fifth Act? The following is an explanation. It comes from the website www.ntwrightproject.com more of that a little later.
1. Five-Act Hermeneutic
Wright uses the analogy of a five-act Shakespearean play to explain his biblical hermeneutic. Suppose the fifth act of the play has been lost, while the first four are intact. What could be done if we agreed that the play ought to be staged? We would gather the most trained and experienced Shakespearian actors, immerse them in the first four acts of the play’s script, then once they had become familiar with the language and setting of the play, and most importantly its plot and impetus, and fully imbued with their characters, we would put them on a stage and ask them to carry the story forward by acting out a fifth act for themselves. In "The New Testament and the People of God", Wright explains:
“…part of the initial task of the actors chosen to improvise the new final act will be to immerse themselves with full sympathy in the first four acts, but not so as merely to parrot what has already been said. They cannot go and look up the right answers. Nor can they simply imitate the kinds of things that their particular character did in the early acts. A good fifth act will show a proper final development, not merely a repetition, of what went before” (p. 141).
Wright contends that if the biblical story is a five-act drama, the church finds itself living in the fifth act. The five acts are thus: I-Creation; II-Fall; III-Israel; IV-Jesus. The fifth act is formed by the writing of the New Testament – including the gospels – and “would simultaneously give hints (Romans 8, 1 Corinthians 15, parts of Revelation) of how the play is supposed to end” (NTPG, p. 142). Scripture is authoritative in that God’s people “live under the ‘authority’ of the extant story, being required to offer an improvisatory performance of the final act as it leads up to and anticipates the intended conclusion” (p. 143).
This means the church cannot disregard the first four acts by taking the story wherever it wills and the wind blows, but neither can it simply repeat the four first acts as if the story were frozen in time. The church needs both faithfulness and innovation; both consistency and creativity. The ecclesial identity advanced here is that the church has been given the vocation to be the people of God in the fifth act of creation. What Christ accomplished through the cross and resurrection (“it is finished”), the church is called to implement.
What do we say to the Grand Inquisitor in Dostoevsky’s novel “The Brothers Karamazov” when he explains that the Son of God is too reckless a character to have around risking the church’s good work? That the question was asked highlights a most serious problem that has beset the Church during its history.
The "Church" replaces Christ in 'its mission' - therefore it becomes NO mission.
Bishop Tom Wright portrays the Biblical story as a five act drama. CREATION ... FALL .. THE STORY OF ISRAEL ... THE STORY OF JESUS [GOSPEL] ... the FIFTH ACT ... the Church and what it ought to be doing.
The first four acts are there to read, consider ... but what is to follow in this Fifth Act? The following is an explanation. It comes from the website www.ntwrightproject.com more of that a little later.
1. Five-Act Hermeneutic
Wright uses the analogy of a five-act Shakespearean play to explain his biblical hermeneutic. Suppose the fifth act of the play has been lost, while the first four are intact. What could be done if we agreed that the play ought to be staged? We would gather the most trained and experienced Shakespearian actors, immerse them in the first four acts of the play’s script, then once they had become familiar with the language and setting of the play, and most importantly its plot and impetus, and fully imbued with their characters, we would put them on a stage and ask them to carry the story forward by acting out a fifth act for themselves. In "The New Testament and the People of God", Wright explains:
“…part of the initial task of the actors chosen to improvise the new final act will be to immerse themselves with full sympathy in the first four acts, but not so as merely to parrot what has already been said. They cannot go and look up the right answers. Nor can they simply imitate the kinds of things that their particular character did in the early acts. A good fifth act will show a proper final development, not merely a repetition, of what went before” (p. 141).
Wright contends that if the biblical story is a five-act drama, the church finds itself living in the fifth act. The five acts are thus: I-Creation; II-Fall; III-Israel; IV-Jesus. The fifth act is formed by the writing of the New Testament – including the gospels – and “would simultaneously give hints (Romans 8, 1 Corinthians 15, parts of Revelation) of how the play is supposed to end” (NTPG, p. 142). Scripture is authoritative in that God’s people “live under the ‘authority’ of the extant story, being required to offer an improvisatory performance of the final act as it leads up to and anticipates the intended conclusion” (p. 143).
This means the church cannot disregard the first four acts by taking the story wherever it wills and the wind blows, but neither can it simply repeat the four first acts as if the story were frozen in time. The church needs both faithfulness and innovation; both consistency and creativity. The ecclesial identity advanced here is that the church has been given the vocation to be the people of God in the fifth act of creation. What Christ accomplished through the cross and resurrection (“it is finished”), the church is called to implement.
What do we say to the Grand Inquisitor in Dostoevsky’s novel “The Brothers Karamazov” when he explains that the Son of God is too reckless a character to have around risking the church’s good work? That the question was asked highlights a most serious problem that has beset the Church during its history.
The "Church" replaces Christ in 'its mission' - therefore it becomes NO mission.
Tuesday, 22 December 2009
Sabbath
Sabbath
Posted on August 15, 2008 in Wine Before Breakfast by Rick VanManen
It might seem a little strange to reflect on Sabbath at the beginning of a new semester. Shouldn’t Sabbath be a topic of discussion at the end of a semester, like it was at the end of creation? It seems to be a nearly inevitable fact of human nature that thoughts of Sabbath, thoughts of rest, only come to our minds when we’re already caught up in the overwhelming busyness of our lives. Then Sabbath only appears as a mirage in the distance, the possibility of a break in our routines if only we could escape them. But such escape becomes impossible when our lives, when our selves, have become trapped in the dehumanizing realities of our culture. These realities create a world of endless growth, in which we see ourselves as self-sufficient, self-made and self-actualized individuals. This perception produces in us an inhuman anxiety that overwhelms us and controls us. What shall we eat? and what shall we wear? become the questions that preoccupy our minds and our hearts as we struggle to maintain our way of life. We become overly busy and overly anxious thinking that one more committee meeting, one more practice, one more phone call, one more hour of studying, one more answered email, one more brick for Pharaoh, one more of anything will make this world a better place and enhance our sense of self.
Sabbath serves not only as a cessation of labour, as a way of stopping our frantic attempts to get ahead and stay ahead. Sabbath calls us to renounce our autonomy and our self-reliance. Sabbath allows us, or, if necessary, forces us to acknowledge a rule other than our own, a reality other than ourselves. It calls us to remember that God is at the centre of life, that life is ordered, blessed and given by a God who commands us to relinquish our control, to release our grip on the world and to desist in trying to secure the world on our own terms. But this command isn’t harsh; it’s not heavy-handed or coercive. Rather the command falls upon our ears and our hearts in gentle and humble tones:
“Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light” (Matthew 11:28-29).
Sabbath restores to us our humanity. It becomes for us an occasion in which God intervenes in our lives in new and often unexpected ways and calls us back to a real life, a radical alternative existence in which our freedom is rooted in the abundance of the God who loves us and loves creation.
So as you finalize your fall semester schedules, I encourage you to deliberately include Sabbath. Make it a part of your monthly, weekly and even daily routines. And it’s my hope that you will consider your participation in campus ministry activities as a part of your Sabbath, an opportunity to step away from the busyness of life, to be refreshed and recreated, to rest, to reorient yourself in the midst of our disorienting culture. [ This final paragraph can be easily written by you, the reader in terms of your time and circumstance ]
from - www.seekingwisdom.ca
Posted on August 15, 2008 in Wine Before Breakfast by Rick VanManen
It might seem a little strange to reflect on Sabbath at the beginning of a new semester. Shouldn’t Sabbath be a topic of discussion at the end of a semester, like it was at the end of creation? It seems to be a nearly inevitable fact of human nature that thoughts of Sabbath, thoughts of rest, only come to our minds when we’re already caught up in the overwhelming busyness of our lives. Then Sabbath only appears as a mirage in the distance, the possibility of a break in our routines if only we could escape them. But such escape becomes impossible when our lives, when our selves, have become trapped in the dehumanizing realities of our culture. These realities create a world of endless growth, in which we see ourselves as self-sufficient, self-made and self-actualized individuals. This perception produces in us an inhuman anxiety that overwhelms us and controls us. What shall we eat? and what shall we wear? become the questions that preoccupy our minds and our hearts as we struggle to maintain our way of life. We become overly busy and overly anxious thinking that one more committee meeting, one more practice, one more phone call, one more hour of studying, one more answered email, one more brick for Pharaoh, one more of anything will make this world a better place and enhance our sense of self.
Sabbath serves not only as a cessation of labour, as a way of stopping our frantic attempts to get ahead and stay ahead. Sabbath calls us to renounce our autonomy and our self-reliance. Sabbath allows us, or, if necessary, forces us to acknowledge a rule other than our own, a reality other than ourselves. It calls us to remember that God is at the centre of life, that life is ordered, blessed and given by a God who commands us to relinquish our control, to release our grip on the world and to desist in trying to secure the world on our own terms. But this command isn’t harsh; it’s not heavy-handed or coercive. Rather the command falls upon our ears and our hearts in gentle and humble tones:
“Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light” (Matthew 11:28-29).
Sabbath restores to us our humanity. It becomes for us an occasion in which God intervenes in our lives in new and often unexpected ways and calls us back to a real life, a radical alternative existence in which our freedom is rooted in the abundance of the God who loves us and loves creation.
So as you finalize your fall semester schedules, I encourage you to deliberately include Sabbath. Make it a part of your monthly, weekly and even daily routines. And it’s my hope that you will consider your participation in campus ministry activities as a part of your Sabbath, an opportunity to step away from the busyness of life, to be refreshed and recreated, to rest, to reorient yourself in the midst of our disorienting culture. [ This final paragraph can be easily written by you, the reader in terms of your time and circumstance ]
from - www.seekingwisdom.ca
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