Saturday, December 27, 2008
Locating Our Language - Economics (Part One)
Thursday, December 25, 2008
Merry Christmas
Friday, December 19, 2008
A Rabbit Trail - Violence in the Old Testament
Have We Lost Our Language?
A question to be asked concerns whether we, the chosen people and royal priesthood, 1 Peter 1:9, NRSV, have forgotten our language and therefore our identities. William Cavanaugh, Theopolitical Imagination at 84, argues Christians have ceded their ability to speak their distinctive language when entering the public arena. Stanley Hauerwas, in a great essay called "A Story-Formed Community: Reflections on Watership Down" in Community of Character, devotes a fuller treatment of the devastating damage done when one's language is lost both as to foundational traditions and community structure.
Scripture seems abundantly clear as to what the Lord demands from humanity. The Old Testament prophet Micah pronounced the demands of God: "The Lord God has told us what is right and what he demands: see that justice is done, let mercy be your first concern, and humbly obey your God." Micah, 6:8, CEV.
This inquiry will seek to locate Micah's words for today, the 21st Century, and ask anew, as did God in that trial, "O my people, what have I done to you? In what way have I wearied you? Answer me!" Micah, 6:3, NRSV. The response is surprisingly similar to that given by the Israelites in that trial when they protested their faithful adherence to the law in offering sacrifices for their sins. For we who believe, and by nature of this project and this writer's location focus will be limited to American Christianity, may likely respond but Lord we have confessed your name, we faithfully attend worship services, say our prayers, at least before our meals, and do good works, or least provide support for a variety of social justice projects.
Philip Yancey, in What's So Amazing About Grace at 15, recounts a conversation with Gordon MacDonald, pastor and former spiritual advisor to President Bill Clinton, wherein MacDonald observed: "The world can do almost anything as well as or better than the church. You need not be a Christian to build houses, feed the poor or heal the sick. There is only thing the world cannot do. It cannot offer grace."
Thus, if in fact the church and the world have merged identifies, and now speak the same language, then a most serious concern exists as to the state of the faith today and for the future. This inquiry will therefore investigate whether indeed church and world are indistinguishable, and whether our languages have conflated. One intuitive conclusion is that the social and cultural structures of the United States, in essence the language we use to define ourselves, militates against the faithful embodiment of biblical Christianity.
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
Imago Dei
Previously in this blog I suggested that Adam, being made in the image of God, reflected, albeit only in a shadowy sense, the creative power of God. When we speak of the Imago Dei, too often it deals with concerns such as mental acuity – ability to reason – or dominance (what a terrible word in a sense as to dominate something seems to have such negative connotations). I would like to focus more on the issue of creative or formative authority. We have seen that God gave Adam the authority to name the animals. Throughout the Old Testament we see that names are often reflective of the person – again looking at Genesis and the names for the sons of Jacob. Recall, Merton’s observations in the prior post – how there is something of the divine in the naming so there is a reflection of the essence through the name. As well, this idea of names as reflective of essence carries through to the New Testament – the names of John the Baptizer (Luke 1:13) and of course, the names for Jesus (Matt 1:21, Luke 1:31 as well as the Isaiah 7:14 verse)
If we understand Jesus as the second Adam, may we also assume that Adam was a reflection of God in the same sense (1 Cor 15:45 and Romans 4:14), although clearly to a different degree, as Jesus is the perfect representation of the Father? We see Jesus as exercising authority through the spoken word – witness the numerous episodes where the evil spirits are commanded to leave a person. As well Jesus gave Peter his name – the Rock (John 1:42 and Matt 16:18). Recall, in addition to naming the animals, Adam gave Eve her name (Gen 2:23).
The key point to be taken away from this is the power of language – not simply for communication, as important a function as that may be , rather the power of formation and shaping thinking and thereby directly impacting action. We see this on a concrete though mundane level by watching parents with their young child. Presumably, though unfortunately not always, parents admonish, guide, etc. their child for the purposes not only for the immediate situation but for development of thinking skills. If the Father acts through formative speech, is it not a truth that in the creation of humanity such formative speech authority was likewise given? Eugene Peterson notes, “Jesus also used language to teach. Unlike the teaching we are accustomed to in our schools, lectures designed to do our thinking for us, Jesus’ teaching sparkled with scintillating aphorisms. He wasn’t so much handing out information as reshaping our imaginations….” Tell It Slant at 12. The narrative comes full circle does it not?
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
Adam's Naming to Babel
Language of Relationships
For some of us growing up maybe with the color of our skin somewhat different than those around us or our eyes had a shape that slanted more than most, we were taught a silly little ditty - sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me. But those of us on the receiving end of those words knew better, that the little incantation against the pain was really meaningless. Words could and did sting and worse than those sticks and stones, the sting from words did not fade away into a yellowish bruise but sometimes could last days and weeks at a time.
That words, and more broadly language, are powerful, if not defining, should not be underestimated - particularly for those who profess Christ as Lord. On one level, as noted by missiologist Lesslie Newbigin, to learn about a culture, first learn its language. For believers much of the beginning of the book of Genesis should be sufficient to dispel any notion that words are indeed formative. As God created, He did not simply will into being Heaven and earth, he did not merely wave His mighty hand to separate the land from the water or create the Sun and the Moon. The text informs us God spoke. "Then God said, “Let there be light;” and there was light.” (Gen 1:3), “And God said, Let there be a dome in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters… And it was so.” (Gen 1:6) and so on for each of the six days of creation. A key verse reads “And God said, Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness… So God created humankind in his image.” (Gen 1:26-27). This verse informs us that we likewise have the power of formation through our use of language, but those thoughts are for another day.
That wonderful Trappist monk, Thomas Merton, continues this theme of Genesis. Beginning with verse 18 in Chapter 2, in the second creation account, God has formed the animals and brings them to Adam to name them. In this account, no other human had yet been created. Merton notes, “Adam had named the animals before he had anyone to talk to. This suggests that words are considered, by the authors of Genesis, to have a function other than that of simple communication – and it would seem this other function is primary.” The New Man at 88. As an evangelical, we often consider these verses to be a signal statement of human dominance over the animal life on the earth, however, as Merton suggests, this is not entirely accurate. The words of Adam identify and complete that which was spoken into existence. More on this soon.
The Babel story, to follow, completes the idea.
Coming to Grips with what Relationship Means
Grace and Relationships
Is it possible the evangelical idea of substitutionary atonement has been truncated by Western Christianity? Now I am not necessarily arguing that Eastern Orthodoxy has it right, or that any particular denomination has it right, rather, that urging the view that Jesus died on the Cross for our sins which therefore entitles us to entrance in to Heaven at some point in the future radically undervalues and limits the meaning of that Cross. One of the more powerful verses in Scripture may be found in the little book Micah, at 6:8. The LORD God has told us what is right and what he demands: "See that justice is done, let mercy be your first concern, and humbly obey your God." This is from the CEV. It translates a powerful Hebrew word “hesed” as mercy. Many start with the term “lovingkindness” which is very difficult to put into contemporary English. But unlocking this term, its use throughout the Old Testament, and thereby unpacking Micah’s utterance may shed some light on the forthcoming event of the Cross
Hopefully I, and we, will be working out way through this in the days to come.
God’s Blessings to you.