I have some friends who have been writing a thankful note every day. Each day they note one thing for which they are thankful. Sounds easy. I thought it was a great idea when I first saw it and decided to try it myself. It is actually quite a bit more difficult for me than I anticipated. Although I am having trouble putting it into practice, I was successful on Wednesday. The car that I just got back from $1,000 worth of suspension and fuel system repairs had the windshield wiper motor explode as I was driving in a torrential downpour. I was on familiar streets, not far from home, and not behind a semi on the interstate on the way to visit my kids. I tried to be happy and thankful about that, I really did!
In contrast to the gratitude notes, I recently received a holiday update letter that was brutally honest about the writer's current difficulty dealing with the sudden and relatively recent loss of their father. Going through that first year of loss is really difficult, but how much is that compounded by the expectation that we experience joy in the coming holiday season? Do we add guilt to the list because we can't feel the way the media tells us we are supposed to feel? I know I have been adding some guilt to my plate about my inability to be as joyfully thankful as my friends.
And that carried me back to some previous discussions we have had. I think it was when we were studying Job and we landed on the thought that God wants us to be honest in our relationship with him, and by extension in our relationships with others. So in this season of joy and thankfulness, when I come across someone who isn't quite up to the perfect image we have created, I intend to do my best to make them feel good about feeling what they feel. And I think I will include myself, and work at reaching an Attitude of Gratitude while I honestly deal with what I am actually feeling, even if it isn't what it is "supposed" to be.
Friday, November 26, 2010
Thursday, November 18, 2010
He Said, He Said
First off, housekeeping business. We will NOT meet next week, November 24, but we WILL meet the following week, December 1, at our regular time, 5:30 pm.
This week we began a study of the Christmas story by looking at the facts, ma'am, just the facts. Matthew and Luke. It was an exercise in compare and contrast, starting with each of our own first memories of learning the birth story. We found that no matter our background or upbringing, to some degree or another our understanding of the birth story is a synthesis of the things we learned from the Bible, church, our families, and the things we learned from society. You know what I mean, the movies, the creche, A Charlie Brown Christmas. It is convenient how we are able to assemble all of those inputs to a single, coherent story.
But what about those facts? We read the story in Matthew and Luke, and some of the things that stood out for us were:
---Luke includes the birth of John and his parents, while Matthew does not;
---Joseph is the main character in Matthew, he is missing in Luke
---Mary is prominent in Luke's story, absent in Matthew's
---Luke includes hymns, The Annunciation, The Magnificat,The Benedictus
---Matthew does not mention angels, shepherds, manger, all the conditions that would indicate a "low" birth, they are found in Luke
Those are just a few things we talked about. Maybe the more important question is not what is different, but why? We need to consider the audience to whom each was writing. Matthew's concern was to link the birth of Jesus to the Jewish tradition and prophecies, he was a Jew writing for Jews. His audience already knew what to expect, and they expected a military king, preceded by the return of Elijah, who would lead them in overthrowing the Romans. Matthew had to show them that even though Jesus was not the warrior they expected, he was the fulfillment of the prophecies.
Luke, on the other hand, is traditionally considered to be a gentile writing for gentiles, and what better way to show "outsiders" that they ARE included in the kingdom of God than to show how very many outsiders had principal roles in the birth of Jesus. The shepherds, the conditions, the animals, the WOMEN. Not only are women prominent players, they are named! Elizabeth, Mary, Anna. Think about what kind of message that sent to the people in a society where women were little more than property. What would that say to you, as a gentile man, about your inclusion in the ministry of Jesus? Yeah, that's right. We're all in, if we want to be in. Luke also needs to fill in the holes of their knowledge of the Old Testament. For instance, he includes the birth of John the Baptizer to teach them about prophecy regarding the return of Elijah before the Messiah.
If I think about why the stories are different, not just the differences, I come back to a comforting thought for me. I have said before that my God is a God of change. God continually changes the way He speaks to us, reaches out to us, invites us into relationship. It is always contextual and appropriate to the times and society. So even though I would really like a burning bush to tell me what to do, I'm probably not going to get that. Matthew and Luke telling "different" stories - that is, different details about the same basic story - broaden the audience and invite more people into the circle of friends. The Bible tells me that God will reach out to me, I just need to be watching and open to it coming in a different form than I expect.
This week we began a study of the Christmas story by looking at the facts, ma'am, just the facts. Matthew and Luke. It was an exercise in compare and contrast, starting with each of our own first memories of learning the birth story. We found that no matter our background or upbringing, to some degree or another our understanding of the birth story is a synthesis of the things we learned from the Bible, church, our families, and the things we learned from society. You know what I mean, the movies, the creche, A Charlie Brown Christmas. It is convenient how we are able to assemble all of those inputs to a single, coherent story.
But what about those facts? We read the story in Matthew and Luke, and some of the things that stood out for us were:
---Luke includes the birth of John and his parents, while Matthew does not;
---Joseph is the main character in Matthew, he is missing in Luke
---Mary is prominent in Luke's story, absent in Matthew's
---Luke includes hymns, The Annunciation, The Magnificat,The Benedictus
---Matthew does not mention angels, shepherds, manger, all the conditions that would indicate a "low" birth, they are found in Luke
Those are just a few things we talked about. Maybe the more important question is not what is different, but why? We need to consider the audience to whom each was writing. Matthew's concern was to link the birth of Jesus to the Jewish tradition and prophecies, he was a Jew writing for Jews. His audience already knew what to expect, and they expected a military king, preceded by the return of Elijah, who would lead them in overthrowing the Romans. Matthew had to show them that even though Jesus was not the warrior they expected, he was the fulfillment of the prophecies.
Luke, on the other hand, is traditionally considered to be a gentile writing for gentiles, and what better way to show "outsiders" that they ARE included in the kingdom of God than to show how very many outsiders had principal roles in the birth of Jesus. The shepherds, the conditions, the animals, the WOMEN. Not only are women prominent players, they are named! Elizabeth, Mary, Anna. Think about what kind of message that sent to the people in a society where women were little more than property. What would that say to you, as a gentile man, about your inclusion in the ministry of Jesus? Yeah, that's right. We're all in, if we want to be in. Luke also needs to fill in the holes of their knowledge of the Old Testament. For instance, he includes the birth of John the Baptizer to teach them about prophecy regarding the return of Elijah before the Messiah.
If I think about why the stories are different, not just the differences, I come back to a comforting thought for me. I have said before that my God is a God of change. God continually changes the way He speaks to us, reaches out to us, invites us into relationship. It is always contextual and appropriate to the times and society. So even though I would really like a burning bush to tell me what to do, I'm probably not going to get that. Matthew and Luke telling "different" stories - that is, different details about the same basic story - broaden the audience and invite more people into the circle of friends. The Bible tells me that God will reach out to me, I just need to be watching and open to it coming in a different form than I expect.
Thursday, November 11, 2010
The Questions That Never Go Away
Next week we will start looking at the Christmas story. This was our last session on the Bible that Jesus read, and while I have to confess I have found this study a bit... tedious at times... I was surprised to find that I really didn't want to wrap it up. I didn't clearly comprehend until now exactly how real the Old Testament is. Yancey says that it "...represents the whole gamut of human responses to God." Even the negative ones that we "shouldn't" have. Now that is something I can relate to!
Think about it. How many places in the New Testament do you find doubt, struggles, despair, questioning God? They just aren't there. So what do you do with those emotions when you feel them? Isn't the subtext of their omission from the New Testament that 1.) Jesus came to save us all; 2.) Jesus' death atones for our sins and offers us unbounded hope of salvation; 3.) If your faith were strong enough you wouldn't feel those emotions? So now, because I do feel that way, I am bad, not a Christian. OK, I agree, it is a leap, but not that big a leap to get there.
Our Fearless Leader asked us to complete an exercise, and I just wasn't up to participating last night. She asked us to rewrite Psalm 13 in our own words and to fit our own situation. Here is the Psalm as it appears in The Message:
1-2 Long enough, God— you've ignored me long enough.
I've looked at the back of your head
long enough. Long enough
I've carried this ton of trouble,
lived with a stomach full of pain.
Long enough my arrogant enemies
have looked down their noses at me.
3-4 Take a good look at me, GOD, my God;
I want to look life in the eye,
So no enemy can get the best of me
or laugh when I fall on my face.
5-6 I've thrown myself headlong into your arms—
I'm celebrating your rescue.
I'm singing at the top of my lungs,
I'm so full of answered prayers.
The psalmist records those negative but very real and very human emotions. In hindsight I think it was a good idea to rewrite it and I wish I had done it, but I guess that ship has sailed. Why don't you try it?
I think we can close this one with a quote from the end of the book, one of the few from Yancey that I really liked.
“I have learned to love the Old Testament because it so poignantly expresses my own inner longings. I find in it a realism about human nature that is sorely absent from much smiley-faced Christian propaganda. And yet the Old Testament writers, especially the psalmists and prophets eagerly point ahead to a time when God has vowed to address those longings, to answer the questions that never go away.” -- Phillip Yancey
Think about it. How many places in the New Testament do you find doubt, struggles, despair, questioning God? They just aren't there. So what do you do with those emotions when you feel them? Isn't the subtext of their omission from the New Testament that 1.) Jesus came to save us all; 2.) Jesus' death atones for our sins and offers us unbounded hope of salvation; 3.) If your faith were strong enough you wouldn't feel those emotions? So now, because I do feel that way, I am bad, not a Christian. OK, I agree, it is a leap, but not that big a leap to get there.
Our Fearless Leader asked us to complete an exercise, and I just wasn't up to participating last night. She asked us to rewrite Psalm 13 in our own words and to fit our own situation. Here is the Psalm as it appears in The Message:
1-2 Long enough, God— you've ignored me long enough.
I've looked at the back of your head
long enough. Long enough
I've carried this ton of trouble,
lived with a stomach full of pain.
Long enough my arrogant enemies
have looked down their noses at me.
3-4 Take a good look at me, GOD, my God;
I want to look life in the eye,
So no enemy can get the best of me
or laugh when I fall on my face.
5-6 I've thrown myself headlong into your arms—
I'm celebrating your rescue.
I'm singing at the top of my lungs,
I'm so full of answered prayers.
The psalmist records those negative but very real and very human emotions. In hindsight I think it was a good idea to rewrite it and I wish I had done it, but I guess that ship has sailed. Why don't you try it?
I think we can close this one with a quote from the end of the book, one of the few from Yancey that I really liked.
“I have learned to love the Old Testament because it so poignantly expresses my own inner longings. I find in it a realism about human nature that is sorely absent from much smiley-faced Christian propaganda. And yet the Old Testament writers, especially the psalmists and prophets eagerly point ahead to a time when God has vowed to address those longings, to answer the questions that never go away.” -- Phillip Yancey
Thursday, November 4, 2010
"I-ah, I-ah, Oh!"
A little hard to get it, but the title is a take-off on the refrain from Old MacDonald. This week we took a look at the prophets, and started by naming them. Of course we got most of the "iah's" - Jeremiah, Isaiah, Nehemiah, Obadiah. We considered the question of why the prophets are often overlooked, and while we had some ideas we also learned from our Fearless Leader and the video that although we tend to read the prophets as narrative, they are not. The books are considered to be edited compilations of bits and pieces. They are also very contextual, you need to know the state of affairs of the day in order to understand exactly what they are addressing. There is also the issue of code, like in Revelation. Often speaking to give hope to captive and exiled peoples, the prophets use key words and phrases that would have had deep meaning for their contemporaries but are often lost on the casual reader (like me!). No wonder we tend to skip over them!
Yancey suggests you get some background to understand the context and then search through to find the bits and pieces that apply to your current situation. He believes that the prophets reveal the nature and personality of God. Something like the way the parables reveal the kingdom of God. It isn't always about the black and white words on the page. It helps to think about the books being written down as history, understanding that as all humans do they were trying to make sense out of bad times, trying to find and define where God is in the midst of terrible situations. Sound familiar?
One of the final questions we considered was are there prophets today? I think we all jumped to say yes, because that is what you are supposed to say, right? But then when asked to name them we had some difficulty. We came up with ideas like Billy Graham, Martin Luther King, Jr., famous and well known people. But we were pushed to think about people like the prophets. Not that anyone is going around naked for three years to make a point - like Isaiah did - but common, everyday people, your friends and neighbors. Isn't that who God called in the Old Testament? Shepherds, well-to-do, people from all walks of life. If you consider that prophets are messengers of God, calling on Israel and Judah in the Old Testament (or us, today) to remember and keep their (our) covenant with God, then who is your prophet?
We have one more session left on the Old Testament, and then we will begin taking a look at the Christmas story from all the different perspectives. Come join us on Wednesday evenings!
Yancey suggests you get some background to understand the context and then search through to find the bits and pieces that apply to your current situation. He believes that the prophets reveal the nature and personality of God. Something like the way the parables reveal the kingdom of God. It isn't always about the black and white words on the page. It helps to think about the books being written down as history, understanding that as all humans do they were trying to make sense out of bad times, trying to find and define where God is in the midst of terrible situations. Sound familiar?
One of the final questions we considered was are there prophets today? I think we all jumped to say yes, because that is what you are supposed to say, right? But then when asked to name them we had some difficulty. We came up with ideas like Billy Graham, Martin Luther King, Jr., famous and well known people. But we were pushed to think about people like the prophets. Not that anyone is going around naked for three years to make a point - like Isaiah did - but common, everyday people, your friends and neighbors. Isn't that who God called in the Old Testament? Shepherds, well-to-do, people from all walks of life. If you consider that prophets are messengers of God, calling on Israel and Judah in the Old Testament (or us, today) to remember and keep their (our) covenant with God, then who is your prophet?
We have one more session left on the Old Testament, and then we will begin taking a look at the Christmas story from all the different perspectives. Come join us on Wednesday evenings!
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