Paul, Bible Butcher?
I used to think Saint Paul was a really bad interpreter of the Old Testament. Because whenever he uses Old Testament passages to make a point in his writings, he totally butchers it. He does everything we’re taught NOT to do.
Let’s take Romans 15 as one example, where Paul is making an argument that God cares about Gentiles. He supports this with some Old Testament passages:
For I tell you that Christ has become a servant of the Jews on behalf of God’s truth, so that the promises made to the patriarchs might be confirmed and, moreover, that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy. As it is written: “Therefore I will praise you among the Gentiles; I will sing the praises of your name” (Romans 15.8-9, quoting Psalm 18.49).
Paul is implying here that these Old Testament texts support his idea that God is on everybody’s side, not just Jews. The problem is, these texts really seem to be saying something different. Notice what Paul leaves OUT of his quotes. Psalm 18 is about God killing Gentiles, not saving them. The psalmist is singing about “crushing” Gentiles (v.38), “beating them into dust,” “trampling them like mud” (v.42), and “destroying” them (v.40). Basically, because the psalmists feels secure in God’s ability to kill Gentiles, he is able to praise God even in their midst (v.49).
What are we to make of this and the many other examples of Paul’s “bad exegesis” of the Old Testament? I asked my Hermeneutics professor about this, and he replied: “Paul is an apostle, so he can get away with it. You’re not, so you can’t.”
I’m no Saint Paul. Granted. But is it possible that Paul is using a hermeneutic better than the one I was taught in seminary? I am beginning to think the answer might be Yes.
Quite simply, Paul knows God better than the Old Testament writers did. The Old Testament seems to be of two minds about how God feels about non-Jews. There seems to be a long tug-of-war between different visions of God—the tribal Proprietary God Who Will Crush Israel’s Enemies versus the Universal God Who Saves the Whole World. Paul, as a disciple of Jesus, seems to think this tug-of-war has ended. And he has no qualms about reinterpreting the old texts in that light, even to the point of flatly contradicting the intent of the original authors.
What does this mean for my understanding of what I’m doing when I study the Scriptures? Is my goal to be faithful to the original biblical authors? Or is my goal to be faithful to God?
~ John Stonecypher
[By the way, much thanks to Derek Flood and his recent article that prompted me to start thinking in this direction].
Sermon: With “Three-Dom” Comes One Great “Response-Ability”, Part B
Filed under: By Tim Brassell, Christian Living, Gospel, Perichoresis, Trinity |
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In this second and last part of this message, Pastor Tim helps us see how we are literally hard wired even in our biological make-up to respond to others with compassion and mercy! This means that giving ourselves away for others is not only possible because of Jesus but easier than we think because of how we are already fearfully and wonderfully made!
Life is Like a Car Wash…
Filed under: By Nan Kuhlman, Christian Living | Tags: Be still and know, calmness, car wash, stillness, Suffering, The still is the master of unrest, trials
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I distinctly remember the first time we took our daughter, who was maybe eighteen months old at the time, through an automated car wash. Her big brothers were on either side of her car seat in the back seat of our turquoise Dodge Intrepid, and they were regaling her with stories of how cool it was, watching the machines as they did the hard work of cleaning the winter salt residue from our car. It all started so well.
She seemed to enjoy the young men who used a power wash sprayer to pretreat the car, but the trouble began when the car started to move (without Mommy driving it) and the brushes and sprayers commenced their work. She screamed, cried, and wailed, desperate to wrench herself out of the car seat and escape from the terror of the heavy wash curtain, which went thump, thump, as it draped itself across the roof of our car. Nothing that I could say (or her brothers, for that matter) would convince her that she was in no danger and that the result would be good (a clean car).
The other day, my daughter and I took our family’s van (not turquoise) through an automated car wash to clean off the salt residue from our winter driving. I wish I could say that the process of an automated car wash has become better or at least different than it was over twelve years ago, but it’s not. This time, however, my daughter and I chatted while the brushes, sprayers, and heavy wash curtain did their thing. No screams, no tears, no trying to get out of the van. What has changed?
Our daughter has changed. She’s turning fourteen years old tomorrow, and now when we go through the car wash, she understands the purpose of the machines and what the ultimate result will be. I cannot tell you how many car washes it took before she no longer cried, but sometime during that period, she began to listen to her brothers and me as we reassured her that it would turn out OK. Her ability to reason grew, along with her experience, which taught her that even though this car wash situation looks terrifying, it does work out all right.
I recently read an ancient saying, “The still is the master of unrest.” This made me think of another ancient saying, “Be still, and know that I am God” (Psalm 46:10). As we grow and mature, we undoubtedly will be faced with unpleasantness and difficulties. If we are still and calm, we can more easily remember the previous times in our lives when we faced trials and walked through them. By taking time for stillness, we also can better hear the whispers of the Father, Son, and Spirit, who offer us comfort and peace.
Sometimes life is like that car wash. Situations which have many unknowns are scary, and they can make us want to cry, wail, and wrench ourselves out of there. Often, there is no way out and only a choice to go forward. Through stillness and calmness, we can move ahead as if we’re in the eye of the storm.
~by Nan Kuhlman
Sermon: The Glory of God in the Face of Jesus
Filed under: By Jonathan Stepp, Gospel, Perichoresis, Trinity |
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The Transfiguration of Jesus is a revelation of God’s glory and our place in the glorious life of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Sermon: With “Three-Dom” Comes One Great “Response-Ability”, Part A
Filed under: By Tim Brassell, Christian Living, Gospel, Perichoresis, Relationships, Trinity |
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Our world is enamored with the kind of “freedom” (bondage!) that says “I want to do what I want, when and how I want” but God’s Freedom is countercultural! It is a Freedom where God, in Jesus, gives up His Life for another in Self-sacrificing love! In Jesus and His shared humanity there is a new way and response ability given to us of the Father, Son and Spirit to exercise freedom in our relationships! We are now free FOR others in self-giving love, and especially toward the weak, rather than simply free from sin or other things.
Lazarus, the Rich Man, and the Prodigal Son
Filed under: By Jonathan Stepp, Christian Living, Gospel, Perichoresis, Trinity |
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Here’s a modern conflation of two parables: “Lazarus and the Rich Man” and “The Prodigal Son”. I mean to evoke the sense of surprise that I think Jesus’ audiences would have experienced when they first heard these stories. I think we have lost that sense of surprise because we’ve heard them so many times that we don’t get the punch line as they did.
Once upon a time there was a job-creating millionaire who only used legal tax loopholes and went to a church that really preached the Bible and had great worship music. Down the road from him lived a gay social worker named Lazarus who was raised Catholic but hadn’t been to church in years. The social worker’s heart went out to his clients because he never had enough resources to help them – but times were tough and the job-creating Bible-believer didn’t want his taxes being given to food stamp recipients by gay bureaucrats.
The time came when the lapsed Catholic died and was carried off to heaven. The job-creator also died and was buried. When the millionaire saw that Lazarus had been welcomed into the celebration of heaven, with a ring on his finger and a robe around his shoulders, he became angry and refused to go in. He found himself outside the party, so angry and resentful that he felt like he was burning alive.
So Jesus came to him, in the Father’s name and the power of the Holy Spirit, to plead with him to be reconciled, but he answered “all my life I followed all the rules in the Bible that I agreed with and never once did you give me a yacht so that I could party with my friends – but when this lazy, sinful, thief shows up you tell me I have to share heaven with him.”
Jesus replied, “you are both the beloved children of my Father, reconciled in my life, death, resurrection, and ascension – and all the life of heaven belongs to you and him together.”
To which the millionaire replied, “Forget you! and forget him too! I don’t have to share anything with anyone – but if he’s so wonderful and righteous, tell him to share a bit of heaven with me and bring me some bottled water.”
“Sorry,” Jesus said, “but you need to spend some time experiencing the pain that comes from kicking against the life of the Trinity. Remember, in your lifetime you were an insider, who thought God loved you more than Lazarus, and you had everything your way. But Lazarus always felt excluded and he was forced to throw his lot in with all the other “losers” that you thought were cursed by my Father. As a result you have grown up to be a self-centered jackass but Lazarus has grown up to understand the true meaning of gracious acceptance and the communion of the Holy Spirit.”
“Great Scott!” the millionaire exclaimed, “everything about God seems to be the exact opposite of what I thought. You know, I’ve got a lot of friends and family who don’t have a clue about this stuff – maybe you could send Lazarus to warn them.”
“Brother, please,” Jesus laughed, “if they haven’t been convinced by the Son of God returning from the dead then they sure won’t be convinced by the resurrection of a gay social worker.”
~ Jonathan Stepp
Sermon: Speak, Lord, For Your Servant is Listening, Part B
Filed under: By Tim Brassell, Christian Living, Church, Ministry, Perichoresis, Prayer, Trinity |
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This message is the second part of a proclamation of God’s Good News at New Life Fellowship Baltimore set in the Old Testament Book of Samuel. It addresses the issue as to whether or not we will BE who we already are in Jesus, or, continue to be weighed down by our big ol “But’s”.
Sermon: The Restoration of Humanity
Filed under: By Jonathan Stepp, Christian Living, Evangelism, Gospel, Perichoresis, Trinity |
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Jesus’ healing of the leper speaks to us about the depths to which God will go in order to restore humanity and bring us into his life as Father, Son, and Spirit.
The Universe is Unfolding as It Should
Filed under: By Nan Kuhlman, Relationships, The Plan of Adoption, Uncategorized | Tags: Desiderata, Max Ehrmann, Morgan Freeman, Suffering, trials, universe unfolding as it should
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“…You are a child of the universe, no less than the trees and the stars; you have a right to be here. And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.” ~ “Desiderata,” Max Ehrmann, circa 1927
Actor Morgan Freeman never was considered a “star” until he was 50 years old. Although he had worked as an actor for many years, he was unable to break into movies until Driving Miss Daisy brought him into the spotlight. In the interview I saw, I was interested to hear him describe his early days in the acting business. He spoke of being hungry all the time, existing on stale donuts, and wondering how he would pay his rent, yet he looks back on those days and says his career path was “providential.” He also referred to the poem called “Desiderata,” which he calls his creed and has framed on the wall in his boat. This poem (excerpted above) talks about how “the universe is unfolding as it should.”
As I watched Freeman’s interview, I reasoned that he could say his career was “providential” and that “the universe was unfolding as it should” because he was viewing it in hindsight. Now that he was secure in his career and set financially, it would be easy to say that everything happened for a reason.
After all, the old cliché says, “hindsight is 20/20.” But if it is true that “the universe is unfolding as it should,” then it would seem that we could handle the rough spots with more patience, knowing that everything will work out for the best.
I’ve been wrestling with this idea that “the universe is unfolding as it should,” given that I have friends and loved ones who have experienced serious illness, loss, financial woes, and other sore trials. How can the universe be unfolding properly when good people are suffering?
Although I’m far from having a definitive answer for this question, here are my thoughts:
o Our perspective is too narrow. While our lives seem pretty long (80 years or so), they are just a small point on the continuum of eternity. And if our entire lives are small on the continuum of eternity, the amount of time we are actually suffering is even smaller when put in the perspective of eternity. We need to see the broader picture. Even our view of death, that it is an ending rather than a transitional continuation, is probably too limited.
o Our memories of past blessings are too short. We are quick to forget the many times that situations worked out for us when we couldn’t see how they could ever be resolved. Somehow, some way, difficult circumstances were settled, and all was well.
o Our view of the Triune God is too small. Many people struggle with the view (often imposed by the church) that they are unacceptable and displeasing to the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit because of their shortcomings. They feel like they are being punished (and should be punished) for the many ways they’ve let God down. What is needed is a radical change of thinking, where the loving Father is recognized for his overwhelming desire that we shouldn’t be lost to sin, so much so that he sent his Son (who wanted to come save us anyway) to take on our humanity and make it possible for us to be adopted as his sons and daughters. Once we realize that our loving Father securely holds our lives both now and in the future, we find it easier to face any day-to-day uncertainty, convinced that “providence” is on our side.
Even if it isn’t immediately clear to us that everything is turning out as it should, we can be comforted that we are a small, yet essential part of a much grander picture. Actor Morgan Freeman believes that “providence” is orchestrating our paths, ultimately assisting us in fulfilling our life-purpose. I think we have been positioned in the world at this particular time and place to fulfill our indispensable part in the beautiful tapestry called eternity. Just as the poem “Desiderata” declares, each of us is “a child of the universe,” and more importantly, a beloved child of the Triune God.
~by Nan Kuhlman
Sermon: Jesus, the Holy One of God
Filed under: By Jonathan Stepp, Christian Living, Evangelism, Gospel, Ministry, Perichoresis, Prayer, Trinity |
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Exorcism was a major part of Jesus’ ministry. What does this tell us about our lives and the gospel?