July 8: The Prophets

18 Woe to you who long
for the day of the LORD!
Why do you long for the day of the LORD?
That day will be darkness, not light.

19 It will be as though a man fled from a lion
only to meet a bear,
as though he entered his house
and rested his hand on the wall
only to have a snake bite him.

20 Will not the day of the LORD be darkness, not light—
pitch-dark, without a ray of brightness?

21 "I hate, I despise your religious festivals;
I cannot stand your assemblies.

22 Even though you bring me burnt offerings and grain offerings,
I will not accept them.
Though you bring choice fellowship offerings,
I will have no regard for them.

23 Away with the noise of your songs!
I will not listen to the music of your harps.

24 But let justice roll on like a river,
righteousness like a never-failing stream!

Amos 5:18-24 TNIV

Verse 24 may ring familiar with students of modern history. Martin Luther King, Jr. used it within his “I Have a Dream” speech at the Lincoln Memorial in August, 1963. As we think through the roles and messages of the Old Testament prophets, we appreciate how King’s use of this quote is an appropriate modern echo of their themes.

More individual books of the Bible come under the heading of prophecy than any other category – 16 books in total:

• Four “major”: Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel

• Last 12 books of the Old Testament (Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi) are called the “minor” prophets, from the Latin term “prophetes minores” – minores meant shorter, not less important

Written in ancient Israel between 760 & 460 BC, the prophets contain a vast array of messages about God, but understanding the prophets can be a challenge, primarily due to misunderstandings about function and confusion about form.

Let’s acknowledge some basic difficulties in reading the prophets

• Problem of history – very hard to put the words of the prophets in their proper context, given our distance in terms of the religious, historical and cultural life of ancient Israel

• We know very little about the prophets themselves – we hear from God via the prophets, but very little about them.

• Hard to read the longer prophetic books in one sitting, and they can be hard to follow. For the most part these books are collection of sayings (oracles) – not always presented in chronological sequence, often without hints as to where one oracle ends and another begins, and often without hints as to historical setting

• And most of the oracles were spoken in poetry!

Probably the largest problem is an inaccurate understanding of the word “prophecy.” For most folks this means what the dictionary lists first – “foretelling or prediction of the future.”

So many Christians only refer to the prophetic books for predictions about the coming of Jesus, but using the prophets this way is highly selective: Less than 2% of Old Testament prophecy is messianic, less than 5% specifically describes the new-covenant age, less than 1% concerns events yet to come.

The prophets did announce the future, but it was overwhelmingly the immediate future of Israel, Judah, and other surrounding nations, not our future. For us to see the prophecies fulfilled, we have to look back on times that for them were still future, but for us are long past.

If we focus on the prophets as predictors of future events, we’ll miss their primary function, which was to speak for God to their own contemporaries

Two key points about the function of prophecy in Israel:

The prophets were covenant enforcement mediators

Need to understand the OT law is a covenant – a binding contract between two parties, both of whom have obligations under the covenant. The law is expressed in the common covenantal / contractual form of the day, as a covenant would be expressed between a ruler and subjects seeking his protection

The law constituted a covenant between God and his people that included both stipulations and sanctions. In return for benefits and protection, Israel was expected to follow the stipulations (commandments) – or face the sanction. In the Old Testament, God does not just give Israel his law, he enforces it.

Blessings will come to Israel for faithfulness to the covenant. Descriptions of the blessings are found in Leviticus 26: 1-13, Deuteronomy 4:32-40, Deuteronomy 28:1-14
Read Leviticus 26: 3-13

Categories of blessings for covenant faithfulness include life, health, prosperity, agricultural abundance, respect, and safety. Blessings are announced with a warning – if Israel does not obey God’s law, the blessings will cease.

Curses: found especially in Leviticus 26:14-19, Deuteronomy 4:15-28, and throughout Deuteronomy 28:15 – 32:42 Read Leviticus 26: 14-17

The full range of curses can be categorized under ten headings, all beginning with the letter “d”: Death, disease, drought, dearth, danger, destruction, defeat, deportation, destitution, disgrace

Prophets did not invent the blessings or curses they pronounced – they were inspired to express them in novel and captivating ways, but the substance of their pronouncements is grounded in the terms of the covenant.

As we read the prophetic books, we find a simple pattern:

1. Identification of Israel’s sin – or God’s love for his people

2. Prediction of curse or blessing, depending on the circumstances

The prophets’ message was not their own, but God’s

Each prophet has his own unique style, emphases, imagery, and concerns – but God is the one who raised up the prophets to speak his Word to Israel. The Hebrew word for prophet comes from the verb “to call.” If someone presumed to take on the office or role of prophet on their own, this would be good cause to consider them a false prophet

The prophets regularly punctuate their oracles with phrases like “this is what the Lord says” or “declares the Lord.”

• Most common of the forms in the prophetic books is the “Messenger Speech”

• These forms were used by messengers in diplomatic or business settings in the ancient world to remind their listeners that they weren’t making up their content but were speaking the exact words of the one who had sent them.

A majority of the time, the prophetic message is thus relayed directly as received from the Lord, in the first person, so God speaks of himself as “I” or “me.”

The prophets were spokespersons / ambassadors for God, so on their own they were neither radical social reformers nor innovative religious thinkers.

• The social reforms and religious thought that God wished to impart to the people had already been revealed in the covenantal law – these concerns were God’s concerns, and had been expressed in His covenant.

• The prophets spoke God’s conviction on these matters, and spoke it directly to any group in violation of the covenant – whether royalty, clergy, the ruling class, or any group

Key Themes of the Prophets

Reminding the people of some Devine realities:

• God is sovereign over everything and everyone
• The people belong to God, and not the other way around
• God’s people have a purpose – to be a blessing to the nations

Reminding them that they are to reflect God’s character:

• By keeping the covenant, and walking in God’s way
• By living as a community that practices social justice, and shows special care for the weak, the poor, the stranger

But why do all this in poetry?

God chose to speak through his prophets largely through poems. All the prophetic books contain substantial amounts of poetry, and several are exclusively poetic.

Poetry seems a confusing way to express things to many of us, as though it were designed to make ideas less intelligible than more easily understood. Our culture places relatively little emphasis on poetry. But in most ancient cultures, including ancient Israel, poetry was a highly valued form of expression. National epics and key historical and religious memories were preserved in poetry.

In ancient Israel, poetry was widely appreciated as a means of learning. The Israelites found it relatively simple to commit to memory and recall things composed in poetry. The people were used to poetry and could remember the prophecies – they would ring in their ears with a presence that may be difficult for us to appreciate.

Why is there such a concentrated writing down of prophetic words during the three centuries between Amos (760 B.C.) and Malachi (460 B.C.)?

This period in Israel’s history called especially for covenant enforcement mediation. These years were characterized by three things:

1. Unprecedented political, military, economic, and social upheaval
2. Enormous level of religious unfaithfulness and disregard for the covenant
3. Shifts in populations and national boundaries, including enormous shifts in the international balance of power

By 760 B.C., Israel was a nation permanently divided by a long, ongoing civil war

• Northern tribes (called Israel or Ephraim) were separated from the southern tribe of Judah

• North – where disobedience to covenant far outstripped anything found in Judah, was slated for destruction by God because of its sin

• Amos (760) & Hosea (755) announced the impending destruction, and in 722 BC the north fell to Assyria, the superpower in the Middle East at the time

Thereafter, the mounting sinfulness of Judah and the rise of another superpower (Babylon) constituted the subject of many prophets, including Isaiah, Jeremiah, Joel, Micah, Nahum, Habbakuk, Zephaniah, and Ezekiel.

• In 587 BC, Judah was destroyed for its disobedience

Afterward, Ezekiel, Daniel, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi announced God’s will for the restoration of his people (beginning with a return from exile in 538 BC, the rebuilding of the nation, and the reinstitution of orthodoxy).

• Note that a majority of what the prophets announce in the 8^th, 7^th, and early 6^th centuries BC is curse, because the major defeat and destruction of the northern kingdom did not occur until 722 BC, that of the southern kingdom did not occur until 587 BC

The Israelites, north & south, were headed for punishment, so naturally warnings of curse rather than blessing predominated as God sought to get his people to repent

• After the destruction of both north and south (587 BC), the prophets were moved more often to speak blessings rather than curses. This is because once the punishment of the nation is complete, God resumes his basic plan, which is to show mercy.

All of this follows the basic pattern laid out in Deuteronomy 4:25-31.

When we go below the overall historical context to the specific context of individual messages from the prophets, it helps to recognize the forms of prophetic oracles – let’s look at some of the most common:

The Lawsuit Oracle

• Read Isaiah 3:13-26 for an example

• An allegorical literary form called a “covenant lawsuit”

• Full form includes a summons, charge, evidence, and a verdict – sometimes elements may be implied rather than explicit.

The Woe Oracle

• “Woe” was the word ancient Israelites cried out when facing disaster or death, or when they mourned at a funeral.

• God makes predictions of imminent doom using the “woe,” and no Israelite would miss the significance of that word

• Three elements characterize the form:

1. Announcement of distress

2. Reason for the distress

3. Prediction of doom

• Read Habbakuk 2:6-8 – a woe oracle against Babylon

The Promise Oracle or “Salvation Oracle”

• Recognize this form when you find three elements:
1. Reference to the future
2. Mention of radical change
3. Mention of blessing

• Read Amos 9:11-15 – a typical example, in which the radical change is the restoration of Israel. Here the blessings include life, prosperity, agricultural abundance, respect, and safety.

The prophets articulate God’s concern for both orthodoxy (correct belief) and orthopraxy (correct action). Through the prophets, God called the people of ancient Israel to a balance of right belief and right action – the very balance that the new covenant requires as well:

• Love the Lord with all your heart, mind, and soul

• Love your neighbor as yourself

The prophets serve as constant reminders of God’s determination to enforce his covenant, a reminder to “afflict the comfortable and comfort the afflicted,” and most of all a call to action.

Our closing reading: Isaiah 1:11; 15-17

11 "The multitude of your sacrifices—
what are they to me?" says the LORD.
"I have more than enough of burnt offerings,
of rams and the fat of fattened animals;
I have no pleasure
in the blood of bulls and lambs and goats.”

15 When you spread out your hands in prayer,
I will hide my eyes from you;
even if you offer many prayers,
I will not listen.
Your hands are full of blood;

16 wash and make yourselves clean.
Take your evil deeds
out of my sight!
Stop doing wrong,

17 learn to do right!
Seek justice,
encourage the oppressed.
Defend the cause of the fatherless,
plead the case of the widow.

Next week: The Psalms

July 1: The Gospels

25 Jesus did many other things as well. If every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written. John 21:25 TNIV

It may seem very straightforward to understand and interpret the Gospels, but we need to recognize the richness we have in the Gospels’ telling of the story of Jesus, and that in each gospel the interest in Jesus is on two levels:

• Historical concern: This is who he was, this is what he said and did, and that this Jesus, crucified and risen from the dead, is our Lord and Savior

• Existential concern: Telling this story for later communities that did not speak Aramaic, but Greek, and did not live in rural, Jewish settings but lived in Gentile, urban environments.

Today we want to talk a bit about the nature of the Gospels, particularly thinking about the context of the Gospel writers, the evangelists who are telling the story – Who were their audiences? What were their purposes? How do they tell the story of Jesus?

The material in the Gospels may be divided roughly into sayings and narratives – the sayings of Jesus and stories about Jesus. Beyond that we can make two other obvious observations: Jesus did not write the Gospels, and there are four of them.

Jesus did not write the Gospels

• Had he written something, it might be like the Old Testament prophetic books (Amos, for example) – a collection of sayings, oracles, and a few personal narratives

• Our Gospels do contain collections of sayings, but these are always woven as an integral part into historical narratives of Jesus’ life and ministry

Why? What are the implications?

• God gave us what we know about Jesus’ earthly ministry this way, and not in some other way that might better suit a mechanistic, tape-recorder mentality
• Not a license to play fast and loose with the teachings of Jesus – but requires some thoughtful thinking about

o Context/audience

o Combination of words and deeds

o Purpose of narrative – role of the characters and the movements within the story

There are four Gospels

• Material in three of them is so often alike we call them the Synoptic (“seeing together” or “common-view”) Gospels

• Might wonder why retain Mark at all, as the amount of material found exclusively in his gospel would scarcely fill two pages of print

• Mathematical analysis indicates 91% of Mark’s gospel is found in Matthew, while 53% of Mark is found in Luke.

So – Why do we have four of them?

• At least one of the reasons is a very simple and pragmatic one: different Christian communities each had a need for a book about Jesus

• For a variety of reasons the gospel written for one community or group of believers did not necessarily meet all the needs in another community

So one was written first – Mark (in the generally accepted view), and that gospel was rewritten twice (Matthew and Luke) for considerably different reasons to meet considerably different needs. John wrote a gospel independent of these three (in the generally accepted view) of a different kind and for still another set of reasons.

All of this is orchestrated by the Holy Spirit. For the later church none of the gospels supersedes the others, and each stands beside the others as equally valuable and equally authoritative.

Note the similarities across Matthew, Mark, and Luke – the Synoptic Gospels. These agree extensively in language, material, general sequence of events and sayings. We won’t go into all the detail about different thoughts on sources of this agreement, beyond the generally accepted views that:

• Mark, and another source (“Q” from the German Quelle, or “source”) were used by Matthew and Luke as sources for most of the materials included in their gospels

• Other sources include oral tradition, written fragments, the testimony of eyewitnesses

Mark - Composed around A.D. 6

• Recipients: church at Rome, Gentile readers
• Mark explains Jewish customs, translates Aramaic words, but most importantly has a special interest in persecution and martyrdom – subjects of special concern to Roman believer
• Occasion/purpose: the persecutions of the Roman church in 64-67
• Characteristics/tone: simple, succinct, unadorned but vivid account, more of what Jesus did than what he said

• Emphases/priorities include presentation of Jesus as the Messiah, from the beginning to the end - Jesus is the kingly Messiah – the Son of God

• 1:1 “The beginning of the gospel about Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

• 15:39 “And when the centurion, who stood there in front of Jesus, heard his cry and saw how he died, he said, ‘Surely this man was the Son of God!’”

• But this Messiahship is different from expectations - Jesus is God’s suffering servant (profound connection to the story of Israel, especially Isaiah) Echoes Isaiah in many ways – Jesus’ ministry is expressed in the language of Isaiah 53 (Mark 10:45)

• Jesus keeps his identity secret (The Messianic secret) - On several occasions Jesus warns the person for whom he’s worked a miracle to keep silent about who he is and what he’s done, and he even cautions his disciples at times not to reveal his true identity, lest messianic fervor thwart the divine plan that leads to the cross –Read 8:27-30

• Jesus begins to teach them about his messiahship and their/our discipleship.

• First instructions on discipleship, which calls for cross-bearing, appear only after the first disclosure of Jesus’ own death - Read 8:31 – 37

• Jesus continues teaching his disciples in this context- Read 10:42-45

Matthew – Composed in 70’s or 80’s

Recipients: Greek-speaking Jews

• Concerns with fulfillment of Old Testament, with more Old Testament quotes than any other New Testament writer, traces Jesus’ descent from Abraham, uses of Jewish terminology (but doesn’t explain it as in Mark), emphasizes Jesus’ role as “son of David”
• Doesn’t restrict the Gospel to the Jews – gives a full statement of the Great Commission

• Occasion/purpose: Main purpose is to prove to Jewish readers that Jesus is the Messiah

• Characteristics/tone: an artistic touch, woven around five great discourses, each with the concluding refrain “When Jesus had finished saying these things . . .” or similar words.

• Chapters 5-7 Sermon on the Mount, Beatitudes
• Chapter 10 Instructions to the disciples
• Chapter 13 Parables on the kingdom
• Chapter 18 More kingdom parables
• Chapter 24-25 Signs, parables of the coming kingdom

• Emphases/priorities - Connecting Jesus to the story of Israel, but clearly making a contrast and a break with the mindset of the Pharisees and teachers of the law while showing a clear concern for the mission to the Gentiles

• Written at a time when the church and synagogue were now separated and were in conflict over who is in the true succession of the OT promises

• Matthew addresses this issue by telling the story of Jesus who fulfills every kind of Jewish messianic hope and expectation

• Born as “king of the Jews,” at his birth, baptism, and transfiguration he is signaled as God’s Son, he dies as “king of the Jews,” recognized as Isaiah’s “suffering servant”

• Jesus did not come to abolish the Law and Prophets, but to fulfill them, to bring the new righteousness of God’s kingdom that goes infinitely beyond the teachings of the Pharisees – Read 5:17-20 (Note the following examples where Jesus goes beyond Pharisaical externalism)

• Presented as the true interpreter of the law, especially against the Pharisees and the teachers of the law. They have turned the law into a yoke and a burden. Jesus as Son knows and reveals the Father, and offers an easy yoke and a light burden – Read 11:25-30.

• Jesus’ “law” is mercy and grace, and those who experience such mercy are expected to be merciful in return

Luke – the story of Jesus as part 1 of Luke-Acts. Date is uncertain, most likely sometime in the 70’s

• How the good news of God’s salvation for all began, through the power of the Spirit, with Jesus in Galilee
• How the good news of God’s salvation through Jesus was, by the power of the Spirit, carried by the apostles from Jerusalem to Rome

• Recipients: Theophilus is otherwise unknown, likely the patron of Luke-Acts, underwriting its publication. Implied readers are Gentile Christians, whose place in God’s story is insured through the work of Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit

• Occasion/purpose: Strengthen the faith of all believers and answer the attacks of unbelievers, to displace disconnected and ill-founded reports about Jesus. Luke wanted to show that the place of the Gentile Christian in God’s kingdom is based on the teaching of Jesus.

• Characteristics/tone: Wonderful use of language, extensive and rich vocabulary

• Emphases/priorities

• God’s Messiah has come to his people, with the promised inclusion of the Gentiles – universality

• Luke – vertical, every strata of society within Israel

• Acts – horizontal, extending from Israel to other societies

• Jesus came to save the lost, including every kind of marginalized person whom traditional religion would put outside the boundaries – sinners, women, poor

• Jesus’ ministry is carried out under the power of the Holy Spirit

• Read 4: 14 - 19

John – date is probably around A.D. 90-95

• Recipients: Christian community or communities well-known to the author

• Occasion/purpose: Some see John as an effort to set forth a version of the Christian message that would appeal to Greek thinkers, others as a supplement to the Synoptic Gospels to address some specific forms of heresy

But the writer himself states his main purpose very clearly in 20:31:

³¹But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.

Primary intent is thus evangelistic, also possible to understand “may believe” in the sense of “may continue to believe,” in which case the purpose would be to build up believers as well as new converts.

Tells Jesus’ story from the perspective of what he’d come to know about him after the light had dawned (brought about by Jesus’ resurrection and the gift of the Spirit)

John’s interest is also shaped by false prophets who are denying the Incarnation and the saving significance of Jesus’ death, and who are marked by a failure to love others.

• Many differences from Synoptic Gospels. Not only is the basic scene of Jesus’ ministry different (Jerusalem vs. Galilee), but the whole ministry looks quite different:

• No messianic secret – Jesus is confessed as Messiah from the start
• No parables – but rich use of symbolic language
• No driving out of demons
• No narratives of the testing in the desert, the Transfiguration, or the Lord’s Supper

• Focus is much more on Jesus himself, rather than the kingdom of God

• Characteristics/tone: Complex - John’s narratives often evolve into discourses, and at times you can’t tell where Jesus stops talking and where John himself is interpreting (a real challenge for red-letter Bible editions). Also uses many words with double meanings, many Old Testament allusions.

• Broadest biblical framework for the story of Jesus, going back to creation. Opens with a poetic prologue and then weaves theology and history together - Read 1:1-18

• John’s emphases/priorities

• Jesus is the Son of God

• Demonstrates that Jesus is deeply rooted in history as the Jewish Messiah, which is explicitly expressed by the disciples and confirmed by Jesus (for example to the Samaritan woman in 4:25-26)

• John sets the entire story in the context of Jesus’ being the fulfillment of Jewish messianic hopes associated with various aspects of the festival celebrations – often hidden to us but known to his readers.

• Example: at the Feast of the Tabernacles there was a special water pouring rite in the temple. This rite was related first to the giving of water from the rock in the desert (Exodus 17:1-7), and it came to be interpreted in a messianic way as pointing to the giving of the Spirit by the Messiah.

• It is on the “greatest day” of this feast that Jesus cries out, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink” which John then interprets in light of the gift of the Spirit. Read 7:37-39

If the Synoptic Gospels care about Jesus’ place in the history of Israel and beyond, John cares about Jesus’ place in the whole scheme of things – from creation to redemption and beyond.

Hopefully this overview of the nature of the Gospels and their different emphases helps us:

• Appreciate the Holy Spirit’s role both within Jesus’ ministry and in the telling of his story

• Identify with the writers and the recipients – thinking through how the story is told “then/there” helps us find meaning for “here/now.”

Our closing reading:

1 Many have undertaken to draw up an account of the things that have been fulfilled ^[a] among us, 2 just as they were handed down to us by those who from the first were eyewitnesses and servants of the word. 3 With this in mind, since I myself have carefully investigated everything from the beginning, I too decided to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, 4 so that you may know the certainty of the things you have been taught. Luke 1:1-4 TNIV

Next week: The Prophets

June 24: Acts

1 In my former book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus began to do and to teach 2 until the day he was taken up to heaven, after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles he had chosen. 3 After his suffering, he presented himself to them and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive. He appeared to them over a period of forty days and spoke about the kingdom of God. 4 On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command: "Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. 5 For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit."

6 So when they met together, they asked him, "Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?"

7 He said to them: "It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. 8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth." Acts 1:1-8 TNIV

Luke certainly knew how to engage his audience with the opening of Acts - a direct continuation of the Jesus story, a foreshadowing of something incredible to happen “in a few days,” and a vision of witness “to the ends of the earth.” Right from the beginning, we know to read with high expectations, and Acts certainly delivers.

And we do expect a lot from Acts . . .

• We look to Acts for biblical precedent to guide our church life and Christian practice today. It’s not only a history of the early church, but also serves as a normative model for the church of all times.

• Restoration churches look to the church and Christian experience in the first century as the norm to be restored or the ideal to be approximated.

Often we hear “Acts plainly teaches X or Y” - but it’s obvious that not all of the “plain teaching” is equally plain to everyone. Such diverse practices as infant baptism vs. believers’ baptism, congregational vs. episcopal church governance, frequency of observing the Lord’s Supper, election of deacons by congregational vote, second baptism of the Spirit, speaking in tongues, selling possessions and having all things in common, even snake handling have been supported in whole or in part on the basis of Acts.

Our intent today is not to dive into these arguments or spend a lot of time on specific interpretive principles. We will apply the fundamental principles we’ve discussed to-date, particularly the ideas of paying attention to the overall narrative, and of framing the text in light of the overall story of Scripture. Because we’ve so often spent our time in the trees of Acts, let’s use today to step back and look at the forest.

So, our objectives in discussing Acts include thinking about the “what” and “why” of the text:

1. What has Luke (inspired by the Spirit) done in Acts? What story has he told? So we’ll talk through an overview of the narrative –

2. Why did Luke (and the Spirit) tell it this way? So we’ll talk through some reflections on the purpose of the text –

Hopefully our discussion of “what” and “why” will help us think about “how” - how to understand Acts as precedent for us, and how to apply the text to our lives and the church today.

Please note that while I may refer to “what Luke has done” or “what Luke intended” in the text, I fully mean that behind it all is the inspiration and purpose of the Holy Spirit.

What has Luke written in Acts?

An inspired narrative that is also an excellent example of Hellenistic historiography, a kind of history writing that flourished in the Hellenistic period from about 300 B.C to A.D. 200.

• Such history was not written just to keep records or chronicle the past, but also to encourage, inform, moralize, offer an apologetic, and to “entertain,” to be a good read.

• Luke certainly delivers on the form, filling his history with great detail, wonderful use of language, dramatic descriptions (Paul’s shipwreck, etc.), and the skillful use of speeches throughout the narrative.

At the same time, Luke has been greatly influenced by his immersion in the Old Testament narratives (his Scriptures), so this kind of divinely inspired, religiously motivated history is also evident in Luke’s telling of the early Christian story.

A few points about the OT narratives (Genesis, Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1&2 Samuel, 1&2 Kings, 1&2 Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, Daniel, Jonah, Haggai):

• Usually don’t directly teach a doctrine, but illustrate doctrines taught elsewhere
• Record what happened, not necessarily what should have happened or ought to happen
• Not necessarily good examples, and often the opposite. Most of the characters are far from perfect.
• Who is the hero of the OT narratives? God is the ultimate hero of all biblical narratives; they are really about God’s story more than humanity's.
  

Luke is also objective, covering the failures as well as successes, the bad with the good, in the early church. This is not a sanitized narrative. So we learn of the discontent between the Greek-speaking and Aramaic-speaking Jews, and the discord between Paul and Barnabas, and the distinctions and divisions that emerge.

Luke’s interests go beyond informing or entertaining. There is divine activity in this story and Luke is especially concerned that his readers understand this. He sees that the divine activity that began with Jesus and continues through the ministry of the Holy Spirit in the church is in fact a continuation of God’s story that began in the Old Testament.

We can look for what Luke has done in Acts by noting the natural divisions of the book. We’ve often approached Acts with frameworks organized by interest in Peter and then Paul, or in the geographic spread of the gospel. Luke himself gives a clue that seems to tie things together better – brief summary statements in which the narrative seems to pause before taking off in a new direction:

• 6:7 So the word of God spread. The number of disciples in Jerusalem increased rapidly, and a large number of priests became obedient to the faith.

• 9:31 Then the church throughout Judea, Galilee and Samaria enjoyed a time of peace. It was strengthened; and encouraged by the Holy Spirit, it grew in numbers, living in the fear of the Lord.

• 12:24 But the word of God continued to increase and spread.

• 16:4-5 As they traveled from town to town, they delivered the decisions reached by the apostles and elders in Jerusalem for the people to obey. So the churches were strengthened in the faith and grew daily in numbers.

• 19:20 In this way the word of the Lord spread widely and grew in power.

On the basis of this clue, we can look at the narrative as a series of six sections that each contribute to a forward movement of the story from its Jewish setting in Jerusalem with Peter as its leading figure toward a predominately Gentile church, with Paul as the leading figure and Rome (capital of the Gentile world) as the goal. Once Paul reaches Rome, the narrative comes to an end.

The following outline illustrates key points of this narrative momentum. Click on the image to enlarge.

Our class discussed this outline and some selected readings from each section as noted below.

1:1 – 6:7 - The early church in Jerusalem, its common life, its spread, and its initial opposition. Very Jewish – the sermons, the opposition, the fact that early believers continue association with the temple and the synagogues. This section concludes with a narrative indicating a division had begun between Greek-speaking and Aramaic-speaking believers.

• Speeches: Peter in 2:14-39 to the Pentecost crowd, and in 3:11-26 to onlookers at the temple after healing a cripple
• Read 4:7-12 – before the Sanhedrin

6:8 – 9:31 - The first geographical expansion, carried out by “Hellenists” – Greek speaking Jewish Christians to Greek-speaking Jews in the Diaspora or “nearly Jews” – Samaritans

• Includes conversion of Paul, who was Hellenist, a Jewish opponent of the gospel, and the one who was to lead the specifically Gentile expansion
• Stephen’s martyrdom is key to this expansion
• Speech: Stephen 7:1-53
• Read 7:51-54, portion of Stephen’s speech
• Read 8:1-3, Stephen’s speech and martyrdom as flashpoint for persecution

9:32-12:24 – The first expansion to the Gentiles. Key moment is Cornelius, whose conversion is told twice. Significance of Cornelius is that his conversion is a direct act from God, who carried it out through Peter, the acknowledged leader of the Jewish-Christian mission.

• Also includes story of the church in Antioch, where Gentile conversion is now carried out by the Hellenists in a purposeful way
• Speech: Peter 10:27-43
• Read 10:28-29, 34-47
• Read 11:19-21

12:25-16:5 – Geographical expansion into the Gentile world, with Paul in the leadership. Jews now regularly reject the gospel because it includes Gentiles. The church meets in council and does not reject Gentile brothers and sisters, nor does it impose Jewish religious requirements on them. This serves as the key to full expansion into the Gentile world.

• Speech: Paul 13:16-47
• Read 15:5-11 council at Jerusalem

16:6-19:20 – Further, ever westward expansion into the Gentile world, now into Europe. Repeatedly the Jews reject and the Gentiles welcome the gospel.

• Speech: Paul 17:22-31
• Read 17:22-31 Athens

19:21-28:30 – Events that move Paul and the gospel on to Rome, with a great deal of interest in Paul’s trials, in which three times he’s declared innocent of wrongdoing.

• Speech: Paul 20:17-35
• Read 26:19-29 before Agrippa

The Holy Spirit is the key protagonist moving through this narrative. You’ll notice as you read that at every key juncture, in every key person, the Holy Spirit plays the absolutely leading role. According to Luke, all of this forward movement did not happen by human design; it happened because God willed it and the Holy Spirit carried it out.

“Why?” – Luke’s purpose in telling this story

Clearly Luke’s interested in conveying this movement of the gospel, orchestrated by the Holy Spirit from its Jerusalem-based, Judaism-oriented beginnings to its becoming a worldwide, Gentile predominant phenomenon.

Some clues to Luke’s purpose may be found in what he does not tell us:

• No interest in the biographies of the apostles. James is the only one whose end we know (12:2). Once the Gentile mission gets underway, Peter drops from sight except for Chapter 15, where he certifies the Gentile mission. Apart from John, other apostles are not even mentioned. His interest in Paul is almost completely in terms of the Gentile mission.

• Little or no interest in church organization or structure. The Seven in chapter 6 are not called deacons. Luke never tells us why or how leadership in Jerusalem passed from the leadership of Peter and the apostles to James, brother of Jesus (12:17, 15:13, 21:18). He does not say how any local church was organized in terms of polity or leadership, except to say that elders were appointed.

• No word about other geographical expansion except in the one direction from Jerusalem to Rome. No mention of Crete, Illyricum (modern Croatia & Yugoslavia) or Pontus, Cappadocia, and Bythnia. No mention of the eastward expansion toward Mesopotamia or southward toward Egypt.

• Does not seem interested in standardizing things, bringing things into uniformity.

• When he records conversions there are usually two elements included (gift of the Spirit and water baptism), but these can be in reverse order, with or without the laying on of hands, with or without the mention of tongues, and scarcely ever with a specific mention of repentance.

• Similarly, he neither says nor implies that the Gentile churches experienced a communal life similar to that of Jerusalem in 2:42-47 and 4:32-35.

Such diversity probably means what? That Luke/Holy Spirit have not shaped the narrative to lay out specific, detailed examples as the model for Christian experience or church life.

Now, clearly Luke is speaking to his first readers and all the readers down to us. We believe that much of Acts is intended by Luke to serve as a model. But perhaps the model is not so much in the specifics as in the overall picture.

What is the “big picture” model for us from the Acts narrative?

By the very way God has moved Luke to structure and narrate this history its seems probable that we are to view this

• triumphant, joyful, forward-moving expansion of the gospel
• empowered by the Holy Spirit
• resulting in changed lives and communities

as God’s intent for the continuing church.

And precisely because it is God’s intent, nothing can hinder it – neither Sanhedrin nor synagogue, zealous persecution, dissension nor narrow-mindedness, shipwrecks nor snakes, prison nor plot.

Which brings us to the question of how we read (and by "read," I mean "live") Acts as a church – as an historical record upon which we base details of church practice? Or as a larger story calling us to embrace the power of the Holy Spirit, living the gospel with joy and confidence?

Our closing reading takes us back to the apostles before the Sanhedrin, and Gamaliel’s speech in Acts 5:27-39:

27 The apostles were brought in and made to appear before the Sanhedrin to be questioned by the high priest. 28 "We gave you strict orders not to teach in this name," he said. "Yet you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and are determined to make us guilty of this man's blood."

29 Peter and the other apostles replied: "We must obey God rather than human beings! 30 The God of our ancestors raised Jesus from the dead—whom you killed by hanging him on a cross. 31 God exalted him to his own right hand as Prince and Savior that he might bring Israel to repentance and forgive their sins. 32 We are witnesses of these things, and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey him."

33 When they heard this, they were furious and wanted to put them to death. 34 But a Pharisee named Gamaliel, a teacher of the law, who was honored by all the people, stood up in the Sanhedrin and ordered that the men be put outside for a little while. 35 Then he addressed the Sanhedrin: "Men of Israel, consider carefully what you intend to do to these men. 36 Some time ago Theudas appeared, claiming to be somebody, and about four hundred men rallied to him. He was killed, all his followers were dispersed, and it all came to nothing. 37 After him, Judas the Galilean appeared in the days of the census and led a band of people in revolt. He too was killed, and all his followers were scattered. 38 Therefore, in the present case I advise you: Leave these men alone! Let them go! For if their purpose or activity is of human origin, it will fail. 39 But if it is from God, you will not be able to stop these men; you will only find yourselves fighting against God." Acts 5:27-39 TNIV

Next week: The Gospels, “one story – many dimensions”

June 17: The Epistles Part 2 – “Here & Now”

“As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. 2 Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. 3 Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. 4 There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called; 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism; 6 one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.” Ephesians 4: 1-6 TNIV

Last week we started our work with different types of Biblical texts, beginning with the epistles. We’re using the epistles as a starting point to get our minds around two key questions in interpreting Scripture:

• What did it mean to them? – then & there

Exegesis: Careful, systematic study of Scripture to discover the original, intended meaning. It is the attempt to hear the Word as the original recipients were to have heard it, to find out what was the original intent of the words of the Bible.

• What does it mean to us? – here & now

Hermeneutics: Normally covers the whole field of interpretation, including exegesis, but is also used in the narrower sense of seeking the contemporary relevance of ancient texts

We reviewed from last week some basic approaches to common sense exegesis of the epistles, and some important points about their form:

• Read for the big picture, read in one sitting, read in paragraphs – try to follow and frame the overall message
• Put some structure around the context and the content:
• Recipients – what does the text tell us about them?
• The writer’s tone, language, attitude toward recipients – how does he talk to them?
• Occasion – what prompted the letter?
• The letter’s natural divisions – what’s the structure of the writer’s message, the overall flow and thrust of the argument?

• Occasional nature of the epistles – They were called forth or “occasioned” by some special circumstance from either the reader’s side or the author’s side. Usually they were:

• Some kind of behavior that needed correcting
• Doctrinal error that needed setting straight
• Misunderstanding that needed further light

• Task theology - not first of all theological treatises, nor are they summaries of Paul’s or Peter’s theology. There is theology implied, but it is always theology being brought to bear on the task at hand.

As we review the “then & there” of I Corinthians, it’s particularly important to recognize the larger issues that span the specifics – the confusion and wrong attitudes about being spiritual and living as a spiritual community. Paul’s response is to frame his specific answers within the context of “Christ crucified.”

Now we turn our attention to the “here and now,” and our objective is to discuss some of the challenges and issues of applying the epistles, and some guidelines to help us.

We should start with recognizing that we all practice hermeneutics – we bring our enlightened common sense to the text and apply what we can to our situation. What does not seem to apply is left in the first century.

• Most of the matters in the Epistles fit pretty well into this common sense approach. In Paul’s letters to Timothy, we clearly see “when you come, bring the cloak that I left with Carpus at Troas” is not a command for us to pilgrimage, while “Endure hardship with us like a good soldier of Christ Jesus” does apply to us.

• Our problems and differences lie in those texts that lie somewhere in between these examples, where some believe we should obey exactly what’s stated and others aren’t so sure. Our interpretation/application difficulties with these texts are many, but they are all related to inconsistency.

We bring our theological heritage, our church traditions, our cultural norms, our current circumstances to the texts - and this leads to all sorts of inconsistency, selectivity or “getting around” texts.

For example, in many churches women are forbidden to speak in worship on the basis of I Corinthians 14:34-35; yet in many of the same churches almost everything else in Chapter 14 is argued against as not belonging to the 21^st century. Why are verses 34-35 taken for all time, while verses 1-5, 26-33, 39-40, which give regulations for prophesying and speaking in tongues, are limited to only the first century church?

We could cite many more examples - - but what are some guidelines that will help us be more consistent in our interpretation/application of the epistles?

Start with a basic guideline: “a text cannot mean what it never could have meant to its author or his readers.” We cannot force a meaning into the text that would make no sense to the original audience, even if that meaning helps us rationalize our position on particular texts today.

• For an example of applying this guideline, go to I Corinthians and Paul’s imperatives about seeking spiritual gifts in chapter 14 (Verse 5: “I would like every one of you to speak in tongues but I would rather have you prophesy.”)

• What is a fairly common justification for disregarding these imperatives?

• A particular interpretation of I Corinthians 13:8-10, particularly verse 10. Some teach that completeness or “the perfect” has come in the form of the New Testament, and therefore the imperfect (prophecy and tongues) have ceased to function in the church.
• But this is one thing the text cannot mean because of the basic guideline. There is no way Paul could have meant this – the Corinthians did not know there was going to be a New Testament (“the perfect”), and the Holy Spirit would not have inspired Paul to write something to them that they would not understand

Second guideline: Whenever we share common particulars (similar specific life situations) with the first-century hearers, God’s Word to us is the same as his Word to them.

It’s this guideline that causes most of the theological texts and ethical imperatives in the Epistles to give us a sense of immediacy and connection with the first century, because so much of the human condition is “common particulars.”

• So “all have sinned” (Rom 3:23), “by grace (we) have been saved, through faith” (Eph 2:8), clothing ourselves with “compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience” (Col 3:12)

• Caution is to do the exegesis, the “there & then” well so that we have confidence that our situation and particulars are genuinely comparable.

Read I Corinthians 6:1-11 - What’s the situation? Two Christian brothers before a pagan judge out in the open marketplace in Corinth.

• Could argue that the point doesn’t change if the judge is a Christian or the trial in a courthouse, the wrong is for two brothers to go to law outside the church

• On the other hand, we could rightly ask whether this would still apply to a Christian suing a corporation in modern-day America – for in this case not all particulars are the same

So far, the basic guidelines are pretty straightforward, but we encounter challenges as we look to apply texts beyond their specific particulars – the problem of non-comparable particulars.

Read I Corinthians 8: 1-13

Now we rarely have the opportunity to partake in idol feasts at pagan temples, but how many of us have heard lessons or applications from this text? Our class immediately identified lessons and applications based on “the stumbling block principle” from this text.

With texts like these, we need to be sensitive to a couple of things:

• Understand the context and original meaning carefully. In most cases a clear principle will be articulated, which will usually transcend the historical particulars.

• However, the principle does not now become timeless to be applied at whim to any and every kind of situation. It must be applied to genuinely comparable situations.

In this case, Paul forbids participation in the temple meals on the basis of the stumbling block principle. But this does not refer to something that merely offends another believer. The stumbling block principle refers to something a believer feels can be done in good conscience and that, by his or her action or persuasion, they try to induce another believer to do, who cannot do in good conscience. Note the brother or sister is “destroyed” by emulating another’s action; he or she is not merely offended by it. So invoking this principle to speak against choices or practices that make us uncomfortable is taking it too far.

Cultural relativity

Perhaps our biggest challenges in applying the epistles to the “here & now” have to do with culture. Because the epistles are task theology, written for specific occasions, they are very much engaged with the first century culture. Part of the beauty and wonder of this part of Scripture is that the epistles have important meaning for us today not only for their universal “comparable particulars,” but also for the way they speak to the specifics of their contemporary culture.

Our problem is often sorting out which is which - distinguishing between items that are culturally relative and those that transcend their original setting and are thus normative for Christians of all times. We discussed some guidelines for sorting through cultural relativity:

Distinguish between the central core of the message of the Bible and what is dependent on or peripheral to it.

• Not to argue for a canon within the canon, but to safeguard the gospel from being turned into law through culture or religious custom – and to keep the gospel itself from changing to reflect every conceivable cultural expression.

Distinguish between what the New Testament itself sees as inherently moral and what is not.

• Paul’s sin lists never contain cultural items (Romans 1:29-30; 1Corinthians 5:11; 6:9-10; 2 Tim 3:2-4).

• On the other hand, foot washing, the holy kiss, eating marketplace idol food, woman having a head covering when praying or prophesying, Paul’s personal preference for celibacy, or a woman’s teaching in the church are not inherently moral matters. They become so only in their use or abuse in specific contexts, when such use or abuse involves disobedience or lack of love.

Make special note of items where the New Testament itself has a uniform and consistent witness and where it reflects differences.

• Uniform witness includes love as the Christian’s basic ethical response, a non-retaliation personal ethic, the wrongness of hatred, murder, stealing, drunkenness, sexual immorality of all kinds

• On the other hand, the New Testament does not appear to be uniform on such matters as:

Retention of one’s wealth - Luke 12:33; 18:22 vs. I Timothy 6:17-19

Political evaluation of Rome - Romans 13:1-5 and I Peter 2:13-14 vs. Revelation 13-18

Women’s ministries in the church
Romans 16:1-2 (Phoebe is a deaconess); 16:3 (Priscilla is Paul’s co-worker); 16:7 (Junia, feminine name, named among the apostles); I Cor 11:5 vs I Timothy 2:12, and I Corinthians 14:34-35

We have to acknowledge that the New Testament evidence is not uniform in these cases, and thus we need to think through them in light of cultural issues and differences.

Recognize the cultural differences between the first and twenty-first centuries, both great and small – and think through the larger Christian message in the cultural context of each.

• Keep in mind the overall cultural picture - not just the details of practice or custom, but the fact that the first century culture was “xenophobic, racist, classist, sexist/patriarchal, and bloodthirsty” in pervasive ways that are very different from today’s North America. These differences must be considered as we listen to the epistles.

• For example, a participatory democracy is a radically different thing from the government of which Paul speaks in Romans 13:1-7. It is expected in a participatory democracy that bad laws are to be changed and bad officials to be ousted.

• To determine the role of women in the 21^st century church, we should take into account that there were few educational opportunities for women in the 1^st century, whereas education and full participation is the norm in our society. This may affect our understanding of 1 Timothy 2:9-15.

Listening to Scripture on the roles of women in the church

Through our discussion, we reflected each of these guidelines on our tradition’s approach to the roles of women in worship participation and church leadership. Through an open discussion we acknowledged:

• That the larger message of the Gospel is a message of equality and inclusion and that all are gifted and encouraged by the Holy Spirit, regardless of gender.

• The culture of the first century valued and treated women very differently than our culture today. The typical expectation for a respectable woman in Paul’s day was to live a life as secluded from the public eye as her family could afford, under her father’s or husband’s authority, often illiterate, with no voice in any aspect of community life.

• The New Testament reveals a Christian community in which women were active in prophecy, prayer, mission activity, teaching, serving churches as “deacons” or “ministers,” correcting false theology, being imprisoned for their faith, serving as patrons for their congregations, rearing children in faith, guiding young women in developing their ministries, and being coworkers with their husbands.

• The restrictions on the public roles of women in some New Testament letters appear more as accommodations to the sensibilities of the times, specific counsel to address dynamics of individual congregations, or steps to prevent the spread of heresies – all for the sake of a greater good. That good was the need for all people to hear the Gospel in its full, unadulterated form.

• The restrictions that were placed on women in certain problematic situations only pulled them back to the normal standards of that society, and certainly not toward a limitation that was distinctively Christian.

And thus we recognize that the limitation many traditions place on the roles of women in the church – including our Restoration / Church of Christ tradition – reflect a failure to truly listen to Scripture. We have based practices on the accommodations once made to the values of ancient Roman society and have not heard and applied the larger message of equal gifts, equal participation, and equal value in the eyes of God.

The limitations we place on women today are not obedience to the eternal will of God. If we equate the will of God with the prejudices of ancient societies, if we fail to hear the call of the Gospel to break down all barriers, if we continue to silence the gifts of women in our assemblies, our ministries, and our leadership, we will ourselves be a barrier to the Gospel.

Strong stuff for a Sunday school class. Our discussions demonstrate the power of listening to Scripture as a community, recognizing that God is at work in the world and in us to shape our listening and living of Scripture.

Our closing reading:

“Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.” 1 Corinthians 13: 4-12 TNIV

A note on sources: Like all of our classes in this series, this outline and content draws heavily from Fee & Stuart’s How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth. Today’s content also draws from a study prepared by Carl Holladay entitled “The Role of Women in the New Testament,” and “A Community without Barriers: Women in the New Testament and the Church Today,” by Thomas Robinson.

Eugene Peterson on exegesis

“We have a written word to read and attend to. It is God’s word, or so we believe, and we had better get it right. Exegesis is the care we give to getting the words right. Exegesis is foundational to Christian spirituality. Foundations disappear from view as a building is constructed, but if the builders don’t build a solid foundation, their building doesn’t last long.

. . . The more mature we become in the Christian faith, the more exegetically rigorous we must become. This is not a task from which we graduate. These words given to us in our Scriptures are constantly getting overlaid with personal preferences, cultural assumptions, sin distortions, and ignorant guesses that pollute the text. The pollutants are always in the air, gathering dust on our Bibles, corroding our use of the language, especially the language of faith. Exegesis is a dust cloth, a scrub brush, or even a Q-tip for keeping the words clean.”

Eugene Peterson, Eat This Book, A Conversation in the Art of Spiritual Reading (Grand Rapids/Cambridge, UK: Eerdmans, 2006), page 53.