Exhale.
Scoop up your breath in your palm.
Catch it. Hold it.
This is Pneuma.
Press it firmly against your forehead, then swiftly down to your navel.
Let it fill your belly.
Sweep it up to your shoulder, the across the lungs to the other.
Feel it roll out to your fingers and down to your toes.
This is Pneuma.
This is Him, the Spirit.
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
Genesis 1-7
I have only a few things to notice.
1)Now that I know what to look for, it is especially evident that Genesis 1 and Genesis 2 give us two very different Creation stories. The first is a poem of incredible proportions one that walks us through a story that shows that God has everything in control and that everything He creates is good. The second one, starting at at Genesis 2:4, gives us a very personal God, who crafts things from the dust in the still mists of the morning, before any plants or animals are made. He forms 'adam from the ground, 'adamah, breathes into his nostrils. Talk about intimate!
What are we to do with the inconsistencies in these two accounts? Should we reject one and favor the other, or throw them both out? No. We should remember that when it comes to story telling, more is better. Why do we remake movies? Why do we create sequels? Why do we tell the same stories over and over again? Because more is better. So it is with the creation tales. And these aren't the only Creation stories in the Bible. One might argue that John's gospel starts with a creation tale and in several places the Psalms discuss creation as well. More is better.
2. Why does God deny Cain's sacrifice? If we try to understand this as God's actual action toward people, we are left with a host of issues about the nature of God and his moral character. Instead, I suggest we understand this as a revision that took place after the sacrificial practices had begun among the Hebrews. It's a statement about what sorts of sacrifices one should give, meat or flesh, and what sort of sacrifices one should not give, grain or fruit.
It's also curious that Cain and Abel have such different professions. It would have never have happened like that in real life, so we can understand these to be allegorical characters. What does that do for our interpretation of this story? Who were the pastoralists and who were the agriculturalists.
3. Many people complain about the long lists of names, the genealogies that are scattered throughout the Bible. But they serve a purpose, and it's not just because the Hebrews cared about heritage. Here in Genesis 5, they serve to show us that Noah is the 10th generation to pass since 'adam is cursed to till the ground. We haven't gotten there yet, but Noah will be the first person to have successful agriculture in the Bible shortly after he leaves the ark. (Perhaps this curse is the reason that Cain's sacrifice is denied?)
4. Notice also the rules for what sorts of animals Noah should bring on the ark. First he's commanded to take on one pair and that's it, but in Genesis 7, he is supposed to bring 7 pairs of all clean animals, and only a pair of the unclean animals. This is another example of sacrificial revision going on in Genesis.
Another thing we need to be careful of when it comes to reading the Bible is thinking that the book had one iteration and then it was set in stone forever. This is not the case. We know that during the Babylonian Exile, there was a ton of revision that happened to the Bible, with things being added and removed or altered all over the place. This is clearly evidenced in the retelling of Samuel, Saul, and David's stories in Kings. Kings is much more critical and harsh toward these kings than the original telling in Samuel.
That's all for now. The flood is next and a great deal of interesting stuff starts happening after God starts making covenants.
1)Now that I know what to look for, it is especially evident that Genesis 1 and Genesis 2 give us two very different Creation stories. The first is a poem of incredible proportions one that walks us through a story that shows that God has everything in control and that everything He creates is good. The second one, starting at at Genesis 2:4, gives us a very personal God, who crafts things from the dust in the still mists of the morning, before any plants or animals are made. He forms 'adam from the ground, 'adamah, breathes into his nostrils. Talk about intimate!
What are we to do with the inconsistencies in these two accounts? Should we reject one and favor the other, or throw them both out? No. We should remember that when it comes to story telling, more is better. Why do we remake movies? Why do we create sequels? Why do we tell the same stories over and over again? Because more is better. So it is with the creation tales. And these aren't the only Creation stories in the Bible. One might argue that John's gospel starts with a creation tale and in several places the Psalms discuss creation as well. More is better.
2. Why does God deny Cain's sacrifice? If we try to understand this as God's actual action toward people, we are left with a host of issues about the nature of God and his moral character. Instead, I suggest we understand this as a revision that took place after the sacrificial practices had begun among the Hebrews. It's a statement about what sorts of sacrifices one should give, meat or flesh, and what sort of sacrifices one should not give, grain or fruit.
It's also curious that Cain and Abel have such different professions. It would have never have happened like that in real life, so we can understand these to be allegorical characters. What does that do for our interpretation of this story? Who were the pastoralists and who were the agriculturalists.
3. Many people complain about the long lists of names, the genealogies that are scattered throughout the Bible. But they serve a purpose, and it's not just because the Hebrews cared about heritage. Here in Genesis 5, they serve to show us that Noah is the 10th generation to pass since 'adam is cursed to till the ground. We haven't gotten there yet, but Noah will be the first person to have successful agriculture in the Bible shortly after he leaves the ark. (Perhaps this curse is the reason that Cain's sacrifice is denied?)
4. Notice also the rules for what sorts of animals Noah should bring on the ark. First he's commanded to take on one pair and that's it, but in Genesis 7, he is supposed to bring 7 pairs of all clean animals, and only a pair of the unclean animals. This is another example of sacrificial revision going on in Genesis.
Another thing we need to be careful of when it comes to reading the Bible is thinking that the book had one iteration and then it was set in stone forever. This is not the case. We know that during the Babylonian Exile, there was a ton of revision that happened to the Bible, with things being added and removed or altered all over the place. This is clearly evidenced in the retelling of Samuel, Saul, and David's stories in Kings. Kings is much more critical and harsh toward these kings than the original telling in Samuel.
That's all for now. The flood is next and a great deal of interesting stuff starts happening after God starts making covenants.
I started learning Greek on Monday and am so far excited to see what comes of it. In 9 weeks I will be able to pick my way through anything in the Septuagint and the New Testament, as well as pretty much any 1st century Greek writing. Holy cow!
I also started reading the Bible today. I am embarking on a full read through of the Bible by December 31st of this year. Technically, we start in July, but this summer is jam packed, so I don't know how much time I'll have to read and reflect on 7 chapters every day, so I wanted to get a head start.
I also think I might have finally figured out a direction I'm comfortable heading with careers and schools and stuff. I think I might try to explore an anthropology of Christianity. A lot of the work that's been done has been either from a theological perspective, or from an anthropologist's eyes only. I'd like to see what happens when someone who is trained in Christianity and in anthropology takes a look at things like eucharist, baptism, or ordination. It's essentially taking to interpretive lenses and trying to ask how they inform each other. I need to do more research on this, but it looks like I'm headed to seminary next year. Not to be a pastor, mind you, but to get a firmer look at languages, bible, and Christian history. Weird.
I also started reading the Bible today. I am embarking on a full read through of the Bible by December 31st of this year. Technically, we start in July, but this summer is jam packed, so I don't know how much time I'll have to read and reflect on 7 chapters every day, so I wanted to get a head start.
I also think I might have finally figured out a direction I'm comfortable heading with careers and schools and stuff. I think I might try to explore an anthropology of Christianity. A lot of the work that's been done has been either from a theological perspective, or from an anthropologist's eyes only. I'd like to see what happens when someone who is trained in Christianity and in anthropology takes a look at things like eucharist, baptism, or ordination. It's essentially taking to interpretive lenses and trying to ask how they inform each other. I need to do more research on this, but it looks like I'm headed to seminary next year. Not to be a pastor, mind you, but to get a firmer look at languages, bible, and Christian history. Weird.
Monday, June 14, 2010
A Short Trip to the Edge
One of our first discussions was about death, about staring her in the face and seeing fiery,paradoxical life in her eyes. You told me that you did not know yourself upon tasting your mortality, but instead realized that you know nothing at all about your own being. The life that flashed before your eyes was not the life that had come before, but the life that would come after.
The Hebrew people had an odd way of telling stories, a foreign way of starting out from their final destination in order to more fully understand why they needed to return to it. In Genesis begins a story of God's Creation of the whole world and somewhere between Genesis and Revelation, the journey takes place. Ultimately, unstoppably, despite sin, death, and redemption, the story returns to Creation, to what we call New Creation in the Church, but which is really the same Creation, the place "In the Beginning." Only this time, we recognize it for what it is, for a beginning and end in itself. It's a conversation that God spoke into existence, in order that we may talk awhile with Him.
Death is Life's lover, a match made and a bargain struck in order that we may be blessed with conversation, so goodness may be made full. So, let's return again to our conversation; let's return time and time again. Let's walk back out to that mortal brink, to the edge of our Shalom. We'll pace the cliff's edge and see if we cannot begin to know something of ourselves from the journey.
The Hebrew people had an odd way of telling stories, a foreign way of starting out from their final destination in order to more fully understand why they needed to return to it. In Genesis begins a story of God's Creation of the whole world and somewhere between Genesis and Revelation, the journey takes place. Ultimately, unstoppably, despite sin, death, and redemption, the story returns to Creation, to what we call New Creation in the Church, but which is really the same Creation, the place "In the Beginning." Only this time, we recognize it for what it is, for a beginning and end in itself. It's a conversation that God spoke into existence, in order that we may talk awhile with Him.
Death is Life's lover, a match made and a bargain struck in order that we may be blessed with conversation, so goodness may be made full. So, let's return again to our conversation; let's return time and time again. Let's walk back out to that mortal brink, to the edge of our Shalom. We'll pace the cliff's edge and see if we cannot begin to know something of ourselves from the journey.
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