Brothers
Let me first just say I'm glad to finally be here. Jay, I can't believe you and Caitlin are pregnant, congrats.
Michael in response to "turn the other cheek" the only response I have ever heard is that in the context of the sermon on the mount Jesus is talking about personal ethics. Basically, it doens't really apply. I think most people neglect the clear passages like "turn the other cheek" "all who draw the sword die by the sword" Mt 25.52b or Rev 13.10 go back to the wars of Israel in the OT. It is easy for us to see the difficulty of trying to apply OT narratives concerning the cultic acts of Israel to the NT church. It is similar to the rapture texts, it is so ingrained that the rapture will occur that people read the OT with eyes to see what they want to see instead of "ears to hear." In reponse to your post Jay, how might we present Kingdom ethics concerning peace? It seems that the best way to deal with difficult issues is to let the Bible speak. As you go through the sermon on the Mount, talk about what it means to love your enemies (Rome) in specific ways praying for muslim terrorist countries. I wrestle with this same issue. It seems like the hardest thing isn't giving them the answers, but teaching them to ask the right questions. If I were going to talk about Kingdom ethics however, perhaps the first place I would go would be the sermon on the mount, then the model of cross and resurrection, then Revelation. At my age, I've got is the bible to speak from, I don't have the wisdom in the eyes of veterans to tell them how to live, neither do you Jay. But, Jesus well he's the king, and we are his citizens.
On a similar issue in Sunday school over the next 5 weeks Dan and I will be doing a Series on Christian politics. It will go a little something like this,
(1) Was Jesus Political? Really? How?-->Dan
(2) "Israel and America" Is there such thing as a Christian Nation?-->Tyler
(3) Some issue of Dan's choice -->Dan
(4) "Jesus, David, and Osama" How to Christians protect themsevles?-->Tyler
(5) Undecided
Friends, we would love your imput on these issues, questions that you think might be asked, questions that you think we ought to address, questions you have. Also, if you have ideas how we might go about talking about what it means to be a Christian who happens to live in America in such a way that recognizes our true citizenship without alienating our listeners. How might we teach them to ask the right quesions?
-I love you all
posted by Unknown @ 8:16 PM
3 Comments:
Someone please make a comment. It would be helpful, this is for the church.
Rabboni-
Sorry man. That wasn't my intention at all. I was being playful more than anything. It's funny you should say that though. It is difficult with posts to gauge what someone means sometimes. It is really easy to misread someone, or their intentions behind a comment. I appreciate the note, I haven't read the rules, sorry. The "this is for the church" was one of those guilt jokes. I read your comment after I heard a rooster crow for the third time (I mean this in a very light way). <-- Even the parenthesis can be percieved as mean or misread. Man, I think about reading stuff like this best of friends and totally misunderstanding each other at times. Puts into perspective the difficulty of reading the bible. Well, I love you dearly Michael, and everyone. I really like the blog. It is a fun way to talk about stuff that we otherwise wouldn't be able to, or at least not as much.
Michael-
I've had a similar thought, the problem I keep coming back to is, if we ought to read scipture differently (as far as how to interpret it) than other text, then how? And why? If we weren't intended to read a text as a text, then why put it in the form of a text? Why not oral tradition? I don't know if that is a good thought, I also think that maybe scripture wasn't intended to replace oral tradition but to explain it or contextualize it. Then I think that Paul's letters could be the written form of the oral tradition meant to interpret the gospels? I guess I don't know. I'll stick with reading the bible the way my tradition has taught me, and learn from other traditions.
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