Biblical Jazz

The prophecy described in the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament was rooted in religious experience; it was a type of mantic wisdom. Further, this form of mantic wisdom provided an epistemological strategy for humans to find out from God the source of human destiny. The world of the Bible does not so much describe the Sybil or Delphic oracle but rather a combination of divination and prophecy.  Biblical prophecy was a resource for that community to know what to do. What would God have us do was answered by the prophet and the wise person. Some have argued that he Hebrew prophets were largely spirit mediums.

The questions what are we to do persists. The wrist bands WWJD what would Jesus do are not as popular as they once were, what is, that is why they call it popular culture. Popular and transient both drink from the same stream. A Baylor University  student, TJ,  wrote an interesting blog post “Ancient Thoughts with a Modern Twist.”  TJ raises the question about the contemporary oracle. Could it be that the ancient oracle has been replaced by Google. Jeff Jarvis author of What Would Google Do? would agree.  John Battelle in his book The Search, argues that Google has shaped the nightmare of today’s economy.

Earlier this month I wondered about the role of the biblical theologian as a public intellectual.  I crowd sourced the topic through Facebook. First I want to present a little discussion on the definitions. Public intellectual is one who interprets her/his research for public consumption. One wonders how the scholar and the public intellectual fit together. I wondered and continue to wonder how the identity of the scholar and the public intellectual overlap.

Rolf A. Jacobson “I don’t think public intellectuals wear cowboy hats.”

Beth Tanner has already taught a course on the topic. She said “I actually have a whole class on it.  I teach the senior seminar in Public Theology.  Let me know your email and I can send you the syllabus and tell you about some of the things we have done.”

Kent Richards retired professor and executive director of the Society of Biblical Literature had some interesting observations about biblical scholars as public intellectuals.

“Very interesting comments above, thanks.  First, reflecting on the frequently stated concerns about “public theologians.”  Many us bemoan the fact that we have few colleagues who fit that role.  Figures like R. Niebuhr are not common (but they weren’t then!).  Others say that there have been few biblical “types” who have ever filled that role.  I wonder if we need to think about the role of the Internet.  Are we doing a better job there?  Maybe not.

Second, developing “new” habits that I was told about 40 years ago and which I have continued might be a starting point.  Read and reflect on regularly (every week) political opinions in a wide range of perspectives, not just the ones we like.  Place those thoughts in the context of our religious and theological readings.  This practice can get us into an internal dialogue that might lead to public expressions, not to mention create a more knowledgeable base.”

His idea of “new habits” is well worth pursuing.

Judye Pistiole a Presbyterian pastor wrote “i write a column every other week for the local newspaper. got the publisher to agree I could write about anything I wanted and say whatever I wanted. so sometimes i just write funny stuff and sometimes i engage the topics that i think need to be thought about. last week talked about our moral obligation as Christians to care for the sick. the week before it was humor about being a foodie.”

Lisa Knaggs a Presbyterian activist based in Austin Texas remarks. “glad you’re thinking about this- maybe if more pastors were allowed to get out of church and into the community (I think of Chuck Meyer, former chaplain at St. David’s hospital in Austin) then their lives are more engaged in public experience and therefore naturally, dialog…”

Jim Hardenbrook Church of the Brethren pastor and former moderator of the Church of the Brethren “I believe that is what Eugene Peterson calls for in most of his books about the pastorate.  How do you define “public intellectual”?”

Larry Grim commented “One hopes, for at least 20 minutes every Sunday morning! But seriously, I don’t think that ideal (unfortunately) as widespread as it once was — what about Bonhoeffer?”

I am trying to figure out why I have a visceral response to bible lower case instead of the proper Bible. We capitalize the word God because it is a proper noun. I thought it was capitalized because it was a reference to the deity.  If that reasoning would have proven true then Bible and Scripture would be capitalized by virtue of their function as an extension of God. Instead it seems that one could argue that Bible, Scripture receive capitalization because they too are proper nouns. The SBL Handbook of Style makes the point that “the name of a genre in not capitalized.” (4.4.5 p.19) So I would argue for the capitalization of the word Bible for three reasons, first it is an extension to the Godhead. Yes that is a confessional reason, but I like it nonetheless. Second it is a proper noun. Third in most cases it is not used generically in seminary writings such as term papers and the like.  So this is why I wince when students write bible when they should write Bible.

This semester we have been looking for models of blogging and podcasts.  Christian Century has created an aggregated blog, ccblogs namely a blog that syndicates the entries of other blogs.

This morning the thought came to me what about Carol’s podcast God Complex. Carol is the author of Tribal Church. The God Complex radio blog accompanies the podcast. I knew Carol as a student at Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary before she was a pastor and author. Carol is part of the ccblogs network where she continues to explore church and technology.

Scriptures 1 reads the articles on marriage in Bible dictionaries as part of their information literacy project. As part of the class a small group will lead us through a marriage simulation. Scriptures 1 develops an understanding of marriage in the pre-exilic period. Scriptures 2 examines in some detail marriage and inter-marriage. The language of endogamy and exogamy seem to become even more politicized in the Persian period.

What I would like to see is folk from Scriptures 1 who have recently read the articles on marriage share their insights with the Scriptures 2 group. Likewise how would the persons in Scriptures 2 provide suggestions for the group leading the marriage simulation?

Texts that shape us. These two Deuternomy 26:5-9 and Romans 8:38-39 both come from my preaching past. One sermon a sad excuse and another a sad occasion.

It was about this time of year. My first semester in seminary folks asked where are you from? Now where are you from? Wichita Falls, North Carolina, Berkeley, Los Angeles, Pittsburgh Malaysia, Ghana, Korea, Sioux City and Sioux Falls North Dakota.  Our first text broaches this same question.

The first year of seminary I took biblical Hebrew. As part of that course I wrote my first exegesis paper on the small historical credo Deuteronomy 26:4-9-11. I wrote a twenty-six page paper. That wasn’t so bad the professor was prepared for such exuberance. When I was asked to preach in my home church the summer after my first year in seminary I was excited about showing them what I had learned in seminary. So I would preach on Deuteronomy 26:5-9. But a twenty-six page paper does not equal a fifteen to twenty minute sermon.

Gerhard von Rad was so caught up by this passage that he wanted to attribute this to the very words of Moses. Deuteronomy is a series of sermons given with the Promised Land in sight. This was the big tent revival before the mission project, the entry into the Promised Land.  The Hebrew children were about to become Israelites.  He argued that this passage established the core identity of the earliest Hebrews.

Where are you from? is a metaphor of relationship. The statement of genealogy functions in much the same way.  So sometimes the question will morph into the form where do your people come from? My father is from …

Let’s look at just the nouns in the first. An Aramaean was my father.  The Aramaeans are a west Semitic semi-nomadic who lived in upper Mesopotamian. They were never an empire.  However, they brought language to the Babylonians and Assyrians.  This confession indicates a willingness to say for generations. We are not from here, to some degree.  But at another level we are firmly planted in this land. This dual identity is part of the identity of God’s people.

It is as if the writer is saying I am African-American, Irish American, Chinese American, and Italian American. For these are appellations that make the point that at one level we are from here, but at the same time we are from somewhere else.

Whether one uses the metaphor form Psalm 1 one planted. Or the existentialist metaphor of “thrown” that point is the same we are both from here and not from here simultaneously. Augustine in his classic City of God makes the point that to some degree the Christian is a participant in the city of God at the same time responsible to the human city.

One of the hallmarks of Truett is the commitment to participate in God’s mission and the missional church. We recognize that God is doing something all around the world that pushes us to understand global Christianity. In order to do that we must hold the affirmation that we are from here but on the other hand we are never from here.

Let’s now turn to the modifier. Many translations render this qal active participle obed as “wandering”

Wandering.

We know this as itinerant people. Some of you said in your introductions that you were from everywhere; you grew up in a military or missionary family that lived in many places. Methodist’s polity takes intenerating as a mark of ministry. This is a secondary meaning for this word.

Benedict Otzen in his article on the word in TDOT reminds us that W.F. Albright rendered this as “fugitive.” Imagine the ancestors as fugitive slaves as Toni Morrison does in Beloved or ex-patriot southerners as Faulkner’s Absalom Absalom.

However, this is the less frequent meaning for this word. More often it is rendered as perishing. Death, some translator will rendered this “an Aramaean at the point of death or destruction.”

Death, David Miles, Prescott Williams, Minva Reid, Tom Mullen, Sheri Fecher, Oswald Goering, Stan Hall, Jack Stotts, Doug Adams these are the funerals that I have attended over the last few years. But today I remember the funeral of Vincent Reid. He was the son of Faye and Greg Reid. Friends from school in Dayton Ohio transplanted to the golden hills of California. Their only son of their rocky marriage died of SIDS. They had neither church home, nor many friends so they asked me to conduct the funeral.

What text for this moment? I thought about 1 Corinthians 15. Their key concern was what will happen to Vincent and later what would happen to them. The text for the occasion was Romans 8.

Romans 8:38-39

I am persuaded, convinced.  Romans 8:38 pe,peismai Rom 8:38; 14:14; 15:14 2 Tim 1:5,12. Of these the most interesting parallel is Romans 14:14 where Paul announces that he is convinced persuaded that nothing is unclean in and of itself.  Augustine will follow Paul on this point.

The list of pairs ends with neither the phrase nor any other created thing. Could it be that Paul is telling us something about the nature of God as well as the nature of human experience?  Let me put it this way, God has made everything that has been made. Moreover, God has made nothing that can separate us from God’s redeeming love 28,35,37. Moreover, Michel points out that in Jewish tradition love is wrapped up with election.

Dunn maintains that Jesus is the embodiment of God’s love. Can we like Gorman assert that the cruciformity of Christ is the embodiment of God’s love? If we make such a bold assertion what implications does that have for our lives and work?

The rhetorical move here is to rehearse an assertion introduced by the phrase I am convinced/persuaded. After this one finds a series of pairs. If we had time it would be good to go over the entire list.  But the challenge was made. What one soon observes is that neither plus neither and nor plus nor equals nothing.  God’s eternal and ever present choice for our salvation is what gives this passage its power.

At one level now you are here at Truett and you are from here. On another level you are a global Christian committed to the worldwide Christian movement.  You are convinced in this mission for nothing can separate you from the love of God demonstrated in the cruciformity of Jesus Christ.

The singer Lyle Lovett has a song I enjoy. You’re not from Texas but Texas loves you anyway.

Tonight I do not want to write a long entry as much as I want to share some treasures I have found.  Our class is off to a good start. I have found insightful questions and thought provoking observations. I want to add to this mix a blog entry by Gardner Campbell on the nature of academic blogging. I found this helpful piece on the nature of blogging for class. Enjoy! Pastors/theologians work in new media. The writers of the Frankfurt school would describe us as knowledge workers.  Scott Rosenberg explains how the task of knowledge workers has been transformed by blogs.

Dizzy Gillespie was born on October 21. Gerhard von Rad was born on October 21. I was born on October 21. This confluence of birthdays may demonstrate that the intersection of culture and biblical studies.

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