From Creation to Abraham

I am preaching through a series on Abraham during the Sunday night services at the church I attend. I have been very excited about the subject matter, and planned to teach on this ever since I took a Hebrew exegesis class of Genesis 12-36 last Spring. Abraham occupies such a central place in story in Genesis. The earth is created, people sin, murder, fill the earth with violence, God curses the ground and wipes the slate clean, only have to people refill the earth with the same indolence. Abraham is called out of the cursed humanity, bearing the burden of having a barren wife. Sarah at this point represents as a walking parable, the barren, hopeless state of humanity after Creation. Abraham is called out of his own family line, led to a new land, and given a great promise by God. "In you shall all families of the earth be blessed..." The 'good' creation from the garden which was 'cursed' when sin entered the world now finds a focal redemptive point in Abraham. Abraham's faith is not the cause of this blessing, however, as much as God's faithfulness to his own covenant. That is the central point of Genesis. God will be faithful to his intent for Creation, and faithful to his word as Abraham's God. God is created a new humanity, that will be gathered in Abraham for blessing even as he scatters them from Shinar in a curse of chaos.

In the Oven

It's been a while since I've posted anything. I don't think people read this so I guess I do it for myself mainly. I like to write and collect my thoughts so I can reference it later. Life has been hectic. I've had to adjust to a fiance, then a wife, then a pregnant wife, and all of the wonders and labors those things have brought. I need to write more, so I can remember later how this all felt; fearful and joyful hand-in-hand. That's my New Year's Resolution perhaps. Write more.

Micah 7:8-9

Micah 7:8-9 Rejoice not over me, O my enemy; when I fall, I shall rise; when I sit in darkness, the LORD will be a light to me. (9) I will bear the indignation of the LORD because I have sinned against him, until he pleads my cause and executes judgment for me. He will bring me out to the light; I shall look upon his vindication.

Life's razor edge

There are a plethora of quotes to this effect by a great many pessimists that "on the day you are born you begin to die." It's true that you only learn how to live as you learn how to die. That's why so many people find at death's doorstep the renewed insight of what they should have lived for. Then we have this: "whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it." And we wonder why our most secure moments are our unhappiest? Sometimes you want life to cut you, and make you bleed a bit, so you'll be reminded of the valuable deaths that should occur day by day to things and tv shows and fashion and other crap that erodes our ability to really digest what a meaningful, God-glorifying life might be like. It is no coincidence that the most meaningful relationship with a family member I had was one where I thought the man was about to die for years. I never left things unsaid. I rarely passed up a moment.

Looking forward to Asia

Sometimes I catch a scent of something on the wind (I'll not lie, it's usually the scent of rotten vegetation or animal products) and it will remind me of walking around in the 3rd world. It really is a lot different than an American town or city, the smells of food, tea, body odor, rotten food, sewage, animals, perfume, incense, and exhaust all blend together to make this wonderful 3rd world aroma. You really grow to miss it when you are away from it. (When I stepped off the plane in Nicaragua last year the first breath made me think, "Oh, yes! I'm alive now, I can smell the evidence." I know that's wierd...I won't deny it)
Anyhow, I caught a smell like that recently and it made me look forward to Asia this summer. Here are the top 7 things I like about Asia in reverse order.
7. Tea - I can drink it all day, I do drink it most of the day. I bring a suitcase full each time I go so I can have it at home. I love the green tea, the wulong, the pu'er, all of it.
6. Food - Get all the gluttony out of the way early, but it's fresh, healthy, and tastes very good. Even the rat.
5. Hundreds of kids running around playing on the street. I get tired of American kids and their indoor lifestyle with excessive video games (I know I did this too, but I am sorry I did) and their solitary, brooding personalities. It's a joy to walk down a street and hear children laughing. American kids are too over-medicated and over-protected to ever play in large groups laughing anymore.
4. Hospitality - you try to buy a painting from the old lady, she will fix you tea (see #6) and make you sit down and drink it with her, though you speak not a word of her dialect. Your students will try to invite you over for dinner. You can't go near their parents without being offered tea, cigarettes, or anything else.
3. Native believers - you want to see a real Christian? Go find one that can go to jail if they run across the wrong official. And then watch them share Christ with all the people they meet. Where do you think their treasure is? Do you know the Almighty like they know the Almighty?
2. Ethnic worship - you get into the songs. They aren't like Gadsby's hymns, but they'll do.
1. My fiance - Chinese women weren't my thing, until I met one. ;-) I miss her. I'm ready to see her again. I'm ready to take her home.

Genesis in history

I am in a Hebrew exegesis class on Genesis 12-36. The class centers around the life of Abraham and deals with issues of faith and culture in the pre-Israelite land of Canaan. I will write a post perhaps on the faith of Abraham at another point, this rant will deal mainly with issues of scholarship on the book of Genesis and the life of Abraham.

For my faith in Christ to be valid, two conditions (involving Abraham) have to be met.

1. He has to have been a historical person. If Abraham was merely a composite figure*1 (like most German Old Testament scholars believe), or a theological character*2, then nothing Jesus Christ offers me can be true. 1*A composite figure is a character in a story that is made up of pieces of real historical figures. For example, in the sitcom Seinfeld, George Kastanza is a composite character involving real pieces of the writer for the series. 2*A theological character is kind of like an allegorical picture of the theological points a society most values. For example, many German liberal scholars believe the Hebrews prized faith in God's promises even in adverse circumstances, so they invented or embellished a character who was faithful to God's promise even when childless and in old age. The events weren't "real", but they were portrayed to teach virtue, not history.
If Abraham is not a historical person, then there is a problem for the idea of redemption. Abraham enters the story of Genesis at humanity's bleakest point. The flood has killed off almost the entire population, and now the remaining humans detest God's plan for them to be fruitful and fill the earth. They set up an alternative society at Babel in order to rebel against God, and he confuses their languages and sends them scattered. In the midst of the "barrenness" of humanity, a barren couple (Abram and Sarai) are chosen by God to leave their own society. When Genesis 12:1 starts, it is the changing of Genesis from God's scattering of an alienated humanity to his gathering of a redeemed humanity. Abram is the fount of redemption in a historical sense. With him starts the election of a seed that will bless all the nations. Now in Romans, Paul talks about this seed and the promise. God's promise to Abram was not based on keeping a law (that came afterwards), but was based on faith. Therefore, all who believe God relate to his promise the same way Abram did.
If Abram did not exist historically, neither did elective redemption, or God's promise to bless all nations through him. If that promise did not exist, the blessing does not exist, and all nations are still scattered from God.
2. He has to have been truly justified by faith. If he was not historical, or indeed justified by faith (see Genesis 15:6), then my faith in Christ is not valid. If there is no historical precedent for justification by faith apart from works of the law, then there is no validity for present justification by faith apart from works of the law. If Paul's example in Abraham is not historical, then our faith is floating in a sea of subjectivity. Subjective faiths are just wishful thinking. I can believe the pink elephants will bring me eternal happiness, and it will help me feel better if I'm drunk and hallucinating; but let my liver digest the intoxicants and I'm back in a reality that is not benefited by pink elephants. Faith in an ahistorical redemption is just like faith in pink elephants.
Historicity seems to be the most embarrasing aspect of Christianity to most scholars today, yet they don't realize (or either they don't care) that it is essential to its value. An ahistorical Christianity is perhaps the biggest waste of time imaginable. I would not waste one second on a religion that says "lose your life to find it" if in fact there was no true life in the waiting for me once I lost it. If that was the case, we are pitiful among all people (see 1 Cor 15, Paul makes the same point about the resurrection). Abraham is one of the fulcrum points in the Bible in which historicity is non-negotiable.

"so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith. " Gal 3:14

Mystics

I'm sitting in front of my computer with my usual pre-sermon anxiety. I do not get nervous in the usual sense. It is never "fun" to stand before a crowd of people and talk, though it is euphoria-causing at times. But that's not the anxiety. It's the anxiety of being full of information and wanting it to come out soon, in a coherent way. The anxiety a coke can feels after you shake it. I wait for an opening hopefully before the fizz dies down. So to occupy my mind I have some thoughts on what it means to be a "mystic".
A mystic is a person whose experiences with God come at a level not entirely in line with reason. It isn't an unreasonable experience (it usually is), but it isn't communicated to the reason. For example: one doesn't survey the nutritional facts of an apple pie only to satisfactorily take a fork and mathmatically count the calories until the pie is gone. That would be using the reason primarily, but it is not reasonable. No, one takes a pie and eats it to achieve an emotional response because it tastes "dang good". To eat apple pie and like it is reasonable. But the enjoyment is in our tongue and stomach, not our brain's "reason" center. A mystic's taste of God may come from some pretty reasonable things. We may reason that God's glory is in nature, but the reason itself is not the pleasure of it. The pleasure is in beholding and being warmed by the latent "glory" in creation. Reason and mysticism go hand in hand. I see beauty, I feel glory.
It is reasonable to believe God is in my storm, even as the waves lap over the edge of the boat. But it's his embrace in the storm that I feel, not the cold logic that calculates "I will never leave or forsake you" even applies here. My heart feels his love in the cold waves that may take me under any minute. As the boat capsizes and I'm in the surf, his gentleness to my soul now is apparent, though my senses and my reason rebel. His eyes pierce through the written words, and my reason carries it, but my reason does not relish it, something else entirely draws breath from those words. That is where a mystic lives. Not entirely in a text, but not far apart from it. Good grammar carries it, but my heart burns from it, not my mind. I see myself sinking in the water, and with a lungful of water I breathe life. That is mysticism's strength: God in everything; God in nothing. His promises look worlds apart from my circumstances, but they are a perfect meeting place.