Posted in textures, tagged biblical reflection, Corinthians, textures on September 3, 2008| Leave a Comment »
It is common to imagine that Paul’s discussion with the Corinthians in this place is about spiritual gifts or even about glossolalia, the phenomenon of speaking in an unknown language.
It is not.
Paul’s intense concern to help the Corinthian church get the thing right is about selfishness over against a concern for the integrity and maturation of the community. ‘Speaking in tongues’ is merely the occasion. (more…)
Posted in textures, tagged biblical reflection, Proverbs, textures on September 2, 2008| Leave a Comment »
The conventional biblical wisdom found in the book of Proverbs entwines the thread of proximity with that of exertion. That is to say, one of the collection’s principal burdens is to persuade the young man or woman that wisdom is available. Indeed, personified as Lady Wisdom, she stands in the street and calls out to passersby. One need not sail over the horizon to find wisdom. It is right here, right now.
On the other hand, wisdom becomes the province of those who exert heroically constant efforts to acquire it. If it is near, it is not easy. If it is on offer, it is not cheap. To acquire wisdom—this indeed is the noblest of ambitions in the book’s purview—is to commit oneself to the a lifelong pursuit that takes its shape against formidable odds.
It is easy to be foolish. The law of moral entropy, though the Proverbs nowhere use this language, assures us that those who do not battle for wisdom will necessarily end up fools. Wisdom is sweet, but it is not humankind’s destiny. To get wisdom is to swim against the current every day, for a lifetime. There is no end to the effort. Indeed, one of the book’s energizing convictions is that the wise are set up not so much to remain in that status but to get still further wisdom. The book does not worry itself overmuch about the destination. It is far more concerned with wisdom’s path, with the listening, submitting, humbly aggressive practice that brings the prize within reach. (more…)
Posted in textures, tagged biblical reflection, Psalms, textures on September 1, 2008| 2 Comments »
** a wedding gift for J.R. and Molly Friesen, married yesterday in Billings, Montana, USA
The rhythm of life with YHWH includes periods of silence and still others when the only audible sound is a groan. It is the good fortune of those whom YHWH accompanies that this unmelodious moment is, if not short-lived, then at least bound to its season. Despair’s silence and pain’s sigh are conceded their space on the enigmatic score, yet they are not intended to dominate the course from one movement to another nor to usurp the final one.
Rather, the biblical poets alert us to the ambitious, spontaneous eruption of a new song. The thrusting forth of this dance-able melody comes often when least expected and casts all subdominant grief in a new harmonic frame. What a moment ago sounded forth with tyrannical self-confidence is understood now to have been a foil, a prelude, the musical antechamber to ejaculative joy of the kind that no prior musical experience has quite prepared one to encounter. (more…)
Posted in textures, tagged biblical reflection, Psalms, textures on August 31, 2008| Leave a Comment »
* Dedicated to my friend Rev. Robert Eyman, Spokane, Washington, USA
One of the finest of the so-called ‘Hallelujah Psalms’, the one hundred forty-seventh speaks an encouraging word to the broken-hearted among us. The poet angles in on the appropriateness of praise, recognizing that a universe governed in the way this one is ruled has become a venue where gratitude is the fitting response.
How good it is to sing praises to our God;
for he is gracious, and a song of praise is fitting. (Psalm 147:1 NRSV)
One does not arrive at such a response unreflectively. From every corner evidence presents itself that might well seem to render praise anything but the proper sound in a broken world where blood flows too freely and sorrow gathers in silent, menacing clumps. Yet the psalmist has fought his way to a hermeneutical angle from which his gaze takes in reasons for gratitude rather than resentment. He is convinced his angle is the proper one, not a cheap analgesic, no psychological trick crafted merely to dull the pain. (more…)
Posted in textures, tagged biblical reflection, Corinthians, textures on August 28, 2008| Leave a Comment »
Freedom and self-restraint are not often seen walking hand-in-hand. Yet they make the most compelling couple.
When the apostle Paul turns to instructing the Corinthian Christians regarding the best path though the thorn-filled gardens into which they been summoned, he is clear on the matter of freedom. Seldom has a writer who cannot be described as libertine written so lucidly about liberty. One of the astonishing outrages of Christian history is that Paul has so often been fronted as the poster child and enforcer of complex moral hang-ups. In truth, he proves an outlandish failure at those roles. (more…)
Posted in textures, tagged biblical reflection, Psalms, textures on August 17, 2008| Leave a Comment »
If Paul Simon could find only fifty ways to leave his lover, the writer of Psalm 119 clearly trumps him. Verse after verse of this acrostic poem—meaning that the first letter of each line follows the alphabet in a clearly identifiable pattern—lauds YHWH’s word, law, and promise with language usually reserved for romance.
I rejoice at your word like one who finds great spoil. (Psalm 119:162 NRSV)
Although specific lines from this resolutely focused psalm have found their way into Jewish and Christian spirituality, the psalm itself strikes many modern readers as tedious and—dare one say it—a bit obsessive. A poem like this places a premium on form and then works its content to fit. Even a sympathetic reader is likely to conclude when watching the writer reach for say, a fifth line that begins with the letter ‘ayin’, that the dude should give himself a break. (more…)
Posted in textures, tagged biblical reflection, Corinthians, textures on August 15, 2008| Leave a Comment »
The apostle Paul’s relationship with the Corinthian Christians was complex, even prickly. There is more pathos in his letters to this church than in all the others combined, a product of the wrestling for clarity on matters of authority, doctrinal clarity, and appropriate behavior. (more…)
Posted in textures, tagged biblical reflection, Psalms, textures on August 14, 2008| 2 Comments »
It would be a mistake to read into the Psalm’s rhetoric of the soul—in Hebrew, the נפשׁ (nefesh)—Greek conceptions of an invisible, enduring segment of the human creature. That is not in view, not least when the psalmist gives commands to his soul: ‘Praise the Lord, o my soul!’, ‘Awake, my soul!’, and the like. (more…)
Posted in textures, tagged biblical reflection, Corinthians, textures on August 12, 2008| Leave a Comment »
John Stott has helpfully observed that ‘(a)ll progress in the Christian life depends upon a recapitulation of the original terms of one’s acceptance with God.’ Indeed, Christian faith does not feed itself upon novelty—though it has a respectable appetite for surprise—but rather is nourished by recurrent turning to the cross of Christ. That place, the apostle Paul is quick to recognize, represents a platform of the utmost foolishness when measured by the logic of this world. Yet he is sure that the cross’ shadow casts itself upon the firmest of ground, anchored as it is in bedrock that undergirds and will eventually loom large over the less enduring landscapes of this age. (more…)
Posted in textures, tagged biblical reflection, Samuel, textures on August 10, 2008| Leave a Comment »
Mephiboseth, I was recently reminded by an elderly woman, lived half his life in terror. Dropped by his nurse at five years of age, we next find him crippled and living in Transjordan, far from power and—it would seem—from trouble. Though his life in Davidide circles will seldom prove simple, he becomes in 2 Samuel 9 the beneficiary of uncommon kindness. (more…)
Canter Bridge 