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Posts Tagged ‘textures’

all and nothing: Ephesians 2

Posted in textures, tagged , , on October 3, 2007| Leave a Comment »

Pauline phrases reverberate in literal translation through hearts and minds that have been attuned to the apostle’s vocabulary and cadence. Take, for example, the alliterative spotlight that Paul casts upon divine life with a clause that anchors human destiny to the motor that is divine love: ‘out of the great love with which he loved us’. (more…)

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great expectations: Ephesians 1

Posted in textures, tagged , , on September 29, 2007| Leave a Comment »

Were Paul the misanthropic curmudgeon he is often taken for, we would not have lines like this:

In Christ we have also obtained an inheritance, having been destined according to the purpose of him who accomplishes all things according to his counsel and will, so that we, who were the first to set our hope on Christ, might live for the praise of his glory.

People bogged down in what is wrong—or will be if so-and-so is left to run things—do not make statements like this. These words and the lines that surround them are full to bursting with hope for those whom ‘the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ’ has called. Indeed they speak about placing hope in Christ so that Paul and the Ephesians might grow into the rather large stature that it is their vocation to realize. (more…)

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high-minded: Isaiah 10-12

Posted in textures, tagged , , on September 27, 2007| Leave a Comment »

The moral architecture of the book of Isaiah is one of its sustaining threads, holding together deep complexity by the persistence of a singular theme. With its recurrent promise that ‘YHWH alone shall be exalted on that day’, the book establishes that when things are as they should be, YHWH is lifted up and all his creatures stand below him in proper submission. Indeed, chapter six’s vision tells us that the view from the heavenly throne room is just this way. Only matters on earth have gone temporarily akilter. (more…)

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double edge: Isaiah 7-9

Posted in textures, tagged , , on September 26, 2007| Leave a Comment »

YHWH’s proximity is an inconvenient wealth.

The Lord’s covenanting labors with Israel in the desert before Sinai are paradigmatic of the demanding consolation that his presence brings to a people with whom he chooses to live in close quarters. Rightfully, the Israelites of the Exodus narrative have a difficult time deciding whether this is precisely what they wanted. (more…)

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exasperation: Isaiah 4-6

Posted in textures, tagged , , on September 25, 2007| Leave a Comment »

In spite of its structural intricacy, the Song of the Vineyard in the book of Isaiah’s fifth chapter comes across with formidable blunt force. As parables go, it is brief. One surmises that the prophet led his listeners along the path of a well-told tale, then hit them in the gut with its damning burden. (more…)

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here and there: Isaiah 2-3

Posted in textures, tagged , , on September 24, 2007| Leave a Comment »

Isaiah’s complex journey will celebrate beloved Zion even as it works out a deep, genetic yearning for distant nations to know and serve Israel’s God. The book releases its energy in both centripetal and centrifugal form without denying either motion, as though gathering opposing forces into one insistent, polychromatic song. The book of Isaiah is not simple. Neither is it complicated. Instead, it is complex, a careful gathering of layers into one coherent statement that stretches the imagination while nourishing the reader’s capacity to allow multiple plates to spin. Attention to any one does not cancel out the rotation of the others. (more…)

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self-identity issues: Galatians 1

Posted in textures, tagged , , on September 23, 2007| 4 Comments »

Lots of people don’t like Paul.

This Christian apostle seems too pushy, too assured of his own authority, even too misogynist for admiration. We’ve known too many like him, some readers conclude. Indeed, his model has produced a heap of ornery practitioners of his religion.

Thanks, but no thanks. (more…)

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Zion become Gomorrah: Isaiah 1

Posted in reseña, tagged , , on September 23, 2007| Leave a Comment »

The first chapter of the book called Isaiah is best seen as an anthology of words of the prophet, collected here to lend the reader some glimpse of the tone and plot of the long, diverse book that follows. The book as such begins with the ‘second’ heading at chapter two, verse one. (more…)

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a song in the heart of a woman: Song of Solomon 4-6

Posted in textures, tagged , , on September 22, 2007| 1 Comment »

Dan Fogelberg, that troubador of emotive angst, sang memorably that …

There’s a song in the heart of a woman
That only the truest of loves can release.

The love of the Shulamite’s Solomon has with regard to this woman’s song done exactly what Fogelberg exhorts: ‘Set it free.’ (more…)

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strength most perfect: 2 Corinthians 12

Posted in textures, tagged , , , on September 21, 2007| Leave a Comment »

Anyone inclined to doubt that the apostle Paul was a complex man who enmeshed himself in the most complicated relational webs need only peruse 2 Corinthians 12 to be set right. In a discourse impregnanted with the most dazzling emotional transparency, Paul struggles to articulate the relationship that makes restoration of equilibrium between him and the Corinthians a non-negotiable objective. (more…)

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