Threads from Henry's Web

Category: Uncategorized

  • Narrative from the Pentateuch

    I frequently recommend reading the story of the exodus through conquest as a kind of connected narrative, trying to learn from the stories. The problem I’ve discovered is that many people skip over the ceremonial and legal parts of the Bible and thus often miss important narrative points that are interleaved with those elements.

    Ultimately, I recommend that you read the whole thing, but for those who may prefer to try something a bit lighter, here’s a connected path, with chapters to be skipped in [brackets] along with a summary of what you’re missing there. There will be occasional short genealogies or legal items of just a few verses that I include with the reading.

    Genesis

    1-4:16 [4:17-22 – Kenite genealogy]
    [5 – Patriarchal genealogies]
    6-9
    [10 – Table of Nations]
    11:1-9
    [11:10-26 – Second patriarchal genealogy]
    11:27-32
    12-24
    [25:1-18 – Abraham and Keturah + genealogy]
    25:19-35:29
    [36 – Esau’s genealogy]
    37-50

    Exodus

    1-20 (note that I include the giving of the 10 commandments in the narrative)
    [21-24:8 – Law and covenant]
    24:9-18
    [25-31 – Instructions for the Tabernacle]
    32-34
    [35-40:33 – Regulations and building the tabernacle]
    40:34-38

    Leviticus

    [1-8 – Instructions for various offerings]
    9-10
    [11-27 – Various laws, feasts, sacrifices and other regulations]

    Numbers

    [1-8 – Census, along with various duties and laws]
    9-14
    [15 – More laws and ceremonial regulations]
    16-17
    [18-19 – Priestly Responsibilities and the ceremony of the red heifer]
    20-25
    [26 – New census]
    27
    [28-30 – Various laws]
    31-33
    [34-36 – various laws, list of tribal leaders]

    Deuteronomy

    1-3
    [4-30 – repetition of the law]
    31-34

    I do not mean to imply that the legal and ceremonial sections are less important; far from it. I believe they have great spiritual insights. But those who are just starting to read the Pentateuch might do well to start just a bit lighter.

    Let me also recommend my essay Interpreting Stories for use in connection with these narratives.

  • For Us to Fulfill All Righteouness

    I noticed something in my reading time this morning that has presumably been staring me in the face through many readings of the passage. In fact, this is the 14th morning in a row that I’ve read this as part of this week’s lectionary, so I’ve had plenty of opportunity. The passage is Matthew 3:13-17, and specifically verse 15.

    But suddenly as I was thinking about just why it was that Jesus should get baptized it occurred to me first that if it was his Father’s will that he get baptized, even though he had no sin in need of forgiveness, and then didn’t get baptized, well, obviously that would have been sin. But I thought that was just a tricky way of stating what was obvious from the start.

    Then I thought. “appropriate for us.” Who is “us?” John and Jesus? Jesus and the crowd around who didn’t participate? What about everybody, us, including me? In the sense that we are all called to be baptized, surely that’s true. But then it occurred to me that Jesus is here identifying himself with us in our baptism. When we are then baptized, we identify with him in ours. He’s so much a part of us that he does everything that we’re doing.

    It struck me that one of the difficulties I see in intercessory prayer on behalf of a congregation is that often our 21st century psyches don’t really identify with the congregation. We do “identificational repentance” without really identifying with the ones we pray for. When Daniel prays for Israel in Daniel 9, it is clear that he is part of Israel, and repents for sins for which he feels the guilt as part of his people. When we pray for our churches or nations, it is often with a sense of praying for their sins, because we haven’t (in our view) contributed.

    It was there all the time, but this morning I received a new blessing of feeling just how much Jesus identifies with us lowly folk way down here. At the same time I was challenged to identify more with my brothers and sisters in prayer, thought, and action.

  • Tools Link

    On Not Being a Sausage has Bible Software: You get what you pay for, regarding Bible software. Shocking, but true!

  • Psalm 100

    John Hobbins has an excellent post on the structure of Psalm 100.

  • Christian Carnival #CXCVII

    . . . has been posted at Crossroads. My contribution this time was from my Threads blog. Check out the many excellent posts in this carnival.

  • Christian Carnival CXCVI

    Well, the Christian Carnival is back to this little corner of the blogosphere, and I’m going to take a theme from the church property and locate the posts somewhere on a church campus. There will obviously be some choices to make, and you might disagree, but remember that you can discuss theology in the parking lot, from the pulpit, or in a Sunday School room just as easily. I may move a post or so just to keep things even!

    There’s some good material. I trust you will be blessed reading it.

    Note: Because of some posts that may have been just too late for last week’s carnival, I allowed some posts that were one day outside the window, but no further. If your post was left out, please don’t hesitate to link in the comments section. I get e-mail notifications from there as quickly as I do by any other method.

    Sunday School Rooms

    Dana presents Western heritage without Christianity? posted at Principled Discovery.

    Tom Gilson presents Coming Soon To Your Child’s School: Hate for God and Church, Heavily Advertised posted at Thinking Christian.

    John presents Another View on Evangelicals Cracking Up posted at Brain Cramps for God. He looks at an article by Joe Carter that offers a principled way to examine the political currents in Evangelicalism.

    Jon Swift presents The Mean Girl Faces of Islamo-Fascism posted at Jon Swift. He says: Even though I am a former (that is, perfected) Jew, I don’t think that I will ever again be able to pass a headscarved Muslim girl in the street again without panicking that she might make a “mean girl face” at me.

    Jody Neufeld (my wife!) presents . . . despised and rejected by men . . . on her blog Jody Along the Path. She looks at the suffering of Jesus and its meaning to us.

    The Community Life Center

    Annette presents This made me laugh! posted at Fish and Cans. She says: Women are different than men….. hmmm…. go figure! 🙂 Sorry, whenever people make discoveries like that it makes me laugh, it seems so ordinary to me.

    Richard H. Anderson presents Waitng on tables, Part 4 posted at dokeo kago grapho soi kratistos Theophilos.

    ChrisB presents Another Halloween question posted at Homeward Bound.

    livinforhim316 presents Christian Dating Experiences » Practical Ways To Keep God In The Center posted at Christian Dating Experiences.

    Martin LaBar presents The Golden Compass, by Philip Pullman on Sun and Shield. It is his reaction to the current e-mail campaign against the upcoming movie, _The Golden Compass_, based on a book by Pullman. He states that Pullman does, indeed, seem to be a militant atheist. However, he thinks that there is a much larger danger from the media.

    Adam presents The Faughn Family of Four: A Shot at… posted at The Faughn Family of Four. Another reality show that appears to have some questionable features.

    David Balderston presents Helping Fire Victims | Life In San Diego posted at David Balderston.

    The Parking Lot

    Don Bosch of The Evangelical Ecologist gives us Life Lessons from Butterflies. He says: Christians often think of caterpillars and butterflies as nature’s “before” and “after” example of how God transformed our lives at Calvary. But God still has lots to teach people about living life like butterflies. This week the Evangelical Ecologist hosts a post called Life Lessons from Butterflies by Rives Duncan. I hope it’s a blessing to you!

    This week at Light Along the Journey, John explores a Biblical definition of love in his post Better Than Warm Squishies.

    Matthew Anderson presents Mere Orthodoxy » Principles, Pragmatics and the Vote: The Impotence of the Religious Right posted at Mere Orthodoxy.

    Kevin presents Desert Wisdom – On Prayer and Activism posted at Everyday Liturgy. He encourages the new movements in Evangelicalism to dig to the root of the problems in American Christianity—and change by recovering the spiritual traditions that (ancient) Christianity has to offer.

    For my own entry, I’m using one from Threads from Henry’s Web, which I rarely do. It is The Joys and Sorrows of being Ex-Seventh-day Adventist. I think it makes interesting parking lot conversation as we meet, greet, chat, and say good bye!

    The Sanctuary

    Jeremy Pierce presents Hate and Murder in Deuteronomy 19 posted at Parableman. Jesus declares hate to be subject to the same judgment as murder. This isn’t really a revision of the law, though, as some claim. Deuteronomy 19 connects punishment for murder with hatred in the heart.

    David presents The Serenity Prayer posted at Frozen Toothpaste.

    Doug presents Ostracization within the Church posted at Bounded Irrationality. Are churches becoming more cliquish? Could this be harming the Church’s outreach?

    Ken Brown at C.Orthodoxy presents Divine Invisibility.” Though many atheists insist that if God exists, he should make it obvious by providing nearly constant miracles, this objection is called into question by their simultaneous claim that belief in God makes us unable to live and learn for ourselves. Constant miracles, while of only dubious value for proving the existence of God, would remove both our ability and motivation to learn for ourselves.

  • Christian Carnival CXCV

    . . . has been posted at Everyday Liturgy.

    My submission for this carnival was one I wrote for wife’s devotional blog. Next week, I will be hosting the carnival here.

  • Christian Carnival #193

    . . . has been posted at Lingamish. Good job, pretty pictures, interesting stuff, nuff said!

  • Bread and Wine of Luke 17:5-10

    I know this is late for those preaching from the lectionary, but through my Technorati watch on the tag [tag]lectionary[/tag], I found this post on Bread and Wine. I think the post helps clarify the passage very well.

    With reference to God’s laws, I would add that in general what God has told us to do, God’s commands, provide a good way to live in the world. We have the reward of a life of integrity and of reaping what we sow. What part of that also provides us with a basis on which to demand that God give us eternal life? That is grace.

  • Psalm 137 around the Web

    I have a tendency to get caught up in an idea. When I started adding a lectionary tag to posts that I thought were relevant to upcoming lectionary readings my intention was to simply tag things I was going to write anyhow, and also to encourage myself to write a little bit more about my devotional reading. Then I thought I might round up some related posts.

    On Psalm 137, which I referenced yesterday on my Threads blog, Lingamish beat me to it by listing a number of excellent posts related to the Psalm in his post Psalm 137: A Dash of Theodicy.

    Besides the posts he links to, I’d like to call attention to this post by Chris Heard at Higgaion. It deals with much more than just Psalm 137, but the methods used in dealing with other materials may be helpful in responding to this Psalm. He also correctly points out how often attacks on the Bible due to issues such as violence result from poor hermeneutics. Much of the debate on the inspiration and value of the Bible is carried out at a very simplistic level.

    I should have read Chris Heard’s post earlier, but I simply never got to it. I found it via Bob’s Log, in which he is logging his work on the Psalms. He has a brief post on Psalm 137 here, and you can find his translation chart here. Bob goes a good deal deeper into the details of the Psalms than I normally do, and though I rarely comment, I find reading his material quite helpful.

    Randy Ridenour, a mobilized Army Reserve chaplain, gives a very special take on this passage from “the rivers of Babylon.” Relevant interpretation can come in many different ways.

    Keith McIlwain finds the passage very relevant:

    I love Psalm 137, which refers to the Babylonian Exile, because it gives me permission to be angry at times and sad at times. Few things annoy me more than a continually happy Christian. Life can sometimes stink; sometimes, life is painful and makes us angry; sometimes, life is so painful, we want to cry. Psalm 137 gives us permission to go through these moments of agony.

    Perhaps those who find this hard to preach from should consider the reality that is reflected by the Psalm. That won’t make it easy, but it may make it necessary.