|
||
|
A Study in Hebrews Text: Deuteronomy 6 “First, God. God is the subject of life. God is foundational for living. If we don’t have a sense of the primacy of God, we will never get it right, get life right, get our lives right. Not God at the margins; not God as an option; not God on the weekends. God at center and circumference; God first and last: God, God, God”. Eugene Peterson [Message: Intro to Genesis] ● As a youngster, I remember being at family gatherings and it seemed that at a glance, in every direction, stories were being told; memories exchanged. They always seemed to somehow ‘draw you in’; peak your curiosity. They always seemed to evoke some sort of emotional response (no one sat unmoved as if they were being read a recipe). Many of them I had heard before and many were being relayed as they had heard them from previous generations. ● But, I don’t ever remember those stories being presented in a cohesive fashion; a means by which one might say, ‘This is who we are; this is our story’. Frankly, although I recognized that those people were ‘relatives’, it did not necessarily compel me to feel ‘connected’ to them. The stories they told about our family have not been rehearsed; there appeared to be no real significance attached. The Bible is letters, parables, sermons, poems, teachings, biographies and songs; but, interestingly, the predominant literary style of the Bible is narrative. God loves a good story! ● The Bible is an ‘epic’ story; a larger than life narrative. It’s a ‘story’ told in a ‘series of stories’. Failure to know the story will result in an absence of understanding concerning the intent of the author (what was God up to?) a lack of sufficient sense of our own identity (who are we), and failure to fulfill our role (what’s the storyline? What’s my part?) ● It’s one of the most widely read compilations in the world, while simultaneously being one of the most difficult and misunderstood; for a few reasons: 1) Historical and cultural reasons- it was written to a different time and different culture. We’ve either responded by noting its irrelevance and ignoring it, or we’ve attempted to make every detail applicable to our lives today [taken some obscure, ancient, cultural practice/expression and attempted to make application]. 2) Structural reasons- in an attempt to take what was primarily an ‘oral tradition’ and make it more widely available, it was put into print. Unfortunately, when it was put into print, we added chapter headings and verses which caused us to read incomplete portions and fragmented stories [if you’ve ever noticed, some verses are only part of a sentence]. FYI: first entire English Bible to have verse divisions was Geneva Bible, 1560. The natural tendency, then, would be to approach it like a ‘Chilton’s Auto Manual’ (or textbook) than a narrative [textbooks provide readily identifiable answers- they don’t bore us with the details. Narrative provides all forms of colorful language and seemingly useless detail]. Difficulties: ~ Due to our fascination with breaking everything down to its smallest part, we are no longer able to recognize or convey a ‘cohesive’ story. When we do, the Bible becomes more a book of propositions (A + B =) than a story of God and his interaction with his Creation [philosophy offered in Enlightenment: it was our attempt to explain reality apart from God]. ~ Once the story loses ‘cohesiveness’ (detached from the other stories) it becomes purely subjective. It was able to maintain some sense of acceptability because it was offered in ‘community’, where error could be quickly corrected; everyone heard the same story. ~ Our tendency is to ‘lift’ out specific components, isolating them from the narrative, and ‘reinventing the story’ (telling ‘our version’ of it!) Imagine reading your favorite novel in such a way that you read one paragraph from the beginning, then tomorrow a page or two from the middle. How would you make sense of the story? ● In some aspects, that tendency is difficult to avoid. 3) Presumption- a way of ‘determining in advance where we will end’. We cannot avoid presumption, but we can remain open to a different approach which allows the story to develop and offer itself to us. Hebrews: Characteristics of the writing… ~ The original recipients, as well as the author, are both unknown, but the title, “Hebrews” [descendents of one of Noah’s sons, Shem; a term used to refer to the ancestors of the Jewish people] and assumptions of the author seem to imply that they were Jewish Christians, possibly part of the ‘diaspora’ (scattering; dispersion) ~ The writer seems to proceed under the assumption that his hearers were very familiar with the structures and practices of Judaism. ~ They were largely second generation followers of Christ (13:7); had been following Christ for some time- long enough to be entrusted to pass along to pass along faith (5:12); people who had, at one time, endured great adversity and persecution for their faith in Jesus (10:32-34). ~ But, now with the delay in Messiah’s return, many were discouraged, distancing themselves from others in the community (10:25), wondering if they had made a mistake, if they overestimated Jesus?! Was he not really the unique Son of God and merely a creature; certainly superior to other angelic beings, but not who the Apostles said he was? ►The story of God found in the Bible is meant to challenge the prevailing story being told. Historically, every people group, every culture has had a ‘story’ they told which they believed best explained ‘reality’. Reading, telling and living the story of God in our current culture confronts evil and exposes the lie. The message of God: “You’re living in the wrong story!” ►Knowledge is only beneficial when it produces wisdom… life the way it was meant to work. Knowing the story is not an end in itself. The story captures our hearts and peaks our imagination. It invites us in. It provides a storyline compelling enough to cause us to abandon our own story for his. The Bible is not just a fragmented collection of unrelated circumstances or coincidental events; rather, it is the story of God from creation to new creation. It’s there so that the Creator might be rightly recognized and that through our participation in his story, we might be restored. “God” is used, on average, once every seventy-three words; few other NT books speak of God so often. ►Read the Bible as if it were a story to be lived, not a point to be made. We remember stories, we memorize facts. I can’t remember algebraic equations I studied in High School, but I can recall, with vivid detail, events that happened when I was a child; I don’t remember the prime interest rate during July of 1982, but I remember what Lynette was wearing when I first saw her. Stories let us use the other side of our brain! (the ‘right’ side). The right side of our brain is ‘big-picture oriented’, imaginative, responds to symbols and images, has an easier time believing. ►We are actually created to think in stories, but trained to think in propositions. It’s the most fundamental way we communicate. The Bible can never be reduced to a list of proposals to be memorized and rehearsed, but must be understood as a story to be heard, entered, rehearsed and told again.
►It is true that we can’t really know God without the Bible, but we can’t really understand the Bible without God. I cannot have an authentic relationship with God without having a relationship to his Word (Scripture). Without the scriptures, our understanding of God is limited. But, we can’t really know the Bible without knowing God. The Bible is both the ‘actions’ and the ‘words’ of God; God’s words often lend understanding to his actions. (i.e. in order for me to understand the ‘faithfulness of God’- repeatedly rehearsed in the Scriptures, I must not only read how God has interacted with humanity, but listen to what he says those actions mean. Christ’s death is the action of God; “But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners” (Romans 5:8) are his words of explanation)
►The story is not about
humanity taking the initiative to discover God, but God taking the initiative to
reveal himself to humanity. |
