Ten Questions about the Bible

Jendi Reiter wanted to know what my answers to these questions are. So here we go.

1. State briefly what you believe about the Bible. I believe the Bible is the people of God’s theological confession of faith. This is how God came to us, started a relationship, and continues that relationship.

2. How is the Bible inspired? I believe in the plenary inspiration of Scripture, which means I believe the Bible contains all truth necessary for faith and Christian living.

3. So is the book of Judges inspired, or only the Gospels? Yes, I believe the book of Judges is inspired. Most of it is a manual on how not to live, and the danger of everyone doing what is right in their own eyes.

4. How is the Bible authoritative? The Bible is authoritative in all things pertaining to faith and salvation. I don’t believe the cultural institutions of the day are authoritative today (like patriarchy and stoning someone for working on the Sabbath). That was the culture God had to work with and should not be taken as authoritative or inspired.

5. Is the Bible a human book? It is both a human and divine book. I don’t believe God zapped people and dictated through them. I believe God revealed God’s self to the people, and inspired them to write what they experienced. I believe it’s the faith community’s confession of faith in this God, and how this God has a relationship with us throughout history. It is both divine and human.

6. Are there aspects of the Bible that are not divine? As I said in 4, there are cultural things that are not divine. That is what God had to work with.

7. Why do you call the Bible a conversation? Because both God and people talk and have a relationship throughout the Bible. It’s not a one-sided monologue, but a diverse conversation with many different points of view.

8. What do you believe about canonization? These are the writings that have led people to a better understanding of God through time and many different communities. The community said these are the writings that are sacred and show us God and the way to live.

9. Do you reject the inspiration of some books? I don’t believe the Apocrypha is inspired.

10. Anything else you want to say? Nope, I think this covers it.

The picture is from The Book of the Kells. I found this picture at the University of British Columbia Library.

Published by Shawna on | Permalink

The God of Human Worth

In a recent article on God’s Politics, Diane Butler Bass wrote this:

As we recited the baptism liturgy, I was struck by the final promise. The minister asks, “Will you strive for justice and peace among all people, and respect the dignity of every human being?” The parents (or the candidates in the case of adult baptism) respond, “I will, with God’s help.”

Christian tradition connects justice and peace with the practice of respecting the dignity of every person. The idea that every creature is dignified, related to God, formed in love, and connected to the whole of the universe forms the center point of Christian theology and ethics. Respect for each person in the web of creation supports the work of justice and peacemaking. Without a profound spirituality of human dignity, practices of justice and peacemaking may slide into the realm of power politics. The baptism liturgy strongly implies that without respect for human dignity, there exists no motive to strive for God’s justice and peace.

Reading this I realize how short we fall short of this particularly in the evangelical tradition. So much of the time we look at people as “us” and “them.” And until “they” join “us” they are somehow less than human, and God does not love them as much as God loves us. We may never say it that bluntly, but that is how we live and act. But the Bible teaches that God made every human being in God’s image, and for that reason alone every person is worthy of respect and dignity.

This is most clearly seen in the book of Jonah where God sends the Jew Jonah to the pagan Assyrians (the Nazis of the ancient world) and tells him “Go at once to Nineveh, that great city, and cry out against it; for their wickedness has come up before me” (1:1). Jonah does not want to go and preach at Ninevah because “I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and ready to relent from punishing” (4:2). He tried to run away to Tarshish, but a storm and a big fish brought him back, and he went to Ninevah. He proclaimed that God would destroy the city in three days. And Ninevah repents; God does not destroy the city. Jonah’s response to God’s saving work is “O LORD! Is not this what I said while I was still in my own country? That is why I fled to Tarshish at the beginning; for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and ready to relent from punishing” (v. 2).

The tale of Jonah is one of the Bible’s literary gems. Marked by symmetry, balance, word-play, irony, and surprise, the book purports to teach Jonah (and all readers) about the problem of gracious acceptance for one’s own people (“Deliverance is from the LORD,” Jonah says in 2:9) while churlishly resenting similar treatment for others (see 4:1-5) (The New Interpreter’s Study Bible, 1297).

What do we do with this God who insists on loving people who do not acknowledge this God, let alone serving God? What do we do with a God who insists we take care of the marginalized: the homeless, drug addicts, whores in order to be like God (remember who Jesus hung out with)? What do we do with this God who loves our enemies and insists that we do the same? These are the questions Jonah asks us, and like Jonah we are left to contend with the God who loves and reaches out to all human beings, no matter how corrupted or sinful we are.

The Christian Bible, tradition, and liturgy all proclaim that everyone is made in the image of God and worthy respect and dignity. Do our lives and words reflect what we claim to believe?

Published by Shawna on | Permalink

RevGals Friday Five: American Idols

Yes, it’s true. I’ve been watching Season Six of American Idol with my daughter, our first time dipping into this particular well of pop culture. In the spirit of believing you can do anything, as the auditioners so clearly do, please fill in the following five blanks.

1) If I could sing like anyone, it would be Karin Bergquist of Over the Rhine.

2) I would love to sing the song “Only the Good Die Young”.

3) It would be really cool to sing anywhere!

4) If I could sing a dream duet it would be with Billy Joel.

5) If I could sing on a TV or radio show, it would be The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.

Published by Shawna on | Permalink

The Wisdom of Winter

I’m menstruating. I decided to work on the novel this week. I’m aiming for 100 pages by the end of Sunday. I’ve written around 9. I didn’t feel good today, and it was hard to think. But I really tried not to take it out on my body. I told my body to do what it needed to do. To menstruate. To cleanse my body and renew herself. I told my body it was okay for us to be slow today. And it is okay. This is the way I was created. This is part of who I am. I am in that sacred space of life and death. A time of great mystery and worthy of great respect. Today I respected and honored my body. I did what I could and I rested. It was a good day.

Winter is traditionally the time of wisdom–the time of the wise ones. Spring is coming: the season of the youth and maiden is upon us. What has this winter taught me? What wisdom have I learned? What has the Spirit of Wisdom taught me?

The Spirit of Wisdom has taught me to be in a place I don’t want to be: the Nazarene denomination. She has taught me that I need to stand and prophecy–be a sybil–and not run. She has given me a wonderful church with good friends–new and old. The Spirit is faithfully with me through my resistance and foot dragging. I am learning to trust the Spirit, although I feel I cannot trust the leaders of my church.

The Spirit of wisdom is teaching me to accept love unconditionally. The Spirit has given me a precious husband who reaches for me in his sleep and draws me close. I am learning to trust him and tell him what I want without veiled threats and manipulations. I am learning that I don’t have be afraid of disappointing him or making him angry. He puts situations in their context. He is understanding and kind. He is the Love of my life, and I have no idea how I lived without him. I am so glad I waited and held out for my Lappidoth—my power that I am equal to. I am so glad I didn’t settle. He was worth every minute of the wait.

I have learned how to be kind to my body and not constantly beat her up. I have learned there is wisdom in every cell of my being, and I need to listen. I can trust my body: she knows what she needs, and she will tell me. I need to listen. I am learning being female is good. My body is good. God created me that way.

The Spirit of Wisdom has shown me the critics that I let run me into the ground: voices from the past that are no longer valid. Perhaps they were never valid. The constant stress I keep myself under trying to live up to impossible, imaginary expectations. These need to be ignored and put away. There is nothing wrong with the choices I have made. I need to let go of childish expectations and live my own life. It is my life to live.

I have learned a lot this Winter. Spirit of Wisdom, thank you for the things You have taught me. Thank you for the wisdom You have given me.

God of the spring and new beginnings, I look forward to the spring of fertility, renewal, and creativity. I look forward to what we will conceive and birth together. Teach me how to be light-hearted and filled with joy. Teach me new songs and new dances.

God, Creator of the young and old, thank you for Your grace and the wisdom You teach me. Thank you for the way You have created my body. Thank you for the life You have given me. Continue to teach me Your ways. Amen.

Published by Shawna on | Permalink

This Really Is the Week

Yes, this week is Book in a Week, and I am working on the novel. It’s coming along and my plot is developing. I didn’t get as much done yet today because my Chicago Manual of Style, 15th edition, came in, and I was paging through that. They made so many needed updates. It’s wonderful! Yes, I’m a geek.

Okay back to my urban fantasy.

Published by Shawna on | Permalink

RevGals Friday Five: Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes

Change is a given in life, yet it’s not easy for any of us. So strap on your seat belts and let’s talk about it:

1. Share, if you wish, the biggest change you experienced this past year.

I got married! (See picture.)

2. Talk about a time you changed your mind about something, important or not.

I decided to go decaf this year after years of saying I never would.

3. Bishop John Shelby Spong wrote a controversial book called “Why Christianity Must Change or Die.” Setting aside his ideas–what kind of changes would you like to see in the Church?

Real equality for women and more working for social justice, especially in the unfair social structures in this country that keep so many people “in their place.” For my denomination I would like to see pastors taken care of, and the General Budget guidelines redone, so small churches are not paying in 20% of their income to the General Church.

4. Have you changed your hairstyle/hair color in the last five years? If so, how many times?

My hairstyle gets changed a couple of times a year, and my hair color is always changing because I am easily bored.

5. What WERE they thinking with that New Coke thing?

I don’t like pop, so I wonder what they were thinking with that whole pop thing. 🙂

Published by Shawna on | Permalink

The Fall and Women

In Does It Really Mean Helpmate? we saw that God created man and woman to be equals in every way. In Genesis 1 both male and female were given the mandates to procreate and to have dominion over the earth. The human had been placed in the garden to tend it and guard it, and one assumes the male and female continued to do what the human was created to do, and they fulfill the mandates given in chapter 1 together and as equals. There we saw that complementarians try to subordinate woman under man because man was created first, and she was created to be an ezer cenedgo, a word that is normally mistranslated “helpmate” instead of its literal meaning: a power equal to.

Another tactic complementarians use is that women’s subordination is due to the Fall. When God said that a woman’s desire would be for her husband, and he would rule over, God meant it for all time. It doesn’t matter that the rest of curse is not meant for all time: we have made farming easier through machinery, we have diminished labor pains with drugs, and we normally don’t actively look for snakes to mutilate. Complentarians seem to think that the only part of the Fall that is for all time is the a man ruling over his wife.

(more…)

Published by Shawna on | Permalink

Sally Did It Again

Earlier this week I linked to Sally because she had some beautiful art work up. Today I am linking for a creative writing piece. Last month I posted The Samaritan Woman. We looked at the first evangelist in the Gospels. Sally has a wonderful reflection written from the Samaritan Woman’s (does anyone else want to give this woman a name?) point of view when she met Jesus: Woman at the Well. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I did.

Published by Shawna on | Permalink

Alas I'm Only Human

I have been thinking this whole week that it is Book in a Week, and it’s not. It’s next week: the first full week of February. Now I don’t feel so guilty for doing more reading through what I wrote and outlining to get my head back in my novel. I’ve only written a few pages because it’s been so long since I worked on it. Now I can review and outline all I want, and next week I might actually be in a place where I can crank out 20 pages a day.

When was the last time you were reminded of your humanity (and it doesn’t have to be a mistake or goof up)?

The Drawings of Leonardo da Vinci is where I found the drawing, and the site has a lot of da Vinci’s drawings available for download.

Published by Shawna on | Permalink

This week

This week I will be taking part in Book in a Week in order to finish my novel. My goal is to write 20 pages a day for a total of 100 pages by the end of the week. If that doesn’t get the novel finished, it should be close. But the goal is to have the first draft done by the end of this week. All of that to say that I will probably not be posting as much this week. My goal is to write three posts this week.

Published by Shawna on | Permalink