Reading for Sunday, March 24 – Genesis 21-25

Contrarians,

Sorry I haven’t posted lately. I got clobbered by a ferocious cold. I hope that you have all managed to stay well. For this coming Sunday, let’s focus on Genesis 21-25. Pay special attention to Chapter 22 where God tests Abraham. I’ll try to get back to making regular posts with some substance next week. 

Peace, Kendra

From Difference to Disparity: Confronting the Racism that Makes us Sick

I hope you’ll join us at Rhodes this Thursday, March 7, at 3:30, in the Blount Auditorium for what promises to be an important conversation about one of our most challenging problems in Memphis and how we can work on it together.

The Abraham Cycle – Genesis 12-17

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The Primeval History – Genesis 1-11

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The Big Argument: A Contrarian’s Guide to Reading the Bible

Each Sunday we read from the Bible, affirming that it is the word of God for the people of God. We draw on it for strength and inspiration. We search it for truth. And we turn to it for answers to our most vexing questions.  Many of our most troubling and intractable debates turn on how to interpret the Bible. And yet, the Bible itself contains disagreements. For instance, Joshua and Job disagree with each other about what causes suffering. Ruth and Ezra disagree with each other about who can belong to the community of faith. Paul and Titus disagree with each other about whether women may serve as leaders in the church. Biblical people are contrarians!

My contention is that the communities that canonized the Bible intentionally included disagreements and that these disputes are not threats to the authority of the Bible, but essential to how it functions as an authority for us. “Israel,” after all, means “one who struggles with God.” To be Christian, then, means to join in that struggle, and being a member of a biblically serious community of faith is an invitation to join in The Big Argument. 

As we work our way through key biblical narratives, I plan to introduce a series of biblical arguments and advance the claim that there is a canonical principle for biblical authority, which is rooted in faithful argumentation. It is no accident that our canon includes disagreement. The Hebrew and early Christian communities that called these texts sacred intentionally canonized not only the substance of individual books, but also the principle of disagreement within boundaries. Those boundaries are like the foul lines in baseball. No one tells you where to hit the ball, only that it can cross certain lines. Once the lines are set, though, there are nearly infinite possibilities for where that ball might go. So too with faith: within certain boundaries, we are free to express our faith, to disagree, to argue!

So, all biblical texts affirm that God is one, that God wants justice, and that God works in history, but…

•  The Deuteronomist and Job disagree about the relationship between sin and suffering.
• Ezekiel and Joshua disagree about how Israel became a nation.
•  Ruth and Ezra disagree about immigrants.
•  Ecclesiastes and Proverbs disagree about the afterlife.
•  Paul and the Pastoral Epistles disagree about the role of women.
•  Luke and Matthew disagree about whether Jesus preached about material or spiritual poverty.
•  Matthew and Paul disagree about the status of the law in the Christian community.
•  Luke in Acts and John in Revelation disagree with Paul about whether Christians may eat meat sacrificed to idols.
•   Matthew and John propose different responses to persecution.

It’s not that no one noticed these disagreements. These aren’t contradictions – the accidents of bad argumentation. These are intentional differences that the community of faith canonized. Our forebearers knew these disagreements were there and didn’t even try to cover them up; otherwise surely someone would have moved Genesis 1 and 2 farther apart!

It should not be surprising that a community named for wrestling with God also wrestles with itself. We shouldn’t be scandalized that there is disagreement in the Bible, we should consider it an invitation to join in the argument. This is what it means to be the people of God. It means that we embrace each other in love and dispute with each other in faith.  

So, we all affirm the lordship of Jesus Christ, but…

•  I disagree with my Roman Catholic brothers and sisters about the nature of ordained office. I think they are wrong, but I love them and acknowledge them as fellow Christians.
•  I disagree with my Southern Baptist sisters and brothers about the status of women. I think they are wrong, but I love them and acknowledge them as fellow Christians.
•  I disagree with my Methodist brothers and sisters about freedom of the will. I think they are wrong, but I love them in their error; I embrace them in faithful disagreement.

We disagree about economics and sexual identity and polity and, well, you name it. We disagree. There are simply things that Christians in good conscience are not going to agree on. We are contrarian people, baptized into a community that has wrestled with God and with others for millennia. Welcome to the big argument.

Those of you who have been in the class for a while have explored some of these disagreements with me. What I want to do here is offer a more systematic introduction to the idea that the Bible is intentionally contrarian. This will serve as a refresher for some of you and as an introduction to others. Periodically I’ll post a “Big Argument” essay here.  Over time, I hope to build up a set of essays that newcomers can turn to if they want to make sense of what we’re doing in class.

In the meantime, if you weren’t able to be with us last fall, when we talked about how we got the Bible, please take a minute to review this post: http://contrarians.posterous.com/how-we-got-the-bible. 

 

Invitation to Matt’s Photography Show and No Class on 1/13

Hello Contrarians,

I hope everyone had a delightful Christmas and is enjoying the new year! Matt and I had a wonderful visit with family. I’m writing for two reasons.

First, Matt has a new photography show up at the Circuit Playhouse theatre. We’re hosting an opening-night reception this Friday from 5:00 through 6:30. If you have some free time that evening, please join us for conversation, wine, and to enjoy some beautiful photographs of North Carolina. I’ve attached a flyer with details. 

Second, I’ve just learned that there is a combined adult forum scheduled for this coming Sunday, which means that we will not meet as a class until the following week, January, 20. I’ll put up a blog post at www.contrarians.posterous.com during the week of January 14. I’m looking forward to seeing everyone again! 

Peace,

Kendra

What we got the Miller Family – A Report from Jenni Brooks

For those of you not on Facebook, here’s Jenni Brooks’ update about what she got on our behalf for the Miller family’s mother. 

I did some seriously awesome Christmas shopping today for a mere $153 I got: two shirts, one pair pants, a pair of pajamas, a robe, a pea coat and a purse! Yay for me and Kohl’s and yay for the family who will have a brighter Christmas thanks to my fellow Contrarians!!!

Thanks, Jenni, for braving the stores for us! 

Esther

The book of Esther was composed during the early Hellenistic period. It’s fairly positive view of Gentiles indicates that it was likely written before the heated struggle before the Seleucids and the Maccabeans began. It is set in the late sixth century, the Persian royal court and is a work of historical fiction that accounts for how the holiday of Purim was instituted. It tells the story of how Esther (Hadassah) and Mordecai, by cunning and decisive action, thwarted the scheming Haman and rescued the people from genocide.  The story shows how diaspora Jews found ways to assimilate to new cultural contexts, but also to retain the distinctiveness and integrity of their own identity. It is telling and tragic that the Jewish people have continued to have need of a holiday to celebrate overcoming the genocidal efforts of others.

This book is one of the latest to gain entry into the canon of Hebrew Scripture (not until the third century of the common era), and no wonder: it is human, not divine agency, that wins the day; God, in fact, is wholly absent in the story; and traditional themes such as law and covenant are missing. Yet it also embodies themes both crucial to traditional Jewish identity (such as survival by one’s wits) and central to emerging Jewish identity (such as how to live amidst Gentiles).

Keep an eye out for how Esther grows throughout the story from a passive “trophy” wife to a commanding presence who saves her people.

What shall we do in 2013?

I’m looking for advice. You can offer it in the comments here or in Sunday School next week. We need to figure out what to do with ourselves. We’ve done major sections of the Bible from beginning to end. We’re running out of material I know well enough to teach without major preparation! (I’m willing to do major prep at another time, but right now I have a big project going on at work. Sorry.)

Here are a couple of options:

1. We could start over. We have lots of newcomers who weren’t here “in the beginning.” We also have lots of oldcomers who, ahem, may not remember everything!

2. We could look at some of our other “sacred texts.” Here I have in mind liturgies for weddings, funerals, the Eucharist, baptism, and regular worship. 

One other thought: I’m very happy to share or rotate responsibility for leadership. 

Let me know what you think. See you Sunday! I’ll have a post up about Esther in the next day or two. 

Christmas for the Miller Family

Contrarians – we’ve been invited to help provide a great Christmas for the Miller family. See the note below from Gayle Walker. This could be a great way to show that may be contrarians, but we aren’t grinches! What do you think? We’ll talk about it Sunday. Peace, Kendra

 

Dear Friends, 

I am writing to invite your church school class to participate in providing Christmas for the Miller family whom Idlewild has been partnering with since August.

We would like to provide gifts for the 6 children (ages 5-14) and the mother. This is an exceptional family that was stable until the mother developed a serious 

heart/lung illness in 2007 which placed her on %100 disability, and the father lost his employment during the recent recession. They are making great strides to find their balance in this new life situation.

The children are in school at Brewster, Lester and Central. They are excellent and committed students. Two of the children are involved in Idlewild’s basketball program and one serves at MTAM. 

We are asking a class commitment of $150 – 200. Please find the guidelines in the attachment. If your class chooses to participate, please let me know on Monday, December 10, and Margaret Burnett will email you the name of the child/mother whom you will sponsor and the gifts that have been identified for him/her. You may want

to recruit a shopping team this Sunday so they can get the gifts before Sunday 16. The wrapped gifts are due Wed, Dec 19. 

Thank you for your consideration. Please call me with your questions, 652-4373.

Advent blessings, Gayle

 

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