Revelation, suffering, God's faithfulness, attending a good play (Michael Pahl)

I am reading Michael Pahl's The Beginning and the End (2011). In the following I will quote a few things he says about Revelation. What I like about what Pahl says is that he talks about the suffering of the followers of Jesus and God's faithfulness to them. We fail to read Revelation probably if we miss these. The other great suggestion Pahl has is that we can read Revelation as if we are attending a play. (I will highlight some sentences in blue in the quotes below.)

"Revelation is not so much concerned with the precise when and how questions of the future as much as the who and what and why sorts of questions of human - and especially Christian - existence in this present age: Why do we suffer in this world, especially as God's people? Is God faithful to his people and his creation? What is our role as God's people in this oppressive world? What is wrong with the world? How will things be made right?"

"[I]n a real sense, reading Revelation is a lot like attending a good play - which brings us back to the importance of stories in shaping our collective identity and purpose and values. We have narrators (John and his angelic interpreter) guiding us through the story. We have a series of scenes (apocalyptic visions) unfolding before us, which are visually and verbally stimulating, even provocative, critiquing the world in which we live even as they present for us the world as it could be, as it will be. And, just like a good play, if we fully engage the strange world of this dramatic story we call Revelation, we will come out of the theater changed, seeing the real world - and our place in it - in a radically new way."

Proclaiming and living out the resurrection of the crucified Christ (Michael Pahl)

I just finished reading Michael W Pahl's little book called From Resurrection to New Creation (Eugene: Cascade Books, 2010). In the following I will cite three quotes in the last chapter that are very helpful (on page 94).

The first two quotes probably require reading the book itself before one can fully grasp their significance, although they shouldn't be too hard to understand. The last quote shows how in practice the church can carry out its task of proclaiming and embodying Christ in this age.

In many ways this has been what I have been trying to say in the past five years at theological colleges and churches.

"Proclaiming and living out the death and resurrection of Jesus in faith, hope, and love, as described above, the church is called to enact God's program of creation renewal in this age in anticipation of the fulfillment of the renewal of creation in the age to come."

"Another way to look at this task of creation renewal is to see it as simply fulfilling the purpose of humanity in the image of God, ensuring and extending God's loving and faithful rule throughout the earthly creation."

"Yet another way to see this creation renewal task is to understand it as applying the resurrection reversal of the crucified Jesus to the world around us. In Jesus' resurrection, condemnation, shame, oppression, and death have been transformed into vindication, glory, freedom, and life. Thus, by the Spirit of Jesus the church is called to bring restorative care to the earth, liberating justice to the oppressed, food to the hungry, comfort to the suffering, healing to the sick, forgiveness and honor to the guilty and shamed, love to those in need, faith to those who doubt, hope to those in despair - light and life to a dark and dying world. This resurrection reversal is both our salvation and blessing and our missionary task."

The way I myself would like to frame this is through the stories in the Bible, the stories of the people of God, as well as the stories of the poor and oppressed. Through the biblical narratives we discover the story of the suffering, death and resurrection of Christ, as well as the stories of God's people (those of Israel and the Christ-community). As we enter the biblical stories we learn to appropriate those stories in our own lives and in the world. That's how we may proclaim and embody the gospel in a world out-of-joint.

The Task of Our Generation (Daniel Kirk)

Daniel Kirk has posted The Task of Our Generation in his blog. (Click here for the link.) I think it is really worth reading.

As a bi-cultural person (Asian-Aussie), I do find that the dichotomies in our Western mindset somewhat frustrating. But it's our task to overcome that, so that we may proclaim the gospel and live it out at the same time (and to do so both as individuals and as a community at the same time!).

Here are some excerpts from Kirk's post.

"In the post-conservative Christian circles in which I run, people have often experienced a shift. From an entry into Christianity that is all about Jesus dying for my sins, people later discover a Kingdom of God that demands active engagement with the world."

"Within the world of Pauline studies a parallel distinction is sometimes highlighted. On the one hand, there is Jesus dying “for me,” with its concomitant substitutionary language of justification and the like. On the other hand, there is my “dying with Christ,” with its concomitant participatory language of co-crucifixion, co-glorification and the like."

"I see the [t]ask of our generation to overcome this false dichotomy by (1) insisting that it’s not a dichotomy after all; and (2) articulating atonement in such a way that action and transformation are inherent to the saving story of Jesus." (I think Kirk meant "task" in the first sentence here.)

"There are many ways to put the question we must answer.

At the Institute for Biblical Research this year, Tom Wright put the question, “What does the Kingdom of God have to do with the cross?”"

"And, until we can so tell the story of Jesus’ death such that his life is not only an anticipation... but inseparable from his atoning death, that we have not yet comprehended what it is to say that Jesus died for our sins."

Justice for the poor and oppressed: The law, the prophets and Matthew (towards a biblical theology of justice)

Micah 6:8 is a well known verse about justice. But do you realise that it is echoed by Jesus in one of his seven woes against the Pharisees and the Scribes? The very people who are supposed to know the Scripture and are in relatively high religious and social positions fail to understand God's purpose and his value system.

And do you realise that the words of Micah can trace back to the Law of Moses, and that Jeremiah has something profound to say about it? Indeed, both the Law and the prophet Jeremiah talk about the circumcision of the heart (or the lack of it) when they talk about the people's failure to seek justice for the poor and marginalised.

I think a careful study of these Scriptures will help us understand God's love for the poor and oppressed - that from ancient times he wants his people to live in such a way that will reflect his character.

He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God. (Micah 6:8)

And now, Israel, what does the LORD your God ask of you but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in obedience to him, to love him, to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to observe the LORD’s commands and decrees that I am giving you today for your own good? To the LORD your God belong the heavens, even the highest heavens, the earth and everything in it. Yet the LORD set his affection on your ancestors and loved them, and he chose you, their descendants, above all the nations—as it is today. Circumcise your hearts, therefore, and do not be stiff-necked any longer. For the LORD your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who shows no partiality and accepts no bribes. He defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the foreigner residing among you, giving them food and clothing. And you are to love those who are foreigners, for you yourselves were foreigners in Egypt. Fear the LORD your God and serve him. Hold fast to him and take your oaths in his name. He is the one you praise; he is your God, who performed for you those great and awesome wonders you saw with your own eyes. Your ancestors who went down into Egypt were seventy in all, and now the LORD your God has made you as numerous as the stars in the sky. (Deuteronomy 10:12-22)

“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices—mint, dill and cumin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law—justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former. (Matthew 23:23)

This is what the LORD says: “Let not the wise boast of their wisdom or the strong boast of their strength or the rich boast of their riches, but let the one who boasts boast about this: that they have the understanding to know me, that I am the LORD, who exercises kindness, justice and righteousness on earth, for in these I delight,” declares the LORD. “The days are coming,” declares the LORD, “when I will punish all who are circumcised only in the flesh— Egypt, Judah, Edom, Ammon, Moab and all who live in the wilderness in distant places. For all these nations are really uncircumcised, and even the whole house of Israel is uncircumcised in heart.” (Jeremiah 9:23-25)

A careful look at these passages will reveal that they are connected with the following themes and biblical stories.

• Yahweh is the Creator God and hence the Genesis story, and hence all praise goes to him
• The Exodus story, in which the righteous, just and faithful God graciously rescued his people from social, economical, racial and political oppressions
• The Shema in Deuteronomy 6:4-5, which is of course the greatest commandment according to Jesus, "Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength." - And note how the next verse makes the heart the location of this love and how it is to be expressed, "These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts."
• The new (renewed) covenant foreshadowed by Jeremiah and Ezekiel, that one day God would circumcise the heart of his people through the outpouring of the Spirit
• This in turn has now been fulfilled through Jesus the Messiah and the indwelling Spirit in the life of the Christ-community, who seek to follow Jesus and his self-giving and love-filled way of life.
  

We can see how these passages can form the basis of a biblical theology of justice for the poor and oppressed. It is about the loving and faithful God, his gracious saving acts, and the demand for faithful discipleship on the part of the Jesus-followers.

(All of these passages are taken from the NIV2011)

Reflection: Powerlessness - The main players in the New Testament

The main players in the New Testament were mostly poor, marginalised, disadvantaged and/or powerless - either because it was simply their life situation, or that they had willingly given up their power and privileges. There was a leper and a crippled woman. There were women who followed Jesus from Galilee, and fishermen who gave up their possessions to follow him. And, most of all, we find Jesus in the New Testament, who died on the cross, which was a symbol of utter shame and Roman oppression (on its powerless victims!). Then we have the apostle Paul, who boasts of his weakness and suffering, because he wanted to follow his Saviour and Lord.

Let us enter their stories, and let them touch and transform our lives.

Reading Bible stories

We visited a church recently where there was a very good family service. The service sought to engage both parents and children, and invite them to participate in all sorts of activities together. It's very creative and I really appreciated the effort they put into it.

On this day they looked at Daniel 3. The main points, I gathered, were that Christians needed to stand up for their faith in adversity and that they could trust the all-powerful God as they did so. They worked out some very simply points in the passage, and delivered their message through various interactive activities that made the whole service very engaging for young and old alike. It's a job well done.

But I keep thinking that this way of reading Scripture is typical of how we are taught to interpret the Bible. Certainly the main points were captured aright, and indeed applied beautifully to daily life. But I wonder whether we do recognise the most natural reading of Daniel 3 here - that is, the chapter is first and foremost a story. Our sophisticated ability to analyse Scripture helps us to jump to the key themes of the chapter, and apply them in everyday life. But in doing so we miss out on experiencing some of the most important aspects of the Scripture.

Let us enter into the stories in the first chapters of Daniel together. That is, let us join Daniel and his three friends in their journey.

The first thing we realise is that we are fellow Jews in exiles. We are slaves as a result of the conquest of the Babylonian Empire. We have been displaced from our homeland. We and our beloved families have been on a long journey to a foreign country. We are well aware of God's covenant with Abraham, our ancestor. And we are aware that it is because of our people's unfaithfulness to that covenant that we are now in exile, as the prophets foretold. Our story in recent times has been a sad one indeed. Our life is full of struggles, pain and tears. We experience social, racial and political oppression, and there is no way out.

But like Daniel and his friends we seek to be faithful to the God of our ancestors. As we seek to remain faithful to him, we experience God's faithfulness despite our rebellion. We watch Daniel and his three friends risk their lives to follow our God, we see God perform signs and wonders to deliver them. Even though we remain in captivity, we see signs of God's blessing and faithfulness.

By entering into the stories of Daniel and his friends, we identify with their sadness and pain, as well as their hope and joy. We struggle with them. We learn to trust God as we watch them - because they are willing to sacrifice and suffer for their God.

As we walk the journey with them, inevitably we relate their experiences with ours in our everyday life. As we allow the Holy Spirit to touch us and speak to us, we worship our faithful God just like the Psalmists in the Bible. We learn to persevere in our own journeys as we seek to remain faithful to Christ in our own daily struggles.

We may want to relate to stories that took place after Daniel: The (partial) return from exile of Israel; the coming of Christ, and above all, his life, death and resurrection. We can go on to relate to the earliest church in Acts, other New Testament epistles and in Revelation.

If we know how to interpret culture (the culture in which we live) and social issues, we would quite easily relate the stories to various social justice issues both in Australia and overseas.

Much more can be said. But I hope I have painted a picture of how much we can experience by simply reading the Bible on its own terms - and in this case, in terms of the fact that we are reading stories.

Again, nothing wrong with the service of the church that we visited. Indeed they did a good job in running the service. My question is around how we have been taught to read the Bible. My suggestion is that our sophistication in analysing the Scripture can potentially mean that we miss out on reading the Bible as it really is - in this case it is "stories". How amazing it could be if we travel into the stories and let the stories travel with us!