after the children went off to sunday school, jim recapped last week's first part on the da vinci code. he concluded that if the major premise of the da vinci code is not the truth, what is the truth? what are the authentic stories? why do we believe what we do believe?
recalling the words of god in isaiah, jim posits that the world is most likely to acknowledge the truth in the fruit it bears.
jim asked us what word or words do we think most people would associate with the word "bible?" people suggested:
- thumper
- old book
- christian
- rules
- fear
- stories for children
- church
- i have a bible. where is it?
- negative
how, then, would people be convinced of its authenticity? we offered these suggestions:
- the person who discusses the bible should be educated and knowedgeable so that what they say is not mere opinion
- how they lived [i'm not sure if 'they' refers to the people of the bible, or to the witnessing christians of today]
- the death and resurrection of jesus christ
- the old testament's claim that the world was created in seven days is not believable these days; it's a question of integrity
- evidence of historical documents
- geographical and archeological evidence
- the bible is still the bestseller of all time
- relating one's personal experience of the bible's impact
- fulfillment of old testament prophecies
quoting second timothy, jim said the bible is "god-breathed"; and quoting someone in the da vinci code, "the bible is not faxed from heaven."
the bible is the most compelling story there is. it has magnitude. it has integrity. although it is a set of books written over a thousand years, it tells a single story from beginning to end. his story. history. to illustrate this jim presented the following phrases contained within an hourglass, with the The One at the narrows. [my note: these are the players]:
C r e a t i o n
Adam & Eve
I s r a e l
Remnant
The One
Disciples
The Church
Humankind
New Creation
Adam & Eve
I s r a e l
Remnant
The One
Disciples
The Church
Humankind
New Creation
[my note: this is the plot that relates 1:1 with the players above]:
Relationship
Temptation
Providence
Prophecy
Kingdom
Present
Sent (The
Mission)
Body of
Christianity
V a l u e d
W h o l e
Temptation
Providence
Prophecy
Kingdom
Present
Sent (The
Mission)
Body of
Christianity
V a l u e d
W h o l e
it's the integral story of god seeking us, authenticating us, transforming us into truly his image forever. the scripture addresses us as the living word. we don't have the authority to establish that it's true. rather, scripture authenticates us.
jim referred to the three parables of lost sheep, lost coin, and lost son in luke 15
he said "the lost son," or "prodigal son," could also be called "the searching father." god is searching for us.
the god code:
the real question of authenticity: are we who we need to be.
more so than cope with change, can we effect change, transformation, remaking?
more so than analyzing it, our role is to be part of the story, a story still being told.
1 comment:
i had an epiphany during jim's talk when he presented "adam & eve" in the hourglass outline of the bible story. "adam," jim said, means "man", or "humanity." it's the creation story of humanity (and god starting a relationship with us).
something in the way jim said it -- and i must not be able to rememeber the specifics -- made me think, he might mean that this "adam and eve" story might best be understood allegorically.
during my long walk and work today, i thought about sue's observation in church, that if the old testament creation is taken literally, it lacks authenticity: no modern person today believes the world was created in seven days; that's a creation myth. but for me, it still rings true: the big bang theory is modern science's telling of the same story, told in modern language. thousands of years ago, thousands of years before the greek philosophers and arab astronomers, humanity didn't have such language. we told the story as best as we could in those days. and it is still one that authenticates us today; it's still in accordance with our reality, or to put it another way, it says: yes, what we believe today is not out of line with what humanity believed and expressed in god-breathed language thousands of years ago.
there's nothing wrong with allegory and parable in the bible. jesus used them all the time. it seems to me most likely that of course what happens in genesis up to the time of abram and sarai is mostly allegory: it's the pre-history of proto-israel -- a people-not-yet-formed.
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