partsofspeaking

  The second part of Hebrews 1:3 and into 4 is about Jesus’s work. “When He had [by Himself] purged [our] sins, (He) sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, having become so much better than the angels. . . “ Purged is an interesting word. Its easy definition is “cleansed, which is more than “cleaned up” or “forgiven.” It’s a much deeper meaning. At my college, we use a term that bugs me a lot, but it remains. If a student doesn’t pay their bill (or have financial aid pay it) by a certain date, they are “purged” from the rolls. We just say “purged,” which makes my blood pressure go up. It confuses the students too. My point is that “purged” is a very strong word. “Removed from the rolls” would be sufficient; I guess the other word is used to denote the seriousness of their situation. Purged is also used when one vomits up poison. It’s been used by evil governments to get rid of, by jail or execution, the dissenting elements in a society. So purging doesn’t ju...

Verse 1:3 could be split into two parts: identity of Christ and work of Christ. First we read, “who being the brightness of his glory and the express image of His person.” These are words describing the relationship of Christ to the Father. They are poetic in phrasing but not metaphorical, and by “metaphorical” I mean “not to be taken literally.” They ARE to be taken literally, to the extent we can understand them. Three of the disciples (John being one of them, so I’m back to John as a possible author) saw the brightness of His glory on the Mount of Transfiguration. “Express image” reminds one that humans were originally created in the image of God, but Jesus Christ is the perfect image of His person, untainted by the willfulness and sin that is embedded in our natures. That Jesus was obedient, a main point in Hebrews, contrasts Him with the human race from the beginning. There is more to “express image” than obedience and sinlessness, of course. I’m not up to putt...

 Hebrews starts "in media res," in the middle of the story. No greetings, etc. "This is where we are in history." It proclaims, asserts, the deity of Jesus Christ, His completed redemption, and His heirship of all things. Take it or leave it. As I often say, the Christian faith is a bundle, a package deal; it's not a cafeteria plan. We don't get to pick and choose certain parts. We do get to interpret some of them differently (for me, how I see the end of the world as we know it, but not the end of the world), but we don't get to pick and choose the identity of Christ or what He did.  These verses present Christ as past, present, and future but that there is no difference in God's eyes. He did, He is, He will and all are true now. He is heir of all things now, not later. He is and was and is becoming. I am reminded of the movie Arrival, which I found one of the most fascinating science fiction movies of our time--no blood, no gore, just a human stor...

God spoke. In the writer's time, He has spoken. "These last days" could mean recently but really has more of an eschatological view. I am not a big scholar of "future things," a subject I won't get into here. I have different views than some of my associates and friends. However, I believer the writer saw his time as the latter days, that in the span of time between the Fall and the Final Restoration his time was the end more than the beginning or middle or some indeterminate period.  What begins in verse 2 is a hymn about Jesus like that in Colossians 1 and Philippians 2. Sure, critics can say that Paul made up the deity of Christ doctrine, but I've recently read three books by N.T. Wright on this subject, so I've pretty unconvinced of that one. What is said about Jesus Christ here for us to meditate on? He is HIS SON. (not was temporarily, not just because of the resurrection, but eternally. Sonship of Jesus is a difficult doctrine for many because...

 I just posted an installment in a study of Hebrews. Now I revert to snark.  Becki Falwell, who has spent the last several years telling us how to live, admits to an affair. Well, thank you for that.  I find the more people feel they can advise the rest of us, the more skeletons they have to hide.  The Bible has a bit to say about this.  Anyway, evangelicalism is a big tent. It includes the Trump-kissers, and the Trump-skeptics, and the Trump-horrified, and the Trump "Who's that?" It includes Robert Jeffress and Franklin Graham and the Corrie Ten Booms and the Tim Kellers and the laborers for Compassion International and those fighting human trafficking and the faithful bivocational pastors of small churches. It includes people with some pretty bad racist tendencies and people who give their lives to cross-cultural and cross-racial ministry.  Unfortunately, it includes high-profile people like the Falwells whom the media try to use to give the Church and Je...

 The writer asserts right "off the bat" (not really a fitting cliche here) that God spoke. There is no greeting, no identification of self, no defense of who he/she is (yes, it is possible, some scholars say, that a woman was involved, but I wouldn't argue it). Not only did God speak in relatively simple terms of eternal matters so that humans could understand, but He did it in "various" (sundry, diverse) ways by people called prophets.  First, prophets were not essentially foretellers of the future events. We have to get that out of our minds; otherwise we reject the gift of prophecy. They were forthtellers, revealers, confronters of the truth and revelation. Second, they were more diverse in their methods than we think. Abraham, Noah, Moses, David, etc. were all prophets in their own way. Third, in speaking through the prophets, God used 1. direct words  2. nature and natural events (nonverbal communication) 3. miracles  4. signs and symbols/images 5. drama 6....

I wish to return to a book of the Bible that, for one, was formative in my own spiritual growth, such as it is. That book is Hebrews. To me it is the third leg of the stool of Bible study for all Christians. The gospels and Romans being the other two. I choose not to believe Paul wrote it, simply because of the format being different and that he doesn't name himself. I'll get to that later. But let's dig in: God, who [ a ] at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, 2  has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the [ b ] worlds; 3  who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had [ c ] by Himself [ d ] purged [ e ] our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, 4  having become so much better than the angels, as He has by inheritance obtained a more e...

 This phrase was part of a sermon by Obama's minister, Jeremiah Wright, where he called down judgment on the U.S. because, I think, of its racism.  It applies today to evangelicalism and its obeisance to politics, as seen in the shameful story of the Falwells. If evangelicals are mocked by the world, they deserve it for not taking a stronger stand against Trumpism.

 Narcissistic personality disorder is described by the DSM V (the accepted authority on mental disorders, a reputation I will leave to others to discuss) as:  The grandiose, thick-skinned, overt subtype is characterized by overt grandiosity, attention seeking, entitlement, arrogance, and little observable anxiety. These individuals can be socially charming, despite being oblivious to the needs of others, and are interpersonally exploitative. In contrast, the vulnerable, “fragile” or thin-skinned, covert subtype is inhibited, manifestly distressed, hypersensitive to the evaluations of others while chronically envious and evaluating themselves in relation to others. Interpersonally these individuals are often shy, outwardly self-effacing, and hypersensitive to slights, while harboring secret grandiosity. Both types are extraordinarily self-absorbed. Many individuals with narcissistic personality disorder fluctuate between grandiose and depleted states, depending on l...

 I've had a stressful week. A family member died, school started under COVID rules (lecturing in a mask is not fun!), and there have been some interpersonal concerns. But I had the good sense to listen to Tim Keller podcasts on my walks and drives.  He tells a cute but provocative story of a 15-year-old girl in his youth group when he first started in the ministry in Virginia. The girl was expressing some real questions and struggles. Being a theology student fresh out of seminary, he reminded her extensively of her spiritual blessings. "Yes, I know I'm born again. Yes, I know I'll be in heaven. Yes, I know God loves me. Yes, I know...." and so on; she affirmed the teachings of her church. "But what does that matter when the boys won't notice me?" Keller says the boys had caught her imagination even though the Bible had her mind. We laugh at that, but it truly hit me in the heart over my struggles this week. We know and believe great truths, and yet ...

 This week I've read Henri Nouwen's very short book, really almost a tract, In the Name of Jesus, or Reflections on Christian Leadership. If you can get a copy, you should. You can read it in one sitting, but you'll want to come back to it multiple times.  Essentially he explicates three temptations for the"Christian leader" (which is a very broad term and I don't think it necessarily applies only to pastors or in his case priests). These are tied to the temptations of Jesus: popularity, relevance, and power. From his outline anyone could go deeper.  By the way, you might be able to find a free download on some Internet site, but the ones I found were "problematic." T his is a good review of it, though. There are many passages I would like to quote here, and perhaps I will in the future, but I had a few reflections on his reflections.  He emphasizes the centrality of contemplative prayer. I'm not entirely sure what that is. Wikipedia quotes St. ...

 I found this poem.  Since it's freely on the web, I put it here, with my reaction.  Death Is Nothing At All By Henry Scott-Holland  Death is nothing at all. It does not count. I have only slipped away into the next room. Nothing has happened. Everything remains exactly as it was. I am I, and you are you, and the old life that we lived so fondly together is untouched, unchanged. Whatever we were to each other, that we are still. Call me by the old familiar name. Speak of me in the easy way which you always used. Put no difference into your tone. Wear no forced air of solemnity or sorrow. Laugh as we always laughed at the little jokes that we enjoyed together. Play, smile, think of me, pray for me. Let my name be ever the household word that it always was. Let it be spoken without an effort, without the ghost of a shadow upon it. Life means all that it ever meant. It is the same as it ever was. There is absolute and unbroken continuity. Wha...

  Interesting article on creativity:   https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2020/august-web-only/taylor-groves-holy-spirit-creative-process-art.html   Creativity is not a simple concept. It is also misunderstood. Creativity doesn’t just “flow out of your body.” It’s not just there. As pointed out in this article, creativity exists in the audience as well as the creator or performer. As Csikszentmihalyi writes, the audience or receiver must recognize creativity; in Hitmakers, Derek Thompson calls this MAYA, an acronym for the idea the "successful" created object is accessible and familiar AND fresh, new, unique, and compelling in the right balance.   I think my own creative efforts might be too familiar; or maybe not. I have not been all that successful in my writing efforts, although I do think there is a major issues of RIGHT PLACE, RIGHT TIME.

tergiversation: betrayal, prevarication

The Gospel is attractive to those who recognize their need, those with a felt need. They are thirsty and know it, hungry and know it, missing something and know it. Where that knowledge of lack comes from is another thing, but the point remains: no one embraces the gospel unless they need it and know they do. Of course, we never know who needs it. But most people around us will not feel that need at all times or at many times. We keep dispensing it and recognize our dispensing may or may not find a recipient.