Some friends of mine sent me an invitation to join them in prayer at noon from wherever each of us is,  each day of both the Republican and Democratic National Conventions, for 5 minutes — or longer and more often if you can.  Actually these friends of mine don't use the language of “prayer”.  Rather they invite us to  “Energize a ‘Field of Love’ in Tampa & Charlotte to support the intention for civil discourse and dissent during the national political conventions.   Envision a “field of love” (mutual regard, respect, compassion) and peace (calm, composure, non-violence) surrounding the delegates, media representatives, police, and protestors during the conventions.”

In light of our conversation Sunday morning I want to invite the Missio Dei community to join us in this prayer practice. To ground this in our Jesus tradition, below is a passage from Walter Wink's The Powers That Be (I have studied  the longer version, Engaging the Powers: Discernment and Resistance in a World of Domination, 5 times since Sojourners  published the excerpt on prayer in 1990 and heartily recommend it for excellent Bible study of God's kin(g)dom!! http://sojo.net/magazine/2010/12/walter-wink-reading-list

“Intercessory prayer is spiritual defiance of what is in the name of what God has promised.  Intercession visualizes an alternative future to the one apparently fated by the momentum of current forces.  Prayer infuses the air of a time yet to be into the suffocating atmosphere of the present.
“History belongs to intercessors who believe the future into being...
“This is the politics of hope.  Hope envisages its future and then acts as if that future is now irresistible, thus helping to create the reality for which it longs...These shapers of the future are the intercessors, who call out of the future the longed-for new present.  In the New Testament, the name and texture and aura of that future is God's domination-free order, the reign of God.
“No doubt our intercessions sometimes change us as we open ourselves to new possibilities we had not guessed.  No doubt our prayers to God reflect back upon us as a divine command to become the answer to our prayer.  But if we are to take the biblical understanding seriously, intercession is more than that.  It changes the world and it changes what is possible to God.  It creates an island of relative freedom in a world gripped by unholy necessity.  A new force field appears that hitherto was only potential.  The entire configuration changes as the result of the change of a single part.  A space opens in the praying person, permitting God to act without violating human freedom.  The change in even one person thus changes what God can thereby do in that world.”  (pp185-186).

So, let us pray together with my other friends that a field of love will surround all who are involved in the conventions.  And that God's dream for the world might lure all of us away from the reign of Empire, which both national parties are serving in 2012.

Mary Ann Holtz

This post is by a friend of mine from seminary.  I find it interesting and worthy of discussing and thought you might too.  -Joe

10 Guidelines for How to Read the Bible

The Bible is essential to the Christian faith. Some read it literally, some don’t, and there is a never ending discussion over the peculiar descriptor “innerancy.” Christians make many claims about the Bible, how they read it, and how they use it in worship and life. As a pastor I have observed that most Christians love the Bible, revere it, defend it, and refer to it often. However, most people do not actually know the Bible, nor do they regularly read it, or even interact with it in any significant way on a daily basis. Some claim “I just go by what the bible says,” but they clearly pick and choose.

I’m auditing a class right now on Genesis that is being taught by Terrence Fretheim. Fretheim is a world class Old Testament scholar who teaches at Luther Seminary, and he’s an expert on Genesis, and it’s a serious treat to listen to him teach. He began his lectures with some quick guidelines of how we read the scripture. I’ve simplified, quoted, paraphrased and amalgamated his 14 guidelines to create the following list which is not my original thought, but comes directly from Professor Fretheim:

1. Readers continually bring their own point of view to the text, (male, female, American, Protestant, conservative, rural, urban, rich, poor, Christian, Jew…).  If you want to be a good reader of scripture, you must be constantly mindful of your point of view.

2. Strictly speaking, the only thing which should follow the phrase, “The Bible says…” is a direct quotation from the Bible in the original languages.

3. Remember that you are not reading the Bible, but a translation of the Bible: they are all different, they constantly make theological/interpretive choices, and not all translations are equal at all points.

4. No Bible passage has a single meaning. Every text is capable of meaning several things, (although not in such a way that “anything goes”).

5. We must continually offer up our interpretations to those who come from a different community, history, and point of view (see #1). If we do not, we will be formed into an “opinion cocoon” and we will most certainly be poorer readers of the scripture.

6. The Bible was not written by modern people. If we do not understand the context in which is was originally written and read, we will tend to misread the text. The Bible does not have “answers” to all of our questions because the Biblical writers were completely unaware of many of today’s issues (like quantum physics, biology, evolution, gunpowder, nuclear bombs, birth control, gay marriage, and so on).

7. The bible contains different kinds of literature. Good readers will not read poetry like history, or prophecy like the weather report, or apocalyptic literature as a timeline for the end of the world.

8. Not everything in the Bible is meant to be interpreted literally. (e.g. metaphors – God is not really a rock or a fire; Jesus is not really a lamb; and so on). As a general rule one can read a text “literally” unless there is good reason not to do so, and there are often good reasons.

9. Not every passage in the Bible has equal value for faith and life. We give special weight to some passage we do not give to others, and the Bible itself seems to want us to do so, (e.g., we give the 10 commandments more weight than Paul’s commandment to Timothy to take a little wine for his stomach).

10. “Bible readers must be prepared to recognize that the Bible does not have a single point of view about a whole range of matters, and whether the point of view is being commended by the author needs to be asked.” What role the bible should play in all of our questions and controversies is not always clear, but must be approached with the wisdom available to those who have been shaped by the reading of this text. Truth about the world accessed through other means (science, archaeology, ethics, and more), is a valuable resource through when thinking about the issues we face.

As we watch Tropical Storm Isaac move through Haiti and other areas south of us, we pray for those being hit by the storm.  May they find courage and strength to face this difficulty and may we, in generosity, open our hearts and wallets to them in the time of recovery.  Tomorrow at our worship gathering, we will be praying for the people of Haiti and one another.  We will also be continuing our series on the Letter to the Galatians from the Apostle Paul.

What is freedom?  What does the Apostle Paul mean by the word freedom?  What is the political context for his discussion of freedom in the Letter to the Galatians? These are important questions to ask as we examine the Apostle Paul's allegory about the "free woman" and the "slave woman" in Galatians 4:21 - 5:1.  This allegory has often been misinterpreted.  If we understand the proper context for this allegory, we discover new insights about a new way of life in Christ, a new way of nonviolent love and freedom.

To prepare for our gathering tomorrow, I invite you to reflect on the following quote from Richard Rohr, from his excellent little book, Everything Belongs:

Inherent Unmarketability

How do you make attractive that which is not?
How do you sell emptiness, vulnerability, and nonsuccess?
How do you talk descent when everything is about ascent?
How can you possibly market letting-go in a capitalist culture?
How do you present Jesus to a Promethean mind?
How do you talk about dying to a church trying to appear perfect?

This is not going to work
(admitting this might be my first step).

I live a broken life. I am not perfect. I am not the ideal Christian.

I always thought that the person giving the sermon on a Sunday morning was just the opposite, perfect in all their Christian ways. They always talked about us lay people being “sinful” or told a traumatic story about their past, but they never told stories about their present brokenness.

Well, I’ll be the first to say, I am extremely messed up.

In admitting that, I recently started to entertain the harsh language Augustine, Luther and Calvin have all used to describe the utter screwed-up-ness of human beings. I don’t, for once, think that God has given up on us or has ever left us. But I can easily admit to my own stupidity, my crappy habits and the un-Christian like corners of my life – and when I’m in the thick of them, it’s always nice to know these other Christians have felt the same way.

Tonight in our conversation on sin I want to talk about sin not as a unilateral ethical code that gets broken but as a complex relational problem.

For example, when I treat a girl as an object of my lustful desires, rather than the valuable human being she is, I am not screwing up some ancient ethical code but am hurting myself, and more importantly her. She and I now see each other and ourselves in often distorted ways. We become a bit confused about where God is in any of it and move forward together with a foundaiton of brokeness. In our later relationships, we will carry bagage, if it's not healed and addressed. In our relationships with other people, wheather sexual or not, could often be negativley affected. She has, in metaphorical language, been nailed to a cross by my actions. She has been put up there to be hung and I’ve found myself, through my actions, shouting, “Crucify her! Crucify her!”

That’s a terrifying thought.

Which brings me to the 23rd chapter of Luke. 

“Crucify him! Crucify him!” The religious leaders shouted.

“Why, what evil has he done? I have found in him no ground for the sentence of death; I will therefore have him flogged and then release him.’ But they kept urgently demanding with loud shouts that he should be crucified; and their voices prevailed. So Pilate gave his verdict that their demand should be granted…As they led him away, they seized a man, Simon of Cyrene, and they laid the cross on him, and made him carry it behind Jesus. A great number of the people followed him, and among them were women who were beating their breasts and wailing for him…When they came to the place that is called The Skull, they crucified Jesus there with the criminals, one on his right and one on his left. Then Jesus said, ‘Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.”

-----

When we live in ways that are harmful to ourselves, to the environment, and to others, we are living lives that are breaking the heart of God. A God who is present in every moment, who feels and takes on our brokenness, experiencing the pain and suffering it causes.

The slaves in sweat shops who made the sheets on my bed, the farmworkers in the CIW who picked the tomatoes on the burger made from chickens that have been abused and infused with toxins, the high school girl who gives her virginity away to the first boy who tells her she’s pretty, and the environment that’s suffering more from human beings than any other species, ever……the stories of oppression and sin are endless…….the crosses we build for ourselves and others are endless. 

And in all of it Jesus' response, is not condemnation but infinite forgiveness and love.
 
“Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.”
“Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.”
“Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.”