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Brueggemann on the Bible

Every month or two I observe a day of solitude. On these sacred days I retreat from the city to a place of rest and reflection. I usually spend the whole day reading the Bible, praying, thinking, meditating, and reflecting.

My destination of choice for the past few years has been the St. Benedict Center, a Benedictine monastery and retreat center in Schuyler, Nebraska. The Catholics may be theologically poor, but they are architecturally rich, and they know how to create sacred space. (Maybe sometime soon, by the grace of God, we evangelicals will learn that a gymnasium and a chapel for the reflective worship of the Triune God are not the same thing.)

Each time I retreat to St. Benedict’s, I spend an hour or two perusing the solarium library. In between the abundant volumes of apostate Roman Catholic theology, the discerning reader can find devotional works by the likes of Bernard of Clairvaux and Henri Nouwen and biographies of great historical figures like Joan of Arc and Mother Teresa. Today, I happened upon a work by Walter Brueggemann called The Bible Makes Sense. Brueggemann is a Protestant, so I was mildly surprised to find his volume in the monks’ library. I sat down to give it a read.

Plagiarism laws prevent me from reproducing the whole book on this blog, and brevity mitigates against my desire to pass along extended quotations from every page. I will settle for a simple request: those of you who want to read the Bible intelligently should read Bruggemann’s book. You may not agree with every point (and you probably shouldn’t). But you will burn through its 125 pages in no time, and your reading and study of Scripture will be immeasurably enriched.

To whet your appetite, here are the highlights of his concluding chapter.

[This book] presents a particular perspective on the Bible… Perhaps it would be as well, then… to consider explicitly the presuppositions implicit in [that] perspective.

1. The Bible is a present resource for faith and not a historical curiosity. To say it is a present resource immediately characterizes the Bible as a book in and for the believing community… The Bible [is] a confessional statement kept alive in a confessing community.

2. The Bible is to be discerned as much as a set of questions posed to the church as a set of answers. The Bible IS an answer to the deepest questions of life. And nothing can detract from that. But the Bible is often perverted when regarded as an answer book or a security blanket… If the Bible is only a settled answer, it will not reach us seriously. But it [is not only an answer. It] is also an open question that presses and urges and invites. For that reason the faithful community is never fully comfortable with the Bible and never has finally exhausted its gifts or honored its claims.

3. The Bible is not a statement of conclusions but a statement of presuppositions. The characteristic logic of the Bible is confessional, assertive, and unargued. The Bible does not examine creation and conclude that God is creator… The Bible asserts that God is creator and then draws derivative statements about creation. It confesses that God redeems and then asserts what this means for history… Thus acceptance of the “authority of Scripture” is not based on a formal assessment of the validity of a book but on a faith-decision to take as binding the voice of faith heard in the text… [T]he Bible is the beginning point and not the end result of faithful listening.

4. The Bible is not an “object” for us to study but a partner with whom we may dialogue. It is usual in our modern world to regard any “thing” as an object that will yield its secrets to us if we are diligent and discerning. And certainly this is true of a book that is finished, printed, bound, and that we can buy, sell, shelve, and carry in a briefcase or place on a coffee table…[But] reading the Bible requires that we abandon the subject-object way of perceiving things… [If we do,] the text will continue to contain surprises for us, and conversely we discover that not only do we interpret the text but we in turn are interpreted by the text… We may analyze, but we must also listen and expect to be addressed.

5. The Bible has both a central direction and rich diversity. We may not choose between these. It is like relating to a mature person in dialog. On the one hand there is a rich unpredictability of many resources that can be employed in many different ways. On the other hand, there is a disciplined constancy in which all experience coheres and has a single destiny. It is like that with the Bible, and we must be open always to move in both directions with any given text.

6. The Bible is a lens through which all of life is to be discerned. No experience is seen in a vacuum but always through some set of experiences and some set of presuppositions… The Bible is a special lens. It is radically different from every other perspective… It calls into question every other way of seeing life. Thus at bottom the Bible invites us into a very different way of knowing, discerning, and deciding… [it] affirms a very different paradigm for humanness.

May God continue to shape Coram Deo into a people of the Book.

Minimizing Sin

One of the things we are talking about in our small groups this week is minimizing sin. We all do this, but it can sometimes be difficult to identify how we do this. I've been reflecting on my own struggle in this area, and here is a short list of ways I/we minimize sin. Perhaps it will jumpstart some meaninful reflection for you.

FORMS OF “MINIMIZING SIN”

Defending // I find it difficult to receive feedback about weaknesses or sin. When confronted, my tendency is to explain things away, talk about my successes, or to justify my decisions. As a result, you rarely have conversations about difficult things in your life.


Pretending // I strive to keep up appearances, maintain a respectable image. My behavior, to some degree, is driven by what I think others think of me. I also do not like to think reflectively about my life. As a result, not very many people know the real me (I may not even know the real me).


Hiding // I tend to conceal as much as I can about my life, especially the “bad stuff”. This is different than pretending in that pretending is about impressing. Hiding is more about shame. I don’t think people will accept the real me.


Blaming // I am quick to blame others for sin or circumstances. I have a difficult time “owning” my contributions to sin or conflict. There is an element of pride that assumes it’s not my fault AND/OR an element of fear of rejection if it is my fault.


Minimizing // I tend to downplay sin or circumstances in my life, as if they are “normal” or “not that bad." As a result, things often don’t get the attention they deserve, and have a way of mounting up to the point of being overwhelming.


Exaggerating // I tend to think (and talk) more highly of myself than I ought to. I make things (good and bad) out to be much bigger than they are (usually to get attention). As a result, things often get more attention than they deserve, and have a way of making me stressed or anxious.

Romans 9 Sermon

The sermon this past week (6/10/07) on Romans 9:19-24 was not recorded due to technical difficulties. (OK, the reality is, I forgot the power cord for the laptop, and the battery died halfway through our gathering. So, it's my bad.)

If you have been tracking with our teaching through Romans 9, I would recommend John Piper's two sermons on this passage. Not because a) my preaching gift is anything close to Piper's, nor because b) I have anything resembling the depth of his insight, but because he is one of the foremost theologians on Romans 9 in the world. Before Piper was a famous pastor and author and conference speaker, he was a professor who spent a year on sabbatical studying ONLY Romans 9. His most technical and least popular book, titled The Justification of God, is the fruit of this year of study, and it has been immensely helpful in my study and preparation. You will undoubtedly notice my dependence on some of Piper's work as you read (or listen to) his 2 messages on this passage.

Can I Love a God Who Hates?

Romans 9:13 states: "As it is written, 'Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.'" After we preached through these verses a couple weeks ago, an insightful listener emailed me to ask exactly what it means for God to hate. She said I had done fine explaining what that doesn't mean, but hadn't given quite enough data to help explain what it does mean.

I passed the question along to our unofficial Coram Deo research assistant, Jennifer Hooley, a biblical languages student at Moody. Hooley's gifts in theological geek-dom are a great benefit to our community; Will and I often ask for her help in researching various topics of interest. Her one-page essay on what it means for God to hate is posted here for you to read, if you are interested.

Thanks, Jenny aka Zoe, for using your gifts to serve the body.

The 1972 Burundians

Coram Deo has been privileged to partner with some other agencies in the city in helping to resettle refugees from Burundi. Many of you have met Justin and Victoria and their family; they have become a familiar sight around the CD community. A new wave of refugees is coming in this month, and once again we'll be asking for your help in serving them. The following link gives some important background on who the Burundi people are and why they are being resettled in the US.

http://www.cal.org/co/pdffiles/backgrounder_burudians.pdf

If you saw the movie "Hotel Rwanda," you have a better context for the situation. The ethnic strife in Burundi, dating back to the 70's, stems from the Hutu/Tutsi division. By helping these people we are helping to heal the damage from one of the worst ethnic genocides on the African continent. This is what redemption is all about! May God be honored in how we serve.

Worth a Thousand "Amens"