MyQuest | my thoughts on life's journey

Colossians Remixed

Colossians Remixed: Subverting the Empire by Brian J. Walsh
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I would have liked this book a lot if I had read it in 2004 when it was new. It would have resonated with things I was thinking and feeling at the time and depending on when I read it, may have influenced my thinking. As it stands, it simply affirms things I've already come to accept over the last decade.

This interpretation of Colossians asserts that Paul is doing anti-imperial theology, subverting the images and claims of Caesar. In the early and mid-Aughts this was refreshingly new for many of us and helped us to grapple with the issues in contemporary American life post-9/11 and the beginning of the Iraq War. In many ways the idea was not new (Wink, Brueggemann, and others had long made these claims) but I think many of us were open to it in new ways due to America's imperial ambitions.

This is not your standard commentary, but rather an interesting exercise in hermeneutics. The authors are primarily concerned with addressing the concerns of postmodern students who reject the Bible for making claims they consider to be absolute. There are some interesting epistemological discussions.

Their overall writing style is filled with imagined dialogues and targums upon the text -- either imagining the thoughts of historical characters like Onesimus and Nympha, or contemporizing Paul's language to deal with the imperial claims of our global economy.

So, this will help with my upcoming sermon series on Colossians (the first time I've preached a series on the book) but I feel that liberal mainline congregations are a little tired of the anti-imperial, social justice messages of the New Testament so I'll be looking for other approaches as well.

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Bill Leonard on Will Campbell

Bill Leonard writes an enjoyable obituary of his friend Will Campbell, including this line, "Will Campbell was obsessed with grace, especially as it falls on inappropriate people at inopportune times."  

Kung on Francis

Great theologian Hans Kung writes about Pope Francis and the paradox of a pope taking the name and what it might mean for the possible transformation of the Roman Catholic Church.

Thus, the early Christian basic concerns of Francis of Assisi remain even today questions for the Catholic church and now for a pope who, indicating his intentions, has called himself Francis. It is above all about the three basic concerns of the Franciscan ideal that have to be taken seriously today: It is about poverty, humility and simplicity. This probably explains why no previous pope has dared to take the name of Francis: The expectations seem to be too high.

Awakening the Buddha Within: Tibetan Wisdom for the Western World

Awakening the Buddha Within : Tibetan Wisdom for the Western World by Lama Surya Das
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Finished this book this afternoon. We were reading it for our Wednesday night spirituality group, Sanctuary: Ancient Practices, Modern Lives, this year. We began the book in September. It generated lots of good discussion, though much of that around things that people struggled with.

I thought there was good material to learn more about Tibetan Buddhism and some good wisdom on various spiritual practices. But much of the tone and structure of this particular book didn't resonate well with me.

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Re-Imagine the World: An Introduction to the Parables of Jesus

Re-Imagine the World by Bernard Brandon Scott
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I'm really looking forward to preaching on the Parables this autumn after having read Brandon Scott's book. This is a quick, good read that I recommend to anyone interested in Jesus studies (or church members who want to read up before I preach this series).

The book sets up the topic by discussing what parables are and are not, itself quite helpful and interesting. Then he covers a handful of different parables, drawing out various elements of them, and providing intriguing interpretations. He draws those points together at the conclusion.

He believes that Jesus' parables are developed around three "coordinates:"
* God is unclean
* The community must accept responsibility for its own welfare and not fall back on the narcotic of a divine intervention to set things right.
* A new social order of cooperation

Scott's book resonated with existing beliefs and interpretations of mine, while also asking new questions and pushing me in new directions.

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"Jesus revolts in parable"

I'll probably finish Brandon Scott's Re-Imagine the World: An Introduction to the Parables of Jesus this afternoon.  After surveying a selection of parables, he then draws his points together, and one is what kind of rebel Jesus was:

Jesus' revolt takes a very special form.  He revolts in parable.  I see no evidence that Jesus was leading a political revolution or that he had a social program in mind.  He clearly affected the lives of people, but he was not a social organizer or activist.  Although the idea is now out of fashion, Jesus the oral storyteller seems to me closer to a poet.  The activist will alwyas be dissatisfied with the poetic vision, but change comes about because a creative individual has that vision.

Empire of God

In his book Re-Imagine the World, Brandon Scott recommends that we translate basileia not as "kingdom" but as "empire."  Often people want to update or soften the term with something more egalitarian and less patriarchal.  So, why does Scott suggest otherwise?  His explanation:

Jesus' audience would inevitably hear the basileia of God as opposing the basileia of Caesar.  Therefore I suggest that we translate basileia as empire, and so the phrase would be "the empire of God."  Some will object that empire is too negative when applied to God, especially in the aftermath of Star Wars, and Ronald Reagan's famous remark about the evil empire.  But this negative connotation is precisely the point.  From the point of view of those oppressed by the Roman Empire, basileia has a negative connotation.  Translating the phrase as "empire of God" reminds us implicitly of its opposite. . . .  Kingdom seems to me too abstract and otherworldly because it invokes a fairy tale world.  Empire has the sense of domination, power, and threat that basileia demands.

Parables and myths

I've begun reading Brandon Scott's Re-Imagine the World: An Introduction to the Parables of Jesus ahead of preaching on the parables this autumn.  Scott argues that in the parables Jesus re-imagined the world and invited us to do the same.  I'll have more to say on this point as I read and blog through the book.

In chapter two I was struck by his contrast between myth and parable and how the one is related to the other.

He writes that stories can work in one of two ways -- maintenance of the status quo or subverting the status quo.  Myths do the former and parables the latter.

Scott writes, "Myth has a  passion for order; it gives the chaos of our daily lives a manageable form by resolving the irreconcilable into a story that makes sense of the conflicts."  Myths use narrative to resolve "the opposition between reality and belief" and usually operate in our minds without us being aware of them.  He cites the American myth of the self-made individual as an example.  When oure myths are challenged, it can be painful, but it can also be an opportunity to imagine something new.

This is what parables do.  The subvert the status quo by challenging myths.  Scott writes, "To attack myth, a story must sometimes be outrageous and offensive."

The Song of Songs (Berit Olam (The Everlasting Covenant): Studies In Hebrew Narrative And Poetry)

The Song of Songs by Dianne Bergant
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I've read the I Samuel commentary in this series, and it was quite an insightful, engaging, and provocative read. I was hoping that this one would be as well. Instead, it is detailed and careful exegesis of each passage. Those types of commentaries are generally not fun to read, but are handy reference material. After a few chapters, I determined it was best to simply skim this book. And it is a good skim. I do like much of its interpretation of the book.

What I found most interesting was its explication of the mythic allusions to the images and metaphors in the book. Throughout there are allusions to stories and characters from Canaanite and Egyptian mythology. This I had not heard before and found to be fascinating.

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GLBA Trees

That's Grand Lake Baptist Association, not Gay, Lesbian, and Bisexual Association.  The former was the association I grew up in, the latter was the 1990's era name of OU's queer student group.

GLBA owns a campground on Grand Lake o' the Cherokees (that is the official name of the lake, apostrophe included).  I grew up attending children's and youth camps and retreats there.  Two trees in particular stand out in my memory.

One was a massive weeping willow at one end of the central lawn of the campground.  I've always loved weeping willows because they create rooms and this one was very large, with lots of space inside the swaying branches.  The branches themselves are also fun to swing on, when one was light enough to do so.

The other tree was part of a set of four trees (I'm not sure what kind they were) along the road that ran from the First Baptist Miami cabin down to the kitchen and dining hall.  These four trees made the rough shape of a Latin cross.  I don't think they did so intentionally, and it didn't seem to be something that most people were aware of.  I discovered it early on and every time I was at the camp, I would sit against the tree which formed the base of the cross.  Here I would read and study my Bible during quiet times or would pray.  Sitting against that tree, I worked on my very first sermon, which I preached at the age of fourteen.  I mentioned trees in that sermon as well.