Chapter 3 selected 7 scripture passages to illustrate how God was addressed by some of the people in the Bible (with my personally assigned title for each passage):
Luke 10:25-28 (The testing lawyer calls Him “Teacher”)
Matthew 6:1-4 (Give confidentially, except for the Father’s knowledge)
Exodus 20:1-17 (The Ten Commandments – “I am the Lord your God”)
John 1:1-18 (the Word)
Proverbs 8:22-36 (I, the Lord, was there before…)
Romans 5:1-11 (God as Christ, showing faith, grace, hope and reconciliation)
Luke 18:9-14 (Approaching God in different attitudes)
The hymn for the week was "O God, Our Help in Ages Past".
(If you are not familiar with the song, just Google the hymn name and you will get multiple sources to read and/or hear it, as well as its history.)
The meditation selections included excerpts from the writings of Anthony Bloom, Abraham Joshua Heschel, Annie Dillard, Harry Emerson Fosdick, Martin Buber, and Kenneth Leech. (Googling their names may give you some insight into their backgrounds and experiences, if that's of any interest to you.)
Some of the interesting quotes from the meditations included:
- …think of the warmth, the depth and intensity of your prayer when it concerns someone you love or something which matters to your life. …Does it mean that God matters to you? No, …it simply means that the subject matter of your prayer matters to you.
- What is decisive? Decisive is not our “feeling” but our “certainty” of His being close to us… Decisive is not our emotion but our “conviction”. The true source of prayer…is not an emotion but an insight…insight into the mystery of reality…
- It is all right – believe it or not – to be people.
- Nothing could be more intensely individual than the prayers of the Bible. …There are as many different ways of praying as there are different individuals.
- “How can you bring yourself to say ‘God’ time after time?” …It is the most heavy-laden of all human words. None has become so soiled, so mutilated. …But we may not give it up. …We cannot cleanse the word ‘God’ and we cannot make it whole; but, defiled and mutilated as it is, we can raise it from the ground and set it over an hour of great care.
- Jesus is clearly encouraging a relationship with God which is marked by childlikeness.
- Unless we can find the right name for God, we have no free, real, joyful, open access to Him. …There are moments when the sacred writers…burst out with something which has the quality of a nickname (a “personal name”)… Remember the Psalm in which…suddenly David bursts out, “You, my Joy!” That is the moment when the whole Psalm comes to life, …evidencing a personal relationship.
What do any of these quotes (or any of the meditations in Chapter 3 not quoted) mean to you? I look forward to your responses.
John
2 comments:
I see that you have quoted Annie Dillard. It is all right – believe it or not – to be people.
What do you think this means? It almost seems that she is allowing for sinful behavior because, after all, we are mere humans. That would somehow lessen the personal responsibility for our actions and thus cheapen what Jesus Christ did on the Cross.
I think we are more than mere humans. I think we are new creations in Christ Jesus.
"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new." II Corinthians 5:17
If we go back to the original people created by God, they fellowshipped with God but still were held accountable for their personal actions. Even though they were kicked out of the Garden, they did not have their free will revoked. God still sought them and their fellowship and obedience, eventually sending Jesus to provide a way for their (and our) redemption.
So, to me, Annie's statement suggests that the new creation to which you referred is really a restoration of the original creation which included a loving, completely trusting relationship between God and people - He is still God and we are still people. We understand the hierarchy involved and it's okay to be on the people side of it - people saved by grace through faith - people still subject to making mistakes or even sinning, but when we do "we know if anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world." (I John 2:1b-2) The Bible also says "For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Romans 6:23) This suggests to me that John 3:16 is more profound than we may have realized; that God's love is for PEOPLE, and that our response to our own imperfect performance has only one peace-producing (joy-producing?) action, which is repentance, followed by obedience. See I John 1:9, Luke 11:28, John 14:15, John 15:10, I John 3:24.
This joy and peace is available to PEOPLE, so even though our failures or imperfect performance may cause us to despair, we are still people. In fact, for those who know Christ and obey Him, being people is not only all right but is to be desired because no one else can know that joy and peace!
And yes, we believe people can live without sinning, but that's a whole 'nother discussion which we will probably take up in another session.
(All scripture references are NIV.)
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