Through the Bible, Week 8

When Everyone Did What Was Right In Their Own Eyes

Between the Exodus from Imperial Egypt and the reign of King David in a United Monarchy, lies a rugged terrain of partial conquest, enduring fratricide and an emerging but then full-blown anarchy in the land of Israel.  Despite their experience of a totalitarian state, Israel continues to hanker for a king like the nations around them.  After deliverance by Gideon, the men of Israel make a request; "Rule over us, you and your son and your grandson also, for you ahve saved us from the hand of Midian." And Gideon said to them, "I will not rule over you, nor will my son rule over you.  But God will rule over you" (cf. Judges 8:22-26).  Why do the children of Israel ask for a king when God has delivered them without one?  We need not look very long in the book of Judges.  There is a cycle of eight episodes characterized by deliverance from a political enemy, moral decline, apostasy and oppression - thus undoing everything the conquest was supposed to achieve.  The people repent, call to God who delivers them through the agency of a "judge" (or charismatic leader) and the cycle begins afresh.  Why does this keep happening?  The narrator leaves nothing to the imagination.  It is because the Judges rule in a time when everyone did what was right in their own eyes.  The people of Israel subsequently conclude that they prefer a king to anarchy.  It becomes apparent that the only alternative to anarchy is the establishment of a standing political and military power strong enough to maintain order internally and protect the people externally.  They need a political state or kingdom. Thus, they desire a king to rule over them. 

Generations later the scene is repeated during the judgeship of Samuel, who warns the people of Israel who continue to ask for a King: "This will be the custom of the king who will reign over you.  He will take your son and post them for himself on his chariots, and to be his horsemen, to run before his chariot....He will take a tenth of your sheep, and you will become his servants [avadim].  And you will cry out on that day from before the king that you have chosen for yourselves, and the Lord will not answer you on that day" (cf. 1 Sam 8:11-18). When Samuel tells the people that if they establish a king they will all become his "servant" [avadim], he necessarily uses the same word that the Bible uses to describe the slaves of Pharaoh. 

As much as the people initially hanker for radical autonomy (political anarchy), the verdict of biblical history is not for it.  The reason is simple: it does not work as one might hope.  This is another sign that people are no longer fit for Eden, even if Eden was provided to them.  There is something unruly about the human condition which requires us to be accountable to the other.  Indeed, it requires transformation.  The book of Judges (and to a lesser degree Samuel) is one long indictment against anarchy, making it the pivot on which the biblical narrative turns from Empire to Monarchy.  The people long for a king for they need a king, but not just any king.  In the story of Saul and Solomon (which Samuel foreshadows above) we find that more is required of monarchy than simply a king.  There must be king whose heart is turned toward God.  Otherwise a monarchy will quickly slide either back toward empire or catapult into anarchy.  A godly monarchy is a knife's edge, restraining anarchy on the one hand and resisting the pull towards empire on the other. 

The beginnings of the messianic hope, the mandate of Jesus, find its origins in this political development.  But the Bible reader will have to wait till the Gospels to witness its inauguration. 

Through the Bible, Week 7: A Story about Truth-telling

Ten Commandments

The 9th commandment is: "You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor."

We see the violation of this ninth commandment memorably portrayed in the ninth book of Israel's primary history, Kings.  The book of Kings is full of irony. It recounts a nation founded on the truthful speech of the covenant, divided by calumny and false witness.  Many atrocities are committed in Kings but one stands out as emblematic of this ironic era.    At the heart of the narrative is a faithful farmer, tending his vineyard according to the precepts of the Lord. Naboth (a play on the word "nabi" meaning prophet) becomes the object of Jezebel's - the barren queen and her eunuch-like stooges -  dissimulation, distortion and deceptive speech.  There are two interrelated ironies in this story.

1st irony: The faithful (Naboth the farmer) is injured by the false witness of the faithless (Jezebel the barren queen, whose fruitlessness is manifest in her words, which ironically come true in her own death) (see 2 Kings 9:30-37).

2nd irony: The faithless uses the form of faithful speech - the word of a prophet - to persecute Naboth (1 Kings 21:1-14).

Let's consider these two ironies in reverse. In 1 Kings 21:1-14, we learn how the barren one seeks to undo the fruitful work of Naboth through faithless words communicated in faithful form.  By faithful form, we mean the command-compliance form that is normally used to convey the prophetic message.  The command-compliance form is used to convey the Lord's message to Elijah earlier (cf 1 Kings 18:41-4619:4-8; etc), but now it is used to convey the message of Jezebel to her "two worthless men" (21:10).  Her parody of faithful speech bears repeating: "proclaim a fast" (v9); so they proclaim a fast (v12). She writes, "Seat two worthless men opposite, and let them bring a charge against him" (v10); so "the worthless men brought a charge against Naboth in the presence of the people" (v13).  She even supplies the charge and punishment: "You have cursed God and the king.  Then take him out and stone him to death" (v10); "saying, Naboth cursed God and the king.  So they took him outside the city and stoned him to death with stones" (v13).

Naboth is the victim of calumny, a form of false witness that harms the reputation of another and gives occasion for false judgements against him. However, Jezebel is rightly consumed by her own words, falling to her death on stone pavement and mutilated (a reverse stoning) (2 Kings 9:33-35).  People who falsify, dissimulate, distort and the like end up consumed by their own machinations.     

It was this command, and this form of diminishing the dignity of another human being, that Paul had in mind when he exhorted us to: "put on the new man, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.  Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members of one another (Ephesian 4:24-25).

Respect for the reputation and dignity of persons forbids every attitude and word likely to cause them unjust injury.

We live in a divided Communion as well as a divided Nation, so we live in the conditions ripe for the "barren queen and her two worthless men."  But the conditions are even more ripe for the word of God and fruitful speech, the healing word that allows people to live with great difference without enmity.  Sisters and brothers, don't be content to sit firm in the company of distortion and deceit but speak the truth with your neighbor and watch all distortion, detraction and deception give way to the reconciling word of Christ. That is the promise of the "third use" of the ninth commandment.

Through the Bible, Week 7, Applied to Heresy

The Ten Commandments

The Ten Commands function as fence, protecting us from erroneous behavior.  This is known as the "first use of the law".  They are also seen as a mirror showing us our sinfulness and need for grace.  This is sometimes referred to as "the second use of the law."  But the Ten Commandments also function as a lens, clarifying the nature of reality around us and directing us into a greater apprehension of the truth.  This is sometimes referred to as the "third use of the law."

The first law, which instructs us to worship and obey the LORD God exclusively, functions according to the third use of the law by illuminating heresy.  Christians sometimes disagree about what a heresy is or what beliefs count as heretical.  For example, Roman Catholics and Orthodox believe that Five Point Calvinism is a heresy.  (This was an assertion recently made by Metropolitan Jonah of the Orthodox Church of America.  Some were stunned to hear this, but it was not surprising to those who know and understand Christian tradition.  IT is common knowledge.)  However, most protestants do not consider Calvinist heretics.  I certainly do not believe that.  Some may be doctrinal deviants, but not heretics.  Most of the Calvinist I know are devout and orthodox.

So what is a heresy?  The first commandment is a helpful interpretative device in this regard.  The first command requires us to nourish and protect faith in God.  Heresy is one of many ways of sinning against faith.  On a continuum between voluntary doubt (where someone disregards the revelation of God and consensual teaching of the Church) to apostasy (the total repudiation of the faith) there stands heresy.  Heresy is an obstinate doubt, a severe doctrinal deviation but one that falls short of apostasy.  Heresy is dangerous because it usually involves schism (a breaking of the communion of the church and the unity for which Christ himself prays - John 17:21) and thus a distancing from the life of God which saves us.  John outlines this order of salvation in I John 1:3 - "that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ." According to John, we come into fellowship with the Triune God through the fellowship of the community of faith.    Through proclamation and hospitality, we come to into the fellowship of the Church, which participates in the fellowship of the Trinity.  It is the actual reality of divine communion, our particiation in the fellowship of Father, Son and Holy Spirit in the communion of the Church that saves us - not merely doctrines about it, as important as those doctrine are for the nourishing and strengthening of that fellowship.  Heretical teaching violates that unity which ensures our salvation.

Apostasy is full-on, overt repudiation and separation from that divine-human fellowship.  Various forms of voluntary doubt and obstinancy prevents growth in the faith as well as growth in spiritual virtue.  This is often evidenced by a vicious, sterile spiritual life that with proper instruction and formation, could have become a virtuous and fruitful one.  In this instance, one is most likely some kind of doctrinal and spiritual deviant but not necessarily a heretic. Doctrinal deviants are often recognized by their barrenness, the inverse of spiritual fruitfulness (see Matt 7:16-18, Jn 15:16-17, Rm 7:4-6, Gal 5:22-26, Phil 1:9-11, etc).  Heresy is moving from the later to the former - from vountary doubt, to deviation, and unless corrected, develops into full blown repudiation.  So heresy is doctrinal and spiritual deviance on the trajectory towards apostasy.  Thus one can be both a Christian AND a heretic.  Indeed, in the Roman Catholic Church protestants are usually considered both "heretics" and "brothers."  Unlike an apostate, a heretic is not yet lost to God. Which is why Augustine was tireless in challenging the deviance of Donatists and Pelagians and urging them to return to the Catholic fold.  The heretical trajectory can be turned.  Doctrinal deviance can be repudiated.  Augustine sought to help other Christians turn the heretical trajectory and repudiate the doctrinal deviance many found themselves in.  I will explore the relevance of Augustine in this matter in later posts.

The First Command, by upholding fidelity to the true God, also teaches us about sins against faith and thus functions as a lens on spiritual reality.  Each of the commands have such a "third use," which clarifies reality and thereby secures greater apprehension of the truth.

Through the Bible, Week 7, part 3

Ten Commandments

The Ten Commandments may be read from many different perspectives.  Some see them as a form of natural law.  Why?  Because the laws are violated in some form before they are codified in Exodus 20.  For example, theft, adultery, murder, covetousness and the like are committed in Genesis. Even the sabbath is violated in Exodus 16:27-30 (four chapters before the law is formally given in the list of ten). These laws find their counterparts in the religions of the Ancient Near East (ANE).  No society that tolerates murder, theft, adultery and the like can be viable over the generations but will collapse under its own moral anarchy. 

Yet others view the Ten Commands as distinctive revelation, with no real counterpart in the ANE.  This is especially true of tablet one, commands 1-4, each of which contain a rationale for compliance.  The command to worship only the LORD God, to make no idols to worship in the place of this God, nor to blaspheme this God, nor to violate the sabbath of this God are distinctive in the religions of the ANE and based on the singular uniqueness of the LORD God which the rest of the Biblical narrative sets forth.

The uniqueness of the LORD God's character is the key to the rest of the commands' interpretation.  The reason we do not steal is because the LORD God is generous.  The reason we do not murder is because the LORD God is the author and sustainer of life.  The reason we do not commit adultery is because the LORD God is faithful to his covenant with us.  And so on.

The Ten Commands set forth the moral and relational implications of God's character and thus the nature of reality itself.  To step outside of them is to turn our backs on the truth of God, ourselves and God's world.     

Truro Hosts Alpha-USA Board

This past Thursday and Friday we had the privilege of hosting the board of directors of Alpha-USA.  I have served on this board for the past six years.  Before that I was a conference speaker for Alpha for 5 years.  It has been one of the greatest joys and honors of my life to be associated with this great movement of the Holy Spirit.   Tricia Neill, who is the director of Alpha International, flew in from London.  Jamie and Andie Haith, who served as Nicky Gumbel's assistant for nearly 20 years has just moved to DC to plant Holy Trinity in McLean, VA.  Elizabeth and I grateful to have them as friends and to have them so close to us.  God is good.  Enjoy the photos below:

Defender of the Bond: Building a Marriage Culture at Truro

 Defender of the Bond...

Is the title of clergy and religious in the Roman Catholic Church who are devoted to the well being of marriages in a given diocese or region.

At Truro all the clergy are in the process of becoming "defenders of the bond."  We all share in the various marriage ministries and courses we offer here.  All are also committed to having healthy marriages and many of my colleagues take part in the counseling of engaged couples as well as couples facing marital stress and/or crisis.  We share in the creation and maintenance of a marriage culture.  We all participate in the ministry of encouragement and instruction.



Instructing the faithful takes many forms and engages many subjects.  In the past four years we have spent a good bit of time instructing the faithful on marriage, its theological foundation and best practices.  Sometimes proclamation takes the form of explanation and exposition, like Elizabeth and my teaching on the Theology of the Body.  Here is an example from last spring:


http://www.truroanglican.com/uploads/TOB_SL_S8_04-29-12.pdf


Sometimes instruction takes the form of moral exhortation and exposition.  Last January I preached on the nuptial theology of John:



http://www.truroanglican.com/media_player.asp?messageID=108462


And sometimes our instruction comes in the form of wisdom and spiritual counsel, like we do several times a year in our Marriage and Pre-Marriage Courses:

http://www.truroanglican.com/pages/page.asp?page_id=95933

Paul put it this way:  "Preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching."

Through the Bible, Week 7, part 2

Ten Commandments

What kind of rules are the Ten Commandments?  Different rules are designed to guard and elicit the proper responses to the values and norms of the parties involved.  1) Legislative rules carry the force of law.  This is what Congress passes and becomes the basis of civil and criminal liability.  2) Procedural rules govern the work of legislative agents and their application of the law.  All three branches of government - Legislative, Judicial, Executive - are governed by these kinds of rules. 3) Interpretive rules which are the rubrics for applying the law in given circumstances. 

Torah is the Hebrew word translated "Law" and we normally think of the Ten Commandments usually in legislative terms.  In truth, it is all of these types of rules and even more than these.  Torah is more inclusive than our word "Law," even in its most expansive sense.

Torah derives from an archery word "yarah," and means to shoot an arrow.  Torah is the nominative form of this verb.  Torah is a "targeted" word.  It is a personal word from a personal God which invites the hearer into a personal relationship.  Exodus 15:26 is representative of this kind of personal directive: If you will diligently listen to the voice of the LORD your God, and do that which is right in his eyes, and give ear to his commandments and keep all his statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you that I put on the Egyptians, for I am the LORD, your healer." 

 To "listen to the voice" and "give ear" is a personal response to a personal word.  This word comes in the form of invitation into a relationship known as "covenant."  There are different kinds of covenants in the Bible.  There is the "treaty" between unequal, and usually warring, parties.  In this kind of covenant, the lesser swears loyalty to the greater and the greater promises protection to the lesser partner.  There is a "pact" between once competitive parties who now have each others' backs.  Such is the covenant between Jonathan and David.  Finally, there is a "promise" between parties who share not a common objective, such that once the objective is completed the agreement is ended.  Rather, it is an agreement that puts the relationship and its flourishing at the heart of the covenant.

The Ten Commandments is the form of God's agreement, His promise, with his "segullah" - his special, treasured possession (Exodus 19:6).  In comes in two kinds: laws that govern our relationship with God and laws that govern and protect our relationship with others.  These laws originally appeared on two tablets, one tablet for each kind.  Part three of this post will look more closely at the specific commands contained on these two tablets.