So, what's the Gospel?

I grew up Lutheran, which is a great way to learn about grace.  I tended to find Paul’s letter more readable than the Gospels.  Jesus just seemed odd.  The beginning and the end of his story seemed to make sense but in the middle, I was clueless. 

My interest in Jesus radically changed when I heard a talk on Jesus’ authority.  It didn't just mean that he spoke with strength.  That word, authority, has roots in rabbinic thought.  The Hebrew word is smecha (סמיכה or smicha or semikhah).   Smecha is given to a rabbi by two other rabbi’s with smecha.  This happened to Jesus. (Go look for it.)  And when I learned this little bit of context, a whole world opened up.  Jesus was Jewish (duh, right?) and much/all of what he is doing in the Gospels is pulling from that, from his, tradition.

Recently, I’ve come back to the Gospel, to the good news, to the root.  I was taught by the reformers   Jesus seems to have said something a little different.  “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is here.”  So, what did that mean to them back then?  Does it mean anything for us today?

NT Wright tackles this in his book, "How God Became King".  These are my notes on the book.    He explores the kingdom.  He concludes our view of Jesus’ work might need to grow to fully encompass what Jesus taught of the kingdom.   I'm hoping to find the Prince of Peace again.  

Waking up, again.

It has been awhile.  Day has dawned and it's time to wake up again.

"This is why it is said: 'Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.'" -- Paul

"Awake and sing, you who dwell in the dust! For your dew is like the dew of the morning, and the earth will bring forth her dead." -- Isaiah

Figure 4 - Sunrise over the Sea of Galilee.

Bethlehem 2007 and 2004

National Geographic has an article in their December 2007 magazine on the modern day city of Bethlehem, the house of bread. Like all good subscribers, I have only looked at the pictures so far. They have an amazing one showing how close Bethlehem rests in the shadow of Herod, literally with the giant ruins of Herod's desert fortress in the background, the Herodium. Archaeologists recently found what appears to be Herod's tomb at the Herodium. The birth and death of two great kings. Bethlehem is about 3 miles (4.75 km) from the Herodium. All these places within an hours walk of one another.

Back in 2004, I spent a night at Ramat Rachel in Jerusalem. I woke up the next morning to a view of sun rise on the Herodium.

Figure 1 -- The Herodium (or Herodion) is in the background , the flat-top shaped hill.

Figure 2 -- Panning to the right, to the east, you can see more of the nearby land.

Figure 3 -- Panning to the east slightly more, you can see the towers of Bethlehem in the middle ground.

Rejoice always--David Scholer

There is a great article in the LA Times on professor David Scholer of Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena. It's encouraging to see God's faithfulness in how this man has faced hardship and his struggle with cancer, and how he has been strengthened to continue teaching and rejoicing in life.

Notes on "Jesus" by Flusser, Chapter 1

Flusser begins "Jesus" with comments on the sources. His goal is to "write the story of Jesus' life (pg. 18)", and to "simply server as a mouthpiece for Jesus' message today (pg 16)". Key points of chapter 1 include:

• The only important Christian sources are the Gospels.
• The three Synoptics (Matthew, Mark, Luke) are based upon common historical material
• The fourth, John, is primarily theological in nature.
  
• The most genuine sources of a charismatic personality are their own utterances and the accounts of the faithful--read critically of course. Outside references serve as a control.
• Without much detail, Flusser states that "the early Christian accounts about Jesus are not as untrustworthy as people today often think (pg 20)".
• The only Gospel that teaches a post-Easter Christology is John's.
• In the early church, for Jewish Christianity, Jesus' role as miracle-worker, teacher, prophet and Messiah was more important than the risen Lord of the kerygma.
• He dates the Gospels to around 70AD, which luckily was after the "dynamic creativity" of Pauline congregations had died down.
• He concludes that with an unbiased mind, the synoptic Gospels are seen as more focused on Christian platitudes rather than kerygmatic statements.
• A intimate few of first century Judaism is vital to understanding Jesus. In light of this Jewish background, the Synoptic Gospels preserve a picture of Jesus which is more reliable than is generally acknowledged.
• Based on R. L. Lindsey's work, Flusser feels Luke preserves a more original tradition than Mark, and when combined with Matthew provides a more authentic view of Jesus (pg 21,22).
• In a foot note, Flusser thinks that Jesus' crucifixion quote of Psalm 22 is a creative invention by Mark. More in a later chapter.
• Flusser has "no axe to grind", and "seeks to present Jesus directly to the reader".

Return to "Jesus" by Flusser

I recently realized I had never finished David Flusser's book, Jesus, and have returned to read it in depth. Flusser was an Orthodox Jew who lived in Israel and was an expert in Jesus and nascent Christianity. He was a founding member of the Jerusalem School of Synpotic Research. His book, Jesus, 2001, searches for the historical Jesus and "reflects the truism that Jesus was a Jew and wanted to remain within the Jewish faith but argues that, without the long preparatory work of contemporaneous Jewish faith, the teaching of Jesus would be unthinkable (Preface, Jesus)."

My goal is to take notes on this book and reflect on its conclusions. I lack the skills to read this critically and will approach the book as a novice student. I am particularly interested in Flusser's view of Jesus since as he says, "[I am] a practicing Jew and not a Christian, I am independent of any church. I readily admit, however, that I personal identify myself with Jesus' Weltanschauung, both moral and political, and I believe that the content of his teachings and the approach he embraced have always had the potential to change our world and prevent the greatest part of evil and suffering."

Losing Faith?

Faith and scholarship are discussed in a recent BAR article, Losing Faith: How Scholarship Affects Scholars: 2 Who Did and 2 Who Didn't. In this article, Hershel Shanks, editor of BAR, interviews four scholars to probe the effect of their sholarship work on their faith. Did it help, hinder, or destroy?

Several interesting themes resonated among the participants.

• Is the Bible inerrant? If the products of scholarly research conflict with a literal reading of the text, how does a person's faith deal with it? Does it shatter or take it in stride? They discussed the approach (and brittleness) of typical Protestant fundamentalists and the flexibility of a typical Jewish approach. Shanks--"Well, then your scholarship did destroy your faith?" Dever--"Absolutely. Next year will be the 50th anniversary of my first trip to Israel. I worked there for 49 years and let me tell you something: Seeing Judaism and Christianity and, God help us, Islam up close and personal does not help."

• Many of their faith struggles dealt with the evil in the world. If God is good, and he interacts with the world, how does evil still exist? Schifmann--"Any person who says that he can give an explanation for the Holocaust is crazy. So the bottom line is that we all go along living with the fact that this horrible thing happened and we can’t explain it."

• Faith is a process, a journey.

From the article, here are a few quotes that will linger for awhile:

Strange--Faith in the Judeo-Christian tradition has a God who intervenes. That's what the Exodus event is, that's what the crucifixion is: its a God who intervenes, and when I look around this world, I don't see a God who intervenes.

Dever--Right now the Christian tradition does nothing for me and the Orthodox Jewish tradition does little for me. In my own experience, I find this God so distant that it doesn’t make any practical difference. And, for me, I guess the final straw probably was the death of my son five years ago. If I had believed in God, I would have been very angry, but I didn’t and I survived.

Schiffman--In Judaism there is actually a commandment to believe. What does that mean, a command to believe? Well, it wouldn’t be a commandment if it were so easy. There has to be a struggle that a human being goes through in this complex world, in which we don’t really know what’s going on.

The article ended with notes of humility that are worth humming now and then.

Strange--I think I would say that faith/unfaith is sort of a false dichotomy. I think faith always contains elements of unfaith and vice versa. So in a way, we can’t avoid it.

Mosaic at Socoh

Several years ago during my trip to Israel, we stumbled upon a mosaic floor while climbing Socoh in the Valley of Elah. It was covered in dirt and we brushed it away to get a better look. RVL radioed our Israeli guide, Boaz, who then called his mom. None of them knew of a mosaic or monastery at Socoh, and I haven't heard any information since.

This evening, I was reading the Sep/Oct 2006 issue of BAR, and on page 58 I saw a similar mosaic floor. It was a picture from a Byzantine monastery on top of Hyrcania. BAR doesn't have the photo online so maybe I'll scan it when I get the chance.

So, maybe some monks made their home a Socoh.

Like a child (part 1)

Ever since my daughter was born several years ago, I have been thinking about Jesus' comments about children. He said,

"Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it." And he took the children in his arms, put his hands on them and blessed them."

Can my daughter teach me about the kingdom? With our second child to be born next week, I thought I would start keeping track of lessons learned from them.

First, she loves a good story. And the Bible is full of them. She is lost in the wonder of Genesis, and the funny names of genealogies (especially Amminadab from Jesus' family line in Matthew). She loves baby Moses and the little boy named Samuel. At night, she says, "Daddy, tell me a story about baby Jesus." It's precious. Nothing beats a good story.

Second, she makes connections. This evening I was telling her about the exodus. They were so hungry, very very hungry, and God provided with bread from heaven. And then she said, "Bread? It's like the little boy." I said, "What little boy?" She said, "The boy with bread. And the little fishes. He gave them to Jesus. And Jesus then fed the hungry people." Wow. A two year connected manna in the desert with Jesus and the five thousand. How long will it be before she connects the five loaves and two fishes to Sinai?

View From Accad

A friend sent me this article, Another Point of View: Evangelical Blindness on Lebanon. The author's family and my friend attend the same church in southern California. It is a raw and emotional view from a man stranded in the US as his family's home is besieged by war.

Matthew 9: Notes

This evening during our study we worked our way through the last section of Matthew, chapter 9. Jesus heals a young girl and an older woman. The blind and mute are restored. Jesus travels through all the towns to heal and teach, and he sends out the twelve.

Awhile back, this was our first insight the significance of understanding the Jewish roots of Jesus in grasping the depth of the text. There are many discussions on this. Here are two of them: RVL and 528. A strength of this story comes from the words of Malachi, "But for you who revere my name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings. And you will go out and leap like calves released from the stall." According to RVL, this verse has messianic connotations. You can see this reflected earlier in the last words of David,

When one rules over men in righteousness,
when he rules in the fear of God, he is like the light of
morning at sunrise on a cloudless morning,
like the brightness after rain that brings the grass from the earth

Next, we noted the similarities between the end Matthew 9 and the end of Matthew 4. Jesus travels, teaches, and heals. Then in 10, he sends out his talmidim to do the exact same thing. In 3-4, the way is prepared, Jesus receives his smicha (authority), and he calls disciples. He teaches in 5-7, and puts it into practice in 8-9. His mission is captured again at the end of 9, and then he commissions his talmidim to do the same thing.

There also seem to be reflections again of Moses and the exodus. Moses sends out 12 (and 72), so does Jesus. It's also interesting to note that Moses renamed one of the spies just as Jesus renamed one of his talmidim. Moses talks about no sickness in the land if things go well (Exodus 23:25). Are the disciples "spying" out the land again, and bringing the healing and restoration to Israel and the world? Is Jesus ushering in the lasting promise land? The real kingdom of heaven?

Genus of the name

I recently read an interview of Eugene Peterson where he was asked about U2. I found this comment quite interesting about one of U2's recent songs.

The genus of the name, Yahweh, is that it is not a noun, it's a verb, and so you can't objectify a verb and therefore you can't make an idol out of it. It is most naturally understood in the vocative, as an address. A name is that way, as an address. The Bible has a lot of metaphors for God but Yahweh is the unique Biblical word for the Presence -- the One who is present to us and we have to be present to Him. I thought the song "Yahweh" uses the word in a way that partakes of its genius, its uniqueness. It's a personal address: "Yahweh, Yahweh." He's not talking about God, he's talking to God, or calling out to God.

Sh'ma and angels

A friend made a great connection to the angel's praise at the birth of Jesus as written in Luke. "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests." Doesn't this echo sh'ma and love your neighbor?

(Thanks Lorri!)

Why did ravens feed Elijah?

During my trip to Israel while in southern Galilee, RVL asked the question, "Why did God send ravens to Elijah?" I had no clue, so I recently asked a yeshiva student at a Shabbat service and he said it had it something to do with Noah and the raven he sent out during the flood. He said he we would check with the rabbis at the yeshiva. I haven't been back to Chabad yet to see the student so I did some searching online. The mission of the ravens feeding Elijah is intimately connected to the story of the raven and Noah.

The first occurrence of the word "raven" is in the story of Noah and the flood. Genesis 8:6-8 reads:

After forty days Noah opened the window he had made in the ark and sent out a raven, and it kept flying back and forth until the water had dried up from the earth. Then he sent out a dove to see if the water had receded from the surface of the ground.

So, we first hear of the raven as it is being sent out from the ark. The rabbis note that the task of searching for water is not mentioned as it is with the dove. The raven is just "sent out". In the Talmud (Tractate Sanhedrin 108b), a conversation is recorded between Noah and the raven. The raven is upset because it thinks Noah is trying to put an end to its species (only two were brought on the ark). The raven also accuses Noah of wanting to "know" the raven's wife. Noah exclaims, "You evil one!" (I can almost see this happening in Narnia!)

The rabbis teach that those who accuse someone of a blemish, have that blemish themselves (see Jesus's statement about a speck in one's eye). They say Noah deduced that the raven had had relations with its wife on the ark, an act that was strictly forbidden according to the rabbis. From this it appears Noah is evicting the raven from the ark because of bad behavior.

The rabbis then comment on the nature of Noah. According to Rashi, "Noah was a perfect man in his generation... Some of our Rabbis explain the words '‘in his generation'’ to his discredit--he was a righteous man in his own generation, but had he been living in the generation of Abraham, he would have not been reckoned as anyone special". The comparison between Abraham and Noah continues. Both were surrounded by evil, Abraham by Sodom and Noah by a corrupt world. In both cases, God called for punishment. Abraham begged and pleaded for God to save Sodom. But Noah just accepted the judgment and did what was commanded to save his family. The rabbis conclude that Noah lacked mercy and concern for his fellow humans.

This lack of mercy is again shown in Noah evicting the raven. In a midrash, the rabbis's describe Noah as saying the raven "had no purpose" and was expendable. But God steps in with mercy and gives the raven a mission. The Torah says that the raven flew "until the water had dried up from the earth".

Enter Elijah. His first act is to stop the rain, and the earth dried up. Again the rabbis comment on character. They say there are two possible ways to win over a sinner: 1) punish them, or 2) win them over. Noah drove out the raven and Elijah punished Israel. Neither showed mercy, both were bent on punishment.

So the rabbis comment that the raven was sent to teach Elijah a lesson. The raven was seen as a cruel creature that doesn't even feed its own (see Psalm 147). If a raven fed Elijah, how much more should Elijah have "fed" the people of Israel and won them over to follow God? The lesson for Elijah continues with him traveling to Zarephath, which means "refinement". Elijah spent three years in refinement where he learned mercy and then returned to Israel to confront the evil and win over the Israelites.

A common theme echoes through these stories, "I desire mercy, not sacrifice." Everyone has worth, so do not judge.

Clearly these themes are reflected in the teachings of Jesus (for instance, see the sermon on the mount in Matthew 6-8). I also wonder if echoes of Noah and Elijah are reflected in his teachings about worry. In Luke 12 we read:

Then Jesus said to his disciples: "Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat; or about your body, what you will wear. Life is more than food, and the body more than clothes. Consider the ravens: They do not sow or reap, they have no storeroom or barn; yet God feeds them. And how much more valuable you are than birds! Who of you by worrying can add a single cubit to his height? Since you cannot do this very little thing, why do you worry about the rest?

The ravens turn your imagination to the flood. And so does the cubit, maybe. There was a one-cubit window in the ark. Why didn't Noah just look out the window to see if the land was dry? Was Noah just short enough that he couldn't see out the window and hence the need for the dove to look for dry land? Was he worrying about a lack of food on the ark? I wonder.

In conclusion, it seems ravens were sent to teach Elijah a lesson of mercy. If ravens could feed Elijah, how much more should he have fed Israel?


( I found a variety of sources online for this material. Two of the best summaries (which I've drawn from heavily) are from tfdixie and shemayisrael. Other interesting notes maybe worth exploring are the three years of Elijah refinement related to Jesus' three ministry years, and are there parallels between the widow at Zarepheth and the woman at the well in John?)

Same material

We were working our way through Matthew, and Michelle had an interesting insight into the plank eye story of Matthew 7 where Jesus says,

Do not judge so that you will not be judged. For in the way you judge, you will be judged; and by your standard of measure, it will be measured to you. Why do you look at the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, 'Let me take the speck out of your eye,' and behold, the log is in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye.

Her insight was that the speck and log (or plank in the NIV) are made of the same material. The same material, the same sin. How often are we so sensitive to the small speck of a particular sin in someone's life when there is a glaring plank of that particular sin in our own life? Thanks Michelle.

...wrd...

Sunshine, won't you be my mother
Sunshine, come and help me sing
My heart is darker than these oceans
My heart is frozen underneath

We are crooked souls trying to stay up straight,
Dry eyes in the pouring rain well
The shadow proves the sunshine
The shadow proves the sunshine

To scared that I'll run always
Hold fast to the break of day light where
The shadow proves the sunshine

Oh Lord, why did you forsake me?
Oh Lord, don't be far away
Storm clouds gathering beside me
Please Lord, don't look the other way

Shine on me,
the shadow proves the sunshine

by Switchfoot

Brother, where art thou?

My brother recommended I read a study on Cain and Abel by Rabbi David Fohrman. I don't know much about the Rabbi other than he is a scholar who worked as an editor for the Schottenstien Edition of the Talmud and is currently at the Hoffberger Foundation for Torah Studies, Inc. The first three lessons of the study have been quiet good. Rabbi Fohrman asks difficult questions and challenges us to join him.

He begins by asking an unfair question in his mind. "What kind of parent is God when he doesn't accept his child's gift? If your two children brought you a picture each had drawn, would you as a parent say little Debbie's picture was so much better than little Bobby's? Is the Cain and Abel story different some how?" It reminds me of a story RVL tells.

A friend of his walked into a photographer's shop in Safed. "Which picture is your favorite?" she asked. He said, "Are you married?" She said, "Yes, why?". "Do you have children?" "Yes, why?" "Which one is your favorite?"

We all love our children in a unique way. How could God reject not only the gift of his child but also the child himself? "But on Cain and his offering he did not look with favor".

In part II, Rabbi Fohrman says the fallacy in this question is the comparison. With your two children's pictures, you don't compare relative value. Each picture has value in and of itself without an external standard apart from the author. The text clearly states that Abel brought the best of his flock, while Cain just brought something. It's very interesting to note though that Cain brought his offering first! He was the first to offer a gift. And it wasn't his best. Why? For insight into this, the rabbi encourages us to look at the context of the story. Why does the Cain and Abel story appear in this section of the text? (Go do this before continuing...very interesting it is.)

In part III, Rabbi Fohrman highlights the similarities between eating the forbidden fruit and the murder of Abel. God asks "Where are you?". He uses the word "ayeh" for "where" which says something more like "Why are you not here, what is wrong?" In both stories fear is expressed when God arrives. Both Adam and Cain suffer exile. Both will experience difficult farming. But there is a growing intensity with Cain. The results are much more severe. Somehow, the text is connecting the questions faced by Cain--"What offering should I bring?" and "Should I take my brother for a walk in the field?"--back to the garden.

In light of Jesus, I can't help but think of the sermon on the mount and his discussion about murder:

"Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, ²⁴leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift."

Is there background to the story we don't have? God seems to think so when he tells Cain to "master it", that is the sin that is crouching at his door. Is Jesus is referring to this text? Did Abel have something against Cain? Should Cain have reconciled himself with Abel before coming to God?

Another thing I find strange is the meaning of "Abel". In Hebrew it is pronounced "Hevel" and according to Strong's Dictionary means "vain". I would have expected it to mean something like "pure" or "innocent". Is Abel's name signifcant here?

Big Yellow Wisdom

Locally, there has been much talk about community, and nationally, much talk about hurricanes. I thought I would share some of Big Bird's wisdom on these topics! While watching Sesame Street with my daughter today, Big Bird shared some of his great wisdom. A few episodes ago, Big Bird's nest had been blown away by a hurricane. Fortunally, his friends swooped in to help by taking care of him. In this episode, he rebuilt his nest with the help of his friends. It was a great thing they did. As they are all gathered around the new nest, Big Bird sings them a song that went something like this:

"My Granny says,
'Friends stay friends
by the little things
they do for each other.'
Thanks for my nest, Pals.
The next hurricane I'll help you.
Thank you, thank you,
thank you for being my friends."

I wonder if his Granny had been reading Proverbs regularly?

Friends love through all kinds of weather,
and families stick together in all kinds of trouble.
Proverbs 17:17 (The Message)

...lbc...

O come and mourn with me awhile
O come near to the Savior's side
O come together, let us mourn

O love of God, O sin of man
In this dread act your strength is tried
And victory remains with love

A broken heart, a fount of tears
Ask and they will not be denied
A broken heart love's cradle is

And victory remains with love

O come and mourn with me awhile

Pool of Siloam

The LA Times published an article describing the discovery of the Pool of Siloam (the article doesn't quite get the Biblical story correct so be sure to read John 8 and 9)! BAR has the full arcticle. It dates back prior to 73 B.C. It was found down in the lower part of David's City (lower Jerusalem) where Hezekiah's tunnel brings water from the Gihon spring. Jesus sent the blind man to this pool to wash off his eyes. It's quite a hike from the temple to the pool, especially for a blind man. Jesus didn't make it very easy for him. We saw this pool during our trip to Israel when only minor digging had occurred. Here are the pictures I took (be sure to see the better one at the LA Times).

(Thanks for the pointer Mike. Also, I archived the LA story and picture here and here and BAR here.)