September 2008 Archives

... for the Cubs and the White Sox to play in the World Series?

The last two chps of Chris Wright's excellent book, The Mission of God, concern the most pressing topic of anyone who wants to examine the Old Testament through the lens of "mission." I tend to think most either ignore what the OT says or distort what the OT says. Wright gets this right.

This is no small problem and so I want to sort some of this and see where we can land and see what you think...

The hopeful view: "The nations are the matrix of Israel's life, the raison d'etre of her very existence" (here Wright quotes Duane Christensen; p. 454). Wright: "It is God's mission in relation to the nations, arguably more than any other single theme, that provides the key that unlocks the biblical grand narrative" (455).

The problem: First, reality: Israel did almost nothing to bless other nations in any missional sense. Second, individuals: if the narrative eventually ends up with Israel -- through Jesus and the Church -- "missioning" to all the nations (and most of us are beneficiaries of this), it took a long time and what about all those who never heard? Why did God wait so long? Third, hermeneutics: Is it the case that we are hoping to find more Gentile blessings in the OT than are really there? And this leads us to finding such blessings.

The strategy: God chooses Israel. "It was a much more exalted and universal claim -- a claim that would be the grossest arrogance if not true. The claim was that YHWH was in fact the sovereign God of all the earth, ruling the histories and destinies of all nations. And in that context of universal involvement with all nations, YHWH had a unique relationship with Israel" (463). God's unique relation with Israel involved a mission to the nations.

The sharp edge: ".... the covenant demands two sides: Israel belongs to YHWH, and YHWH belongs to Israel ... . But in the case of the nations we may say that the nations belong to YHWH, but YHWH does not yet belong to the nations" (466).

So, the themes of the OT unfold into these four ideas:

1. The nations are witnesses observers of what YHWH does in and to Israel (Exod 15:14-16). They observe God's covenant obligations, God's judgments on Israel, and God's restoration of Israel.

2. The nations can be beneficiaries of the blessings inherent in Israel's covenant (Ps 67:1-3).

3. The nations will come to know and worship Israel's God (Ps 86:8-10; Isa 66:18-23).

4. The nations will ultimately be included within the identity of Israel as God's people (Ps 47). But here is Isa 19:16-25, and this one text can stand for a variety of others that anticipate redemption for all nations...

16 In that day the Egyptians will be like women. They will shudder with fear at the uplifted hand that the Lord Almighty raises against them. 17 And the land of Judah will bring terror to the Egyptians; everyone to whom Judah is mentioned will be terrified, because of what the Lord Almighty is planning against them.

18 In that day five cities in Egypt will speak the language of Canaan and swear allegiance to the Lord Almighty. One of them will be called the City of Destruction.

19 In that day there will be an altar to the Lord in the heart of Egypt, and a monument to the Lord at its border. 20 It will be a sign and witness to the Lord Almighty in the land of Egypt. When they cry out to the Lord because of their oppressors, he will send them a savior and defender, and he will rescue them. 21 So the Lord will make himself known to the Egyptians, and in that day they will acknowledge the Lord. They will worship with sacrifices and grain offerings; they will make vows to the Lord and keep them. 22 The Lord will strike Egypt with a plague; he will strike them and heal them. They will turn to the Lord, and he will respond to their pleas and heal them.

23 In that day there will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria. The Assyrians will go to Egypt and the Egyptians to Assyria. The Egyptians and Assyrians will worship together. 24 In that day Israel will be the third, along with Egypt and Assyria, a blessing on the earth. 25 The Lord Almighty will bless them, saying, “Blessed be Egypt my people, Assyria my handiwork, and Israel my inheritance.”

I'd like to have a conversation here about this piece in CT on what I am calling "ironic faith." [Added: Originally, this ironic faith article was a part of the McLaren piece; it was lifted out and became a separate article in CT. So, there was no ending because it led to the article on McLaren.]

Following John was Jesus, and he too was a gospeler, one who preached the gospel. Today I want to begin with some general summary passages that set up Jesus as a gospel preacher.

Mark 1:1: The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

Matt. 4:23 Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and curing every disease and every sickness among the people. 24 So his fame spread throughout all Syria, and they brought to him all the sick, those who were afflicted with various diseases and pains, demoniacs, epileptics, and paralytics, and he cured them. 25 And great crowds followed him from Galilee, the Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea, and from beyond the Jordan.

Matt. 9:35 Then Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom, and curing every disease and every sickness.

Mark begins his Gospel with the word gospel; in fact, it is entirely possible that Mark's Gospel was called a "gospel" because of Mark 1:1. The whole of his book is the narration of the gospel in Jesus Christ, and a good way of summing that up was done by the one who followed Mark: Matthew.

Matthew frames the Sermon on the Mount and the miracle/discipleship passages of Matthew 8--9 with 4:23-25 and 9:35. These two passages are literary markers for us to see that Jesus' teaching on righteousness and his acts of power and summonings to discipleship are his gospel preaching.

Furthermore, we learn that Jesus' gospel is a "kingdom gospel." Kingdom must be defined, and that is no easy task, but whatever you decide there is inherent to what gospeling was all about for Jesus. I take "kingdom" to refer to the society in which the redemptive power of God becomes manifest, in which and through which Gods' will is done on earth as it is done in heaven, and which is now only partially manifest. Its fullness awaits the Eschaton. That kingdom society is the society that sits at the feet of Jesus, that trusts in/believes in, that loves, and that follows Jesus.

Jesus' gospel is the announcement that the long-awaited redemptive act of God -- seen in Psalms and Isaiah and expected for all those centuries -- has now arrived in him and in those who are connected to him.

Let me then put it this way: Jesus is gospel, everything about Jesus is gospel, and gospel isn't gospel until it is all about Jesus.

A few years back a friend of mine, Jay Phelan, told me about a book about a pastor and a small town in Iowa and so I bought the book and was about 50 pages deep before I realized it was a novel and that Marilynne Robinson was a novelist. The novel, called Gilead, was short enough that, having found myself that deep, I went with the story and finished it off. I have myself to blame for purchasing and reading her next novel, Home.

I don't know if I'll finish Home, but I've entered her story world and I like this pastor Robert Boughton and his daughter Glory and her wayward brother, Jack, and the love of the father for his prodigal son. And her prose is mood-setting and leads me into a gentle, quiet and reflective place. And this section I'm about to quote reflects her prose and an idea I'd like to hear your thoughts about. What do you think of this "posture of grace"? The family has had a hard time with Jack, and forgiving him is a challenge:

"There is a saying that to understand is to forgive, but that is an error, so Papa used to say. You must forgive in order to understand. Until you forgive, you defend yourself against the possibility of understanding. Her [Glory's] father had said this more than once, in sermons, with appropriate texts, but the real text was Jack, and those to whom he spoke were himself and the row of Boughtons in the front pew, which usually did not include Jack, and then, of course, the congregation. If you forgive, he would say, you may indeed still not understand, but you will be ready to understand, and that is the posture of grace" (45).

Some of you read Gilead, which was itself a posture of grace.