A Picture is Worth A Thousand Words

Sunset, Sea of Galilee

Well sports fans, it’s come down to this: our Israel expedition is nearing the end. In 21 days, we will be hopping on a plane at 5:30am and heading back Stateside. It is surreal and hasn’t really sunk in just yet. We have plenty keeping us distracted.

- Tomorrow, we have a friend from Oklahoma (Robin) visiting us for roughly 10 days. We’ll be running her around the country, catching up, taking more photos, and getting one more look at the Land of the Bible.
- Today, we are showing two professors from the States around the Old City. One teaches at a Bible college; one at a seminary.
- I’m finishing up my seminar project. My thesis has been turned in for reading. So, that’s out of my hands.
- We were w/o water in our building for a touch over a day. Last night, we celebrated Shabbat w/some fellow students who live near Ramallah, one block from the Security Wall (or Partition Wall as your politics prefer). They go 3 consecutive days per week w/o water. Every week. They are on Ramallah’s water system and Ramallah rations. Conclusion: we are spoiled.
-

Sunset, Sea of Galilee

We currently have another guest/former JUC student/former flatmate who’s studying Biblical Hebrew at the language program we’ve mentioned a lot (www.biblicalulpan.com). We’ve been catching up w/her and chattering away in Biblical Hebrew. Conclusion: we are nerds and love it.
So, after our friend Robin leaves, we have roughly 1.5 weeks to settle our stuff here, pack, and mentally prepare ourselves to head back.
In any event, the sun is setting our time here. Time to go to work…

Check…

Geological map, Israel: Galilee & Carmel Range

Yesterday, Comprehensive Exam in Biblical Historical Geography was taken and completed. We now eagerly await the results.

Getting oh, so close to finishing.

Ahhh!!!

Long Time No Type

We’re still alive. We’re about a month away from finishing our degrees at JUC. We took a bit of time off to show Vern’s mom, Micki, around Israel. We ran her from close to the Egyptian border to near the Lebanese and Syrian borders.

Aubrey just handed in her Seminar project. I am nearing completion of my 2nd draft on my thesis and the 1st draft of my Seminar project. We both take our final comprehensive exam next Monday.

The End is Nigh!

All Poped Out

You may have read that Pope Benedict was in Israel this past week. It was amazing the security that was put in place. One rumor we heard was Israel brought in 8,000 security personnel. That may be an excessive number, but it felt like it. The road that is around our school was totally shut down multiple time for 3 hours at a time. Then the Pope would drive by at some random time.

So, we’d have to get to school either waaaay early, or waaaay late. And plan on leaving waaaay early or late. Also, the road near our apartment, Hebron Road was shut down when the Pope headed to Bethlehem. Every five to ten feet, 3 or so cops would be standing around looking bored.

Needless to say, we’re glad the Pope is gone. He disrupted life in Jerusalem a hundred times more than Bush, Obama, or any other national leader did.

Whew!

Random Thoughts on Holy Weekend

Icon of the Pantokrator. Main chapel, Holy Sepulcher.

Over the past several days, I’ve had various thoughts (mostly undeveloped) on Holy Weekend. I thought I should post them before Western Holy Weekend is over. So, here goes:

1. I prefer the terms “Holy Weekend” and “Resurrection Sunday” to “Easter–” whatever. Read most scholarly discussion on Easter and they’ll read Christianity a riot act for making up the Resurrection of Jesus and putting it on “Easter”, a fertility festival that took the name of Ishtar, a Mesopotamian fertility goddess. There are more issues there and I would prefer to use terms that focus on Him during His Passion and particularly on His Resurrection. I’d rather avoid the inadvertent connotations of mating chocolate bunnies and festive, LSD inspired colored eggs.

2. Jerusalem is in the mountains. It’s around 2,500 feet in elevation. It is also around 35-40 miles from the Mediterranean Sea. In March and April, Jerusalem is still struggling to get into the 60s. It is also receiving a sea breeze every afternoon. Top it all off with the fact that Jerusalem sits literally on bedrock (not very much topsoil), and Jerusalem is cold in the spring. Forget all the hot, dusty scenes you’ve seen of the Crucifixion in movies. It was probably cold, definitely cloudy (cf. Mt. 27:45; Mk. 15:33; Lk. 23:44), and at least had a cold sea breeze.

3. Today is Holy Saturday. The Western Church, particularly the evangelical traditions I’ve taken part in, have very little to say about Holy Saturday. Jesus was dead and in the tomb. A few years ago, my sibling-in-laws gave me this book, Between Cross and Resurrection: A Theology of Holy Saturday by Alan E. Lewis. Sadly, I never got around to reading it because I think we were getting ready to move to Israel. In any event, I read a few pages and I remember Lewis pointing out that most Western believers do not have any use or concept for Holy Saturday. It’s just a day between Good Friday and Resurrection Sunday.

If I’m not mistaken, the Eastern traditions talk about how on Holy Saturday, Jesus descended into Hades, and destroyed the power of death and broke its bonds over humanity. He then showed the way to humanity through death into Resurrected life. [1] Of particular interest is a hymn sung during the eastern Holy Saturday liturgy. It goes like this: “Today Hades groans and cries aloud: ‘My dominion has been swallowed up; the Shepherd has been crucified and he has raised Adam. I am deprived of those whom once I ruled; in my strength I devoured them, but now I have cast them forth. He Who was crucified has emptied the tombs; the power of death has no more strength.’ Glory to Thy Cross, O Lord, and to Thy Resurrection!”[2] (cf. Acts. 2:24; Heb. 2:14-15) In the east, Jesus’ Life and Passion conquers humanity’s threefold problem: 1) essential mortal nature (defeated by the Incarnation), sin (defeated by the Cross), and death (defeated by the Resurrection).

The thing that fascinates me here is that Jesus is acting on behalf of humanity, not simply individuals. Although, I as an individual partake in the wonders of God’s salvivic act of humanity, that act was not exclusively about me. I fear that many evangelical Americans slip down the subtle slope of mild narcissism in regard to Holy Weekend. Jesus’ crucifixion is made to center around my sin and His resurrection is about completing the act of my salvation. To be sure, these ideas are not false, but they are not the entire picture. They are simply a small narrow piece of the puzzle.

Anselm of Canterbury suggested ideas that were later termed the “penal substitutionary atonement” theory (around 1100AD), which examined Jesus’ Passion from a legal standpoint. The end result today is people feeling lots of guilt (legitimate or not) for “putting Jesus on the Cross”. I, and many others, have hammered a piece of paper with a list of my own personal offenses onto a large cross. Again, slipping down the subtle slop of narcissism, Good Friday is about me. Jesus becomes a victim of me. However Jesus is a victim of no one. He said, “For this reason the Father loves Me, because I lay down My life that I may take it again. NO ONE has taken it away from Me, but I lay it down on My own initiative. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This commandment I received from My Father.” (Jn. 10:17-18) Luke 9:51 states, “And it came about, when the days were approaching for His ascension, that He resolutely set His face to go to Jerusalem.” In other words, He chose to go and die. He was never forced to do anything. He did, after all, have legions of angels at His command. Did my sins play a role in His crucifixion? Yes, but they were not the sole reason. Speaking for myself, I never had that greater perspective of Holy Weekend.

The dangers I see are these: the Penal Substitutionary Atonement combined with well-intended attempts to share the Gospel have led to a Good Friday, which should be somber, that is focused on making people feel guilty. The guilt has led many to receive Jesus as the Messiah. But, that guilt, in an American experience, is a narcissistic one. We ignore the work of Jesus on Holy Saturday on behalf of humanity, and then on Resurrection Sunday we celebrate a gift many have received years ago: acquittal of a crime. I am unable to recreate and sustain the exuberant joy of a gift I received decades ago. It is somewhat analogous to my celebrating a Christmas gift I received during my pre-teen years. I may have a fond memory, but that’s about it. Again, the focus is (subtly) on me and what I received (acquittal). I should be celebrating His being alive, and His making the path open to humanity to enter eternal life and His conquering mortality, sin, and death.

4. The previous paragraphs are not meant to indicate that I believe that Western views of Holy Weekend are incorrect. They are just a bit out of balance and are a dangerous combination with cultural American selfishness (particularly my own).

5. Proximity to the Holy Sepulcher reminds one of the reality of the Empty Tomb.

6. Holy Weekend in the Holy Land is less focused on events, and more on worship and contemplation.

7. Jesus, and His disciples and family, were experiencing being totally alone in the midst of great crowds. Jerusalem, during Passover, is crazy and chaotic. This is true to this very day. Lots of pilgrims.

Alan E. Lewis (2003) Between Cross and Resurrection: A Theology of Holy Saturday. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans.

[1] Clark Carlton (2000) The Life: The Orthodox Doctrine of Salvation. Salisbury, MA: Regina Orthodox Press. pp. 42-54

[2] The Lenten Triodion

Hierarchy, Bureaucracy, the Church, & You, Pt. 2

Kegahn Hopwood. Recent guest and temporary "king of the world".

Humankind has an unfortunate tendency to take the means to an end and make them the end in and of themselves. For example, the Temple rituals and liturgies of the Old Testament were designed as a means by which the worshipper could worship God. However, as the Temple establishment became bigger, richer, and politicized, the Temple system became an end rather than the means.

Modern day examples abound: we hear all about needing to be compassionate and understanding with the “less fortunate” or with our enemies. But what is the purpose? Diplomacy is, technically, the means by which to advance national goals. Now, instead of advancing national goals, the purpose is to just endlessly engage in diplomacy, regardless of whether or not national goals are met. The same is true of charity and welfare. What’s the purpose? I think initially, it was designed as a temporary measure to help people get back on their feet. Charity, welfare, and the “War on Poverty” have yet to achieve their goals. Why? They stopped being about the goal of helping people become self-sufficient and became about the program. Our new president is all about “fairness” as a means to help the disadvantaged. However, fairness is the end in and of itself. Fairness is a subjective term. And ultimately, even if fairness, as defined by our new administration is achieved (the legal punishment of people who are “rich”, which is also a constantly morphing definition), it doesn’t help those it purports to help. It simply makes the disadvantaged feel better. It doesn’t advance their lives one iota. On a “church-y” front, I’ve often seen devotional times and praise music (for example) cease to be about creating a means to worship God to becoming a means to a different end: control (“Have you had your Quiet Time today?”) and to feel good (praise music). Again and again, the means have become the end.

For each of these things, a bureaucracy was created as the means by which the end goal (worship, self-sufficiency, no poor) was to be attained. Instead, the bureaucracy became the end goal. Bureaucrats do not want to lose their position or jobs. So, instead of empowering people to worship or to cease being poor, layers of bureaucracy were added to keep people from the end goal so that they continued to need the bureaucracy.

Jesus was not popular with the Temple bureaucracy. He was undoing the layers of manufactured dependency the bureaucracy had created. Today, congregants and parishioners frequently get wounded for the same reason: they question the bureaucracy that controls them and the bureaucracy fights back. Now whether that bureaucracy is some committee, the “teaching team”, or simply the senior pastor is irrelevant. How many pastors, or elder/deacon boards, or committees cease to the means by which the church is served and instead become the end goal that is to be served?

To sum up my meandering thoughts, we are constantly in a battle to keep the means from becoming the ends. Hierarchy in the church is not the issue. Bureaucracy that makes itself the goal is the issue.

That is my 38 cents.

Hierarchy, Bureaucracy, the Church, & You, Pt. 1

A hyrax. A.K.A., rock badger, or coney. Looking down on humanity.

In her review of The Shack, A. Lenore noted that the book describes a Trinity with a blurred hierarchy at best, to no hierarchy at all. A. Lenore also noted (sorry for the double noting) that this lack of hierarchy and blurring of the persons of the Trinity was shot down as heretical centuries ago. On a side note, The Shack depicts ‘Papa’ (a.k.a. the Father) as possessing nail scars in her hands. That too is a heresy long ago condemned called patripassianism which means that the Father suffered on the cross as the Son. This is connected to a concept of modalism whereby there is one essence of God, who chooses to reveal Himself in differing modes, like Father, or like Son, etc. But that is an aside.

A. Lenore pointed out that “hierarchy” is a dirty word now. It is no longer popular in many churches that are influenced by post-modernism and liberal definitions of “fairness” and “equality”. Hierarchy elicits imagery of power mongering, control, and abuse. People, quite naturally, push back against having hierarchy, “leaders”, heads, etc. I think this fear of hierarchy is quite evident in the recent demagoguery of US corporate CEOs and the resultant mob protests outside of people’s homes in Connecticut.

I would propose that what we (and I certainly include myself here) push back against is not hierarchy, but bureaucracy. Hierarchy is necessary. The Church has believed for two millennia in a hierarchy within the Trinity (called the monarchy of the Father). We see hierarchy in nature, whether it be the food chain or within pack/hive/group species. Hierarchy isn’t the true issue. Bureaucracy is.

The word bureaucracy comes from a string of French words ultimately meaning “dark brown” which was related to the color of desks. Bureaucracy is often a necessary layer of organization. Ideally, it should help keep an organization, well, organized and under control. Although budget committees are usually the butt of many jokes, what would it look like to not have a budget bureau? Who would call the shots?

However, instead of the bureaucracy existing to serve the people, it usually ends up being the other way around. The people exist to serve the bureaucracy. A bureaucracy doesn’t have to be a Soviet style, multi-layer mess. Within the church, it can be as small as one person (the solo, small church pastor, or the church secretary), a tight little oligarchy (the head person and their acolyte/followers), or as large as the various layers of ministers and support staff and committees at a mega church.

Ostensibly, a bureaucracy is designed to streamline an organization, and to invest in a few people (by the many) the responsibility of managing the assets of the organization. However, typically the bureaucracy allows a small number of people to control as large a group as possible. As I am theorizing, the bureaucracy is there to tell the church congregants what their options are and to suggest a course of action. This becomes more insidious if the person on top is egotistical, power hungry, or a control freak. That person uses the bureaucracy to control, rather than the bureaucracy being used to serve.

Christianity has always had hierarchy. But in Christ’s hierarchy, it is those who serve the most who are on top. These people are shepherds, not kings. Christ Himself is the Chief Shepherd. During His time walking in Israel, He had a hierarchy as well: the Inner Three of James, John, and Peter (who all, ironically, struggled with that whole serving the most thing, see Mt. 20:20-28, Mk. 10:35-40, Jn. 21:15-22), the Twelve, the Seventy, and beyond.

But again, to beat that dead horse, His hierarchy is one of service, not leading/controlling/directing. This is in direct contrast to bureaucracies we see in Big Brother government (currently en route in the US). To sum up, hierarchy isn’t evil. Even bureaucracy isn’t existentially reprehensible. Even David had a bureaucracy while he was on the run from Saul (it was essentially a gang). But, when the bureaucracy is about control and power rather than service, (which it pretty much always becomes, sadly) then, Houston, we have a problem.

Those Crazy Prophets, Who Knew?

Altar at Tel Hazor, Galilee

Richard Hess notes an interesting phenomenon in both the northern kingdom of Israel and the southern kingdom of Judah. Using Tel Hazor (Israel) and Tell Beit Mirsim (Judah, SE of Tel Lachish) as the model, the amounts of “domestic cult objects” are a fairly low percentage of the total objects found per stratum. By the close of both kingdoms, the percentage of domestic cultic material per stratum increases rapidly. At Tell Beit Mirsim, the percentage is around 45 percent. He concludes this observation, saying, “Close to the end of both kingdoms there is an apparent increase in domestic cult activity, perhaps reflecting a movement toward the worship of a variety of deities in such cultic contexts.” . It is curious to note that as the pressures and strains of international politics affect the respective kingdoms, the local populace seems to become more detached from national life or perhaps turns towards more devoted cultic activity in hopes of securing divine intervention.[1]

Jeremiah 7:17-18 along with 44:3, 15-19 gives a detailed description of domestic family cult. “Sweet cakes” were made and offered to the Queen of Heaven along with incense being burned and libations poured out. Both men and women burned incense and poured libations while making vows of cultic renewal. If one changes the deity from the Queen of Heaven to Yahweh (or any other deity) and adjust the rites accordingly for the new deity and a “typical” picture of domestic devotion can be constructed.

What does all this mean? It means that the closer to Exile each kingdom came, the more the children of Israel courted the favor of other deities. It was at the same time that the “writing” prophets (Amos, Hosea, Isaiah, etc) began to issues their calls for repentance and warnings. Maybe they knew something?

Fun stuff from my thesis research…

1. Hess, Richard S. (2007) Israelite Religions. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic. p. 312

Shepherds, Humility, and the Back of the Bus

Sheep & Shepherd: Arad in the Biblical Negev

In our little neighborhood of Abu Tor, we’ve had many discussions concerning pastors gone bad and what is the issue behind all of that. There were two streams of data flowing this weekend that were great illustrations of this epidemic in American churches.

First, we have recently heard of a group that went to Jordan. In it was a pastor with several of his congregants. This man consistently insisted that he and his wife had to have the front seats since they were “leading”, even though the group had an assigned instructor. On one day, another couple sat in the seats “claimed” by the Power Pastor. This did not sit well with him. The next morning, Power Pastor had written a note claiming that those seats were “reserved”. There are no “reserved” seats on a trip for people studying. Power Pastor was miffed that his “seat of honor” (Lk. 14:8) had been taken. Power Pastor was in direct contrast to another group leader who sat in the back of the bus and allowed his group to be closer to the front so they could see better and interact with group leader.

The second stream was as our flatmates A.Lenore and A.Phillips went on a field study for their Parables of Jesus class. They went to what is essentially a wildlife/nature refuge. There, there are all sorts of Biblical installations (wells, threshing floors, mills) as well as Biblical plants and animals. Also there is a lady who’s an expert on the imagery of Jesus’ parables. She was talking to them about shepherding and what makes a good shepherd. A good shepherd always walks behind the flock to protect and care for the sick, young, or pregnant sheep. The strong sheep will walk forward on their own. The shepherd will only guide their directions to the left or to the right (Is. 30:21) using sheep dogs, maybe other shepherds, or just him/herself. Regardless, the shepherd cares for his flock, not by being up front, but from the back caring for the weaker members of the flock.

Jesus describes Himself as the Good Shepherd. He also describes Himself as gentle and humble. I think it is this quality that is missing from the training and education of church leaders. They are taught how to lead, not how to humbly serve. I don’t think that many (if any at all) pastors got into pastoring thinking, “Hey! This is a great way to get my ego stroked and look important and ruin anyone who stands in my way!” But, somehow that seems to become more of the norm rather than the exception.

The Church in America needs pastors who are gentle and humble. We need them to be shepherds and not leaders. And by all means, we need them to sit in the back of the bus.

Thin Threads & Library Randomness

JUC Library

This morning in the JUC library, Aubrey, A.Lenore, and I held an impromptu historical theology conversation. A. Lenore was reading through a New Testament abstract book (gives brief summaries of current essays, books, papers, and journal articles) and came across one that was making the case that Jesus never thought of Himself, nor did anyone else around Him, as a Jew.[1] According to the author, Elliott, Jesus would have thought of Himself as an Israelite. Corresponding to this, all of the current translations translate a Greek word Ιουδαιος as “Jew” instead of “Judean”. In other words, what translators have told us = Jew is actually a term referring to people who lived in a political district. For example, back in the States, I would be called an Oklahoman, but that is not my ethnic nor religious identity. The author further argues that “Jew”, and the current definition ascribed to it, is a term that arose during the Mishnaic and Talmudic periods (200-500AD).

This led us to start considering what was going on vis a vis Jesus and the Temple elite in Judea. We have read where it has been theorized that Jesus kept the Torah as prescribed by Galilean standards and not Judean standards. This whole line of thought sets up the contrast between the two political entities in Jesus’ day (Galilee and Judea) and called to mind circumstances on the ground during the Divided Monarchies of the Old Testament.

I have read plenty of arguments that the OT as we have it is just political propaganda for the Kingdom of Judah. Therefore, it portrays the Temple and its system as the only way to worship Yahweh and demonizes anything else, including the common folk of Judah and especially the Kingdom of Israel. All the kings of Israel are portrayed as evil heathen who blaspheme the LORD God. Curiously, the first king of Israel, Jeroboam, is terrified that his people will be swayed to be loyal to Judah if they go to Jerusalem to worship Yahweh, so he builds his own cult centers, ostensibly to Yahweh, at Bethel and Dan (1 Kgs. 12:26-29). Richard Hess also notes that the largest percentage of names found in inscriptions in the Northern & Southern Kingdoms are variants of Yahweh.[2] God also tells Elijah of 7000 prophets who hadn’t bent the knee to Ba`al (1 Kgs. 17:14-18). Also, the only prophet that I know of, who was sent out to the nations, was Jonah, who was from Galilee, in the north.

Perhaps there is a rich undercurrent of irony in the OT text: the monarchy of Israel was spiritually corrupt and evil, usually following Ba`al and Asherah in contrast to the monarchy of Judah, which more often than Israel, followed Yahweh and supported the mechanism (Temple and priesthood) by which to come to Yahweh. But, it seems that perhaps an interesting percentage of the northern population remained loyal to Yahweh, while a large percentage of the southern population were spiritually adulterous.

This seems to mimic the NT as well. Why didn’t Jesus live in Judea, the successor to the Kingdom of Judah, where the Temple was and all the religious apparatus was? Why did He associate with the North and the common, “untrained people of the earth”? Perhaps there was still a historic echo of the circumstances on the ground from the OT times? Perhaps the Galileans maintained more heart fidelity to the God of Israel even though they were without the Temple and its functionaries. Perhaps the Judeans fell into the trap where the Temple, instead of being the means to meet with God, became the end in and of itself.

Just a thought…

1. J.H. Elliott, “Jesus the Israelite Was neither a ‘Jew’ nor a ‘Christian’: On Correcting Misleading Nomenclature,” Journal for the Study of the Historical Jesus 5 (2, ’07) London. pp. 119-154
2. Hess, Richard S. (2007) Israelite Religions. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic. pp. 269-274