Thanks for this, Colby. I have struggled lately to figure out what if anything I want to take with me from the Bible, and in a week like this one where it feels so hard to believe things can get better, this is a beautiful invitation to continue to hope and believe, in the midst of lament, that freedom is possible. And more than that, that I (and everyone else) do have a role to play in bringing it about even when it all feels too big. The Exodus narrative of freedom from captivity, of God intervening, used to be really meaningful for me and this return to it was lovely, thank you
As a postevangelical, I appreciate what Colby is trying to say here. However, the biblical narrative has so many cross-currents, that it's hard to boil it down to any kind of "unified field theory" of biblical interpretation. For example, what about the Kenite hypothesis, which posits that YHWH's history prior to Israel was as a Midianite war deity who was "imported" to Israel via trade routes from south of the Dead Sea to the hill country of Israel, just at that time in history when Israel was breaking away from their Canaanite brethren and needed a new national deity. We have to acknowledge that YHWH often acts like a pissed-off war deity. And what about Jesus' treatment of the Syrophoenecean woman, calling her a dog and telling her that he was only sent to the lost sheep of the house of Israel when prior to this in Matthew he almost tripped over himself to heal the servant of a gentile centurion? Sure doesn't sound like the Jesus we like to talk about who pays no attention to hierarchy. It also sounds like a big fat lie to me (Mark's narrative with the woman says Jesus was trying to get a little R&R so maybe he just needed a convenient excuse for her). My point is not to criticize because I don't know better than anyone else, but we have to leave fundamentalism in the wake entirely by being "painfully" honest with the text and not resorting to "see no evil" like fundamentalists do.
If we could see the whole picture about God, stories of the bible, His love and justice, etc,. we would feel good accepting it all, ... but there must be a lot of pieces missing.
I love that you're addressing the Bible as Story! I find it fascinating in a meta-way to identify the story of our own lives as we live them. We share story moments or episodes, but the full scope of our lives tell a story as well.
This is a big question for reflection, who's story beyond ourselves are we submitting to? I've been meaning to write on this topic as well.
For anyone curious about Links referenced in this episode...
Article// N.T. Wright on Scripture and the Authority of God (as a Story):
Thanks for this, Colby. I have struggled lately to figure out what if anything I want to take with me from the Bible, and in a week like this one where it feels so hard to believe things can get better, this is a beautiful invitation to continue to hope and believe, in the midst of lament, that freedom is possible. And more than that, that I (and everyone else) do have a role to play in bringing it about even when it all feels too big. The Exodus narrative of freedom from captivity, of God intervening, used to be really meaningful for me and this return to it was lovely, thank you
As a postevangelical, I appreciate what Colby is trying to say here. However, the biblical narrative has so many cross-currents, that it's hard to boil it down to any kind of "unified field theory" of biblical interpretation. For example, what about the Kenite hypothesis, which posits that YHWH's history prior to Israel was as a Midianite war deity who was "imported" to Israel via trade routes from south of the Dead Sea to the hill country of Israel, just at that time in history when Israel was breaking away from their Canaanite brethren and needed a new national deity. We have to acknowledge that YHWH often acts like a pissed-off war deity. And what about Jesus' treatment of the Syrophoenecean woman, calling her a dog and telling her that he was only sent to the lost sheep of the house of Israel when prior to this in Matthew he almost tripped over himself to heal the servant of a gentile centurion? Sure doesn't sound like the Jesus we like to talk about who pays no attention to hierarchy. It also sounds like a big fat lie to me (Mark's narrative with the woman says Jesus was trying to get a little R&R so maybe he just needed a convenient excuse for her). My point is not to criticize because I don't know better than anyone else, but we have to leave fundamentalism in the wake entirely by being "painfully" honest with the text and not resorting to "see no evil" like fundamentalists do.
If we could see the whole picture about God, stories of the bible, His love and justice, etc,. we would feel good accepting it all, ... but there must be a lot of pieces missing.
I love that you're addressing the Bible as Story! I find it fascinating in a meta-way to identify the story of our own lives as we live them. We share story moments or episodes, but the full scope of our lives tell a story as well.
This is a big question for reflection, who's story beyond ourselves are we submitting to? I've been meaning to write on this topic as well.
For anyone curious about Links referenced in this episode...
Article// N.T. Wright on Scripture and the Authority of God (as a Story):
https://biologos.org/articles/n-t-wright-on-scripture-and-the-authority-of-god
Story// My summary of the Story of the Bible, as a gospel reflection on Why did Jesus have to die?
https://andrewchoflet.substack.com/p/story-of-the-bible?ref:colbymartin