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04/22/2017

Textweek ATLAS / Easter 6, May 21, 2017

EASTER 6A
May 21, 2017

“To see things rightly, we must train ourselves to resist the glamour of novelty.”

“One promise of this passage for preachers and educators is that it can become both a model for engaging non-Christian forms of faith in the twenty-first century and an occasion for exploring the interplay between our theology of mission and our interpretation of the scriptures. One can begin with the assumption that Paul's encounter with the Athenians was an occasion of genuine religious dialogue, one that did not threaten Paul's faith but allowed him to express that faith in new and varied ways that hold promise for today.”

“By employing the language of reason and invitation rather than reproach, Luke and Paul offer to the church one model for proclamation in our own multicultural time. It is not the only model, to be sure, for sometimes the Gospel simply cannot be accommodated and must be proclaimed clearly and boldly, but in this instance Paul is able to employ the forms of Athenian religion and philosophy to describe the quest of people for God, and then to name the God who is the source and destination of that quest.”

"my concern is that we often preach Antioch sermons to Athenian people"

“First Peter's call to obedience and suffering has sometimes been sorely abused in the church's interpretation, turning a blind eye to violence against the oppressed. But this letter can also serve as a call to renounce violence, as did Christ himself, in a way that can transform evil into good.”

“Consideration of the Gattung of the Jewish Farewell Speeches shows that the Johannine discourse (apart from 13:lff.) belongs to this genre, which exercised its influence on other parts of the Gospel as well. Materially it is different; the standing features of the Jewish speeches are reworked completely. This is indicated by eight points of comparison. The Farewell Discourses happened to be replaced very soon by the Christian genre of the Speeches of the resurrected Lord. Still, they stand out as a remarkable theological achievement accomplished within a very short span of time.”

04/22/2017 at 07:53 PM | | Comments (0)

Textweek ATLAS / Easter 5A/ May 14, 2017

Studying lectionary texts? Here are some starting places for study at ATLA this week. If you are the graduate of an accredited U.S. theological school, you may have free access to these articles through your school. Check ATLAS access options. You can find full lists of ATLAS recommended articles for this week at The Text This Week's page for this week's texts:

http://www.textweek.com/yeara/eastera5.htm

EASTER 5A
May 14, 2014

“Unlike today, the Hellenist Stephen aroused a great deal of curiosity in the minds of early Christian believers, and the literature produced about him during the late antique period is extensive. In addition to the Lukan narrative preserved in Acts 6-8, we can mention at least three different texts written in Greek: the martyrdom story (Passio); the story of the revelation of Stephen's relics to Lucían, a priest in the little town of Caphar Gamala (Revelatio); and the story of the translation of Stephen's relics from Jerusalem to Constantinople (Translatió) There are at least nine different recensions of the martyrdom and several different recensions of the Revelatio; the same can be said of the Translation.”

“Biblical writers present a grand vision of the priestly vocation, in which the sacramental life of worship is translated into an ethical mission to the world. It is a vision in which the priestly vocation of the ordained in the sanctuary and the priestly vocation of the laity in the world work in concert to fulfill the divine vision of a transformed earth.”

“American Christians are familiar with the concepts of fellowship and personal sacrifice. The confusion between Christian community and American society makes them less aware that this priesthood works only to the benefit of the community within the spiritual house.”

“I do not see how Christians can fail to confess— with all the qualifications I’ve stated— that there is salvation in no other name but Jesus.”

“Radical monotheism in theology often leads to radical exclusiveness in practice, whether it is Jewish, Christian, or Muslim. (Incidentally, Christian monotheism is not radical enough for Jewish and Muslim tastes.) In ancient Israel, exclusiveness served as a guard against idolatry, which is still a danger today. So long as Jesus' exclusiveness is directed against the real and present idolatries that beset American culture, John 14 will preach in Christian churches in a way that does not attack other faiths but does attack genuine threats to God's way, truth, and life.” 

“Today, when some layperson whines, ‘Why don't we have more great preachers,’ I tend to respond, ‘Because you ran off the good ones.’”

 

04/22/2017 at 07:47 PM | | Comments (0)

Textweek ATLAS / Easter 4/ May 7

Studying lectionary texts? Here are some starting places for study at ATLA this week. If you are the graduate of an accredited U.S. theological school, you may have free access to these articles through your school. Check ATLAS access options. You can find full lists of ATLAS recommended articles for this week at The Text This Week's page for this week's texts:

http://www.textweek.com/yeara/eastera4.htm

EASTER 4A
May 7, 2017

“This article argues that certain Old Testament and early Jewish references to a temple (usually a heavenly or sometimes a latter-day temple) have been formative for the depiction of the Spirit appearing as fire and for other associated features in Acts 2. The conclusion drawn from this is that the coming of the Spirit at Pentecost is a description of the inaugurated eschatological descent to earth of the heavenly temple.”

“Thus, an ordinary, common group of people had an extraordinary experience. In a common life, they gave expression to that experience and calling and became a very uncommon people. They became people who were more interested in service than status, more interested in opportunities than problems, more interested in preference than potential.”

Abstract: “Persistence in prayer is the key theme that runs throughout Luke and Acts. This theme is demonstrated by Jesus' actions throughout the gospel, is taught explicitly in one of the unique parables of Luke (the Persistent Widow), and is highlighted in the ways that Luke edits his gospel. In the book of Acts, this theme is demonstrated by the actions of Peter, Paul, and the early community of faith. Throughout Luke and Acts, persistence in prayer is not a matter of persuading a reluctant God, but rather it is a matter of disciples remaining faithful. In this interval between the "D-Day" of the cross and the "V-Day" of the parousia, not all our prayers are or can be answered. Persistence in prayer is how we remain faithful as we await the eschatological fulfillment of the gospel.”

“Admittedly pastors can learn from growing churches and successful ministries. Yet God's work must be done God's way if it is to know God's blessing.”

“The Psalmist also makes two points: 1) this life is sometimes delightful and sometimes hard; 2) though our circumstances change, the Lord does not. He is with us, his people, all the way through this life and after this life we shall dwell in his house forever. We could sum up the Psalm with the words ‘life after life.’”

“Psalm 23 speaks to the Christian about life s final passage, but it also speaks about other passages, passages which can be negotiated through the whole of life because help comes from the Divine Shepherd.”

“…the women addressed in the Petrine Haustafel deserve closer analysis; because the exhortations have received so much attention, the women themselves have rarely been discussed. As women negotiating problematic familial and social boundaries, they offer a valuable example of an ancient hermeneutic of resistance.”

“Both liberal feminists and conservative traditionalists often base their arguments on an unsupported assertion, namely, that if the biblical text is accepted as authoritative, then Peter's advice to abused slaves must be applied in a straightforward manner to abused women in the modern Western world. Yet, discussion of how to apply 1 Peter to modern abused women rarely addresses the specific social setting of Peter's audience. Thus, an extended analysis of the precise social context of 1 Peter is in order. In particular, we need to assess what, if anything lies behind the passive response Peter recommends to the particular abuse victims in his audience.”

“This is the life to which we are called—what it means to follow the good shepherd, to be part of his flock. To sometimes receive and sometimes give—to know not only in our minds but in our guts security in the face of danger, joy that crowds out sorrow, and love that overwhelms fear. It means being led along paths we would not choose for ourselves, to be prodded by the shepherd who knows our needs better than we know our own, to be blessed so thoroughly and so richly that we would not have even known how to ask for it.”

“Understood in terms of its historical-social context, the self-revelation of Jesus Christ, "I am the door," calls into existence and creates in this world an open-door community in opposition to closed-in communities. The community of Jesus Christ must be an open door to receive and welcome all sorts and conditions of people, just as Jesus received Samaritans, Pharisees, the woman of Samaria, the Roman centurion, Nicodemus, the man born blind, the palsied man, Peter, Thomas, and even Judas.”

“In order adequately to interpret Jesus the Broker in the Fourth Gospel, we need to consider these items in our model. (1) How do brokers become brokers? (2) What do they broker? (3) What makes for successful brokers? (4) What makes these brokers special or necessary? (5) What do brokers get for their services? About these concerns, the Fourth Gospel has much to say.”

 

04/22/2017 at 07:42 PM | | Comments (0)

Textweek ATLAS / Easter 4A, April 30, 2017

Studying lectionary texts? Here are some starting places for study at ATLA this week. If you are the graduate of an accredited U.S. theological school, you may have free access to these articles through your school. Check ATLAS access options. You can find full lists of ATLAS recommended articles for this week at The Text This Week's page for this week's texts:

http://www.textweek.com/yeara/eastera4.htm

EASTER 4A
April 30, 2014

“This article argues that certain Old Testament and early Jewish references to a temple (usually a heavenly or sometimes a latter-day temple) have been formative for the depiction of the Spirit appearing as fire and for other associated features in Acts 2. The conclusion drawn from this is that the coming of the Spirit at Pentecost is a description of the inaugurated eschatological descent to earth of the heavenly temple.”

“Thus, an ordinary, common group of people had an extraordinary experience. In a common life, they gave expression to that experience and calling and became a very uncommon people. They became people who were more interested in service than status, more interested in opportunities than problems, more interested in preference than potential.”

Abstract: “Persistence in prayer is the key theme that runs throughout Luke and Acts. This theme is demonstrated by Jesus' actions throughout the gospel, is taught explicitly in one of the unique parables of Luke (the Persistent Widow), and is highlighted in the ways that Luke edits his gospel. In the book of Acts, this theme is demonstrated by the actions of Peter, Paul, and the early community of faith. Throughout Luke and Acts, persistence in prayer is not a matter of persuading a reluctant God, but rather it is a matter of disciples remaining faithful. In this interval between the "D-Day" of the cross and the "V-Day" of the parousia, not all our prayers are or can be answered. Persistence in prayer is how we remain faithful as we await the eschatological fulfillment of the gospel.”

“Admittedly pastors can learn from growing churches and successful ministries. Yet God's work must be done God's way if it is to know God's blessing.”

“The Psalmist also makes two points: 1) this life is sometimes delightful and sometimes hard; 2) though our circumstances change, the Lord does not. He is with us, his people, all the way through this life and after this life we shall dwell in his house forever. We could sum up the Psalm with the words ‘life after life.’”

“Psalm 23 speaks to the Christian about life s final passage, but it also speaks about other passages, passages which can be negotiated through the whole of life because help comes from the Divine Shepherd.”

“…the women addressed in the Petrine Haustafel deserve closer analysis; because the exhortations have received so much attention, the women themselves have rarely been discussed. As women negotiating problematic familial and social boundaries, they offer a valuable example of an ancient hermeneutic of resistance.”

“Both liberal feminists and conservative traditionalists often base their arguments on an unsupported assertion, namely, that if the biblical text is accepted as authoritative, then Peter's advice to abused slaves must be applied in a straightforward manner to abused women in the modern Western world. Yet, discussion of how to apply 1 Peter to modern abused women rarely addresses the specific social setting of Peter's audience. Thus, an extended analysis of the precise social context of 1 Peter is in order. In particular, we need to assess what, if anything lies behind the passive response Peter recommends to the particular abuse victims in his audience.”

“This is the life to which we are called—what it means to follow the good shepherd, to be part of his flock. To sometimes receive and sometimes give—to know not only in our minds but in our guts security in the face of danger, joy that crowds out sorrow, and love that overwhelms fear. It means being led along paths we would not choose for ourselves, to be prodded by the shepherd who knows our needs better than we know our own, to be blessed so thoroughly and so richly that we would not have even known how to ask for it.”

“Understood in terms of its historical-social context, the self-revelation of Jesus Christ, "I am the door," calls into existence and creates in this world an open-door community in opposition to closed-in communities. The community of Jesus Christ must be an open door to receive and welcome all sorts and conditions of people, just as Jesus received Samaritans, Pharisees, the woman of Samaria, the Roman centurion, Nicodemus, the man born blind, the palsied man, Peter, Thomas, and even Judas.”

“In order adequately to interpret Jesus the Broker in the Fourth Gospel, we need to consider these items in our model. (1) How do brokers become brokers? (2) What do they broker? (3) What makes for successful brokers? (4) What makes these brokers special or necessary? (5) What do brokers get for their services? About these concerns, the Fourth Gospel has much to say.”

04/22/2017 at 07:38 PM | | Comments (0)