I Peter 1:17-23 May 8
1) God judges impartially. That is good news in our days of identity politics. Patty McKinnon, Indianapolis attorney, quotes Frank Mansell of John Know Pres at Easter: "If you fear God, you fear no one else." OK, except fear in this passage is closer to revere. I am at a loss why we don;t change the translation to something closer to the meaning.
2) live as strangers-the verb is sojourning/travelling 9 as an alien?) recall that Hebrew ethics is concerned for the resident alien, the traveller as well. this may well pick up on diaspora Judaism, or a sense of not fitting in the world as a Christian, a sort of psychic "exile" as we used to hear a lot from denominational offices that drew on Brueggemann's image.This theme gained traction in the 1980s (Elliot and others).
3) v.18 is a weak translation futile is all right, an ineffective, feckless, groping. My beef is with inherited part- this is closer to the old ways, the traditional ways, but has the sense of being stuck in a rut, maybe even the lifeless or dead hand of the past would be closer to the mark. gold=perishable so blood=imperishable
4) notice the background of the lamb image here
5) v. 20 is a beautiful construction-Sentences like this made scholars wonder how an illiterate, in all likelihood, fisherman, could write like this, so they doubted that Simon Peter actually wrote this. Notice also the nice balance of the dawn of the ages and the current end times. It then goes on to have Jesus be our catalyst toward god, although the translation believe in God (NIV) may be better have confidence in God (RSV) or trust in God (NRSV). I am struck by the phrase confidence in god, especially with its latin root of faith/belief.
6) v.22 often get shorts attention.
7) what is the imperishable seed. to me the word of God sounds like a catalyst or an instrumentality
Ps. 116: 1-4, 12-19 Again context matters. Reading this psalm after Easter takes on a wholly different character than someone who has been at death's door due to illness.
1) Sheol is the grave, the abode of the dead, a shadow realm like Hades when Hercules enters it. Sheol and v. 3 is an invitation to the Holy Saturday Easter nexus. Easter shines light on the descent into hell, and the descent makes Easter dawn all the brighter. recall that the reformers made the move of starting the descent into hell, of being god-forsaken/abandoned at Gethsemane. Barth, von Balthasar emphasized the descent. alan lewis did great work, in my view, on Holy Saturday in that posthumous work. Lauber has recently published his revised dissertation on the topic, and miracle of miracles, I can follow a theology dissertation.
Much fuss is being made over Rob Bell's Love Wins. I haven;t read it. I would say that few practicing theologians imagine hell as a literal fire and brimstone place. Not long ago, the Vatican basically endorsed von Balthasar's view of hell as the place of being God forsaken, a place more of being without the source of being, or the chaos of formless existence.
2)
1) God judges impartially. That is good news in our days of identity politics. Patty McKinnon, Indianapolis attorney, quotes Frank Mansell of John Know Pres at Easter: "If you fear God, you fear no one else." OK, except fear in this passage is closer to revere. I am at a loss why we don;t change the translation to something closer to the meaning.
2) live as strangers-the verb is sojourning/travelling 9 as an alien?) recall that Hebrew ethics is concerned for the resident alien, the traveller as well. this may well pick up on diaspora Judaism, or a sense of not fitting in the world as a Christian, a sort of psychic "exile" as we used to hear a lot from denominational offices that drew on Brueggemann's image.This theme gained traction in the 1980s (Elliot and others).
3) v.18 is a weak translation futile is all right, an ineffective, feckless, groping. My beef is with inherited part- this is closer to the old ways, the traditional ways, but has the sense of being stuck in a rut, maybe even the lifeless or dead hand of the past would be closer to the mark. gold=perishable so blood=imperishable
4) notice the background of the lamb image here
5) v. 20 is a beautiful construction-Sentences like this made scholars wonder how an illiterate, in all likelihood, fisherman, could write like this, so they doubted that Simon Peter actually wrote this. Notice also the nice balance of the dawn of the ages and the current end times. It then goes on to have Jesus be our catalyst toward god, although the translation believe in God (NIV) may be better have confidence in God (RSV) or trust in God (NRSV). I am struck by the phrase confidence in god, especially with its latin root of faith/belief.
6) v.22 often get shorts attention.
7) what is the imperishable seed. to me the word of God sounds like a catalyst or an instrumentality
Ps. 116: 1-4, 12-19 Again context matters. Reading this psalm after Easter takes on a wholly different character than someone who has been at death's door due to illness.
1) Sheol is the grave, the abode of the dead, a shadow realm like Hades when Hercules enters it. Sheol and v. 3 is an invitation to the Holy Saturday Easter nexus. Easter shines light on the descent into hell, and the descent makes Easter dawn all the brighter. recall that the reformers made the move of starting the descent into hell, of being god-forsaken/abandoned at Gethsemane. Barth, von Balthasar emphasized the descent. alan lewis did great work, in my view, on Holy Saturday in that posthumous work. Lauber has recently published his revised dissertation on the topic, and miracle of miracles, I can follow a theology dissertation.
Much fuss is being made over Rob Bell's Love Wins. I haven;t read it. I would say that few practicing theologians imagine hell as a literal fire and brimstone place. Not long ago, the Vatican basically endorsed von Balthasar's view of hell as the place of being God forsaken, a place more of being without the source of being, or the chaos of formless existence.
2)
We should note that thanksgiving is the mode of the last section, obviously. Waht sort of thanksgiving prayer did Jesus utter after the harrowing of hell? A good spiritual practice would be to rewrite this part, or to use it as a structure to write out a thanksgiving in one's own life. thanksgiving does not come naturally, nor easily to some of us, so practice makes it a more integral part of spiritual life.
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