Gleanings from the Text
Jonah 3:1-5, 10
Jonah is a deeply comedic story. It has not always been read that way. Often its interpreters have been preoccupied with discussing the relative plausibility of its “fish story” or, worse, reducing its message to the virtues of inclusiveness and tolerance. According to Matthew, Jesus heard in this story a word of judgment on those who were pestering him for a sign (Mt.12:38 ff.). He claimed that “the people of Nineveh” were, in their day, both more theologically acute and penitentially stricken than “the scribes and Pharisees,” even though “something greater than Jonah is here!” (Mt.12:41)
So what is so funny about Jonah?
Perhaps it is God’s persistence, a divine trait that makes for outlandish humor in a world that thinks it is in control of things. But here it is “the word of the Lord” that comes to Jonah, even “a second time.” (3:1) And as this passage makes clear, it is God who initiates the action, who speaks to both Jonah and the whale (!), as if they were both equally suitable instruments for God’s purpose. And the comedy is not just that God speaks to whales and recalcitrant prophets, or even that God will go to absurd lengths for this purpose, but that it is God’s mercy, not God’s judgment, that represents the most lethal threat to the serious plans and principles we contrive to keep the world in its place.
Food for Thought
The problem is that our serious plans and principles (as well as our cowardly betrayals) keep being interrupted by “the word of the Lord.” We would prefer that God were more silent, reclusive, distant. But God keeps intruding, calling us again and again to speak an impossible word. And the sea is large; the city vast; the corruption well-known. What is the use of such a pointless errand? It takes three days simply to traverse the city, just as it took three days of being hidden in the belly of the beast. Three days. So, each day, Jonah dutifully prophesies, preaching a word of judgment that he has no expectation the Ninevites will heed. In truth, Jonah is not worried about the Ninevites. He expects little from them, as his “sermon” indicates. What he is fearful of is what he should fear, and that is that God’s mercy might well prove greater than the Ninevites’ sin. That is the joker in the deck, the great intrusion that Jonah knows he cannot control.
Sink Your Teeth into This
So Jonah preaches for three days. And of course, the Ninevites repent, and worse, God changes his mind and decides not to destroy them. So? So what is this comedy about? In part the comedy is about the absurdity of trying to run away from God’s grace, but that is only part of the laughter this story invites. It is also rubs our faces in the ridiculous means of God’s grace. If God wanted to forgive the Ninevites, why send this prophet on a fool’s errand; why the burlesque of the whale; why this utterly uninspiring “preaching” (“Forty days more, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!”). Later in this story, Jonah is full of that resentment that knows it has been made a fool of, a begrudging of God’s generosity equal to anything the laborers in the vineyard are capable of. And of course, he is right. God does not play fair. Never has. Which is why Jesus offers Jonah’s sign to the Pharisees in Matthew 12, and finally offers himself as that fool, who is swallowed up for three days, only to be raised to save a world, which God, unaccountably, has chosen to love. The gospel, Flannery O’Connor says in one of her stories, burns away our virtues, which is why it is so shockingly funny and why it takes the divine comedy to save Jonah and the Pharisees and the rest of us from our terrible seriousness.
Biographical Info
Thomas W. Currie is Dean and professor of theology at Union-PSCE Charlotte
An ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), Currie served as a pastor from 1976–2001. He has taught courses in theology and homiletics at Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary and in extension programs in Houston and Midland, TX. He has a particular interest in the theology of Karl Barth and in the short stories of Flannery O’Connor. He is the author of several articles and four books, including The Joy of Ministry (2008).
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Friday, December 5, 2008
Jan. 18, 2009 - John 1:43-51 - Jarrett and Meg Peery McLaughlin
Gleaning From The Text
John 1:43-51
John 1:43-51, much like the entire first chapter of John, seeks to establish the true identity of Jesus. By the end of the first chapter, the Fourth Evangelist piles on Jesus no less than six messianic titles, including the Word, the Lamb of God, the Son of God, the Messiah, him about whom Moses and the prophets wrote, and the King of Israel. In case anyone was wondering, the Johannine community believes Jesus to be the Messiah (Kysar, 37).
Another striking feature of John’s Gospel is the advanced time-table by which his disciples recognize Jesus as the Messiah. While the Synoptic Gospels show Jesus chronically misunderstood by the disciples, receiving only fleeting glimpses of his true identity, John’s characters see things with crystal clarity. With little narrative explaining why, save for Nathanael, the first disciples of Jesus immediately declare Jesus’ identity with the above-mentioned titles (Brown, 26; Malina, 56). The Gospel of John ends its 20th chapter with a postscript indicating that the entire Gospel was written so that the reader might come to believe the same, that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God.
In this text, the disciples immediately see him as the fulfillment of all that has been promised, and yet Jesus pushes them even further. He goes on to say that he is much more than the Messiah. At the end of the first chapter, after Jesus has been given the name of every Messianic figure imaginable, he uses yet a different title to describe himself – Son of Man. Differing again from the Synoptics, John uses the term Son of Man to speak of Jesus as the bridge between heaven and earth, between divinity and humanity. He blends it with the image of Jacob’s ladder from Genesis 28:12 and identifies Jesus as the “locus of God’s activity on earth” (Keck, 532). This only enhances the powerful claims made by the incarnational hymn of verses 1-14, which claims that the “Word became flesh and lived among us.”
Food For Thought
The clarity with which John’s cast of disciples understands Jesus is a unique gift of this Gospel. Being a disciple is not simply being in the company of Jesus, it is an active recognition of Jesus’ identity. What is similarly astonishing is that they all use different voices, a variety of languages. To John the Baptist he is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world; to Andrew he is both Rabbi and the Messiah, to Philip he is the one of whom Moses and the prophets wrote; to Nathanael he is the Son of God and King of Israel. Not one disciple articulates Jesus’ identity in the same way. Discipleship through John’s eyes entails a clear understanding of who Jesus is to you. And yet, at the same time, Jesus is always enhancing, always adding onto our limited conceptions of him, always revealing himself to us in new ways.
Sink Your Teeth Into This
It seems to us that this text highlights a tension in the practice of discipleship. On the one hand, as followers of Christ, we are called to articulate our Christology (the failure to do so could be named the mainline protestant epidemic). Mark Douglas, Professor of Ethics at our rival seminary, tells about a church that had a thriving ministry to the homeless that was supported by a wide range of individuals and civic organizations. Many of the people who attended the church came because of its social commitments but were fairly uninterested in the Christian faith. As a way of welcoming these people, the ministers and members downplayed the peculiar beliefs and activities of the faith. Over time, the church withered while the shelter they ran maintained its strength. The shelter still exists; the church closed its doors several years ago.
On the other hand, as followers of Christ, we are to be open to where the living Christ continues to reveal himself to us in new ways. When or where has your understanding of Christology been stretched and expanded?
Works Consulted
Raymond E. Brown. The Community of the Beloved Disciple. New York: Paulist
Press, 1979.
Mark Douglas. Unpublished Manuscript, 2008. (Might be called Believing Aloud)
Leander Keck, et al. New Interpreter’s Bible, vol. 9: Luke/John. Nashville: Abingdon
Press, 1995.
Robert Kysar. John: The Maverick Gospel. Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press,
1976.
Bruce J. Malina and Richard L. Rohrbaugh. Social-Science Commentary on the Gospel of John. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1998.
Biographical Information
Meg Peery McLaughlin graduated from Union-PSCE with a Dual Degree (MDiv/MACE) in 2005. She is currently serving as Associate Pastor of Pastoral Care at Village Presbyterian Church in Kansas City.
Jarrett McLaughlin graduated from Union-PSCE with a MDiv in 2005 and a MACE in 2006. He is currently serving as Associate Pastor of Mission and Young Adult Ministry in Kansas City.
Read more!
John 1:43-51
John 1:43-51, much like the entire first chapter of John, seeks to establish the true identity of Jesus. By the end of the first chapter, the Fourth Evangelist piles on Jesus no less than six messianic titles, including the Word, the Lamb of God, the Son of God, the Messiah, him about whom Moses and the prophets wrote, and the King of Israel. In case anyone was wondering, the Johannine community believes Jesus to be the Messiah (Kysar, 37).
Another striking feature of John’s Gospel is the advanced time-table by which his disciples recognize Jesus as the Messiah. While the Synoptic Gospels show Jesus chronically misunderstood by the disciples, receiving only fleeting glimpses of his true identity, John’s characters see things with crystal clarity. With little narrative explaining why, save for Nathanael, the first disciples of Jesus immediately declare Jesus’ identity with the above-mentioned titles (Brown, 26; Malina, 56). The Gospel of John ends its 20th chapter with a postscript indicating that the entire Gospel was written so that the reader might come to believe the same, that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God.
In this text, the disciples immediately see him as the fulfillment of all that has been promised, and yet Jesus pushes them even further. He goes on to say that he is much more than the Messiah. At the end of the first chapter, after Jesus has been given the name of every Messianic figure imaginable, he uses yet a different title to describe himself – Son of Man. Differing again from the Synoptics, John uses the term Son of Man to speak of Jesus as the bridge between heaven and earth, between divinity and humanity. He blends it with the image of Jacob’s ladder from Genesis 28:12 and identifies Jesus as the “locus of God’s activity on earth” (Keck, 532). This only enhances the powerful claims made by the incarnational hymn of verses 1-14, which claims that the “Word became flesh and lived among us.”
Food For Thought
The clarity with which John’s cast of disciples understands Jesus is a unique gift of this Gospel. Being a disciple is not simply being in the company of Jesus, it is an active recognition of Jesus’ identity. What is similarly astonishing is that they all use different voices, a variety of languages. To John the Baptist he is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world; to Andrew he is both Rabbi and the Messiah, to Philip he is the one of whom Moses and the prophets wrote; to Nathanael he is the Son of God and King of Israel. Not one disciple articulates Jesus’ identity in the same way. Discipleship through John’s eyes entails a clear understanding of who Jesus is to you. And yet, at the same time, Jesus is always enhancing, always adding onto our limited conceptions of him, always revealing himself to us in new ways.
Sink Your Teeth Into This
It seems to us that this text highlights a tension in the practice of discipleship. On the one hand, as followers of Christ, we are called to articulate our Christology (the failure to do so could be named the mainline protestant epidemic). Mark Douglas, Professor of Ethics at our rival seminary, tells about a church that had a thriving ministry to the homeless that was supported by a wide range of individuals and civic organizations. Many of the people who attended the church came because of its social commitments but were fairly uninterested in the Christian faith. As a way of welcoming these people, the ministers and members downplayed the peculiar beliefs and activities of the faith. Over time, the church withered while the shelter they ran maintained its strength. The shelter still exists; the church closed its doors several years ago.
On the other hand, as followers of Christ, we are to be open to where the living Christ continues to reveal himself to us in new ways. When or where has your understanding of Christology been stretched and expanded?
Works Consulted
Raymond E. Brown. The Community of the Beloved Disciple. New York: Paulist
Press, 1979.
Mark Douglas. Unpublished Manuscript, 2008. (Might be called Believing Aloud)
Leander Keck, et al. New Interpreter’s Bible, vol. 9: Luke/John. Nashville: Abingdon
Press, 1995.
Robert Kysar. John: The Maverick Gospel. Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press,
1976.
Bruce J. Malina and Richard L. Rohrbaugh. Social-Science Commentary on the Gospel of John. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1998.
Biographical Information
Meg Peery McLaughlin graduated from Union-PSCE with a Dual Degree (MDiv/MACE) in 2005. She is currently serving as Associate Pastor of Pastoral Care at Village Presbyterian Church in Kansas City.
Jarrett McLaughlin graduated from Union-PSCE with a MDiv in 2005 and a MACE in 2006. He is currently serving as Associate Pastor of Mission and Young Adult Ministry in Kansas City.
Read more!
Jan. 11, 2009 - Mark 1:4-11 - Lindy Vogado
Gleanings from the Text
Mark 1:4-11
–The entrance of John the Baptist in the gospel of Mark occurs right after a recitation of Isaiah, indicating that this messenger’s proclamation of Jesus is the fulfillment of scripture. Indeed, the allusion includes not only Isaiah but also Exodus and Malachi as they describe the coming of a messenger who will prepare the way of the Lord (see Isaiah 40:3, Exodus 23:20, and Malachi 3:1).
–Although the other gospels begin at earlier points in the life of Jesus, an account of Jesus’s baptism by John the Baptist is the first glimpse of Jesus that Mark provides. The scene establishes Jesus’s identity as the Son of God, a theme which is repeated throughout the gospel. While Matthew provides an explanation for why the sinless Jesus would undergo a ritual for the forgiveness of sins (see Matthew 3:14-15), Mark does not address the issue.
–The Greek word, schizō, used to describe the heavens being “torn apart” at Jesus’s baptism is the same word used to describe the tearing of the temple curtain at Jesus’s crucifixion in Mark 15:38. In both places, the word indicates God’s dramatic activity in the world.
–Although this episode alerts readers to Jesus’s identity, the gospel writer gives no indication that anyone but Jesus in the story actually heard the heavenly declaration. The passage identifies Jesus as the one who sees the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending, and unlike the description in Matthew and John, the voice from heaven uses the second person in Mark, indicating that the affirmation is intended for Jesus: “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased” (NRSV).
Food for Thought
Salvation in the Wilderness: The theme of wilderness found in both the Isaiah reference and the appearance of John the Baptist reminds believers that God is often at work in times of desolation. Just as God led Moses and the people in the wilderness, so God will lead the people once again through the ministry, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Waters of Baptism: It is in the waters of baptism that the heavens are torn apart and a voice from heaven claims Jesus as God’s son. Although we rarely think of it as having such a dramatic flourish, baptism today still serves as a time when we recognize our being claimed as children of God.
Sink Your Teeth into This
As a former participant and now leader of campus ministry programming, I think a lot about the baptism of Jesus in the gospel of Mark. Although the event is a means of public disclosure in both Matthew and John, only Jesus knows that he has been claimed by God in Mark’s version of the story. For those of us who worship in familiar faith communities, this Markan scenario might seem hard to imagine; after all, we are surrounded by people who have boldly promised to care and nurture one another as brothers and sisters in Christ. For a college freshman who is far from home and in the midst of strangers, however, the thought of being an unknown child of God is often a more familiar reality.
Therefore, I am always humbled as I observe the power of baptism at work in the life of the church’s campus ministries. Just as Jesus’s baptism identifies him as the Son of God, so does baptism still claim God’s children wherever their lives may take them. College students show up at the doors of unfamiliar churches, with confidence because they know a church back home had cared for them before. Congregations give their time and resources to nurture students in their midst, even though they’ve never met the students’ families or perhaps heard of their hometowns. Even without the help of a dramatic voice from heaven, both students and congregations trust that God has claimed the people in their midst, and they work to fulfill the baptismal vows that they trust the church has made. Just as John the Baptist prepares for Christ’s coming in his ministry at the river Jordan, so too do believers as they live out the promises of baptism.
Work Consulted
Douglas R.A. Hare, Mark. Westminster Bible Companion. Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 1996.
Lamar Williamson, Mark. Interpretation: A Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching. Louisville: John Knox Press, 1983.
Biographical Info
Lindy Vogado is a Third Level Final Masters of Divinity student on the Richmond Campus of Union-PSCE
Vogado began her career at Union-PSCE in the summer of 2005 after attending Presbyterian College in Clinton, South Carolina. She was a 2005 Ministry Fellow with the Fund for Theological Education and spent the academic year of 2007 - 2008 as a student intern in Clemson, South Carolina. Vogado currently serves the Richmond student body as Moderator of the Richmond Student Government Assembly.
Read more!
Mark 1:4-11
–The entrance of John the Baptist in the gospel of Mark occurs right after a recitation of Isaiah, indicating that this messenger’s proclamation of Jesus is the fulfillment of scripture. Indeed, the allusion includes not only Isaiah but also Exodus and Malachi as they describe the coming of a messenger who will prepare the way of the Lord (see Isaiah 40:3, Exodus 23:20, and Malachi 3:1).
–Although the other gospels begin at earlier points in the life of Jesus, an account of Jesus’s baptism by John the Baptist is the first glimpse of Jesus that Mark provides. The scene establishes Jesus’s identity as the Son of God, a theme which is repeated throughout the gospel. While Matthew provides an explanation for why the sinless Jesus would undergo a ritual for the forgiveness of sins (see Matthew 3:14-15), Mark does not address the issue.
–The Greek word, schizō, used to describe the heavens being “torn apart” at Jesus’s baptism is the same word used to describe the tearing of the temple curtain at Jesus’s crucifixion in Mark 15:38. In both places, the word indicates God’s dramatic activity in the world.
–Although this episode alerts readers to Jesus’s identity, the gospel writer gives no indication that anyone but Jesus in the story actually heard the heavenly declaration. The passage identifies Jesus as the one who sees the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending, and unlike the description in Matthew and John, the voice from heaven uses the second person in Mark, indicating that the affirmation is intended for Jesus: “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased” (NRSV).
Food for Thought
Salvation in the Wilderness: The theme of wilderness found in both the Isaiah reference and the appearance of John the Baptist reminds believers that God is often at work in times of desolation. Just as God led Moses and the people in the wilderness, so God will lead the people once again through the ministry, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Waters of Baptism: It is in the waters of baptism that the heavens are torn apart and a voice from heaven claims Jesus as God’s son. Although we rarely think of it as having such a dramatic flourish, baptism today still serves as a time when we recognize our being claimed as children of God.
Sink Your Teeth into This
As a former participant and now leader of campus ministry programming, I think a lot about the baptism of Jesus in the gospel of Mark. Although the event is a means of public disclosure in both Matthew and John, only Jesus knows that he has been claimed by God in Mark’s version of the story. For those of us who worship in familiar faith communities, this Markan scenario might seem hard to imagine; after all, we are surrounded by people who have boldly promised to care and nurture one another as brothers and sisters in Christ. For a college freshman who is far from home and in the midst of strangers, however, the thought of being an unknown child of God is often a more familiar reality.
Therefore, I am always humbled as I observe the power of baptism at work in the life of the church’s campus ministries. Just as Jesus’s baptism identifies him as the Son of God, so does baptism still claim God’s children wherever their lives may take them. College students show up at the doors of unfamiliar churches, with confidence because they know a church back home had cared for them before. Congregations give their time and resources to nurture students in their midst, even though they’ve never met the students’ families or perhaps heard of their hometowns. Even without the help of a dramatic voice from heaven, both students and congregations trust that God has claimed the people in their midst, and they work to fulfill the baptismal vows that they trust the church has made. Just as John the Baptist prepares for Christ’s coming in his ministry at the river Jordan, so too do believers as they live out the promises of baptism.
Work Consulted
Douglas R.A. Hare, Mark. Westminster Bible Companion. Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 1996.
Lamar Williamson, Mark. Interpretation: A Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching. Louisville: John Knox Press, 1983.
Biographical Info
Lindy Vogado is a Third Level Final Masters of Divinity student on the Richmond Campus of Union-PSCE
Vogado began her career at Union-PSCE in the summer of 2005 after attending Presbyterian College in Clinton, South Carolina. She was a 2005 Ministry Fellow with the Fund for Theological Education and spent the academic year of 2007 - 2008 as a student intern in Clemson, South Carolina. Vogado currently serves the Richmond student body as Moderator of the Richmond Student Government Assembly.
Read more!
Jan. 4, 2009 - John 1:(1-9) 10-18 - Brian Blount
Gleanings from the Text
John 1:(1-9) 10-18
Literary Context
This material sets the tone for everything that follows. The identification of Jesus as the one who comes from God gives an unparalleled authority to all that he does and says. One expects that someone this special would be immediately identifiable. Clearly, to his followers he was. They declare that they saw in him the glory of God (v. 14). Amazingly, though, the majority who encounter him miss this connection to God. They do, however, acknowledge a special quality. They interpret this quality as something sinister, however, and therefore press toward a destruction that leads to the cross. It is important to note in all of this that though the language is very cosmic, the focus is very earthly. The focus is on how we are to understand God’s engagement with us in our world.
Key Words
Kosmos (world). God’s engagement is in the world, which demonstrates a strong value for the world. God values our human historical existence so greatly that God sends God’s Son to intervene in and save it. This is a crucial counterpoint to those who would see salvation as escape or rapture from the world. Frances Taylor Gench is right to point out that we can therefore not treat the world as evil, by either nature or origin, since the world comes into being through God’s Son and the world is the locus of activity for God’s Son (Encounters With Jesus, 2).
Sarx (flesh). As the locus of the Son’s work, flesh is not to be identified exclusively with carnality and sensuality. As in Hebrew thought, so here, it operates as physical personality. It is neutral earthly existence and not inherently negative.
Logos (Word). In the Hebrew scriptures, Word is the personification of God’s Wisdom (cf. Proverbs 8:25-30; Wisdom of Solomon 7:24-26). It is both God and yet other than God. Wisdom is with God as creation unfolds and it is through Wisdom that creation unfolds. It is this Wisdom, as Word, that takes flesh and engages humans in the world. God’s creative and saving power is put to voice, personified, and given concrete, fleshly expression. As God’s Word, he expresses God, just as our words express our thoughts, our identity, and our intent. He, however, not only speaks for God; he speaks God. He is the language of God lived out in historical expression.
skēnoō (dwell, tabernacle, pitch a tent). This Word engages us in our own realm. God moves to us, temporarily. Yet, the presence is powerful, just as God was a powerful presence when God’s Spirit tabernacled with Israel in the desert (Num 35:35; Jos 22:19).
idion (one’s own). The implication is that humankind belongs to God. God’s Word is therefore meant for them. They are called to be of the same character as the Word, to emulate the Word, to be at work in their world for the same saving purpose as the Word. Unfortunately, God’s own reject the Word instead.
Food For Thought
A picture is worth a thousand words. Here, one Word is worth a thousand words. God’s Word is the fulcrum on which God’s people (God’s own) are pressed into saving action. We “words” are called to emulate and represent God’s Word in how we speak and live.
Sink Your Teeth Into This
This section reminds me of the phrase “Lost in Translation”. God’s Word translates the truth and reality of God’s intention for humankind. We, as God’s own, translate that same intention. I wonder sometimes, however, whether God’s intention is lost as it is conveyed – translated – through our words and work.
Works Consulted
Frances Taylor Gench, Encounters with Jesus: Studies in the Gospel of John. Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2007.
Biographical Information
Brian K. Blount is President and professor of New Testament in the Walter W. Moore and Charles E.S. Kraemer Presidential Chairs.
Blount assumed the presidency of Union-PSCE in 2007, after 15 years as professor of New Testament at Princeton Theological Seminary. Earlier, he served as pastor of the Carver Memorial Presbyterian Church in Newport News, Virginia (1982-88). Blount’s research has focused on the Gospel of Mark, cultural studies and hermeneutics, and the Book of Revelation.
Read more!
John 1:(1-9) 10-18
Literary Context
This material sets the tone for everything that follows. The identification of Jesus as the one who comes from God gives an unparalleled authority to all that he does and says. One expects that someone this special would be immediately identifiable. Clearly, to his followers he was. They declare that they saw in him the glory of God (v. 14). Amazingly, though, the majority who encounter him miss this connection to God. They do, however, acknowledge a special quality. They interpret this quality as something sinister, however, and therefore press toward a destruction that leads to the cross. It is important to note in all of this that though the language is very cosmic, the focus is very earthly. The focus is on how we are to understand God’s engagement with us in our world.
Key Words
Kosmos (world). God’s engagement is in the world, which demonstrates a strong value for the world. God values our human historical existence so greatly that God sends God’s Son to intervene in and save it. This is a crucial counterpoint to those who would see salvation as escape or rapture from the world. Frances Taylor Gench is right to point out that we can therefore not treat the world as evil, by either nature or origin, since the world comes into being through God’s Son and the world is the locus of activity for God’s Son (Encounters With Jesus, 2).
Sarx (flesh). As the locus of the Son’s work, flesh is not to be identified exclusively with carnality and sensuality. As in Hebrew thought, so here, it operates as physical personality. It is neutral earthly existence and not inherently negative.
Logos (Word). In the Hebrew scriptures, Word is the personification of God’s Wisdom (cf. Proverbs 8:25-30; Wisdom of Solomon 7:24-26). It is both God and yet other than God. Wisdom is with God as creation unfolds and it is through Wisdom that creation unfolds. It is this Wisdom, as Word, that takes flesh and engages humans in the world. God’s creative and saving power is put to voice, personified, and given concrete, fleshly expression. As God’s Word, he expresses God, just as our words express our thoughts, our identity, and our intent. He, however, not only speaks for God; he speaks God. He is the language of God lived out in historical expression.
skēnoō (dwell, tabernacle, pitch a tent). This Word engages us in our own realm. God moves to us, temporarily. Yet, the presence is powerful, just as God was a powerful presence when God’s Spirit tabernacled with Israel in the desert (Num 35:35; Jos 22:19).
idion (one’s own). The implication is that humankind belongs to God. God’s Word is therefore meant for them. They are called to be of the same character as the Word, to emulate the Word, to be at work in their world for the same saving purpose as the Word. Unfortunately, God’s own reject the Word instead.
Food For Thought
A picture is worth a thousand words. Here, one Word is worth a thousand words. God’s Word is the fulcrum on which God’s people (God’s own) are pressed into saving action. We “words” are called to emulate and represent God’s Word in how we speak and live.
Sink Your Teeth Into This
This section reminds me of the phrase “Lost in Translation”. God’s Word translates the truth and reality of God’s intention for humankind. We, as God’s own, translate that same intention. I wonder sometimes, however, whether God’s intention is lost as it is conveyed – translated – through our words and work.
Works Consulted
Frances Taylor Gench, Encounters with Jesus: Studies in the Gospel of John. Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2007.
Biographical Information
Brian K. Blount is President and professor of New Testament in the Walter W. Moore and Charles E.S. Kraemer Presidential Chairs.
Blount assumed the presidency of Union-PSCE in 2007, after 15 years as professor of New Testament at Princeton Theological Seminary. Earlier, he served as pastor of the Carver Memorial Presbyterian Church in Newport News, Virginia (1982-88). Blount’s research has focused on the Gospel of Mark, cultural studies and hermeneutics, and the Book of Revelation.
Read more!
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