When I went off to seminary my far mor, father's mother, gave me a condensed and harmonized copy of the Gospels and the New Testament. She was a loving and spiritual person who loved Christ and who read the Swedish Psalmbok and New Testament of her childhood every evening. Her desire was to support my training and growth in serving as a minister. Both of my grandmothers helped to shape my faith and ministry.
Arriving at the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg we quickly learned the problems of such approaches to the Bible and the issues such a reductionist approach to God’s word brings. Besides the issues of adding further distance from the original languages, harmonizations most often alter the passages remaining in such a way that they are not consistent with any particular book of the Bible. The uniqueness of individual passages and the expression of individual authors is lost. We even experience this the way in which the broader secular culture tells the Christmas and Easter stories each year and slowly begin to think the way remember the stories from the TV specials of our childhood is what the Bible and God’s written word says. Nothing could be further from the truth.
I am going to ask you to engage in a little homework. Bet you never expected that from a blog. It gets worse. I want you to find a friend to participate I a little experiment with you. The assignment is this. Ask your friend to read the second chapter of Genesis starting at verse 4 and to draw a simple picture of it answering or showing the following things. Do not rely on memory only use the written word of the Bible.
1) Draw a picture of the opening scene.
2) Identify and describe the first action that God causes and how it happens
3) Draw in the picture God’s creating humanity and label it with its place in the order of creation. (First, Last)
4) Draw the other things God creates numbering each in order.
5) Identify the last thing God creates and label it “Last”
6) How does the story of God’s work end in the story?
7) Are there any repetitive themes in the material?
Without you looking at the second chapter I want you to do the same work for the first chapter of Genesis. No cheating. See only what is written in the Bible. If you can’t find someone to share the experience with then do one chapter today and the other tomorrow starting with Genesis 2:4 today.
Later when you have had time we will continue. You might want to invite your friend over for a cup coffee on Friday morning when we will continue.
Next time: Encountering the word and Word and Healing Faith.
Arriving at the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg we quickly learned the problems of such approaches to the Bible and the issues such a reductionist approach to God’s word brings. Besides the issues of adding further distance from the original languages, harmonizations most often alter the passages remaining in such a way that they are not consistent with any particular book of the Bible. The uniqueness of individual passages and the expression of individual authors is lost. We even experience this the way in which the broader secular culture tells the Christmas and Easter stories each year and slowly begin to think the way remember the stories from the TV specials of our childhood is what the Bible and God’s written word says. Nothing could be further from the truth.
I am going to ask you to engage in a little homework. Bet you never expected that from a blog. It gets worse. I want you to find a friend to participate I a little experiment with you. The assignment is this. Ask your friend to read the second chapter of Genesis starting at verse 4 and to draw a simple picture of it answering or showing the following things. Do not rely on memory only use the written word of the Bible.
1) Draw a picture of the opening scene.
2) Identify and describe the first action that God causes and how it happens
3) Draw in the picture God’s creating humanity and label it with its place in the order of creation. (First, Last)
4) Draw the other things God creates numbering each in order.
5) Identify the last thing God creates and label it “Last”
6) How does the story of God’s work end in the story?
7) Are there any repetitive themes in the material?
Without you looking at the second chapter I want you to do the same work for the first chapter of Genesis. No cheating. See only what is written in the Bible. If you can’t find someone to share the experience with then do one chapter today and the other tomorrow starting with Genesis 2:4 today.
Later when you have had time we will continue. You might want to invite your friend over for a cup coffee on Friday morning when we will continue.
Next time: Encountering the word and Word and Healing Faith.
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