Posture

You are like this hummingbird.
"Supposed" to be flapping wings at a chaotic pace to stay afloat.
However, instead you stand quietly,
full of confidence
in the midst of the chaos of the "wing flapping world" that surrounds.

A Mustard Plant in Israel

Well this image certainly changes things.

N.T. Wright in the Colbert Nation

Implications of Empire

A friend recently shared a N.T. Wright lecture with me via podcast. I was struck by his reflections, as has been increasingly common in my life with Wright's work. With the current Empire of the West, led by the waning efforts of the American economy, we find importance in the Gospel of John. In John 18:38 we encounter the representative of the Empire of Rome asking Jesus a question. Pilate, the representative, asks, "What is truth?" Do you remember Jesus' response? I certainly did not. And I did not remember because the writer of John does not include Jesus' response. Instead, the writer goes on to tell the story of Jesus' journey to the cross, as if the writer highlights that Truth is not best articulated through words of information, but rather through the atoning actions of the one who ushers in the Kingdom of God. So as the emerging post-modern West continues to struggle over the question of Truth, maybe the actions of Christ over the course of the final three chapters of the book of John, can become part of the conversation.

Canonization Part 2

Along with the previous post regarding canonization goes the following image. I have found this image extremely helpful in placing different books of the Hebrew Bible in their correct place with the canon and history. (Click on the image to enlarge it. You could also save this image as your desktop to memorize it!)

Canonization

The process of the canonization of the Bible has recently been intriguing to me. I have especially found the canonization of the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament) interesting due to a class that I am currently taking. The following quote compares the canon that Protestant Christians landed upon to the canon within Jusaism. The picture that follows the quote provides a visual representation of the differences. The subject is multi-layered and confusing, but well worth a close look.

“Another arrangement of the biblical books, apparently current in the ancient Jewish community of Alexandria, is preserved in the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the [Hebrew] Bible. In this three-part division, the historical books are grouped together (Genesis through Kings with Ruth added after Judges, followed by Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther); the poetic books follow (Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Song of Songs); and the prophetic books (here including Daniel) conclude the canon. This generic grouping fails to keep the Torah in a class by itself and identifies prophecy as the climax of the Bible. These two features may account for the acceptance of this division in the Christian world, since Christianity abrogated Torah law and saw its own gospel as the fulfillment of Old Testament messianic prophecies.”

Baruch J. Schwartz, “Bible,” in R.J. Z. Werblowksy and G. Wigoder (eds.), The Oxford Dictionary of the Jewish Religion (New York: Oxford University Press, 1997), p. 121.