A women's book?

The Book of Women's Biblical Affirmation. Really?

Life beyond "Yes!" - For today's full-text click here
(We encourage everyone to read the full text. We hold each other accountable as we pray, read and engage the Bible. If you feel the text has not been handled well please comment and give thoughtful correction. This is what Scripture means when it encourages us to wrestle with the Bible and mentally struggle with it and inwardly digest it.)

I wrote a paper in seminary for which I received a very good mark but got a lot of red ink! The professor is a self-styled "feminist-theologian" and the course studied Ruth and Esther as heroines of the Bible. In our readings this week, we encounter carefully shaped snippets from Esther. Please! Take a few moments and read the entire book (like the #UFO's in the newsfeeds this morning - I think you can handle the whole truth about this little book). Esther is a very short book with an engaging (at times even shocking) narrative. Esther has also proven to be something of a challenge for students of the Bible who practice close careful reading of the text.

Do we really want to gloat over an execution?

In the first few moments of that seminary course, we were asked about our interests in Esther. Some responded that Esther interested them as a type of "female Christ;" others positioned Esther as a role model for the strong modern Christian woman. Many responses were grounded on the fact that Esther is one of the only two canonical books bearing female names so was important for women. This should leave us stunned. These notions are not unique to that class; sermons and commentaries founded upon such distortions abound! Warning bells must sound at teachings of Esther (or any reading) that promote self-affirmation, self-acceptance, or any socio-political doctrine apart from God's redemptive desires. Blaise Pascal insisted that Scripture can be difficult to read but asserted that if we seek to evade the harshness in reading "then the full depth of God's character, work, and vocation in Christ will be pushed aside as well" (1966: frag. 287). All of Scripture seeks to reveal two fundamental truths according to Pascal: God's persistent redemptive love and the comprehensive corruption of human life and nature.

As we read Esther the questions we bring to it (and all Scripture) should direct us toward God's grace-filled redemption of those who seek His face. Any reading that minimizes either God's grace or human failure must be brought under suspicion. Esther is not the story of empowered or godly women nor of a defended people. Esther is not a revelation of human righteousness or godliness. Esther is the story of a faithful God seeking His people. Esther is a story full of critical moments, of opportunities to surrender to God and accept His ways. Esther may be a story of what we may judge "good" outcomes but they are not all "God" outcomes. Esther reveals that God works within comprehensive human failure to protect and redeem those who seek Him. God is NOT mentioned in Esther. The faithful Jews in Israel are not mentioned in Esther. Yet God is the subject and faithful people are the object of this book.

The diaspora Jews were not living as God's people in the land God gave His people. There is no evidence that Esther, Mordecai or any other character in the narrative knows God or His ways. Yet, God's people (the Hebrew peoples in Israel) needed protection from threats originating in corruption hundreds of miles away, inspired in godless individuals, and executed by rebellious social and political structures. Our ignored and unmentioned God worked in this godless Babylon to preserve His unmentioned people. Placing God and His redemptive purpose in the fore of our quest within Scripture reveals a very different teaching - Esther, Mordecai, the diaspora and the gentiles are to be mourned not celebrated. The brutality, belligerence, arrogance and hatred within our brothers and sisters separated from God is not something to be celebrated. Do you not think God mourns for the lost? How can we possibly align such celebratory teaching with our Christ hanging and bleeding upon a Roman Cross?

To live our yes we must know our God. Our primary question for Esther (and all Scripture) then must be, what are we shown about our passionate, Loving and suffering God? This question is the only true ends of Theology. In seeking God we learn of divine Love and of God's passion to redeem His people.

In living our yes we approach Scripture humbly and so we find our “God who makes [us] inwardly aware of [our] wretchedness and His infinite mercy: who unites Himself with [us] in the depths of [our] soul: who fills it with humility, joy, confidence, and love: who makes [us] incapable of having any other end but Him” (Pascal 1966: frag. 449).

Let us pray that as we approach the Bible we do not seek affirmation and rationalization of our worldly self-images, but rather transformation into who God desires us to be. Let us understand that our "yes" necessarily involves our surrender of self.

For today's full-text click here

At ACrossMission you will find opportunities to live your yes, walking with at risk ministries in East Africa.

What will your 'yes' look like?

Radically Christ Following

Radically Christ Following

Life beyond "Yes!" - For today's full-text click here
(We encourage everyone to read the full text. We hold each other accountable as we pray, read and engage the Bible. If you feel the text has not been handled well please comment and give thoughtful correction. This is what Scripture means when it encourages us to wrestle with the Bible and mentally struggle with it and inwardly digest it.)

"Peter, do you love Me?" In this question Peter found restoration. Three times he was asked and three times he responded "Yes." Following the third 'yes' Jesus began the commissioning of Peter with the words: "Follow me." From that moment, Peter's life changed and Peter himself was transformed. Following Christ has both affect and effect; following Christ looks like something. There is a change, a difference between life before Christ and life after our 'yes' to Him.

4th Century Etchings of Peter and Paul

As we read the Bible carefully we will see that human history spins out of control not when we follow Jesus, not when we trust God, not when we act obediently in love, but rather when we seem incapable of being Christ-followers.

The Acts of the Apostles which we read from last week, is a wonderful testimony to the very advent of the Church. It is also a sad testimony to the very root of our theological drifting from Jesus and the teachings He gave us through the Apostles. Avarice, lust, pride, dishonesty, and idolatry begin to fracture and fragment the Book of Acts churches even as the Gospel penetrates the darkness of first-century human civilization. Heresies spring up remarkably quickly to accommodate, modulate and excuse our sin. One can almost hear the echo of Eden as self-styled leaders begin to shape teaching: surely Jesus did not say THAT! Surely He did not mean that literally!! Yet, as we look closer, the Book of Acts reveals the radically Christ-following Church; a remnant that stands within the dust of fracture and fragmentation proclaiming the radical Gospel grounded upon the self-giving Love Jesus calls us to live. That remnant Church is the Church we are called to be. In that remnant Church, persecuted, impoverished and imprisoned we see what we are called to be - Christ's Body.

Will we be Christ's Body reaching out to all the world, or, will we seek every 'if, and, or but' to excuse and modify God's command and commission?

"My child, do you love Me?" What will your 'yes' look like?

For today's full-text click here

At ACrossMission you will find opportunities to live your yes, walking with at risk ministries in East Africa.

What will your 'yes' look like?

Right & Almost Right

Right & Almost Right

Life beyond "Yes!" - For today's full-text click here

(We encourage everyone to read the full text. We hold each other accountable as we pray, read and engage the Bible. If you feel the text has not been handled well please comment and give thoughtful correction. This is what Scripture means when it encourages us to wrestle with the Bible and mentally struggle with it and inwardly digest it.)

This week we have encountered some violent and even gruesome texts. How do we react when warriors are called by Joshua (God's chosen leader of Israel) to place their feet on the neck of captured pagan kings and to slaughter them? How do we react when David kills and beheads Goliath? The lectionary surrounds these histories with victory Psalms. I fear many of us are tempted to feel vindication, justification, and even delight. I fear we are tempted to read these narratives as if a righteous God commanded these acts. I fear we forget that these men (these pagan kings and belligerent defiant warriors) though denying God and separated from God are God's children loved by God; I fear we forget how alike them we are behind our masks and in our hearts.

As we read Scripture it is important to hear clearly what God commands and to precisely analyze the response described in the narrative. What we will begin to see is that rarely is the response actually in perfect alignment with God's request. Usually, it is "sort of similar" yet varies in significant details. More is done; less is done; something similar is done but rarely is the response what God asked. Sin distorts how we view ourselves and then corrupts how we hear God and respond to God. From Eden, the echo "Surely God did not say..." ripples through human history and is recorded for us in Scripture. We provide all the excuses and alterations to God's command necessary to make God palatable and relevant.

As we read the Bible carefully we will see that human history spins out of control not because we trust God and act obediently but rather, because humans seem wholly incapable of doing as we are asked.

One modern example might be this. Jesus commissioned the Church to bear witness and to teach obedience to all He commanded. It is valid to clarify and interpret words and deeds recorded for us in Scripture. However most preaching and teaching goes beyond witness; it extrapolates, offers opinion and advances an agenda apart from Christ. Much of what we do under the banner of Christ promotes a bureaucracy, a business, an ideology and an agenda beyond the command and commission given us by Jesus Christ. As it was from the beginning so it is now - we question and modify God's words to suit ourselves. So, why does it surprise us that the "church" is in crisis? Why does it surprise us that those we are sent to bear witness to view us with suspicion and contempt? Sadly the answer is: because we are a "church" not Christ's Church.

As we practice reading and hearing God precisely, I believe we can learn to be Church precisely. Why? Because reading and hearing are acts of submission to the author/speaker. We seek what God is saying NOT what it means for me. Reading and hearing Scripture thus submits us to God. Following God leads to our restoration to Him. Interestingly, the violence and gruesome histories we encounter in and around this week's readings are given this submissive context in the lectionary. We find this context in Acts 5. In Acts 5 we are shown the obedient witnessing Church; we are shown what we are called to be. We are shown that God acts as we obey.

The question is will we be this Church, or, will we seek every 'if, and, and but' to excuse and modify God's command and commission?

For today's full-text click here