Friday, September 16, 2005 AD
Blessed are the dissonant
Couple of good items on Dissonant Bible.
Eleventh Hour Gospel asks what sort of worker would still be left in the marketplace at the end of the day ("the unfit? the weak? those with an obvious disability? ... or with a criminal record? ... those who look like foreigners?").
And then a quote from Conrad Gempf, in which Gempf describes a biblical principle that is "very simple but very neglected":
Eleventh Hour Gospel asks what sort of worker would still be left in the marketplace at the end of the day ("the unfit? the weak? those with an obvious disability? ... or with a criminal record? ... those who look like foreigners?").
And then a quote from Conrad Gempf, in which Gempf describes a biblical principle that is "very simple but very neglected":
"[Y]ou shouldn't focus on those passages in the Bible that contain answers you resonate with. Instead, focus on passages that address situations that resonate with your situation. So it's not, "Are there any biblical characters who received the kind of message I want to hear? but rather, "What does the Bible say to characters who are in a similar situation to my own?"This is particularly true when we read texts such as the Beatitudes ("Wake up, gang. We are not the meek. We rarely know what it means to hunger and thirst") or those to do with worldly wealth:
For instance, too many rich people name and claim promises like "God will provide". Instead, maybe we should make little religious knick-knack vases with dried flowers in them and "Woe to the rich" embossed in gold letters. Yes, Jesus loves us all dearly, but we're told he disciplines those whom he loves (Prov. 3:12; Heb. 12:6). Where are the t-shirts with the motto "Jesus had stern words for people like me?"
