YVQ: TEXT & CONTEXT

TEXT & CONTEXT I Know The Plans I Have For You… Angela Sawyer

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Making Sense of the Bible Graham Stanton

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Thinking, Living, Loving Sarah Backholer

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Flash Cards In My Pocket Belinda Waterhouse

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Faith Building Small Groups Joshua Alexander

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My Divine Double Craig Brown

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Text, Brick, and Mortar Mitchell Salmon

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SPRING 2017

Contributors Angela Sawyer

Sarah Backholer

Angela is Lecturer in Old Testament and Dean of Students at Stirling Theological College. She is most passionate about seeing individuals and communities empowered to engage with the Bible. She has completed a PhD in the area of Isaiah, exile, and post-church Australia. Angela is married to Jay and they are raising two rocket powered children.

Sarah is a classroom and online tutor in Christian Theology at Stirling Theological College, and a young mum. Her recent work has included research, analysis, and reflections on the ‘Page 13’ writings of G.R. Stirling in the Australian Christian.

Graham Stanton

Belinda Waterhouse

Graham is a lecturer in practical theology and youth ministry at Ridley College, Melbourne. He has been an avid Bible reader since 1983 and is getting better at it with time.

Belinda is the Director of Operations at Stirling Theological College and tutors in New Testament. She is also a part-time theology student, and was previously the Young Adult Minister at Doncaster Church of Christ.

Mitchell Salmon

Joshua Alexander

Mitchell is the current editor of YVQ, and part of the Youth Vision Vic/Tas team. He is a writer, pop-culture consumer, and tall person. He is fascinated by the ways in which the big stories we share shape everything we do, which is why his two great passions are the Bible and superhero comic books.

Josh is currently in his second year of internship at Boronia Community Church of Christ, teaching and working with mainly young adults in areas of spiritual formation, Christian apologetics, and social action. He is also passionate about science and the science-faith conversation, and is studying chemistry at Monash University.

Craig Brown Craig has been the Federal Coordinator of Churches of Christ, worked for GMP, and been a local church pastor before giving a writing a go, which has led to a history book and the publication of a short story, as well as learning how to deal with polite rejection letters. Just to prove that God has sense of humour, Craig is currently the Youth Minister at Ringwood Church of Christ has been leading the Ministry Team in the short term while still writing and running his writing and editing business, amplify your voice (amplifyyourvoice.businesscatalyst.com).

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Youth Vision Vic/Tas is the generational ministry arm of Churches of Christ in Victoria and Tasmania (CCVT).

The Youth Vision team consists of Kat Deith, Scott Mageean, and Mitchell Salmon.

A | 1st Floor 582 Heidelberg Rd, Fairfield VIC 3078 P | 03 9488 8800 W | churchesofchrist.org.au/ youthvision E | yv@churchesofchrist.org.au

I’ve noticed something recently when writers (in particular, comic book writers) talk about embarking on a large project, one that spans multiple books and has an emphasis on world-building, and especially when the project involves collaboration between writer(s), artist(s), and editor(s) (not to mention colourists, letterers, and designers, in the comic world). Writers will often do a lot of pre-work (in consultation with their team) before scripting starts—mapping out structures, narrative beats, and the feel of the world— and then collate this work into a centralised document. This collection of works is referred to at all times in the creative process by all the members of the team, keeping people on the same wavelength in a project that could be drawn in any number of directions by the variety of people on the project.

Writers often call this their ‘bible’.

The ‘bible’ gives a common reference point, and an outline not always of the specific events that will come in the story but always a sense of texture; the team may not know exactly what a character will say at a given point, but they will likely know the feel of what will happen.

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From the Editor Letters to the Editor Something in this edition of YVQ stick with you, start you thinking, or make you want to explore the topic further?

Address your letters to our editor and contributors to editor@churchesofchrist.org.au.

Messages that move the conversation forward may be included in future editions of YVQ, with a response from the original contributor.

Needless to say, I find the naming of this reference as a ‘bible’ quite apt.

Our Bible (note capitalisation) performs a similar task, uniting us around a common reference point in Christ, revealed by the text. The Churches of Christ tribe are ‘people of the book’. We, troublemakers and rabble-rouses, don’t put much stock in creeds and statements—traditional summaries of Christian expression—but centre our understanding of our experiences and expression of faith in the Bible story, with particular focus on the New Testament. So our creed (which is Christ, revealed in the text) is much longer, much more complex, and invitational in allowing everyone to contribute to its nuanced reading.

The Bible is foundational, and so we rightly spend a lot of time in it—we open it in services and in small groups, we speak from it when we teach and preach, we orient activities, games, and crafts around its stories, and we want our young people to engage as passionately with it as we do.

But it’s a daunting book, written in cultures many thousands of years old, with experiences so different (and yet often eerily similar…) to our own. It’s a text that is always inviting, but can never be approached lightly.

This edition of YVQ is full of people engaging with Biblical passages; reading and re-reading and being read, and drawing out meanings that point to our living God by ancient words. What this edition offers is an opportunity to watch them at work. Observe the questions asked and the lenses applied. It is our hope that you will glean something new that you can apply to how you read the Bible, and how you read the Bible alongside young people.

As always, a massive thank you to all the ‘people of the book’ (from our immediate tribe and beyond) who have given of their time to contribute to this edition of YVQ. —Mitchell Salmon

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I Know The Plans I Have For You… Writer Angela Sawyer

“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”

—Jeremiah 29:11, NIV

If only we could get into the Delorean, and go where there is no need for roads… time travel to figure out what on Earth Jeremiah meant with this verse about plans and prospering and a future.¹ Is this about me getting that dream job, or the car park closest to the door on Christmas eve or, more seriously, a disease being healed, or having a child, or my personal prosperity?

Well, the Delorean isn’t equipped for such a journey, but we can do some virtual time travel with some tools from our modern—even our postmodern era—that unravel this passage and many others. Let’s go on a journey together of unpacking this passage, as a demonstration of how you might go about unpacking others parts of the Bible.

The most popular approach to Scripture today in the West is to begin by asking “What does this passage mean to me? What is it saying to comfort me?” This is a highly individualised approach and there are definitely some merits to it, such as the idea that the Bible speaks to me today and can have relevancy or that we are engaging the bible in a time where such an activity is on the decline.

This approach means that we don’t need expert mediation, we can figure it out ourselves.

But there are some concerning things about remaining in this personalised approach. Does it invite other perspectives, including community reading, educated readings, contrary ideas, or marginalised viewpoints? How does it teach us anything other than our own thoughts or encourage us beyond the self-absorbed nature of our society? If we remain in a model of reading the Bible for personal comfort and guidance, what social action and transformation does this promote? Is it quite possible that the Bible has something more to say than just about me?

I begin with this point on the typical approach to scripture due to the way that this Jeremiah passage is handled and mishandled. I’ve heard this passage used in reference to the equation that God has good plans for us and all will work out. This is sloppy, and sometimes

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dangerous, theology. Community readings do not deny the importance of individual meaning making that may be derived from a study of this passage, but a deeper study may lead us to other conclusions than an initial superficial reading.

Tools

Like any good time traveller, we need some nifty tools to begin our study. Due to the cultural, time, language and historical distance we have from the Biblical text, specialised tools enable us in our interpretative journey as we seek to uncover the background to the passage. I tend to advise people to start their explorations of the Scripture by using a good study bible. This will come with maps, timelines, useful charts, textual notes, and a small concordance. Beyond a study bible, commentaries take us even deeper, layer by layer. Each will have their own perspective.

It’s helpful to make a printout of the text that you can scribble all over. On a first reading circle words that you think may be significant; highlight themes that stand out and even better, use a colour system where you use the same colour to highlight connected themes. Write your own questions down the sides of the passage. What seems odd? Who are the characters?

Approaches

In Biblical studies, there are several approaches taken to the Bible that are useful to us even if we are not academically minded. I think of this as circling the bible, coming at it from many different angles with different lenses and asking different questions of the text. We may end up with surprising and diverse readings.

One of the major ways that studying the bible has developed is through the historical-critical method. This takes us through some systematic steps where we look at the historical and social background to a passage, the style of literature, where it is situated in the text, and what

¹Here I apologise to those in a post-Back to the Future world. I feel for you. Any reference to the Delorean assumes knowledge of this classic time travel movie. Luckily in our actual future-present we have access to DVDs and streaming, so get yourself a copy.

Literary Questions

Compare the version of the passage you are looking at with another version. Use an online tool such as biblehub.com or biblegateway.com and do a parallel search.

Note if different words are used and if that changes the emphasis or meaning. For example, the NIV uses the term ‘prosper’ whereas the NRSV uses ‘welfare’. These seem quite different, and deserve some further attention.

Read backwards and forwards—in relation to Jeremiah 29:11, what is happening in chapter 29? Then the chapters before and after? Then go broader—what is happening in the book as a whole? When we dig deeper into Jeremiah things seem to be higgledy piggledy—all over the place! How was this book edited? It doesn’t seem to follow a clear chronology. Where does this chapter fit? This is quite a complicated question, and looking to secondary resources can unravel some of the editing journey that led to the final form of the text that we read today, revealing that parts of the text seem to be missing.

There are textual parallels to the books of Joshua to 2 Kings, which give a theological and historical account of Israel’s journey that seems influenced by the book of Deuteronomy. In terms of a prophetic text, Jeremiah shares many similarities to Isaiah and Ezekiel.

Comparative studies may give us greater insight in how to read Jeremiah.

An initial observation we note with Jeremiah 29:11 is that it seems to be part of a letter. Given this form, we can compare with some key features of ancient letters. Is this letter a consistent example? Is it comparable to other parts of the Bible? What style is the letter written in: is it insistent? Urgent? Calm? Some scholars suggest that verses 10-14 take the form of a proclamation of salvation, which is typically future oriented. Can we contrast it with other proclamations?

Who wrote the letter? To whom is the letter addressed?

The early parts of the chapter give this information and situate the letter as being sent from the prophet Jeremiah in Jerusalem to the “surviving elders among the exiles and to the priests, the prophets and all the other people

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other factors it might relate to beyond that passage. Any translation discrepancies are observed, as well as the grammatical and lexical data that give us an indication of the major subject, object, and focus of the text. The theological emphasis of the passage is assessed and, after going through all of this study, some initial conclusions about how this passage may relate to us in the 21st Century begin to emerge.

Nebuchadnezzar had carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon” (v1) The surrounding chapters give a good character portrayal of Jeremiah. There is a series of letters, and if we read further on we note other addressees.

Authoring, scribing, and editing the material are all different tasks and may have been performed by different people. It is worth examining the character Jeremiah as well as the groups and individuals that are mentioned in this passage. Who are the exiles that Jeremiah is addressing? Some are named, but it seems addressed to the whole community of exiles in Babylon. It seems addressed to the elite, priests, leaders in the community.

Drawing out a character map may help clarify some of the details.

Literary studies take us into the style and form of the writing, and the characters, but also focusses in on the detail of sentences, words and their meanings. In this verse, what are the words that jump out? We may need to explore a Bible lexicon and look up further information, including finding out what the word is in Hebrew and its various translations.

Historical Questions

What is exile? As we dig further and further back through the years we uncover a disaster that occurred in Israel’s history. Prior to Jeremiah’s time, the northern kingdom of Israel had been overtaken by the Assyrians and the kingdom of Judah was a small territory that survived the onslaught. In Jeremiah’s era, Judah became consumed by the next big and hungry empire, known as the Babylonians. The 29:11 passage is part of that larger story. There were consecutive forced deportations of the people from Jerusalem to Babylon, with this letter relating to one of the first deportations of the Judahites in 597 BCE. This was a time of ongoing conflict, political upheaval, deep confusion, trauma, and loss. At this point, Jerusalem was still standing. But ten years on from this letter, it would be completely destroyed, including the temple.

For those who were forcibly deported, where were their allegiances? Should they desire for home or settle down?

Do you assimilate into your new culture or revolt against it? Verses 5-7 address this issue. When will freedom come and what will it look like? How long would they be away? Verse 10 addresses this issue. The sobering reality in relation to the optimism of verse 11 is the context in which it occurs. Context is king, and learning the context of this passage aids our interpretation. It seems that in the context of exile and disaster, the words of the prophet Jeremiah were not the only prophetic words being thrown around at this time. There were others who

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suggested this invasion by Babylon would be short lived and gave the people false hope. Jeremiah was far more scathing in his assessment of the situation. His words of verse 29:11 need to be understood in this contrasting context, that despite the disaster that was in many ways just beginning, and would span a long time in their history and their minds, that there would be a future and a hope. However, in the immediate space they found themselves, that would not mean going home just yet.

Theological Questions

Who caused the exile? Verse 1 indicates Nebuchadnezzar (II), the king of Babylon is to blame, whereas 29:4 seems to indicate that Yahweh was in control of this disaster.

This is a massive statement! Understanding verse 11 requires us to grapple with the reality that for those who had lost so much, God was the instigator. But Jeremiah suggests that this disaster was not to be the end of their story. In the theological framework of Jeremiah, the exile was not a random event in history but interpreted to be caused by Judah’s ongoing disobedience to God. Exile had been understood to be the last in line of the punishments for breaking the covenant. The prevailing view of the time was “That’s it. You are done!” Yet texts such as this letter from Jeremiah seemed to indicate otherwise, that there was still hope and a future (cf. 31:17).

Exile did not mean that God was defeated in this take over but that they also had some incredibly false ideas that they would not be invaded or suffer, or that the exile would be a momentary blip on their horizon.

Trust in God, despite geographical location and evidence to the contrary, is core to the challenge of exile.

This was a time for the reframing of the faith, that along with words of other prophets such as Ezekiel and Isaiah, would ensure faith survival, indeed its subsequent thriving, through Judah’s worst existential crisis. What would the new expression of faith look like in a changed situation? What needed to be kept from the past and what needed to be reconsidered? Faith needed a serious reboot.

What does true shalom (peace or wellbeing) entail for those who have lost everything? And how could they pray for the peace of the Babylonians who had destroyed them? (contrast with Psalm 137:8-9) The theme of calling on God emerges strongly in chapter 29 with the optimistic view that connecting with God makes a difference for the one who connects and the one who is even causing the suffering.

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Today

There is much that may relate from this passage to our world today. There may be a clear connection or resonance in an era of 60 million refugees in the world, forcibly migrating or deported from conflict zones. Perhaps those experiencing such disasters would interpret this passage quite differently than those of us comfortable in our safe country. It is these readings that are necessary in our age of consumerism to refocus us on what it truly may mean to prosper and need a word of hope.

Sociological studies of war and exile and psychological studies of the effects of trauma in war provide useful and unique insights into this time and the factors that may have propelled the writing of this text. Postcolonial studies offer us new perspectives regarding upheaval, invasion, and change through imperial rule. The texts that form under these situations are being interpreted in fresh ways through these studies. Considering the nature of Jeremiah as a survival text that enabled the exiles to find language for their trauma and form new identity may contribute to our own understanding of situations of disaster in a contemporary world.

Given that this passage is part of a longer section of text dealing with the issue of true and false prophecy, there may be some pressing and relevant questions such as: How do we know when a word of prospering or a word of judgement is timely? In an age of many voices, conflicting and competing, one telling us we will find and should expect peace and another that we are in for turmoil… to whom do we listen? As noted by Keown et al, “Suffering the loss of home, family, and freedom, removed from their king, temple, and homeland, exiles are vulnerable to dreams conjured out of denial and promises manufactured by human plots. When reality overtakes these first false hopes of a short-term stay, chap. 29 offers spiritual resources for the long haul.”² Even for those of us not in situations of exile, we are challenged to consider how these verses may offer us spiritual resources sustaining us for the long haul.

I began by suggesting that Bible study can unravel the passage for us. I appreciate for many the study of the bible need not be reduced to historical or literary analysis. There is a desire for mystery which we can certainly find in the text of Jeremiah. The words still have an immediacy and urgency. The experience of engaging with the text is valid and the meaning making that occurs

²Gerald L. Keown, Pamela J. Scalise, and Thomas G. Smothers, ‘Jeremiah 26-52’ in John D. W. Watts, ed (1995) Word Biblical Commentary, vol. 27, Word Incorporated, Dallas, Texas, 80.

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“The experience of engaging with the text is valid and the meaning making that occurs in the reading and the talking and the thinking produces a new interpretation” in the reading and the talking and the thinking produces a new interpretation that may not have occurred had you walked past this passage previously.

Our time travel together to the world of Jeremiah 29:11 comes to an end as we consider how this passage relates not only to the past but to us today.

Study changes the way we may receive the text but also changes the way that we may read ourselves and society around us. As we stumble out of the virtual Delorean may this passage formed so many years ago be inscribed even deeper on our hearts, holding a far richer meaning than the blueprint we thought was mapped out for our success. ●

Resources

Brueggemann, Walter, 1998, A Commentary on Jeremiah: Exile and Homecoming. Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. Clements, R. E. 1988, Jeremiah. Interpretation. Atlanta, Georgia: John Knox Press.

Gerald L. Keown, Pamela J. Scalise, and Thomas G. Smothers, ‘Jeremiah 26-52’ in John D. W. Watts, ed, 1995, Word Biblical Commentary, vol. 27.

Dallas, Texas: Word, Incorporated. (This is a technical commentary) O’Connor, Kathleen M. 2011, Jeremiah: Pain and Promise. Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press. (This book does not deal with Jeremiah 29:11 in detail but it uses contemporary survival and trauma studies in relation to our reading of Jeremiah)

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Making Sense of the Bible Writer Graham Stanton

“I am so scared about sharing my faith with my friends, but I’m confident because, ‘I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.’”

“I need 99.95 year 12 score to get into the university course I want, but even though I haven’t studied, I’m not worried about my exams because, ‘I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.’”

“I am going to put on a superman cape and jump off a tall building and fly because, ‘I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.’”

Hopefully at least one of these statements sounds absurd. If someone came to you and said, “In Philippians 4:13, the Bible says I can fly as long as I’m relying on Christ to strengthen me,” I hope your response would be to gently but firmly point out that that’s not what the Bible really means.

But how do you know? If the Bible says we can do “all things” through Christ, then why not fly? How do we engage the Bible and draw meaning from what it says? There’s no simple formula. We know that relationships are too complex and too precious to be able to reduce them to three easy steps. If that’s true for relationships with other human beings, it is all the more true for a relationship with God. Instead of a few simple steps, here are ten principles to help direct our approach: 1. Ask God To Help Us Make Sense Of It

If we believe that the Bible is the book with which God speaks to human beings through the Holy Spirit, then the best place to start is to pray and ask God to help us make sense of what we read.

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2. Read It With Expectation And Humility

If we trust God’s promise to speak to us through the Bible (see Isaiah 55:10-11, 1 Thessalonians 2:13), then we will read the Bible with expectation, believing that God has something to say to us through what we read. But because it is God from who we are waiting to hear, we will read the Bible with humility that lets God be in control of what we hear and understand. If we are never challenged by what we hear God saying in the Bible then it may not be God we’re hearing from!

3. Read It With Others

The Bible is a book to be read in the Christian community, not just on your own. The usual practice throughout history and across the world is for Christians to gather together, to hear the Bible read, and to help one another make sense of what they read. The best way to protect you from reading your own ideas into Philippians 4:13 is to find a group of people who will wrestle with the text together.

4. Read What It Says

This is pretty straightforward— we work out what a passage says by understanding what the words mean, understanding what ideas the sentences convey, understanding what the paragraphs are about. The point is, the Bible isn’t a magic book that needs special rules for interpreting it. If you can make sense of what I’ve written so far in this article, then you’re on the way to being able to make sense of the Bible.

We’ll understand Philippians 4:13 more clearly if we read the paragraph it comes in. Verse 12 speaks about

being content in “any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry”.

So, being able to do “all things” is about how someone can be content whether they have plenty or are in want of more, because Christ gives the strength to be content.

5. Read What It Said

When we read the Bible we need to remember that it wasn’t written directly for us; we first aim to read what it said then, before we work out what God might be saying now.

Philippians 4:13, and the entire book of Philippians, was written by Paul to the church in Philippi: A real person with real concerns and experiences writing to real people with their own concerns and experiences. If we look back to verse 10, we see that Paul is writing about the practical help the Philippians gave him. He wants them to know that even without their support he’d still be able to serve God. So when he comes to v17-18 he can be clear that he doesn’t want them to give money for his sake.

Instead, Paul wants them to see that when they give money to his missionary work they are really making an offering to God. 6. Read All Of It

Like most books, the best way to make sense of what the Bible is saying is to read all of what the Bible says. Of course, reading all of the Bible is easier said than done. It’s quite long! But just because something is difficult doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be done; on the contrary, some things are worth it because they’re not easy. Reading the Bible is like that. It might take you a year or more (and there are lots of Bible reading guides to help), but reading all of it helps fit each of the parts into the whole. A good way to help get a

With all of the Bible story in mind we can then connect Philippians 4:13 with other passages in the Bible, such as how Joseph served God in all circumstances in Genesis 39-41. Reading the Joseph story reminds us that when Paul wrote Philippians he himself had been imprisoned for his faith (Philippians 1:12).

7. Read About Jesus

When we read all of the Bible we will discover that the Bible is all about Jesus. The Old Testament points forward to Jesus (see Luke 24:27, 44; 2 Timothy 3:15); the New Testament points back to Jesus and continues his teaching (1 John 1:1-3). We’ll make most sense of Philippians 4:13 when we understand how it relates to Jesus. We can see that Jesus served God through all his life even though he was poor and homeless. Even when it looked like God had abandoned him, God strengthened Jesus to remain faithful. In the same way that God equipped Jesus for his mission, Jesus equips Christians with the Holy Spirit so that we can continue Jesus’ mission in the world (John 20:21-22).

8. Read It, Re-Read It, Re-Re-Read It, And Re-ReRe-Read It…

Making sense of the Bible isn’t a job for one-sitting. You get better at understanding and making sense of the Bible the more you read it. As you continue reading the Bible, over time you’ll become more and more familiar with the details as well as the recurring themes. With Philippians 4:13 in your mind, one day you’ll come across Habakkuk 3 and you’ll make another connection—that here is another one of God’s servants who was strengthened in difficult circumstances to keep on serving God.

What would you have said to the Philippians? What would you have said to God?

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handle on the whole Bible is to use a guide that presents the basic Biblical storyline. The Insect And The Buffalo: How The Story Of The Bible Changes Everything1 is a helpful little book (79 pages) that you could give to a teenager to read through. A more detailed book is God’s Big Picture: Tracing The Storyline Of The Bible2 (170 pages), and is one that leaders could work through or use as the basis of an 8-week introduction to making sense of the Bible.

Or what if you were Paul? What would it be like to face each new day trusting in the strength of Christ to give you strength? How would Paul respond to gifts of food? What would Paul do if he didn’t get as much as he wanted? Then imagine if Paul was here. How would Paul respond if he didn’t have any Christian friends at school? What would Paul think about his exams and concerns about his Year 12 score?

Perhaps then we might also imagine what it would be like if we were to trust Jesus the way Paul trusted Jesus?

What would tomorrow look like if you were confident that whatever the circumstances, you would still be able to serve God faithfully because of the strengthening presence of Jesus by his Holy Spirit?

10. Don’t Just Read It, Live It

And if you can imagine it, then you’re one step closer to living it. After all, trusting Jesus isn’t a theoretical exercise. We’re not engaging with the Bible so that we can pass a true-false quiz on the last day.

Psalm 34:8 says, “Taste and see that the Lord is good.” The Bible invites us not just to learn about life with God, but to live that life and see how good it is. There won’t always be a simple ‘instruction for today’ in every Bible passage we read. But every Bible passage we read will have implications for how we live in God’s world. The appropriate action might be to keep reading and thinking about the Bible! Ultimately the appropriate action will have something to do with trusting Jesus (John 20:31), loving God, and loving our neighbours (Matthew 22:37-40).

9. Read It With Your Imagination

Having come to some understanding of what Philippians 4:13 means, and having imagined how life would be different if we lived in light of what God is saying, then all that remains is to give it a shot. And then, having some experience of having relied on Jesus’ strength in whatever circumstances he calls us to serve him, we’ll come back together to continue reading and reflecting on how this word from God might continue to shape and direct our life with God.

Ultimately our aim as believers is not just to understand the Bible as something written by other people for other people in other situations. Instead we want to hear it as something spoken by God for us in our own situations.

To make that step we need to use our imaginations. We can imagine what it would have been like if we were in the Bible story: What if you were in Paul’s situation of not having enough to eat? How would you have felt?

John Calvin said that knowing God can be like wandering through a maze, and the Bible is like a thread that guides us along the path. Calvin said, “it is better to limp along this path than to dash with all speed outside it.”3 Reading the Bible may leave us with many unanswered questions, and it may be slow going at times. We will never know God completely, but God promises that we can know God truly—truly enough to trust Jesus with our whole lives. ●

Roshan Allpress and Andrew Shamy, 2009, Compass Foundation (available from www.compass.org.au/shop/books/the-insect-and-the-buffalo).

2 Vaughan Roberts, 2002, IVP. 3 John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, 1.6.3.

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Thinking, Living, Loving Writer Sarah Backholer Engaging with Scripture… difficult. Why? Cultural baggage, contested methods, religious buzz, scholastic auras, distasteful authority, worldview clashes, overbearing directives… Forget all that for now.

Perhaps the best way to find treasure is to stumble upon it by accident. But how do we position ourselves so as to intentionally make a discovery-by-accident?

I wonder… what links us with the people in those stories? What could unlock their meaning? Actually, it’s astonishingly simple; so simple we miss it. We’re connected simply by being people. This gives us various points of commonality I’m willing to wager on.

In being people we yearn for love, inclusion, value; we are also crippled by shame and guilt. We search for meaning and navigate labyrinthine relationality. We wrestle with hope and fragility, suffering and explosive joy, all as human bodies… having in common eating, defecating, washing, reproducing, repairing, and decaying.

So we bring to the text our fragile humanity, and we are met by its humanity, and something magic happens between the two. We are read by the text, even as we read. We are interrupted, only to see ourselves in there.

We interpret, for good or ill, through our relational paradigms and expectations, our experiences and desires. We skate over our fragility with all its questions and tensions and hardships, as though we must hide these in shame… and in doing so, we miss the entire point (and demonstrate it simultaneously!).

That is, the Word becoming flesh—and then text—by the narration of an overture that is precisely about that Big Unknown Other joining us, intimately as known, as family, in that nakedness of existence that is so often the cause of our shame.

Some naked questions: Does my life matter? What is it’s meaning? What do I yearn for? Who or what is God? Is goodness real? And when encountering inklings of grace—the gift-with-no-strings-attached—in the midst of life: Is it true? Could it really be true? Am I safe to trust it?

Engaging Scripture is an issue of trust. Terrifying trust.

And so the journey continues… and it’s playful and situational, and often there are no ‘clear-cut’ resolutions, outcomes, and directions; what is written is always being re-written, in the search for trueness and integrity. This is discovery and growth, and this is the space that we need in order to discover treasure that is in front of us.

The learning is in the serious playing—experimenting 10 | intelligently with possibilities and tonalities before a

future that we trust is filled with generosity and veracity because God is there… but in a particular way, curious-like and otherwise-than-us. The Word become flesh—so thinking, living, loving—all part of experimenting with serious playing, in grace and truth.

On The Playground

Lost Innocence An incarnate word given to bless, dispensed of as trash, a dirty curse. Could God absorb the consequences of human freedom? A gift so misused surely needed revocation? Did God see this coming? Apparently…

But did he know how much it would hurt? On the cross, God’s innocence is lost.

Nothing Too Knotty It started before he could walk. Sitting in his father’s workshop, he’d examine wood shavings and offcuts intently—with chubby fingers picking them up, turning them over, stacking them. His mother worried he’d get splinters… yet his delight almost made it worth the risk.

Growing, his knack for seeing potential in discarded pieces also grew—whittling or chiseling or sanding away, he’d make toys for siblings and games for playmates. It brought him such pleasure—to take knotty, rough, unwanted timber and to tenderly expose its beauty, seeing it as gift. Nothing ever went to waste.

So yes, he was a carpenter. Of course he was.

Legion Tormented by voices, snarling voices in your head, so many. Broken into little shards, your insides. Roaming graveyards, howling, tearing at yourself—mothers shield their children’s eyes from you. They fear you, you unrestrained monster; your anger and torment so great that you break the chains they hold you with. Living hell of unvanquished rack and ruin!

One day changes everything.

Who comes along this day? The Christ, Son of the Most High God… but how did you know? And now, the moment of your final conviction: here God has come in the flesh to condemn you, to torment you, to confirm what you always feared and so relinquished yourself to.

They have all rejected you; you are despicable. Now God is here to punish you too. He approaches. Dear God! The final moment, the final torment! “Stay away from

But, he does not appear shaken—the only person to approach you undaunted, ever. And here he is, face to face. He takes your face in his hands, looks into your eyes, but you can’t hold his gaze; you flit and roll and scream and shake under the terrifying scrutiny of this light. But he is calm. And he lets you shake, and flit, and move, and he is calm. He talks to you by name, and he is staring into your eyes so intently that you gradually settle, like a screaming child wooed by her mother’s peace.

It starts to pervade your soul.

But fear rears its ugly head once more, all you have ever known, and how could you possibly trust him? If you do, your soul may be ripped to shreds and one more shred would leave you dead! How can this darkness leave?

It is woven in; surely you are fated to it forever! You scream and writhe some more, you can’t bear to hope of disentanglement.

He knows: you need to see it to believe it. You need to know. And the Christ responds. This is no flamboyant magic trick, no show of arrogant might—this is all for you, Legion, because you need to see that your darkness has been overcome by this love. “So leave, I command you,” he says, quietly and powerfully to the darkness in your soul. “To those pigs!” you beg. “Send it to those pigs!” Consequences there might be for him, yet you need to see it… and the pigs stampede over the edge of that cliff and into the sea. And you see them go; and you look into those eyes, whose love has conquered your darkness… and you believe.

Alabaster Hearts She stepped out the front door; her last chance to turn back. Would she do it? Was it crazy? But she had to. She had to! “God, give me courage!” she cried, and suddenly her resolve was set, as she stepped over her threshold and shut the door. And on she walked. And when she arrived at the Pharisee’s house… oh, it was all a blur.

Was she really there? She felt dizzy.

And then she saw him, reclining at the table. And everything she had planned just fell to dust, because all she could do was stand behind him and cry and cry and cry, and she was too ashamed and she couldn’t even look at him.

And she cried so much, such an ocean of tears built up through the years, that they spilled onto his feet, his muddy, tired feet, and the droplets of tears ran with the dirt and made little tracks as they ran to the earth. And she was moved before she knew what was happening; her tears made tracks on those feet and somehow it connected her to him, and she couldn’t just stand there. And she wanted to give more than her rags, so she used her

hair and cleaned his feet, the ones that walked over the earth to comfort hurting souls like hers. She was all in now, she didn’t care, she even kissed them, kissed them more. And there was her little perfume jar, she had laid it down. And he wasn’t moving away, he wasn’t rejecting her, he sat and accepted what she was offering. So she poured it on his feet, every last drop, and so her heart.

And he understood, he did, because when Simon the Pharisee didn’t, he explained.

And that was that, she had come and shown herself to him, her barest self, her love, and so had been more naked than at any time in her sinful life. There was still a question in her heart, as if she needed his words to cut that last tether, and they came: “Your sins are forgiven,” he said. But soon as she heard them, she realised she had already known, for he had already shown her that… and that was why she had come in the first place. And he saw her faith, the risk she had taken and the hope in her heart, and he said it had saved her; and she knew he was right, and left in peace… perhaps with a grin, the best kind that beams after a storm of tears, uncontainable on her face.

And perhaps she even skipped home, with an empty alabaster jar and a heart so full it hurt.

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me!” you scream. “Have you come to torment me too?

What do you want with me?”

Wrapping Up

These brief snapshots are attempts at raw emotive expressions of being read by the text. For the first time in my life, I am drawn to the people in these stories, not because I ‘should be’ because it’s ‘the Bible’, not because it would be sacrilege not to ‘get it’ (disclaimer: I never did)… but just because I accidentally am… and I don’t quite know why. I see myself in them, so hear a word, the Word, also addressing me (but when I don’t, this also invokes wrestling with the text). It hurts and it heals. It’s far from the ways I have been used to reading Scripture… anxiously looking for signs or directives or judgments or solutions, or even exactitudes and ‘actual’ meanings and ‘applications’; it’s much more open than that. And yet it’s also wholly committed… to intelligent engagement that gauges veracity by the fruits elicited; to tonalities that invoke life out of death in surprising ways; to the pursuit of meaning, amidst a horizon not contained to spiritual games played by those with presumably the right keys, titles or qualifications—but which surveys all of humanity and hears the yearning of its many beating hearts, amidst the sticks and the bricks and the wi-fi. This is about thinking, living and loving in pursuit of lives that narrate in word and deed the life which unexpectedly surges when we encounter trustworthy love and sacrifice and generosity… to a whole re-evaluation of our values as we discover and wrestle with what matters each day. Tomorrow, I’ll be read differently no doubt.

But I’ll still be listening for grace. ●

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YVQ | Issue 17 | Spring 2017

Flash Cards In My Pocket Writer Belinda Waterhouse “No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind.

And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.”

—1 Corinthians 10:13 (NIV)

Anyone recognise the above verse?

I certainly do.

When I was in my early teens, I learned five Bible verses as part of a Bible study series on ‘assurance’.

Five verses committed to memory.

Five assurances. Five clusters of 2 or 3 sentences each that I could pull out whenever I needed them.

I didn’t do any work on those verses, although I’m sure the writers of the Bible study had done theirs. I was a passive (and grateful!) recipient of someone else’s energy, study, and background understanding.

Someone had carefully handpicked five verses for me to use in any circumstance of life, and had even put together a short Bible study book to help me use them appropriately. I have long forgotten the study notes, but the verses themselves are etched into my memory.

I was set. I could pull these verses out at any time, armed with five verses and subjects that would somehow answer any questions that life might raise. In case you were wondering, I could literally ‘pull these verses out’, as they had been pre-printed on little flash cards that were designed to fit in my pocket.

I didn’t even have to know how to find them in my yellow Good News Bible!

In my teenage memory, 1 Corinthians 10:13 was learned as an ‘assurance of victory’. And it is.

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I’m a big advocate for memorising Scripture, and I’m grateful for the early encouragement I received to do so. This encouragement was a big part of my early Biblical learning and I’m often surprised at how often ‘just the right verse’ springs to mind when I need it.

Using isolated verses, putting a sermon together was a matter of deciding my main theme, and then hunting through the concordance of my study bible to identify which pre-memorised verses would back up my point. I discovered that I could easily present my view on a particular question or theological point, throw in one or two stories, and I had a 20 minute sermon!

But… As I grew and began to encounter people with a different worldview to me, I soon discovered that memorising (and preaching) isolated verses from the Bible was not enough to sustain healthy conversation with the world around me, nor does it automatically lead to a desire to go deeper into Scripture and continue to learn and wrestle.

As I began to take on some teaching responsibility at church, and also began to study Scripture for myself, I began to read more intentionally beyond single verses.

That’s when I encountered the word ‘exegesis’, and realised that there

was already a word (and an entire practice/study) for the ideas that were growing in my brain.

I began to study Scripture seriously, and started to see that Scripture is constantly speaking. Sometimes it backs me up and speaks what I want to hear, sometimes it breaks me and speaks in spite of what I want to hear. Always it speaks what I need to hear.

When I allow myself to honestly listen to Scripture, I find that not only am I reading the text, but the text is reading me.

This requires more energy on my part, and a willingness to consider new possibilities. If we believe that “all Scripture is God-breathed and useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training” (2 Tim 3:16, NIV), then we need to be ready to listen when it speaks (yes, I’m aware of the irony in quoting just this isolated verse, but now you should open your bible and check out Paul’s whole thought… please!).

In order to listen well, I now approach the text with a lot of questions. Rather than look in the text for information or ‘evidence’ to support the answers I already have, now I approach it with questions. Looking again at my ‘assurance of victory’ verse in 1 Corinthians 10:13, some of the questions I ask are:

When was this written? Who was the author? What do we know about the author’s situation? Who were the initial intended recipients? What do we know about their situation?

Briefly, 1 Corinthians was written by Paul. We know Paul as someone who had a life-changing experience of God while he was on the road to Damascus. Paul offers his ‘résumé’ in 2 Corinthians 11, and we know that he wrote many of the letters that form part of our New Testament today.

This particular letter was to the church in Corinth, which would have been a cross-section of social classes and spiritual maturity—much like (hopefully!) our own local church today.

Like any letter, it begins with a greeting, and concludes with some references to specific people, who would have been known to the original recipients. There is a familiarity in tone throughout the letter, and some of it was spent addressing specific questions or issues within the church. Clearly Paul knew the recipients personally.

Within the letter, Paul covers unity, humility, church discipline, marriage, spiritual gifts, communion, head coverings, worship services… just to name a few! As we read it, we encounter some things that were clearly embedded in the culture of the day, and others that seem as though they may have just been blogged today for our own churches.

Context

What is the surrounding text? What is Paul’s theme in this passage? What is the theme of the letter?

We find 1 Corinthians 10:13 in the middle of a chapter. It is worth remembering that the original letter would not have been divided by verse/chapter and subheadings, in the same way that we don’t necessarily divide an email or letter into neat numbered sections. So it’s important to look behind and ahead of the verse to get an idea of the context.

Verse 12 is a warning to “be careful that you don’t fall,” and verse 14 begins with “therefore,” so with just a quick glance at a couple of surrounding sentences, we see Paul carrying through with the development of a continuous thought. Like walking into a room midway through a conversation between two other people, it takes us more than a moment to understand what they are talking about.

On a quick skim (or reading one or two verses in isolation) it is difficult to see a common theme throughout the

letter. However, when we begin to look in more depth at the bigger picture, we can see that it is written within the framework of an appeal to unity within the church (how timely!). Once we see this, we can zoom in on particular verses and read them from this perspective.

And all of this before we even begin to look at the verse itself! We’re quite a bit further along than I was when I was memorising pre-printed flash cards.

Text

Compare a few translations—is there variance? What does the original Greek say? Are there any repeated words in English, and are they all from the same Greek root? Am I attaching any definitions and assumptions from my own culture/background?

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Background

I don’t think I’m alone in admitting that I am not fluent in Greek. Yet, those who have studied Greek tell me that it is incredibly useful in revealing subtle shades of meaning. For example, I recently learned that one original Greek word has been variously translated in English as ‘belief’, ‘trust’, or ‘faith’ across the New Testament.

It makes me wonder how often I load assumptions into particular English words that weren’t even part of Paul’s original letters.

I will admit that I did not seek to read or understand the full Greek for 1 Corinthians 10:13, but a Greek-speaking friend tells me that the original Greek root word used for temptation/tempted was consistent throughout this verse.

In English that this has been translated as “tempted” or “tested,” depending on the translation.

If, like me, you are not a Greek speaker, then an easier starting point is to compare a few different English translations. Looking for variations and similarities in key words will help us begin to see some of those subtle differences. Who knows, it may even inspire a desire to study Greek!

In this verse, I became curious about the phrases “beyond what you can bear,” “a way out,” and “endure it”. There were subtle differences between various translations and I am challenged to spend some more time with my Greek-speaking friends to look at it in more depth.

Listening To The Text

Are there any words I don’t understand? What am I hearing? What challenges me?

Now that I’ve done a bit of background thinking, I can begin to look at the text for what it is saying to me today.

Having acknowledged that this letter was written in a specific time and place, I am now free to listen to what it

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is saying to me in my specific time and place. We believe that Scripture is always current, so Paul’s letters are not intended to just be read for historical interest!

As I sit with this verse, the loudest voice I hear is the assurance of a God who is faithful. A God who has shown himself faithful throughout the entirety of human history, and a God who will continue to be faithful in my own life. I am also encouraged by the promise of a “way out” that means I am not bound to give in to temptation and continually fail in my endeavours to follow Jesus.

Strangely, I am even encouraged by the phrase “when you are tempted”—implying that I will be tempted, and that this is okay. This verse grounds me firmly in the wider human experience: I will be tempted. We all are.

But God is faithful. I am not doomed to failure in the face of temptation.

Now, I could have supposed a lot (or all!) of that on a first, isolated reading. But, with a wider reading of context and an understanding of Paul’s own history, I also see: I will be tempted—this is a foregone conclusion, and has happened throughout history from Adam and Eve, David and Bathsheba, Jesus in the wilderness, the early churches who received Paul’s letters.

We all are—just as I have read in Scripture, I understand that I am in good company.

But God is faithful—Scripture is woven together with the ongoing narrative of a faithful God! Ask the Israelites when they were led from Egypt, see what Paul has to say after his conversion, read the promises of a New Jerusalem in Revelation.

I am not doomed to failure—God is compassionate in providing a way out. He is also compassionate in providing a way back. I see this in Saul/Paul, Peter after his denial of Jesus, Adam and Eve after being expelled from Eden, Jonah in the belly of a fish, Joseph in Potiphar’s house…

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Testing My Conclusion

What does this passage say about God? Is it consistent with the overarching narrative of Scripture?

Once I’ve gathered my thoughts into some kind of coherence, I check where I have landed. Scripture tells the story of God and us, and throughout the narrative, similar themes continue to emerge in keeping with God’s character.

For example, if I read “he will not let you be tempted…” in isolation, then I am going to be sorely disappointed when I look at the empty chocolate wrapper on my desk and admit I ate the whole thing while writing this article!

If I know nothing else of God’s character and ignore the context of these words, then I am going to expect that God should be intercepting every unhealthy or damaging thought before it enters my mind. I may even begin to doubt God’s power or influence in my life.

Yet, the narrative of Scripture is rich with people who have given in to temptation… and Scripture speaks more of a God who forgives and redeems, rather than a God who intervenes regularly to stop his people engaging with the full human experience of life (including temptation).

As a letter from Paul, 1 Corinthians is full of his own testimony to God within his own life. Scripture is a collection of testimonies about God and humanity. Through the testimony of others, we build our own understanding of God and His character, and we process our own experiences through this lens. Verses that were previously just a series of disconnected principles or ideas can actually be heard and understood in the context of a bigger story. Sometimes this context might even challenge us to change our views on God, or our place in the world.

Scripture always speaks. What I hear may be different to what you hear but, if we are listening openly and honestly, what we both hear will always be consistent with God’s character and humanity’s story in relationship with God. ●

Writer Joshua Alexander

The small group, for many if not most churches, is a vital and unique setting utilised to foster community and Bible engagement. This space may come across as particularly unique and foreign to some young people whose experience of dialogue is transitioning more and more into an online or social media environment. Now more than ever we need effective small groups and Bible studies that engage young people at a deeper and more explorative level. The question then, is how? How do we create small group spaces that engage young people in conversation with God’s word, with one another and with themselves in such a way that has significant power to build and sustain faith?

The following reflections in no way represent an exhaustive list and I like many others am still on a journey seeking to discern Godly wisdom.

Nevertheless, I am blessed to have had wise voices speak into this topic that I in turn can pass to you. I hope this might inspire and empower the leading of effective small groups in this challenging age of scepticism and rapidly shifting culture.

The Art Of The Closed Question

You may have heard the common mantra, ‘Do not ask closed questions’—that is to say, “yes” or “no” questions with only one right answer. While it may be a very good rule of thumb to ask more open and though-provoking questions, to dismiss the closed question entirely is to lose a powerful tool in a leader’s arsenal. A well timed closed question can be the perfect jump starter for an internal processer to begin to express their thoughts aloud. For example, consider the following situation: “Why do you think the Jewish religious leaders found Jesus’ ministry so confronting?”

…*crickets chirp*… (note, silence is okay! Give people time to think, there is no need to rush. You can also preface and name silent moments so they aren’t themselves a distraction) …*vacant expressions continue*…

Here is the when a closed question can really break the ice.

“Okay, so did Jesus only hang around with Pharisees and teachers of the law?” to which the group hopefully replies, “No.” “Okay, so what sort of people did Jesus welcome and spend time with?”

And we are off and running. Closed and rhetorical questions can certainly be helpful especially in a group that is not predisposed to sharing exploratively with other group members. A crucial point to remember however is that once there is a response to the closed question there is always a more open follow up.

Follow-Up And Feedback

One of the reasons small groups can be so effective is their ability not only to pass on information but to wrestle with and digest that information in peer-to-peer dialogue.

Therefore, follow-ups and feedback are vital. When someone responds with an insight, question, or rebuke it is possible to use that as a platform to build further conversation.

Follow up with a further question, one that probes the young person’s view a bit more. Of course, this is to be done with gentleness and respect, but work with what has been said and try to unpack it further. Involve the whole group by asking for feedback. “What do others think about what Kate has just said?” If you don’t get a response, consider a

more closed question—“Do you agree with Kate?” and “Why or why not?” Small groups are great because they are small groups. Let us not fail to take full advantage of that format.

Context, Context, Context

YVQ | Issue 17 | Spring 2017

Faith Building Small Groups

The Bible is a piece of ancient literature. It was written in time and space by human beings. It did not descend from the clouds in English to your local Christian book store.

This is not to say one word against the divine inspiration and inerrancy of scripture but if we are to teach the Bible we need to understand what the Bible is. The Bible is ancient Jewish literature containing a variety of languages, literary styles, and literary devices. Combine that with the variety of individuals that may be present at your small group and context becomes extremely important. We need to consider in what sort of world the Bible was written, have some basic understanding of who the people of Israel were, and where Jesus of Nazareth fits into everything. Bible studies with young people cannot be presumptuous, part of being a leader is providing some background context of how what we are sitting down to read together fits into the broader Biblical narrative.

The study of the text can then move to meaning and teaching for us today as the Holy Spirit so powerfully works through scripture to speak into every aspect of our lives.

We believe the Bible is a vital revelation of God. It is a living, vibrant and challenging word that has, and will, continue to change lives. Let’s read wide, listen deep and do the best we can to make space for young people to really wrestle and engage with scripture and their peers as we see the Kingdom of God manifest in young people and our neighbourhoods. ●

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My Divine Double Writer Craig Brown Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.

Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.

Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God. Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

— Matthew 5:3-10 (NIV)

I don’t know about you, but I am still a sucker for a bookshop. I still wander in, run my hands along the spines of the books, pick them up, smell them. Surprisingly, I’ve never been asked to leave a bookshop—most employees there sense an easy sale, I suspect! I also don’t tend to discriminate between books—it might be a book I’ve never read, or an edition of Austen, Murakami, or Marquez that I’ve not seen.

I know my genres. I know my authors. I’ve been taught well over the years and like to think that I have read widely—although there is a mountain of books I’ve yet to even crack the spine on. I guess I would say I am literate. I make time to read, which explains why I’m reading The Lord of the Rings for about the twentieth time. Having said that I am literate, of course, I need to recognise that there are vast areas of literature that I am illiterate in, and where I need guidance. I also recognise that, as I crack Tolkien open yet again, his text speaks differently to me today than when I read it thirty-five years ago. To be honest, that’s why I read Tolkien when I start new journeys in life—his heroic quest narrative has so much light and shade for the different moments of life. I often place myself there, sometimes as Merry or Frodo or, when I’m feeling aspirational, as Aragorn.

This is not an article, though, on the redemptive narrative of Tolkien. It is about how I read a text that I am both literate and illiterate in, and how that text reads me. That text, of course, is the Bible. There are parts I am familiar with, and parts that are still mysterious to me. There are parts I gravitate to when the journey gets challenging.

And then—as usual—there is me. There are parts of me I am familiar with, and parts that still remain a mystery despite being firmly ensconced in middle age.

A passage like the Beatitudes (Matthew 5:3-10) is a dangerous passage, and needs to be read carefully. It is dangerous in part because it is so familiar, but also because it has this habit of turning our perceptions upside down.

If we can read it and not be challenged by it, then I have to suggest something: We’re reading it like fiction. We’re reading it like we’re in control. We’re reading it to consume.

The German martyr, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, advocates for reading the Bible in this fashion: “I do not want to give up this strange Word of God at any point… Any other place outside the Bible has become too uncertain for me.

I fear that I will only encounter some divine double of myself there.”¹ This is a significant quote, but I disagree with Bonhoeffer at this point—which is bold, I know. Give a man a Masters and he thinks he can argue with martyrs! I think in the Word of God I am still more than capable of encountering “some divine double of myself there,” even more so than outside of the Bible. Yes, I need to place myself in the Bible as I read it, not as the master of the narrative but as one upon whom the narrative impacts.

As I engage with the Bible, the living Word of God, I can for once put myself at the centre without feeling any guilt. Of course, this seems counterintuitive. Think about it—if your first questions of the text are about other people, your youth or young adult ministry, your small group, your school or your church, you are bypassing the Bible speaking directly to you and are positioning yourself as some objective mouthpiece to others.

We have become the divine double of ourselves when we do that consistently.

¹ Bonhoeffer, Dietrich (1986) Meditating on the Word, Cowley Publications, Cambridge, p37

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What is this strange Word of God directly saying to me?

And if it is not speaking to me, how can I authentically speak it to others, let alone live it out?

That sounds self-centred, right? Narcissistic? Selfabsorbed? These are adjectives that I am reasonably well acquainted with. But in this instance, it is perfectly okay for your ‘devotional’ reading to be all about you. It has to be. If I place myself in the text, then the text can work on me, expose my flaws, break down my image of myself so I am looking more and more to Jesus to be more and more like Jesus. On a more positive note, placing myself in the text means I am reminded of the immanence of Jesus and his desire to help me be more like him. I need to let the text read and study me, first and foremost, before I read and study it.

Let’s turn back to the Beatitudes. For many of us, the Beatitudes are a familiar path. We know their rhythm and their cadence. As I approach them, I can approach them as a knowing teacher or an eager student.

“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.” (Matt 5:8) Yeah, I could whip up a pretty decent sermon on that verse. That’s tempting, of course, but I need to place myself in the text if it is going to shape me.

Am I pure of heart? What’s stopping me seeing God? Where do I see God? Even if I am not totally pure, I still see glimpses of God—what does this say about his grace?

You can see how these questions—which avoid Greek syntax, ‘dubious’ English translation questions, and deferring to our favourite theologians—can lead us into a personal encounter with Jesus via the text (more on that later) that can bear much character formation. A warning here— make sure that not all your questions dwell on the negative. The first two questions can lead to us to sins we need to confess, wrongs that need to be made right… but the next two lead us to the reality that even though we are not perfect, we encounter God. He is greater than our flaws.

These questions also slow me down. It means that I can chew over a verse or two, and digest it rather than ‘binge read’ a passage or a chapter. The Beatitudes are a group of verses that we can be tempted to rush through due to their familiarity but, if I slow myself down, if I trust that this is the Word that can speak from its familiar words into my shifting context, then I give myself the best chance of hearing afresh.

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Good grief, that’s dangerous. So many church leaders over so many years have forgotten to ask how the Bible is speaking to them, as in their quiet or devotional times they open the text and find a three-point sermon or a youth group devotional—and, hey, that can happen.

But if that becomes your purpose or your pattern… then you need to ask these sorts of questions:

Questions that are not entirely helpful are the hypotheticals—those ‘ethical hypotheticals’ that seek to establish and cross boundaries. This time of focusing on yourself and your relationship with God is not the time for the sort of questions that ask, “if the meek inherit the earth, does that mean I have to be meek all the time?

What if someone attacks my child—should I be meek then?” There is a time and place for these questions, I just wouldn’t suggest that we allow it to fill our heads whenever we sit down to focus on what God is trying to say to us. This is not anti-intellectualism. This is simply avoiding questions that serve as buffers to character formation. A better question to ask is, “how can I best be meek today?”

Some generic questions as I approach the text can also have the impact of slowing me down. Who was listening to this passage? What was going on for them? What had just happened? What comes next? How would I respond in their shoes? How should I respond now?

These questions slow us down, and help us try and find a connection between the strange word of God and me, the strange creation of God. True, these questions are also helpful in sermon or Bible study presentation. The idea, here, however, is to immerse ourselves in the text, to imagine ourselves hearing the words of Jesus—maybe for the first time, but certainly as he speaks into our life today.

The Bible As A Menu

“Our primary purpose for meditating on the Bible should be to meet Jesus, to hear his voice, and to see him more clearly that we might love him more.”

—Jack Deere, Surprised by the Voice of God. You see, Biblical literacy is good. Knowledge about the Bible is helpful. Asking questions of the text is also a good thing. If our devotional life and our spiritual journey ends at the Bible though, it’s incomplete. The Bible’s purpose is to give us a sure foundation on which to understand Jesus. Jack Deere—a long way off in theology to

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Bonhoeffer, I’ll admit—creates a wonderful analogy of the Bible as a menu. A menu is good as a guide, but if that is all it does, if we never use it to access a meal, then it hasn’t really helped us. We’ve simply become more knowledgeable about that which we have never experienced. It’s a good concept to wrestle with, especially as we look at the Beatitudes as a guiding text.

“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.” (Matt 5:6) We are to hunger and thirst not for knowledge, but for righteousness. And righteousness is out of our league unless we have Jesus and lean upon Jesus’ love, grace, and forgiveness. It’s not a complicated distinction, but too often we can observe people who are actively hungering and thirsting for knowledge that does not lead them into a deeper walk with Jesus. Think of some of the Facebook debates that we’ve been involved in… people delve into branches of knowledge with a passion to prove a point. Some of that is even Biblical knowledge.

However, knowing our Bible back-to-front is a good and useful attribute only if it introduces us to Jesus. It is easy to become a Bibliophile in place of loving Jesus. We can narrow our view down to words on paper that we can master, rather than the Word of the universe, whose aim is to always stretch and transform us.

If I let it.

How have I engaged with this passage in ways that help me see Jesus more clearly? To love him more? To express his presence in my life more?

This Bible is a stepping-stone to transformation. Please don’t read that as a daily invitation to beat yourself up, but as a daily invitation to come before the grace of Jesus and see yourself as a work of art that is not yet finished.

The word and the Word have never been about the status quo, in society and most especially in us. If we are willing to meet Jesus through the pages of our Bible, then anything is possible.

These are the tough questions. To be honest with you, I’ve come off a pretty people intensive stretch and I am tired. The danger there is that I whip open my lectionary (I’ve been in a lectionary phase for a while now) and just read; a little Old Testament here, a little Gospel there, some letters or a psalm or a proverb there. The three questions that I have listed above are a deep and significant challenge to me today. When you couple those questions with the Beatitudes, there are some powerful issues I need to wrestle with.

For example, am I pure of heart? Is my focus on Jesus through my reading, or is it on fulfilling an obligation or gaining knowledge?

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Have I allowed the Scripture to read and study me, to examine my heart in ways that perhaps I don’t want it to? Am I meek? Am I merciful? Am I a peacemaker?

One of the beauties of lectionary reading is that I am not in control. I am not choosing my devotional text for the day, and I am being stretched into parts of the Bible that I would not necessarily choose or am overly familiar with, and for a time period that I might not choose. This means my heart can—theoretically—get examined afresh on a daily basis. Ambushed by grace, if you like.

I guess the question I want to conclude with is this one: Am I open to being transformed today?

As I open the pages of the Bible, I need to be prepared to put myself in the posture of the one who needs transformation. As I said earlier, this devotional time that we set aside—whenever—is primarily about us. I am the one that is in need of transformation. I am the one that the Beatitudes are directed to in this moment, and I need to make a decision about whether I will try and control the text or whether I will let the text introduce me afresh to Jesus, my Lord, who daily, hourly, seeks to transform me into a better image of himself and to help me love him more. To create in me a ‘divine double’ of himself.

That is an encouraging reason to open up the Bible and engage with it. Maybe through that, a more divine ‘me’ will emerge, who is more deeply connected to and better resembles Jesus. ●

Writer Mitchell Salmon

Practical theology time. The eternal question: “Why should I care?”

is to emulate Christ and “live as Jesus did” (1 John 2:6, NIV).

I myself am clear on why I read the Bible. I understand the Bible and its role in my life, the impact the text has had and continues to have, and how it shapes my expression of faith in all contexts—the work is far from done, the dialogue continues, but I get it.

When we begin to know Jesus—and to continue to grow in our ongoing revelation of him—we know God to the same capacity. Jesus says, in John’s Gospel, “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father,” (14:9), and Paul writes in Colossians, “The Son is the image of the invisible God” (1:15) and in Philippians that Jesus is “in very nature God” (2:6).

Gregory A. Boyd, in Crucifixion of the Warrior God1, goes further to put forward that God is revealed most clearly not only in Christ but specifically in the crucified Christ who puts off his perfect divinity (Philippians 2:6) and enters into solidarity with humanity (John 1:14), making himself vulnerable to the point that humanity is able to enact its sinfulness on its own Creator… and, in constant other-oriented, enemy-embracing love, prays forgiveness for the people who carried out his murder (Luke 23:34).

But as leaders with a particular missiological focus—that is, with the goal to share the Good News with young people and their families— we have to ask ourselves “What does this mean for the people around me—the energetic young child, the transitioning tween, a self-doubting teen, their time poor parents?” Why should a 14 year old read the Bible?

Why indeed? I know why I continue to read the Bible, but I’m not 14— haven’t been for a long time—I’m not a new Christian, and I’m not someone who balks at the idea of slogging through Animal Farm in high school English. Why should they care?

What follows in this article is not so much an answer as it is a portrait of what the Bible offers a 14 year old, as it offers all of us, and ultimately an encouragement that maybe there is a living text that is just as important for a young person as the text on a page.

Christology

Broadly, our Christology is our understanding of Christ—who he is, what he is about, his nature and character. Our Christology is important, because as Christians our aim

How does that Christology influence our behaviour as we aim to “live as Jesus did”?

Our image of Christ shapes our expression of Christianity, and our image of Christ is informed by the Bible, and the stories we tell one another from the text. “All scripture is God-breathed and useful,” says Paul (2 Tim 3:16), and Jesus says, “These are the very Scriptures that testify about me.” (John 5:39) The Bible, the scriptures, reveal Christ who reveals the Father; our reading of the Bible informs our Christology which informs our expression of faith.

Community

Christology is never, and should never be, done in isolation; rather Christology is shaped in dialogue with the Biblical text, and faith communities and traditions which have histories and lived experiences. Christology revealed by the same texts looks different in suburban Melbourne than it does in rural Tasmania than it does in a historically Black community in America than it does in the First Nations in Australia. In the same way that any of us emphasise different parts of ourselves when we are in different situations, Jesus—through the Spirit in dialogue with the text and the reader—emphasises different parts of himself in different community contexts, while maintaining the same essential character.

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Text, Brick, And Mortar

And our communities form around our Christologies. Communities where Jesus emphasises his “dwelling among us” (John 1:14) may express their faith in an embedded way in the neighbourhood, and attract participation from people whose Christology emphasises the deity incarnate in the everyday; in communities where oppression and systemic violence are rife Jesus may emphasise his manifesto to break chains and “set the oppressed free” (Luke 4:18), and so communities will form shaped by this liberating Christology. Much like Paul “became like a Jew” to the Jews, like a Gentile to the Gentiles, and like the “weak” to the weak (1 Corinthians 9:20-22), Jesus—the Heavenly Missionary, to borrow from Boyd— emphasises different passions of his to find the Good News that resonates with his location.

Boyd, Gregory A. (2017), The Crucifixion of the Warrior God: Volumes 1 & 2, Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress. See chs. 4 & 5.

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We are the Body of Christ (1 Corinthians 12:27), and Christ continues to be incarnate in the world through us as we orient ourselves and our actions towards him as a community reading and being read by scripture, illuminated by the Spirit, revealing God. Community Christologies are formed in dialogue with members of the body, and each of us shapes the image of Christ held by each of our communities. Dialoguing together with the text allows each of us to shape the overall body of our community into a Christ-like shape, emphasising Christ’s passions in different seasons as led by the Spirit so that we, as missionaries, can find the resonant points in our lived experiences where the Gospel is truly Good News. We—Western Christians—easily slip into the trap of reading the text to find The One Correct Answer (God, forgive me for all the times I have done this…) when in actuality God is revealed and glorified in our wrestling together—the act of dialogue is the act of worship (to the extent that such things remain Christlike), not to arrive at The One Correct Answer but to plumb the depths of the divine mystery who loves us.

Identity

As we form our image of Christ—our Christology—we are in turn formed as individuals. And as we participate in the shaping of communities, our communities in turn participate in shaping us.

As with the identities of communities, our identities are not ‘formless and void’ when we come to the text, ready to take on the impression of Christ as revealed in ink and paper; we are living beings that are shaped— moulded, dinged, pressed, stretched—by circumstance, background, family, class, gender, ethnicity, country, sexuality… there is no imaginarily-pristinely-average person who reads the text ‘as is’ without layering and dialoguing with lived experience, shaped by everything it means to exist in time and space. Nor should there be; Jesus dwells with us in incarnation, not as ethereal but as embodied.

As we read the text, we dialogue with God through Christ in the text, and also through the Spirit, and find him in our lived experience—or find his perceived absence and ask the natural questions. In dialogue with God we bump ideas off one another, see him and ourselves in new ways, challenge our conceptions. Sometimes parts of ourselves are knocked away, or re-shaped, in dialogue;

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other parts are solidified and strengthened. Sometimes we find new parts of God we did not know existed, or remove pieces of our portrait of God that distorted or obscured him—and wonder who put them there (was it me? Or someone in my life?) and marvel at a God who consented to wear the distortion, to allow himself to be seen and experienced wrongly for a time so that this dialogue could continue (see Boyd, ch. 13).

Our communities are key in our identity formation— communities of homes, of churches, of schools, of interest groups; communities we inhabit together in physical space or communities we inhabit through other means.

Identity is formed in feedback from communities: I act this way and receive that feedback, and so adjust my acting in order to move towards feedback I desire, and then act again². Christian communities will form identities in the members of their body in line with Christology informed by their dialogical reading of the text; and individuals will contribute to the overall identity of the community, forming and nurturing as they are formed and nurtured, based on their understanding of Christ as revealed through community and text.

Mission

In our journey to “live as Jesus did” (1 John 2:6), our emulation of Jesus will naturally carry us outside our normal context to participate in God’s reconciling plan for the world—Jesus left his normal context of his divinity and immediate relationship with the Father and the Spirit and endured separation and death (not to mention the day-to-day realities of maintaining a body). We should expect to step outside the walls of our church— and if we find that we don’t, we should be alerted that something is amiss…

As we incarnate Christ in the Body in interaction with our hurting world that groans in pain (Romans 8:22), awaiting something new, we impact the world and are in turn impacted. We take our Christology with us out into the world where it is tested in the lived experience of incarnate mission—we hold that Christ is this, but our lived experience shows something different… Spirit-led mission shapes our Christology as we abandon conceptions of Christ that are poor representations and are led, through the Spirit, in dialogue with our community and our individual lived experience and the text, to a clearer picture of Christ who shapes our communities, our selves, and our mission.

Borrowed from a discussion led by Rowan Lewis at NYMC 2017, Identity, Faith, and Adolesence.

The Living Word

Does it all sound confusing? Self-referential? Messy?

That’s the idea. It isn’t a cycle, or a path from text to mission; it’s a pile of mutuality and dialogue, an ecosystem of formation and re-formation and mutual participation between Christology, community, identity, and mission.

It’s rarely conscious, but more of a natural outworking of human beings in relationship and dialogue with God. And the Bible text is woven through it all, an inexorable part of everything. The Bible is cornerstone and capstone and the grit between the bricks for its capacity to reveal Christ.

Here’s the kicker, though: a young person will almost certainly not encounter God for the first time in the Bible. They will encounter him in you, in your community, in the Christians—in the Body—they encounter in their life.

The Bible is not a static text, despite how we most often encounter it in a form of ink on paper or pixels on screen—we are read even as we read. The text dialogues with our world, our culture, and our lived experiences—re-shaping and re-emphasising itself as it facilitates a back and forth between the reader and God, the Heavenly Missionary revealing himself gradually— and allowing himself to be acted upon—with the ultimate goal of perfect revelation. And the text dialogues with the world through us. It is a Living Word that we embody, shaped by our Christology, our community, our

identity, and our mission; and it is this embodied Living Word that a 14 year old will first encounter—a text that lives and breathes and laughs and cries, because it’s you.

I deeply love the Bible—the book, the paper and ink— and never want to be without it. It holds an amazing depth, a tantalising invitation to what will be revealed next… but a page is not alive, paper and ink do not breathe. In a miracle of incarnation—of transubstantiation, if I may be cheeky towards our Catholic siblings— Christ is found in the text and dwells with us and in us, and it is in the incarnation of the Spirit in us, of Christ in the Body, that the Bible transcends the realities of its physical form and takes on something unique in all the created world.

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The Christ we find in the text sends us into the world, critiques the world and offers a better alternative with us and through us, and dwells among us—incarnate in the Body—as we partner with God in the redemptive work of the Gospel and find the resonance between the lived experience of the people around us, our communities, our selves, and our God where the Good News breaks through and God is at work. Interaction with the real world—with dirt and pavement and hurt and joy— shapes our ideas of Jesus, and in the text we find Jesus shaping the world in return; we see Jesus respond to pain, to oppression, to joy and parties, to generational trauma… and we continue to dialogue with Christ who does all these things (and many more) now, and model ourselves on him, learning from his example—‘What Did Jesus Do?’ into ‘What Would Jesus Do?’—as we aim to live as he did.

A 14 year old may not always care about the book in front of them, but they care about the Bible as lived in you… and we care about the Bible as lived in them— participation in the text strengthens participation in the community, and participation in mission, and the setting of strong foundations of identity. If young people are not engaged as part of the dialogue, the ecosystem of reading and being read, then our own reading and the reading of our communities, and the mission of the Universal Church, suffers. We don’t hand young people the text and a suite of tools to pull it apart in search of God so that one day they will become conversation partners in the ongoing Christological discussions of the Universal Church; we offer them the text so that they can be a part of these conversations now.

Christ as revealed to a 6 year old, Christ as revealed to 14 year old, Christ as revealed to a 60 year old… all Christ, all the Heavenly Missionary at work, with him spurring us on to greater depth and breadth of community, stronger identity, and mission that changes the world for the better. ●

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Youth Vision Vic/Tas exists to assist and empower ministries that are targeted towards children and families, youth, and young adults, to make sure they and their leaders are taken care of, and to help their communities as they partner with God to bring his Kingdom.

We desire to see people of all ages becoming mature disciples of Christ who go on to seek the Kingdom for their location and in doing so spill out into the world, making positive changes in the minds and hearts of our country and our planet.

We provide • Mentoring and encouragement for leaders • Training in ministry and safety for teams • Resources for engaging young people with God • Connections across churches for mutual support Get in touch with us and let us know how we can partner with you to help your ministries flourish.

churchesofchrist.org.au/youthvision yv@churchesofchrist.org.au 03 9488 8800