Evening all.
A few things today. Firstly – Bible reading is going well. Spoke to a friend of mine about Old Testament stuff and he mentioned the fact that the reason to read a lot of the Old Testament is actually so you know what bits of the Old Testament really don’t matter all that much… and there are quite a few things in the section I’ve been reading that fall into that category. Now – I am sure a lot of people will shoot me down for saying this but I think there are far more important things than how many were in the family of Reuben at a certain point in history.
Having said that there are a lot of important things in there too. Like how God is pretty powerful and it’s not wise to rub him up the wrong way (I just checked the biblical accuracy of that statement with Sian and she said it may be a bit of a understatement but it’s ok…) Also a lot of the ‘fine detail’ is kind of a glimpse into how to live as a community. Like the going to war thing, and returning stuff to people if you borrow it, and the whole gleaning thing, and lots more. It’s all good stuff.
Moving on. Are you with me?
I’ve read a couple of other things recently that I wanted to mention. The first (in fact both) come from a book called “Exiles: Living Missionally in a Post-Christian Culture” by Michael Frost. He’s Australian. I think. But the book is quite American. I’m enjoying it but this paragraph struck me as amusing though:
I don’t think it’s too simplistic to conclude that reality TV works because it offers a fragmented and disconnected Western audience the opportunity to vicariously enter into a pseudo-community via the television or the radio.
It has to be said that there is nothing simplistic about that. Are you with me?
The other thing though is a bit more serious. Frost writes this:
Why are we obsessed with the singular event rather than seeking the rhythm of a community churching together?
It is a question I keep asking at the moment. A question about community and a question about church. A question about why the two things so often, for me, feel so far apart… church is so often about an event (or a few events during the week) and so often not about the way that we live our lives together. I’m going to come up with some answers soon…
Finally – I just want to say – are you with me? It’s weird. At first I thought it was only Rob Bell who said it all the time. I am a bit of a fan of Rob Bell and often listen to his teaching when driving to school. But he asks “Are you with me?” quite often. I remember one talk he gave and the whole way through I was just thinking “No Rob, I don’t have a clue what you’re talking about” and he kept asking me if I was with him. But then Mars Hill got a new teaching pastor – called Shane Hipps or something like that… and he started doing it so I thought it was a Mars Hill thing but then one of our lecturers at School of Ministry started saying it too… I guess it’s like their version of me saying “erm” all the time.
So that’s me – I’m jumping on the bandwagon – next time I preach I’m going to try it.
Are you with me?
Andy Hoyland
Sort of – I think
You need to read Goldingay’s “Models for the Interpretation of Scripture” to see the place of the history stuff – and my forthcoming book “Faith Stories” (if Continuum bight!)which tries to connext the ‘history’ with the ‘faithstory’.
Maybe Jesus said “Are you with me” quite a lot – but not, er, obsessively, if you’re with me…
Wise words. Do we read the same books, or what? Frost is going to start wanting royalties – and I haven’t even read the book…. Incidentally, have you read that really thick one that’s divided up into sixty-odd smaller ones? It’s pretty good….
I found Bell’s book ‘Jesus wants to save Christians’ offered a good (i.e understandable) overview of why the Old Testament is relevant to us. It really helped to put all those books like Isaiah into context, all those references to sacrifices and ‘woe’ for other nations….
I just re-read the complex quote from Frost above, and now that I understand it, I do agree. It challenged me to consider whether I attempt to ‘do’ community vicariously. Sometimes I think I do – I like to think I’m living this vision of community just because I talk about it and listen to, or read books by, other who do too. I’d rather be part of a real one. So yes, I suppose I am with you. Let’s come up with some answers.