Mount Sinai/Horeb at sunrise

It can sometimes be hard to tell when one is being exceptionally brave or exceptionally foolish. And most of the time, if we are the ones about to be either, we don’t really know until we reach the end of whatever it is we are about to be brave or stupid about. Usually, that knowledge comes in hindsight; success = bravery; failure = stupidity. That’s kind of a bum rap for us poor humans, I think.

Just the other day in my “Exploring the Bible” class, I was teaching on the early chapters in Exodus, some of my favorite chapters in all the Hebrew scriptures. I catch something new and different every time I look at this story; what struck me this time was the promise given to Moses at the burning bush. Moses is told that God will bring the Hebrew people out of bondage in Egypt to the “good and broad land” that God had promised to Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, ages before. Then God tells Moses that actually, Moses is the one who is going to do the dirty work–which provokes a startled “Why me?! And whom shall I say is calling?!” from Moses (Exodus 3:6-11).

What is most interesting to me at the moment is the “sign” that God gives Moses–the “litmus test” to prove that this is all actually going to pan out. It comes in Exodus 3:12; “I will be with you and this shall be the sign that it is I who sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall worship God on this mountain.”

After the showdown with Pharaoh. After harder labor forced on the Hebrews than they have ever endured before. After everybody loses hope. After the plagues. After the Red Sea. After the Song of the Sea. After Moses and Aaron risk their necks for a God nobody’s heard of. THEN God will provide confirmation for reluctant Moses that, actually, this was a good idea. I feel for Moses, I really do. And the sign came true. So I guess he was pretty brave after all.

And one thing’s for sure; if you’re willing to walk the line, you’ll end up with one exciting story…

Here’s what Amazon.com has to say about it:

Although major New Testament figures–Jesus and Paul, Peter and James, Jesus’ mother Mary and Mary Magdalene–were Jews, living in a culture steeped in Jewish history, beliefs, and practices, there has never been an edition of the New Testament that addresses its Jewish background and the culture from which it grew–until now. In The Jewish Annotated New Testament, eminent experts under the general editorship of Amy-Jill Levine and Marc Z. Brettler put these writings back into the context of their original authors and audiences. And they explain how these writings have affected the relations of Jews and Christians over the past two thousand years.

Incidentally, I got to hear Dr. Levine speak back at at that annual meeting about “What’s New in Biblical Studies;” a session designed particularly to throw bones out to eager, desperate research students like myself. Never did I imagine I would let out unseemly guffaws in a stuffy biblical studies session in much the same way that one would at Comedy Night at the Improv. But I did. She is hilariously funny, in a “Did she really say that?!” kind of way.

If you are interested in the development of Judaism, in the culture surrounding the New Testament, and in contemporary Jewish understandings of the early Christian texts preserved in the New Testament, you might want to give this one a look.

How can we dare to question the Bible; isn’t that the same as questioning God? I emphatically answer in the negative. I value and hold the Bible in high regard as the sacred scriptures of my faith. But I do not worship the Bible. I worship the God to whom it bears witness.

I just came across this article, in which Dr. Richard T. Hughes grapples with the tension between belief and skepticism in the Christian scholar. What most resonated with me out of it was this quote, by Miguel de Unamuno:

[T]hose who believe they believe in God, but without passion in the heart, without anguish of mind, without uncertainty, without doubt, and even at times without despair, believe only in the idea of God, and not in God himself.

I have often said; without doubt faith would be unnecessary. Spiritual health lives, I think, right smack in the middle between faith and doubt, where we recognize moment by moment that we would never survive without God. That’s why I believe my scholarship is not a threat to my faith–it is one of the greatest gifts I have ever received.

Some are not so fortunate. I just came across the wrenching story of a young woman named Melanie from South Africa, who was diagnosed at 13 with ARVD, after a frightening episode at birth that then lay dormant until her teen years. I have embedded the first Youtube installment here; you can click on each successive one to view her incredible story of courage and resilience; and her family’s as well.

*A word to the squeamish or those with little ones in the room: there is some graphic operating room footage a few episodes in…

Catherine Crouch

I am the furthest thing from a scientist. I am quite happy in the humanities. That’s why I was surprised to find myself identifying deeply with some of the sentiments in this article, written by Andy Crouch. In it, Crouch describes his wife Catherine, an experimental physicist (that means about as much to me as “Hebrew Bible scholar” means to most people); not only her work, but her personhood, her vocation, her struggles and joys. Crouch sensitively portrays her journey in the academic and scientific spheres. And I was surprised at how much commonality I found between her journey and my own.

Additionally, I was struck by Crouch’s gentle yet pointed critique of the apparent inability of most of the sermons or church activities they attend to minister deeply to his wife particularly–to speak into the unique challenges she faces on a day-to-day basis. And Crouch suggests that it’s not because of her esoteric line of work; this is true of most people:

“Does the gospel really have nothing to say to our sense of wonder and delight in the world? Is it silent on how to manage competition and risk? Does it give us no guidance on the qualities that make for real, fruitful collaboration? To the contrary, all these are the soil where discipleship can grow, where grace can be discovered, and where real faith can be nourished. What other opportunities are we missing to name the ways that every vocation in our congregation points us toward, and indeed requires, the death to self and trust in God that are the essence of trust in Jesus?”

I can imagine that it must be very difficult for pastors, who are under constant pressure to deliver relevant, impactful messages every week to people with very different day-to-day challenges and situations. There must be the constant temptation to stay in the safe, bland territory of generalities; the mushy, easily digestible self-help sermon diet that so often becomes the default position. But is there a danger in becoming too abstract; too metaphorical? Crouch goes on to say:

Many people who end up in academic vocations are comfortable with abstraction. There is real intellectual leverage that can be gained by abstracting away from particular persons to talk about, for example, “personality”; to abstract away from a set of methods, practices, discoveries, and theories to talk about “science”; to abstract away from a set of beliefs and rituals to talk about “religion.” Yet ministry is one human vocation that dare not be abstract. The most fruitful ministry always is engaged with very concrete communities and persons.

Have a look at the article yourself. Think about the amount of time we Christians tend to spend defending abstract arguments, staking out turf, battling with competing ideologies. How many opportunities are we missing; opportunities to discover the infinite mysteries in one another? How much time are we wasting? It’s something to think about.

If there is one critique I have of this article, it is that Crouch perhaps too quickly sets the academic worlds of science and theology at odds with one another–in fact, I found myself surprised at how much the world he describes and the world I inhabit are not altogether that different. And perhaps in a way, that supports his ultimate point…

“Dear Student: I Don’t Lie Awake at Night Thinking of Ways to Ruin Your Life”

In my line of work, I spend a lot of time “in my head.” I dissect ancient texts, ponder esoteric theories, formulate intellectual arguments. A lot of it is very abstract. I love it. But on occasion, it is helpful to come home to a dirty little bottom that needs wiping.

I have a son who is four and a half. Of course we have the potty training thing down by now, but you know, some things take time to learn. I am still called upon on occasion to offer assistance. But not as much anymore. And I’m beginning to see how I’m going to miss that. As he grows older and becomes more self-sufficient, I’ll become less necessary, on a moment-to-moment basis. That’s as it should be. But I’ll need to find other things to ground me; things that need cleaning or folding, quotidian tasks that get me blessedly out of the world of ideas for a little while.

What about you? What brings you back to reality?

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