2008: Year in Review

Two Thousand Eight! It is coming to a close. It has been one heck of a year. What can I say about it...

Well, first, it began in the pits of hell. An 18 year relationship ended like a supernova in the night sky. That sort of set the tone for the rest of the year. With many apologies to many folks 2008 when I learned to cry and cuss. I learned that many folks, preachers in particular, have no clue what divorce is like. To say it any plainer (more accurately) would require a stronger word that some would find offensive. There is no kinder way to put it. Family like the Holts let me live with them when I had no home to live in and the Sterlings gave me a ton's and the Reminders and on I could go. Folks like Jan, Vivian, and Jeff were life savers. I found myself reading books that are not my typical genre: Suzy Brown's Radical Recovery, Dana Hood's I Will Change Your Name, Linda Nielson's Between Fathers & Daughters, Women in Midlife Crisis, Barbara & Allan Pease Why Men Don't Have a Clue & Women Always Need More Shoes and Alec Baldwin's A Promise to Ourselves: A Journey through Fatherhood and Divorce, Larry Crabb's Shattered Dreams ... to name just a few.

On to other matters. The Earth moved millions of miles as our solar system moved who knows how many miles and the galaxy moved even more. Talya and Rachael have developed into young ladies. They both played volleyball and Rachael continues with soccer. Talya sang in her talent show and Rachael was a lady in waiting in a Robin Hood play.

In spite of the beginning of the year God has provided blessings along the way. After one church dropped me from a speaking engagement because I am now stigmatized another ... in Nashville ... wanted me to come for the exact same weekend (I like the irony). I spoke at the Pepperdine Lectures (on the Struggle for the Soul of the Churches of Christ ... my friend John Mark was not able to be there) and the ACU lectures on Walking With the Spirit: The Transitions of K.C. Moser. I have plugged away at a theological biography of Moser and contributed an essay for a memorial volume in honor of Michael W. Casey.

From the pulpit we explored "New Beginnings" (which now that I go back and listen to them were less than works of art!! Honest ... but not art!) then we explored "Blessed are the Shalom Makers. The last half of the year we looked at the Living Word in the Gospel of John. And currently I am teaching "Exploring Our Roots: Snapshots on the Family Tree" which is vignettes on the Stoned-Campbell Movement.

Some other books I've enjoyed this year (some I've placed on my blog). I read through the Dead Scrolls Bible which has all the biblical texts discovered in the caves near the Dead Sea. I read Copernicus On the Revolutions of Heavenly Bodies. Tertullian's works in the Ante-Nicene Fathers. Read the Bible through twice and Psalms at least six times (including Robert Alter's new translation and volume 1 of John Goldingay's Commentary) My copy of the Prymer is falling apart. N.T. Wright's Resurrection of the Son of God was a favorite as was Surprised by Hope. Chris Wright's The Mission of God and Knowing Jesus through the Old Testament. I read a number of Missional and Emergent authors with profit. The two best preaching books I've read this year were by the same author Ellen Davis, Wondrous Depth: Preaching the Old Testament (this is a rich book) and Getting Involved with God: Rediscovering the Old Testament. I also have begun reading the Scripture and Hermeneutics Series edited by Craig Bartholomew ... excellent stuff.

Loved Iron Man and Batman. I suffered through Enchanted. I watched Babylon 5 with the girls. Twilight was ok. The Clone Wars was not quite Star Wars. And I visited the dollar movie frequently.

Palo Verde has been a great haven this year. They have been loving and patient with me and cared for my girls. They have been a gift from God. I visited my former home in Milwaukee.

I took my first "solo" vacation with a trip through southern California and the desert of AZ. It was a great experience but still not what I am used too. I made some new friends this year from all over. I lost one very important friend too. My blog had visits from 101 different countries ... some that I never heard of.

Not much to write about ... From the Tucson "International" Airport ...

Seeking Shalom,
Bobby Valentine

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Campbell & The King James Version

In our last post we noted the emergence of Campbell's Living Oracles. Though at the time it was reviled by fundamentalist preachers, especially among the Baptists, it has been viewed by scholars since in a positive light. Marion Simms classic, The Bible in America: Versions That Have Played Their Part in the Making of the Republic, makes this statement about the Living Oracles,

"Campbell was a man of scholarly attainments, and it was the unsatisfactory character of the King James Version chiefly that inspired his effort to provide a better text, and while at it he translated baptidzo as he interpreted it. The was unquestionably the best New Testament in use at the time" (p. 249).

In its day, however, it was under frequent attack outside the Stone-Campbell Movement. But in Campbell's mind the KJV had "as a whole, it has outlived its day by at least one century." Throughout the 1830s, Campbell continued to revise and improve his NT. To show the continued need for replacement he wrote a series of articles in 1835 under the heading "Mistranslations" Beginning with Genesis the Reformer takes on Gen 1.6 in the KJV: "And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters." The King's Men followed the Latin Vulgate rather than the Hebrew, according to AC, giving rise to the mockery of skeptics. The Hebrew, rakeea, properly means "the expanse or space." The rendering should be changed to "Let there be an expanse [or space or atmosphere] in the midst of the waters..." It it worth noting that the NIV reads, just as Campbell suggested, "Let there be an expanse between the waters." Another passage, one that has become a traditional favorite in the Church of Christ debate tradition, Campbell criticized in the KJV is Gen 6.14: "make thee an ark of gopher wood." This is not even a translation Campbell declared. It is simply the Hebrew term in English letters. The Hebrew gopher meant simply "cypress." God told Noah to use a broad family of cypress tress. Again it is noteworthy that the NIV agrees with Campbell: "make yourself an ark of cypress wood." Campbell carries his examination of "Mistranslations" on for sometime ...

Campbell's understanding of the nature of textual criticism and translation is illustrated in a variety of ways. In criticizing the KJV, for example, he notes that the King's Men did not recognize the "special character" of NT Greek. Due to the LXX it has "the body of Greek but the soul of Hebrew." Thus the 1611 translators often approached NT Greek as a Classical scholar would Homer or Plato. They are often "what might be literally correct" yet have "failed to give the meaning." Campbell's recognition of the Semitic dimension to the NT is remarkable for is time and that translation is more than simply word for word. But perhaps the most remarkable demonstration of his commitment is his relegation of the story of the woman caught in adultery (Jn 7.53-8.11) to a footnote. Daring indeed!

Campbell thought we should be more concerned with what the biblical writers actually said than traditional religious lingo.

"The sacred regard for the phraseology of the old version arises from the superstitious reverence for things that are old; hence it is too often the case, I fear that the professed friend of the Volume of Truth looks upon it as a relic of authority, like some quaint old Anglo-Saxon or Anglo-Norman ballad, than as the living word of God, adapted to the moral and spiritual wants of the present age."

With Campbell spearheading the way, with courage and conviction, the Stoned-Campbell Movement, pressed for a Bible in today's English using the most accurate Hebrew and Greek texts around. James Challen (not Foy E. Wallace Jr nor Robert Taylor) captures well our heritage in this field in his speech delivered to the American Bible Union in 1852,

"The Bible translated,' is our motto, not the Bible in hid in the past, buried in the tomb of an obsolete and forgotten language, but the Bible trembling all over with the spirit of life; the Bible full of eyes before and behind, like the living creatures in the Apocalypse. And as the ocean reflects the image of the sky will all its brilliant jewelry, so, to a world shrouded in darkness, the lights of the spiritual firmament may be mirrored forth by true and faithful translations of the oracles of God."

Almost gives you the shivers ...

Seeking Shalom,
Bobby V

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The Living Oracles

One of the bright gems in the crown of the Stone-Campbell Movement has, historically, been dedication to a Bible based on the best manuscripts available and in the best vernacular of the day. "Opposition to modern translations" has usually been more a fundamentalist trait than ours (see here). A vocal minority has produced some literature with some outlandish claims too. Foy E. Wallace, Jr., for instance, produced a huge tome titled A Review of the New Versions: Consisting of an Exposure of the Multiple New Translations. The signature trait of this work is extreme statements using the KJV as the "standard" rather than Greek and Hebrew. George DeHoff, writing in the Preface, makes the extreme claim that "the King James Translation of the Bible brought the church to us. It was the translation of the Restoration Movement." In spite of this claim, the SCM (or RM) was dedicated to replacing the KJV.

Alexander Campbell rather claimed that every Reformer in history had attempted to place the Bible within living tongue of the common person. For Campbell the "Authorized Version" was no longer the vernacular and had many translation errors. It had too many "Latinisms" for the common reader; it was too literal in rendering Hebrew and Greek terms; it was influenced the the "King's" notions on "predestination, election, witchcraft" among other areas. These "evils" have "long and so justly" been complained about. The solution was a new version.

Thus on April 26, 1826, Campbell gave the world a new version which came to be known as The Living Oracles. It was actually a compilation of previous work by British scholars George Campbell, James Macknight and Philip Doddridge ... edited by Campbell in light of Johann Jakob Griesbach's Critical Greek New Testament.

The Living Oracles were in many ways way ahead of its time. It has been called "the first modern translation." It was like an Me 262 meeting the Wright Brothers! It featured prefaces to each book and an appendix. To maximize readability and comprehension verse numbers were removed and books were divided into paragraphs. There was a marked shift to current speech. For example Phil 3.20 in the KJV reads "our conversation is in heaven"; The Living Oracles read "but we are citizens of heaven." Romans 14.1 in the KJV reads "but not to doubtful disputations," but Campbell translates "without regard to differences of opinions." Campbell also relegated "church words" to the dustbin. One read in vain searching for such traditional terminology as "church" or "baptize" these were replaced with "congregation" and "immerse." Campbell anticipated most modern versions when he replaced the KJV's "comforter" with "Advocate."

One great, but daring, advance of Campbell was his commitment to textual criticism. His New Testament included a table of 357 "Spurious Readings." Gone was the doxology concluding the Lord's Prayer (Mt 6.13), the Ethiopian's confession (Acts 8.37) and the three heavenly witness (1 Jn 5.7). Each of these were rejected as scribal additions and all modern translations (save the NKJV) follow Campbell's lead.

As you can imagine a large number of people reacted strongly to Campbell's new translation. Some open minded Baptists had a public book burning of the Living Oracles. Another congregation refused to read it because it was "not the word of God." One famous Stone Campbell preacher, "Raccoon" John Smith, was placed on trial by some Baptists for heresy ... among the charges was he used Campbell's Living Oracles rather than the KJV. So prevalent was the use of the Living Oracles among Disciples/Christians (as they were known) that they feature prominently in the "Appomattox Decrees" which drove a significant wedge of division between Baptists and "us." The Decrees, published in 1829, read in part "Resolved, That it be recommended to all churches in this Association, not to countenance the new translation of the New Testament."

Campbell believed the KJV was one of the biggest hindrances to "reformation." The changing of the English tongue made the common version "obsolete." And more importantly the advancement in knowledge of the Greek language and better texts demanded a new translation. Campbell, and the movement around him, remained dedicated to putting the Bible in the best and most readable English possible ... using the very best Greek and Hebrew texts. It is one of the gifts of the Stone-Campbell Movement. David Lipscomb, directly contradicting the claim of DeHoff, wrote of the release of the Revised Version: "it is a mistake that the reformation was based upon it [KJV]. Alexander Campbell rejected it ... and did more to bring about the late revision [1881] than any other man of earth." See Alexander Campbell & The King James Version. And In Words Easy to Understand ...

Campbell's DNA runs through such respected translations today as the NIV, NRSV, Easy to Read Version or New Century Version and others. It is a good gift.

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Dark Side of Christmas: The Loneliest Time of the Year

What do you think of around Christmas? What do you normally see at a Nativity ... even one at a church? There are usually animals. Mary, Joseph, Wise men all have there place. There is usually a star of some sort. And of course there are angels. Most Nativity's are a whole lot of Luke with a little bit of Matthew thrown in for good measure.

The opening of Matthew's Gospel is considerably different than Luke's. He opens with that seemingly irrelevant genealogy (its not by any means!). We are then confronted with a scene that is horrific in nature. It is a crime that Tom Mueller in the December 2008 National Geographic declares "Herod is almost certainly innocent of" (p.40). In Matthew there are no angels that welcome the baby Yeshua rather we are confronted with "Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted, because they are no more" (Mt 2.18). This is what is missing from every Nativity I have ever seen in my life. There are no mothers crying for their children.

But there it is right at the beginning of the "good news" about Jesus. I too used to overlook that scene from the real Christmas ... but not anymore. Matthew acknowledges something that needs to be acknowledged: Christmas is painful for many people. With the emphasis on family, friends, parties, giving gifts ... we need to see the "Rachel's" in our churches and our communities that "refuse to be comforted."

These Rachel's have suffered loss. Loss of loved ones. Some to disease. Some to death. Some to divorce. This time of year can be merciless for some, so much so that many even end their own lives.

At Palo Verde last Sunday we had a worship service centered around "Christmas: The Loneliest Time of the Year." We began by reading Psalm 22 which confesses intense agony. Then the service was divided into three parts we read scripture that allowed us as a church family to embrace those who have suffered loss. We invited everyone to write down a name of some one and bring it down to the communion table. I was not prepared for the outpouring ... people streamed to the table of brotherhood. Psalm 88 was read for the loss of our loved ones. Every piece of paper was read. We prayed and lamented together. After the third lament was over ... with all those cards still on the table ... we decided to take the Lord's Supper and "discern the body" ... perhaps for the first time. We were family and we were all one before the Lord. It was powerful. We closed the service with a congregational reading of Psalm 23. We began with embrace of loss and left with the comfort of the Lord.

This coming Sunday we are doing the "other side of the coin." We will have a happiest time of the year ... but first we need to see the Dark Side of Christmas. I encourage my readers out there to embrace those hurting. Sometimes Christmas really is almost unbearable ... but we can be the very comforting presence of Jesus for them. The response to our service last week has been overwhelming.

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Bobby Lowder's office in Auburn

Is this the chaos that is going on in Auburn ... ROLL TIDE. Still can't believe they fired Tubby ...

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The Exodus Pattern ... A Tie that Binds

The Churches of Christ were, seemingly, birthed in hermeneutical controversy. Alexander Campbell expended considerable effort on pointing to proper methods of interpretation of Scripture. As years went by more and more focus was placed upon some sort of "pattern" within the Bible and especially the New Testament. "Patternism" has been incredibly divisive throughout our history and continues to be with one group of Patternists contending that the other group of Patternists have invented patterns where there are none. What is interesting with all this zeal for patterns is that many of the most pronounced patterns in the biblical narrative are simply unrecognized and ignored as irrelevant. Perhaps nothing exemplifies this more than the Exodus Pattern.

It is difficult to overstate the importance of the Exodus story in Israel's life and faith. We could even opine that the Exodus is the foundation of the Bible itself. The Exodus was the amazing act of Yahweh the Liberator who delivers, redeems and saves a group of nobodies. The Exodus is the paradigm of what salvation by grace really looks like. Walter Brueggemann has suggested that a series of 'verbs' are used to "testify" to Yahweh's act of liberating grace:

* Yahweh brings out
* Yahweh delivers
* Yahweh redeems
* Yahweh brings up
(See Theology of the Old Testament, 173-176)

God's paradigmatic moment is celebrated by Moses and Miriam (as an ancient Ike & Tina) in Exodus 15:

"I will sing to the LORD, for he has triumphed gloriously ...
The LORD is my strength and my might, and he has become my salvation;
this is my God, and I will praise him ...
The LORD is a warrior; the LORD is his name.
Pharaoh's chariots and his army he cast into the sea ...
You blew with your ruah and the sea covered them ...
Who is like you, O LORD ...
In your steadfast love you led the people whom you redeemed ...
(Exodus 15.1-13, NRSV)

Several themes emerge from Moses' and Miriam' song. First it is emphatic that Yahweh alone did the work, salvation belongs to him and it was not because Israel deserved it. Second it is interesting how the Exodus story uses terms borrowed from the creation story itself: divine action and spreading the waters with the activity of God's Spirit (ruah), etc. Salvation is like a new creation.

The story, pattern, of this Exodus is deeply ingrained in the Bible. Israel "rehearsed" this drama each year through the Passover. And no Israelite believed the Exodus was simply what happened back then to "them" rather they placed themselves within the Story and believed it happened to "us." This confession of the Exodus patterned life is seen as Israel celebrated their "thanksgiving(s)" ...

"My father was wandering Aramean, and he went down into Egypt with a few people and lived there and became a great nation, powerful and numerous. But the Egyptians mistreated us and made us suffer, putting us to hard labor. Then we cried to the LORD, the God of our Fathers ... So the LORD brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, with great terror and with miraculous signs and wonders. He brought us to this place and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey; and now I bring the firstfruits of the soil that you, O LORD have given me." (Deuteronomy 26.5b-10)

Exodus patterned Israel's life (or was supposed to) and is fused into "the rest of the Story" by the biblical authors. Here are just a few examples:

* Entrance into the Promised Land is cast with Exodus imagery. Joshua 3-4 reverberates with the drama of the Red Sea
* Building the temple is dated from the Exodus (1 Kgs 6.1)
* Moral crises following Solomon's tyranny is patterned after the sojourn in and following Egypt (1 Kgs 11-12)
* Psalms of praise celebrate the Exodus (i.e. Pss 66, 68, 105)
* Psalms of lament appeal to the Exodus for fresh deliverance (i.e. Pss 74, 77, 80)
* In Hosea, Amos & Micah (to name only three) paint Israel's adultery with images taken from Egypt or from the wanderings in Sinai while casting Yahweh as the faithful liberating lover who would redeem Israel.
* Isaiah 40-66 takes the pattern of Exodus as the source for new hope for Israel.

The Exodus Pattern is burned deep within the Bible. Our quick "survey" helps us to see that the Exodus is more than a mere literary motif but that it was THE PARADIGM Israel used to understand her past, her present, and her future.

The NT also has deeply ingrained within it this Exodus motif. The Gospel of Matthew, the first book of the NT, seemingly continues the same sort of "pattern" we see throughout the Hebrew Bible. The beginning of Jesus' Story has fingerprints of the Exodus narrative all over it. In both there is an evil ruler, in both the children suffer, in both there is a "flight," in both there is an "exodus" for "out of Egypt I have called my son" (Mt 2.15), in both there is a passage through water, in both there is a wandering in the wilderness for a time of testing, in both there is a journey to a mountain, the healing ministry of Jesus is related to his role as Isaiah's servant in concert with the new Exodus (Mt 8.17; 11.5; 12.18; Isa 35.5-6; 53.4; 61.1-2) ... the Exodus Pattern is deeply ingrained in Matthew ... but he is not alone. The work of God in Jesus upon the cross is cast in new Exodus like language.

Yes, the Exodus Pattern is a "tie that binds." Since the "Old Testament" and "New Testament" are really ONE BIBLE they (together) testify to the same story of God's work in redemption. The Exodus is the pattern used by biblical writers to understand who God is and what it means to be the People of the Lord. Since this pattern is so prominent in Scripture ... and it is actually there ... should we (who are so concerned about patterns) not spend some time reflecting on the significance of the Exodus Pattern for God's People today?

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The Problem with Preachers ...

What a dangerous title! I am after all a "preacher." Here it is Lord's Day afternoon and I got home a little while ago. Here sitting on my couch lamenting BAMA's loss (but hey it was a great football game. Florida over Sooners!) reflecting for a brief moment upon what I have done on this day. I gathered with God's People in the Presence of his Majesty. We opened the "book divine" to hear afresh the empowering, liberating and convicting Word of the Lord. In the last three weeks we have explored how Matthew presents Jesus as the "Hinge," both the "End" and the "Beginning." Matthew sees Jesus the Hinge as the Goal of the "Old Testament" Story, he sees Jesus as the "Fulfillment" of the Promises in the Hebrew Bible and he sees the Hinge of Jesus' Identity as the "Son of God" embedded in the Hebrew traditions of old. As we have looked at the opening chapters of Matthew I have been astonished at the wondrous depth and texture to Matthew. It is deep indeed.

As I sat in a moment of reflection I was reminded of Eugene Lowry's bold words: "The problem with preaching is that we have been trained to be answer people ... By the time we get ready to start preparing next Sunday's sermon we already know what we believe and hence when we engage a text we often bring ourselves to the text rather than letting the text come to us ..."

What insight! What Lowry seems to be saying is that we preachers often "come to the text" as if we are in control. We already have an agenda and so often the biblical text is nothing else but a "second" to what we already want to say. In some sense we have kidnapped God's Word! This is heavy duty stuff. Have I done this?

Is there a difference between using a text and preaching a text? I have seen sermons where scripture was certainly used but it was not scripture that was preached. Is this a problem with preachers? I am sure that I have been guilty of this myself and for that I am grateful for the never ending mercy of our Abba.

What can we do to overcome this problem? How can we let the text "come to us?" How can we give up control of the text and let it take the lead (it is after all the living word of God right?).

First I believe we need to embrace the text in all its complexity. The dimensions to Matthew's Gospel is mind numbingly vast. Let the text overwhelm us. Embrace its intertextualities, its echoes of previous parts of the Story, get lost in the text.

Second, as we enter into a conversation with the text cultivate the mindset that we do not know what we are getting into. We do not come to the text with a "topic" but let God's message through that portion of the biblical narrative be used by God's own Spirit to address us and our community. I have found that lectio divina is an essential part of sermon preparation ... here we embrace the text, love the text, we eat the text. And like Ezekiel of old we find that eating God's Word is not without effect.

Third, and this is probably repetition, is surrender. We must sacrifice our ideas to the word. We must be willing to be led, to embrace even mystery for a time as we enter into the text because we do not know where it will take us. Like Israel of old we know where we are going but the direction of each day was determined by a Cloud and not themselves.

There is a difference between the word "ministry" and "preacher." All Christians minister in some capacity. Preaching is one aspect of the ministry of God's kingdom of priests. As preachers, not just ministers, we have to at times deal with the "problem with preachers ..." that is of using God's word rather than preaching it. None of us want to be guilty but we all are. Thus my mid-afternoon reflections are upon this struggle to be a tool to be used by the word rather than being a person in charge who uses God's word as his own tool.

If this makes no sense ... blame it on Bama's loss.

Shalom,
Bobby V

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