Thursday, May 15, 2008

Guest Post from the WIFE!

it's been post-a-rama here the past few days.. but what do you expect? i'm done with school and have a lot to talk about! now that i have the chance, it's catch up time.

Kate wrote a wonderful description of the Bible Study we attended last night and I felt like share'n it. so here's the first guest post from Kate:

We went to bible study tonight at Trinity Reformed UCC (where Luke is going to intern). It was great—all about Sodom and Gomorrah and how the original translation of sodomy is to not be hospitable toward someone. That’s what Sodom’s sin was—--not being welcoming to the strangers in their midst. cats
more cat pictures

And also Pastor Nancy said that when Lot and his wife were fleeing the town, and she looked back and turned into a pillar of salt, that’s an old saying for saying you had a stroke (like we say she “kicked the bucket”).

AND that reading the Bible is like reading a newspaper. Bible is full of poetry, history, narratives, stories, myth. Newspaper has Dear Abby, front page news, poetry people submit, recipes, etc. If you are reading a poem in the paper that says “her lips were like rubies” you know it’s not LITERAL. You don’t say “this poem isn’t literally accurate, I’m throwing out the rest of the newspaper!” Same with the Bible.

And finally, Nancy said she was preparing for Advent with some ministers a few years ago, and they were reading the nativity story. When they read about their being no room for them (Jesus’ family), a black minister said, “No, you’re not reading that right. I’ve always read it and interpreted it as “there was no room for THEM.” Which never crossed the minds of the white people, b/c they’ve never been denied a room in a hotel. But the Bible doesn’t say the rooms were all full. So just shows that it all depends on your interpretation and where you are coming from.

7 comments:

SocietyVs said...

"So just shows that it all depends on your interpretation and where you are coming from."

So true. This is something I try to point out to people when we are debating what scripture means - we cannot remove ourselves from the whole thing - we are the interpreters - to removes us means we'd have to quit reading or forget what we have learned in the first place.

We all start as equals in interpretation - with our own biases and limitations - and eventually our own elaborations and enlightenment. It's an awesome process when you think about it.

Anonymous said...

Mind over matter, if I dont mind it dont matter.

;)

SocietyVs said...

"Mind over matter, if I dont mind it dont matter." (John)

Hey John, can you explain this idea in more depth?

Anonymous said...

I think ultimately when it comes to our faith(s) it is totally about our perspective. Now our perspective is based on where we are in our lives. So for many of us our emotional state will determine who and what and how we believe, and until you change or move past a certain emotional state then you will continue in that belief.

"Mind over matter, If I dont Mind it dont matter."

This statement means the actually words(matter) that we base our beliefs on dont change, we change.

Perspective.

John

Anonymous said...

Good Morning

This message is for Luke. I was listening to a song this morning and you came to mind. I understand your studying something to do negative something.....sorry cant quite remember what the exact thing was.

Anyways theres a new song by Seether called "Rise above this"
The CD title is

"Finding beauty in Negative spaces"

Check out the song, I think you will like it.

Anonymous said...

Hey guys

I heard a really good one.

"Where your heart is, your exegesis will follow"

Luke said...

I really enjoyed the Seether suggestion, thanks John T!

and i love the comment "Where your heart is, your exegesis will follow"

i really don't think there is such a thing as exegesis... all that is, is just supported eisigesis. but that's a whole nother can of worms there.