Category Archives: Arts

Arts, Christianity, Culture

Matthew’s Gospel: Blind to the Truth?

NEW TESTAMENT

– A narrative on Matthew 13:10-17, 34-35

“What is the use of a book,” thought the heroine of Alice in Wonderland, “without pictures or conversations?” Jesus was a master of telling stories which included conversations and evoked pictures. But it was not enough. Some could never get the point.

Ordinary people delighted in them, but the theological experts got nothing out of them, drawing Jesus’ sad quotation from Isaiah 6 that they were blind as proverbial bats. However, the quote almost implies that the parables were meant to make them blind, which modern readers find puzzling.

The parables were used to convey profound truths in picture language. Normally they were intended to make only a single point. They are not allegories in which every detail “means” something. So, in interpreting them, we should not press the detail too much.

They were more like paintings than photographs. The experts found them frustrating because the deliberate vagueness left them arguing over the meaning (which was Jesus’ intention) and not grappling with concepts in the way they were used to.

The quote from Isaiah 6 is therefore not a prescription – “I’ll make sure you never understand” – but a description of people whose minds are closed to new ideas. They don’t want to discover anything about God which doesn’t conform to their preconceived formulae; they are incapable of seeing it even if it stares them in the face.

The most dangerous state of mind is a closed mind. Diseased minds can be healed; confused minds clarified; minds in error corrected; uninformed minds educated; narrow minds broadened. God, who is bigger than our minds, would like to enlarge those that are open. But even He cannot penetrate a closed mind. And Christians can be as closed as their critics.

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Arts, Christianity, Culture

Paul’s two letters to the Corinthians

NEW TESTAMENT

SOME people just seem to be problems waiting to happen. So do some churches, and Corinth was one. Paul tells the Corinthians about his mysterious “thorn in the flesh” (11.12:1-10) but if we had not known that it was some personal ailment, we might have thought it was them.

The two letters to the Corinthians deal with a variety of teething problems which might confront a church without the benefit of mature leadership and a library of books. They may not be all our problems, but the principles Paul enunciates in dealing with them are permanently important in a variety of contexts. Whilst he is seen to rebuke church members for their divisions, selfishness, and indulgence, he also offers encouragement to hard-pressed Christians. His advocacy of personal restraint as a mark of discipleship is implicit.

They let us see, too, a little of Paul’s personal emotions and ministry. At times he is desperately anxious, struggling to communicate and finally appeals to his apostolic authority. He tells us of the suffering he endured for Christ, and we are humbled by the great faith which kept his spirit afloat.

Written in the heat of the Corinthian troubles, these letters include teachings which have remained controversial. They include Paul’s comments on women’s ministry and on relationships not exclusively between a man and a woman. We should remind ourselves of both the spiritual and cultural context in which he was writing as we seek to interpret them and compare his teachings with other New Testament passages.

Some writers claim that their best work is produced when they are under pressure. Paul might have said the same thing. For in the middle of his pleas and threats is his immortal prose poem about the nature of love. And much else that is memorable, instructive, and uncontroversial is here too.

Words of witness need wisdom of God

– A narrative on 1 Corinthians 1:18 -2:16; 3:18-22

SOME places of worship have as their motto, “We preach Christ crucified” (1:23). Apart from the fact that this is only part of the gospel, it can become a coded message about the style of ministry being used. Such a motto distinctly signals the cross lacking its full meaning apart from the resurrection.

It may also mean ‘we never employ “modern” methods of communication’ such as drama or projected images. Paul, however, is not writing about preaching as a method, but about the approach he adopted: not that of philosophical argument (beloved of Greeks generally), but of a straight presentation of the historical facts and their practical relevance.

Indeed, to turn this text into a catchphrase is to fall into the trap Paul was warning his readers against. It is a form of pride: We do this, believe that; others don’t, therefore we are right, and they are not. Paul is stressing that reliance on any form of human “wisdom” is unsafe. What counts is that we allow God the Holy Spirit to guide our ministry, inform our thinking and empower our evangelism.

He is not decrying “apologetics” (reasoned argument for Christian truths) nor fresh methods (he sought to “enculturate” the gospel in terms relevant to the different communities he visited, 9:19-22). But he does want the Corinthians humbly to depend on God and to seek his wisdom in all they do.

Above all he wants them, and us, to understand that the gospel can never be “heard” by anyone unless the Holy Spirit takes the scales from their eyes and illuminates them. That is why neither preaching nor pictures can communicate anything unless God is at work in people’s lives. That really does call for wisdom; our witness must be in the right place at the right time.

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Arts, Christianity, Culture

Old Testament: The Book of Hosea

OVERVIEW: GOD’S LOVE NEVER ENDS

THE Book of Hosea in the Old Testament equates to Jesus’ parable of the prodigal son, who leaves home with his inheritance, wastes it and returns home penitent, only to be greeted by his father with open arms (Luke 15:11-24). We can identify with it; most of us have been prodigal somehow.

But we may also identify with the father, the real subject of the story. A child or close relative takes off on a road which we know will lead to disaster, and we can only watch and wait. How do you feel in such circumstances?

A few may forget and carry on as if nothing had happened. Most will shed a few tears and quietly carry the hurt. Some will wait with a heavy heart hoping that one day they’ll come home, ready to forgive just to have them back.

Hosea’s story is a personal tragedy which God turns into a powerful message for the people of Israel (the northern kingdom). Hosea married – at God’s direction – someone he knew would be unfaithful. Gomer bore him three children and then sold herself into prostitution. But Hosea loved her. He went and found her and paid a ransom to get her out of bondage. And she came home.

God’s like that, Hosea said. He loves the wilful, prodigal Israelites even though they done the worst to him. Come back home to him, and he’ll forgive you.

But did they listen? No! That’s the real tragedy of Hosea. Gomer humbled herself and returned but the Israelites didn’t. Now God’s pleading love is matched by his righteous anger – a combination we find hard to imagine because we usually experience one but not both at the same time. Hosea shows us two inseparable sides of God’s character.

The doom of which Hosea warned happened and Israel was destroyed by Assyria in 722 BC. But as the people scattered, his words echoed after them: one day there would be a restoration. God’s love never ends and that is true for everyone who belongs to God’s family but runs off in wrong directions. His arms are open. They always are.

There are clear and unambiguous messages from Hosea that apply equally to us today. Finding simple practical ways to consume less of the world’s resources (and enjoying the challenge) is one timeless message; and, that if you want to be fruitful for God, we should programme our minds with his priorities.

Rubbish in, rubbish out

– A narrative on Hosea 7-9

COMPUTER programmers will tell you that if you load rubbish data into a computer, you will get rubbish out of it. It happens also to be a more general fact of life. Hosea’s familiar image of sowing the wind and reaping the whirlwind (8:7) has its application in every generation, and in most people’s personal lives.

Israel’s input into the divine memory was unchecked deceit and unchallenged crime (7:1); sexual licence (7:4); naïve international trade deals and political treaties; desertion of their traditional faith (7:14-16); breach of the covenant agreement (8:1-3); adoption of idol worship (8:4-6); and despising the prophets (9:7,8).

Life was just a load of hot air. It had no substance. So what they reaped was physical, emotional, and spiritual emptiness and despair (8:7-10; 9:1-4,12-17).

A similar emptiness and despair today drive many people to drink, drugs and the addictive pursuit of pleasure in which fun ceases to be a by-product of creativity and relaxation and becomes an end in itself. Christians especially should be sad at the sight because they know there is an alternative: a God-centred enjoyment of the world which comes from responsibility and purposefulness.

However, they must practise it as well as theorise about it, demonstrate it as well as believe it. To do that, we must programme our lives with God’s priorities, which is what the Israelites had failed to do.

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