The goal

The God of the Scriptures (unlike the deity imagined in some of our churches) is concerned for the entire range of earthly life and desires flourishing, well-being, and shalom—in short, salvation—for both humanity and the nonhuman creation. The way of wisdom, which is parallel to obedience to Torah, is meant to nurture holistic earthly flourishing, restoring the whole of life to what it was meant to be.—J. Richard Middleton, A New Heaven and a New Earth, 102

Psalm for the day

No matter your political position, this one is for you (and me):

1 Give thanks to the Lord because he is good,
     because his faithful love lasts forever.
2 Let Israel say it:
     “God’s faithful love lasts forever!”
3 Let the house of Aaron say it:
     “God’s faithful love lasts forever!”
4 Let those who honor the Lord say it:
     “God’s faithful love lasts forever!”

5 In tight circumstances, I cried out to the Lord.
     The Lord answered me with wide-open spaces.
6 The Lord is for me[a]—I won’t be afraid.
     What can anyone do to me?
7 The Lord is for me—as my helper.
     I look in victory on those who hate me.
8 It’s far better to take refuge in the Lord
     than to trust any human.
9 It’s far better to take refuge in the Lord
     than to trust any human leader.

<idle musing>
Especially verses 8–9: don't put your trust in anyone but the Lord.

Whoever "wins" this thing is subservient to—and must someday answer to—the Lord. Our calling as Christians is to be peacemakers, spreaders of shalom in the fullest sense of the meaning of that word: not just peace, but wholeness, healing, flourishing.
</idle musing>

Public Service Announcement

This is from Francis Collins, the director of the National Institutes of Health. You can read the whole post here.

In other words, if most Americans pulled together to do the right thing and wore a mask in public [95 percent, from the previous paragraph], this simple, selfless act would save more than 130,000 lives in the next few months alone. If mask-wearers increased to just 85 percent, the model predicts it would save about 96,000 lives across the country.

What’s important here aren’t the precise numbers. It’s the realization that, under any scenario, this pandemic is far from over, and, together, we have it within our power to shape what happens next. If more people make the decision to wear masks in public today, it could help to delay—or possibly even prevent—the need for future shutdowns. As such, the widespread use of face coverings has the potential to protect lives while also minimizing further damage to the economy and American livelihoods. It’s a point that NIH’s Anthony Fauci and colleagues presented quite well in a recent commentary in JAMA.

<idle musing>
In my words: If you love your neighbor, you will keep social distance, wear a mask, and wash your hands. What is so difficult about that? It's time to grow up and realize the world isn't about you and what your so-called rights. Especially as a Christian, you are called to love your neighbor.

If you can't even put on a mask, that doesn't speak well of your commitment to Jesus. Just an
</idle musing>

Thought for the day

Today is election day in the United States—as if anybody needed to be reminded. All I can say is to pray: Pray for peace. Pray for wisdom. And live as a person of peace—whatever your politics are—and that is a not-so-idle musing.

Hermeneutics count

God’s norms for creation are constant, but the articulation of these norms might need to change in order to address the actual historical situation that God’s people find themselves to be in.—J. Richard Middleton, A New Heaven and a New Earth, 101 n. 10

Torah and wisdom

Torah and wisdom are not exactly the same in the Old Testament. Yet the convergence between the two is uncanny. Both Torah and wisdom describe, in strikingly parallel Ways, God’s norms for life and blessing (that is, the way of salvation or flourishing), and both are contrasted with paths that lead to death.—J. Richard Middleton, A New Heaven and a New Earth, 96

Psalm for the day

 

For the music leader. Do not destroy. A psalm of Asaph. A song.

75 We give thanks to you, God. Yes, we give thanks!
    Your name is near. Your marvelous deeds are declared.

2 God says,[a] “When I decide the time is right,
    I will establish justice just so.
3     The earth and all its inhabitants will melt,
    but I will keep its pillars steady.” Selah

4 I said to the arrogant,
    “Don’t be arrogant!”
To the wicked I said,
    “Don’t exalt your strength!
        
        Don’t speak so arrogantly against the rock.”[b]
6 Because what exalts someone
    doesn’t come from the east or west;
    it’s not from the south either.
7 Rather it is God who is the judge.
    He brings this person down,
        but that person he lifts up.
8 Indeed, there’s a cup in the Lord’s hand
    full of foaming wine, mixed with spice.
    He will pour it out,
    and all of the earth’s wicked people
    must drink it;
    they must drink every last drop!

9 But I will rejoice[c] always;
    I will sing praises to Jacob’s God!
10 God says:[d]
“I will demolish every bit of the wicked’s power,
    but the strength of the righteous will be lifted up.”

<idle musing>
I needed that today. The psalm starts out and ends with praise to YHWH, what is called an inclusio. The inclusio surrounds judgment on the evil and those who wield power unjustly. We live in the midst of that, we are called to live in the inclusio, praising God. It's a choice—sometimes not an easy one—but a choice nonetheless. We make that decision every moment of every day.

That's where I'm choosing to stand today. And I trust God for the power of the Holy Spirit to live it in me, because I can't do it on my own.

What about you? What will you choose?
</idle musing>

John Stuart Mill is still relevant

“Let not any one pacify his conscience by the delusion that he can do no harm if he takes no part, forms no opinion. Bad men need nothing more to compass their ends, than that good men should look on and do nothing. He is not a good man who, without protest, allows wrong to be committed in his name, and without the means which he helps supply, because he will not trouble himself to use his mind on the subject.”—John Stuart Mill, Inaugural Address: Delivered to the University of St. Andrews, Feb. 1st 1867, People’s Edition (London: Longmans, Green, Reader, & Dyer, 1867), 36

Silence isn't always golden

I overcommitted. I have too many projects right now and no time for recreational reading. The blog will reflect that for the next couple of weeks until I finish up a few of the projects I'm working on.

Repentance?

The fact that obedience is a crucial aspect of salvation underlies Paul’s encouragement to the New Testament church to “work out your own salvation” (Phil. 2:12)—this from the theologian of grace par excellence. Likewise, when the tax collector Zacchaeus pledged fourfold restitution for defrauding others (Luke 19:8), thus fulfilling the requirements of the Torah (Exod. 22:1), Jesus announced, “Today salvation has come to this house” (Luke 19:9). It is certainly possible (and traditional) to read ]esus’s comments in terms of a truncated view of salvation as some internal “spiritual” transformation to which Zacchaeus’s visible actions testify. However, the text reflects the biblical perspective that obedience (especially when it concerns the reestablishment of justice) is itself a crucial component of salvation, in the sense of the restoration of communal well-being.—J. Richard Middleton, A New Heaven and a New Earth, 88

The exodus as model

The point is that by remembering their own bondage and by modeling their actions on their holy and gracious deliverer God (who was attentive to them in their need), Israel will enact righteousness toward the vulnerable in their midst. The exodus thus functions as a lens for understanding the requirements for societal flourishing in a broken world by generating a special concern among the covenant people for the needy or marginalized. The experience of the exodus grounds Israel’s insight that human society cannot function properly—salvation is incomplete—unless the most vulnerable members are protected, provided for, and nourished.——J. Richard Middleton, A New Heaven and a New Earth, 88

Beware what you say

Beware what you say, because it can be used in the future to show how far off the wall you were! Case in point, a very good scholar, Bernhard Duhm, said this about Ps 119 in 1922:

What sort of purpose the author had in view during the composition of these 176 verses, I do not know. In any case, this “psalm” is the most meaningless product that one ever used to blacken paper; one could more easily wear down a heretic with it than with all seven penitential psalms.

Original German:

Was der Autor bei der Abfassung dieser 176 Verse für einen Zweck im Auge gehabt hat, weiss ich nicht. Jedenfalls ist dieser ‘Psalm’ das inhaltsloseste Produkt, das jemals Papier Schwarz gemacht hat; mit ihm könnte man einen Ketzer eher mürbe Machen als mit sämtlichen sieben Bußpsalmen.—Bernhard Duhm, Die Psalmen, 2nd ed., KHC 14 (Tübingen: Mohr, 1922), 427–28

Cited in ch. 3 of Bernd Schipper, The Hermeneutics of Torah: Proverbs 2, Deuteronomy, and the Composition of Proverbs 1–9 (Atlanta: SBL Press, forthcoming). Needless to say, very few people would adhere to that view today!

Well, who did it then?

One of the paradoxes of the exodus account is the interplay of divine and creaturely freedom in bringing salvation. Moses tells the people that they are to stand by and watch the salvation that God will work at the sea (Exod. 14:13), yet God tells Moses to actively participate in the deliverance by stretching out his hand with the staff, thus dividing the waters (Exod. 14:16); in this participation Moses replicates God’s primordial action of separating the waters on the second and third days of creation (Gen. 1:6—10). Even more strikingly, we find that YHWH calls Moses to “bring my people, Israel, out of Egypt” (Exod. 3:10), whereas he had just told Moses that he (YHWH) would “bring them up” (Exod. 3:8). This correspondence of human and divine action is rooted in our creation in God’s image (Gen. 1:26-28), which allows us to adequately represent God on earth. That God is the ultimate agent of salvation, therefore, does not conflict with the fact that human agents are often used in the process of bringing salvation. And yet, while Moses directly confronts Pharaoh with the demand to let the Israelites go and even stretches out his hand over the sea, it is significant that neither he nor Israel has any direct role in fighting against the Egyptians; this is YHWH’s victory.—J. Richard Middleton, A New Heaven and a New Earth, 84

The Exodus

It is significant that while the exodus is a case of sociopolitical or even military deliverance, in no case does Moses or Israel fight directly agalnst Egypt; that is solely God's job. Thls anticipates the theme, found throughout the Bible, that salvation is accomplished only by God; it is never achieved by human “works.”—J. Richard Middleton, A New Heaven and a New Earth, 83 n. 10

Two-fold salvation

The most fundamental meaning of salvation in Scripture is twofold: it is God’s deliverance of those in a situation of need from that which impedes their well-being, resulting in their restoration to wholeness. Wholeness or well—being is God’s original intent for creation, and that which impedes wholeness—sin, evil, and death in all their forms—is fundamentally anti-creational. Both the deliverance of the needy and their full restoration to well-being (in relationship with God, others, and the world) are crucial to salvation, and the term may be used for either or for both together.—J. Richard Middleton, A New Heaven and a New Earth, 79

It's endemic—no, not the virus, misuse of power

Indeed, we live in a world that glorifies violence and makes an ideal of conquest and military supremacy. Whereas God wants the cloud of his Glory-presence to fill and cover the earth (as it did the tabernacle), we, by our violent misuse of the power entrusted to us, have covered the earth with a cloud of pollution, both physical and moral, thus shutting earth off from God’s full presence.—J. Richard Middleton, A New Heaven and a New Earth, 55

God's initial (and continuing) intent (hint: It's not what you think)

God’s intent from the beginning is thus for a cooperative world of shalom, generosity, and blessing, evident most fundamentally in his own mode of exercising power at creation. In the New Testament, Jesus even grounds love for enemies in the imago Dei, suggesting that this sort of radical generosity toward others reflects the creator’s own “perfect” love toward all people, shown in his causing sun and rain to benefit both the righteous and the wicked (Matt. 5:43-48; cf. Luke 6:27-35). In the end, nothing less than God’s own exercise of creative activity ought to function as the ethical paradigm or model for our development of culture, with attendant care of the earth and just and loving interhuman action. By our wise exercise of cultural power we truly function as imago Dei, mediating the creator’s presence in the full range of earthly activities, thus fulfilling the initial narrative sequence of the biblical story.—J. Richard Middleton, A New Heaven and a New Earth, 52

Complementarians take note!

I started a new (in the sense that I hadn't read it yet) book yesterday: J. Richard Middleton, A New Heaven and a New Earth (2014). It is written in such a way that it doesn't lend itself to excerpting very well, so there probably won't be a lot of posts on it. In fact, the first one is from almost 20 percent into the book, on page 52. So far, although there are a few nitpicky things I disagree with him on, the book is very good, a much needed correction to most people's eschatology (my own included in that I hadn't put all the pieces together in a coherent way). So, here's the first excerpt:

The Genesis creation account provides a normative basis to critique interhuman injustice or the misuse of power over others, whether in individual cases or in systemic social formations. Specifically, since both male and female are made in God’s image with a joint mandate to rule (Gen. 1:27-28), this calls into question the inequities of power between men and women that have arisen in patriarchal social systems and various forms of sexism throughout history. And since the imago Dei is prior to any ethnic, racial, or national divisions (see Gen. 10), this provides an alternative to ethnocentrism, racism, or any form of national superiority; beneath the legitimate diversity of cultures that have developed in the world, people constitute one human family.—J. Richard Middleton, A New Heaven and a New Earth, 52

A different kind of mask

No, not a mask to prevent COVID-19, but the mask that too many women feel forced to wear every day. Here's one woman's discussion of it and the freedom she has felt during the lockdowns. A brief snippet, but do read the whole thing to feel to force of what she's saying:

What I’m ultimately railing against is compulsion. The compulsion to groom yourself a certain way to meet (usually very white and bourgeois) standards of “respectability.” Why do I feel “better” when I’ve blowdried my hair? What is better about allocating fifteen minutes of my precious day to standing on front of a mirror with a round brush? What I really crave is the same sort of relief I did back as a teen: I’ve met the status quo, and can breathe comfortably, at least for a bit, within it.

But hair, and makeup, has to be redone. Clothes need to be repurchased. The body has to be regimened to maintain its “appropriate” size. Hair needs cutting, blow dryers need replacing, skin care needs refreshing. The work of meeting the status quo is never finished, and depending on your race and class and body and age, the amount of work to do is not just exhausting, but impossible. (emphasis original)

<idle musing>
I remember reading a few years ago that most women wear makeup for the sake of how they appear other women. A survey done in Britain actually found that most men prefer women without makeup. I know I do. The natural vitality of a person shows so much better without being hidden by a foundation that is designed to make everything "perfect." Consider joining the women who are experiencing the freedom from vanity!

Just an
</idle musing>

Read this post

No, not mine, but this one from Bob on Books. Here's a snippet to whet your appetite:

It’s time, and past time, for the adults in the room to step forward, and for those who should be adults to act like it. We cannot keep escalating our toxic discourse, including our toxic social media postings that are just kindling for the fire. Whether our future is authoritarian, or one of Balkanization, or civil war in our cities (which we have already tasted in some places), each signals the death of “the land that we love.” Each signals the triumph of the argument over the game.

Are you an adult? Act like it and think before you hit posst! Better yet, post something that reflects the concern for the person(s) involved that reflects the idea that they are created in the image of God, as are you. Get out of the judgment seat and into the compassion seat. Let the Holy Spirit guide you, not vengeance and hate. 'Nuff said.