One chapter concerning study (in particular the study of the Biblical text) urged people of faith to become familiar with the book that is at the center of their belief. In light of this, KD challenged the group to come up with a list of their top ten most important Bible passages. "Important" was a word that was left somewhat intentionally undefined. It could be those passages that we felt every Christian should know, or those passages that we thought summarized the Bible well, or even just ten passages that were important to us in terms of our own spiritual formation.
Here goes...
There are times when people like to make faith and Christianity in particular a very complicated thing. For me, this verse always cures that urge to make things difficult.
I have always seen this passage as an important retelling of especially the Old Testament in a Heilsgeschichte-style faith history.
Much like the Hebrews 11 passage sums up the entire Biblical story, I've always liked the John 1 passage because it tells the Gospel story in a very consice, almost abstract way, which is a nice change of pace from the literal story mode of most other passages. Then too, I also like the light and dark imagery of the passage and can relate that to the story of the cross and the conquering of death.
Two things I like about this passage. 1) Jesus is breaking down a lot of social barriers in talking to the woman at the well. 2) Towards the end, Jesus tells his disciples to get off their bums and start doing the stuff that they've been talking about. Perhaps a good reminder for some committees.
It could be that I'm just trying to act like a good Mennonite in including the Sermon on the Mount, or it could be that Jesus' restatement of the law in many senses helps me to see that love should be the basis for most rule making and enforcement rather than legalism.
Balaam's talking donkey. Shows that God has a sense of humor, that you should never question a donkey's actions, and that if you smack your donkey in public, an angel just might come smite you. All important lessons.
From a very young age, I was always impressed that Solomon could have had anything he wanted from God, but asked for wisdom. It was also encouraging that because he asked for that specifically instead of riches or long life, God gave those to him as well. Whether or not there is a lot of wisdom in keeping that many concubines around shouldn't be for us to judge.
Again, I like that the Bible can be funny, and frankly, not much is funnier in the Bible than Eutychus falling out of that window when Paul was preaching too long, dying, and then Paul brings him back to life just so he could keep preaching until daybreak.
Call it plagarizing John H. Yoder (even he may have got this analysis from somewhere else), but I think there is something very important for us to learn about the mission and gospel that Jesus brought to Earth by looking at what he didn't want to be... a military/political messiah, a religious miracle worker messiah, or an economic/welfare messiah feeding people bread all the time.
This is just one example of a couple of different short exchanges between Jesus and the Pharisees that I like. Sure, there is a good lesson to be learned in this passage about where we give our allegiance and honor, but I'm always impressed with how clever Jesus was, getting out of the traps those guys tried to set for him.
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Looking back on my passages, I note that there are an abundance of examples from the Gospels... What can I say? I like Jesus.
1 comment:
Glad you like Jesus - good work
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