The Lenten season was a time when no cantatas were sung in worship in Lutheran churches, so today we return to Bach’s music on Palm Sunday. BWV 182, “King of Heaven, be Thou welcome,” is the only Bach Palm Sunday cantata we have. It is early, extensive, and delightfully hopeful, even as it anticipates the coming of Holy Week and Jesus’ pilgrimage to the cross.
In March 1714, Bach, who had been organist at the ducal chapel in Weimar since 1708, was promoted to the post of concertmaster. Among the additional duties that came with the new post was the obligation to provide a church cantata each month. The Cantata, BWV 182 (“King of heaven, be thou welcome”), was composed for the Feast of the Annunciation or Palm Sunday, which in 1714 fell on March 25.
Given that the Lutheran church did not allow cantatas during Lent (the exception being when, as in 1714, the Annunciation fell on a Sunday), it is almost certain that BWV 182 represents the first work Bach composed as part of his new post [emphasis mine]. Compared to most of the composer’s earlier cantatas, it is particularly extensive (comprising eight sections) and elaborate, suggesting that the composer set out to provide something special for his first effort in the service of Duke Wilhlem Ernst.
The author of the texts has not been positively identified, but was most likely Salomo Franck, the Weimar court librarian and poet whose texts Bach is known to have begun to setting upon assuming his new duties. The text has three sources: Psalm 40:8-9, the Palm Sunday Gospel (Matthew 21:1-9) recounting Christ’s entry into Jerusalem, and a strophe from the hymn “Jesu Leiden, Pein und Tod” (1633) by Paul Stockmann.
Today’s sample includes movements 1-2, and the concluding chorus.
♕
I
Sinfonia
II King of heaven, welcome, let us also be your Zion ! Come within, You have taken our hearts from us.
VIII So let us go in the Salem of joy, accompany the king in love and in sorrows he goes before and opens the way.
”It is talk-compelling. It puts you in a good temper, it makes you satisfied with yourself and your fellow beings, it sweeps away the worries and cobwebs of the week.”
Michael Spencer loved to laugh. In honor of the 7th anniversary of his death this week, I thought we’d start today by sharing some of his funniest bits over the years as we gather around the Brunch table today. These are just a few — we’ll find more and share them in days to come.
The 50th anniversary of one of the most productive relationships in Christianity was celebrated this week at Zondervan’s “Youth Ministry Hall of Fame” in Nashville as pizza finally received a long overdue recognition for its contribution to youth evangelism.
…International Missions expert Wilson Larue shared how pizza is revolutionizing world missions. “Pizza is going places that even “The Jesus Film” won’t go. Students in Japanese universities will listen to a Gospel presentation if pizza is available. I believe that one day we’ll see breakthroughs in the 10/40 window because pizza was in there long before missionaries could evangelize.”
Seminars on pizza and youth evangelism brought together veterans of using pizza with ministries looking for new and better ways of utilizing pizza. Some of the seminars included…
“Seekers Pizza.”
“Multiplying Your Free Pizza Ministry.”
“Ethnic and International Pizza.”
“Praise and Pizza.”
“The Praying Pizza.”
“Senior Adult Pizza.”
“Pizza In The Sanctuary: A Guide to Cleaning Supplies.”
“Pizza and the Regulative Principle.”
“What Pizza Would Jesus Eat?”
“Images of Jesus in Pizza.”
“The Anointed Pizza.”
“Free Will and Pizza.”
“Pizza in the Baptistry.”
“Infant Pizza Ministry.”
But there is a third, much smaller, category containing foods over which I have no ability to reason or resist. Should you wish to make a fool out of me, these are the foods that will facilitate the process. If you want to see a grown man reduced to the level of pure lust, this is the formula. If you want to frighten your children with visions of pure addiction, simply bring them over and set one of these foods before me. Just don’t put it in their hands or things could get ugly.
In this third category of food temptations beyond all reason is egg nog.
Yes, egg nog, that heavenly concoction that appears in the holiday seasons and lays claim on the minds, desires and appetites of those of us who have, after ten months, achieved some balance, sanity and clarity in life. It is entirely possible that one day, Denise will come home and there I will be in the kitchen, propped up in the corner, dead, surrounded by a dozen empty egg nog cartons. Pity me not. It will not have been an unpleasant end, I assure you.
He who says “the Bible must be read in context” usually means “If you want to understand the Bible, read it like me.” Therefore, proclaim your authority to your followers, take a new name and wear funny clothes.
Dressing up in church is a sin, unless the clothes are casual. In other words, if you wear a suit, you are a Pharisee, but if you wear $200 boots or anything in American Eagle, then Jesus doesn’t mind.
Mother’s Day. Obligated to go to church with mom and then take her out to a restaurant, which means standing in line at Cracker Barrel for about 2 hours.
Any church potluck or meal.
Any Sunday that starts a revival (or any Sunday that begins a 40 Days of Purpose if your church dumped revivals.)
Any wedding of anyone in your family within 250 miles.
Any funeral of anyone in your family within 70 miles.
Any school board meeting where creationism will be discussed.
Ladies: Any Christian Women’s Conference within 500 miles.
Any event involving Bill Gaither Homecomings.
Any Olin Mills Church Directory photoshoot.
Any church softball game against another Baptist church.
Any church business meeting where there’s a chance of a big fight or someone getting fired.
BIG BILL FOR BURGLAR PHONE
So, police in Northern Wales just ran up a cell phone bill bigger than that of your teenage daughter.
An offender from Llangefni was out on bail as part of a scheme to reintegrate criminals into the community when North Wales Police gave him a phone as a means of staying in contact. Turned out they missed a very important detail: the phone contained a contracted rather than a pay-as-you-go SIM card.
The man removed the SIM card from the simple device and put it into a smart phone that he used to stream video and music. Two other people ended up using the phone, and in six months they had racked up a debt of 55,000 U.S. dollars.
Though this happened back in 2014, the details just came to light through a freedom of information investigation.
Authorities wouldn’t say it, but I heard that the police in North Wales have been grounded to their rooms for a month and given a list of chores so that they could work off their debt.
BASEBALL PLAY OF THE WEEK
St. Louis Cardinals’ catcher Yadier Molina is confused. I’m confused. The whole world is confused. We may need to have Mike the Geologist write a Faith & Science post on the physics of this.
EASTER IN MEGACHURCH LAND
Here are three Easter services you might want to consider attending next week (or not).
In Canada, Church of the Rock, which describes itself as a charismatic, interdenominational, evangelical church, puts on a full rendition of the resurrection using pop culture icons.
“Nobody on the planet does it quite like Church of the Rock. We have taken the amazing story of the resurrection and have presented it in modern parable form that can only be described as ‘Hollywood does Easter,'” said Pastor Mark Hughes on his blog.
While their Good Friday services are more traditional and centered around the passion of Christ, “Easter … is something all together different,” he described.
In previous years the church has performed “The Wrath of Khan,” featuring the death and resurrection of Captain Kirk of Star Trek, as well as “Pirates of the Galilean.” This year, they are featuring: “Batman and Robin in The Dark Night: An Easter Story.”
New York Jets quarterback Tim Tebow will deliver the Sunday sermon at the Celebration Church in Austin, TX. The church is building bleachers to accomodate the 30,000 people expected to attend, though parking will not be provided.
Pastor Rick Warren of the Saddleback Church (the eighth largest in the United States) will oversee the “Easter Entertainment Experience” at Saddleback. Last year’s act will be a hard one to follow: it was the Jonas Brothers. It’s rumored that Warren plans on bringing in Justin Bieber this Easter.
There’s a fascinating list at Literary Hub, detailing 50 dates on which things have been said to happen in literature.
For example:
Do you know on what day Sherlock Holmes got his first case, according to A Study in Scarlet, by Arthur Conan Doyle?
When was Alice’s birthday, and what day did she go down the rabbit hole in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, by Lewis Carroll?
On what day did George Orwell’s 1984 begin?
What date was it when Tom Buchanan took Nick to a party and punched Myrtle in the face, in The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald?
On which of two possible dates did Hagrid arrive to tell Harry Potter he’s a wizard, according to Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, by J.K. Rowling?
Emo Phillips, who hails from Downers Grove, IL, where I went to high school, has written some of the best religious jokes around, including the following…
When I was a kid, I used to pray every night for a new bike. Then I realised, the Lord doesn’t work that way. So I just stole one and asked Him to forgive me … and I got it!
So I’m at the wailing wall, standing there like a moron, with my harpoon.”
A Mormon told me that they don’t drink coffee. I said, “A cup of coffee every day gives you wonderful benefits.” He said, “Like what?” I said, “Well, it keeps you from being Mormon …”
I’m not Catholic, but I gave up picking my belly button for lint.
When I was a kid my dad would say, “Emo, do you believe in the Lord?” I’d say, “Yes!” He’d say, “Then stand up and shout Hallelujah!” So I would … and I’d fall out of the roller coaster!
Note from CM: I wrote this post shortly after Michael died on April 5, 2010, seven years ago this week.
We’re still hungry, still searching, still on the journey. Some of us have found helpful oases where we’ve been able to slake our thirst somewhat and find a bit of nourishment. But conversation among the exiles continues, and invitation remains open to join us here for a safe place in which to take part in it.
Michael started this refuge for pilgrims. We are forever grateful.
• • •
Now in Another Wilderness By Chaplain Mike, April 2010
I had been wandering in the post-evangelical wilderness for a long time. But I never knew what to call it until I began reading Michael Spencer. And I never knew a genuinely safe place to talk about it until I entered the discussions on Internet Monk. Then I knew I had found a guide, and a group of fellow-wanderers.
The site’s popularity testifies to an undeniable fact: I am not alone. There are multitudes of us out here in exile, weary and dry-mouthed, panting for streams from which to slake our thirst.
Longing for grace.
Longing for some thoughtfulness and common sense instead of the gnostic fanaticism that tries to pass itself off as vibrant faith.
Longing for a faith that is not simply another attempt to avoid, escape, or transform our humanity into something else.
Longing for real good news of a real Savior for real people.
Longing for a Jesus-shaped spirituality.
David left there and escaped to the cave of Adullam; when his brothers and all his father’s house heard of it, they went down there to him. Everyone who was in distress, and everyone who was in debt, and everyone who was discontented gathered to him…
• 1 Samuel 22:1-2a
Michael’s blog was the first site on which I ever commented. I had found a kindred spirit. His posts and the comments he gave in response to those who entered the discussion revealed a no-nonsense lover of Jesus, tired of religion as usual, willing to point out “spiritual” craziness, never too proud to admit his own weaknesses, intolerant of intolerance, especially from those called to love even their enemies.
Oh yeah, and he loved baseball too. “What’s not to like about this guy?” I thought.
I drive a lot for my work, and Michael’s podcast became a regular passenger in my car. His homely accent, humor, and self-deprecating manner belied the depth of his wisdom. No one did better play-by-play on the evangelical circus. Listening to him, I nodded and laughed my way into insight.
Gail and I took a vacation in September last year to northern Tennessee. I got in touch with Michael and asked if we could meet Denise and him for dinner. We had a great time getting to know each other, hearing about the progress of his book project (he was so excited!), Denise’s conversion to Roman Catholicism, Michael’s own struggles with feeling at home in church, and the ministry of OBI, where he taught and ministered to students. A memorable evening for us.
Some time later, Michael asked me to do an interview on pastoral care for the dying. It was an honor to be asked to share this with him and the iMonk audience. This led to a couple of instances when I had a chance to minister to Michael personally as he dealt with some situations involving the death of friends. I was moved by some of the things he wrote about the unhelpful ways Christians deal with illness, pain, and death, and sensed some spiritual discouragement in what he was saying. So I called and we talked about it. I hope I encouraged him.
These conversations continued when Michael himself became ill. Almost from when he first began feeling bad, it seemed he knew something was seriously wrong. It wasn’t long before it was difficult for him to write, so he asked if I would fill in for him until he could resume. I did so gladly.
When Michael was admitted to the Markey Cancer Center in Lexington, Gail and I made a day trip down to see him. We had a good visit in his room, but Michael was sleepy and left most of the talking to Denise. At that point, the doctors still hadn’t pinpointed the main site of his cancer and none of us knew what he was facing.
And then commenced the path for the Spencers that I as a hospice chaplain have become all too familiar with: diagnosis, radiation and chemotherapy, a new life built around trips back and forth to doctors, hospitals, and clinics, coping with side effects, keeping family and friends up to date, dealing with visitors and inquirers, answering the same questions over and over again, hoping against hope. And then the day you learn the treatments aren’t working. Crossing the line from looking for a cure to accepting comfort. Until the final breath.
I drove down to see Michael, Denise, and the family a couple of weeks ago. Michael had just been admitted to hospice. He was still sleeping in his own bed. I was pleasantly surprised at how he looked and that he was able to talk with me about some matters related to Internet Monk and other things that were on his heart. I also enjoyed visiting with Denise, as well as the children and their spouses. In the midst of such a trying situation, I sensed God’s peace upholding and sustaining them.
I have been keeping in touch with Denise regularly since my visit, checking on Michael’s condition and how the family was doing. “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble” (Ps 46:1), and it seemed to me that God was there, helping, each time I phoned.
As they were going through this, what a tremendous outpouring from cyber-friends too! Rarely did a day go by with someone asking about how Michael was doing, expressing appreciation for his ministry, asking if anything could be done to support him or the family. Michael Buckley held his art auction. Alan Creech had his rosary sale. Many, many folks simply sent checks or hit the “donate” button to assist with medical expenses. I’m sure there is a multitude of kind acts and generosity I know nothing about.
And then Denise called Monday evening and told us Michael had taken his last breath.
To be honest, I don’t know what to say about that.
Vocationally, I deal with death all the time. I comfort those who mourn. I lead grief support groups and teach others what happens when we lose a loved one. But it’s all a fog to me at the moment. Today, I am one of the grieving.
This is what I hear you saying as you write in the wake of Michael’s death. We are astounded that we could feel so close to a friend few of us have even met. In our contemporary world of internet connections we somehow found a genuine bond with an authentic human voice that had our best interests at heart and tried to give us Jesus. No matter that we only met him in cyber-space or heard his voice on a podcast. His death leaves a void and we fear that it cannot be filled again. At this moment, we don’t know what we feel, or where to turn.
Now we find ourselves in another kind of wilderness.
O God, you are my God;
I earnestly search for you.
My soul thirsts for you;
my whole body longs for you
in this parched and weary land
where there is no water.
The book now moves to the four chapters written by Scot McKnight that will explore the theological implications of what Dennis Venema established as the scientific viewpoint in the first four chapters. Right out of the gate, Scot raises the obvious point; what happens when science and the Bible disagree. Who are we to believe? Some of us will dig in our heels, others will shift with the latest conclusion of science. What the first thinks is faithfulness to the Bible the second thinks is intellectual compromise. To illustrate the first he quotes Martin Luther; “The more it seems to conflict with all experience and reason, the more carefully it must be noted and the more surely believed.” When Luther deals with Eve being formed from a rib, he says; “This is extravagant fiction and the silliest kind of nonsense if you set aside the authority of Scripture and follow the judgement of reason,” and “Although it sounds like a fairy tale to reason, it is the most certain truth.”
Scot calls this the “dominating” approach. Luther will allow the Scripture, against reason he admits, to dominate the evidence. Galileo then is the mirror image with another kind of domination: “A natural phenomena which is placed before our eyes by sense experience or proved by necessary demonstration should not be called into question, let alone condemned, on account of scriptural passages whose words appear to have a different meaning.” Scot then says:
“The choice to let either the Bible or science dominate the other is common enough, but there is a better way, one that permits each of the disciplines to speak its own language but also requires each of the voices to speak to one another.”
He cites the examples of John Walton, Tremper Longman, and Peter Enns as types of scholars who have opened up new pathways for this kind of dialogue to take place. Scot then tells his own story. He grew up being told that evolution was for atheists and those who embraced evolution could not embrace the Bible. But he then began meeting and getting to know scientists who were Christians who acknowledged that the evidence supported the basic theory of evolution. Their trustworthiness at the personal level made their science more credible as an option to him. He then says there were 3 defining moments when his intellectual questions about science and the Bible began to make sense.
The first was when he read a book (now nearly 40 years ago) that discussed “macro” versus “micro” evolution. That book, combined with reading a biography of Darwin, pried his mind open to the possible reality of the scientific truth of evolution. The second moment in his journey involved the last few years of blogging with his blog partner “RJS”, a PhD chemist, and reading Dennis Venema and John Walton, particularly Walton’s “Lost World of Genesis One”. RJS’s blog posts and Venema and Walton’s writings combined to open his mind to a new way of reading the Bible. I’ll let Scot tell his third moment in his own words:
“My third moment was the day a college student in tears told me that, had I not taught about reading Genesis 1 in the context of the ancient Near East, he would have abandoned the Christian faith. He wanted to be a scientist but knew there were some non-negotiables about science that were totally convincing to him. One of which was some kind of evolution. That Genesis could be read in ways other than what he was taught—young earth creationism—was a defining moment for him and for me. I am convinced that a kind of evolution—theistic, evolutionary creationism, or planned evolution—fits the evidence best and does not threaten the Christian faith or a fair reading of Genesis.”
The Genesis text itself displays evidence it is not to be read in some modernistic, CNN-news report, type of historical narrative. A talking snake who loses its legs, magic fruit that make you wise when you bite it, another magical fruit that makes you live forever. Angels with flaming swords—so where is Eden, the Bible doesn’t say Noah’s flood destroyed it, we should at least be able to walk up to the flaming-sword-wielding guards. A man named “The Man”, a women named “Mother of All Living”, another man named “Spear” who kills his brother named “Fleeting Breath”. Then he worries about other people killing him—what other people? And he takes a wife- who would that be? Don’t say his sisters, Genesis 4 is pretty clear that after Cain killed Abel there were no sisters born yet. If these features don’t make you at least wonder what kind of literature this is—then nothing will.
In reading the Bible properly and in context, Scot believes there are four fundamental principles we should keep in mind that the best readers of the Bible constantly bring into play. They are: respect, honesty, sensitivity to science students, and the primacy of Scripture. With regard to the first one, Scot says:
“To understand what someone is telling us, we must respect that person as a person, we must respect that person’s speech, and we must do our best to understand that person’s speech from that person’s context… That same principle of respect is needed for reading the Bible, especially a section of the Bible like Genesis 1-11, a text that, no matter how embattled it is, resounds with some of life’s deepest themes.”
It is manifestly obvious that the text of Genesis came to be in the ancient near East (ANE). It sounds like that world as read from similar contemporaneous texts, uses categories and terms and ideas from that world. It has the “pre-scientific” assumptions of that world. So if you don’t respect that text as designed for an ANE audience, you don’t really respect that text. Scot points out we have learned from specialists in ANE studies that these creation stories did double duty: they were mythic history and present theology. The most respectful reading knows this double duty feature of ANE accounts, and gives that same respect to the Bible’s own account. So, he concludes, it is disrespectful to Genesis 1-11 to think it somehow should be giving an account of the modern sciences of geology, astronomy, or biology.
The second principle is honesty. In keeping with the topic of this book that means to be honest about the Bible and the science. Scot tells his students not to fear the facts but to face the facts. The fact is that the Bible really does make it look like Adam and Eve are the only two humans from which we all descend. But science tells us that human DNA goes back to more than two people.
Scot notes that FEAR motivates the vitriol and vehemence on both sides. The more fundamentally-minded Christians are afraid that the science undermines the Bible; that the Bible might be wrong and their entire faith might collapse, and take down society with it. The more fundamentally-minded secularists are afraid that the Bible believers are going to force their religious beliefs on education and the rest of society. There is a modicum of truth to both fears.
“Honesty leads us to say Genesis 1-2 sounds like other creation narratives in the ancient near East. If it does, it does. Where there are similarities, we admit them; where there are dissimilarities, we admit them. We don’t need Genesis 1-2 to be totally unlike other ancient near East texts in order for it to be true, just as we don’t need Jesus to be totally different from the rabbinic teaching of his day for his teaching to be true. What we need most in studying the ancient near East and Genesis 1-2 is an openness to truth wherever it might be found. Openness to truth is the most Christian principle I know of.”
The third principle is sensitivity to the student of science. By “student” Scot means students nurtured in Christian homes and churches and under the tutelage of public school teachers. This means they hear the Bible in one context and science and evolution in another context (often hostile to one another). While some parents think they can avoid this dilemma for their children; it has been seen over and over again they are just kicking the can down the road. Eventually, the student is going to experience the raw capacity of evolutionary theory to explain scientific realities.
The very purpose of this book is to avoid the “crisis” or “all or nothing” mentality of the evolutionary issue, particularly in regard to Adam and Eve and human origins. Scot has had students come up to him in tears thanking him for saving their faith. They had been told they either buy into six-day creationism and “literal” Bible interpretation or they couldn’t be Christians. As they studied science in college they realized this false dichotomy was forcing them to choose between their love of God and the Bible and their love for science and discovery. Scot’s honest and irenic exposition of the issue gave them a third way out of the dilemma. We do our children a disservice if we don’t follow Scot’s example.
The fourth principle is the primacy of Scripture. Christian’s affirm the Bible as God’s revelation to God’s people. The Reformation statement was “sola scriptura” but Scot likes the slight modification of “prima scriptura” instead. He says:
To go to the Bible first means respecting the Bible as it is—a developing narrative. God doesn’t give us a systematic theology textbook, nor does God give us a question-and-answer resource book. Rather the Bible is an ongoing and constantly updating narrative, what we often call a ‘story’…
In affirming this Scripture Principle, however, I hasten to add that we don’t go ONLY to the Bible. The affirmation of ‘prima scriptura’ means we look to the Bible in its context first, as we have already stated above. Reading the Bible in context leads us to the Bible’s dialogue with its context. We will discover already at work in the Bible an interaction between the Bible and its culture—both challenging culture and affirming culture. At the most basic of levels, the Bible comes from a Semitic and Hebraic culture, Jesus came out of a Galilean Jewish culture, and the apostle Paul was reared in a Roman world as a deeply observant Jewish man and so became a man of two worlds in a profound way as he evangelized gentiles. To read any of these without respect to their contexts is to misread them.
Scot ends the chapter with a discussion of the meaning of attaching the word “historical” to Adam. It is the most frequent asked question when discussing human origins; do you believe in a “historical Adam”? He questions the appropriateness of making “historical” the ruling adjective. Is that not prejudicial in and of itself? First he clarifies what is meant by “historical”:
Two actual (and sometimes only two) persons named Adam and Eve existed suddenly as a result of God’s creation
Those two persons have a biological relationship to all human beings that are alive today (biological Adam and Eve).
Their DNA is our DNA (genetic Adam and Eve); and that often means;
Those two sinned, died, and brought death into the world (fallen Adam and Eve) and ;
Those two passed on their sin natures (according to many) to all human beings (sin-nature Adam and Eve), which means
Without their sinning and passing on that sin nature to all human beings, not all human beings would be in need of salvation;
Therefore, if one denies the historical Adam, one denies the gospel of salvation.
Scot doesn’t dispute the adjective has an important role to play in our theology, but he does dispute that what most mean by “historical Adam” is what Genesis meant in its world. The alternative to using an adjective like “historical” when it transcends what the text says is to find more organic terms that are more natural to the world of these texts. That is what Scot proposes to do in the chapters that follow.
An account of the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah, the son of David, the son of Abraham.
• Matthew 1:1
• • •
I have argued elsewhere that the overarching story of the Bible is about God establishing his Kingdom in this world. “May your kingdom come, may your will be done on earth as in heaven” is the heartbeat of biblical faith and expectation.
Why then, should anyone be surprised to discover what Pete Enns has reminded us of this week: that the focus of the Hebrew Bible (and the book of Genesis as the particular case we’ve been looking at) would be on royal, kingly matters?
When we recall that it was the southern kingdom, the kingdom of Judah that survived the Babylonian exile and returned to the land and put the Old Testament as we know it together, and when we remember that the story of Judah culminated in the greatest era of kingship the nation had ever known, under King David, why then should it surprise us if they looked to a brighter future by framing it in Davidic terms?
Ah, but all this requires us to understand something basic about the Hebrew Bible. It was collected, compiled, composed, and edited for those exiles. What we hold in our hands and call the Old Testament is the end result of a long process of passing down traditions and stories and sayings and songs from generation to generation. Most of that process is opaque to us, and the Bible itself doesn’t help us by saying, “So and so wrote this book.” The authors and editors remain anonymous. Nevertheless, whoever they were, they put together (I believe under the inspiration of the Spirit) a finished product, a Book that tells an overall Story.
For sure, it is a long book, a messy book, and a book of alternative voices debating with one another throughout the history of Israel.
The book of Joshua presents a much different view of the conquest than the book of Judges.
Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy set forth a variety of laws that often don’t mesh with one another.
The history books of Kings and Chronicles present contrasting views of Israel’s kings, especially David.
A book like Ruth takes a much different view of intermarriage than Ezra or Malachi.
Jonah and Nahum argue with each other about how God views nations like Assyria.
The pious book of Proverbs is challenged by the alternative wisdom of Ecclesiastes and Job.
But, as Pete Enns has reminded us this week, there is an overall shaping of all this diverse, multivalent material. It starts in the book of Genesis, which I think Enns has persuasively shown points the reader toward the expectation of a king to come from the tribe of Judah who will rule over the nations.
The story begins with a depiction of a royal humanity (adam), formed in the image of God to rule as stewards of creation, and at the start of the story proper, Abraham receives God’s promise that his seed will produce kings. Jacob’s speech at the end of the book promises that the scepter shall find its home among the descendants of Judah.
The Torah ends with Deuteronomy, a book that is characterized more by the scribal Torah interpretive tradition than by royal ideology. That is, its focus is more upon the Word than the King. However, even this book ends with remarkable Mosaic speeches and poems that speak clearly of the eventual exile and hope of return.
The first book in the second section of the Hebrew Bible, the Prophets, contains the oracles of Isaiah, who served in the royal court at Jerusalem, speaking God’s Word to her kings and the nation. Isaiah is, of course, famous for its eschatological message, its promises of a royal figure to come and a new creation.
The Hebrew Bible’s third section, the Writings, is book-ended by Psalms and Chronicles. I have argued elsewhere that the message of the Psalms is designed to encourage faithful anticipation of an ideal King, a ruler for whom the exilic community was waiting, looking, and hoping: the son of David, the ultimate king.
The book of Chronicles, the climax of the Hebrew Bible, provides a sweeping review from Adam to the post-exilic community, with special attention given to David and Solomon and giving a dramatically different portrayal of their reign than we see in the book of Kings. The subsequent history of the kings that followed Solomon ignores the northern kingdom entirely (unlike I-II Kings) and focuses on Judah alone.
Thus, at the least, the major books in each section of the Tanakh (Torah/Prophets/Writings) are eschatological in orientation, and most lead the reader to focus on Judah and God’s royal promises to her.
I would argue that the post-exilic community has shaped the Hebrew Bible in response to the Exile. That post-exilic community that survived and returned to the land was the remnant of the southern nation of Judah. The Hebrew Bible is Judah’s Bible. Those from that community who put these scriptures together, collecting Israel’s sacred traditions, composing new materials, editing them together and shaping them into a “book” did so in order ultimately to bring a message of hope and expectation to those who had returned from exile but who were now searching for national identity and hope for the future.
The New Testament opens as it does because the first Christians saw Jesus as the answer to that search: Jesus the Messiah (the promised king), the son of Abraham (the father of Israel), and the son of David (the model king who suffered yet triumphed).
UPDATE: I have added some articles to the IM bulletin Board (right column) that complement our studies this week.
Note from CM: Here is part two of Pete Enns’s enlightening overview of the purpose of Genesis in the final edition of the Hebrew Bible. Pete blogs at The Bible for Normal People. He also has a new The Bible for Normal People podcast for you to check out. HERE is one place you can access it.
• • •
More on What Genesis is Really About (if you keep one eye focused on the monarchy) by Pete Enns
Following up on my last post, which likely changed your life forever, let’s channel Gary Rendsburg’s article a bit more and explore a few more ways that David and the monarchy are embedded into the stories in Genesis (in no particular order).
Esau’s “blessing” and Edom’s revolt. You may recall in Genesis that younger brother Jacob twice outmaneuvered his elder brother Esau (nickname Edom, Genesis 25:25 and 30).
The first time (Genesis 25:29-34), Esau (who is clearly some kind of dolt), sold his rights as firstborn for a hot lunch. As far as I’m concerned, that one’s on Esau. But in 27:1-40, Jacob, at the urging of his helicopter mother Rebekah, tricked old, nearly blind, Isaac into giving him Esau’s blessing too (by dressing up as Esau).
After Isaac blesses Jacob by mistake with a very awesome blessing that really couldn’t be topped (27:27-29), Esau returned from his hunt (the brutish, hairy guy is always out hunting) expecting to be blessed by his father. Isaac realizes he has been deceived, basically freaks out, followed by Esau freaking out event more, begging his father, “Have you only one blessing, father? Bless me, me also, father?” (v. 38)
Yes, Esau. Jacob only has one blessing, and he shot it all on Jacob. And it’s quite a blessing, which includes agricultural bounty and—to get to our point—political supremacy:
Let peoples serve you, and nations bow down to you. Be lord over your brothers, and may your mother’s sons bow down to you. (27:29)
Looks to me, Esau, that you’ll be under your brother’s thumb. (You really need to stay home more and keep an eye on things.)
The plural “brothers” and “your mother’s sons” may seem odd at first blush, given that Jacob only has one brother, the disenfranchised Esau. But in Hebrew “brothers” and “sons” often simply mean “kin” and “descendants.” And these plurals are a clue as to the ultimate meaning of this exchange.
If we remember that Jacob’s name will be changed to Israel later in the story (32:28 and 35:10), it’s not to hard to see what
is really being said here: the Israelites will have political supremacy of their kin—which include Edom (Esau’s nickname) and the other two trans-Jordan nations: Ammon and Moab.
Like Edom/Esau, Ammon and Moab are also kin, but more distantly. As Genesis tells the story, these nations stem from the union of Lot (Abraham’s nephew, Isaac’s cousin) and his daughters (19:30-38)—and if that’s not political propaganda, I don’t know what is.
The plurals “brothers” and “sons” make perfect sense if we see in Genesis later political realities embedded into the past. Genesis draws up Israel’s political map, and the younger son of Jacob will reign over them.
Back to Esau. Isaac has exhausted his good blessing by giving it to Jacob, and so he has to scrounge up a blessing for Esau. And this is all he has left (vv. 39-40):
See, away from the fatness of the earth shall your home be, and away from the dew of heaven on high. By your sword you shall live, and you shall serve your brother; but when you break loose, you shall break his yoke from your neck.
Not much of a blessing. Sort of an anti-blessing if you ask me, the opposite of Jacob’s: weak agriculture and political subservience—but with one ray of hope: Esau/Edom will eventually break free from his brother.
And so he does.
According to 2 Samuel 8:13-14, the nation of Edom came under Israelite control under David and then revolted about 150 years later during the reign of the southern (Judahite) king Jehoram (2 Kings 8:20-24).
And so, Esau/Edom served his brother for a time until he broke loose. It seems like Isaac’s “blessing” to Esau was preview of coming attractions pertaining to the political events of the middle of the 9th c. BCE.
As we saw in the last post, the monarchy is the context for the writing of Genesis, and monarchic concerns are embedded into the ancient narratives of Genesis.
Israel’s ideal boundaries. In Genesis 15:18, God promises Abraham the land of Canaan for his descendants. The description of the boundaries is extensive—stemming from the Euphrates River down to Egypt.
These extensive boundaries appear elsewhere in the Israel’s story only during the time of the monarchy, specifically the early, ideal, days of the monarchy during the reign of Solomon (1 Kings 4:20-21) before he got cocky and disobedient.
The promise to Abraham was written with the monarchy in view—not predictively but retrospectively.
Abraham’s near sacrifice of Isaac. In this famous story (Genesis 22), Abraham’s near sacrifice of his son Isaac is stopped at the last second when God provided a ram for the sacrifice as a substitute. The story ends,
So Abraham called that place, “The LORD will provide”; as it is said to this day, “On the mount of the LORD it shall be provided.” (v. 14)
Here is the earliest reference in the Old Testament to the “mount of the LORD,” and the other occurrences (in Isaiah, Micah, and Psalm 24) all refer to Mount Zion, which is Jerusalem with its Temple built during the reign of Solomon.
The writer of this story is living during the monarchic period (“as it is said to this day”) and embedding the origins of Temple sacrifice in the near sacrifice of Isaac, where an animal was substituted for a human.
The everlasting covenant. The Hebrew term berit `olam (everlasting covenant) is used in the Old Testament of only 3 people: Noah (Genesis 9:16), Abraham (Genesis 17), and David (2 Samuel 23:5). God’s relationship with David is like one we have not seen for a long time, since the dawn of time, since Israel’s beginnings.
There are more examples in the article—some a little subtle, others that take a lot more explaining. But the similarities between the stories in Genesis and the later monarchy that we’ve looked at here and in the last post are hard to dismiss.
Key elements of the monarchy find their origin in the deep past of Israel’s origins. To read Genesis well means to read it with one eye on David, the monarchy, and ultimately the southern nation of Judah.
This way of looking at Genesis may be seem to some to undercut the Bible, and I get that. But it’s not. It’s really only about trying to understand when and why Genesis was written by paying careful attention to the clues the writer left there.
Note from CM: Thanks to Pete Enns for allowing us to re-post this thought-provoking essay about the purpose of Genesis. As usual, from my perspective it is spot on. And, as usual, it goes against the grain of most of the evangelical/fundamentalist teaching which originally shaped my view of Scripture. But it makes so much more sense! And it reinforces to me that the Hebrew Bible was a book written for purposes that had to do with the story of Israel first and foremost. Our understanding of Jesus and his role must grow organically out of that narrative-historical context, that story. When it doesn’t, we end up with a kind of universalized theology that misses the point.
As a side note, Pete has a new The Bible for Normal People podcast for you to check out. HERE is one place you can access it.
• • •
What is Genesis About? The Big Idea that Cleared It Up for Me by Pete Enns
A few years ago I stumbled onto an article online (actually a public lecture turned into an online article) by Gary Rendsburg: “The Genesis of the Bible.” It was a public lecture, so it’s not a heavy read (even if there is serious academic work lying behind it).
I don’t think I’ve ever read something so accessible and to-the-point about what Genesis is about. And the gist is this:
You have to read Genesis with one eye open to David, the monarchy, and ultimately the southern nation of Judah.
To expand on that:
The book of Genesis was written during the period of the monarchy (Rendsburg thinks not long after the time of David) for the purpose of setting up and defending the very idea of a monarchy. The writer (or “writers”) does this by embedding the issues and concerns of the monarchic period into the narrative of Genesis.
To put it another way, the book of Genesis, however old the stories may be, were recast and shaped into their present form during the monarchic period for the purpose of explaining and defending the present.
To put it another another way, the stories from the deep past were written in order to serve the present. (I cover this in my own way in The Bible Tells Me So, chapter 3.)
Let me highlight just one theme to illustrate (I’ll post more on this soon): God’s preference for the second (or late) born son over the elder/firstborn son.
Have you ever noticed this theme in Genesis? The younger brothers always win out over their elder brother/s: Abel over Cain, Isaac over Ishmael, Jacob over Esau, Joseph over the other 10.
Usually no explanation is given (Isaac being the exception)—unless we understand the purpose of these stories as setting the stage for something else.
Like the heroes of Genesis, David, Israel’s ideal king, was the youngest of all his brothers, yet he was elevated over them to the kingship (1 Samuel 16).
Likewise, David’s successor, Solomon, was the youngest of his surviving sons, rather than his eldest son and rightful heir Adonijah (see 1 Kings 1-2.)
Accepting the primacy of the non-firstborn is foundational to the survival of the monarchy. The monarchic writers wove that theme into the stories of Genesis.
But the stories of David and Solomon are really a set-up for something much bigger and even more important for the biblical writers. The theme of “God’s preference for the second/late born son” is played out on a national level:
The exile and return of the southern nation of Judah—the “younger brother” of the larger, northern, nation Israel.
Let me flesh this last point out a bit more.
David and his line are from the tribe of Judah. In Genesis,Judah, among all his brothers, is given a curious amount of attention, such as . . .
1. Judah is not the first born of Jacob’s 12 sons, but the 4th child of Jacob’s first wife Leah. Nevertheless he is promoted over his elder brothers Reuben, Simeon, and Levi.
Reuben’s demotion is worth mentioning specifically. He was demoted for sleeping with his father’s concubines (Genesis 35:22) just as Adonijah had attempted to do with his father David’s concubine Abishag in an effort to gain hold of the throne (1 Kings 2:13-25).
Judah and Solomon rose in prominence over their eldest brothers for the same reason.
2. We can also see Judah’s prominence in Jacob’s farewell speech in Genesis 49, where Judah gets far more attention than his brothers and is described in rather glowing and royal terms—especially verse 10:
The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until tribute comes to him; and the obedience of the peoples is his.
It looks like Judah’s line is a kingly line. David’s claim to the throne has a long pedigree.
3. In the story of Joseph, it is Judah’s long and noble speech that brings tears to Joseph’s eyes as he reveals himself to his brothers.
(Genesis 44:18-34).
4. Judah alone gets his own story in Genesis, though not very complimentary: illicit sexual encounter with his daughter-in-law Tamar in chapter 38.
It is hard to miss the similarities between the story of Judah and Tamar and the more famous story of David and Bathsheba (1 Samuel 11):
Both Judah and David are shepherds.
Both separate from their kinsmen to Adullam (Gen 38:1; 1 Sam 22:1).
Judah has a friend Hirah and David has a friend Hiram.
Judah’s wife is referred to as the “daughter of Shua,” which in Hebrew is bathshua—which is very suggestive of David’s Bathsheba. In fact 1 Chronicles, to make the connection clear, lists Bathshua as the name of Judah’s wife (2:3) AND the name of David’s wife (rather than Bathsheba, 3:5).
Both stories involve a woman named Tamar. In David’s case, Tamar is his daughter, not daughter in law (as with Judah). Moreover, David does not have sex with this Tamar, but rather she is raped by Amnon, Tamar’s half brother.However, the rape of Tamar in 2 Samuel 13 is routinely understood as an implicit (and politically delicate) critique of David’s rape of Bathsheba 2 chapters earlier—much like Genesis 38.
Both David and Judah are publicly forced to admit their guilt (Genesis 38:26; 2 Samuel 12:13).
The Judah and Tamar story, which seems so out of place in Genesis, is a way of addressing indirectly a topic that the writer felt could not be whitewashed: David’s unjust treatment of Bathsheba and her husband Uriah. Judah’s parallel episode doesn’t let David off the hook but it does signal to the readers, “Yes, we know David did a horrid thing, but Judah did likewise and he is still honored.”
• • •
We could go on, and in subsequent posts we will. And Rendsburg’s essay is well worth downloading and reading carefully.
My bottom line point here is that Genesis—I do not hesitate to say—was intentionally written to reflect the realities of Israel’s monarchy, and especially to account for the survival of the southern nation of Judah, the younger brother, non-firstborn of all the tribes.
To be clear, this does not mean that the narratives of Genesis were made up during the monarchic period, but that they were re-presented, re-shaped, to address later concerns. The stories of the past were like wax—shaped as needed.
Reading Genesis is like reading a preview of coming events—which is precisely its purpose.
if only you had been here with us then
when your close friend, our brother, passed away
i know you could have helped, have healed, have saved
his life and kept us from this hopeless day
instead we watched him slowly lose his breath
we bid him drink and cooled his fev’rish skin
abstained from sleep and feared to leave the room
lest darkness steal the last dim light within
but you, you were not here! you were not here
when your companion slowly slipped away
what now? you come, but why? what can you do?
what words of present comfort can you say?
a single tear falls softly from your eye —
i catch my breath; you move, you point, you cry…
”It is talk-compelling. It puts you in a good temper, it makes you satisfied with yourself and your fellow beings, it sweeps away the worries and cobwebs of the week.”
OPENING DAY EDITION. This is one of my favorite pictures of my boys when they were young. We were at an instructional day at Victory Field, the home of the AAA Indianapolis Indians, now a farm club of the Pittsburgh Pirates. The boys were waiting their turn to go down on the field and participate in drills with the players and coaches.
As you can see, my older son (the blonde looking impatient) has dirt all over his hat and his game face on. My younger son, resting his head on his arms, has a shredded place on the bill of his cap where the dog had taken a big bite out of it. A photographer from the city paper captured them — and the spirit of baseball — perfectly.
I consider tomorrow a national holiday. It’s Opening Day of the Major League baseball season. The Yankees will take on the Tampa Bay Rays, Arizona will play the Giants in SF (Steve Scott, will you be there?), and then the World Champion Chicago Cubs will play a night game against their arch rivals, the St. Louis Cardinals.
As wonderful as these big league games are, over the years their main contribution to my adult life has been to provide the seasonal context for the local teams our family has watched, coached, and played on with a community of friends. We’ve watched our kids grow up together. We’ve yelled at the umps together, jumped up and cheered and also hung our heads in disappointment together, groomed the fields, shared food and drinks, worked the concession stands, and pontificated to each other about the right way of playing the game.
In my mind, baseball is as American as apple pie because it’s about a community of people living together in freedom and joy. The game provides leisure for neighbors to spend a few hours together and share a common experience that I have found to be almost sacramental.
Take me out to the ball game, Take me out with the crowd; Buy me some peanuts and Cracker Jack, I don’t care if I never get back. Let me root, root, root for the home team, If they don’t win, it’s a shame. For it’s one, two, three strikes, you’re out, At the old ball game.
Here is a glimpse, courtesy of the New Yorker, at the new face of capitalist zeal:
Fiverr, an online freelance marketplace that promotes itself as being for “the lean entrepreneur”—as its name suggests, services advertised on Fiverr can be purchased for as low as five dollars—recently attracted ire for an ad campaign called “In Doers We Trust.” One ad, prominently displayed on some New York City subway cars, features a woman staring at the camera with a look of blank determination. “You eat a coffee for lunch,” the ad proclaims. “You follow through on your follow through. Sleep deprivation is your drug of choice. You might be a doer.”
Here’s the video for the ad campaign.
Jia Tolentino, the author of the New Yorker article, also tells the story of a Lyft driver who was recently celebrated for picking up extra passengers while she was in labor, dropping them all off just in time to get to the hospital to have her baby. She comments:
At the root of this is the American obsession with self-reliance, which makes it more acceptable to applaud an individual for working himself to death than to argue that an individual working himself to death is evidence of a flawed economic system. The contrast between the gig economy’s rhetoric (everyone is always connecting, having fun, and killing it!) and the conditions that allow it to exist (a lack of dependable employment that pays a living wage) makes this kink in our thinking especially clear.
Discussions of this sort can always benefit from a little Dilbert…
As you’re working yourself to death, you might want to imbibe some of this potent brew from South Africa to sustain you. It’s called “Black Insomnia,” and and each cup of it has more than four times the caffeine of a regular cup.
Apparently, there has been a war going on for the title of “Most Caffeinated Coffee.” Mike Pomranz tells us about it:
In the ongoing battle for the “world’s strongest coffee” crown, the unfortunately named Death Wish Coffee Company appeared to be the most legitimate previous king. However, according to Grub Street, Black Insomnia says that after an independent analysis of its beans and its competitors’ beans by a lab in Switzerland, Black Insomnia’s coffee was the “clear winner.” Caffeine Informer says Black Insomnia has 702 milligrams of caffeine per 12-ounce cup; meanwhile, Death Wish has 660 milligrams. For the record, both brands offer up more of the mild upper per 12-ounce serving than the 400 milligrams medical experts recommend you consume in an entire day. And to give this whole thing a bit of perspective, a “normal” 12-ounce cup of coffee will only have about 150 milligrams of caffeine. Meanwhile, a can of Coke only has 34 milligrams of caffeine. By comparison, the soda’s basically a sleep aid.
Though caffeine might be its primary selling point, Black Insomnia also wants customers to know its product is “strictly pure coffee” – apparently achieved from sourcing the most highly caffeinated Robusta beans (as opposed to the more flavorful Arabica beans) – all “without a burnt and high acidic flavor.” Its coffee still offers “a nice walnut and almost sweet taste profile,” the brand writes.
Of course, if you’re more old school, you might take the advice of the original Joltin’ Joe…
SOME PEOPLE ARE WORKING WAY TOO HARD AT CHURCH-SHOPPING…
These are well done! Written by John Crist. Visit John Crist Comedy for more videos.
Here’s the scoop on a story from my neck of the woods:
A Columbus pastor who claimed his family was robbed of about $11,000 in cash and valuables while he was preaching at church has been arrested on felony charges of insurance fraud and contributing to the delinquency of a minor.
Justin K. White, 38, 3255 Sunrise Drive, senior minister at First Christian Church since May 2011, is accused of arranging with a juvenile to stage the Dec. 18 burglary at his Skyview Estates home on the city’s northeast side in order to file an insurance claim for the lost items, court documents in the case state.
What is even worse, of course, is that Pastor White tried to cover up the crime (the cover up is always worse, ya know) with pious language, and that his congregation and neighbors generously gave gifts and support to the family, thinking that they had been through a terrible ordeal.
The news story of the burglary at the White home resulted in national news coverage, with White reporting the family received an outpouring of kindness from local residents and the church congregation in the aftermath.
Two Columbus police officers, friends of the White family who did not want to be identified, replaced the family’s stolen living room television the same day of the burglary with a new one they purchased as a gift. Among the items White reported stolen were coins in his daughter’s piggy bank, jewelry with sentimental value, Xbox consoles and games and computers.
“We already have prayed as a family for the people who did this,” White told a Republic reporter Dec. 19, one day after the burglary. “Really, they are the ones who are truly struggling.”
It seems that the juvenile White enlisted for the burglary had been meeting with the pastor for spiritual counseling and ended up becoming the minister’s drug supplier. If he’s not already, the Rev. White will probably be standing in this line very soon…
Note from CM: Michael Spencer, one of the world’s greatest baseball fans, died on Opening Day of the MLB season — April 5, 2010. The box score above shows that his beloved Cincinnati Reds lost that night to the St. Louis Cardinals. Win or lose, I can’t think of Michael without smiling in brotherly sympathy with his delight in the boys of summer and their games.
This Sunday, comes another Opening Day. I believe in the communion of saints.
• • •
The crowd at the ball game is moved uniformly
by a spirit of uselessness which delights them,
all the exciting detail of the chase
and the escape, the error the flash of genius,
all to no end save beauty the eternal –
• William Carlos Williams, “The Crowd At The Baseball Game”
Monday morning, as we finished preparing for our district tournament game and prepared to load our equipment on the bus, I had several of the boys take the pitching machine out of the batting cage, and take it upstairs to winter storage. Every spring, bringing the pitching machine out of storage and into the cage marks the beginning of baseball season. As they took it up the stairs, they were quiet, pallbearers taking this symbol of our spring and our baseball season into the tomb for months of slumber, awaiting the resurrection on another day.
When I was a child, I played baseball in a field across the street from our house. The tiny white house is still there, but the field has long since become a parking lot. The tree that marked second base, and the alley that marked center field, are all gone. Only dim memories remain of the rituals of being chosen by the “big boys,” the terror of a real baseball coming toward you out of the sky, to be caught or dropped, and the first stirrings of understanding how this game allowed boys in a dreary neighborhood to touch greatness, and step into their dreams.
A few blocks away was a city park, and a little league diamond. The sign said “Eastern Little League.” There I would sit in the bleachers and watch boys my age in clean, white uniforms play the sandlot game, but now with white lines and real bases creating a place of beauty on the ground. A game where umpires and coaches transformed the child’s sandlot game into something that mattered in the real world.
Parents were cheering for their boys to hit the ball, to run home and score. My parents, however, were not there, and I would never play in Little League. My father was beginning the long path of mental illness that dominated my life, and no matter how much I asked and begged, he would not take me to join Little League. There were no reasons given. I just “didn’t need to do it.” Before long, I gave the diamond no more than a sideways glance when I walked home from school. I was not to play. For whatever reasons, God had decided I wouldn’t stand at the plate or take the field.
A few years later- long after I’d given up the sandlot game as well as any dream of sports- my father became interested in baseball. Not in me playing the game, but in watching others play. The American Legion sponsored a league for local high schoolers, and my father began going to the games. It was at the largest baseball diamond in town, Chatauqua Park. I began going with him, and for the first time, felt the stir of beauty looking out at a perfect diamond, perfect grass, lights at dusk all bounded by a deep green fence. I remember looking at someone named Jeff Carpenter, a revered pitcher, and realizing I was looking at something great on the earth. It was not just a boy with a ball, but it was something of perfection. Something of beauty. Almost a man, playing the boy’s game.
I discovered that my father had once followed the Owensboro Oilers, a Kitty League farm of the New York Yankees that played minor league ball in our town. At the now long gone Miller Field, Joe Dimaggio had played exhibition games, and the seats were fifty cents. Now he followed the Velvet Bomber American Legion team, and taught me how to be a fan instead of a player. I have forgiven him for taking away my chance to play, and I am grateful to him for giving me the gift of wanting to be near baseball. It is not the same, but it is still wonderful.
Years later, I was at seminary and discovered that Louisville had a minor league club for the St. Louis Cardinals. The Redbirds played at Cardinal Stadium. For $12 you could park, get a seat, nachos and a drink. There was a real band, and a real organ. I watched Vince Coleman and Willie McGee. The astroturf was beautiful to look at, and the right field fence was very close, so we watched many balls sail out of the park. We sat under the canopy for dozens of humid summer nights, sometimes watching storm clouds brewing up the river, in the distance, while we were at peace. A few years later, I took my children to their first baseball game in that stadium, and even though Louisville now has a beautiful new stadium for the Bats, I still get nostalgic about the summer nights I spend in that transformed football field.
Three years ago, I realized my soul was empty, and I had abundant evidence that religion wasn’t filling it up. I felt old and cornered by my failures, a dangerous feeling for a man in his middle forties. My faith speaks of rebirth, but sinking myself back into more books and spiritual disciplines was not going to meet this emptiness. God needed to be somewhere other than a church. Somehow, my mind returned to baseball; to the memories of the past, and to the lost days I would have spent playing ball if my father hadn’t been depressed and afraid.
I began going to our school games. That year, our team was exceptional, so it wasn’t hard to become a fan again. So much so that, the next year, I told the coach that I would be willing to be at all the games if he needed me in any capacity. From that came two years in the dugout and on the field as an assistant coach. Taking the pitching machine back to its resting place reminded me of these two good years, what I have learned, and God’s mercy.
Baseball is a place to lose yourself and find yourself. It is very generous with its fans. Those who know little and those who know too much can enjoy the same game. Everyone is a coach, a pitcher and a batter. The game flows through its players and fans at a pace the old and the young can tolerate. (Shame on those trying to speed the game up or make it feel like two hours of television. It is the quietness and slowness of baseball that allows so many of us to watch and become part of the game. This isn’t NASCAR.)
Baseball has a past that comes to every game. We walk in it, and feel it surrounding us. The great players hover over every field. The named and nameless memories of the elite visit every ballpark, hum alongside every pitch and shout with every stroke of the bat. The umpire’s calls and the managers’ quiet intensity all take us into the past of the game. All that is new and news recedes for a few moments, and only the ball, the field, the players and the game remain, like an island in the river of time.
Baseball constantly relives it’s past. It is rebirth. It takes all of us to our own past. It takes us to all that is unfinished, and less than perfect, and gives us another at bat; another inning; another game. Baseball is a sacramental moment, as we approach the perfection of the game. Two teams will reach for that perfection. In singular moments, the perfection will exist in a swing, or a pitch or a catch. But both teams will fall short of that perfect and eternal inning. One of baseball’s wonderful qualities is that our imperfection does not discourage us from playing again. We return from each defeat, from every out, from our errors and mistakes, with hope again alive in our hearts.
There is a liturgy and a rhythm to baseball. It is a liturgy of words and rules, but mostly of lines, numbers, repetitions and form. The pitcher moves in forms as ancient as the priest. The uniforms are old, and the chatter from the field and the dugout is a language that makes little sense off the field. There is devotion to the game, and honor for the players. It elevates us.
For those of us who are old, to be near baseball is to be tantalizingly close to your boyhood. We stand in the dirt, dust, lines and grass as we did when we were boys. We long to pick up the bat, to throw the ball. Within the confines of the park it seems possible to return to the moment of hitting a single or catching hard-hit shot to the third base line. Time-travel is not possible, of course, and I have little appreciation for those exercises in silliness called “fantasy camps.” But I believe that returning to the game as a fan, or a coach, has a special unction; a kind of power to make youth and old age momentarily irrelevant.
So we put away the pitching machine, and I said good-bye to the boys. I do not know much about my plans for the future- only this: I will return to the ballpark, and to baseball. I will return as often as I can until I am too old to go. It has done me much good, because there is something good in it. Something that cannot be ruined by the professionals as long as there are boys walking onto a field of dreams and memories, to lose and find themselves again in the mystery of seeking an inning that never ends.
Adam and the Genome 9: Chapter 5- Adam, Eve, and the Genome: Four Principles for Reading the Bible after the Human Genome Project
The Internet Monk Archives 