I have been reading through the Old Testament Book of Amos. The main theme is God's judgement (both present and forthcoming) on Israel for the injustice endemic to the society. This is very challenging today.
As an aside (which is hopefully not just an intellectual distraction) two particular verses got my attention (Amos 5:7 and 6:12):
7 O you who turn justice to wormwood
and cast down righteousness to the earth!
But you have turned justice into poison
and the fruit of righteousness into wormwood
I found these verses interesting because of the issues raised in an old post about "wormwood" in the Book of Revelation. The wormwood [just like locusts, fire, a plumbline, ...] may be an allusion to Amos.
This supports the view that Revelation is not about predicting specific events in a chronological sequence leading to the return of Jesus. Rather, it a call to Christians to perserve in living out their faith in a world full of injustice and suffering.
Sunday, March 10, 2013
Saturday, March 9, 2013
How can we help the poor?
Why do the poor remain poor? Are they trapped?
What is the most effective way to help them?
Why do many well-intentioned aid programs fail?
My son and I have started reading Poor Economics: a radical rethinking of the way to fight global poverty by two MIT economists.
It is very helpful and challenging. The emphasis is on finding strategies that have actually been proven to work, rather than programs Westerners think should work. The authors are also very compassionate pointing out how many of the mistakes and bad choices that the poor make are not that different to those of us in the affluent West make. For example, we often make choices (e.g. lack of exercise and poor diet) that are not in our best long term interests, even though we know what is the best thing to do.
The book emphasizes the complexity of the problem. Even simple ideas, such as getting families to use bed nets to reduce the chance of getting malaria from mosquitoes, can face significant cultural, psychological, and economic obstacles. To me, this underscores the effectiveness of holistic, indigenous led, and community based programs such as run by Compassion.
What is the most effective way to help them?
Why do many well-intentioned aid programs fail?
My son and I have started reading Poor Economics: a radical rethinking of the way to fight global poverty by two MIT economists.
It is very helpful and challenging. The emphasis is on finding strategies that have actually been proven to work, rather than programs Westerners think should work. The authors are also very compassionate pointing out how many of the mistakes and bad choices that the poor make are not that different to those of us in the affluent West make. For example, we often make choices (e.g. lack of exercise and poor diet) that are not in our best long term interests, even though we know what is the best thing to do.
The book emphasizes the complexity of the problem. Even simple ideas, such as getting families to use bed nets to reduce the chance of getting malaria from mosquitoes, can face significant cultural, psychological, and economic obstacles. To me, this underscores the effectiveness of holistic, indigenous led, and community based programs such as run by Compassion.
Wednesday, March 6, 2013
The inseparability of God's Works and Words
The divine revelation that the Old Testament records was conveyed in two principal ways—by mighty works and prophetic words. These two modes of revelation are bound up indissolubly together. The acts of mercy and judgment by which the God of Israel made himself known to his covenant people would not have carried their proper message had they not been interpreted to them by the prophets—the “spokesmen” of God who received and communicated his word. For example, the events of the Exodus would not have acquired their abiding significance for the Israelites if Moses had not told them that in these events the God of their fathers was acting for their deliverance, in accordance with his ancient promises, so that they might be his people and he their God. On the other hand, Moses’ words would have been fruitless apart from their vindication in the events of the Exodus.
F.F. Bruce, New Bible Dictionary, page 138
Three strands to the central message of the Bible
The Bible's central message is the story of salvation, and throughout both testaments three strands in this unfolding story can be distinguished: the bringer of salvation, the way of salvation and the heirs of salvation. This could be reworded in terms of the covenant idea by saying the central message of the Bible is God's covenant with men, and that the strands are the mediator of the covenant, the basis of the covenant, and the covenant people. God himself is the Saviour of His people; it is He who confirms His covenant mercy with them. The bringer of Salvation, the mediator of the covenant is Jesus Christ, the Son of God. The way of salvation, the basis of the covenant, is God's grace, calling forth from his people a response of faith and obedience. The heirs of salvation, the covenant people are the Israel of God, the Church of God.
F.F. Bruce, New Bible Dictionary, Second edition, p. 139.
Tuesday, March 5, 2013
The truth about men
Several months ago my son and I watched A Few Good Men, a fictional courtroom drama centred on a case of physical abuse [an illegal code red] within the US military.
To me it highlights the irony that violence and injustice can become endemic to a military which is meant to be protecting its citizens from injustice and violence. Why is that?
Two years ago I asked Who is protecting who? because of revelations of a long history of abuse of cadets within the Australian military.
Here is the climactic scene from the movie. You can't handle the truth. The end justifies the means...
To me it highlights the irony that violence and injustice can become endemic to a military which is meant to be protecting its citizens from injustice and violence. Why is that?
Two years ago I asked Who is protecting who? because of revelations of a long history of abuse of cadets within the Australian military.
Here is the climactic scene from the movie. You can't handle the truth. The end justifies the means...
Sunday, March 3, 2013
Does no one preach on this passage?
Some of the teachings of Jesus are hard to understand. Some are just too hard to hear....
It is interesting that in forty years of attending a range of churches I don't every recall hearing a sermon on the passage below from the Gospel of Matthew (chapter 25) . But, perhaps the passage was preached on and I deliberately forgot... This is no obscure passage. In Mattew's Gospel it is the last, and perhaps culmination, of Jesus teaching.
31 “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. 32 Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. 33 And he will place the sheep on his right, but the goats on the left....
41 “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. 42 For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, 43 I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.’ 44 Then they also will answer, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to you?’ 45 Then he will answer them, saying, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.’ 46 And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”
It is interesting that in forty years of attending a range of churches I don't every recall hearing a sermon on the passage below from the Gospel of Matthew (chapter 25) . But, perhaps the passage was preached on and I deliberately forgot... This is no obscure passage. In Mattew's Gospel it is the last, and perhaps culmination, of Jesus teaching.
31 “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. 32 Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. 33 And he will place the sheep on his right, but the goats on the left....
41 “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. 42 For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, 43 I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.’ 44 Then they also will answer, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to you?’ 45 Then he will answer them, saying, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.’ 46 And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”
Saturday, March 2, 2013
Blame the Christians!
The "Volfian" reading group is re-convening today to discuss more of Augustine's City of God. We just read Book III. Augustine provides a model and robust critique of the surrounding culture and of his contemporaries' criticism of Christianity. They were blaming Christianity for the fall of Rome and its current suffering. If only the Romans had kept worshipping their own gods. They would have protected them.
Augustine cleverly uses secular authors to show the flaws in these arguments. Rome "suffered" much before Christ. Furthermore, Roman gods were diligently worshipped then and yet Roman citizens experienced considerable natural disasters and atrocities in war. Much of this suffering arose from civil wars and from man's own lust for power and violence. In Augustine's words:
Augustine cleverly uses secular authors to show the flaws in these arguments. Rome "suffered" much before Christ. Furthermore, Roman gods were diligently worshipped then and yet Roman citizens experienced considerable natural disasters and atrocities in war. Much of this suffering arose from civil wars and from man's own lust for power and violence. In Augustine's words:
How can our opponents have the effrontery, the audacity, the impudence, the imbecility (or rather the insanity) to refuse to blame their gods for those catastrophes, while they hold Christ responsible for the disasters of modern times?
The brutal civil wars, more bitter, in the admission of their own authors, than any wars against foreign enemies - those civil wars which, in the general judgement, brought on the the republic not merely calamity but utter destruction - broke out long before the coming of Christ.
Book III, Chapter 30, pages 131 (Penguin edition)
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