I've posted about this before.
As you read the stories of scripture and passages to remember consider that people were day-to-day familiar with the natural images and analogies you find. It added to their understanding of the story - a teaching and learning tool in God's hand.
If you aren't already familiar with those natural images find a way! Look ahead at the stories you'll cover this season. Make a list. What
pre-story scouting can you do to add to the sensory experience for your
kids and ultimately to their understanding of who God is.
Maybe your kids are more familiar day-to-day with some of the images than you are. Give them opportunities to share.
Ask your kids: "What do you know about lilies in a field?" A sparrow? Sheep?
Grape vines
Rain on a farmers field
Waves on great lakes
a desert
dry seasons
floods
We know God by all the names He gives us in the scriptures but, especially as children, we learn to know God as Creator.
We don't even have to over-explain and understand all the ins and outs. Sometimes it's enough to just stand in awe of Him and all that His hands have done. Sometimes it's enough to just say "Wow!"
Showing posts with label creation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label creation. Show all posts
Monday, May 20, 2013
Sunday, May 19, 2013
grapevine! (Some of you have asked for more photos!)
Looks like I need to go back and take pictures!!
Looks like I need to go back and take pictures!!
Grape Vines
We took my youngest daughter out to eat for her 24th birthday in the middle of Finger Lakes wine country.
Thought about you guys as I stared out the window at a field of grape vines. Sorry. Forgot my camera. The trunks were noticeably old and thick. The leaves small, tender, new. These are fairly young wineries.
The vinier had surely cut out all the dead wood that didn't bear any fruit and pruned back the branches that did. Someone who went to college in wine country on Lake Erie once told us how the smell of the grapes in the fields before harvest hung heavy in the air.
They'll be picking lots of ripe grapes in the fall and crushing the grapes and letting the juice mellow and age ...
Made me think of old traditions and new ideas, old folks and children, good fruit, bad fruit, crushed fruit and dead wood...
Went back and read John 15 .
If you're driving through wine country use the opportunity to ponder God's thoughts about vines and grapes and vineyards and wine...new wine...aged wine... Take a tour. Go back and read John 15.
Behind the restaurant was an abandoned field of grapevines, unpruned, unkept, obscured by all the other plant life left to take over the field...The vines are still there. They just won't bear the quality or quantity of fruit that the other field will.
Lots to ponder...
Thought about you guys as I stared out the window at a field of grape vines. Sorry. Forgot my camera. The trunks were noticeably old and thick. The leaves small, tender, new. These are fairly young wineries.
The vinier had surely cut out all the dead wood that didn't bear any fruit and pruned back the branches that did. Someone who went to college in wine country on Lake Erie once told us how the smell of the grapes in the fields before harvest hung heavy in the air.
They'll be picking lots of ripe grapes in the fall and crushing the grapes and letting the juice mellow and age ...
Made me think of old traditions and new ideas, old folks and children, good fruit, bad fruit, crushed fruit and dead wood...
Went back and read John 15 .
If you're driving through wine country use the opportunity to ponder God's thoughts about vines and grapes and vineyards and wine...new wine...aged wine... Take a tour. Go back and read John 15.
Behind the restaurant was an abandoned field of grapevines, unpruned, unkept, obscured by all the other plant life left to take over the field...The vines are still there. They just won't bear the quality or quantity of fruit that the other field will.
Lots to ponder...
Monday, November 12, 2012
Pondering Chapters 8 & 9
Finished reading all but the Notes. Probably won't read them, actually.
Pondering. When I have more time to sit and write...
Dog people have challenged the dominance model in dog training, parents and society have rejected heavy-handed parenting, as Dr. Freitheim searches and studies the Old Testament he sees an interdependence between God Creator, Man, and all that God has made. He challenges our traditional thinking.
God is still God - separate from what he's made and yet He fills. He is still all that He says he is - Powerful, Benevolent, Father, Son, Holy Spirit.
Metaphors from nature tell us things about Him that comparing God to man don't.
God, Man, all that God has set in motion are interdependent in more ways than we think about.
Dr Freitheim challenges our thinking that man is the center of God's thinking and all that God creates exists to serve man. O, Man - life is not just about you!! A humbling thought?
But God is there - faithful! Caring, nurturing, holding us to high standards, relating, watching, protecting, intervening sometimes but not always, teaching ... intimately acquainted with all that He's created and how it all works together. Back and forth, give and take...Fascinating!
The scriptures stand. God is who He says He is. Worthy of our praise. In it's fullness, all creation praises Him and God says, "It is good!"
As I say, still pondering. When I have time to sit and write more...
Pondering. When I have more time to sit and write...
Dog people have challenged the dominance model in dog training, parents and society have rejected heavy-handed parenting, as Dr. Freitheim searches and studies the Old Testament he sees an interdependence between God Creator, Man, and all that God has made. He challenges our traditional thinking.
God is still God - separate from what he's made and yet He fills. He is still all that He says he is - Powerful, Benevolent, Father, Son, Holy Spirit.
Metaphors from nature tell us things about Him that comparing God to man don't.
God, Man, all that God has set in motion are interdependent in more ways than we think about.
Dr Freitheim challenges our thinking that man is the center of God's thinking and all that God creates exists to serve man. O, Man - life is not just about you!! A humbling thought?
But God is there - faithful! Caring, nurturing, holding us to high standards, relating, watching, protecting, intervening sometimes but not always, teaching ... intimately acquainted with all that He's created and how it all works together. Back and forth, give and take...Fascinating!
The scriptures stand. God is who He says He is. Worthy of our praise. In it's fullness, all creation praises Him and God says, "It is good!"
As I say, still pondering. When I have time to sit and write more...
Sunday, September 23, 2012
Thinking about older elementary and junior high children: We read the Old Testament in the context of a Savior but when the OT was written, Jesus hadn't come yet.
Are there creation themes in Old Testament stories that we miss because we read it through a New Testament window? Does it matter?
Does our scientific thinking keep us from really reflecting on God as relational Creator when we read the Old Testament stories?
How do your respond to unscientific child-like faith?
What do the Old Testament stories tell us about the Maker of Heaven and Earth and His creative power? How do the Old Testament stories renew our understanding of a Creator God Who is relational and involved?
How can these reminders better prepare us for the new life He sent us in a Baby who grows into a Man and dies and lives again to reconcile us with that same God who made us to do what He made us to do?
Are there creation themes in Old Testament stories that we miss because we read it through a New Testament window? Does it matter?
Does our scientific thinking keep us from really reflecting on God as relational Creator when we read the Old Testament stories?
How do your respond to unscientific child-like faith?
What do the Old Testament stories tell us about the Maker of Heaven and Earth and His creative power? How do the Old Testament stories renew our understanding of a Creator God Who is relational and involved?
How can these reminders better prepare us for the new life He sent us in a Baby who grows into a Man and dies and lives again to reconcile us with that same God who made us to do what He made us to do?
Chapter 4: "Creation and Foundation Narratives of Israel" *
*from God and World in the Old Testament: A Relational Theology by Terence E. Fretheim
We probably take the influence of the natural world on the people of Israel in the OT for granted. Dr. Fretheim doesn't do this. His window is even wider: Individuals, family, extended family, community exist in a larger context - not just the God-created natural world, a world full of neighboring peoples and cultures.
The author continually points out to us that Creation's story continues. It doesn't stop because we begin to focus on the life of God's "chosen" people. God is still Creator. Creation continues to be an integral part (the very context) of Israel's story. (pg 91) Dr Fretheim emphasizes often that God's created world is bigger than His chosen people.
The story of God's work in His people ultimately affects the greater cosmos: the land, other peoples. ( p 92)
In Genesis, man is called to care for what God has made. Despite the Fall, man is still called to faithfulness. (p. 93)
Man is good - created in the image of God. Man chose not to trust God and he will continually battle with that inclination. Yet, on occasion, men like Noah and Moses overcome and chose to faithfully serve the God who created them. (p. 94)
Humans are individuals but always part of communities. "To be concerned about the development and continuing dynamic of family is a creational matter." (p. 94)
The author makes an interesting comment about family conflict: "A key to understanding the family stories [in the OT] is that God's choosing, speaking, and acting generate much of the conflict. At the same time, God does not leave the principals to stew in their own often ill-conceived interactions. God remains at work in and through an amazing range of family problems and possibilities, finally for purposes of reconciliation. (Gen 50:20)" (p. 94) This extends to God's concern for a nation and even for those "outsiders" - not the chosen Israel. (p. 95)
The author notes the creation theme in Joseph's story."This story draws important links between family life and national life and, and in the person Joseph, demonstrates the importance of good national leadership for the proper development of social life, indeed God's entire creation (Gen 41:53-57). National life is often compromised by the sinfulness of individual leaders and systemic forms of evil (including Joseph), but the nation remains a key structure of creation in and through which God is at work for life and blessing."(p 95)
Land adds creational focus in these narratives. Land is a source of God's provision. It is a gift. It is a source of blessing. Sin may affect the land but "...the land is apparently understood to be subject to such realities as drought just by virtue of its createdness." (p. 97)
He says, "cosmic order is linked to moral order" and gives examples. (p. 97)
He talks about "implied law" before Moses. "By building the law into the created order, the point is made that every human being, not simply the chosen people, is to attend to the law for the sake of the creation and all its creatures." (p 99) " As with the relational model of creation with which we have been working , we have here a relational model of the development of law." (p 100)
He successfully looks for ways that creation, not just salvation, themes from Genesis 1-11 continue through Israel's story. "Most fundamentally, the images of God in Genesis 1-11 witness to a God who is present and active in the world more generally, not just in Israel." God intends "Abraham to be a blessing to all 'families'" (p 101)
God is the God who "Speaks/Reveals" (p 102), "the God who Elects" (p.102) "the God Who Saves" (p. 103), the "God who Makes (Covenant) Promises," "The God Who Blesses" (p. 106-108), the God Who Judges (p 108), the God Who is Relational ( p 108-109).
He looks at creation themes in Exodus: "Pharoah, a historical symbol for the anticreational forces of death, seeks to subvert God's life-giving work with death-dealing efforts, to close down God's work of multiplication and fruitfulness. Such efforts are a threat to undo God's creative work with negative macrocosmic ramifications." (p 112-113) He puts this part of Israel's story in a bigger context. The redemption story is bigger than just Israel.
He talks about the plagues and how "they are all out of kilter with their created way of being." (p 119)
He spends a number of pages talking about the parting of the Red Sea. "Given the anticreational forces incarnate in Egypt and the pharaoh, no simple local or historical victory will do; God's victory must be and is cosmic in scope." (p 124) God's liberation is universal. "God's redemptive act reclaims Israel as God's own and reconstitutes them as a living, growing people." (p 125) "The effect that God intends in the act of redemption is a new creation -in the dynamic sense." (p 126).
The author draws attention to the re-creational themes expressed through God's provision for Israel in the wilderness. If God's miracles use natural means, is it less God? If God leads us to provision already available through the natural world, but unknown to us, is it less a miracle? Is it less God's provision? (p 126-8) Again, the author keeps highlighting parallels and similarities to the creations story in Genesis as Israel's story unfolds.
He links the tabernacle and creation - a movable "place" spoken and built to God's specifications, the way creation was - a sanctuary for God moving in the midst of His people. (128-131)
Dr. Fretheim ends the chapter with a reminder that all that God created, all that God creates, all that continues to reproduce what God has made is still good! "The glory manifest [in the tabernacle] is to stream out into the larger world. The shining of Moses' face in the wake of the experience of the divine glory (Exod 34:29-35) is to become characteristic of Israel as a whole, a radiating out into the larger world of those glorious effects of God's dwelling among Israel." (p. 131)
These are just bits and pieces. We don't always know and understand why God does what He does but there are things that make more sense in the context of all that God has created that don't make sense when we narrow our focus.
We probably take the influence of the natural world on the people of Israel in the OT for granted. Dr. Fretheim doesn't do this. His window is even wider: Individuals, family, extended family, community exist in a larger context - not just the God-created natural world, a world full of neighboring peoples and cultures.
The author continually points out to us that Creation's story continues. It doesn't stop because we begin to focus on the life of God's "chosen" people. God is still Creator. Creation continues to be an integral part (the very context) of Israel's story. (pg 91) Dr Fretheim emphasizes often that God's created world is bigger than His chosen people.
The story of God's work in His people ultimately affects the greater cosmos: the land, other peoples. ( p 92)
In Genesis, man is called to care for what God has made. Despite the Fall, man is still called to faithfulness. (p. 93)
Man is good - created in the image of God. Man chose not to trust God and he will continually battle with that inclination. Yet, on occasion, men like Noah and Moses overcome and chose to faithfully serve the God who created them. (p. 94)
Humans are individuals but always part of communities. "To be concerned about the development and continuing dynamic of family is a creational matter." (p. 94)
The author makes an interesting comment about family conflict: "A key to understanding the family stories [in the OT] is that God's choosing, speaking, and acting generate much of the conflict. At the same time, God does not leave the principals to stew in their own often ill-conceived interactions. God remains at work in and through an amazing range of family problems and possibilities, finally for purposes of reconciliation. (Gen 50:20)" (p. 94) This extends to God's concern for a nation and even for those "outsiders" - not the chosen Israel. (p. 95)
The author notes the creation theme in Joseph's story."This story draws important links between family life and national life and, and in the person Joseph, demonstrates the importance of good national leadership for the proper development of social life, indeed God's entire creation (Gen 41:53-57). National life is often compromised by the sinfulness of individual leaders and systemic forms of evil (including Joseph), but the nation remains a key structure of creation in and through which God is at work for life and blessing."(p 95)
Land adds creational focus in these narratives. Land is a source of God's provision. It is a gift. It is a source of blessing. Sin may affect the land but "...the land is apparently understood to be subject to such realities as drought just by virtue of its createdness." (p. 97)
He says, "cosmic order is linked to moral order" and gives examples. (p. 97)
He talks about "implied law" before Moses. "By building the law into the created order, the point is made that every human being, not simply the chosen people, is to attend to the law for the sake of the creation and all its creatures." (p 99) " As with the relational model of creation with which we have been working , we have here a relational model of the development of law." (p 100)
He successfully looks for ways that creation, not just salvation, themes from Genesis 1-11 continue through Israel's story. "Most fundamentally, the images of God in Genesis 1-11 witness to a God who is present and active in the world more generally, not just in Israel." God intends "Abraham to be a blessing to all 'families'" (p 101)
God is the God who "Speaks/Reveals" (p 102), "the God who Elects" (p.102) "the God Who Saves" (p. 103), the "God who Makes (Covenant) Promises," "The God Who Blesses" (p. 106-108), the God Who Judges (p 108), the God Who is Relational ( p 108-109).
He looks at creation themes in Exodus: "Pharoah, a historical symbol for the anticreational forces of death, seeks to subvert God's life-giving work with death-dealing efforts, to close down God's work of multiplication and fruitfulness. Such efforts are a threat to undo God's creative work with negative macrocosmic ramifications." (p 112-113) He puts this part of Israel's story in a bigger context. The redemption story is bigger than just Israel.
He talks about the plagues and how "they are all out of kilter with their created way of being." (p 119)
He spends a number of pages talking about the parting of the Red Sea. "Given the anticreational forces incarnate in Egypt and the pharaoh, no simple local or historical victory will do; God's victory must be and is cosmic in scope." (p 124) God's liberation is universal. "God's redemptive act reclaims Israel as God's own and reconstitutes them as a living, growing people." (p 125) "The effect that God intends in the act of redemption is a new creation -in the dynamic sense." (p 126).
The author draws attention to the re-creational themes expressed through God's provision for Israel in the wilderness. If God's miracles use natural means, is it less God? If God leads us to provision already available through the natural world, but unknown to us, is it less a miracle? Is it less God's provision? (p 126-8) Again, the author keeps highlighting parallels and similarities to the creations story in Genesis as Israel's story unfolds.
He links the tabernacle and creation - a movable "place" spoken and built to God's specifications, the way creation was - a sanctuary for God moving in the midst of His people. (128-131)
Dr. Fretheim ends the chapter with a reminder that all that God created, all that God creates, all that continues to reproduce what God has made is still good! "The glory manifest [in the tabernacle] is to stream out into the larger world. The shining of Moses' face in the wake of the experience of the divine glory (Exod 34:29-35) is to become characteristic of Israel as a whole, a radiating out into the larger world of those glorious effects of God's dwelling among Israel." (p. 131)
These are just bits and pieces. We don't always know and understand why God does what He does but there are things that make more sense in the context of all that God has created that don't make sense when we narrow our focus.
Saturday, September 08, 2012
Chapter 2 "The Creation Accounts of Genesis" *
*from God and World in the Old Testament: A Relational Theology by Terence E. Fretheim
Chapter 2 is here!
Not that this is a difficult book to read but there is so much to process! If you want the real meat of it, take the time to ponder the passages of scripture in the light of the author's observations and let the Word change your thinking... Here is my over-simplification of the author's observations and a bit of my own random processing.
First and foremost, the author's thoughts about the relational character of God aren't sentimental, modernistic notions but observations about God's initial and ongoing interactions with what He created (and creates) as expressed in the scriptures.
God is Creator, communicator, servant. God is interactive, not out there somewhere. He shared his thoughts with man. He shared His work with man. God named, then He let man name. He took something he made (dirt) and made something new (man). He took man, and made woman. He made them in such a way that they could continue creating human beings and set up all of creation to do that.
The author's focus is less on God relating to what He has created as a non-resident ruler or landlord but more as Creator including what and whom He's created in the process of continuing what He began - not as clones but as helpers.
It wasn't enough for God to just create and enjoy His creation, by Himself. It wasn't enough for God and man to have only each other. God gave woman to man and they created more people. The creatures of the earth created more of themselves. The non-animal creation created more of itself. The non-living creation also continued to create...Such a God we have!
Rest was part of God's creative process, the author says that perhaps it gave God opportunity to enjoy the fruit of His labors. God had a day for this and a day for that - interesting observation. God orders time as a dimension of His creation: sunrise and sundown, phases of the moon, phases of the night sky, seasons.
The author's observation that God kept evaluating His work was an interesting observation: God said, "This is good!" Creation - God's creation - is good. It wasn't "good" that man be alone - just him and God. It wasn't "good" that man be alone with just God and all the other things that God had created. God made woman. Man had been helping God. Woman would help man. Interesting?
There was give and take between God and His creation. God made clothes for Adam and Eve after they fell. Interesting observation that patriarchy came with the "fall." God took them out of the garden to protect them from the possibility of continuing on the path they were on and partaking of the Tree of Life and living forever with the "Knowledge of Good and Evil."
That's an interesting thought, isn't it. Is it in God's plan to save us from the "knowledge of good and evil," to redeem us from the effects of "the knowledge of good and evil?" Is that why Jesus came? Is that what our restoration, our being brought back into a right relationship with God, walking with Him in the cool of the evening might look like?
God gave Adam and Eve the freedom to choose, knowing they could choose badly and they did. But God responded without giving up on that which He had made ... Man's choice affected all that God had made and God rolled with it, so to speak...Our wonderful interactive, relational, Creator God!
Chapter 2 is here!
Not that this is a difficult book to read but there is so much to process! If you want the real meat of it, take the time to ponder the passages of scripture in the light of the author's observations and let the Word change your thinking... Here is my over-simplification of the author's observations and a bit of my own random processing.
First and foremost, the author's thoughts about the relational character of God aren't sentimental, modernistic notions but observations about God's initial and ongoing interactions with what He created (and creates) as expressed in the scriptures.
God is Creator, communicator, servant. God is interactive, not out there somewhere. He shared his thoughts with man. He shared His work with man. God named, then He let man name. He took something he made (dirt) and made something new (man). He took man, and made woman. He made them in such a way that they could continue creating human beings and set up all of creation to do that.
The author's focus is less on God relating to what He has created as a non-resident ruler or landlord but more as Creator including what and whom He's created in the process of continuing what He began - not as clones but as helpers.
It wasn't enough for God to just create and enjoy His creation, by Himself. It wasn't enough for God and man to have only each other. God gave woman to man and they created more people. The creatures of the earth created more of themselves. The non-animal creation created more of itself. The non-living creation also continued to create...Such a God we have!
Rest was part of God's creative process, the author says that perhaps it gave God opportunity to enjoy the fruit of His labors. God had a day for this and a day for that - interesting observation. God orders time as a dimension of His creation: sunrise and sundown, phases of the moon, phases of the night sky, seasons.
The author's observation that God kept evaluating His work was an interesting observation: God said, "This is good!" Creation - God's creation - is good. It wasn't "good" that man be alone - just him and God. It wasn't "good" that man be alone with just God and all the other things that God had created. God made woman. Man had been helping God. Woman would help man. Interesting?
There was give and take between God and His creation. God made clothes for Adam and Eve after they fell. Interesting observation that patriarchy came with the "fall." God took them out of the garden to protect them from the possibility of continuing on the path they were on and partaking of the Tree of Life and living forever with the "Knowledge of Good and Evil."
That's an interesting thought, isn't it. Is it in God's plan to save us from the "knowledge of good and evil," to redeem us from the effects of "the knowledge of good and evil?" Is that why Jesus came? Is that what our restoration, our being brought back into a right relationship with God, walking with Him in the cool of the evening might look like?
God gave Adam and Eve the freedom to choose, knowing they could choose badly and they did. But God responded without giving up on that which He had made ... Man's choice affected all that God had made and God rolled with it, so to speak...Our wonderful interactive, relational, Creator God!
Friday, August 10, 2012
Chapter 1: "Theological Perspectives" *
*from God and World in the Old Testament: A Relational Theology by Terence E. Fretheim
Processing Chapter 1. FINALLY!
I decided not to dissect it. I'm not a scholar or a teacher. I'll tell you what I brought away from it. Chapter 1 is twenty eight pages. I scratch the surface here. You might come away with something different.
My general understanding of this introductory chapter is that, the language of creation and the language of the scriptures tell us that God is relational. (p. 1) God's relational capabilities extend beyond redemption and salvation. (p. 10-13)
I've always taken God's cosmic involvement, His role as Creator - once and ongoing- for granted. ( p. 5-9) I've taken his momentary personal intervention in the lives of men and creation (p. 8) for granted, even God's involvement in the lives of peoples who don't worship Him. (p. 19-22)
To whatever degree science confirms ecological interrelationships, I assume God designed it intentionally. (p. 19-20) I expect that creating life systems that work and keep working, systems that keep creating, save God the headaches of micro-management. But we'll never really know. God didn't have to give mankind a will - "Choose this day whom you will serve!" But He did. Eve made the first choice.
Dr. Fretheim shows us that the scriptures open with our God calling Creation into being and the scriptures end in Revelation with God calling a New Creation into being. ( p. 9) He places the people Israel and their history in the context of Creator and creation. (p. 18) Note: The author considers creation more than just the natural world ( p. 4). Israel lives and has their being (as do we) in the context of all that God created. Perhaps their pastoral lives kept them more acutely aware than most of us are today.
God walked with Adam in the cool of the day, He dwelt with Israel in the tabernacle. He filled the sanctuary with His glory all indicative of His desire was to walk with man, to dwell in the midst of Israel and all that He made. And Emmanuel, of course - but that's New Testament. (p.22-27)
Faith communities who focus on God as Redeemer and on His work of salvation might take issue that the author sees redemption and salvation as only parts of God's greater work, not the end all. But he says, ". . .God's work as Redeemer does not stand at odds with what He is about in creation." ( p.10) Freitham says we are redeemed, saved, bought back, to become all that God created us to become and do." (p. 10) Jesus came to seek and to save that which was lost. He came to restore us to God, Creator, Father. All of creation groans for the revealing of the sons of man, to be set free from the consequences that came when we first broke trust with our God Creator - but that's New Testament and this is about the Old Testament.
The seeds for thinking like this, the foundations for my seeing God first and always as Creator God, the God who made me and everything in and around me, began growing in me as a child - maybe because I grew up on a farm around animals and preferred outside to inside. As I grow I come to know Him by other names: Shepherd, Redeemer, Lord, Friend. For all of my questioning over the years whether or not God is relational was never one of them but thinking like that can make us egotistical. God - Creator - is much much bigger than that.
All through the Old Testament, God draws metaphor after metaphor from His creation to help us understand. (p.1-3) Successful human understanding requires that we are familiar with those same concrete realities in real life.
His basic claim "about the Old Testament understanding of creation, is that it has a fundamental relational character." God is relational! (p. 13) Of course God is relational! But the author is saying that all of the Old Testament gives us a relational understanding of God. Some people say, Of course. He is the God of Covenant. Freitheim explores evidence that, as revealed in the scriptures, God's relationships with Israel (and all that he's made) is more: "The inadequacy of covenant language in specifying the nature and range of the God-human or God-Israel relationship is [also] evident in the prophets' sharply reduced use of it." (p 15)
How we understand the scriptures influence how we see God, how we know God and how we perceive His influence, how we understand His Word. How we know God effects how we understand the scriptures, how we live and how we see and respond to the rest of the world around us. (p. 14)
We understand that those who recorded the holy scriptures were "pre-scientific" yet they lived in the midst of life realities that, today, scientists explore and study. (p. 27-28) From my perspective, scientists exploring and studying various and sundry aspects of creation does not make what they study less what God created it to be. When I look as all that we discover through scientific inquiry, I see just a glimmer of how amazing God is. Our theories, assumptions, and speculation are just that: human theories, assumptions and speculation. Thirty years from now those will change. But I begin with the assumption that God, my God, is Creator and all trails of scientific inquiry lead back to Him.
My comments won't do this book justice. Be forewarned: it's going to take me forever to wade through and process this book. Not a quick, easy read but interesting thoughts about how the scriptures reveal how very relational our God is and always has been.
Tuesday, July 31, 2012
God and the World in the Old Testament: A Relational theology of Creation by Terence E. Fretheim
CRT (for creation and relational theology)
The whole book is 284 pages plus about 100 pages of notes and indexes.
from Chapter 1
The author starts with the comment "A remarkable number of Hebrew words are used with reference to creation with God as subject..." (p. 1)
He notes the vast number of images and metaphors from creation used in the Old Testament. My comment: if we allow our children to lose touch with (first hand experience) they will not understand those images and metaphors.
"...because creation in the Old Testament is a theological category, it is not to be equated with nature or world."(p. 4) My comment: Interesting.
creation is ongoing...something that human and non-human creatures do. ( p.4)
Asking what does the word creation entail? He explores
1) "Originating Creation" - as when/where things originate,
2) "Continuing Creation" - where God continues to sustain, hold things together, and keep things running implying a system as opposed to God making moment by moment micromanagement decisions. "God also continues to create the genuinely new." (p.8)
"The broad understanding of creation in ancient Israel was crucial ... it helped assure a fundamental earthiness, a down-to earth understanding of the faith that was related to life as it was actually lived rather than a faith centered in a spiritualistic, futuristic, or sentimental piety."(p.8)
"God's continuing creation is as 'good' as the original creation. . .Given the realities of sin and evil, such continuing creational activity will not proceed without significant opposition." (p. 8)
3) "Completing Creation" - He completes the incomplete. "The books of Genesis and Revelation provide a creational bracket for the Bible, and texts in between are a continuing witness to the purposive work of God toward this new creation. At the same time, the new creation is not a return to the original beginning - if that were the case, everything that had happened in between would finally be of no consequence . . . The new creation is not simply a rearrangement of that which has existed; something genuinely new will come to be." (p. 9)
He explores redemption, creation, salvation - interesting thoughts for evangelicals.
That's only part of Chapter 1. I'm going to keep reading but not get into the old quotes and comments.
I will get into the old asking of questions . . .
CRT (for creation and relational theology)
The whole book is 284 pages plus about 100 pages of notes and indexes.
from Chapter 1
The author starts with the comment "A remarkable number of Hebrew words are used with reference to creation with God as subject..." (p. 1)
He notes the vast number of images and metaphors from creation used in the Old Testament. My comment: if we allow our children to lose touch with (first hand experience) they will not understand those images and metaphors.
"...because creation in the Old Testament is a theological category, it is not to be equated with nature or world."(p. 4) My comment: Interesting.
creation is ongoing...something that human and non-human creatures do. ( p.4)
Asking what does the word creation entail? He explores
1) "Originating Creation" - as when/where things originate,
2) "Continuing Creation" - where God continues to sustain, hold things together, and keep things running implying a system as opposed to God making moment by moment micromanagement decisions. "God also continues to create the genuinely new." (p.8)
"The broad understanding of creation in ancient Israel was crucial ... it helped assure a fundamental earthiness, a down-to earth understanding of the faith that was related to life as it was actually lived rather than a faith centered in a spiritualistic, futuristic, or sentimental piety."(p.8)
"God's continuing creation is as 'good' as the original creation. . .Given the realities of sin and evil, such continuing creational activity will not proceed without significant opposition." (p. 8)
3) "Completing Creation" - He completes the incomplete. "The books of Genesis and Revelation provide a creational bracket for the Bible, and texts in between are a continuing witness to the purposive work of God toward this new creation. At the same time, the new creation is not a return to the original beginning - if that were the case, everything that had happened in between would finally be of no consequence . . . The new creation is not simply a rearrangement of that which has existed; something genuinely new will come to be." (p. 9)
He explores redemption, creation, salvation - interesting thoughts for evangelicals.
That's only part of Chapter 1. I'm going to keep reading but not get into the old quotes and comments.
I will get into the old asking of questions . . .
Thursday, June 28, 2012
Dr Fretheim says, "A remarkable number of Hebrew words are used with reference to creation, with God as subject...The sheer number of words indicates that Israel's thought about creation was wide-ranging and complex." (p.1)
It would probably be interesting to know what concept Israelites have the most words for. Consider all the names for God.
Years ago, I found a book for kids about the seven Inuit words for snow. Apparently there are more: nouns, verbs - often describing or implying all the nuances that go with such an important presence in the far north. Contrast that to the number of words for snow in native Hawaiian or Caribbean languages. There were so many kinds of snow, context, detail that they needed more words to tell one another what they meant!
I once read somewhere that conquerors will often take away a conquered country's language and require them to learn the language, customs, and stories of the conquorer - to give up not just control of their land but their very identity .
People who speak different languages think differently. I read an article that a girl wrote for a children's magazine years ago. She grew up speaking (if I remember right) four languages. She found that when she thought about ____she used ___ language because of what that particular language allowed her to express.
Who knew! It's just interesting. Such is the beginning of the discussion about our relational Creator and his creation.
It would probably be interesting to know what concept Israelites have the most words for. Consider all the names for God.
Years ago, I found a book for kids about the seven Inuit words for snow. Apparently there are more: nouns, verbs - often describing or implying all the nuances that go with such an important presence in the far north. Contrast that to the number of words for snow in native Hawaiian or Caribbean languages. There were so many kinds of snow, context, detail that they needed more words to tell one another what they meant!
I once read somewhere that conquerors will often take away a conquered country's language and require them to learn the language, customs, and stories of the conquorer - to give up not just control of their land but their very identity .
People who speak different languages think differently. I read an article that a girl wrote for a children's magazine years ago. She grew up speaking (if I remember right) four languages. She found that when she thought about ____she used ___ language because of what that particular language allowed her to express.
Who knew! It's just interesting. Such is the beginning of the discussion about our relational Creator and his creation.
Sunday, June 24, 2012
p. xvi
"It is the Creator God who is understood to be the redeemer of Israel from Egypt."
I think this understanding is foundational for children and faith. In my mind, Creation is all that God's hands have made. In my mind, God as Creator is something concrete!
The author quotes Rolf Rendtorff: "faith in God the Creator was perceived and experienced as the all-embracing framework, as the fundamental, all-underlying premise for any talk about God, the world, Israel, and the individual."
"...the underlying premise for any talk about God..." Apply that to working with children.
"It is the Creator God who is understood to be the redeemer of Israel from Egypt."
I think this understanding is foundational for children and faith. In my mind, Creation is all that God's hands have made. In my mind, God as Creator is something concrete!
The author quotes Rolf Rendtorff: "faith in God the Creator was perceived and experienced as the all-embracing framework, as the fundamental, all-underlying premise for any talk about God, the world, Israel, and the individual."
"...the underlying premise for any talk about God..." Apply that to working with children.
p. xv
The author talks about creation as more than a word study. He reminds us that Israel's understanding of creation was probably influenced by surrounding cultures. Israelite leaders decided matters like boundary disputes. Israel "lived close to the ground, if you will, and the natural world filled their lives. Creation was a lively reality for them prior to the development of specific ideas about creation...it may be that 'blessing' was a basic and early understanding of Israel's God as Creator."
Think of Adam and Eve and where they lived. Think of Abraham's journey, Israel's journey out of Egypt, David hiding out from Saul, Jesus in the wilderness. Where (not geographically but in light of creation) do the various stories of scripture happen?
The author raises a question. Which came first in the development of Israel's faith? God as Creator or God as Redeemer?
The author talks about creation as more than a word study. He reminds us that Israel's understanding of creation was probably influenced by surrounding cultures. Israelite leaders decided matters like boundary disputes. Israel "lived close to the ground, if you will, and the natural world filled their lives. Creation was a lively reality for them prior to the development of specific ideas about creation...it may be that 'blessing' was a basic and early understanding of Israel's God as Creator."
Think of Adam and Eve and where they lived. Think of Abraham's journey, Israel's journey out of Egypt, David hiding out from Saul, Jesus in the wilderness. Where (not geographically but in light of creation) do the various stories of scripture happen?
The author raises a question. Which came first in the development of Israel's faith? God as Creator or God as Redeemer?
Friday, June 22, 2012
p. xiii
"H. H. Schmid...specifies that sedeqah, 'righteousness'...refers to a harmonious world order built by God into the very infrastructure of creation. . . wherever righteousness is practiced by human beings . . . that act is in tune with the creation. . . When humans do not so practice righteousness, adverse effects are felt across all created spheres."
I think of Romans 8:19-22
Rolf Knierim: "Yahweh is not the God of creation because he is the God of the humans or of human history. He is the God of the humans and of human history because He is the God or creation. . .The most universal act of Yahweh's dominion is not human history. It is the creation and sustenance of the world."
I think of Psalms
Fretheim: "God is the God of the entire cosmos; God has to do with every creature, and every creature has to do with God, whether they recognize it or not. . .That the Bible begins with Genesis, not Exodus, with creation, not redemption, is of immeasurable importance for understanding all that follows. . . creation is as basic and integral to Israelite faith and its confession as is the first article of the creed to Christians."
As a child, I just assumed that this was so...
"H. H. Schmid...specifies that sedeqah, 'righteousness'...refers to a harmonious world order built by God into the very infrastructure of creation. . . wherever righteousness is practiced by human beings . . . that act is in tune with the creation. . . When humans do not so practice righteousness, adverse effects are felt across all created spheres."
I think of Romans 8:19-22
Rolf Knierim: "Yahweh is not the God of creation because he is the God of the humans or of human history. He is the God of the humans and of human history because He is the God or creation. . .The most universal act of Yahweh's dominion is not human history. It is the creation and sustenance of the world."
I think of Psalms
Fretheim: "God is the God of the entire cosmos; God has to do with every creature, and every creature has to do with God, whether they recognize it or not. . .That the Bible begins with Genesis, not Exodus, with creation, not redemption, is of immeasurable importance for understanding all that follows. . . creation is as basic and integral to Israelite faith and its confession as is the first article of the creed to Christians."
As a child, I just assumed that this was so...
p. xii
" ...[Claus] Westermann claims that the creation accounts ...are a witness to God's ongoing creative working every present moment. These accounts are understood in terms of ritual actualization in which the word about creation is recited in worship and the Creator is praised as the source of a lively word for ongoing life (and not as a source for intellectual probing)."
p. xiii
"[H.H. Schmid]...strongly emphasizes creation (rather than, say, covenant) as a comprehensive theological . . .framework within which Israel's most basic theological themes are developed and its historical experiences articulated. . . Schmid shows that creation in Israel is understood in terms of both origination and continuing order."
What I surmise from this:
Creation is something God did historically, it is also something He is always doing.
Israel's historical life took place in the context of all that God created.
" ...[Claus] Westermann claims that the creation accounts ...are a witness to God's ongoing creative working every present moment. These accounts are understood in terms of ritual actualization in which the word about creation is recited in worship and the Creator is praised as the source of a lively word for ongoing life (and not as a source for intellectual probing)."
p. xiii
"[H.H. Schmid]...strongly emphasizes creation (rather than, say, covenant) as a comprehensive theological . . .framework within which Israel's most basic theological themes are developed and its historical experiences articulated. . . Schmid shows that creation in Israel is understood in terms of both origination and continuing order."
What I surmise from this:
Creation is something God did historically, it is also something He is always doing.
Israel's historical life took place in the context of all that God created.
Dr. Fretheim cites many theologians - footnotes and all that. I'll give you page # with a quote and person quoted and a couple of comments. You'll have to get your own copy of the book to read all the sources he cites.
pg xi "Rolf Rendtorff makes an obvious but neglected point: 'The Hebrew Bible begins with creation. Old Testament Theologies usually do not...'"
My brain jumped to...how does the New Testament begin? Was God speaking creation into being? Was He creating something from nothing? Was He creating something by just speaking a word? God's Son (Living Word) made flesh, made man.
pg xi "Rolf Rendtorff makes an obvious but neglected point: 'The Hebrew Bible begins with creation. Old Testament Theologies usually do not...'"
My brain jumped to...how does the New Testament begin? Was God speaking creation into being? Was He creating something from nothing? Was He creating something by just speaking a word? God's Son (Living Word) made flesh, made man.
Thursday, June 21, 2012
I've started a book that I've been considering for five or six years now, and guess what! I'll blog as I read. It may be a total bomb or it may be worth our time. It doesn't specifically deal with children or children's ministry. It is about God and creation. I don't know about you but creation played a huge part in my childhood and my child-faith. I don't see how you can bring God and child together without involving all that God has created.
Do you include "outdoor stuff" as you teach about God and faith to the same degree that God originally immersed man in His creation? Man walked with God in the cool of the day - immersed in God's creation. As we open Genesis, God was working. To speak was to create. Man's work - to name the things God spoke into being, to rule over (there's probably a more accurate phrase) and care for them.
God and the World in the Old Testament: A Relational Theology of Creation by Terence E. Fretheim. Abingdon Press, Nashville TN, 2005. I'm seven years behind! This came out about the time I started blogging.
Do you include "outdoor stuff" as you teach about God and faith to the same degree that God originally immersed man in His creation? Man walked with God in the cool of the day - immersed in God's creation. As we open Genesis, God was working. To speak was to create. Man's work - to name the things God spoke into being, to rule over (there's probably a more accurate phrase) and care for them.
God and the World in the Old Testament: A Relational Theology of Creation by Terence E. Fretheim. Abingdon Press, Nashville TN, 2005. I'm seven years behind! This came out about the time I started blogging.
Friday, December 23, 2011
Do you linger outside in the winter after dark? Imagine the sky lit up without fireworks or city lights, airplanes or satellites. Imagine the songs of angels filling the night time. Grander than a church choir, grander than the Mormon Tabernacle choir or the best choir in the world. And of course, you've never heard anything like it before because you work all the time and you're too poor to do anything else. And suddenly the sky is filled with music. And you go into town to see a new baby lying in a cow's manger in a cave or a barn filled with animals... you're used to being around animals but the baby...it's all about the baby...the baby lying there in the manger was just the beginning...
Did you ever consider going star gazing with your kids?
Have you ever literally let the path of a star in the sky lead you somewhere? Miles and miles through foreign countries? Think about it.
And those middle eastern wise men did follow that star. What did it cost to take such a trip? What would they have been doing if they had decided not to go? It was still all about that baby...and still, that baby lying there in that manger was just the beginning...
Did you ever consider going star gazing with your kids?
Have you ever literally let the path of a star in the sky lead you somewhere? Miles and miles through foreign countries? Think about it.
And those middle eastern wise men did follow that star. What did it cost to take such a trip? What would they have been doing if they had decided not to go? It was still all about that baby...and still, that baby lying there in that manger was just the beginning...
Friday, September 30, 2011
Should probably go back through and tag all the posts about creation...better still, I put CREATION in the FIND box... Lots!!
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