from TCITB Chapter 6
"Israel, My Child": The Ethics of a Biblical Metaphor
Brent A. Strawn
I want to be careful that I don't say so much that it keeps you from reading the book but also give you something to think about. So let's try this chapter again. What I feared would be a very boring chapter was, in fact, very rich indeed.
This chapter falls at the end of the chapters discussing the OT and before the chapters discussing the NT. Mr. Strawn focuses on the parent-child metaphor- "God as a divine parent. . . with human offspring..." (TCITB p. 103) He tells us that much of what we understand of scripture we understand through the lens of the parent-child relationship. (TCITB, p. 117)
He says:
1) "explicitly, the metaphor shaped how Israel represented and understood God's actions toward itself and its actions toward God. . ." (TCITB p. 105)
2) "implicitly, the metaphor affected how Israelite parents may have (and ought to have) treated their own children, providing them a divine example to emulate at their (and it's) best moments . . ." (TCITB p. 105)
3) He asks "Does the portrayal of God as our parent make any difference when we consider our own relationship with our children? Once we have children of our own, do we parent differently and better if we believe that God is a parent both to us and to others?" (TCITB p. 105)
He says that despite the parts of the parent-child metaphor that we may find harsh, (TCITB p. 107) "What is crucial . . . is that we remember, despite the power of the God-as-father/mother/parent metaphor, that we are dealing with a metaphor: God, even in biblical construction, is beyond gender." (TCITB p. 108) Strawn tells us that metaphors help us see similarities and differences.
If I understand him correctly, when he discusses the ethics of metaphor he is affirming that non-literal, artistic forms engage us at many levels and they are more powerful than the literal. "Some [metaphors] are more powerful than others." He says this requires caution and care on the part of artist or writer but it also opens doors and windows to viewer/listener. (TCITB p. 109-110) These are pictures. From my perspective, even if two metaphors or pictures in scripture seem to contradict one another, somehow both are "true" because these are God's metaphors. He is revealing Himself to us but we are human and He is God. On one hand you can only carry metaphors so far. On the other hand, devices like metaphors and figurative language leave more room for us to grasp concepts that are greater than our literal understanding.
Part of the strength of the parent-child metaphor isn't only it's role in ancient Hebrew society but the fact that the concept of "family" is a universal. He talks about Exodus and God the Father's passionate protection and deliverance of His first-born son, Israel (TCITB, 113-117) and negative effects of the metaphor on our perception of God and Israel. (TCITB p. 118-128) I especially loved his attention to the sides of God as father that we tend to de-emphasize. (TCITB p. 1181-126) reminding us that God parents very challenging children.
Mr. Strawn reminds us that Israel is the one who has recorded these observations and experiences with God. "The fact that it is the child, Israel, who presents and preserves these God-depictions says much about Israel itself. This is, after all, how Israel perceived and represented its LORD." (TCITB p. 126) The author explores Israel's perception of itself. His comment about God and Israel's interdependence is thought-provoking. (TCITB p. 128)
". . . a closer look at the 'father' texts demonstrates that several of them employ language that is an amalgam of mother and father imagery [he give examples] -underscoring by means of the mixed-metaphorical construction that God is neither mother nor father, male nor female, or at least neither of these exclusively. These are, and remain, metaphors." (TCITB p. 129) Knowing God has such a profound understanding of both mothering and fathering is awesome to me.
In the last part Strawn discusses the "Ethics of the Divine Parent-Human Child Metaphor". He differentiates between the ethics of metaphor then and now. He asks more questions. (TCITB p 132-3) At the heart of it he asks, can it, [the parent-child metaphor] does it, help us parent better?" (TCITB p. 134-5) discussing it in more depth.
Pondering the parent-child metaphor caused him to reflect on the way children in ancient times carried on the work, mission, and purpose of a father over the course of many generations - more thinking that isn't given much attention. His mention of Steven A Rogers' discussion of the maturation of the parent-child relationship as reflected in Genesis, is facinating. (TCITB p. 138)
He reminds us that the scriptures tell us there is potential for growth and conflict, resolution and reconciliation in the parent-child metaphor (TCITB p. 140). Despite the negatives, we've been given the best of God's divine image to emulate.
His detailed discussions of all these elements is worth reading. Nine chapters to go!
Saturday, February 14, 2009
Thursday, February 12, 2009
The Questions
So here are the questions that go with the last post. You have people from my own generation who no longer attend church, you have a population who have chosen the House Church movement, you have young parents who want to give their children a more holistic perspective and lifestyle and who want to raise compassionate, caring, justice-aware, environmentally-sensitive children and there are probably other groups with children of varying ages who have become disillusioned with "church" as we know it. And there are "post-modern" options and church plants and people trying to reach the "unchurched." There's a lot going on out there.
If so many people feel disconnected from the "traditional church" (whatever form that takes), not only young parents though they are perhaps the most relevant to Children and Family Ministers but even people in their 50's and 60's (another generation) my question is why? Are these people looking for something that isn't Biblical? Community is definitely Biblical, the Hebrews were much more holistic than most of the other cultures influencing Christianity, justice and stewarding His creation are definitely on His agenda, loving God with all of your being, loving your neighbor as yourself are all in God's Book. What's the problem? What's the disconnect?
What needs to change?
Some circles would label it "rebellion" or maybe they don't use a word quite that strong. They put it back on the people who leave: "It's their fault!" But another perspective is that if these are indeed God's sheep, there are thousands of "lost sheep" who believe they know who their shepherd is but they're having a really hard time finding their "flock." The scriptures tell us stories of sheep and shepherds and lost sheep. Are they "not our problem" because they aren't part of our church or they aren't in our "demographic?" There are some church plants specifically targeting many of these groups. Are people standing in line to get in? Gee, why not? Is God trying to do something new and the sheep are getting the message but they can't find shepherds?
What about the children?
Parents of every generation will be trying to do things better and do things differently for their children. Every generation will wrestle. Every generation of parents will wrestle. Assuming that these are parents who care about faith, God, walking right with God and they care about their children - what's going on? Are they over protective? Are young parents, even in churches, more protective and particular about things that parents were less concerned about 25 years ago? Are we looking for community but basing our definitions on less than realistic day to day social and relational expectations? If that's true of a generation who had less media isolation, what are the implications for those who are children now? An online community is the only safe community - the only safe way to interact with people?
Perhaps our goal is to please God but He is the Good Shepherd. A good shepherd takes excellent care of His sheep. He makes sure their needs are met or he loses them. For a professional shepherd, that's a financial loss. I'd like to believe that God cares about more than that. But even if it's only financial, if sheep wander and get lost, he goes looking for them until he finds them. He stands watch over the young ewe giving birth for the first time going through a difficult labor so both ewe and lambs survive. Maybe all of this is labor pains - a difficult labor to bring forth something new. . . though there is nothing new under the sun . . . but life is always new and painful, growing and changing.
So Lord, in the greater context of the word, what about Your children?
If so many people feel disconnected from the "traditional church" (whatever form that takes), not only young parents though they are perhaps the most relevant to Children and Family Ministers but even people in their 50's and 60's (another generation) my question is why? Are these people looking for something that isn't Biblical? Community is definitely Biblical, the Hebrews were much more holistic than most of the other cultures influencing Christianity, justice and stewarding His creation are definitely on His agenda, loving God with all of your being, loving your neighbor as yourself are all in God's Book. What's the problem? What's the disconnect?
What needs to change?
Some circles would label it "rebellion" or maybe they don't use a word quite that strong. They put it back on the people who leave: "It's their fault!" But another perspective is that if these are indeed God's sheep, there are thousands of "lost sheep" who believe they know who their shepherd is but they're having a really hard time finding their "flock." The scriptures tell us stories of sheep and shepherds and lost sheep. Are they "not our problem" because they aren't part of our church or they aren't in our "demographic?" There are some church plants specifically targeting many of these groups. Are people standing in line to get in? Gee, why not? Is God trying to do something new and the sheep are getting the message but they can't find shepherds?
What about the children?
Parents of every generation will be trying to do things better and do things differently for their children. Every generation will wrestle. Every generation of parents will wrestle. Assuming that these are parents who care about faith, God, walking right with God and they care about their children - what's going on? Are they over protective? Are young parents, even in churches, more protective and particular about things that parents were less concerned about 25 years ago? Are we looking for community but basing our definitions on less than realistic day to day social and relational expectations? If that's true of a generation who had less media isolation, what are the implications for those who are children now? An online community is the only safe community - the only safe way to interact with people?
Perhaps our goal is to please God but He is the Good Shepherd. A good shepherd takes excellent care of His sheep. He makes sure their needs are met or he loses them. For a professional shepherd, that's a financial loss. I'd like to believe that God cares about more than that. But even if it's only financial, if sheep wander and get lost, he goes looking for them until he finds them. He stands watch over the young ewe giving birth for the first time going through a difficult labor so both ewe and lambs survive. Maybe all of this is labor pains - a difficult labor to bring forth something new. . . though there is nothing new under the sun . . . but life is always new and painful, growing and changing.
So Lord, in the greater context of the word, what about Your children?
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Emerging Parents
In case you haven't noticed, Emerging Parents is up and running again. New design and everything! Consider visiting. Join the conversation but be a good listener. The scriptures tell us to pray for one another and encourage one another, among other things. (There's a whole post on one-anothers in this blog somewhere.)
When we first decided to home school a zillion years ago (my youngest is 19 now) my mother-in-law (a Russian Orthodox-Episcopalian, a mother, teacher, and lover of kids) cautioned my husband not to experiment on our children. It wasn't our intention to experiment on them, but I won't say it wasn't scary to attempt to do something so different with so much potential (both good and bad). You screw up homeschooling and you haven't got anyone else to blame but yourself. I say that as someone who did it for 17 years. We had a church and a homeschool community and a greater community to participate in and God met us there. Kids survived. I hope they did more than just survive.
We walk with God and He knows our hearts. We can't wrestle with God and tell Him we're not. He knows when we're wrestling. Sometimes we're not wrestling with God we're wrestling with everything else. He knows where we are and where we're going. He knows the way He made us better than we do. He knows when we're just going through the motions. I'd like to think that if we're actively seeking God some of us find ourselves wrestling more than most people understand. Even Jesus wrestled. Israel wrestled with God and it left him permanently crippled. God didn't heal him, either. But that's a separate topic.
Fortunately or unfortunately, whatever the case may be, our children take life's journey with us by default even when we're wrestling with God. They have no choice. Our relationship with God and His people is largely our responsibility and our children are our responsibility and making it all work in everyone's best interest is just flat-out-hard especially if you aren't one of those people who do what everyone else is doing just because everyone else is doing it, even if it's "the right thing to do". "Hard" doesn't even do the word justice.
If it isn't hard for you, don't worry but understand that there are people who will always wrestle not because there's anything wrong but because they're human beings with all of our limitations seeking desperately know the God who made them in all the ways that God will allow them to know Him. Sometimes they're wrestling because they want God to do something new or maybe it's the spirit of God in them wrestling to see God do something new. Who knows!
If you're a childrens minister, understand that the voices from Emerging Parents may not be representative of those who are still bringing their kids to church but more representative of believers who aren't. As I recall, Jesus is a Good Shepherd - the best!
One of my favorite verses in my 20's from Proverbs 4:18 "The path of the righteous is like the first gleam of dawn, shining ever brighter till the full light of day." I have always been an early morning person, much to my mother's dismay. I learned pretty young that she didn't want to wake up early in the morning so I'd wander out to the barn with cookies for my dad and sit on the fence and watch the sun come up. If you ever get up around daybreak, it's pretty dark early in the morning. But even though it's dark we sit there knowing that the sun is there somewhere and it will get brighter and brighter until the full day.
When we first decided to home school a zillion years ago (my youngest is 19 now) my mother-in-law (a Russian Orthodox-Episcopalian, a mother, teacher, and lover of kids) cautioned my husband not to experiment on our children. It wasn't our intention to experiment on them, but I won't say it wasn't scary to attempt to do something so different with so much potential (both good and bad). You screw up homeschooling and you haven't got anyone else to blame but yourself. I say that as someone who did it for 17 years. We had a church and a homeschool community and a greater community to participate in and God met us there. Kids survived. I hope they did more than just survive.
We walk with God and He knows our hearts. We can't wrestle with God and tell Him we're not. He knows when we're wrestling. Sometimes we're not wrestling with God we're wrestling with everything else. He knows where we are and where we're going. He knows the way He made us better than we do. He knows when we're just going through the motions. I'd like to think that if we're actively seeking God some of us find ourselves wrestling more than most people understand. Even Jesus wrestled. Israel wrestled with God and it left him permanently crippled. God didn't heal him, either. But that's a separate topic.
Fortunately or unfortunately, whatever the case may be, our children take life's journey with us by default even when we're wrestling with God. They have no choice. Our relationship with God and His people is largely our responsibility and our children are our responsibility and making it all work in everyone's best interest is just flat-out-hard especially if you aren't one of those people who do what everyone else is doing just because everyone else is doing it, even if it's "the right thing to do". "Hard" doesn't even do the word justice.
If it isn't hard for you, don't worry but understand that there are people who will always wrestle not because there's anything wrong but because they're human beings with all of our limitations seeking desperately know the God who made them in all the ways that God will allow them to know Him. Sometimes they're wrestling because they want God to do something new or maybe it's the spirit of God in them wrestling to see God do something new. Who knows!
If you're a childrens minister, understand that the voices from Emerging Parents may not be representative of those who are still bringing their kids to church but more representative of believers who aren't. As I recall, Jesus is a Good Shepherd - the best!
One of my favorite verses in my 20's from Proverbs 4:18 "The path of the righteous is like the first gleam of dawn, shining ever brighter till the full light of day." I have always been an early morning person, much to my mother's dismay. I learned pretty young that she didn't want to wake up early in the morning so I'd wander out to the barn with cookies for my dad and sit on the fence and watch the sun come up. If you ever get up around daybreak, it's pretty dark early in the morning. But even though it's dark we sit there knowing that the sun is there somewhere and it will get brighter and brighter until the full day.
Monday, February 09, 2009
Toddler/Preschool and Bible stories
Toddler/Preschool Bible Stories:
1) I don't think we can overestimate the value of telling a story over and over, even simple stories with pictures or sounds or actions or all of the above. Little people LOVE to hear their favorite stories over and over from the time they're old enough to sit in your lap and look at a board book. As grown-ups we sometimes get tired of reading the same stories over and over but what an opportunity to nurture a love for scripture when the story a child wants to hear over and over is a Bible story!
Toddlers and preschoolers may not come away with deep cognitive understanding but they will remember the emotional experience of being held, being loved, having fun and sharing time with someone who loves them - someone who shares their love of stories. Before long, they will even remember the story. It has great potential to be a positive love-filled association to God and faith.
The child who won't sit still on your lap? Act it out. Pretend. Use stuffed animals or objects instead of pictures to tell the story. Use lots of sounds, not just words and narrative. Get excited, loud, quiet. Tell parts of the story fast and parts of the story slow to build to the important part. Use a puppet on your hand. Use a puppet who doesn't know the story so the child has an active role to play. When you're all done, sit and let the child tell you the story or let each child take a turn adding the next part.
2) Think simple. Take a minute and look at the "concrete" of the story - nouns (people, place, thing), verbs (action words), basic feelings: happy, sad, angry, surprised. Are all the words in the story words that a child can identify, imitate, or show you? Does every word you're using have meaning to the children who are listening to the story? Is it something they've experienced? Think about the simplist form of the story - true to the text. You don't have to totally dumb it down but exploring the words beforehand may give you ideas for ways to enrich the story.
3) How do we give the words in the story meaning? Consider something like a touch table or a word blanket - things to see, hear, smell, taste, touch, identify that represent the words in the story - pictures or objects, sounds, foods. Identify basic people words, (age, gender) identify relationship, (family, friend words) identify job words and associate them with similar people in the lives of your listeners. Identify the basic "thing" words in the story and make sure kids have opportunity to see, hear, touch, taste, smell those things.
Identify elements that make the place of the story unique. If you're talking about a desert turn up the heat. Bring in some sand, some big photo quality pictures or examples of deserts, desert plants, desert animals. No water - no drinks until the very end. Think simple.
What about a mountain? A high place to stand, a miniature world. Cold. Snow. Ice cubes? You get the idea. Maybe, you will say, these things will distract very young children from the story - maybe. But if the story is just meaningless words you may not be internally accomplishing what you think you're accomplishing with your quiet well-behaved listeners.
4) Basic feelings - happy, sad, surprised, mad. Jesus friends were sad when they put him in the tomb. They were surprised when he was gone. Maybe they were angry. They were happy when he was alive. "Someone took Him! Oh, there He is!"
5) Don't forget that the youngest of children will still believe everything you tell them. They still believe all that's true about the stories of scripture in a way that most of us grown-ups don't - even if we believe. We say we believe but I bet you don't believe the same way you did when you were a little child. Do you think God was unintentional when He made us that way? Should we take that away from them and throw all the hard realities of life at them when they're still believing all the good stuff? Faith in it's simplist form is believing what God tells us. The last thing we want to do is clutter a child's heart, mind, and spirit with all the things that challenge or confuse this simple faith. The faith of a little child isn't wrong - just new, clean, uncluttered, unused. Once we pass that stage in life most of us don't get to go back so enjoy it and make the most of it to grow faith.
As you give the words meaning, you give the story meaning. Associations between our lives and the stories of scripture can start at any age and take many forms but think simple. I'm talking about a couple of sensory experiences to give meaning to story words. You're looking to create experiences that give the words in the story meaning - sensory, experiential, emotional meaning at the most basic level without didactic moralizing, explanations, or interpretations. (You could even use simple scripture 2-5 word phrases running through a little child's mind.) Children often use real things when they play and imagine and process their world. That's what you're doing - giving them real things to play, imagine, process their faith in God.
As adults we take our grown-up understanding for granted. We are so intent on teaching concepts and understanding, explaining, interpreting, analysing that sometimes we miss the simple, concrete experiences that are essential to giving meaning to young children. I'm not sure that anyone but God Himself truly understands how child-like faith, imagination, and what is real and true all work together to help us draw near to the Living God in Christ Jesus. I wonder if sharing the simple and keeping it simple doesn't in fact give Father, Son, and Holy Spirit more room to work to make His stories, and ultimately His presence, real.
1) I don't think we can overestimate the value of telling a story over and over, even simple stories with pictures or sounds or actions or all of the above. Little people LOVE to hear their favorite stories over and over from the time they're old enough to sit in your lap and look at a board book. As grown-ups we sometimes get tired of reading the same stories over and over but what an opportunity to nurture a love for scripture when the story a child wants to hear over and over is a Bible story!
Toddlers and preschoolers may not come away with deep cognitive understanding but they will remember the emotional experience of being held, being loved, having fun and sharing time with someone who loves them - someone who shares their love of stories. Before long, they will even remember the story. It has great potential to be a positive love-filled association to God and faith.
The child who won't sit still on your lap? Act it out. Pretend. Use stuffed animals or objects instead of pictures to tell the story. Use lots of sounds, not just words and narrative. Get excited, loud, quiet. Tell parts of the story fast and parts of the story slow to build to the important part. Use a puppet on your hand. Use a puppet who doesn't know the story so the child has an active role to play. When you're all done, sit and let the child tell you the story or let each child take a turn adding the next part.
2) Think simple. Take a minute and look at the "concrete" of the story - nouns (people, place, thing), verbs (action words), basic feelings: happy, sad, angry, surprised. Are all the words in the story words that a child can identify, imitate, or show you? Does every word you're using have meaning to the children who are listening to the story? Is it something they've experienced? Think about the simplist form of the story - true to the text. You don't have to totally dumb it down but exploring the words beforehand may give you ideas for ways to enrich the story.
3) How do we give the words in the story meaning? Consider something like a touch table or a word blanket - things to see, hear, smell, taste, touch, identify that represent the words in the story - pictures or objects, sounds, foods. Identify basic people words, (age, gender) identify relationship, (family, friend words) identify job words and associate them with similar people in the lives of your listeners. Identify the basic "thing" words in the story and make sure kids have opportunity to see, hear, touch, taste, smell those things.
Identify elements that make the place of the story unique. If you're talking about a desert turn up the heat. Bring in some sand, some big photo quality pictures or examples of deserts, desert plants, desert animals. No water - no drinks until the very end. Think simple.
What about a mountain? A high place to stand, a miniature world. Cold. Snow. Ice cubes? You get the idea. Maybe, you will say, these things will distract very young children from the story - maybe. But if the story is just meaningless words you may not be internally accomplishing what you think you're accomplishing with your quiet well-behaved listeners.
4) Basic feelings - happy, sad, surprised, mad. Jesus friends were sad when they put him in the tomb. They were surprised when he was gone. Maybe they were angry. They were happy when he was alive. "Someone took Him! Oh, there He is!"
5) Don't forget that the youngest of children will still believe everything you tell them. They still believe all that's true about the stories of scripture in a way that most of us grown-ups don't - even if we believe. We say we believe but I bet you don't believe the same way you did when you were a little child. Do you think God was unintentional when He made us that way? Should we take that away from them and throw all the hard realities of life at them when they're still believing all the good stuff? Faith in it's simplist form is believing what God tells us. The last thing we want to do is clutter a child's heart, mind, and spirit with all the things that challenge or confuse this simple faith. The faith of a little child isn't wrong - just new, clean, uncluttered, unused. Once we pass that stage in life most of us don't get to go back so enjoy it and make the most of it to grow faith.
As you give the words meaning, you give the story meaning. Associations between our lives and the stories of scripture can start at any age and take many forms but think simple. I'm talking about a couple of sensory experiences to give meaning to story words. You're looking to create experiences that give the words in the story meaning - sensory, experiential, emotional meaning at the most basic level without didactic moralizing, explanations, or interpretations. (You could even use simple scripture 2-5 word phrases running through a little child's mind.) Children often use real things when they play and imagine and process their world. That's what you're doing - giving them real things to play, imagine, process their faith in God.
As adults we take our grown-up understanding for granted. We are so intent on teaching concepts and understanding, explaining, interpreting, analysing that sometimes we miss the simple, concrete experiences that are essential to giving meaning to young children. I'm not sure that anyone but God Himself truly understands how child-like faith, imagination, and what is real and true all work together to help us draw near to the Living God in Christ Jesus. I wonder if sharing the simple and keeping it simple doesn't in fact give Father, Son, and Holy Spirit more room to work to make His stories, and ultimately His presence, real.
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