I’ve been reflecting on some of the ideas I’ve been learning about in my Ministry Across Cultures class, and also what I just heard in my class about Paul this morning. The dichotomy that has been trying to hold in tension is between boundaries and borders. I think that distinction is an important one in the way we think of ecumenism and multiculturalism.
Posts Tagged Academic
Boundaries and Borders
Sep 11
A Different Mirror
Sep 10
I’m going to try to blog all of the little writing assignments I have throughout the semester. In my Ministry Across Cultures class, we’re reading A Different Mirror by Ronald Takaki. and have been asked to write a reflection about the first chapter.
Here is the question:
Describe briefly takaki’s frame for what it means to be “American” Using this frame, how might we re-think our idea of what it means to be Lutheran?
My Theology of Baptism
Aug 29
As I’ve pondered my own understanding of baptism recently I have come to realize that it has been somewhat theologically problematic for me. I think that far too often it is treated as a kind of magical act where a baby is insured of a crass kind of “fire insurance”. That understanding of baptism, although it seems quite common in folk piety, is antithetical to my understanding of how God works in the world. So that leaves me with a quandry. If baptism should not be understood in that way, what is it?
At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the sabbath; his disciples were hungry, and they began to pluck heads of grain and to eat. When the Pharisees saw it, they said to him, “Look, your disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on the sabbath.” He said to them, “Have you not read what David did when he and his companions were hungry? He entered the house of God and ate the bread of the Presence, which it was not lawful for him or his companions to eat, but only for the priests. Or have you not read in the law that on the sabbath the priests in the temple break the sabbath and yet are guiltless? I tell you, something greater than the temple is here. But if you had known what this means, ‘I desire mercy and not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the guiltless. For the Son of Man is lord of the sabbath.”
(Matthew 12:1-8 NRSV)
In the context of Matthew’s audience, Jesus’ disciples’ violation of the Sabbath is fruitful ground for interpretation. I will be primarily looking at this text from a first century Jewish context, focusing on the five perspectives Jesus uses to justify the actions of the disciples. I have classified these perspectives as; the Davidic precedent, the priestly precedent, Jesus’ comparison to the temple, the reference to Hosea, and the “Lord of the Sabbath” statement. I will also focus on how the story relates to the tone and themes of the rest of Matthew’s gospel. Finally, I will discuss the parallel text in the synoptic gospels and the significance of the difference between those passages.
