Romans in Six Weeks - Some Highlights

We're almost through with our study of Romans. Our study ended up being six weeks instead of the eight I originally thought it would be. Imagine Romans in eight weeks - daunting! But in six? But the thing is, we wanted to finish before Ash Wednesday (at least that was one of my original goals), and because of travel conflicts, we couldn't start until January 17 - and complicate that with the fact that I didn't do the math right. I think I would have let my goal of done by Ash Wednesday be forgotten, but others had commitments after that time ... life is like that, isn't it? So six weeks it was and is. God is our God in real time, not in a neatly planned time line of our devising. We meet to study, God is there. We have something else going on in our lives, God is there. We sleep, God is there. We're awake, God is there. God is there. God is here. Period.

From the resources I initially collected (http://suestudies.blogspot.com/2011/09/romans-resources-for-this-study.html), we've used these:

• The study guide by Charles Gieschen from the God's Abiding Word series published by CPH.org (Every participant received this guide for background self-study, if they desired.)
• The two books by Douglas J. Moo (These books are in my library and I didn't ask that anyone else purchase them. They were great resources for me!)
• The 1984 version of the NIV (This is the Bible we have on our shelves at church. We used it so that everyone would be reading from the same text, even though we encouraged everyone to also refer to the text of their own favorite version.)
• http://www.biblegateway.com/ (I used this wonderful site when I wanted to copy limited snippets of text into our weekly guides so we could compare a verse from different versions or to pull up a few verses from the Old Testament or to summarize some history necessary to understand Paul's references. The publishers on BibleGateway.com allow limited uses of their copyrighted text, and they provide the verbiage you need to show that you have permission to use it. I can't say enough about BibleGateway.com. I also use it to study multiple sections of the Bible when I'm dealing with multiple cross-references or when a question about one section pops into my mind. Endless wonderful applications on that site!)
• And, as always, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page. I am so grateful for the people who gather together all their best and post their research onto wikipedia, and for leaving a trail of their arguments under the Talk tab. You give me much information, many points of view, and links to follow through. Thank you!

I've never lead a study where I wasn't both leader and participant. The truth of the matter is, the Word teaches us all. I learn through my preparation time, but I learn also during the time I meet with others. This next week, the 5th of our 6 weeks, we're going to take a little review time to name some of the outstanding points we've learned during our time together. I'm going to start the list with three things I've learned and don't want to forget.

• When we were studying Romans 1:21-23, Gieschen says: "The human response to the Creator is not neutral." To me, this translates into this: "Everyone has a reaction to God. Even atheists are reacting to God." As we were exploring reasons why one seems to reject God, even though that person leads a good life and more or less believes there is "a God," one of our participants says she believes her husband feels vulnerable when he thinks about "becoming a Christian." Vulnerable! I don't recall ever thinking about that. Reluctant, yes. Doubtful, yes. But vulnerable? For me, this was a great truth. I will forever remember this. I know it will color the way I look at nonbelievers. Jesus knows they feel vulnerable. He will be gentle with them, I'm sure. I will be more gentle in my love for my nonbelieving friends, too. (Week 2)
• The same participant who gave us the word "vulnerable" works with the preschool at our church. When we were studying the concept of Original Sin (that's what we Lutherans call it) in Romans 5:12-14, she related a discussion with our pastor about how those beautiful, sweet little children in our preschool could be tainted with original sin. He told her it's because life is all about me at that age.
  
  And isn't that it? Isn't that the definition of the sin inherit in every human being, whether we call it original sin or the characteristic of natural man or our sinful nature or all about me or whatever?
  
  And it's not just true for our preschoolers, either. It's probably the same thing Paul is talking about when he says "For what I do is not the good I want to do..." in Romans 7:19. All about me is the state of our fleshly bodies, of the bodies we live in, all of our lives. Our consolation is that God through Jesus Christ has rescued us from this state and it is no longer our master. We are not slaves to all about me. The phrase all about me will stay with me. (Week 4)
• We talk a lot about God. A lot of people talk a lot about God -- or is that god? During Week 3 we talked about an article by Steve Chapman, a writer for the Chicago Tribune. I found this article in The Week, a magazine which is always on our kitchen table. http://theweek.com/article/index/223252/the-truth-about-lsquosecularrsquo-america Our point wasn't about whether Chapman's assessment was right (secular America has less crime, teen pregnancies, divorces, etc, than Christian America) but why he might think that's true (perhaps what Chapman thinks Christian America calls sin is hidden in secular America because of birth control, cohabiting without the benefit of formal marriage, etc).
  
  We talked about what Christianity really IS. Being a Christian means that you believe what God has done through Jesus Christ. Christianity is believing and trusting in "this Good News about Christ. It is the power of God at work, saving everyone who believes -- the Jew first and also the Gentile..." (Romans 1:16 - NIV 84). But so often, we equate Christianity with "believing in God," and that's what we'll say: "Do you believe in God? Yes? Then you must be a Christian."
  
  In our thoughts, Chapman was comparing the wrong things. He was actually comparing the economically disadvantaged to the economically advantaged. It's obvious that Chapman's "truths" fell apart in our hands.
  
  And then somewhere in our God-talk discussion, our arguments fell apart a little bit, too. One of our participants asked, "But what about Jesus?" That was a moment of truth for me. How do we define God? Do we need to be clearer when we speak that we're talking about the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit (the Trinity, in Lutheran theology and in the theology of many other protestant and catholic denominations and churches)? Do we need to be clearer about defining what Christianity is? And have we forgotten that we, as believers in and recipients of Christ's magnificent work, are part of secular America?
  
  For each of us, our discussion may lead to different paths, but hopefully it will help all of us to be ever mindful of who this God is we worship. Hopefully, Christ is at the forefront of our faith. Hopefully, in our efforts to "do good," we will not forget What About Jesus. (Week 3)

A list of things we know about Jesus (from N. T. Wright)

In Jesus and the Victory of God, in Chapter 5, N. T. Wright gives a short list of things we know about Jesus. The bare-bones nature of the list speaks to me. Here's a condensation:

• ... most likely born in what we now call 4 BC
• ... grew up in Galilee, in the town of Nazareth
• ... spoke Aramaic, some Hebrew, and probably at least some Greek
• ... emerged as a public figure in around AD 28
• ... summoned people to repent
• ... announced the kingdom, or reign, of Israel's god
• ... journeyed around the villages of Galilee
• ... effect[ed] cures, including exorcisms
• ... shar[ed] table-fellowship with a socio-culturally wide group
• ... called a group of close disciples
• ... incurred the wrath of some elements in Judaism, notably ... of the high-priestly establishment
• ... was handed over to the Romans and executed in the manner regularly used for insurrectionists
• ... followers claimed ... that he had been raised from the dead
• ... [followers] carried on his work in a new way

In subsequent paragraphs, he adds these items:

• ... engaged in an itinerant ministry
• ... [ministry] took him into synagogues, into private houses, into the open countryside
• ... sometimes ... met with his followers in secret
• ... often to be found in prayer..., sometimes in lonely places
• ... ate and drank with all sorts and conditions of people
• ... kept company with people normally on or beyond the borders of respectable activity

In these opening paragraphs of Chapter 5, Wright describes Jesus as one might observe his actions. He purposely is attributing no god-like attributes to him. I find this useful as I think about the way I observe the times I live in. In some way, the list gives clarity to how I should live and tells me, at the same time, that I cannot, with certainty, understand the full measure of those around me. The list describes a man who is focused, who understands what he is about, whose eyes are on some goal that perhaps isn't always clear to those around him. Yet, we don't see the man apologizing for who he is; we don't see him backtracking and changing his ways to be more acceptable to society around him. This man seems convinced that he is on the right path. For me, it's a powerful list.

Dead Sea Scrolls - The Torah and Jesus

Last night (July 16, 2007), we went to a lecture on the Dead Sea Scrolls at the San Diego Natural History Museum. The 50-minute lecture was presented by Dr. Risa Levitt Kohn, curator of the exhibition. It was certainly worth our time and provided food for thought! Here's my morning-after notes of what I learned.

In ancient Israel, the Tabernacle, and then the Temple, was built to be the dwelling place of God - or at least of God's name. The Ark of the Convenant was in the Holiest of Holies, and God dwelt between the tips of the wings of the gold cherubs on the top of the Ark. This was the place where God made his will known to the people.

The Ark disappeared, and the Temple was destroyed. Where did God go? The Temple was rebuilt, but there was no Ark. How were people to communicate with God? The second Temple was also destroyed in about 70 CE, but that was of probably lesser importance than the destruction of the first Temple because the Ark wasn't present in that second Temple. The people had already had to deal with that important question - Where was God and how did they know his will?

The Scrolls lead us to believe that the people resolved that question by believing God was now within the Torah (Jews) or, later, in Jesus (Christians). Dr. Kohn's proposal, based on the information in the scrolls, is that the new Jewish way of seeing God and the Christian way of seeing God may have evolved as twin belief systems, not as parent-sibling systems. It's an interesting way of seeing the Christian-Jewish relationship now.

One of the important things I came away with from the lecture is a new awareness of the importance of the Torah to the Jewish faith. God is present there. The sacredness of the Torah, in the Jewish faith, is equal to the sacredness of the presence of Christ in the Christian faith.