(Re)reading the Bible

I began reading John Thompson's Reading the Bible with the Dead:  What You Can Learn from the History of Exegesis that You Can't Learn from Exegesis Alone tonight, which is a fabulous book, even if you don't know what the word "exegesis" means (okay, so now you're curious:  exegesis).  

John Thompson is the professor of historical theology and the Gaylan & Susan Byker Professor of Reformed Theology at Fuller Theological Seminary.  He is also the same man who taught me how to navigate the steep descents of the Los Angeles National Forest on a mountain bike and the man who taught me Reformed history.  Needless to say, I mastered the first endeavor about as well as the second, and I came no where close to the proficiency, skill and artistry that John did with both disciplines.

On top of that, John and his wife Marianne Meye Thompson, helped guide me through my final years of seminary and helped prepare me for pastoral ministry - a transition that is much more difficult than what you might expect or hope for pastors.  

All that to say, I was deeply thankful to pick up John's book and to sink my teeth into something I knew would be judicious, hilarious, insightful and devoted to seeking God's word above all.  And, I have not been disappointed.

The aim of the book is to reintroduce to pastors and biblical scholars alike the virtue and reasonableness of consulting the treasure trove of commentaries compiled by church leaders throughout the last two thousand years - to see what they have to say about the bible's most difficult passages (many of them detailing horrible atrocities committed against women).  In so doing, Thompson hopes to dialogue with modern critical scholars (including feminist scholars) and modern churchmen and women who assume God's verdict has been cast one way or the other regarding the morality of these tales.  

The first chapter has to do with the story of Abraham, Sarah and Hagar - specifically the way that Genesis both honors and vilifies Hagar for her role in the first family of faith.  I won't go into how the Christian church read this story (including the Apostle Paul's own interesting interpretation in Galatians 4).  But I do want to say something briefly about Genesis.

What strikes me tonight - especially after reading about the remarkably virtuous, resourceful and endearing manner in which Hagar handles herself and her child (Genesis 16 & 21) - is how frequently God turns things upside down in Genesis.  God appears to use not only the foolish to shame the wise, but - in Genesis - God appears to use the duplicitous and deceitful (Jacob), the innocent and arrogant (Joseph), the demanding and jealous (Sarah), and - in Abraham's case - the neglectful and passive-aggressive to somehow still bring forth a blessing.  Or, in other words, the people we so often celebrate as our grandfathers and grandmothers in faith are often times the very ones who fail to exhibit the nobility of their calling and role.  It is as if God goes to great lengths to show that God can work a blessing even out of the most crooked of characters.  That is the story of grace:  the working of the greater miracle even against or in spite of our own deficiencies.

So, thank you John ... for your continued pursuit of the blessing in the "whole counsel of God," and your willingness to reintroduce the very stories that challenge and beg our faith to be more than we would have it be on our own.

Wes