We talked on Saturday morning about this chapter of John that begins with crossing Galilee, climbing a mountain and then feeding a crowd in the wilderness, all of which parallels the story of the Exodus. The crowd understands Jesus actions as paralleling that of Moses, they think he is the prophet mentioned in Deut 18, and they seek to make him king. But he disappears.

Then comes the miracle of the walking on water. I’m a bit confused. The crossing of the sea appears in v1 of chp 6, so why water again here?

But in a conversation with Ade later in the day, when she asked how things went this morning, it suddenly occurred to me. This crossing the water is NOT the parallel of the Red Sea, but the Jordan crossing.

How did I not see it? The issue at the first coming to the Jordan was whether or not they would have the courage to go in, or would they be afraid? In Num 13, ten of the spies warned them of giants in the land. Two said, they should go in and take possession.

In the community discussion that follows, recorded in Num 14, verse 2 says,

“all the Israelites grumbled against Moses and Aaron”

and decided to choose a new leader and go back to Egypt (remember the confusion in John 6 about back and forward in the boats!!).

Caleb says:

“do not rebel against the Lord. And do not be afraid of the people in the land, because we will swallow them up. Their protection is gone, BUT THE LORD IS WITH US. Do not be afraid of them.”
Num 14:9

God then gets frustrated about their inability to believe, ‘in spite of the miraculous signs I have performed among them” (Num 14:11). After this, God declares that those who saw all these signs, but treated God with contempt would not enter the Promised Land.

Now go back and read John 6.

Note how in their terror in the strong wind, the disciples were willing to let Jesus into the boat. And how Jesus gets frustrated with unbelief later in the chapter, in the face of miracles and his teaching on manna.

I think there might be something in this, and it certainly serves to complete the story parallels.

What do you think?

Well, I’ve just signed up for the Coastal Cycle. I’ll be driving the team support vehicle. So, time to step up gents, the more people that finsh in front of me, the better I’ll make you look !

Enjoyed the article from Christianity Today. Have we emancipated ( big word ) Jesus, or do we just not realise what a Christian man is supposed to be. Would be interested to hear some thoughts on that one.One last thought, have to work on Saturday, but can stay til about 8.30. Is it bad form to eat and run ?

The often excellent blog Out of Ur has a series running on the Shift Conference at Willow Creek. The latest post is about Reveal, the recent study which researched 200 churches and which is changing the nature of things at Willow Creek. Some of the changes make you wonder just what they have been doing for years…and what have those churches been following who have sought to model themselves on Willow. But you have to applaud the honesty and integrity.

Anyway, the post on Reveal is fascinating and worth reading. Find it here.

Don’t even know if I’m doing it right, but just wanted to show my virtual face. Now I have somewhere to go instead of surfing pointlessly for blogs and sites and then wondering if they are sound or misleading. I know these guys well enough to know how to question or support anything they say,and I know I’ll get honesty.Hope I manage to add something at some stage too.

A little more on feeding 5,000 and the closing incident of John’s Gospel in chp 21. I know many experts argue that the Gospel closes at the end of chp 20, finishing with Thomas’s great declaration of faith in v28 and then the famous summary statement of the writer to the effect that Jesus did lots of other things which were not recorded, but these have been carefully selected to lead you to faith and life (v30,31). And that would make literary sense…it’s a suitably high dramatic moment on which to conclude. But instead we have this curious additional chapter.

I’m intrigued by a number of things:

1. Thomas’s reappearance here in v2, (after his declaration in 20:28), as the disciples decide to return to fishing. This has always been presented to me as a loss of faith on their part evidenced in a return to the old life, and their conviction that the great endeavour with their Messiah had failed utterly. I guess it could still be; we’re all prone to these lapses, and if so, then it is remarkable that Jesus still has patience. But maybe there is something more here. Any ideas?
2. The startling number of parallels with the feeding of the 5,000 in John 6.
   Note:
   -the lake has a prominent part – both stories happen beside it or after having crossed it.
   -there is a food related question to open events:
   “Where shall we buy bread for these people to eat?” (6:5)
   ”Friends, haven’t you any fish?” (21:5)
   -miraculous multiplication of bread in and fish in chp6, and a miraculous catch of fish, more than ever before in
   chp21.
   -the distribution of the food in ways eerily reminiscent of the Last Supper, (6:11 & 21:13)
   -the exact same phrase is repeated ‘and he did the same with the fish’ (6:11 & 21:13)
   -the asking of questions to which Jesus already knew the answers (6:6 & 21:17)
   -the conclusion with a statement about force, the one referring to the attempt to make Jesus their king (6:15)
   and the curious statement of Jesus to Peter concerning the death by which he would glorify God: ‘when you were
   younger you dressed yourself and went where you wanted; but when you are old you will stretch out your hands,
   and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go.’ (21:18).What’s going on?
3. And on that last point, what is the connection between a statement about ‘feed my sheep’, the third command in the reinstatement of Peter (21:17) and the statement about Peter’s death? I mean, what leads Jesus to make that statement after having spoken to him about his pastoral duties? Is there a connection with the call in 21:19?
4. Why did Jesus ask them to bring some of the fish they had caught, when he already had fish cooking (v9, 10)?
5. What does it mean when John says ‘none of the disciples dared ask him ‘who are you?’. They knew it was the Lord.’ (21:12)?
6. Why repeat the explanation of 21:25, which says almost the same thing as 20:30,31?

So many questions. But then the events that followed the resurrection were so extraordinary I guess.

Anyway, I’m open to further ones, or to any answers.

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previously posted on crookedshore

At Saturday’s breakfast we considered the story of the feeding of the five thousand in John ch 6. We were all particularly struck by the comment in verse that the people wanted to come and make Jesus king by force. I’m not sure what that means or how that works. How do you insert someone as your king if that person doesn’t want it, or doesn’t want it that way.

And yet the church has insisted on doing this down through the ages, whether by the crusades, or forced conversions or at the point of a gun or, in more pietistic terms, by programmes and systems of evangelism and church growth. In NI in the next few weeks, some will try to make Jesus king by force in a series of big rallies in the Odyssey Arena. But Jesus will not have it this way….our way.

Instead, buried in same section of John’s Gospel is the hint of the Jesus way.

Jesus then took the loaves, gave thanks, and distributed to those who were seated as much as they wanted. He did the same with the fish.
John 6:11

John in his account of the feeding of the 5,000 records these actions of Jesus as a conscious, but hidden, hint for those of us who are this side of the events of Holy Week. These words should call to mind for us the words of Jesus at the Last Supper before he moves out to Gethsemane and the subsequent events of his crucifixion.

If there is to be a king, that kingdom will be in inaugurated by self-sacrifice, by the washing of feet, by those who want to be first choosing the last place. It cannot be by force.

So this deceptively simple story lays out the stark choice, the two ways, and we must choose. The Way of force and might? Or, the Way of service and sacrifice? This is the choice we continually make. The choice the church continually makes.

One final thing. The sadness is that, in a sense, making him king by force is exactly what they did in the end. Pilate writes an inscription in three languages, Jesus the King of the Jews, only not the king anyone imagined.

Pilate had a notice prepared and fastened to the cross. It read: Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews. Many of the Jews read this sign, for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city, and the sign was written in Aramaic, Latin and Greek.
John 19:19,20

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previously posted on crookedshore

The latest Guinness advert shows  Irish rugby stars playing inside a pint accompanied by "Blitzkrieg Bop" by the Ramones.

Guinness, Irish Rugby & the Ramones – does it get much better than that?

JUSTCOFFEEFORME 

I attended a men’s bible study several days ago made up of
several men from my own church (including a few of the breakfast crew) and
several from a neighbouring church.

The facilitator (well known to readers of the crookedshore
site) was illustrating how we can use Old Testament passages to help us
understand God’s vision for our community (and our responsibilities as
Christians within it).

This caused not a little debate (it was a men’s group!) with
allegations that the chosen passages were being taken out of context.

Not so for me. Because I had already totally accepted
another key message of Rob Bell’s aforementioned book, i.e. if we accept the
Bible is true, we should also accept that every passage in it is as true today as
it was when written – we simply need to understand how the message that lies
within the passage is true for us today.

Consequently, as we discussed Zechariah 8:4 – 5 “This is
what the LORD Almighty says: "Once again men and women of ripe old age
will sit in the streets of Jerusalem, each with cane in hand because of his
age. The city streets will be filled with boys and girls playing there."

I wasn’t thinking of the streets of Jerusalem in Biblical
times, I was overcome with the potential of how we could do this within our
community. Because the other Biblical idea that was resonating loudly with me
that night (and I had been carrying around for a few days) was Paul’s teaching
in Ephesians that those of us in secular jobs can use our work to worship God
every bit as devoutly as our friends who are pastors, deacons etc. Equally, I
thought, a group of men should not be overawed by the major church in the
community projects going on worldwide (or even within Northern Ireland) we
should simply come up with the best ideas that we can that can be achieved
within our limited resources. And we very quickly got some crackers.

We agreed to meet again as a group. Please God we will.

I have just finished reading Rob Bell’s 2005 book “Velvet
Elvis – Repainting the Christian Faith”, which is a little slow to get going
but is ultimately a fascinating and challenging read.

The section that has resonated most with me comes in Movement
Two: Yoke (oh yeah, it is arguably a little pretentious at times as well).
Here, Bell makes the point that all Biblical analysis is interpretation.
This, he points out, starts with the English translation we are using because,
since certain Hebrew, Greek and Aramaic words do not have an exact English
translation, the translator is forced to interpret the text in a way
that we might understand today.

Bell beautifully illustrates this with the example of the
word hell, which he tells us appears 12 of its 14 Biblical occurrences
in the teachings of Jesus. Bell explains that the word hell is an
English translation of the Greek word gehenna, which is a reference to
the Valley of Hinnom. This was a ravine on the south side of Jerusalem, which
had been the site of many violent deaths and was now the town dump, complete
with rubbish, wild animals fighting over scraps of food (gnashing their teeth)
and burning fires. So, while Jesus’ audience knew exactly what was meant by gehenna,
it was always going to be a major challenge for any translator to give the word
similar resonance hundreds of years later.

I must admit that this enlightenment helped me address my
discomfort with Amos Chapter 7. You see in my translations,
the crux of the Chapter is the rich imagery of God using a plumb line to
measure how far His people have veered from His guidance (the straight &
narrow so to speak). Now this image is something anyone who has every tried
wallpapering would understand (especially if they hadn’t used a plumb line!).
However, in this case, the translation is flawed.

H. Neil Richardson uses his piece the Four Visions of
Amos (see http://members.bib-arch.org),
to illustrate the problems of translation and the consequent importance of
looking at Biblical text from a variety of perspectives, including, if
possible, a knowledge of everyday life and culture in Biblical times.
Richardson tells us that traditional translations have struggled with Amos’
third vision, and settled on the translation plumb line or plumb bob. The
reason for their difficulty is that the Hebrew word ’anaµk, appears in
no other passage in the entire Hebrew Bible. But having explored other Semitic
languages, Richardson points out that in Akkadian the related word anaµku
means only “tin.” Thus, he points out, if we assume that what Amos saw
was tin, the vision could not have been a plumb line, as tin is obviously too
lightweight to be used for this purpose.

Richardson believes that that the translation has been
thrown by a scribing error and the more accurate meaning of the text can be
discovered by examining the Amos’ fourth vision (a basket of ripe fruit), with
which this vision is paired, and noting that the word for what Amos sees
reminds him of another word similar to it in sound, which conveys the meaning
of the vision. Assuming that Amos has done this in the third vision, then
Richardson concludes that the word for tin – ’anaµk – reminds Amos of a
word similar in sound: ’anaµh\aµh, meaning “a groan” and is predicting
that God is about to put a groan in the midst of the nation, i.e. when the
people start to suffer the consequences of their wrongdoing and begin to
realise that God is not going to pardon them.

Now as someone who had always assumed that the best way to
understand the Bible was with two translations and a good commentary, this was
something of a shock, not to mention a little disconcerting.

Lesson 1: churches need to create and stimulate an
environment whereby people study the bible in groups, preferably groups that
contain a mix of demographics, denominational background etc.

I didn’t rush into writing about THE EVENT of November because I wanted to take the time to reflect on what I had seen and heard. Not the
one in the Odyssey by the way, (breathtaking though it was – many thanks Glenn
& Bruce), this one was in the considerably more intimate Empire
Music Hall on 26th November.

First, I love the Empire. Never have seen a bad concert in it, it
seems to bring the best out in both the artist and the audience. It has
the acoustics, the ambience and the good ale (well Guinness but I was
on 5 "A"s in a row there!)and it just feels good to be in.

However, sometimes when you have been looking forward to something
for ages, you have a little sense of trepidation about whether it can
deliver as fully as you might have hoped. No worries there, young
Housty played a stormer. From the gorgeous solo version of "Matthew
Shepherd" to the rock out that was "Sugar Queen" (pardon the 1980s
Radio 1 language!), Brian played with enormous confidence and not a
little swagger.  I won’t deny being a little biased. As another child
of the 60s from the East Side of Belfast, I can identify with so much
of Brian’s writing – buying Vinyl from the independents (anyone
remember the name of the shop in Smithfield that sold a huge range of
Elvis Records?), going into Boots to look at the girls in the white
coats (you had to be there!) etc.

The band was really tight for a bunch of family/friends rather than
a regular touring band and my son was most impressed when I brought
home the drumsticks of Ireland’s best drummer (the paradiddling
pastor).

As the four damp friends ate chips in a car in Abbey Street in a
downpour (in case we got famished before supper) I was minded of the
words of that other great East Belfast poet and musician – "Wouldn’t it
be great if it was like this all the time?"

And then there was more. Destiny connected the two "troubadours"
again in the Bob Harris Saturday NIght show last week* when Brian
appeared to sing a couple of songs and regale us with the story that
connected Brian, Bob and Van and, indeed, "These Days", one of the 3
songs he played on the evening. Brian was warm, funny and, to
paraphrase old Bob himself, VERY EXCELLENT.

Sometimes you get a sense that someone’s time has come. If the email
responses to Brian’s set are anything to go by (not to mention a
similar response when he played Janice Long’s show several weeks ago)
Brian is headed to be (in his own words) "an overnight success after 14
years".

As they might have said in the ‘Yard – "Good on you son, we’re proud of you!"

* check out http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio2/shows/bobharris from 12:00 am on before it’s too late!

JUSTCOFFEEFORME