realmealministries.org

A missional hermeneutic recognizes that the biblical canon tells the story fundamentally of God’s mission (missio dei) in and for creation. The story of God’s mission can be described broadly via the rubric of Creation, Fall, Israel, Jesus the Messiah, Church, and New Creation.

The Bible opens with the creation of the heavens and earth by God. The human community is crafted in God’s image as the pinnacle of God’s handiwork. Men and women equally function as the image of God for the sake of rest of Creation. From the beginning, humanity was created for God’s missional purposes to represent God before Creation by reflecting God’s character in community with God, with one another, and with the world. Implicit in the creation of humanity are three core themes: mission, holiness, and community. As we will see these themes are important for reading the Bible missionally.

Genesis 3-11 broadly function in the story to explain the fundamental problem in the world. The “very good” Creation of Genesis 1-2 is shattered by human sinfulness. Sin infests every human person and institution as well as fractures creation itself. The stories and genealogies of Gen 3-11 describe the world in which we find ourselves living this side of God’s New Creation. Yet in the midst of the chaos of sin and brokenness, Gen 3-11 presents a God who does more than pass the expected judgment—the God of the Scriptures begins to act to redeem a fallen world.

In Genesis 12, God calls a new humanity into being with a series of promises to Abram and his descendents. The narrative thread of God’s new humanity runs uninterrupted through the Protestant canon from Gen 12 – Esther. God’s new humanity becomes the nation of Israel. It is decisively shaped through God’s liberation of Israel from Egyptian bondage and through the forging of a covenant at Sinai. Israel’s deliverance from Egypt is purposeful and is undertaken for the sake of the world. At Sinai, Israel is called to serve as God’s missional people, a holy community for the nations (Exod 19:4-6). The remaining books of the Pentateuch establish a polity for God’s people as they seek to live faithfully in the Promised Land as a witness to the nations. Joshua to Esther narrate the potential and pitfalls of God’s people living in Canaan including the devastation of the Exile due to disobedience and the resilience of God’s faithful love shown through God’s restoration of Judah post-Exile.

A large portion of the Old Testament is not set in the Genesis – Esther narrative framework. How do the Psalms, the Wisdom Literature, and the Prophets fit in the story of the Scriptures?

The book of Psalms serves as the prayer and worship book for God’s people. The psalms reverberate with themes of God’s reign over the nations. Through lament, thanksgiving, and praise, the psalms encourage an expansive vision of the worship of God that ultimately issues for in the concluding exhortation: Let everything that has breath praise the Lord! (150:6). The psalms root God’s people in a vital worshiping relationship with the Lord, the Creator of the World and Deliverer of Israel.

Israel’s Wisdom traditions serve God’s story by offering serious reflection on the God’s creation and the good life. Wisdom deals with questions that engage all of humanity. In fact, Job, Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes have much in common with the wisdom of Israel’s neighbors. Wisdom is interested in navigating successfully through life. Israel’s wisdom is profoundly practical and relevant to culture because it is rooted in Creation. Since God created all that is, the wise can observe life astutely and deduce principles for living in God’s world. This focus on the human side of life makes it easy to connect Israel’s wisdom to culture. Yet, Israel’s unique contribution to the wit and maxim of the world is profoundly missional: “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom.” The implication is this: careful attention to the human condition may prepare persons for the truth about God (Ecc 12:12-14).

The Prophets (Isaiah – Malachi) serve as a bulwark for the mission of God. They contribute to the Israel’s story in three ways. First, Israel’s prophets continually call God’s people back to their roots as a missional community that embodies God’s holiness before the nations. The Prophets take Israel to task for failing to live as God’s people. Second, the Prophets maintain an international focus. The God of Israel is the Lord of the nations and as such the prophets speak words of both judgment and salvation to the nations. Provocatively Jonah audaciously announces God’s love for even the most committed opponents of God’s people. Last, the Prophets envision a new future work of God’s salvation (e.g., Jer 31:31-34, etc)

It is against the backdrop of Israel that Jesus the Messiah enters the story. Jesus lives as the ultimate human being who fulfills in his life, death, and resurrection God’s Creational intentions for humanity and everything that God had envisioned for Israel. Jesus’ death is for the totality of the Fall and his resurrection declares the ultimate victory of God. The Gospels narrate Jesus’ life and ministry to teach future generations of disciples what it means to follow Jesus. The core of Jesus’ message is the announcement of the arrival of God’s kingdom and his call to realign our lives in light of this reality (Matt 4:17, Mark 1:15 cf Luke 4).

In the aftermath of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection, the Risen Jesus sends out the Church to announce and extends God’s salvation to the nations. The Church is unleashed in the power of the Holy Spirit. The New Testament witnesses to the spread of the Gospel around the 1st century Mediterranean world. The Scriptural story moves from the land of Israel to the nations as Jesus’ followers take the Gospel to all people in fulfillment of the Israel’s mission.

The Scriptural story ends with Revelation’s portrait of God’s future that ends with New Creation (Rev 20-21).

Learning to understand the big story of the Scriptures is more than a descriptive task. The story of the Scriptures seeks to convert its readers/hearers to its perspective. The key is to discover that in the Scriptural story we find the only true narrative for our lives.

© 2009 Brian D. Russell
All rights reserved.

All followers of Jesus Christ need to see themselves in light of the overarching biblical narrative about God’s mission. This is the goal of realignment. If the Scriptures exist to convert readers to their perspective, then the sign of this conversion is the abiding of Christ followers in the Scriptural story.
Here is test. Ask yourselves these questions:

Are we cast in God’s story or are we part of some other story? With what great stories does your own soul resonate? What movies or fictional works have shaped the way that you live your life? What has more influence on my life: the story of Scripture or the stories popularized by the surrounding culture?

William Shakespeare penned his oft quoted lines for his comedy “As You Like It” (Act II Scene 7):

All the world’s a stage,
And all the men and women merely players:
They have their exits and their entrances;
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages.

These words are pregnant with meaning and invite us to think deeply about our own role in the unfolding drama of the 21st century. As Christ followers, we need to consider the trajectory of our own lives. What is our part? What role should we be playing?

Theologian Robert Jensen points to the Scriptures as the guide:
“Scripture’s story is not part of some larger narrative; it is itself the larger narrative of which all other true narratives are parts. Biblical exegesis is reading the sides and prop lists as so forth for the drama that God and his universe are now living together. And so do not when reading Scripture try to figure out how what you are reading fits into some larger story; for there is no larger story.”

A missional reading of the Scriptures is committed to helping women and men to understand and find their place in the grand narrative that God is writing from Creation to New Creation. Too often we can find ourselves shaped more by the stories of the World than by the story of Redemption as unfolded in the Scriptures

How well are we playing our part?

God is looking for women and men who are willing to step into the role for which they were created. These sorts of persons are the ones who are driving the future of the Christ following movement.

© 2009 Brian D. Russell

This is a draft of an essay that will appear in an upcoming edition of Asbury’s Alumni Link:

I love the Scriptures. In offering my Top Ten Bible passages, I am sharing texts that continue to shape and transform me as I seek to follow the Risen Christ into the world for the sake of God’s mission. I have included a question or two that I find myself pondering as I read these passages.

Gen 1:26-31
God created humanity as the pinnacle of his creative work. Such a statement was audacious in its original Ancient Near Eastern setting and it remains compelling today. God crafted humanity for profound purposes. Women and men exist to serve as God’s visible representatives before Creation by reflecting God’s character through their communal lives together. People exist for mission, community, and holiness. The rest of the biblical story narrates the loss of this reality and God’s redemptive work to restore our true humanity.

Am I living as the person whom God created me to be? Am I part of a missional community that reflects God’s character before a watching world?

Gen 3:1-9
Gen 3:1-9 is a disarming reminder of the tragedy of human existence and of the root cause of our lostness apart from God’s grace. It narrates humanity’s substitution of self-rule for a moment-by-moment relationship of faithful obedience with the Creator. The issue is trust. The dialogue between Eve and the serpent moves God from the subject of Adam and Eve’s life in the garden to the mere object of a theological conversation in which the serpent sows seeds of doubt in the heart of Eve and invites her to rely on her own judgment rather than a relationship with God built on trust. Both Adam and Eve chose self-rule over trust.

Do I trust that God has my best interests at heart as well as those of whom I love?

Exodus 19:3-6
These are God’s initial words to Israel at Sinai. They interpret the meaning of Israel’s redemption from Egyptian bondage. The salvation of God is more than liberation from Egypt; it is liberation for the mission of God. The redeemed people of God exist to serve as a missional community that reflects and embodies the character of God in/for/to the nations (cf. 1 Pet 2:9). We must grapple with this text as we seek to inculcate a biblical DNA in our communities.

How do I embody God’s call to mission, holiness, and community? How well does my community of faith reflect the vision of this passage?

Deuteronomy 6:4-9
The Shema marks the foundation for life as God intended. Our relationship with God is first order in importance. This text reminds us of the vital necessity of a fully committed life. Note that this commandment is lived out and nurtured within community. E. Stanley Jones once wrote, “Christianity that doesn’t begin with the individual doesn’t being; Christianity that ends with the individual ends.”

Is my life marked by a moment-by-moment relationship with God rooted in faithful obedience manifested in a whole being love for God? Am I “all in” for God? How well am I nurturing others in this first-order commitment?

Josh 1:1-9
Courage is the key that opens the door to the life of God’s dreams. Courage is determination to live out our faith commitments to accomplish God’s will. Joshua is God’s choice to take the mantle of leadership for God’s people. God appears to Joshua and casts a large vision for the future of God’s people. Joshua’s role is to live courageously by leading Israel into the Promised Land. The courage described in this passage is rooted in a journey shaped and formed by the Scriptures.

Do I live courageously to advance God’s Kingdom, or am I content to live in the “safety” of the status quo?

Psalm 73
Psalm 73 is a poignant psalm that narrates the psalmist’s struggle with life in the world. It captures a period of despair in which the psalmist’s perceived experience of God does not match his theological expectations. Yet it the midst of this dark time the psalmist enters God’s sanctuary and recognizes the ever present reality of God and God’s goodness. The psalmist moves from a faith rooted in external circumstances to one centered on the psalmist’s relationship with God.

What keeps me grounded when my faith experience does not match my theological understanding?

Jonah
Jonah sits among the Prophets as a nagging reminder to God’s people of God’s radical love for the nations. God is at work in the nations – even in those places that ostensibly stand the most opposed to God’s work in the world. God’s holy love extends far beyond the boundaries that we may be tempted to establish for it.

Do I love the lost as much as God does? In particular, what is my attitude toward those whom I consider my enemies?

Matt 4:17-22
Jesus begins his public ministry with a comprehensive call to (re)align continually with the ethos of God’s Kingdom that he is announcing has come near in him. Don’t miss the initial response to Jesus’ announcement: the creation of a missional community to serve as the vanguard for God’s age of salvation. The call to the kingdom is an invitation to mission and community.
In what ways have I separated following Jesus from following Jesus into the world on mission?

Philippians 3:7-16
This has been my favorite passage in the Scriptures since my teenage years. Paul recognizes that the ultimate value involves knowing Messiah Jesus as LORD. In response to this, Paul reorders his understanding of gain and privilege. Paul had boasted of his credentials in 3:1-6. He now advocates a radical reorientation of his past in light of Jesus. All that he once considered reasons for boasting are now reassessed as loss. This is not merely a pious display self-deprecation, but a deep rooted understanding that our gifts and talents become idols if we glory in them apart from a life centered on knowing Christ Jesus.

Have I surrendered to God my main thing so that it can become God’s thing?

There are countless other passages that I may well have chosen, but these are the one’s that have impacted me deeply in recent years as I seek to be continually realigned with and recast in the story that God is writing in the 21st century.

© 2009 Brian D. Russell

Here is a video testimony that I taped this past Spring (2009) to highlight one of our core values at Asbury Theological Seminary: believers and humanity. You can also view videos of two of my NT colleagues: Robert Mulholland and Ruth Anne Reese.

Here is a draft of a message for March 7, 2010 (Year C - Lent 3) based on Luke 13:1-9

1 Now there were some present at that time who told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices. 2 Jesus answered, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered this way? 3 I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish. 4 Or those eighteen who died when the tower in Siloam fell on them—do you think they were more guilty than all the others living in Jerusalem? 5 I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish.”
6 Then he told this parable: “A man had a fig tree, planted in his vineyard, and he went to look for fruit on it, but did not find any. 7 So he said to the man who took care of the vineyard, ‘For three years now I’ve been coming to look for fruit on this fig tree and haven’t found any. Cut it down! Why should it use up the soil?’ 8 “‘Sir,’ the man replied, ‘leave it alone for one more year, and I’ll dig around it and fertilize it. 9 If it bears fruit next year, fine! If not, then cut it down.’ “

If you have lived long, you’ve either experienced human tragedy personally or heard countless reports of it. 911. Earthquakes. War. Fires. Tsunamis. Hurricanes. Airline crashes. Murderous rampages. Tragedies create moments of reflection on the question of “Why?” These events jar us into contemplation of our own finitude. We humans readily obsess over cause and effect in the wake of troubling times. We long for some tangible answer to make sense of the tragic circumstances. Inevitably, someone, often a religious leader who audaciously claims divine insight into the event, announces that the latest catastrophe is a sign of God’s judgment. Moreover, we are told that the pain and suffering is the direct result of personal or national sin. Such answers are only comforting for insiders who are confident of their own standing with God and intent on pointing the fingers at others for the sake of self-justification.

In our Gospel lesson for today, Jesus is confronted by a group looking for easy answers to a horrific event in which some Galileans had been killed by Pontius Pilate while worshipping in Jerusalem. This unsettling state-sanctioned murder had led unnamed persons to carry the gory details to Jesus. As was his usual modus operandi, Jesus turned this encounter on its head. The inquisitors were likely looking for self-justification in the face of unspeakable horror. They wanted a simple answer, but Jesus would have none of this. He turns the conversation into a call for repentance as the only ground for hope and standing in the face of God’s judgment.

Repentance
In response to the crowd, Jesus asks a question that surely was on the mind of all in his presence, “Do you think that because these Galileans suffered in this way they were worse sinners than all other Galileans?” Moreover he cites the death of eighteen people due to the collapse of the tower of Siloam as a second example and asks, “Do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others living in Jerusalem?”

The persons in the presence of Jesus surely wanted the answer to be “Yes.” Such a response is in keeping with the popular theology of Jesus’ day and our own. We unwittingly suppose that life would be less messy if we could explain every tragedy on the basis of the victim’s sin. This was the approach of Job’s friends in that great Old Testament dialogue over the suffering in Job’s life. But life isn’t that simple. God’s Creation is not so mechanical that every good experience is the result of an individual’s righteous actions and every bad experience the result of sin.

So Jesus will have none of this popular theologizing. He presses the issue more deeply. Were the people who died worse sinners than others? Absolutely not. This claim is unsettling and begs the questions: How should we then understand this tragic incident and how should we order our own lives? Jesus interprets the event as a warning, “…unless you repent, you will all perish just as they did.” Jesus suggests that the ugliness of life should propel us to God rather than send us into a posture of self-justification. Tragedy can strike us at any moment. The only sure way through this world is the way of repentance.

Don’t miss the nuance of Jesus’ words. He is not talking about a one-time “I repented back in 1995” act of penitence. Jesus is calling on his hearers to adopt a lifestyle of repentance. There is a profound difference between a one-time repentance and an ongoing response of repentance to God. The first assumes a static approach to life; the other is dynamic.

During a trip to Port Canaveral beach on Florida’s space coast, the Russell family was enjoying a walk along the coastline. The waves gently splashed ashore. The sun was warm and the ocean was teeming with activity. Pelicans glided over the surface looking for fish. A pod of dolphins swam a dozen or so yards off shore. It was a perfect day. As they walked northward, the family spied an odd looking bluish object protruding from the sand about fifty yards down the beach. As they drew near, the identity of the mysterious object came into focus. It was an old ten gallon plastic gas can that had washed ashore and was now firmly stuck in the wet sand. The Russell girls began squealing with delight as they discovered living creatures attached to the can. Barnacles were all over it. The girls begged their father to rescue the helpless barnacles from certain death from the sun or the sea gulls which were encircling the area. Mr. Russell attempted to pull the can loose from the sand, but it was held fast by the vacuum achieved by the wet sand. Next he tried to pry the barnacles off by hand. All this accomplished was the crushing of several barnacles. The Russells walked away sad that day. The barnacles would not survive the day. They had made a decision at some moment in the past to attach to the gas can. It had likely been a good decision at the time, but now this past decision and the barnacles inability to change had sealed their fate.

When Jesus talks about repentance here, he is offering a warning. Repentance is not merely a one-time change. It must be an ongoing way of life in our walk with God. Past decisions must lead to present and future acts of repentance. Think of Jesus’ call to repentance as an internal GPS navigational device. As we follow Jesus into the world, we will be confronted by new situations and challenges. Our GPS device continually recalculates are route and calls us to realign ourselves with where God is moving. This is the essence of the dynamic life of repentance. It is a key marker of a vital, moment-by-moment relationship with God.

Rather than offering a cheap and popular answer, Jesus uses the question about a tragic event as a teaching moment to call his inquisitors to a deeper relationship with God by committing to a lifestyle of continual realignment of their lives with God. But this is not the end of the story.

Fruitfulness
Jesus concludes his exchange by offering a parable. He tells the story of fig tree that does not bear figs. The landowner has patiently been awaiting the arrival of figs. After three years of waiting, he orders his gardener to cut down the tree. The gardener responds by pleading for patience and asks that the landowner give the tree one more year to produce fruit.

This story represents the chief takeaway of our passage. The goal of our life with God is not merely repentance or realignment as an end in itself. God desires something more. Jesus’ parable suggests that purpose of repentance is fruitfulness. As fig trees were created to produce figs, God’s people exist to produce the fruit that God desires. In Luke-Acts, this fruit is understood in terms of God’s mission in Jesus. God’s people serve as witnesses to the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. The risen Jesus has unleashed and sent out his people to serve as witnesses of Jesus’ resurrection and as heralds of God’s salvation to all nations.

Realigning and following Jesus involves serving as witnesses of the Gospel to those around us. This represents a life of fruitfulness. Jesus understands this as the natural result of being God’s people. Just as a fig tree exists to produce figs, the people of God exist to bear witness to God. We are to serve as clues to the mysteries of God.

But what happens when a fig tree does not bear figs? It is likely to be cut down so that its place in the garden may be replaced by another. Don’t miss the warning in Jesus’ words. He is calling his hearers to examine themselves on the question of their fruitfulness. Jesus is looking for persons committed to an ongoing relationship with him. It is not about asking, “Am I less of a sinner than another?” But rather it is about asking, “Am I committed to realigning with God daily as a means to living faithfully and producing fruit for God’s kingdom?”

Conclusion:

The good news of this text is its testimony to the patience of God. The warning here is deadly serious: it is a call to repentance and fruitfulness. But the overall picture paints the picture of a generous God who desires God’s best for his people.

Jesus calls us to a moment-by-moment realignment with God’s work in the world. This way of life unleashes us to live fully as God’s.

How will we respond to the Gospel lesson? Will we heed Jesus’ teaching as a means to living the lives that God created us to live?

Reading the Scriptures involves hearing the voice of God speaking through an ancient text calling and inviting the reader and hearer to align or realign his or her life with the purposes of God in the world.

Reading Scripture requires that we approach the text as its servant rather than its master.

Reading Scripture is not ultimately about bringing our questions to the text; it is about opening ourselves up to the questions that the text desires to ask of us.

Reading Scripture requires our recognition that our presuppositions and prior commitments must be open for nuance, correction, or change on the basis of the text.

Reading Scripture leads us to the true world that God desires for us to inhabit and work toward in our live together.

© 2009 Brian D Russell