"Reading the Bible Again for the First Time"
Session 5

Greetings and what a fine autumn evening. Feels just like an election night.

We had a great crowd considering it is election night and of course those of us able to attend weren't disappointed.

We started the evening by taking turns asking for love and prayers for ourselves and our loved ones that are in the midst of challenging times. This communal sharing is welcoming and it seems so important as it strengthens the bond of love that unites us.

We then enjoyed a reflection on Psalm #...oh, you know, 'the lord is my shepherd..' and then the Psalm itself followed by a request for wisdom in our studies together.

We then sat back and buckled up as our engaging girl-cousin-facilitator took us on a joyful-filled, passionate and interesting twelve hundred year odyssey through the Pentateuch and all in about 45 minutes! Once again, the overview handout is posted here but we are saddened we can not translate the spirit of the delivery and of the communal readings.

SJA Bible Study Tuesday, November 5, 2002 (Did you Vote today?)
READING THE BIBLE AGAIN FOR THE FIRST TIME by Marcus J. Borg
Chapter 5: Reading the Pentateuch Again

Let's start with the obvious question here at the beginning of the Bible... Who among us has read the Pentateuch a.k.a. the Torah or the 1st five books of the Bible: Genesis 50 chapters, Exodus 40 chapters, Leviticus 27 chapters, Numbers 36 chapters, and Deuteronomy 34 chapters, all told 187 chapters, and the foundation of Judeo-Christianity... show of hands? The good news is, if you have not yet delved deeply into the ancient roots of our faith community, it seems to me that Borg does a respectable job of presenting both a synopsis of the Torah and his interpretations of its meaning in about 20 pages, and now we will attempt to summarize that in about 20 minutes (via some "heavy lifting", paraphrasing and quoting from Borg) !!!

OVERVIEW:

Genesis begins with the creation stories and continues creation thru the generations/begats, the flood&Noah, and the re-creation. Borg picks up the story with chapter 12, God's call to Abraham and Sarah, the creation of Israel as a people, a nation, and a faith. Let's read Genesis Chapter 12:1-3, Exodus 2:24, 3:8, 16-17, Acts 3:25-26, Romans 4:13. Genesis continues through 3 generations to the great-grandsons, the "fathers" of the 12 tribes of Israel, who are living in Egypt as Genesis ends. The next 4 books tell the story of the exodus from Egypt, the covenant and giving of the law (613 laws... moral, civil, and ceremonial, including of course, the 10 Commandments Exodus 10:1-19) at Mt. Sinai, and the 40-years wandering. Read Borg's 4-line summary on p. 87.

HISTORY: The following are estimates:

THEMES: Promise & Fulfillment, which are intensified by Threats Promise: land and a multitude of descendants Fulfillment: Land: The next book after the Pentateuch has Joshua (Moses heir to leadership), lead the actual crossing into the promised land. Descendants: Numbers chapter 1 takes a census at the beginning of the Exodus and another 40 years later in Numbers chapter 26 with totals estimated near 2-3 million (the actual census only counts men of battle age). Threats: (seems to be the human/flip side of God's promise&fulfillment)
  1. Barrenness of the Matriarchs (Sarah was 90, Isaac's Rebekah after 20 years of marriage became a mother to Jacob-and his beloved Rachel is the last of the 4 mothers of his 12 sons to give birth-to Joseph and Benjamin).
  2. 12 tribes; brothers sell Joseph into slavery that is ultimately seen as God's will to preserve Israel when the brothers also flee to Egypt during famine.
  3. Attitude; fear, complaining, grumbling, crying, groaning, sufffffffering, and general faithlessness (disobey God's orders, ex: the scouting expedition, read Numbers 14:11-12, 20-23, and even idol worship, ex: the Golden Calf, read Exodus 32:11-14) leading up to and continuing as a major theme during the wandering (thought by some to be a character building exercise!). Israel continually challenged and tested God to provide for them, with Moses interceding to keep the peace between God and Israel. Primal Narrative (PN): "Exodus" is the most important, foundational, story of Israel's origin and ongoing struggle between the will of man and the sovereignty of their God. Borg calls it history metaphorized, dramatic, poetic, bigger than life (ex: a 5 to 11 day trip that takes 40 years, the massive numbers of people, the plagues, the crossing of the Red Sea). Exodus begins with Moses birth and ends with his death in the last chapter in Deuteronomy... Moses is the central figure in the PN, next to God. God gives the order "Let my people go" to Pharaoh through Moses and Aaron and sends the 10 plagues in response to Pharaoh's refusal. Borg points out that scholars' attempt to link the plagues to natural phenomenon undermine the central claim that "God did this... God sent the plagues and brought us out of Egypt with a great and mighty hand". Exodus chapter 15, "the song of Moses" celebrates the exodus and conquest of Canaan, altho scholars think that it is based on "the song of Miriam", possibly the oldest part of the Hebrew, read Exodus 15:20-21. Back to math class, Exodus so far has taken 18 chapters to go from slavery to Mt. Sinai in the desert. 59 chapters, a third of the Pentateuch (the rest of Exodus, all of Leviticus and the 1st 10 chapters of Numbers) take place at Sinai. This is where the covenant is formed and Israel is named God's "treasured possession" and "a priestly kingdom and a holy nation". All the law is given and presented in Exodus through Deuteronomy as God's revelation to Moses at Sinai, going back to a time of sacred beginnings.

    The meaning of the PN is not to be found in questioning paranormal activities. "Something happened" that forms the historical kernel of the story (ex: the Red Sea), but without violating the principle of "divine consistency"... that God acts now in the same way that God acted in the past, or asking "Why would God change how God acts?", or turning it into a story of "what God did once upon a time but then became mysteriously inactive" after jump-starting Israel. As PN, the exodus is a story of God's character and will... which is RADICAL PROTEST AGAINST AND LIBERATION FROM SYSTEMIC OPPRESSION AND UNFAIR DOMINATION. Page 105, "The exodus story is about the creation of a world marked by freedom, social justice, and shalom, a rich Hebrew word meaning "well-being, peace, and wholeness". Ancient Israel's PN brings together religious passion and social justice. New lenses. The Kingdom of God here and now.

    SMALL GROUP DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

    1. Tell about a life journey and lessons learned in the "long way around".
    2. What threatens and thereby intensifies your spiritual life?
    3. Tell something about what the 10 commandments mean to you.

    Thank you for your loving service!

    With that the facilitator threw it open for large group discussion and discuss we did. Some of it went like this, 'so God was going to break His promise to the Israelites on many occasions but Moses keeps intervening and has to remind God of the Promise He Made to the people? What does this say about God and how do we feel about it?' Discuss. 'How does one determine what is metaphor and what is history in the bible? Does it make a difference? Why?' Discuss 'if God is the one God of all people, why does He bring havoc on the ancient Egyptians? Or the Palestinians, or the Israelis or the Afghanis or the Iraqis?' Discuss. Well on second thought, let's take a break down over at the snack shack!

    Cousin! We first came upon a silver-pan-pan-from-home filled with brownies of a truly staggering texture and flavor! Crispy and gooey with pecans(?) Warning signs for chocolate lovers Posted! And just when your eyes were clearing and you seemed to be out of the woods, one was introduced to yet another plate-from-home piled high with spectacular looking chocolate chip cookies. Are you Kidding me? These homespun cookies are moist and absolutely loaded with chocolate chips and what is that, marshmallow, pecans, walnuts? I am eating a cookie as we speak and so forgive me if you receive crumbs or chocolate smudges with any portion of this recap. Stunning! Thank you. We also had enough coffee to start a small pond due to a minor brain mal-function. We also shared ice water and cider accompaniments.

    Oh, my lord
    What an evening

    We did make it back into our 5 small groups and continued our discussions from large group and the marvelous discussion questions suggested by our facilitator. Some of the discussion centered on a passage in the bible about God being slow to anger and forgiving and in the same breath that God will punish three generations for your shortcomings type of deal and we related it to "bad" choices we have made in life and how our children or children's children may or may not suffer consequences. We talked about taking the "long rode" and the lessons we learned that we may not have had we not taken the long road. So are the choices really 'bad?' The Ten Commandments. Thou shalt not commit murder. It says nowhere, that we can find, that you shall not kill 'unless...', or 'except...' So why don't more people from the Judea-Christian-Muslim faith stand up and denounce the mass killing going on in our world? Why don't more of us refuse to kill? Really wonderful stuff and we hated to go.

    We ended with a beautiful custom-built prayer that was fitting on the eve of our country's elections. Remember that all people are God's people and the things we do and say and learn here, the love we share here, let's carry it out of here when we go and share it with the world. The world is in dire need.

    Amen

    For next week please read chapter 6 in Borg's 'reading the bible again for the first time'

    Privileges include:

    • Facilitator Denny
    • O. Prayer Karen
    • C. Prayer Vi
    • Treats Margaret
    • Clean-up Elise
    • Bookstore
    • After 9 Louise
    • After 11 Jeanne
    Shalom

    Rik

    "St. Joan of Arc Bible Study is an open and growing group that meets for fellowship and to discuss the Bible and other faith-centered literature. Our informal study group draws from biblical scholarship, historical perspectives, current events and personal reflections. We welcome honor and respect the personal ideas and spiritual journeys of all who join us."

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