Prophetic Call to Denounce Idolatry and Injustice

All this took place because the Israelites had sinned against the Lord their God, who had brought them up out of Egypt from under the power of Pharaoh king of Egypt. They worshiped other gods and followed the practices of the nations the Lord had driven out before them, as well as the practices that the kings of Israel had introduced. The Israelites secretly did things against the Lord their God that were not right. From watchtower to fortified city they built themselves high places in all their towns. They set up sacred stones and Asherah poles on every high hill and under every spreading tree. At every high place they burned incense, as the nations whom the Lord had driven out before them had done.

They did wicked things that aroused the Lord’s anger. They worshiped idols, though the Lord had said, “You shall not do this.” The Lord warned Israel and Judah through all his prophets and seers: “Turn from your evil ways. Observe my commands and decrees, in accordance with the entire Law that I commanded your ancestors to obey and that I delivered to you through my servants the prophets.” (2 Kings 17:7–13)

Core truth: God sent prophets to call God’s people to realign with their vocation of serving as God’s missional community for the nations.

God’s prophets are diverse in origin. Among the writing prophets, Ezekiel is a priest, Isaiah is a political insider, and Amos is a shepherd. While most are men, when we include the narratives about prophets in Joshua–Kings, we will discover that there is a female prophet named Huldah (2 Kings 22:14–20) during the days of Josiah.

God’s prophets also deploy both words and physical acts to proclaim God’s will for his people. The actual words of the prophets dominate their books, but the prophets use other methods as well. Here are some examples: the book of Jonah speaks God’s Word through a narrative about Jonah’s mission to the Assyrian city Nineveh. Hosea marries an unfaithful woman for the purposes of illustrating Israel’s unfaithfulness to God and his persistent love to woo Israel back to faithfulness.

Read the rest.

The Old Testament and Missional Hermeneutics

In an article titled “Missional Pastors in Maintenance Churches," Darrell Guder writes this about missional hermeneutics:

"Missional hermeneutics” is a way of interpreting Scripture that starts from the assumption that the NT communities were all founded in order to continue the apostolic witness that brought them into being. Every NT congregation understood itself under the mandate of our Lord at his ascension: “You shall be my witnesses.” The work of apostolic witness was not only to proclaim the gospel of salvation and to establish congregations of believers. Their work was not done when there was a community of Christians now growing in their faith and moving towards its promised outcome, “the salvation of your souls” (1 Pet 1:9). Their mandate was to found congregations where their shared experience of God’s saving love equipped them to become witnesses. They were empowered by the Holy Spirit to spread the word and the evidence of the gospel of new life and hope, and they did it! To that end, the NT documents were all, in some way, written to continue the process of formation for that kind of witness. They intended the continuing conversion of these communities to their calling—and that is how the Spirit used (and still uses!) these written testimonies.

While this quotation resonates with me in many ways, I wish that Gruder would have included more on the contribution of the entire Bible for the articulation of a missional hermeneutics. I think that we can apply Gruder’s thoughts to the totality of Scripture. The Bible is the story of God’s mission. God created humanity to serve as a missional community that reflected his character to and for all Creation (Genesis 1:26-31). The infestation of sin into every human individual and institution (Genesis 3-11) changed the scope of God’s mission. The Bible tells the story of God’s work to reclaim and renew Creation from the results of sin. Humanity, however, continues to serve a key role. God calls Abraham to begin the renewal of humanity (12:1-3). The story of Abraham culminates more than a millennium later in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus.

The Old Testament serves several key roles in the formation of a missional hermeneutic:

1) Establishes the parameters of the story: God and Creation;

2) Describes the fundamental problem: humanity and Creation have been corrupted by sin;

3) Describes the dignity and vocation of humanity: to serve as a missional community to reflect God’s character to and for Creation.

4) After the entrance of sin, God works to establish a new humanity—Israel to serve as a missional community to reflect God’s character to and for the nations. In other words, mission takes a anthrocentric turn. Creation is still within the scope of mission, but the burning issue becomes the restoration of humanity.

5) The Old Testament points to the fulfillment of God’s mission through Messiah including death and resurrection.

6) Establishes an ethos for God’s people around the holiness of God by clearly articulating holiness in terms of love for God and neighbor;

7) Provides resources to engaging the surrounding cultures without succumbing to syncretism.

What do you think? What am I missing?

If you are interested in a small group resource that introduces the entire Bible with a missional perspective, check out my recent book Invitation.

© 2015 Brian D. Russell

Invitation to Hearing the Scriptural Story

William Shakespeare, in “As You Like It” composed these famous lines:

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 remind us that our lives are part of a larger story that being written each day. What does this story look like? Our internet connected world flashes a multitude of competing stories and images at us at a break net speed. All seek to draw us into to their narrative web. What story or stories shape us? What images and visions propel forward in our lives.

I often begin seminars and classes on the Bible by asking this question: What novel, short story, film, or movie best represents your life as you currently see yourself? When I’ve done this in small groups, I received some interesting answers over the years. Many of us resonate with underdog stories of courage and overcoming odds, romantic tales of love, or the deeds and adventures of super heroes. Yet there is One Story above all others that  beckons for our lives. It is the Bible. As we seek to advance God’s kingdom in the early decades of the 21^st century, we must re-engage the Story so that we can live as the missional people that God created us to be.

In the Preface to his sermons, John Wesley wrote these words:

 
I am a spirit come from God, and returning to God: Just hovering over the great gulf; till, a few moments hence, I am no more seen; I drop into an unchangeable eternity! I want to know one thing, -- the way to heaven; how to land safe on that happy shore. God himself has condescended to teach the way: For this very end he came from heaven. He hath written it down in a book. O give me that book! At any price, give me the book of God! I have it: Here is knowledge enough for me. Let me be homo unius libri [a person of one book]. [1]

In other words, the Bible is the one story to which each of us needs to listen. Scripture desires to transform us. God uses his Word through the power of the Holy Spirit to guide and shape us.

The Bible is the story of God’s relentless love for all creation. It’s narrative traces God’s desire to redeem a lost humanity and heal a broken creation.  When we read Scripture, we encounter the Creator God who invites us to participate with him as He advances his mission to bring restoration, forgiveness, reconciliation, justice, peace, hope, and love through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. In the Bible, God reveals his character, his purposes, and his plans so that we may live as the people whom God created for us to be.

As we seek to advance God’s kingdom in our day, let us realign with God by immersing ourselves anew in the Scriptural story.

© 2015 Brian D. Russell

Brian's recent group study resource Invitation with companion DVD offers a 10 week overview of the Scriptural story with a goal of forming readers in the core biblical truths of mission, community, and holiness and unleashing them into the world to live as a missional community that embodies and reflects God's character for the world.

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[1]Preface to Sermons

Welcome and Introduction to Invitation

Here is a video that I filmed to serve as an introduction for individuals or groups reading my new book Invitation published by Seedbed.

Let me know if you have questions about the contents of the study or would like a sample. You can order Invitation here.