Starting Points for Biblical Interpretation: Part One (Luke 24:44–49)

Learning to read Scripture involves a commitment to understanding how the entire Bible fits together. My two recent books Invitation (Seedbed, 2015) and (re)Aligning with God: Reading Scripture for Church and World (Cascade, 2016) have reflected on the narrative of the Bible as a coherent story from Creation to New Creation.

NIV Luke 24:44-49 He said to them, "This is what I told you while I was still with you: Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms." 45 Then he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures. 46 He told them, "This is what is written: The Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, 47 and repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. 48 You are witnesses of these things. 49 I am going to send you what my Father has promised; but stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high."

This text occurs in the climactic section of Luke’s Gospel. The risen Jesus meets with his astonished band of disciples and begins to prepare them for their ministry as apostles. Here are some of the highlights:

1) Jesus views his life, death, and resurrection as the fulfillment of Scripture. Notice Jesus’ use of the phrase “Law of Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms.” This is shorthand for the totality of Israel’s Scriptures. Jesus taught his followers to read the Scriptures messianically. In other words, Jesus’ followers read the whole Bible as a witness to the mission of God as fulfilled in Jesus. This does not mean, as it has in some quarters of the Church, that the Old Testament becomes a mere pool of proof texts for the coming of Jesus. For example, the whole purpose of the book of Micah was not to predict that Bethlehem would be the place from which the messiah would come (Mic 5:2). Rather the Church is to listen to the witness of the Old Testament on its own terms and to recognize a trajectory that points beyond its witness to the coming of God’s Messiah to usher in the age of salvation.

2) Scripture is to be read missionally. If most Churches do a good job recognizing and teaching Jesus as the fulfillment of the Old Testament, it struggles in emphasizing the missional implications of this. Look again at verses 47-48. As a result of recognizing Jesus as the long-awaited messiah from God, the apostles are unleashed into the nations to be God’s witnesses. In other words, learning to read the Old Testament as a witness to Jesus is not about mere information it is about being transformed into a missional community with good news to share with the world. This will impact our reading of the Bible because it invites us to read Scripture missionally. That is we read the Bible not merely as a guide to personal piety or to create theological systems, but most profoundly in order to shape our own missional practice as we seek to live faithfully in our world as Jesus’ witnesses. The starting point for a missional reading of the Bible is the recognition of this reality. Christopher Wright in his essay “Mission as a Matrix for Hermeneutics and Biblical Theology” on page 109 asks, “Is it possible, is it valid, is it profitable for Christians to read the Bible as a whole from a missional perspective, and what happens when they do?” Wright, of course, believes that this is indeed the proper approach. Perhaps the pages of the New Testament bear witness to what happens when Christians do indeed read and act on the Scripture’s missional message. Wright's most comprehensive work on missional reading can be found in his seminal work The Mission of God: Unlocking the Bible's Grand Narrative.

3) The Spirit of God empowers the Church. Verse 49 promises the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the disciples. This of course was fulfilled at Pentecost in Acts 2, but I want to suggest that this on-going reality has implications for our reading of the Bible. We do not read the Bible merely out of our own intellect, experience, education, and setting. Since the Spirit of God abides in each believer, it is important to recognize the role of the Holy Spirit in biblical interpretation. We do not read alone. Prayer for illumination is vital so that the Spirit of Truth may lead his people into the truth. I don’t want to overemphasize this aspect and I don’t see the indwelling of the Spirit as somehow legitimizing any or every reading of a text offered by a believer as there is a profound synergy involved in the interpretive process. But a text such as Luke 24 promises the empowerment of the Spirit in the life of the Church on mission. This implies, I think, guidance for the Church in its reading of the text as it seeks to bear faithful witness to the world about the salvation that God offers in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Let us apply this promise by continually praying that the Lord would astonish us anew with the richness of the Word.

Mission and Holiness

In 1 Corinthians 9:19-22, the Apostle Paul describes his method of reaching the Mediterranean world with the Gospel.

NRSV 1 Corinthians 9:19 For though I am free with respect to all, I have made myself a slave to all, so that I might win more of them. 20 To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law (though I myself am not under the law) so that I might win those under the law. 21 To those outside the law I became as one outside the law (though I am not free from God’s law but am under Christ’s law) so that I might win those outside the law. 22 To the weak I became weak, so that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, that I might by all means save some.

Paul describes an outreach strategy that modern thinkers would describe as contextual or indigenous. Paul worked to offer Christ to persons in terms of their own culture and thinking. Paul’s encounter with Greeks on Mars Hill is a classic example of this strategy. Paul’s conversation with a group of people on the Areopagus is recorded in Acts 17:16-34. He uses one of the Athenian’s own religious altars—one ascribed “To an Unknown God” as a vehicle for the proclamation of the good news about Jesus. In other words, Paul attempted to use some aspect of his target audiences own culture and belief system as a starting point or doorway into a conversation about Jesus Christ.

At least on the surface, most of us gravitate toward Paul’s strategy of “becoming all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some.” If we wish to live an evangelistic and missional lifestyle, there is much to learn here. This is a key element to learning to speak human.

For me, there is a key question: How does one embody such a mission strategy and stay true to the Gospel? Common answers such as, “I just follow Jesus” (though true) do not quite cut it because they are overly simplistic. In order to be the sort of persons who can follow in the footsteps of Paul and his co-workers (let alone the footprints of Jesus), we need to be profoundly touched by God. We need to be so rooted in God’s character that we are capable of adapting ourselves to new challenges, structures, and circumstances without losing the substance of who we are in Jesus. This means that deep character is more important than surface character.

Have you ever heard the phrase, “The clothes make the (wo)man.” In my thinking, this is completely backwards. If we want to be adaptable so that God can use us to reach the many, then we need to embody an ethos in which “the man [or woman] makes the clothes.”

This is not easy. It is even dangerous. In fact, Paul immediately follows up the above text with two strong warnings:

1) Paul uses an athletic metaphor to describe the seriousness of the danger:
NRS 1 Corinthians 9:24 Do you not know that in a race the runners all compete, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may win it. 25 Athletes exercise self-control in all things; they do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable one. 26 So I do not run aimlessly, nor do I box as though beating the air; 27 but I punish my body and enslave it, so that after proclaiming to others I myself should not be disqualified.

Those of us who wish to reach out with God’s love to all persons need to realize the level of commitment necessary. Just as the athlete must continue her or his training to stay on top, so must we who follow Jesus be intentional and consistent in the nurturing our own relationship with God. To be an elite athlete requires a commitment to a training regimen that empowers the athlete to improve performance over time.

2) Then, in chapter 10 of 1 Corinthians, Paul reminds his readers of the unfaithfulness of Israel despite the fact that the Israelites were eyewitnesses of incredible acts of God.

The lesson is clear: our past history with God is no guarantee of our future faithfulness. Reflecting on Israel’s past tendency to be unfaithful in spite of God’s faithfulness, Paul warning in 1 Cor 10:14 “If you think you are standing strong, be careful that you don’t fall.”

The conclusion is this: our own personal holiness cannot be separated from the mission that God calls us to fulfill. Character matters. When the character of Jesus truly resides in us, we can adapt ourselves to new contexts and God will use us to reach others who desperately need the good news that is found only in Jesus. If we follow Jesus boldly, he will lead us into the darkest places in the world so that we can serve as light as Jesus shines through us.

Reflection:
1) How adaptable am I to new situations?

2) Am I more likely to be influenced by culture or to influence the culture for good?

3) What habits do I keep that help to nurture my soul and replenish me so that I am ready to reach out and serve others?

4) Reflect on your own understanding of the relationship between a missional lifestyle and personal holiness.

© 2006 Brian D. Russell, Revised 2016.

My latest book (re)Aligning with God: Reading Scripture for Church and World offers reflections on how to read Scripture in light of God's mission to bless all people.

It's finally out! My text on missional reading: (re)Aligning with God: Reading Scripture for Church and World is now available.

I am pleased to announced the publication of (re)Aligning with God: Reading Scripture for Church and World. This is my introduction to a missional reading of the Bible. I wrote it for church planters, pastors, teachers, and seminarians to serve as a guide to unleashing the power of Scripture in the advance of the Christ following movement in the 21st century.

Here are the recommendations from the back cover:

Eddie Arthur (director of strategic initiatives for Global Connections): 
This book...makes a well–argued case for reading Scripture through a missional lens and gives practical guideline for how to do this. If this were all the book did, it would be well worth a read; but it goes a step further. It calls us to action...This isn't the most comfortable book you will ever read on the subject of hermeneutics, but it is one of the most challenging.

Joel B. Green (Dean of the School of Theology and Professor of New Testament Interpretation, Fuller Theological Seminary):
What would happen if the church read its Scripture for the sake of God's mission in the world? What would this look like? And how might we shape communities of Christ followers for whom these questions are central? Here's the long-awaited manual for those of us who are interested in missional hermeneutics. Russell shows the way. Take and read.

 

   

Introduction to Missional Hermeneutics (Video Lectures)

I'm teaching Introduction to the Old Testament at Asbury Theological Seminary this semester.

As part of this course, I introduce the practice of missional hermeneutics. I'll go into much more detail in class but I've created a series of three videos that discuss the role and practice of missional hermeneutics for the church and world.

The Missional Implications of Hearing the Bible's Big Picture

The biblical narrative tells the story of Creation — Fall — Israel (God’s New Humanity) — Jesus the Messiah — Church — New Creation. See my essay God's Mission and Scripture's Story to review this framework.

1) Mission is the common thread that unites the Old and New Testaments into the Christian Bible. Seeing the Big Picture is essential for understanding the Holy Scriptures. This is not a call for a reading of Scripture that erases tensions.[1] Rather the differing voices in Scripture point to the missional dimension of the Canon.  Beeby argues that “mission rarely occurs without conflict.”[2]  Tensions within Scripture serve as witnesses to God’s call on people in various contexts to live faithfully.  Different times, contexts, and cultures call for different emphases.  Beeby writes:

This biblical parliament includes wisdom books which differ greatly from the prophets.  Within wisdom Job does not agree with Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes is out of tune with almost everybody.  The prophets include Jeremiah and Isaiah who concur on much but differ considerably…No wonder that some deny to [Scripture] any unity.  But it has a unity: a unity in tension, a harmony of conflicting forces that can speak to all sorts and conditions of humanity, in all sorts and conditions of human joy and anguish.  At times we must hear one voice more than others.  In affluence we must hear the vocation to poverty, in strength we must be conscious of the power of weakness; severity must temper goodness and law nourish grace lest it become cheap.[3]

Think about some of the more famous tensions in Scripture: differences in created order in Genesis 1:1-2:3 and 2:4-25 or the different perspectives on faith and works found in Paul’s letter to Galatians and the writings of James. Does not reading these in the larger framework of God’s mission place the relationship of these texts in a new light? Rather than seeing the Bible as hopelessly diverse and without any center, an emphasis on the mission of God serves as the light that brings out of the true beauty and unity of the kaleidoscope of Scripture.

The review of the Big Picture of the Old and New Testament suggests that Scripture forms a story. It is the story of the Mission of God from Creation – Fall – Israel – Jesus – Church – New Creation in which the Creating and Redeeming God invites humanity to live as the people of God for the world.

Theologian Robert Jensen observes:
Scripture’s story is not part of some larger narrative; it is itself the larger narrative of which all other true narratives are parts. 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.[4]

2) All of Creation matters to God. God’s ultimate mission is the full redemption of all creation. As we saw the Bible begins with a Creation which God himself evaluates as “very good” (Gen 1:31). This “very good” Creation is undone in part by human sin (Genesis 3-11, note specifically the cursing of the earth in the aftermath of the disobedience of Adam and Eve in Gen 3:17-19, cf. Romans 8:18-23). Likewise, the New Testament ends with a testimony of a New Heavens and a New Earth, including the creation of a New Jerusalem which functions as the focal point of God’s ultimate reign.
God’s love for creation implies a sufficient ground for a missional theology that is worldly in at least three respects:

First, humans remain God’s stewards over creation – creatures, plants, and inanimate material. It is contrary to Scripture to participate in the abuse of Creation. The care of God’s creation is part of the missio dei.

Second, in the post-Genesis 3-11 reality in which we find ourselves, the world remains the context in which the present mission will occur. The tension in Scripture involves the issue of the universal love of God for the world and his particular election of Israel to serve as God’s distinct people “his treasured possession” (Exod 19:4-6; Deut 7:6 cf. Titus 2:14 and 1 Pet 2:9). To some, the particular election of Israel is a theological problem around the issue of fairness. What about the rest of the world? Does God only care for Israel? The Old Testament confronts this head on by beginning the way that it does. Scripture opens up with a universal scope. Genesis 1-11 is not about Israel but about the world. The call of Abraham in Genesis 12 is a move from the universal to the particular in terms of the narrative, but not in terms of its intent. The call of Abraham is to a single family, but it is ultimately a call to servanthood as the agents through whom God will bless the nations. Genesis 12:3b reads, “…all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”

The Mosaic Torah serves to function as the authoritative core of the Old Testament witness. It fundamentally serves as a polity for the people of God. This polity includes living in harmony with God’s creational intentions which involves humanity’s mission to share God’s blessings with all creation. As Christians, we may find the word sacrament to be helpful here. God’s desire for the people of God is for them to serve as a sacrament, a means of grace, to the world. Paul seems aware of this necessity in his great chapter on reconciliation in 2 Corinthians 5. After writing, “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a New Creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” (v. 17), he immediately turns to role that the “new creation” has for the rest of creation – “All this is from God who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation” (v. 18). In other words, God’s response to Fall has been to call a people to serve the world (especially other humans) on behalf of the Creator. This is a worldly vocation.

Last, mission began at creation, and not merely after the Fall. Even before human sin entered the world, there was mission. God’s creative acts in Genesis 1 serve as a model of this. God’s actions are purposeful. He creates the “very good” ordered world out of the raw material described as in Hebrew as tohu wabohu “formless void” (Gen 1:2). Even humanity is giving a missional function at creation. Humanity, forged in the image of God, is to reflect God’s character in its vocation of care over Creation and in its filling of Creation (Gen 1:26-31).

3) Rather than talking about a “biblical basis for missions” we should affirm, as Chris Wright suggests a “missional basis for the Bible.”[5] Scriptures through the power of the Holy Spirit continues to call the Church today to participate in God’s mission. Mission is the reason for which the Church continues to exist. It is the role of each individual church and each individual Christian to find his or her vocation in light of this reality. Ostensibly, mission will continue on even in the New Heavens and the New Earth as humanity returns empowered by the Holy Spirit to fulfill God’s original creational intentions.

4) We need to learn a new way of reading the Bible that reemphasizes the missional center of Scripture. It can no longer function primarily as a source of private piety. We need to relearn to read Scripture through a missional lens in which those who already follow Jesus are shaped into missionary witnesses and those who are not following Jesus are invited to full participation in the only community that truly exists for the benefit of the world.

© 2015 Brian D. Russell

For more information, see my book, (re)Aligning with God: Reading Scripture for Church and World (Cascade, 2016).

Need a curriculum or guide to learn the Bible's Big Picture? Check out Invitation.



[1] For an excellent study on the diversity within the OT see John Goldingay, Theological Diversity and the Authority of the Old Testament (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1987).
[2] Harry Daniel Beeby, “A Missional Approach to Renewed Interpretation” in Renewing Biblical Interpretation, eds Craig Bartholomew, Colin Greene, and Karl Möller (Cumbria and Grand Rapids: Paternoster and Zondervan, 2000), 279.
[3] Ibid.
[4] Robert Jensen, “Scripture’s Authority in the Church” in Art of Reading Scripture, 34.
[5] Mission of God, 22.

The Book of Acts and Models for Missional Engagement (3 reflections)

Acts describes several modes of communicating the Gospel that push us to think beyond cookie-cutter approaches and remind us that the Holy Spirit deploys a variety of methods depending on the context. Sometimes the apostles proclaim Jesus via the exegesis of Israel’s Scriptures; sometimes it is through powerful signs and wonders; sometimes it is by cross-cultural contextualization or some mixture of these options.

1) The book of Acts shows that Jesus may be proclaimed to Jews and god-fearers by means of demonstrating that Jesus is the fulfillment of Israel’s Scriptures. This is the heart of Philip’s encounter with the Ethopian eunuch in 8:26-40. Philip hears him reading from Isaiah 53 and begins a conversation in which he tells the eunuch about Jesus by starting with Isaiah. This convinces the eunuch who immediately requests baptism and becomes a believer in Jesus.

2) The book of Acts demonstrates that miraculous signs can serve evangelistic purposes. Acts 16:16-34 tells the story of Paul and Silas imprisonment in Philippi and the conversion of its jailer. Paul and Silas are accosted by a mob for disturbing the city. During the night while Paul and Silas are singing hymns to God, there is a violent earthquake. The quake is from God as not only is the prison shaken but all of the doors open and the chains of the prisoners are unshackled. Fearing that all have fled, the jailer is about to fall on his sword when Paul calls out to him with the news that no one has escaped. In response to this miracle, the jailer falls before Paul and Silas and asks, “Masters, what must I do to be saved?” Paul and Silas share the word of the Lord with the jailer and his household. That very night he and his household joined the Christ following movement and were baptized.

3) Acts also shows the possibilities of contextualization for cross-cultural engagement. Acts 17:16-34 narrates Paul’s activity in Athens the center of Hellenistic culture and philosophy. Paul has the amazing opportunity to share the Gospel with a group of Stoic and Epicurean philosophers on the Areopagus. Since Paul is addressing Greeks with no background in the Old Testament Scriptures or the God of Israel, he does not use Scripture to address them. Instead, he imaginatively begins by affirming the religiosity of the Athenians and starts his Gospel proclamation with reference an altar inscribed with the phrase: “To an unknown god.” Paul uses this as a beginning point to tell about the Creator God who sent Jesus. Moreover Paul quotes from the Greek poet Aratus to support his claims that all people have their source in one Creator God. Paul ends his proclamation by referencing Jesus not as Israel’s Messiah but rather as a man through whom the Creator God will judge the world in righteousness. The truth of this claim, Paul says, rests in the reality that God raised this man from the dead. It is fascinating that Paul does not state the name Jesus explicitly. Verses 32-34 record the reactions of the crowd: some scoff at the mention of resurrection; others express interest to hear more. Most profoundly, some join the Christ following movement. Paul models a contextualized Gospel presentation in which he uses cultural symbols from his target audience to proclaim the Gospel fully without watering down its content.

Conclusion: Be Open to the Spirit's Leading and Experiment with Different Strategies

The implications of the various Gospel approaches in the book of Acts are vital if a bit disconcerting to 21^st believers in the West. We tend to value systems and programs. In the book of Acts, the Holy Spirit is the means, and the Spirit uses faithful witnesses to reach others with Gospel depending on the needs of the audience. The good news of the Gospel is Jesus. The witnesses in Acts always proclaim Jesus but the means of getting to Jesus depends on the context of the audience. This does not guarantee success as in 100% conversion, but the Gospel spreads on its way to the person and the next region in fulfillment of Acts 1:8.

This blog is a sample from my 2016 book on reading Scripture missionally for the church and world: (re)Aligning with God: Reading Scripture for Church and World.

What is a Missional Hermeneutic?

This essay was originally published in Catalyst in 2010. 

What is a Missional Hermeneutic?

A missional hermeneutic (MH) is an interpretive approach that privileges mission as the key to reading the Scriptures. MH works across the spectrum of approaches to the biblical text. It takes seriously the historical situation of the text (“behind the text”). It recognizes the influence of the reader’s social location (“in front of the text”). Yet it is fundamentally rooted in a close reading of the text (“the world of the text”). MH seeks to hear the Scriptures as an authoritative guide to God’s mission in the world so that communities of faith can participate fully in God’s mission.

At the 2008 meeting of AAR/SBL, George R. Hunsberger (“Proposals for a Missional Hermeneutic: Mapping the Conversation”) reviewed current proposals on missional hermeneutics and organized them into four categories: The Missional Direction of the Story, The Missional Locatedness of the Readers, The Missional Engagement with Cultures, and The Missional Purpose of the Writings. I have adopted Hunsberger’s categories for the purposes of this essay.

The Missional Direction of the Story

A missional hermeneutic recognizes that the biblical canon tells the story of God’s mission (missio dei) in and for creation. The story of God’s mission can be summarized as 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 function equally as the image of God for the sake of the 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. 

Genesis 3-11 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 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. This people exist to serve as the agents of God’s blessings for the nations (Gen 12:3). The narrative 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 prepare 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 from Exile.

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

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 climaxes in the concluding exhortation: Let everything that has breath praise the Lord! (150:6). The psalms root God’s people in a vital worshipping 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. Job, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and the Song of Songs have much in common with the wisdom of Israel’s neighbors. Wisdom is interested in navigating successfully through life. 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 lore of the ancients is profoundly missional: “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge” (Prov 1:7). The implication is this: careful attention to the human condition may prepare persons for the truth about God (cf.  Ecc 12:12-14).

The Prophets (Isaiah – Malachi) 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’s Scriptures 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 as God’s new humanity. 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 4:16-21).

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 across the 1^st century Mediterranean world. The Scriptural story goes forth from the land of Israel to the nations in fulfillment of the Israel’s mission. The New Testament epistles serve as teaching documents for fledgling missional communities around the Mediterranean world.

The Scriptural story ends with Revelation’s portrait of God’s future 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 Scriptural story invites its readers to understand their lives as part of its narrative.

The Missional Locatedness of the Readers

An interpreter’s social location serves a crucial role in the reading process. It may provide a fresh perspective for reading a text or it may distort a text’s meaning. Michael Barram (“The Bible, mission, and social location: Toward a missional hermeneutic.” Interpretation 61 (2007): 42-58) has argued that readers must locate themselves in mission. The biblical texts were written in a missional context. Participating in God’s mission enables contemporary readers to find common ground with the ancient text’s perspective.  

Moreover, engaging in missional activity in the world creates new questions with which to engage the Bible and is crucial for learning to hear the text for both church and world. A practitioner of MH learns to listen to a text on behalf of the people to whom s/he serves as a witness. Missional engagement unleashes the interpreter to read a text through the eyes both of Christ followers and of unreached persons. The wise interpreter learns through missional praxis the sorts of questions that an outsider to the faith may raise when hearing a biblical text. Thus, the practice of reading the Bible from a missional locatedness trains us to read and hear the Scripture from contested spheres in the marketplace and not only in the realm of the sanctuary where we “preach to the choir.”

The Missional Engagement with Cultures

A third line of inquiry in the field of MH is the manner in which the biblical materials themselves model engagement with culture. We gain new insights about 21^st century incarnational ministry by studying the ways in which biblical texts communicate to their context. For example, how do the Creation stories of Genesis engage and subvert the dominant worldviews of Israel’s neighbors? How do the similarities between the narrative structure of Exodus 15:1b-18 and the Baal Epic serve to promote Israel’s understanding of reality to their Canaanite context? How does Paul use existing modes of communication in the Greco-Roman world to enhance the persuasiveness of his writing?

The Missional Purpose of the Writings

MH recognizes that the Scriptures exist to convert and shape their hearers. Most of us have been trained to read the Bible as the basis for doctrine and individual piety. MH reminds us that Scripture is concerned with shaping communities of God’s people into outposts for the advancement of the Gospel. Darrell Guder has been on the forefront of emphasizing this aspect. He writes concerning the New Testament documents (“Missional Pastors in Maintenance Churches” Catalyst: Contemporary Evangelical Perspectives for United Methodist Seminarians 31.3 (2005): 4.):

… 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.” …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.

Thus, we need to ask specifically how each text was intended to form God’s people into a missional community. Moreover this is not merely a NT perspective. As shown above, the thread of mission runs across the biblical canon. Both OT and NT texts can be read profitably in terms of how they seek to form the people of God for the sake of God’s mission to all Creation.

In his recent essay “Prophet to the Nations: Missional Reflections on the Book of Jeremiah,” Christopher Wright raised a related question: What does this text teach about the missional cost to the messenger? Wright expands the dimension of a biblical text’s teaching. Wright shows that the book of Jeremiah explicitly displays the personal cost to the prophet of participation in God’s mission. Raising the issue of missional cost is crucial as we seek to create a missional ethos in our congregations.

The Potential of a Missional Hermeneutic for Preachers and Teachers

1) MH provides a context and direction for preaching/teaching. Learning to read discrete texts within the grand narrative of God’s mission as described in Scripture provides a crucial angle for communicating the Gospel. The interpreter recognizes that every text in the Bible helps to shape the people of God to serve as a missional community that embodies the character of God in/to/for the world. 

In preparation for preaching and teaching, ask questions such as these:

How does this text help us to understand God’s mission in the world?

How do we need to change in order to live out this text corporately and individually?

How does this passage serve as an invitation to the world to join God’s mission?

What kind of persons does this text call us to become?

2) MH connects worship explicitly with life in the world by establishing a missional ethos for the community of faith. Learning to read the Scriptures through MH keeps God’s mission on the front burner for all aspects of the community. Most profoundly it keeps the worship of the Triune God grounded in God’s missional intentions for humanity and all creation. Biblical worship at its core is profoundly missional. The aim of God’s mission is worship. Humanity was created to serve as God’s missional community before creation. As God’s new humanity, the Church worships as a bold and daring testimony to the world of the greatness of God and as an invitation to unreached persons to become part of God’s new humanity for the sake of the world.

3) MH establishes a new framework for learning. As communities of faith struggle to break the grips of the paradigm of serving as inward-focused dispensers of religious goods and services to serving as outposts for the sake of God’s Kingdom, MH provides a different outcome for learning. “Christian education” is no longer merely learning facts about the stories of the Scriptures or grasping the basics of the historical creeds of the church. The goal of learning in the Church now becomes a constant conversion to the message of Scripture so that each disciple can be shaped into the sort of person that s/he needs to become in order to participate fully in God’s mission in the world. All learning can now be set in the context of the missional reality of the 21^st century Church.

Suggested Reading:

Barram, Michael. “The Bible, mission, and social location: Toward a missional hermeneutic.” Interpretation 61 (2007): 42-58.

Bauckham, Richard. The Bible and Mission: Christian Witness in a Postmodern World. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2004.

Beeby, Harry D. Canon and Mission. Harrisburg: Trinity Press International, 1999.

Bosch, David J. “Towards a Hermeneutic for ‘Biblical Studies and Mission’” Mission Studies 3.2 (1986): 65-79.

Brownson, James. Speaking the Truth in Love: New Testament Resources for a Missional Hermeneutic. Christian Mission and Modern Culture. Continuum, 1998.

Guder, Darrell C. (ed). Missional Church: A Vision for the Sending of the Church in North America. Gospel and Culture Network. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1998.

Guder, Darrell C. “Missional Pastors in Maintenance Churches” Catalyst: Contemporary Evangelical Perspectives for United Methodist Seminarians 31.3 (2005): 4.

Hunsberger, George R. “Proposals for a Missional Hermeneutic: Mapping the Conversation” Gospel and Our Culture Network Newsletter eseries 2 (2009): cn.org/resources/newsletters/2009/01/gospel-and-our-culture

Russell, Brian D. (re)Aligning with God: Reading Scripture for Church and World Cascade, 2016.

Wright, Christopher J.H. The Mission of God: Unlocking the Bible’s Grand Narrative. Downer’s Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2006.

Brian D. Russell (Ph.D.) is Professor of Biblical Studies at Asbury Theological Seminary-Florida Dunnam Campus and John Wesley Fellow. His new book on missional reading (re)Aligning with God: Reading Scripture for Church and World is now available.

Reading the New Testament's Eschatological Vision: Part Two

A missional reading of the New Testament’s eschatological vision steadfastly stands against all readings that promote a fixation on the assigning of times and dates as well as readers that call for a pullback from cultural engagement Christ followers.

First, it is enough to note that if the Biblical story was truly interested in providing a detailed and specific step-by-step guide to how the future will unfold, it could have easily accomplished this. Given the absence of this as well as the humorous but ultimately tragic attempts by so many “prophesy” experts to predict Jesus’ return, Christ followers will learn to live in a dynamic tension in which they recognize by faith that the future is secure while letting go of all need for details. On matters of the end, we are on a need to know basis and no matter how bad we might desire a roadmap to God’s future, the Bible does not provide one. We follow Jesus into the world on mission. This is the same Jesus who said, “Concerning that day and hour no one knows, neither the angels of heaven nor the Son, except for the Father alone.”

Second, God’s mission to bring reconciliation and redemption to humanity and all creation moves forward under God’s promise of a secure future. Rather than giving Christ followers a reason to pull back from missional engagement, the New Testament church evangelized in earnest in the expectation of Jesus’ imminent return and his ushering in of the Kingdom. The God’s future is beautiful. God’s future is secure. Therefore, the mission of God’s people goes forward in earnest. In the context of the New Testament, the earliest Christians were a tiny minority. They faced hardships and persecution for their allegiance to Jesus as LORD over against the Roman world’s suffocating vision for humanity. Early Christians found themselves persecuted and reviled by both Gentiles and Jews. Thus the choice to follow Jesus was costly. The New Testament’s eschatological vision therefore is profoundly concerned with grounding Jesus’ earliest followers with a courageous hope in God’s final victory so that they may function as instruments and agents of God’s reconciling Gospel.

A Missional Approach to NT Eschatology: Part One

The New Testament writers recognized that God’s victory through the life, death, and resurrection secured the future. The New Testament is full of visions of God’s future. God’s future is bright and good. It is one of abundant love and mercy. It is the full reversal of the effects of human sin and brokenness. It includes the full redemption of all creation. It marks the return of shalom and rest. It involves the climactic consummation of God’s future.

Our day has seen an ongoing fixation on figuring out dates and time tables. The Bible is mined ingeniously for insights used to predict the end of days. However, this is not a missional approach to Scripture. As humans, we may long to gain control of the future by connecting it to our calendar of events, but this is not the purpose of the eschatological visions of the New Testament. The New Testament writers describe God’s future as a means of inspiring a courageous faithfulness in the present. Since God’s future is secure, God’s people live as the people whom God created them to be in the present. The New Testament’s eschatological vision subverts the present struggles by proclaiming a dogged and audacious confidence in God’s final victory.

Missional Hermeneutics Video: (re)alignment for Mission

Here is my second video for Asbury Seminary's Seedbed series "Seven Minute Seminary":

Suggestions for a Close Reading of a Biblical Text

Are you interested in learning to read the Bible more productively? Here are some brief suggestions to help you.

There are three core elements in learning to study a text closely: observe the text, ask questions, and seek answers.

Observe

First, observe the details in the text and record observations. The wise interpreter continually captures insights and observations through careful note-taking. Read slowly. Take your time. This is particularly true for familiar passages. Don’t assume that you know the meaning of any text. Ponder the words and phrases found in the text. Savor the images and language used to convey the text’s message. Notice how the individual words are connected together into a tapestry. You may find it helpful to read a couple of different translations and record the differences as a means of reflecting on the text. Stay put within the confines of the passage you are studying. Resist the temptation to flip to another part of the Bible until after you have carefully engaged the text that you are studying. Describe it. Dissect it. Paraphrase it. Analyze it. Observe recurring words, phrases, ideas, and themes. Establish an outline or create a chart to organize its content. Above all, don’t give up. Persist in the process of collecting your own observations and insights. This process will prove generative in terms of the insights and new questions that will emerge.

Ask

Second, while making observations, be sure to write out questions that your observations lead you to ask. Engaged reading requires this. The best interpreters of the Scripture are those who ask the most penetrating questions. This process of reading the text carefully and recording a series of observations and questions is the secret to engaging the Bible at a deep level. Observations lead to questions, and questions guide the interpreter to new insights. Ask questions that engage the text at two levels: defining questions and questions about function. Defining questions attempt to gain a full description of the content of the text (“What’s here?” “What is the precise and specific meaning of each element that is present?”). Functional questions focus on the “So what?” and attempt to probe beneath the surface to look for the deep meaning and implications. Let me offer an example. If we are studying Exodus 19:4-6, we will encounter a phrase that is unique in the Old Testament. In verse 6, we find, “You will be a kingdom of priests for me and a holy nation.” The twin noun phrases “kingdom of priests” and “a holy nation” are critical for the interpretation of this text. Regarding the phrases, we may ask the following defining questions: What is the precise and specific meaning of the phrases “kingdom of priests” and “a holy nation”? What is the relationship between these two phrases? Definitional questions are followed by functional ones: Why are these particular phrases being used here? What is their significance?

Answer

Third, answer key questions. In many ways, biblical interpretation is nothing more and nothing less than the answering of interpretive questions that the reader asks about the text. Review your observations and questions. Select the handful of questions whose answers are essential for making sense of the text. Begin answering your questions by looking at the observations that you have already made. What evidence have you already found through your close reading to begin to develop possible answers? If you need additional help in answering your questions, you may find it helpful to read other commentaries, look up subjects in a bible dictionary, or use a concordance to study key words as they are used elsewhere in Scripture. 

Wrap up

Summarize your answers along with the key evidence that supports them. When summarizing, attempt to answer a question such as this: If this were the only part of Scripture that I had, what would I know? 

For more details on these elements see the longer blog post: Reading the Bible Missionally: A Short Guide for Interpreters

Here are two books that will help you learn to read Scripture wisely and well: