Part Three: God's Mission and Scripture's Story

Here is part three of my essay on Catalyst: God's Mission and Scripture's Story (Part Three)

Missional Hermeneutics Video: (re)alignment for Mission

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

Attitudes for Reading Scripture

Attitudes for Reading Scripture

Learning to read the Scriptures well involves nurturing attitudes conducive to study and gaining technical skills to facilitate close reading. Both elements are necessary to become skilled and inspired readers who are able to engage the Bible as Christian Scripture. 

Study the Bible prayerfully. Prayer can enhance our study by putting us in touch with the subject of the Bible—God.  Prayer can help to shape and forge in us the proper mindset for engaging the Scriptures as the word of God. Pray a prayer for illumination such as “Lord, astonish me anew with the beauty and power of your Word” or “God, rather than asking you to help me master the text I am asking that you allow the text to master me.” The word “astonish” captures the potential power that we readers may find in the Bible. When we come away astonished, we know that we have touched the divine. When we pray for astonishment rather than mastery of the material, we learn a key truth about reading the Bible as Christian Scripture: It is less important that we master the text and more important that the text masters us. Beginning with prayer helps us to ground ourselves in the posture of a learner.

Study the Bible expectantly. We read the Bible as Christian Scripture in the expectation of encountering the living God through the words of the text. Open the Scriptures not merely to learn but to be shaped and transformed by the words that you find. We come to the Bible to gain wisdom and to be shaped by its message. It yields its fruit to those who come hungry and ready for the feast that it offers. When we read, be grateful for the opportunity for study and anticipate the life giving insights that we will find in the Bible’s pages.

Study the Bible persistently. Learning to read the Bible well is a habit to be nurtured over the course of our lives. Wise interpreters are not born but forged in consistent times of careful study. In other words, if we find ourselves struggling with reading the Bible, give it time. Like the farmer who systematically prepares the field, sows seeds, waters, pulls weeds, protects the fledging plants from insects, and applies fertilize—all in the hope for a bountiful yield at the harvest—so we as readers must be patient and persistent in doing the work necessary to receive the benefits of the Scriptures. Think of Scripture study as a faithful habit to practice rather than as a skill to be mastered.

Study the Bible intelligently. Christians read the Bible as the word of God, but we cannot forget that it was written by other human beings in the living languages spoken by the people of God in the ancient world (Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek). The Bible is not a code to be deciphered, but it is literature crafted carefully and intentionally to communicate its message clearly to its audience. As modern readers, we must use all of the tools available to us for understanding it including our minds. The biblical message may challenge our fundamental assumptions about life and question the status quo of our existence but it will not be illogical or run contrary to reason. We affirmed the need to read prayerfully, but this does not mean that we should turn off our own intellect. As thoughtful Christians, we affirm the need for prayer and the importance of close and critical study of the text. In doing so, we will not only gain fresh and profound insight from the Bible, but we will also learn the meaning of Jesus’ command to love God with our minds (Matt 22:37).

Study the Bible confidently. Bible study can sometimes be intimidating. On occasion we may not feel worthy or qualified to make interpretive decisions about the meaning of the text. Yet as generations of faithful and persistent readers bear witness, the Scriptures remain vital, offer profound insights, and speak words of life. The God of whom the Scriptures speak will bear fruit through faithful study. Bring a sense of anticipation and expectation to our reading of the Bible and we will not be disappointed.

The Power of Reading the Scriptures

The goal of reading the Scriptures is to hear the word of God and be shaped by its message. It is an opportunity to enter into the world imagined by the biblical writers and experience personal transformation so that we as modern readers may then serve as witnesses to its good news for humanity and all creation. 

History testifies to the power of the Scriptures to shape profoundly individuals and communities of faith who devote themselves to its study. This witness begins within the pages of the Bible and continues to the present day. 

 The book of Psalms opens with this description of the happy person in contrast to the ways of wicked: “Instead of doing those things, these persons love the LORD’s Instruction, and they recite God’s Instruction day and night!” (Psalm 1:2). The psalmist reminds us of the power of intentional and consistent reading of the Scripture for living the good life. 

In Luke 4:16-21, Jesus opened his public ministry by reading from the prophet Isaiah and he lived out his life and mission in fulfillment of the Old Testament Scriptures. After his resurrection, Jesus taught his disciples from the Scriptures. To be precise, Luke 24:45 says that Jesus “opened their minds to understand the Scriptures.” Scripture shaped the narrative of Jesus’ life. We read the Scriptures to find the grand story of God so that we may align our lives with it as Jesus did. 

The apostle Paul reminded his co-worker Timothy of the crucial role played by the Scriptures in the life of the early church: “Since childhood you have known the holy scriptures that help you to be wise in a way that leads to salvation through faith that is in Christ Jesus. Every scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for showing mistakes, for correcting, and for training character, so that the person who belongs to God can be equipped to do everything that is good.” (2 Timothy 3:15-16) 

Augustine, the prominent early church Bishop and theologian, famously recounted his own conversion in which he interpreted the sound of children saying, “Tolle lege (Take and read)” as a sign to pick up the Bible. He opened to a passage from Romans and began to experience transformation in his life with the Gospel. 

Early Rabbinic literature instructs diligence in study for the fruit that may be gained from it: “Turn it and turn it over again and again, for everything is in it, and contemplate it, and wax gray and grow old over it, and stir not from it, for you cannot have any better rule than this.” [Mishnah Avot 5.22] 

John Wesley, 18th century evangelist and reformer, wrote this about the Bible: “I am a creature of a day. I am a spirit come from God, and returning to God. I want to know one thing: the way to heaven. God himself has condescended to teach me the way. He has written it down in a book. Oh, give me that book! At any price give me the book of God. Let me be a man of one book.” 

As we study the Bile, we open ourselves up to the same profound and life-giving influence. Perhaps we may too add our voice as a result of our study of Scripture to this chorus of witnesses.

Discipleship as Movement

Jesus lives out his ministry as an itinerant teacher, preacher, and miracle worker. He does not abide in any one place for long but continually moves to the next town or city. The baseline call of Jesus to others was “Follow me.” The Gospels model for the people of God the necessity of a dynamic movement. Jesus is on the move in the stories that the New Testament preserves for the Church.

In many ways Jesus’ encounters with people appear random. But randomness is part of the method. As Jesus moves from place to place people come to him hoping for a miracle or to hear his authoritative teaching. Jesus embodies his own sense of “sent-ness.” A missional reading highlights this ethos. Following Jesus involves moving around with eyes to see and ears to hear the needs of the world. The Gospels portray Jesus as one who is ready, willing, and able to minister to all those who come to him. Jesus’ movement from city to city offers a key message to the Church. The movement of following Jesus involves embracing this same sense of sent-ness.

The itinerant nature of Jesus’ public ministry invites modern Christ followers to reflect critically on present day practices that often focus on the building of buildings, the attraction of crowds, and the preservation of existing communities. There is obviously a place for such goals but it is crucial to evaluate them in light of Jesus who dismissed crowds who gathered to hear him so that he could move to the next destination on the journey (Matt 15:32-39). Jesus embodied a willingness to leave the ninety-nine to go after the one who was lost (Matt 18:10-14).

Discipleship as Mission

From the beginning of the Christ following movement, mission has been central. Matthew and Mark both record Jesus calling fishermen to become fishers for women and men. The call to follow Jesus is a call to mission because Jesus’ life focused on the mission of God.

All of the Gospels portray disciples as persons who carry the good news about Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection to others. As the disciples follow Jesus, he does his work of shaping them into persons who can “fish for people.” The disciples’ time with Jesus is not merely preparatory or academic work but real world training. Jesus molds his disciples by modeling mission. It is also worth noting that he deploys his disciples immediately into missional activity. This begins with accompanying Jesus and learning from him, but it quickly becomes deployment as a means of extending Jesus’ reach. In Matthew 9:35–11:1 (cf. Luke 9:1-6 and 10:1-12) , Jesus sends out his disciples on mission. In this text, Jesus authorizes his disciples to proclaim the Gospel in word and deed just as Jesus himself had done. This is the map for all future disciples to follow. Mission is not the work of religious professionals; it is the work of all followers of Jesus. Reading the Gospels missionally involves seeing them as blueprints for contemporary communities of faith to follow. The energy of mission implicit and explicit in the Gospels shapes God’s people into being a missional community that reflects and embodies God’s good news for others. Of course, the Matthean and Lukan accounts end with commissions for world transforming mission (Matt 28:16-20, Luke 24:44-49, Acts 1:8). But it is vital to recognize that mission is not merely a part of discipleship but that the Gospels themselves are manuals for what a missional discipleship truly looks like.

What is a Missional Hermeneutic?

I wrote this essay for Catalyst a couple of years ago. It remains a good place to being the conversation about missional hermeneutics.

A missional hermeneutic is an interpretive approach that privileges mission as the key to reading the Scriptures. Missional hermeneutics 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”). A missional hermeneutic 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 the Society of Biblical Literature, G.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.


Read the rest:

Discipleship as Cross-Centered: Missional Musings

Jesus the Messiah cannot be understood apart from his crucifixion. Jesus’ death on the cross is God’s answer to the disasters of Genesis 3–11. Even more, it is in Jesus’ submission to death on the cross that we see fullest glimpse of humanity as God intended and richest demonstration of God’s love for his creation. Jesus’ death subverts all human claims to power and salvation. Jesus’ death stands as the New Exodus event that liberates humanity for life in God’s kingdom. It casts the final word on injustice, power politics, cynicism, cruelty, disease, transgressions, and all other creation-depleting realities found in our post-Genesis 3 world. It stands as God’s model for resisting the suffocating status quo of the Empire in all its forms. The four Gospels move from their various beginnings relentlessly to the death of Jesus.

The institution of the Lord’s Supper creates a community shaping ritual that centers the Christ following movement on the death of Jesus (Matt 26:26-29, Mark 14:22-25, Luke 22:14-23). Its links to the Passover in Israel’s Scripture are obvious. The Christ following movement remembers Jesus’ death through the sharing of bread and wine. The focus rests on the Jesus’ death as the sign of God’s New Covenant (Mark 14:24 and Luke 22:20) and antidote to sin (Matt 26:28). Additionally, all the Synoptics regard the ritual as an anticipatory sign of the full consummation of God’s future Kingdom. The missional implications are clear. Christ followers witness to the world of the reality of Jesus’ life and work through participation as a community in the remembering of his death on the Cross. This ritual proclaims to the world that this past event holds the keys to God’s future.

Furthermore, descriptions of discipleship are intimately linked with the cross. Jesus calls disciples to follow him. But all four Gospels emphasize the potential and real cost of such following by linking it with cross bearing. Matthew, Mark, and Luke all record some form of Jesus’ radical invitation/warning about discipleship: If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and continually follow me. John’s Gospel ends with Jesus’ restoration of Peter, which includes a statement about Peter’s future death as a result of following Jesus. The power of the Cross in a disciple’s life is that it relentlessly calls for God’s people to die up front to our human inclination for self-preservation as the key to unlocking a true power for living. The Cross of Jesus is an affront to all human mythologies of status, honor, power, and authentic living. By dying, disciples find true life. Moreover the Cross is a radical challenge to status and honor. In the ancient world, crucifixion was reserved for those of low status (slaves) or rebels against the Roman empire. In other words Jesus’ death on the cross was more than only a sacrificial death on our behalf—I am in no way marginalizing this tectonic reality. But Jesus’ death represents a subversive challenge to the power structures of our world by defeating such claims by Jesus’ willingness to embrace a lowly status as the means to discovering an authentic power that comes through God alone.

But we must also connect Jesus’ death with his resurrection on the third day. The cross is a powerful symbol on its own, but it is God’s raising of Jesus from the grave that fully demonstrates its power and announces God’s triumph over evil, death, and sin. The resurrection makes it clear that Jesus’ death was no mere martyr’s death but rather the true announcement and way to God’s future. A missional hermeneutic understands the cross and resurrection as the dual sided testimony of God’s ultimate victory for all creation. All four Gospels reach their climax in the story of Jesus’ death and resurrection. Each Gospel has its own emphases and themes but all move relentlessly and purposively to the crucifixion and resurrection. The word is clear: Jesus cannot be fully understood apart from the cross and its vindication through the empty tomb.

What does a cross-centered discipleship ultimately mean? To offer the lens of Matthew from 16:24 we discover that embracing the cross is the means to freeing God’s people to live fully for the values and mission of the Kingdom of God. A missional reading emphasizes the moment-by-moment nature of following Jesus into the world on mission. The cross becomes the symbol of the movement. The call to self-denial and taking up the cross is more than merely embracing an ascetic mode of living. It is rather a radical and steadfast refusal to value one’s own life before the mission of God. It is the opposite of Peter’s actions on the night of Jesus’ betrayal that permitted him to save his life at the expense of his relationship with Jesus. To take up the cross is a rich metaphor that described the last action taken by condemned persons on their way to their execution. Embracing the cross truly frees a person because once a person is dead to self, he or she is fully freed to follow Jesus audaciously into the darkest places on earth to announce the good news of the Kingdom.

In sum, the backdrop of Matthew’s view of discipleship is the death of Jesus on the Cross. The Cross is paradigmatic for the life of discipleship (Matt 10:38; 16:24). The cruciform life defines the essence of following Jesus Christ. Jesus’ death on the cross is the ground of salvation. Matthew does not provide a detail discussion of the “how” of atonement, but instead simply states its reality (e.g., Matt 1:21; 8:17 [cf Isa 53:4]; 26:28). Modern Christ followers must resist any pragmatic or theologically driven attempts to whitewash or marginalize the centrality of the Cross. Jesus’ call to “deny oneself and take up the cross” is a counter-cultural and revolutionary. It envisions a movement of Christ followers who live as dead (wo)men walking—persons who have died up front to self so that they can follow Jesus into the world to bring the Gospel to those who desperately need it. Mission assumes that Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection is the defining reality for our world.

Discipleship as the Good News of the Kingdom

To put it simply¬ Jesus did not come to initiate a new religion or some political program. He came to announce the in-breaking of God’s future. The Gospels call this the “kingdom of God” or “kingdom of heaven.” To miss this is to misunderstand fundamentally the message of Jesus.

The kingdom language is coded speech that announced the inauguration of God’s end time reign or rule over Creation. This spoke to the expectation of God’s people in the 1st century. By announcing the Kingdom, Jesus was alerting those with ears to hear that God’s long-awaited era of salvation had arrived. This connects the Gospels with Israel’s story in the Old Testament. Jesus fulfills the expectations raised in the Prophets and offers the fullest answer to the problems raised by the Exile and its aftermath.

We must never lose the power of the “good news” of the Gospel. In his words and actions, Jesus proclaims the good news of the Kingdom. In Matthew 11:3-5, John the Baptist questions whether or not Jesus is truly the long expected Messiah. Jesus responds provocatively with a thick theological statement rather than a mere "yes" or "no." What is Jesus' answer? He says to John's followers, "Go and tell John what you are seeing and hearing: blind people are receiving their sight, lame are walking, deaf people are now able to hear, dead are being raised up, and poor people are having the good news proclaimed to them." Jesus is using the language of Isa 61:1-3 to describe his activities. In other words, Jesus answers John’s question with an unambiguous “Yes!” by appealing to his Kingdom advancing actions. In the life and ministry of Jesus, God is establishing the Kingdom. Jesus’ words and actions were received as good news. Provocatively Jesus subverts some of the expectations of the elite and religious insiders by engaging the masses and reaching out especially to the outsiders (the poor, the unclean, women, collaborators with the Roman empire, and foreigners). Such persons received the Gospel with gladness whereas the religious leaders of Jesus’ day often found themselves at odds with the good news of the kingdom.

Jesus’ presentation and embodiment of God’s Kingdom is central to the Gospels. The good news of the drawing near of God’s long awaited end time rule and era of salvation stands at the heart of the Gospel. Jesus’ followers exist to carry on Jesus’ kingdom work in the world and to embody the hope of the kingdom for the watching world.

A missional reading challenges us to keep the good news in the Gospel. The Kingdom has come in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. The call to (re)alignment offers good news to the world and challenges God’s people to assess the extent to which its proclamation of the Gospel is an announcement of good news to those desperate for what only God can do.

Thinking about the Old Testament in a Missional Hermeneutic

Rediscovering the Old Testament
A key feature of a missional approach to the Bible is that it provides a framework for reading the OT and the NT as Christian Scripture. It sets the New Testament within its full Biblical context and it opens up the Old Testament for reflection.
In the context of the Western world’s biblical illiteracy, the Old Testament in increasingly neglected in teaching and preaching. At best its stories are left for Children’s education. At worst, it is viewed as irrelevant or even naïve.

To be sure the Old Testament contains its share of difficult passages. It shares stories of violence and human foibles. We can find the best and worst of humanity in its pages. John Bright once wrote, “I find it most interesting and not a little bit odd that although the Old Testament on occasion offends our Christian feelings, it did not apparently offend Christ’s ‘Christian feelings’!” The witness of Jesus, the Apostles, and the early Church was univocal on the significance of the Jewish Scriptures. They were treated as substantive, essential, and authoritative for the Christian life and for engaging the world missionally. We must recapture the Old Testament in our day.

A missional reading of Scripture boldly reasserts the relevance of Israel’s Scriptures for the Christ following movement. The book of Genesis serves as the harbinger of renewed engagement with the theology of the Old Testament with its narratives of Creation, Fall, and God’s calling into existence a new humanity that will serve as agents of blessing to all people. The Old Testament is essential for understanding God’s creational intentions for both the world as a whole and for women and men in particular. It describes poignantly and relationally the problem of lostness and brokenness that confronts us in our daily lives. A missional reading resists the temptation to focus exclusively on the New Testament. Apart from the witness of Israel’s Scriptures one risks distorting the mission and message of Jesus the Messiah as well as that of the Church as the sent people of God. Toward this end, communities of faith seeking to shape identity around God’s mission will consciously teach the whole of the Scriptures because of their necessity in forming a sent people to reflect God’s character to/for/in the nations.

As followers of Jesus, we may find in the stories of the Old Testament easier points of contact between the Gospel and outsiders. First, as we noted, Genesis 1–11 has an international focus. It invites all people everywhere to find their story in the Scriptures. Second, the stories found in Israel’s Scriptures are profoundly human. We find in them all of the foibles and peccadilloes that befall women and men as well as the major life altering train wrecks with which we are all too familiar. The Old Testament narrative include stories of risk and adventure, joy and sadness, success and failure, and liberation and oppression. These are the themes that capture the imagination of us all as they represent the dreams and fears of all people. Last, the Hebrew Scriptures narrate the working of God in human history. The story of God’s mission offers a counter-narrative to those of our day and demonstrate that history is truly moving toward some greater purpose than self-centeredness and the carnage that ensues when self-centeredness as practiced by individuals, tribes, or nations is implemented against those deemed outsiders.

What do you think?