Anti-immigrant passages | The book of Ruth and David |

Friends,

Home sweet home! For awhile.

There was a quick warm and the late planted Dahlia's in my yard have bloomed! All the rain probably helped.

-Elizabeth

The Understanding is in the Tension

When Struggling with Biblical texts, and trying to fathom people who interpret them differently than I do (how could that be?) I find it helpful to look a broad picture of the tensions that exist in our scriptures. Some use these contrasts as proof that the bible isn't true but for me these are exactly what make the bible feel real.

Earlier I mentioned that conservative immigrant theology grows out of the Biblical texts in Ezra and Nehemiah. We can read these books, looking for ways to understand the stories from an worldview of "love first". And we should. We must also look at the contrasting texts. In the story of Ruth, who is a Moab by ethnicity, she becomes the great grand of David, the king of the Hebrew Nation. Intermarriage, welcoming of strangers, care for those that are not "us" are all celebrated. The tale of Ezra and Nehemiah is opposed to outsiders, intermarriage, in favor of walls of protection.

The contrast shows us that different writers wanted to pass on different messages to their followers. Eugene Boring (Disciples and the Bible: A History of Disciples Biblical Interpretation in North America, 1997) suggests that the bible is our family storybook, it is what our ancestors wrote down, describing their individual belief. One emphasized Ruth the Moab's faithfulness. One felt it was important to remember the wall built in Jerusalem to keep the outsiders out. Interestingly, the editors over time decided to keep both.

The book of Proverbs is a very positive take on the laws and customs that can lead to success. The wise become wealthy; only fools become poor. Those that care for their family and farm will get ahead, those that don't get ahead did things wrong along the way. Good behavior is always rewarded and bad behavior always punished. It is kind of a description of how we wish the world worked. Perhaps those that are wealthy, healthy, and wise wrote this to show that they deserve what they have received.

In dramatic contrast, Job does everything right, and loses it all--family, friends, wealth, and health. Throughout he asks God why he should suffer so, and God's only answer is that They created the world and don't answer for human suffering.

Perhaps a third view is is offered by the writer of Ecclesiastes. Here everything is for naught. The good suffer, the bad suffer. The wise get ahead, the dishonest get ahead. It is all vanity. Chaff in the wind. We all die. It is useless to think a person matters. Life is meaningless.

Which is the biblical interpretation of life? They all are.

Jonah and Nahum are an interesting pair. In Jonah, the prophet is the fool, refusing to follow God's lead and call the people of Nineveh to repentance. He goes to ridiculous ends to avoid sharing good news with the city. When he finally does the assignment, the people repent, and Jonah is pissed. God's relationship with Jonah is the main story, and God's kind patience is the important point. But in Nahum the people of Nineveh either go back to, or insist on, their evil ways. So God destroys the city with a vengence.

Compare also the birth stories in Luke and Matthew. We learn them as intertwined but they really are contrasting stories. The important question is not who was really the descendent of David, Joseph or Mary, but what are these stories trying to tell. We gain more depth of understanding of the early church writers if we accept them not as two points of view, but as two different theologies.

If your goal in reading the bible is to find the one right answer, that often is going to be impossible. Instead explore this collection of stories to find people of faith that real. Biblical theology fits human reality, in its messiness, its disagreements, its conflicting tales. Many view points, many ideas.

What is your church doing, or thinking about doing these days? How are you being here in your particular place? Just reply to this email to let me know what's happening.

Is the book of Ruth (David's ancestor) against the Davidic Kingship? A blog post by Stephen Cook.

An article on what we can do with anti-immigrant passages in the bible. By Nate Kratzer.

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