The Bible is a living voice

Transcription

1 The People Called by God -Bible Study "Only by undestanding itself as the extension of the biblical community of faith, which was called into existence by God and which deived life and diection solely fom communion with God, can the contempoay community of faith fulfill its divine calling." The ole of Bible study The Bible is a living voice though which the Holy Spiit calls the chuch to discove and discen God's mission and sends it to paticipate in God's mission. Consequently, the Bible is an indispensable souce of leaning fo the chuch and fo the chuch's tansfomation jouney. Thee is something we need to lean, and the only place we can find the subject matte fo that leaning is in the Bible. 1 The Bible is a foundational esouce fo the chuch. What is the chuch to lean fom Sciptue that it can lean no place else? The Bible opens up a vision of eality as God intends it. Sciptue gives testimony to the pesence and activity of God with and though God's people to accomplish God's puposes in the wold. The chuch is called continually to engage in Bible study (heaing, eading, making, leaning, digesting) because the Bible is the souce of ou knowledge of God, of ou vision of God's pupose, of ou encounte with the Messiah, of ou calling as God's people, of ou hope fo ceation's healing. 2 The Bible is not a efeence manual fo humans to manipulate to give diect answes to moden poblems. Rathe, the Holy Spiit - God's active pesence - illuminates and inspies the Chistian community, enabling the community to gow in undestanding of God and God's puposes. The Holy Spiit enables the witness of the biblical communities ecoded in biblical texts to enlighten the vision of contempoay communities. Rathe than a task fo the individual woking alone, biblical intepetation takes place within the ongoing life and woship of the congegation. The Bible is not a 1

2 dead document, but a living voice waiting to be head, a voice seeking to give identity and pupose to God's people. And all of God's people ae called to contibute to the discovey of the mind o will of God. The many gifts of Sciptue fo the chuch today ae discoveed within the context of the chuch as a leaning community. Bible study is always challenging. Each peson comes to the study of Sciptue fom diffeent backgounds and expeiences. Each also comes with diffeent expectations of the Bible, diffeent undestandings of God, diffeent appoaches to eading Sciptue, and diffeent ways of inteacting with othes. As a esult, Bible study is a difficult but exciting task. Enabling these diffeences to be eniching and to contibute to the building up of the whole community is both a challenge and wondeful oppotunity fo you congegation. The challenge, in paticula, is to establish a climate and a pocess that enables people to dig in and study togethe, to be confused and fustated as they confont unfamilia wods o concepts, to ague honestly but lovingly with one anothe, to discuss with commitment but openness to diffeing opinions, to ponde ealistically but hopefully the elevance of Sciptue to concete issues facing the chuch, to be open to the movement of the Holy Spiit among them, binging inspiation and illumination. Most impotantly, Bible study needs to be done with a paye-filled attitude and appoach. It invites all to appoach with gatitude, humility, and awe fo God's undeseved love and mecy. The goal of Bible study is to contibute to the expectation that Chistians ae called to live a paticula way of life togethe. It is to contibute to the expeience of living togethe in community, as puposeful Chistian community. It is to contibute to the discovey of what it means fo God's people obediently and faithfully to paticipate in what God is doing in today's wold. 2

3 Questions fo eflection and discussion Woking with one othe peson, conside and answe the following questions togethe, shaing you insights and concens. Take time to listen to and inteact with one anothe. 1. What do you think the chuch has to offe that no othe human institution can offe? 2. As you look at the challenge of studying Sciptue in community (in contast to the pactice of eading Sciptue alone), what excites o inteests you the most? 3. What concens o questions do you have? 3

4 Bible study: The People Called by God The community of faith in the Bible is the people called. It is the people called foth fom divese sots of bondage to feedom, called to a sense of identity founded on a common bond with the God of ighteousness and compassion, and called to the twin vocations of woship and paticipation in the ceative, edemptive pupose that unifies all histoy and is diected to the estoation of the whole ceation within a univesal ode of shalom. 3 This desciption of the biblical notion of community is a compehensive and challenging one, and will be an essential foundation fo a tansfomation jouney in you chuch. It gounds the identity and the mission of the Chuch not in the needs of individual membes, not in the needs of contempoay society, but in the vision of God's unceasing dedication to the healing of ceation and the econciliation of the entie human family with one anothe and with its God. 4 The chuch's mission is to paticipate in the econciliation and estoation of the whole ceation. To cay out this mission, the chuch is not called to sepaate itself fom the hunges, poblems, o concens of individuals and of society, no simply to accept these conditions. Rathe, the chuch is invited to confont these needs by placing them within the pespective of God's ultimate vision and pupose fo human life. Only in this way can the deepest needs of humanity be discened and intepeted. God's vision and pupose fo human life is at the heat of the Bible. Though study of the Bible, God's vision and pupose can enich and enlighten the vision and pupose of communities of faith today. It is key, theefoe, fo you congegation to undestand itself as an extension of the biblical community of faith - called into existence by God, gaining you life and diection fom communion with God. By seeing you congegation in this "paade of witnesses" (Hebews 11:1-12:3) you will be able faithfully to discen and fulfill you calling fom God. 5 To discen God's calling fo you chuch, it is impotant to keep in mind the thead that binds togethe the whole biblical testimony. That thead is not an "idea" o even an "ideal," but God's calling and sending of a "people." The call of Abaham and Saah and thei family initiated the entie histoy of a people called and sent by God. This is now the focus of ou Bible study. 4

5 Questions fo eflection and discussion Woking with one othe peson, conside and answe the following questions togethe, shaing you insights and concens. Take time to listen to and inteact with one anothe. 1. What do you think it means to speak of the chuch as a "called people"? 2. What diffeence do you think it makes to think of you chuch as an "extension of the biblical community of faith?" 3. What new light does it shed on you appoach to the Bible to undestand the "thead" as "God's calling and sending of a people"? 5

6 Now the LORD said to Abam, "Go fom you county and you kinded and you fathe's house to the land that I will show you. I will make of you a geat nation, and I will bless you, and make you name geat, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and the one who cuses you I will cuse; and in you all the families of the eath shall be blessed." So Abam went, as the Lod had told him... (Gen. 12:1-4a, NRSV) Pat One: The call of God embaced This account of the call of Abaham illustates the pimay qualities of faithfulness. Abaham is pesented in Sciptue as the pefectly faithful peson. He is called and he goes. He elies solely upon the wod of this God who has suddenly intevened in his life. Abaham is the founding ancesto of the Hebew faith, and is the subject of impotant discussions in the New Testament (cf. Rom. 4; Gal. 3; Heb. 11). Next to Moses, Abaham eceives moe attention than any othe Old Testament figue. The faith and obedience of Abaham ae indeed wothy of ou attention. He head the call of God and esponded with adical tust and obedience. Fom then on, he lived his life on the basis of that wod fom God which was both pomise and command. 6 Abaham's pilgimage, his jouney with God, was eadily accepted by the ealy Chistians as a guide to thei own existence. 6

7 Questions fo eflection and discussion 1. What was the natue of God's call to Abaham? What did God send Abaham to do? 2. How did Abaham espond? 3. What do you know about Abaham? What can you imagine this call and his esponse was like? 4. In what ways is God's call and Abaham's esponse instuctive fo the chuch today? 7

8 Now the LORD said to Abam, "Go fom you county and you kinded and you fathe's house to the land that I will show you. I will make of you a geat nation, and I will bless you, and make you name geat, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and the one who cuses you I will cuse; and in you all the families of the eath shall be blessed." So Abam went, as the Lod had told him... (Gen. 12:1-4a, NRSV) Pat Two: The call of a witnessing community Fa fom being simply the stoy of an individual and his jouneys, the Abaham naatives ae significant because they tell the tale of a people's beginnings. Abaham's is not an individual call and pilgimage, but the call and pilgimage of a paticula family, a family though whom all the families of the eath ae to be blessed. But even moe damatic is the cosmic setting of the jouney of Abaham and Saah, which has to do not only with the foming of Isael, but with the e-foming of all of ceation! In Genesis 1-11, a pictue is painted not only of the beauty and goodness of God's ceation, but also the teible pedicament of the human community upon God's good eath. Humans, ceated "vey good," embak on a jouney which leads to faticide (Gen. 4 - Cain in jealousy kills his bothe Abel), geat couption and violence acoss society (Gen.6-8 the Geat Flood), and even with a new beginning though Noah and his descendants, to a total beakdown in communication, esulting in the dispesal of the human family acoss the face of the eath (Gen Towe of Babel). 7 The pupose of the call in Genesis 12 is to fashion God's community in ceation gone awy, to embody in human histoy the powe of the blessing and pomise to Abaham and his descendents. It is the hope of God that in this new family all human histoy can be bought to the unity and hamony intended by the one who calls. 8 8

9 Questions fo eflection and discussion 1. How is you undestanding of the Abaham and Saah stoy affected if you think of it as the call of a community, athe than the call of individuals? 2. Fom what you can undestand fom the biblical naative Genesis 1-12, what is God's pupose in God's call to Abaham and Saah? 9

10 Now the LORD said to Abam, "Go fom you county and you kinded and you fathe's house to the land that I will show you. I will make of you a geat nation, and I will bless you, and make you name geat, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and the one who cuses you I will cuse; and in you all the families of the eath shall be blessed." So Abam went, as the Lod had told him... (Gen. 12:1-4a, NRSV) Pat Thee: The ceative wod of God Gen. 11:30 quietly states: "Now Saai was baen; she had no child." Genesis 11:30 indicates Abaham's family was at an end; it had played out its futue and had nowhee to go. It is within this situation of hopelessness, that God speaks his ceative and lifeenewing wod. It is pomised that this God has the powe to make things new by his wod, so new that the bith of Isaac (Gen. 21:4) displaces the longstanding and hopeless baenness of Abaham and Saah. The God in whom Abaham and Saah tust is the one "who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist" (Rom. 4:17). 10

11 Questions fo eflection and discussion 1. What was the situation in which the wod of God was spoken to Abaham? Why is this impotant? 2. What ae the chaacteistics of the God who addesses Abaham? 11

12 Now the LORD said to Abam, "Go fom you county and you kinded and you fathe's house to the land that I will show you. I will make of you a geat nation, and I will bless you, and make you name geat, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and the one who cuses you I will cuse; and in you all the families of the eath shall be blessed." So Abam went, as the Lod had told him... (Gen. 12:1-4a, NRSV) Pat Fou: The jouney of the people called Abaham and Saah ae esponsive and eceptive to God's call. They fully embace the call and ventue foth into the unknown futue tusting only in the pomises of God. But they ae not left on thei own. They ae not asked to ely upon human eason, pacticality, cleveness, logic, o esoucefulness. God jouneys with them and pomises to povide them with whateve they may need. We can find in the Abaham naative of Gen. 12:1-4 qualities that ae cental to the biblical undestanding of community: 1. The divine initiative: God acts fist by speaking a poweful and ceative wod into a paticula and concete situation. 2. The communal athe than individual chaacte of God's call and of God's salvation. 3. The cental significance of God's continual guidance and faithfulness. 4. The tust and obedience equied of the people. 5. The commission: God's people play a key ole in the fulfillment of God's edemptive intent fo all peoples. 12

13 Questions fo eflection and discussion 1. Review the qualities of the biblical undestanding of community. What stikes you about these qualities? Which ones jump out at you? 2. As you eflect on these qualities, how do they elate to you cuent expectation and undestanding of the chuch? 3. What is the value of gounding a contempoay undestanding of the chuch in the biblical undestanding of the community of faith? 13

14 Summay We begin with the ecognition that the chuch, the community of faith, is a people called by God. The chuch is God's chuch. God has called the chuch to paticipate in God's own edemptive activity in the wold. Pat of ou wok as chuch leades and membes is to exploe the biblical undestanding of community in ode to discen the call and mission of ou own congegations. The expeience of Abaham and Saah is a guide to undestanding ou own calling as Chistians. Abaham and Saah head and esponded to God's call with adical tust and obedience. God called and they esponded by embacing that call. The stoy of Abaham and Saah should not be intepeted as simply a stoy of two isolated individuals but as a stoy of the beginning of a people-- the people of God. Stating with Abaham and Saah, God bought into being a special community to be God's witness, God's own community in a ceation gone awy. Though this new family, God intends to bing the whole ceation into unity and hamony - shalom - with God. God's ceative wod is spoken into a situation of baenness and hopelessness. God's wod does not depend on the potentiality of the pesons addessed but caies in itself all that is necessay to begin a new people in histoy. God calls into being things that do not exist. God does not abandon his people but jouneys with them. As with Abaham and Saah, God's pesence and pupose povide the chuch today with the motivation and diection fo its jouney. We too ae called to base ou lives upon total eliance upon God. The spiitual jouney of the chuch, of you own congegation, is not an aimless wandeing but a puposeful jouney. It involves discening the call and being set on the oad to a futue full of pomise. It involves faithful tust in God's pomises and active paticipation in God's mission. 14

15 Questions fo eflection and discussion In a jouney we will exploe what it means to live in Chistian community togethe. 1. What insights do you gain fom the Genesis naative? 2. Fo you pesonal paticipation in Chistian community? 3. Fo the wide life and pactice of you congegation? 15

16 - ENDNOTES 1 Vena J. Dozie, The Deam of God: A Call to Retun (Cowley Publications, 1991), p Paul Hanson, "The Identity and Pupose of the Chuch," Dialog, Vol. 31, p Paul D. Hanson, The People Called: The Gowth of Community in the Bible (Hape & Row, 1986), p Ibid. 5 Ibid., p Fank R. VanDevelde, The Biblical Jouney of Faith: The Road of the Sojoune (Fotess Pess, 1988), p Ibid., p Ibid., p