January 10th: Genesis 19, Psalm 22 and Matthew 12

In Matthew 12, Jesus says this:

"Either make the tree good and it's fruit good, or make the tree bad and it's fruit bad, for the tree is known by it's fruit.".

How far do we take this before it turns into pragmatism?

[Posted with iBlogger from my iPhone]

January 9th: Genesis 17-18, Psalm 19-20 and Matthew 11

I'm going to keep this short, seeing as I'm typing it on my phone. Stupid computer.

Genesis 17. Ok. This is going to be tricky. I'm going to try not to be intentionally vulgar. Yeah, with a warning like that, you know it's the circumcision passage. Now, if you're completely unfamiliar with the Bible, you gotta wonder what went through Abraham mind at God's request.

Abe: "Did you say circumcise? I don't even know what that even... ohhhh. Uh. Really? Why?"

When I put it that way, do you find it a little offensive? It's in the Bible. This is a book we put in our kids hands. We try to get everyone to read it.  And yet we're so familiar with the passage and so polite, we gloss over it. We give the action a fancy big name, "circumcision," make it a theological idea and move on.

But here it is, a practice that has no explanation other than God said, "do it as a sign of our covenant." But here is this story wedged between the flood and God destroying a town by fire.

I have to assume that people that don't read the Bible are so confused while Christians relegate this to tradition furthering the disconnect. I think we need to understand the "why?"

Not sure I have an answer yet. Honesty. Sorry if you were offended.  If so, you're gonna want to skip the book of James and a good chunk of Romans and don't even think about Song of Solomon cause that's just crazy.

[Posted with iBlogger from my iPhone]

January 8th: Genesis 15-16, Psalm 18 and Matthew 10

Hmm.  Jesus has an interesting motivational speech today.  Can you imagine what it would be like if you tried to recruit using the same speech from Matthew 10? 

Girl Scout Den Mother:  “As you enter the house, give it your greeting.  If the house is worthy, give it your blessing of peace. But if it is not worthy, take back your blessing of peace. Whoever does not receiver you , nor heed your words, as you go out of that house or that city, shake the dust off your feet.  Truly I say to you it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment than for that city.”

Ok, that’s actually just funny.  But if you go on, the rest of the passage isn’t too thrilling.  A lot of stuff about how bad it’ll be out there.  There’s no Vince Lombardi-esque motivation.  Just Jesus laying it out plainly: “They hate me and they’ll hate you even more.”  Uncle Sam probably has an easier time recruiting Baghdad security forces.  And oh, PS: hate your mother. 

C’mon huddle up. Hands in the middle. Team on three.

January 7th: Genesis 13-14, Psalm 17 and Matthew 9

A friend of mine posted this link the other day:

 here it is

If you don’t read the article, here is the synopsis.  A guy in Michigan named Ed Dobson decided to live for an entire year just like Jesus.  He read through the gospels every week and did everything that Jesus did or said to do minus the miracles. He lived like a Jew following the Torah.  But, he also adopted ever habit that Jesus had during his three-year ministry.  He went to prisons, helped the poor and he ate and drank with “sinners” … if Jesus said it, Ed did it.  There is a line in the article that says if he was at a party and someone handed him a beer, he drank it.  Jesus had a reputation with the Pharisees.  He was known as a drunk and glutton. 

Alicia and I had a discussion about the article this morning.  Seems relevant to my reading today.  In Matthew 9, it says this:

"No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment, for the patch will pull away from the garment, making the tear worse. Neither do men pour new wine into old wineskins. If they do, the skins will burst, the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. No, they pour new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved."

Jesus was here to do a “new” thing (suddenly old DC Talk lyrics come to mind).  The religious right was unprepared for it.  The love that Jesus is talking about is radical.  It’s crazy.  Flip back a couple pages and re-read the Sermon on the Mount.  We’re so familiar with it; we forget that it blew people’s minds.  If you try to add Jesus to the old set of rules and regulations, you go crazy… you’ll blow up. 

The rules were always the patch never the solution.

January 6th:Genesis 11-12, Psalm 15-16 and Matthew 8

Genealogies in the morning, you have to love that.  Nothing quite like coffee and begats.  I can't wait till 5 AM Leviticus.  But this was the first time I really thought about the Genesis 11 genealogies still have some big numbers in there.  Like the fact that my boy, Shem, lived 500 years after the flood.  I did the math.   That would mean that Shem actually outlived Abraham.  In fact, from Shem getting off the boat to Abraham’s birth is only a span of 292 years.  Which means that Abraham could have met Noah.  Probably at a family reunion.  Can you imagine Noah sitting in the corner of the tent?

Noah: “Did I ever tell you about the time it rained 40 days and 40 nights?”

Shem: “DAD! Enough with this story. 300 years. Same story.  We get it. Flood. Raven. Dove. Rainbow. C’mon!  Here. Drink some more wine… we all know what happens then…right Ham?”

Ham: “Shut up Shem!!!”

January 5th: Genesis 10-11, Psalm 11-14 and Matthew 7

If you’re a morning person, go ahead and skip down a paragraph or two.  I’m serious.  This introduction is just going to be me complaining, which I suppose after reading three more Psalms is actually a good thing.

I have to go to work today.  Shocking, I know, that whole Monday thing. But it’s my first day back after starting this project.  I got up at six to stick with the plan.  Not a fan of the getting up early thing, especially after sleeping till 10 AM for two weeks.  Something about the genealogies before eight… I think Moses looks down from heaven laughing at all the New Year resoluters every January.  Nonetheless, the almost-thirty-me must have more will power than the thirteen-year-old-me.

I’m sure more distractions are in store. 

Today, I completed of the Sermon on the Mount (it’ll pull a Terminator in Luke 7).  The beginning of this sermon is an interesting set up for the end.  At the tail end, Jesus says this:

“Not everyone that says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.  On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord did we not prophesy in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’”

Like a chapter earlier, we were all warm and fuzzy and blessed-are-thes and then boom this elbow drop.  The crazy scary thing is that Jesus doesn’t say, “on that day a small handful of crazy overzealous thought-they-were-saved-but-were-really-just-nuts-Bible-thumpers will say, ‘Lord Lord.’”  No! He says, “many.”  Wouldn’t it make sense that these people were praying that they were actually seeking the will of the Father in heaven?  How did they miss the train and more importantly, how do I keep from being in this group?

This is one of those times I wish I could have been Peter or John and pulled Jesus aside for a quick definition.  “Jesus, hey, great sermon.  You should get that transcribed.  Filled in all the blanks in the bulletin.  Except for that last one… What was that about workers of lawlessness?”

January 4th: Genesis 7-9, Psalm 9-10 and Matthew 6

We’re missing something.  It’s official.  Call the press.  

My goal this year is to read through the Bible as if I’ve never read it before. So I need to deal with Genesis 7:2. You know, the famous “Take-seven-pair-of-clean-animals-into-the-ark-passage.”  Not so famous?  Agreed.  I passed over the problem with Cain and Abel because of the shear tragedy of their story… but here God tells Noah to gather animals that have already been split into clean and not-so-clean.  When did this go down?  We missed the whole “sheep-good-pigs-bad” conversation. There is no record of God telling the patriarchs this nugget of info.  Just like there is never a mention that fruit wouldn’t work as a sacrifice. Why?  Just a little important!?!  

The Bible-college-me knows that Moses wrote Genesis.  So is Moses pulling a scroll saving move here?  Summarizing creation for people that would already be familiar with what was and wasn’t clean?  Because, hey, we’ll cover that in Moses’ great page-turner, Leviticus.  He can list begats and “lived tills” but not crucial information about what pleases God?  Is he thinking that’s one less animal to kill for a writing surface?  Was Moses being Green?  

I’m a little confused.  

Robert Roberts, the guy who came up with this reading plan I’m following, probably thought he was funny paring the Flood story with Psalm 9. Take a look at that.  Verse 1b of Psalm 9?  “I will recount all your wonderful deeds.”  The Flood!?!  Genesis is freaking depressing.  Look past the cute flannel graph story of animals following a bearded old man onto a boat.  The whole world was destroyed.  Entire cities full of people were wiped out. Women and children… innocent children.  Killed.  Drowned.  The entire world destroyed.  How do we deal with that part of God?  

There were ten generations from Adam to Noah.  From “walked with God” to “I have determined to make an end to all flesh.” 

How is this wonderful?