Cliff's Three Rules of Biblical Interpretation
This morning we began with Fr. Bill Cliff once again who proceeded to enlighten us further as to how to make the scriptures open to us in whole new, and mind blowing, ways. His three rules for interpreting scripture are:
1. Scripture is always astonishing. If it is not astonishing you're not reading it right.
2. Scripture is never fair.
3. God always acts first.
He used these rules to look at the Book of the Prophet Jonah - who we discovered is "the worst, best prophet ever." Fr. Bill told us "When you realize that the active agent in your life is not you, then you can become the 'worst, best prophet ever'! God is not interested in your ability nor your inability just your availability."
This is a whole new way of looking at scripture for me.
We also looked at Jesus' parables of the mustard seed, the treasure in the field, and the pearl of great price (Matthew 13:31 and following). Read by his rules we discover that in those parables God is the farmer and God is the merchant; and WE are the treasure, WE are the pearl. God gives up everything, he empties himself (kenosis) so that He may possess the treasure. God tears apart heaven and earth looking for us and when He finds us he is overjoyed.
The mustard seed is our faith. The huge bush is God's great big love that will search the entire universe for us. God finds us when Jesus dies upon the cross and we become adopted children of God. Tiny little seed meets great big love!!
Fr. Bill told us, "God has made us a deal: Your live is going to have meaning and you are going to live forever. If you get a better deal come and see me." This means that our actions echo in eternity we have all be bought with the same price. It is not all about me. God's promises are for us all. We don't have a choice in this because God set it all up (remember rule #2).
The second session of the morning was a discussion of "good theology" vs. "bad theology." Judy told us "bad theology limits the capacity of humanity to be fully human; and it limits the capacity of God to be fully God." We put this to practise with songs and hymns. We asked five questions of a variety of songs:
According to the words of any song...
1. Who is God in relationship to us?
2. Who are we or what are we to do in relationship to God?
3. Who are we or what are we to do in relationship to each other and the world?
4. Where is the consolation?
5. Where is the desolation?
Our assignment out of this is to answer these questions using our favourite song or hymn.
I will write more about what happened this afternoon just before I fall into bed.
1. Scripture is always astonishing. If it is not astonishing you're not reading it right.
2. Scripture is never fair.
3. God always acts first.
He used these rules to look at the Book of the Prophet Jonah - who we discovered is "the worst, best prophet ever." Fr. Bill told us "When you realize that the active agent in your life is not you, then you can become the 'worst, best prophet ever'! God is not interested in your ability nor your inability just your availability."
This is a whole new way of looking at scripture for me.
We also looked at Jesus' parables of the mustard seed, the treasure in the field, and the pearl of great price (Matthew 13:31 and following). Read by his rules we discover that in those parables God is the farmer and God is the merchant; and WE are the treasure, WE are the pearl. God gives up everything, he empties himself (kenosis) so that He may possess the treasure. God tears apart heaven and earth looking for us and when He finds us he is overjoyed.
The mustard seed is our faith. The huge bush is God's great big love that will search the entire universe for us. God finds us when Jesus dies upon the cross and we become adopted children of God. Tiny little seed meets great big love!!
Fr. Bill told us, "God has made us a deal: Your live is going to have meaning and you are going to live forever. If you get a better deal come and see me." This means that our actions echo in eternity we have all be bought with the same price. It is not all about me. God's promises are for us all. We don't have a choice in this because God set it all up (remember rule #2).
The second session of the morning was a discussion of "good theology" vs. "bad theology." Judy told us "bad theology limits the capacity of humanity to be fully human; and it limits the capacity of God to be fully God." We put this to practise with songs and hymns. We asked five questions of a variety of songs:
According to the words of any song...
1. Who is God in relationship to us?
2. Who are we or what are we to do in relationship to God?
3. Who are we or what are we to do in relationship to each other and the world?
4. Where is the consolation?
5. Where is the desolation?
Our assignment out of this is to answer these questions using our favourite song or hymn.
I will write more about what happened this afternoon just before I fall into bed.
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