tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10838182.post111543384495637723..comments2023-10-31T05:56:45.788-07:00Comments on LutheranChik's "L" Word Diary: "Why Do You Stand Looking Up Toward Heaven?"Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10838182.post-1115856954238112952005-05-11T17:15:00.000-07:002005-05-11T17:15:00.000-07:00Tom: I have found that discussing the Jewish Scri...Tom: I have found that discussing the Jewish Scriptures under the tutelage of a rabbi has helped me attain that childlike/Joblike ability to "'lay my hand upon my mouth' in humility" -- it's a whole 'nother way of reading/working with Scripture that I find provides a helpful, almost mystical counterpoint to the thinky German-academy approach.LutheranChikhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02685566332651377907noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10838182.post-1115837378368069242005-05-11T11:49:00.000-07:002005-05-11T11:49:00.000-07:00Pastor Paul Bosch wrote:"The metaphors associated ...Pastor Paul Bosch wrote:<BR/><BR/>"The metaphors associated with this day could be problematic for many modern people, since we in the Twentieth Century have come to regard the primitive acceptance of a 'three-storied universe' as hopelessly quaint and pre-scientific. Are we compelled to accept this primitive metaphor--that in the Ascension, Jesus goes 'upstairs' to God--in preaching or teaching or prayers? No. There must surely be other, more contemporary, more intellectually-satisfying interpretations of this profession of faith for modern believers. Theologically, the Ascension functions in a satisfying and necessary symmetry with the Virgin Birth: the Eternal Word, having entered human life in the birth of Christ, now returns, at the Ascension, to take up again the majesty of Godhead.<BR/><BR/>"But the credibility of Christian faith certainly does not stand or fall with either profession. Neither Virgin Birth nor Ascension is an essential article of faith. In scripture, Paul knows nothing of either; so also with Mark; so with John. We could describe both Virgin Birth and Ascension as pious but venerable Christian 'myths' (in the technical sense), or metaphors, if those words did not so puzzle--and enrage!--some sensibilities.<BR/><BR/>"Yet how else can the Gospel even be explained, without access to such metaphors? We are justified in becoming 'like little children' at this point. With Job, I am willing to 'lay my hand upon my mouth' in humility, and confess the Creeds wholeheartedly with the simplest souls among us! But in Bible studies, and in preaching in the presence of others with sturdy faith and searching intellect, we might want to say more, as above."Tom in Ontariohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12154434042794825551noreply@blogger.com