Old Testament

Bible in a Year: Day 1

The Premise

Kitsu has decided that she’s going to spend a year reading the bible, little by little, using a schedule devised by Bible Study Tools Online. Her husband is going to do it, too. And they’re going to discuss it each night once they’ve both done the reading. It should be interesting…

The Reading

  • Luke 5:27-39
  • Genesis 1:1-2:25
  • Psalms 1:1-6

Standout Passages

Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners – Luke 5:30

New wine must be poured into new wineskins! – Luke 5:38

The sun to rule over the day and the moon to rule over the night – Genesis 1:16

Woman is her name becuase she was taken out of man – Genesis 2:23

[Happy People] succeed in everything they do – Psalms 1:3
(Happy people read “they” in the text, but do to context, this appears to be the meaning of “They” as far as Kitsu can tell…)

 

A Chat with the Husband Later…

The chatting part of this adventure is going to be the part that is the most fun. The Nut (He’s specifically Valk’s Nut, which you’ll understand once his Blog is up and running and I link it in one of these posts. The short version is that this is what I’m calling the Husband in these posts) and I started talking about the Psalm, and the interesting twist of meaning. I also told him about the fact that some variations of translation do imply that the “happy” might be translated as “devote” or “religious”.

From there we got into Luke, which was a story that the Nut loved, and I hadn’t encountered directly. I did encounter it in today’s sermon, though, so it was a nice stroke of luck that let me understand the sermon a bit better. The bit I quoted above from 5:30 is actually the piece of it that was also directly quoted in the Sermon.

Then we moved on to talking about Genesis, which is always interesting. The Nut contends that it’s two variations on the creation story (citing the differences of ordering as his primary evidence). I’m leaning towards it being one story, first the reader’s digest version followed by an up close and more detailed version in full text. I attribute the differences of order to that the texts are so old, and traveled by word of mouth for so long before they were written down. In all honesty, I suspect either interpretation has some validity. Some of the difference could even be chalked up to targeting different groups and needing different variations to appeal to them.

Then we moved onto Genesis, where we quickly became fixated on the fact that the word “Man” is taken from “Woman” in english, and thus the language change seems to have stripped a certain amount from the text here. Man is “Aish” in transliterated hebrew, while Woman is “Ashe”. So we still don’t see it, but I suspect there might be something in the characters that we’re missing simply because we don’t know how to read hebrew script. Given a chance, I think we might have to ask Pastor (who’s also the Nut’s Father).

Sermon for 2 September 2012

A Preface

I would like to open this, the first of my posts, with a few quick details for those reading this. First off, this is from a Lutheran Perspective. And not just any Lutheran, but the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America brand of Lutheran. I figure it’s only fair to warn people that I’m from the “Progressive” branch of this faith so that you don’t go into things expecting something I’m completely not.

Secondly, I would like to note that (while I’m not linking directly to it) I am using the Good News Translation of the Bible (sometimes called “Today’s English Version”) for all texts. As soon as I can manage, I’ll update the links so that they link to this version.

Readings

  • First Reading: Deuteronomy 4:1-2, Deuteronomy 4:6-9
  • Second Reading: James 1:17-27
  • Psalms 15:1-5
  • Gospel: Mark 7:1-8, Mark 7:14-15, Mark 7:21-23

Kitsu’s Thinking

I can’t help but think that today was an incredible Lutheran set of passages. There are layers of cautions about putting scripture before tradition, and worshiping the Lord rather than the traditions to which we have become accustomed.

The Pastor’s sermon had an emphasis on the place of tradition within the church, and the idea that tradition, in both life and religion, should serve a purpose. That is to say, avoid tradition for tradition’s sake, keep those that still hold true to the heart of the matter instead of simply binding yourself to a tradition without thought to why that tradition is or is not significant.

Now, stepping away from the sermon itself a bit, There are a few lines of the scripture that jumped out at me today. The first is James 1:26. It reads “Do any of you think you are religious? If you do not control your tongue, your religion is worthless and you deceive yourself.” and the second is Mark 7:21-22 which reads “For from the inside, from your heart, come the evil ideas which lead you to do immoral things, to rob, kill, commit adultery, be greedy, and do all sorts of evil things; deceit, indecency, jealousy, slander, pride, and folly“. It seems like a great deal of the emphansis in the passages read is also towards the fact that we are the source of our own downfalls… That we are the greatest danger to ourselves…

The state of this planet seems to support that! To me, it says that we should all work harder to be better people, to take better care of one another. To be better to the very root of our souls. On the cover of today’s bulletin are the words “Be the doers of the world” (James 1:22).

Better advice for life cannot be had.