Genesis 3

The language of the Bible may be antiquate but the plot is as new as this morning's newspaper headlines - lust, jealousy and violence. Rather than spending time relishing the beauty of God's creation in chapter one, the Bible just jumps right into the mess us humans tend to create when we get involved. When Eve takes a bite of the fruit, it says she does so because she was overcome with desire. When Cain kills his brother, he too is overcome with a longing. These stories get right to the point when it comes to what makes us "tick." We are all full of longings and desires which, if we aren't careful, quickly take us down the wrong path. God created a beautiful world with much in it to be desired. But those same desires quickly turn on us if we aren't mindful all the time of the object of our desire. I'm left wondering along with the author of Psalm 8, why is it that God cares for us so much? Despite our weaknesses, why does God love us so much. I guess that's what the book is all about... I better keep reading.

Genesis 1

I'm off and reading! I'm heading into this adventure a little before the February 1 kick off because I'm preaching from these texts and have to get a little ahead things. If you're not reading as far ahead as I am, just look at the older posts.

I'm trying to keep my seminary-trained brain a little at bay as I do this reading. I'm trying not to instantly grab a commentary or Hebrew dictionary. Instead, I'm trying to just settle into the Bible and see how the plain flow of the reading hits me. As I read through this all-too-familiar beginning of the Bible I noticed for the first time how much of it is about getting the planet organized. Could God be a Presbyterian? In the Beginning everything seemed to be just a mess with planetary stuff just strewn every which way (sort of like a certain teenager's room I know). But then God comes along and mostly just spends time sorting things out: Light is separated from dark. Water from land. Heaven from earth. Everything is put in its place in nice neat little piles. It makes me think all the more of the "place" God intends for me in all of this. God didn't just throw everything around and expect us to clean up the mess. It's more the other way around. God put everything in a certain place so that it all works right and the more we learn about where stuff belongs, the better our lives work. If only I could get God to straiten out my basement!

Version Diversion

I've had way too much time this January to get ready for reading through the Bible in February. My biggest decision has been about what version to use when doing the reading (I'm a bit obsessive about these kinds of things). Part of my decision was made by a Christmas present...Jean got me a Kindle, one of those electronic book readers by Amazon.com. So, I've decided to read through the Bible on a book reader which already makes it a different experience. I'm used to flipping back and forth through my Bible as I read. But the Kindle really encourages a person to simple make your way through a book one page at a time without much digressing. I will be reading the first five books of the Bible (also known as the Pentateuch) from Robert Alter's wonderful translation. The rest of the Old Testament I will probably be reading from the Tanak, which is the version most widely read by the Jewish community. I'm hoping that these interesting translations will help me to see new things. I hope that the rest of you don't obsess about translations as much as me. Just relax and do the reading. But if anyone wants to talk translations....I'm all ears!

God-Breathed

Everything in the Bible is supposed to be "God-Breathed" and "useful" (2 Timothy 3:16) and yet there are huge chunks of it that go mostly unnoticed by us most of the time. There are other parts whose "usefulness" seem rather sketchy such as the instructions for building a portable temple. And some parts seem outright un-helpful, such as admonitions by God to go and destroy things. Rather than sitting on the outside looking in on these scriptural oddities... I'm going to dive right in and wade through the entire thing. Please join me and add your own comments. I'm starting on Monday February 1st, 2010.