As a mild pun on the book's connecting the nativity to Easter and the Last Supper, I've titled this to whet your appetite. Below are some of the questions from each of the final chapters, we'll discuss.
The remaining questions for Chapters 7-9 will be available at the 12/21 class and after the class on this blog.
Chapter 7 – Light Against the Darkness
What were Matthew's light images that the book mentioned?
What were Luke's light images that the book mentioned?
Had you ever considered Revelation as the source of the 3rd Biblical nativity?
Chapter 8 – Jesus as the Fulfillment of Prophecy
Do you see Matthew's 5 prophesies as supporting the fundamentalists or the debunkers?
Does it sound plausible that Matthew mined the Hebrew Bible to support his community with testimony, witness, & conviction?
What might be an xmas gift purchase example of testimony, witness, & conviction?
Does Luke's use of familiar phrases from the Hebrew
Bible in his 3 hymns give you the sense of Jesus as fulfillment of God's promises?
Does the law & prophets promise summary help you with expectations for the Messiah—land, descendants,justice & peace?
With the help of this book, do you see the hope aimed at this world, rather than the coming one?
How do you look at the meaning of “Jesus is prophesy fulfilled?”
Chapter 9 – Joy to the World
Can you see how the message of joy is interwoven with messages of light and fulfillment?
Have you ever wondered why the “Joy” hymn uses, “the Lord 'is' come?”
Do you see the parallelism between Lent/Easter & Advent/Christmas?
Were you familiar with the book's Hebrew Bible & New Testament definitions of repent?
Does the advent story suggest to you another way of seeing politics of our present time?
Do you like the book's defining eschatology in terms of transformation, rather than mass immigration to heaven?
Have you heard of Augustine's saying, “God w/o us will not; we w/o God can't?”
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3 comments:
Is the point of the book that the birth of Jesus is just as important as we all think, but perhaps the stories portrayed in the Bible do not create that importance? Jesus' birth is the coming into our world of God. A quaint nativity scene with shephards and wise men does not create that meaning.
I think I can buy into that, but the general feel and emotion that those stories create is important to set the scene for the dramatic changes that would follow. They are also so ingained into me from childhood that perhaps I can't let go of them. It is hard for me to put these stories on the same level as the parabals that Jesus would later tell.
Todd, to answer your question, I will expand on an example that Chapter 8 helped me see. Maybe you are like me that when I find a “low price,” I sometime confirm my hunch after my impulse purchase by going to other stores to learn if it was the lowest. I see the book helping us see how Matthew & Luke were, analogous to my buying behavior, using their respective nativity stories to reassure believers in their communities that the incarnation of Jesus happened.
Borg & Crossan say those communities believed that Jesus was the Messiah based on other parts of those Gospels outside the nativity verses. Their scholarly view is that the nativity fits better as reinforcement for believers' faith, rather than reasons for non-believers to convert. Even though Jesus' birth appears at the beginning of their Gospels, they feel later Gospel chapters are better suited for first introductions to Jesus.
I agree that there is great emotional appeal of God incarnating in the form of a human infant. We as believers can sense that awe & emotion. The book tries to suggest that other religions, such as the Greco-Roman religions of that time, might have had similar stories for their believers. An incarnation story of Caesar might not start those emotions in early Christians. Worshipers at Roman temples might have a more emotional attachment to such a story, however.
In our experience with other parts of the Gospel each of us can find additional emotional parts of Jesus' life. Maybe it's in the Garden of Gethsemane, his temptations in the Wilderness, etc. In short, the book suggests the nativity is an introduction to the richness to come later in the Gospels.
The book suggests that starting around the mid-1800's and continuing with current day fact fundamentalists, the nativities in Matthew & Luke were used as bedrock for faith. Borg & Crossan suggest that the rest of those Gospels are so rich with other faith bases, that we don't need to cling to our childhood nativity stories as the only reason to believe.
Thanks Roger. I appreciate the work you did to present this book. It was good to read. I do come away with a new understanding of the nativity stories or at least an expanded one.
What's next? How about something with a little less intense thinking invlolved? I'll bring my iPod tomorrow for whomever shows up.
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