Lately I have been thinking about metaphors and scripture, namely metaphors of God. Are all references to God metaphoric? How do we know when a reference of God is a metaphor and when it is not?
I had a discussion with a group of people about metaphors and gave them an exercise. We took the book of Micah and broke into groups with each taking a chapter and jotting down every metaphor. We got back together and reported what each came up with and it was a great discussion, so much that we couldn’t even get out of chapter one. although this exercise was not specifically about God and metaphors, nevertheless it will help in that direction.
Here is an example,
Micah 1:1
The word of the LORD that came to Micah of Moresheth in the days of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, which he saw concerning Samaria and Jerusalem.
Below are the highlighted metaphors
Micah 1:1
Lately I have been thinking about metaphors and scripture, namely metaphors of God. Are all references to God metaphoric? How do we know when a reference of God is a metaphor and when it is not? The word of the LORD that came to Micah of Moresheth in the days of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, which he saw concerning Samaria and Jerusalem.
There are at least two metaphors in that verse…”the word came”, and “he saw.”
We talked about how the word can come to Micah as if it had legs or movement from one place to another. Now given what is written following this verse and the seeing of the word, one has to wonder if it is a vision or something else. What did Micah see? Was it an object or objects? Interesting study indeed.
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…the Christian Right, the Evangelical Left, etc, etc, then your problem is not politics, your problem is an internal one, its a heart issue, you need to turn off the TV, stop being sucked in my the sensationalism of You Tube and other mass media outlets, and pray, spend sometime in the teachings of Jesus Christ and learn a little bit more about basic Christianity. That is all.
YouTube and Mass Media Sensationalism….The same primitive emotional lynching mob spirit of the past still lurks in the dark and you can see it coming into the light by the feverishness created by the powerful use of youtube and all other video sharing websites. Just look at any youtube video concerning the divide over heath care, race, and now this ACORN situation, and all you see and read is fear, sensationalism, paroxysm, misplaced passion and anxiety. What’s worst is that God’s children are feeding into this mass media garbage. If Jesus was physically amongst us, what will he say or do? What would he tell his bride, the government, and the onlookers?
Moving on from the topic of race to a discussion on class and gender, allow me to introduce you Carolyn James who shares about the role of women in the Church and a little about the New Calvinist movement.
What can fill in the blank? Biblical, Systematic, Reformed? What about Black, White, or Latino? Some may put False or True. As a theologian, regardless of of my own theological reflections, I like to know much about the various ways we all do theology.
The following is an interview of a Black theologian, Dr. James Cone. As you see and listen to the interview, ask yourself if there is such a thing as a White Theology, and if so, how would that contrast to Black Theology.
This has been the year of celebrity deaths and adding to that list is Patrick Swayze who died today at the age of 57 after battling pancreatic cancer since January of 2008. Read about the news HERE.
For many the news maybe a relief in light of the suffering that one has to undergo battling pancreatic cancer. In this sense death is escapism! Death is one’s relief from the painful throes of this bitter sweet world.
What is it about death that evokes our emotions of fear or celebration? Both Micheal Jackson and Patrick Swayze have been out of sight and mind prior to the hearing of their deaths and their work have all been recorded for us to remember them by, yet, upon hearing about their deaths, the past is brought into the present and your emotions start to awake– sadness, shock, or relief. Is it because death means the end of the story of their lives? While still living the story of their lives continues to be written and as long as people have access to that story, we are comfortable with the long breaks between each page. But death interrupts that story and renders that story incomplete. Or, is death the completion of one’s life story? Or is death part of a bigger story that encompasses each of our individual life stories?
In the Bible, death is a common theme unfavorably looked upon. But at times death is what people even desired as a means of escapism as seen in Jonah’s story (Jonah 1-4). In the New Testament, specifically in the writings of Paul to the Churches, death is viewed as an exit from this world into the presence of God (Col. 2:5). More can be said about the nature of death and its effects on life. Undoubtedly death affects not only the dying but also the living but there is only one death that affects you in the here and now as well as the life to come, the death of Jesus Christ.
I pray that Micheal Jackson, Patrick Swayze, and anyone who has died this year, have come to grips with the death of all deaths, the death of Christ Jesus who also resurrected so that you may not only die to sin, but live in reconciliation with God.
An excerpt from a sermon that piper gave January 22, 1995,
” I believe in the wide range of non-violent efforts of the pro-life cause. And in the present atmosphere I do stress non-violent. This war will not be won by bullets. It will be won by brokenness and humility and sacrifice. It will be won when we identify with the children in our suffering rather than with the abortionist in his killing. And this too may be a call to a new kind of fasting.”
Amen brother Piper amen, “Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace;(Romans 8:5-6).
Lord be with all your children right now for sin has crepted into many of their hearts whereby they are now thinking murderous rather than fighting abortion through the Spirit of peace!!
