timjdavy Bible and Mission

Joachim Jeremias on Jesus’ Promise to the Nations

Jeremias was a German scholar writing in the mid-twentieth century whose best-known work is probably his volume on Jesus and the Parables. He write extensively on New Testament matters including a short 1958 work entitled, Jesus’ Promise to the Nations, which aims to investigate the missional dimensions of Jesus’ eschatological sayings. I’ll reproduce here the contents plus Jeremias’ forward and conclusion to give you the idea:

Contents

I. Three important negative conclusions
   a. Jesus pronounce a stern judgement upon the Jewish mission
   b. Jesus forbade his disciples during his lifetime to preach to non-Jews
   c. Jesus limited his own activity to Israel

II. Three important positive conclusions
   a. Jesus removes the idea of vengeance from the eschatological expectation
   b. Jesus promises the Gentiles a share in salvation
   c. The redemptive activity and lordship of Jesus includes the Gentiles

III. The solution to the problem

IV. Conclusion: What about the Mission?


Forward

The present work has a twofold aim. It is in the first place a New Testament study, and secondly an examination of the basis of missionary activity. Following the suggestions of Sundkler, it seeks, first of all, to draw attention to a neglected element in the message of Jesus, and attempts ot show how large a place in the eschatological sayings of Jesus is given to the Old Testament conception of the pilgrimage of the nations to the Mountain of God.
At the same time the author also hopes that this work may have some significance for the inner logic of missionary activity, and for its Biblical basis. There can be no doubt that the exposition of the ‘negative’ element in the first part of this work, enables us to get a clear view of the immense extent of the promise which Jesus held out to the nations. The events of Easter ushered in the dawn of that final day in which the fulfilment of this promise to the nations and to Israel began to take effect. The special glory of the missionary endevour lies in the fact that it is a very palpable part of the final consummation inaugurated at Eater.

Conclusion

What about the Mission?
What conclusions for the modern missionary task may be drawn from the strictly eschatalogical outlook of Jesus? Has it been rendered superfluous by acceptance of the fact that according to the preaching of Jesus it will be by God’s act of power that the Gentiles will be brought in to the Kingdom of God in the final consummation? Far from it. WHat is significant for the missionary task is the realization to which we have been brought, that it is firmly rooted in God’s redemptive activity. In Jesus’ sayings about the Gentiles we find: 1. an unparalleled insistence on humility. Man can do nothing. It is not our preaching that brings about the ingathering of the Gentiles. Even Jesus himself did not make the world Christian, but he died on the Cross. God alone does it all. The fundamental note and inmost core of the message of Jesus, resounding in all his sayings about the Gentiles, is confidence in the reality of God and the vastness of his mercy.
But at the same time the sayings of Jesus about the Gentiles are: 2. a revelation of the overriding importance and value of the missionary task. Easter saw the dawn of the Last Day. The Gentile mission is the beginning of God’s final act in the gathering of the Gentiles. The Gentile mission is God’s own activity. As God’s eschatological activity it is an anticipation of the visible enthronement of the Son of Man, and as such it is ‘the actual sign’ of the period between Easter and the Parousia. The firstfruits of the Gentiles are signs, an earnest of the fulfilment, foretastes of the final consummation. Just as justification, the gist of the Spirit, sonship, the communion of the Lord’s Table, are God’s gracious gifts for the period of waiting for the consummation, so too are the Gentiles whom God brings into the Church of Jesus Christ. The missionary task is part of the final fulfilment, a divine factual demonstration of the exaltation of the Son of Man, an eschatology in process of realization. It offers the possibility of co-operating with God in his gracious anticipation of the decisive hour of redemption described in Isa. 25: the Gentiles accepted as guests at God’s Table (v. 6), the veil torn from their eyes (v. 7), and death abolished for ever (v. 8).

I came across this book thanks to my good friend Richard Johnson, who runs Qoheleth Resources, the second hand theological booksellers. He sends out a weekly sheet with loads of bargains so I’d recommend getting on the mailing list.

timjdavy Bible and Mission

King David blogs in the lead up to Psalm 51

As part of Redcliffe’s level two Psalms module students can choose to produce a creative piece with a reflection on the process. Often this involved painting, photography, mosaic, and so on. One student this year is using a blog to imagine what is going through David’s mind in the lead up to writing Psalm 51.

It will only be running for a short time (another couple of weeks max) so please follow and interact with it: David Son of Jesse

timjdavy Bible and Mission

What every student should know about writing

What makes for a good piece of writing? What does it take to move from OK to good to excellent? These are questions that I find myself asking frequently, whether in setting assignments, advising students in the process of writing them, or marking the end results.

Of course, like any college, at Redcliffe we have clearly defined grading criteria that we use when assessing pieces of work. But today I came across a succinct and very helpful summary by Ben Myers in a post entitled On writing: thirteen theses:

There are four kinds of writing: bad, mediocre, good, and great. The difference between bad writing and mediocre writing is discipline. The difference between mediocre writing and good writing is editing. The difference between good writing and great writing is miracle.

Myers emphasises perspiration over inspiration (or at least says that you can’t make the most of the latter without the former):

Writing and editing. T. S. Eliot once observed that good writers do not necessarily write better than others, but are better critics and editors. Good writers cull the overpopulated paragraphs of their work. Like a farmer protecting the livestock, the writer lovingly separates whatever is sickly and infirm – and then loads the gun.

Similarly,

The self has a tendency to leak and dribble. Left to itself, it loses all definition, becomes a shapeless puddle. Writing, like ritual, is a cast into which the self is poured. Writing is care of the self. ‘He who would not be frustrate of his hope to write well hereafter in laudable things, ought himself to be a true poem’ (Milton). A book is a few seconds of inspiration plus a few years – or a lifetime – of discipline. You cannot have a campfire without the first spark, but the spark is useless without the slow labour of gathering wood, building the fire, and maintaining it when it begins to die.

My thanks to Alison Lo at LST who passed this on.

timjdavy Bible and Mission

Christian Research In Action Network

It’s high time I posted something on the excellent web resource, Christian Research In Action Network, or CRIAN for short.

CRIAN is a network promoted by the Oxford Centre for Mission Studies and has a wealth of useful material on a range of subjects including research methods, reflective practice, missiology, leadership, and more. You have to sign up to join it but this is well worth doing.

For those with an interest in Bible and Mission I would highlight two videos from this year’s Cambridge Summer School of Theology (you will need to be a member of CRIAN for the links to work):

The Bible and Mission lecture by Chris Wright

The Manifesto of Mission lecture by Chris Wright

timjdavy Bible and Mission

Tearfund’s Dewi Hughes giving annual Redcliffe lecture on global mission and justice

On Tuesday 9th November from 7pm to 9pm Tearfund’s Theological Adviser Dewi Hughes will be giving the 2010 Redcliffe Lecture in World Christianity on the subject of Global Mission and Justice: With justice deciding for the poor of the earth (Isaiah 11:4)

Here’s the blurb from Redcliffe’s website

With righteousness he will judge the needy, with justice he will give decisions for the poor of the earth Isaiah 11:4 

The role of justice as it relates to global mission is an increasingly important discussion today. It includes justice for persecuted Christians and the poor, environmental issues as well as war and peace and the law. Our understanding of the issues is often tied in with our views on the rule of Jesus as Messiah and nature of the Kingdom of God, as well as end-time theology.

Dewi Hughes, Tearfund’s Theological Adviser will be exploring the theme of Mission and Global Justice when he delivers the 2010 Redcliffe Lecture in World Christianity. In addition to exploring the factors influencing how evangelicals relate to justice, Dewi will examine and assess current movements who are involved in justice issues.

The evening is free, but pre-booking is required.

For booking details please visit Redcliffe’s website

timjdavy Bible and Mission

1 Corinthians commentaries on Google books

This semester Redcliffe’s third years on the BA(hons) in Applied Theology can choose a module on 1 Corinthians. We’ll be getting really stuck in to the biblical text over the coming weeks and thinking hard about how the letter relates to our participation in God’s mission today.

Google books has a surprising number of good commentaries available to read. You can’t usually read the whole thing but with the size of some of the volumes, even a limited preview is well worthwhile!

Here are some links:

1-2 Corinthians by Craig Keener (NCBC series)

The First Epistle to the Corinthians by Gordon Fee (NICNT series)

The First Epistle to the Corinthians: a commentary on the Greek text by Anthony Thiselton (NIGNT series)

1 Corinthians: a shorter exegetical and pastoral commentary by Anthony Thiselton

First Corinthians by Richard Hays (Interpretation series)

1 Corinthians by James Dunn (T. & T. CLark Guides series)

1 Corinthians: interpreted by early Christian commentaries by Judith Kovacs

Paul for Everyone: 1 Corinthians by Tom Wright

timjdavy Bible and Mission

MA in Bible and Mission begins

Today was the first session in the Reading the Bible Missionally module of Redcliffe’s new postgraduate MA in Bible and Mission.

Students had come prepared by reading the introduction and first two chapters of Chris Wright’s The Mission of God: Unlocking the Bible’s Grand Narrative. As well as discussing the reading we also looked at the developmet of the methodology of missional hermeneutics.

In particular it is noticeable from the literature how ‘missional hermeneutic’ can mean so many different things. This is, perhaps, inevitable with such a newly developing approach, which can of course be frustrating at times. On the other hand, it’s one of the things that makes it all so exciting!

Here are a couple of resources I’ve come across that try to explain the different approaches people have taken (thanks to Brian Russell for making me aware of the first):

Reading the Bible Missionally by Tony Stiff on his blog Sets ‘n’ Service

The Gospel and Our Culture Issue on Missional Hermeneutics on the Gospel and Our Culture website

timjdavy Bible and Mission

Reckoning with our already sentness

What would happen if you and I grasped – really grasped – our ‘already sentness’? How would our lives and churches be different if we all saw ourselves as joining in with God’s mission?

This is something we discussed at length in yesterday’s first Biblical Basis of Mission class. We used this quote from Chris Wright as a stimulus:

It is not so much, as someone has said, that God has a mission for his church in the world, as that God has a church for his mission in the world. Mission is not just something we do (though it certainly includes that). Mission, from the point of view of our human endeavour, means the committed participation of God’s people in the purposes of God for the redemption of the whole creation.
(in Truth with a Mission: Reading Scripture Missiologically, p14)

For a start I would like to think that a wholesale reckoning with our already sentness would break down the unhelpful and unbiblical perceptions of ‘missionaries’ being on another plane of spirituality (nb. this is just as unhelpful for them as it is for those at home. Question: how do we honour those working cross-culturally without these unhelpful connotations?)

Would reckoning with our already sentness affect how mission was done in the local church? Would it give us more energy, more outward focus, more confidence that God is at work and we are joining with him in what he is doing?

What difference would it make to you to reckon with your already sentness? Let us know by leaving a comment.

timjdavy Bible and Mission

Servanthood and other metaphors we teach by

What images do I use, consciously or unconsciously, to understand my role as a tutor here at Redcliffe? I’ve posted before on the power and presence of metaphors in life, leadership and mission: Bible, mission and metaphor & Metaphors we lead by.

Along with most faculty colleagues, my office is in the top floor of the main part of Redcliffe’s building: picture sloping ceilings and fantastic views of the grounds.

But here’s the thing I love about being here: in days gone by these rooms would have been the servants’ quarters for the staff of the family who lived here. How appropriate!

There are many images that depict our role as tutors: teacher, mentor, friend, advisor, team member, leader, listener… But servant is one of the core metaphors for what we do.

With new students arriving tomorrow, it’s good to be reminded of this.

timjdavy Bible and Mission

Missiology journal focuses on orality

Engaging people with the Bible is often a challenge but what about when working in the context of an oral culture? This is a huge issue in Bible and mission so any good reflection on the topic is to be warmly welcomed.

The theme of the April 2010 (vol. XXXVIII:2) issue of the journal Missiology: An International Review is ‘orality’. Here’s the contents:

Translation and the Visual Predicament of the “JESUS” Film in West Africa – Johannes Merz
Focusing on analysis of the “JESUS” film, this article shows that much more is communicated through a film’s cinematography than through its spoken message.

Discipling through the Eyes of Oral Learners – W. Jay Moon
By viewing a funeral through the eyes of an oral people, this article describes oral learning preferences, in order to reveal effective and transformative discipling practices.

Pedagogical Conversions: From Propositions to Story and Symbol – Tom Steffen
While living among the Ifugao people, the author discovers the multiple and integrative roles that stories and symbols play in communication.

Telling Our Stories Well: Creating Memorable Images and Shaping Our Identity – Janet Stahl
This article claims that wisdom gleaned from ancient practices reveals a place in storytelling both for recitation of Scriptural texts and for more creatively crafted techniques.

Bible Translation as Contextualization: The Role of Orality – James Maxey
Bible Translation is actually contextual theologizing in which local host communities demonstrate their appropriation and proclamation of the Bible in their own languages.

Matters of the Heart: Orality, Story and Cultural Transformation—The Critical Role of Storytelling in Affecting Worldview – A. Steven Evans
With storytelling in particular as a catalyst, worldviews, cultures, and values can change, resulting in the transformation of an individual’s life and of an entire culture as well.

Coming to Terms with Orality: A Holistic Model – Charles Madinger
A holistic approach to orality incorporates seven converging disciplines, which, when more fully incorporated, can increase the transformative power of a message.