Wednesday, September 14, 2005
‘Christ Plays’ 147-181
Staff discussion of Eugene Peterson’s Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places:
John said Peterson’s treatment of Shiphrah and Puah (page 150 ff.) resonated with him, demonstrating that despite low social status, “you might end up in God’s economy bigger than kings and presidents.”
Concern was raised about Peterson’s “game” metaphor for salvation on page 148—whether “game” is an apt or awkward metaphor, and whether this passage places salvation over creation. Bert pointed out that some scholars argue that creation itself was the first act of salvation—salvation from chaos.
Norma wondered if enough distinction was made between the nature of God’s work in the Old Testament and New Testament; particularly, the fact that God’s work was enabled by ritual cleansing in the Old Testament, but that Jesus associated with the “unclean” in the New Testament. Perhaps Jesus’ work—from the cleansing of the temple, to healing the sick, to salvation—can be understood as fundamentally cleansing work.
John said the stories of the ten plagues in Exodus—which Peterson calls on page 162 “ammonia-laced scrub-bucket[s] of suds for ... cleansing”—cause a “moral crisis” when you read the Bible to a four-year-old. The temptation to be selective in sharing Scripture with a child kicks in here. God’s issue of the plagues to devastate not only Pharoah but thousands of innocent people can hard for believers to swallow. Scott suggested these acts are best understood as a response to Pharoah’s derisive demand: “Who is Yahweh that I should listen to him?”
We wrapped up with Peterson’s treatment of song on page 176 ff. Peterson writes on page 177:
Because God, and therefore the worship of God, cannot be reduced to the rational, song has always been basic to the act of worship. Music is not added to the words to make them more pleasing; it is integral to the way the words are being used as openings to the transcendent, as windows to the mystery, as joining in the dance of the Trinity.
Next time: pp.181-199
Last time: pp. 133-146
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