How to Read the Bible, another view

A friend was talking yesterday about inductive Bible study; apparently some people find this a strange concept.

"What?" I squawked in mock surprise. "You mean, like reading the Bible and thinking about what it says?"

"Radical, I know," my friend said. "But sometimes people want to read a commentary..." as though that were the answer key! In some ways that's easier than reading the text for myself and asking, "What is God saying to me here?" This of course brings the question of how the text should be read. Here's a recent quote from a buddy of mine:

We'd be better off if we approached the Bible as fictional masterpiece than as reference manual. The former can shape us, not so the latter.

When this appeared on facebook, some spirited discussion followed, and the original author clarified

I didn't say the Bible is a fictional masterpiece (I don't think it is). I'm merely pointing out the relative personal impact of interacting with these different genres. "The Brothers Karamozov" can change your life and worldview in a way that "The Portable Pediatrician" never will.

I think this brilliant, though 20 years ago I couldn't have appreciated it.

Back then I thought of the Bible more or less as a textbook. But the narratives (Cain and Abel, the Judges, the kings of Israel and Judah) undermined that view, and then, around the time I understood Genesis 1 as a polemic, I began to see the Bible as a record of man's experiences with God -- the people of Israel; and then, starting with Matthew, a particular sect we now call Christians.

Another friend told me that he used to read the Bible as a novel; then he became a Christian and read it as a set of principles. When he had children, he read it as a message from a parent to his children.

But yesterday's discussion also brought to mind Kugel's book, "How to Read the Bible," which I've mentioned before (also here). Professor Kugel has a very interesting view of the Bible, which for him means the Hebrew Bible (what many of us call the Old Testament). As a source critic, he doesn't believe that Moses actually wrote the Torah and so on; yet, as a practicing Orthodox Jew, he believes the text is divinely inspired and seeks divine comfort and guidance from it.

My current view: the Bible ...

• is not an answer book
• is divinely inspired but each book is also a product of its time and place
• is a love letter from God (Genesis 1 vs. the Enuma Elish for example)
• tells us about Jesus Christ, the hope of the world
• raises many questions
• has a lot of wisdom
• speaks to me differently today than it did a year or a decade ago

Those are some things that come to mind now. More later...

What is Proposition 16 really about?

There's a lot of confusion lately regarding what Proposition 16 is about. This is understandable, given that PG&E have spent upwards of 40 million bucks (is it past 50 million now?) to create this confusion. So here's an illustration.

Suppose you live in an apartment building. The grounds there are maintained by "Excellent Gardens & Plants." This EG&P gets paid by a fee tacked on to each tenant's monthly bill. You're with me?

You hear from someone who lives in another building across town. They do not use EG&P there; the building managers have their own trucks, their own lawn mowers, hedge trimmers, leaf-blowers, etc., and the monthly fee in your friend's building is quite a bit lower than yours is. You wonder why, and after some research you find out that the boss at EG&P got paid over ten million bucks last year.

"Whoa," you think to yourself, "maybe our building should buy our own trucks, lawn mowers, hedge trimmers, leaf blowers, and so on." Or maybe hire some other outfit?

Now you can imagine that EG&P doesn't like this idea. They don't want your building managers to buy their own equipment and hire their own gardeners; EG&P want you and all your tenants to keep paying EG&P! Especially EG&P's boss wants you to do that, so he can enrich himself.

What if EG&P were able to make a rule of apartment building management that said, "For any apartment building or condominium management group to invest in their own landscaping equipment, they need to get 2/3 of the tenants to agree to it in a secret-ballot election" -- wouldn't EG&P be happy?

That's what Prop 16 is: if people in your city or county are disgruntled by PG&E's high rates, and you want to buy your own generators or windmills, PG&E wants to force a vote where the answer is "NO" unless over 66% of the voters say "YES". Can you imagine the amount of propaganda that will fill the mailboxes and airwaves in your area if such a vote were proposed? PG&E would use every dirty trick they can think of to muddy the waters, and 34% of your voters would vote NO, and PG&E would continue to "own" you.

And they called Prop 16 the "Taxpayers Right to Vote Act." Slimebags.

Please read the Ballotpedia impartial summary, including the donor list; for a more partisan perspective check out this article from The Bakersfield Californian, or my earlier posting, "Proposition 16 -- ebola in sheep's clothing."

Life's little victories or Praise God from whom all blessings flow

I've got a bundle of little things to be thankful for -- some big things too, that I often take for granted -- but I want to tell you about two little victories. In the past hour or so I lost track of my ATM/debit card. Did I leave it at the grocery store, where I last used it? Did I drop it on the floor at the fish market?

I searched my pockets and the shopping bag multiple times. Looked in the car. Emptied my pockets. Checked in my wallet again. And one last time--whoa! There it was. I was all ready to cycle over to the bank and fill out forms....

For the other, you need to know that we had our kitchen remodeled a couple of years ago. At that time, the contractor removed our insulated aluminum windows and leaned them against the fence in our side-yard. They were in the sills/framing/whatever that I'd slid them into some 20-25 years earlier.

After a couple of years of having weeds grow up around them, we finally got them removed from the frames and cleaned up. The lovely Carol posted an ad on craigslist, and someone took one off our hands. We even got money for it! But the others sat on the patio unloved, until a few days before our Big Trash Pick-Up Day.

I hauled them out to the driveway and left them leaning against "Fred," our 1986 Toyota; the lovely Carol made a "FREE" sign... but still no takers! I had hoped someone would take them and use them.

Finally, the eve of the big pickup, I put them clearly in the "Take Me Away" area and continued to stack stuff. On one of my trips out to the driveway, a fellow stood by his bicycle, talking on the phone and looking at the windows. "Please take them!" I said. I assured him that this was absolutely OK with me, and he promised to come back with his truck in maybe ten minutes.

I continued hauling stuff out, and he was back with his truck. I helped him load up. He took a pressure cooker (with it's old non-gasket) off our hands, too. Now this was what I call a win-win situation; I did not want that stuff to end up in landfill.

Of course there are bigger things to be thankful for too -- gainful employment, a roof and walls, a loving family, the freedoms and abundance we enjoy as Americans, the knowledge that we're already forgiven and the promise that we'll be made perfect. But life's little victories are blessings, too, and I'm thankful for all of them.

Prop 16: the bad guys are probably going to win

The "bad guys" in this case being PG&E. The Mercury News summarize the bill with this headline: "Prop. 16 is PG&E's attempt to prevent other cities from following Palo Alto's energy lead." They (PG&E) are spending tens of millions of dollars to trick people into voting YES on this turkey. Please read the article!

Here's another, from San Diego: Pacific Gas & Electric spending millions to pass California Proposition 16. According to that April 15th article, PG&E had "spent nearly $30 million in an advertising spree to pass Proposition 16."

The sad thing is, their tomfoolery and deceptive wording, plus now over 40 million$, will probably work. We have to remember that the voters in this state voted for Prop 13 back in the '70s, cutting the legs off the elementary and secondary education system; they voted in Arnold, crippling Parks and Rec and who knows what else... and they're quite likely to fall for the deceptive wording of Prop 16 too.

What can we say to all this? Our citizenship is in heaven, from which we eagerly await a savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power he has to subject all things to himself. So although the bad guys sometimes win (and really, this loss is nothing compared to the disaster that Rumsfeld and Cheney created in Iraq), we have to remember too that whether we are awake or asleep, we can be with Jesus.

"Happy" Memorial Day? Well, a good weekend anyway.

Our friend Carl was telling us about his father's experience under the waters of Pearl Harbor the morning of December 7, 1941. He was in his bunk (above water) when the ship started to sink. I'm sure it was terrifying when the water level rose above his port-hole, and it soon became obvious that this would be the only way out. He barely fit through the port-hole after stripping completely naked; his roommate could not.

There was nothing to do for it, so he swam up to find burning fuel on the surface of the water. Eventually he found a ship that wasn't sinking, and he climbed onto the deck. A Marine quickly gave him his pants. "You need these more than I do."

I've heard many other stories; that one I remember.

Coyote Creek Trail

Saturday morning, a bunch of us met at Galveston and Tully Roads in San Jose, where the Coyote Creek Trail starts (map). We checked tire pressures, prayed briefly, and set out down the trail.

But trouble soon followed. About 2½ miles in, one of us lost his balance while trying to re-mount his bicycle. His eyelid and eyebrow were bleeding. A fast-thinking young man rode his bike back to the starting point and fetched his car. Bikes were loaded up and he drove off with the injured guy (and one more). The rest of us continued on down the trail, riding quite carefully.

There are some gorgeous photos on this page, but I'll summarize by saying that the trail is quite diverse, going through parks, golf courses, residential areas, forest... it runs right next to a power substation. There are bridges. The trail is paved but could stand some repairs (the state budget crisis may have something to do with that).

We stopped for lunch at "Metcalf Park" (please see this map (PDF), which starts about 4 miles from where we did), and eventually got as far as the "Eucalyptus Rest Area" before heading back. Some of the grades are steep for inexperienced riders, but they are also short -- unlike, say, taking Woodside-La Honda Road up to Skyline. If you're accustomed to your bike and have a good breakfast, you probably can do this ride if you take your time. What makes it tiring is trying to ride it fast.

Marin Headlands

That was Saturday. Sunday after church, the lovely Carol and I drove up to San Francisco, where we picked up our friend Barbara (who we've known at least since Japan). We were headed up to Audubon Canyon Ranch but had lost track of our directions, so Carol asked Barbara to look up directions. Lucky thing, too, as it's closed on weekends! So we decided to head for the Marin Headlands in the Golden Gate NRA.

Traffic heading toward the Golden Gate Bridge was horrendous; everyone and his dog seemed to be heading up that way. A stalled car blocked one lane in a tunnel, but traffic didn't really improve after that.

Once on the bridge, traffic flowed, but bunched up near the first off-ramp (a vista point); we took Alexander Street and went right. In retrospect this was a good move, although a 5-minute wait (there's a one-way tunnel on Bunker) wasn't fun for the driver, who was really wanting to use a rest-room! We came to a fork in the road: beach right, lighthouse straight ahead. I read the sign aloud, asking for advice. Barbara sang out, "Lighthouse!" and so we went.

The visitor center was a welcome sight; we grabbed a map and made our plans: lunch just up the road (the map showed picnic tables), then a short (0.2 mile) trail to the beach. Which beach? The map didn't say. There were gorgeous views of the bridge and the bay and the City by the Bay from the picnic tables. It was perfect.

After lunch we continued on the one-way road and found the trailhead that led to "South Rodeo Beach." We saw some poison oak on the trail, but it's not hard to avoid. The trail is not wheelchair-accessible; some grabbing and big steps are needed near the end.

Since so few of you actually read this blog, I'm not afraid of letting the secret out: this is much nicer than the big stretch of "Rodeo Beach" a few hundred yards north. The South Rodeo Beach is quieter, with fewer people and much more interesting landforms.

On our drive out, we took a right turn from Bunker onto McCullough Road. The sign says "no right turn" but it means "if you're a bus or an RV". The views from McCullough are breathtaking, and we stopped for some more photos. The drive back to Barbara's went fine, but we were astonished at the northbound traffic -- it was like a parking lot from the 19th Avenue exit, through the Presidio and Golden Gate Park.

Memorial Day

We had breakfast out, the lovely Carol and I. Then I took her car out in search of some wood chips or something for the side-yard (a weed garden). I was thinking of Home Depot, but then decided to try Lyngsø. Fortunately I had just beaten the crowd! I picked up a roll of weed-cloth (4′x50′), and read the instructions: use three inches of tan-bark or whatever for weed control. I strolled up to the counter, where I asked the man what I should put on top of the weed-cloth.

"What do you want to look at?" he asked. I didn't, so he suggested "mocha chip." This isn't chocolate-flavored coffee chips; it's a dark mulch. 3" covering about 150 square feet... I needed 1½ cubic yards. He urged me to rent one of their trucks, so I did. Automatic transmission, electric windows, yow! Our neighbor helped me unload (I didn't know about unlocking the gate before trying to dump the stuff in my driveway).

After returning their truck, I drove back home and began hauling the stuff into the side-yard. I lost my race with the sun -- the shade was gone by the time I was half-way through. But our temperature today didn't even get to 80° and eventually we got some clouds.

And I did finish eventually, after about 30? loads with the small wheelbarrow. A desire accomplished -- it was sweet to the soul.

What does it take to really change? (part deux)

I've been thinking more about this, and the lovely Carol mentioned something we must remember: the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Good point! Immediately some New Testament verses came to mind -- we can have a new life because of Christ's resurrection (Romans 6:4), we'll be saved if we believe that God raised Jesus from the dead (Romans 10:9), our lowly body will be made like his glorious body (Philippians 3:20). That he was put to death for our sins and raised to life for our justification (Romans 4:25) is also relevant.

Without the forgiveness of sins and the hope of resurrection, it's -- well, it's probably an exaggeration to say that we're reduced to psychological self-help, but really, if we forget the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus, aren't we just getting back onto the self-improvement treadmill?

And all the insights we get from psychology and sociology and introspection, all the brilliant words we hear at conferences and read in books and articles -- all of this stuff may be terrific, but as Paul writes, "If the dead are not raised, Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die" (1 Corinthians 15:32, quoting Isaiah).

So, besides the earnest desire and commitment to change (which I mentioned earlier) we at least need to keep in view the bounteous grace and mercy of our Lord, who though he was rich became poor for our sake (2 Cor. 8:9) --

and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of his mighty strength, which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.

Ephesians 1:19-23

If we forget to remember these things, our self-improvement efforts are doomed. Did not our Lord say, "apart from me you can do nothing"?

Ever have one of those days?

You know, you go into a store, and most of the lights are off so you know it's a power failure, and just as you're wondering if you can pay at the electronic cash register, the lights turn back on. "Thank you, Lord!" you say, "You answered my unspoken prayer."

Then you wake up.

You get on your bike and take a leisurely ride to the train station. Your cough hasn't gone away quite yet, but it doesn't bother you as you pedal away. You get there in plenty of time; the sun is shining, the trains aren't delayed, the "Wunnerful" conductor welcomes you aboard then passes the mike to a schoolgirl. "Next stop, Palo Alto," she says.

And you can't stop the feeling that it's going to be a great day.