May 22 - We Declare. . . Old Testament Biblical Perspective

 

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth....

And so begins the story of God's relationship with the earth and, a few verses later, with humankind, who were made in God's image. From the very beginning we were made for relationship with God and God keeps reaching out to us. We keep making mistakes and messing things up, and God keeps calling and welcoming us back.

This is the story of the Bible.  This is the good news God offers. God keeps reaching out. Too often we write off the Hebrew Bible, or Old Testament, as irrelevant once Jesus came on the picture. Jesus, himself, however, said that he was the fulfilment, not the annulment, of all the went before. Jesus is the embodiment of God's love for and compassionate call to humankind, shared through story, poetry, prophesy, and song in the Old Testament. Often, when we try to read the Old Testament stories, we get caught up in the violence, in ancient cultural and scientific understandings that are so foreign to us, and miss the good news completely. It is there, but we can get distracted and miss it.

Part of the reason for this is, as Dr. Pete Enns says, "God lets God's children tell the story." Each of us comes at every situation and every story with our own perspective and filters. Ancient story tellers had certain priorities, which influenced how they told the story of God and God's people. We have different priorities and filters, which can make us read the stories very differently than intended. The Ancient writers were sharing about their victorious God helping them triumph over all kinds of difficult situations.  We are trying to read these stories as a historical treatise on who did what when, or a scientific report on how things happened. Let us step back and look at the overall story - a story of God present and active in the lives of ancient Israel from the very beginning and through all kinds of trials. Then we can see the good news God has for us.

The study guide, We Declare what we have seen and heard, issued by Mennonite Church Canada,  gives us a focus statement which reads:  

We declare that God has always been at work to reclaim and restore with love God’s good creation. God’s people have always held before them God’s promise of shalom—wholeness and harmony for humanity and all creation—regardless of their circumstances or their own faithfulness.

The scripture passage we will be looking at this week is Psalm 107, a powerful call to praise God for all the wondrous things God has done:

“O give thanks to the Lord, for God is good,
    for God's steadfast love endures forever.” (verse 1, NRSV)

The psalmist recounts situations in which people found themselves in distress:  Wandering in the wilderness; Lost in darkness and gloom; Suffering illness or injury; Experiencing a calamity. In each situation the people end up calling out in distress (vs 6,13,19,28) and God answers them. After each situation they, and we, are reminded to

 ". . . thank the Lord for God's steadfast love,
    for God's wonderful works to humankind." (vs 8, 13, 21, 30 NRSV)

We are called to notice when God is at work in our lives, and look for God at work in the world. We are called to praise God and give thanks for all that God is doing. Then we are called to join in and participate in God's work. This is the focus of the Mennonite Church Alberta theme for this year: To encounter, embrace and embody God in the world. This is the idea of being a missional church. This is the story of the Bible, from Genesis through Revelation. God is at work, let us, as God's image bearers, participate in that work and do our part to help restore the world to shalom - to the wholeness and peace God intended for us. God is reaching out to each of us, let us reach out to each other, too.

So, is there Good news in the "Old Testament"?  Is there something to share? Yes! God is present and active in and around us.  God created all of humankind and loves each of one of us. The love God has is so great that God continues to speak to and through people, to affect change toward a better world for all people. God continues to reach out with compassion, even when we make mistakes. This is all good news. This we can declare!