1 Q. What to focus one’s direction and intention upon.
Master message is “Love God and seek after Him with all your heart; love your
neighbor as yourself,” but there are so many other things highlighted in NT as
important messages and guidelines, too.
A. The foundation for all other thinking and feeling and action is Fear God in the sense of awe and glory and belonging. Based on that heartfelt grasp then the rest falls into place.
2 Q. Perhaps the weekly gathering and wrestling (literal
meaning of ‘Israel’ is L god + Isra wrestling) with the Bible lines *is* the
destination we strive for; in other words, we have already “arrived” at the
place where we are aiming for.
A. The relationship to the collective Body of Christ, his hands and feet in the world is a living and ongoing one, rather than something to enter into and check off as “git ‘er done.” So you never actually arrive at a complete and full understanding of God’s Will. Instead you keep your ears and eyes open, actively seeking and reflecting and acting. On one hand you seek answers and guidance. On the other hand you make some conclusions and decisions (a working, “draft” comprehension of the whole matter of relating and growing the connection to God and his children). This cycle of looking for answers, but then having some (temporary) answers is exactly what the Tuesday bible study circle allows: asking and answering, then coming back the next week to do the wrestling again. As such, this perpetual state of seeking and (temporary) knowing *is* the living and pulsing condition that is optimal; it *is* what a person who actively cultivates a relationship does.
3 Q. Facing God with a “fearful” heart (awe, joy, glory) is
the core that all else follows from: Love, relationship, drawing near, mercy,
and so on. So how can we understand God’s enduring love for his children, but
also his OT vengeful impassioned fear that He causes in us?
A. This open-ended, ambivalent condition *is* the basis for a living God that cannot be defined or stuffed into a simple box of our own minds. At the same time we unconditionally love him but we hesitate from anxiety about his power. We know him but we can never encompass him. He is here now personally in and of us, but also he is every place and every time. None of this fits into mortal logic and words, but it is God and is alive and in motion, never to be pinned down or confined with tidy labeling. This God is not tamed, but instead is wild.
4 Q. How are intention, words and deeds connected in someone
who is tuned into God’s will?
A. We fulfill the intention/awareness by trusting in the authority granted by God to do his work. Faith without works is an incomplete expression of one’s live relationship with God. We consummate the interaction by deeds. However “clanging like a gong” for going through the motions of a good deed, but without one’s heart in it fails, too. Serving others by giving one’s time, talent, money and so on must also include presence of heart and mind, too. Empty words and empty deeds are just that; absent of value.
5 Q. What is the difference between a beginner and a person
long practiced in wrestling with the Word of God? After all, both hear the same
text and neither can expect to comprehend the meaning in total.
A. Much like the person deeply invested in a hobby or a person who has traveled the path the most often, so too the person who returns again and again to the Word of God. She or he has a wider base of experience and examples to incorporate. The big picture is ever more complete in a finer and finer gradation, and the boundaries are ever wider. The result is the wise person now has such a broad canvas and so many subtle color shadings that the picture is increasingly detailed and vivid. What once were shadowy outlines now are well defined. What once seemed frozen in time now can be seen processually as something that began modestly and grew and grew, but which will once day be discarded and of little absolute or eternal value. In summary, the mind of experience can see the many parts and how they work across time to form the whole. Neither the beginner nor the old-timer can take their worldly accumulations or their intellectual gains with them when they die. But to strive to know God better and better still is worth the effort, because the person of experience produces a better vision to guide personal and group decisions and ongoing governance.
6 Q. We live in a pagan [possibly god-fearing, possibly
god-denying, possibly god-agnostic] world and share the minority status of
persecution from public acknowledgement and respect in a small way that the
early Christians did; not to the point of being fodder for the lions and
amusement for the worldly power-holders, but yes in the sense of losing the
best seat at the table and being dismissed to the periphery of the feast of
life. How to respond to this challenge of our time?
A. This is an open question but includes responses such as the Emerging Church movement of the past 20-30 years: getting back to basics, simplifying the clutter and prerequisites in order to satisfy the more important message and functions of worshiping together. Clues might come from other persecuted groups in this society: African-Americans/civil rights, Suffragettes (women’s rights), Religious communities (Mormons, Shakers/Quakers), Gay rights people, ADA-disabled people and so on. Now it is Christians who need to “come out of the closest” and publicly declare with pride and self-worth who they are.
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