Reading the Bible Badly. Karl Allen Kuhn

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СКАЧАТЬ the two parables preceding it. Taken together, these three parables respond to the grumbling of the scribes and Pharisees (15:2), and portray “repentance” not so much as the moral transformation of the sinner but God’s gracious act of welcoming home or “finding” those who would otherwise be lost (see 15:32).

      8. Powell, “The Timeless Tale of a Prodigal Son.”

      9. The terms “point of view” or “frame of reference” are often used in these circles to identify this phenomenon. While the field of epistemology is home to many different theories of knowledge, the contextual nature of meaning has been one of the tenets of postmodern thought to take hold in many modern discussions of how we know things. Moreover, deliberations on epistemological issues now commonly occur outside of traditional philosophical contexts within the natural and social sciences, including biblical studies. Researchers in many fields now feel compelled (and rightly so!) to address the complex nature of knowledge, even in disciplines that are often seen as dealing with “objective” facts.

      10. Hermeneutics refers to the practice, or science, of interpretation. Most commonly, its focus is on written texts, but it also includes verbal and nonverbal communication. Accordingly, the term “text” is often employed in the field to refer to both written and verbal communication, as well as nonverbal action that has a communicative function. As a field of thought, it examines the practice of interpretation and critiques methods employed to discern meaning from texts. This book, in other words, and any conversation you might have on biblical interpretation, is part of the field of hermeneutics, which is a sub-discipline of the field of epistemology.

      chapter one

      Reading the Bible with Amnesia

      and Dishonoring Our Ancestors

      Few things are more typical of the celebration of Christmas by American Christians than children’s Christmas programs.

      Shepherds, sheep, a donkey, the angelic host, three wise men. Center stage, underneath a glittering star and illuminated with a golden glow, nestle Mary, Joseph, and the baby Jesus. There may be variations in the sophistication of the set. The number of peripheral characters may change, depending on how many children are attending Sunday school that year or which costumes are easiest to fashion in haste (those angel wings can be a chore!). Perhaps the Little Drummer Boy joins the crowd (Pa-rum pum pum pum). Perhaps—and I cringe as I write this—Santa makes an appearance, dancing across the chancel and tossing out candy canes while screaming “Merry Christmas!” Understandably, this is the moment when babies start to cry.

      Children’s Christmas programs. What a strange rite of the church year to put ourselves through! Of all the burdens we place on our Sunday school teachers, this has to be one of the worst. The planning, the preparing, the props, the politics (“I was really counting on my Jimmy being Joseph this year! He was a shepherd last year!”). But in many congregations, this strange rite has become a sacred one. It has become central to their celebration of Christmas. Christmas would simply not be the same without it.

      But perhaps this could actually be a good thing—to not have Christmas be the same, at least our Christmases.

      What would it be like, I wonder, to celebrate and remember the birth of Christ in the way it was celebrated and remembered by his earliest followers and the Gospel writers? What would it be like to read the Christmas stories in Luke and Matthew’s gospels mindful of the kinds of realities, experiences, and yearnings of those who first encountered them? What would it be like to honor the memory of these spiritual ancestors who composed, wrote down, and passed along these stories to us?

      I think it would change the way we understand, and celebrate, the miracle of Jesus’ birth.

      Misremembering Christmas

Most of our children’s Christmas programs, like our nativity scenes, Christmas cards, and many of the ways our culture observes Christmas, are clear manifestations of how we misremember Christmas. This is not a new observation or complaint.11 For years, Christians across the theological spectrum have decried the commercialized perversion that Christmas in America has become. We have seen the slogans: “Jesus is the reason for the season.” “Keep CHRIST in CHRISTmas!” There is certainly some merit to this criticism and these tag lines.

      The reason for the Christmas season, at least the original reason, is a far, far cry from shopping malls, ugly sweaters, Chia Pets, a new Lexus, and kneeling Santas. But the reason for the season is also quite different from the messaging of our children’s Christmas programs (if they even have a message) and what many American Christians celebrate about Christmas. Two particular tendencies in how we tell the story of Jesus’ advent serve as troubling examples of we misremember Christmas, of how our reading lenses do not allow us to see the story of Jesus’ advent clearly.

      First Tendency: Forgetting a Main Character

      Keep Christ in Christmas. Yes, that would be a good thing. But it would also be a good thing to keep Caesar in Christmas.

      Caesar? You mean the guy who ordered the census? What a bit role! We never even cast him in our Christmas programs.

      Perhaps you should.

Our remembrances of Jesus’ birth commonly include details from both Matthew’s and Luke’s accounts, the two Gospels that contain birth narratives.12 But it is Luke’s gospel that has the most extensive birth narrative and provides the basic outline many of us follow when retelling the story of Jesus’ birth. Beginning in Luke 2 we read:

      1In those days a decree went out from Emperor Augustus that all the world should be registered. 2This was the first registration and was taken while Quirinius was governor of Syria. 3All went to their own towns to be registered. 4Joseph also went from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to the city of David called Bethlehem, because he was descended from the house and family of David. 5He went to be registered with Mary, to whom he was engaged and who was expecting a child. 6While they were there, the time came for her to deliver her child. 7And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in bands of cloth, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.

      8In that region there were shepherds living in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. 9Then an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. 10But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid; for see—I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: 11to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord. 12This will be a sign for you: you will find a child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger.” 13And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying,

      14 “Glory to God in the highest heaven,

      and on earth peace among those whom he favors!”

      Note the setting at the start of Luke’s account. We are in the throne room of Rome! Caesar Augustus, Sovereign of the Roman Empire (which includes all of the Mediterranean world and Israel) commands that “all the world be registered” (v. 1).

      Many readers of this story, including some scholars, don’t pay much attention to the mention of Caesar and the census, thinking that the role of these details is simply to provide a chronological marker for Jesus’ birth. To be sure, this may be one reason Luke includes the reference to Caesar, as suggested further by СКАЧАТЬ