|
|
|
Home
About Us
Spiritual Growth
Training and
Support
Store
Donations
Contact Us
|
| Advent | Christmastide | Epiphany | Lent |
| Holy Week | Eastertide | Pentecost | Ordinary Time |
Western (and particularly American) Christians of the twenty-first century approach their faith from out of the western traditions of individualism, independence and self-determination. We view life through the colored glasses of these traditions. Consequently, we read the Bible from these same perspectives. People from Asia, Africa, the Mideast and Latin America, however, read the Bible quite differently. They view the Bible from their cultural perspectives on life as being corporate, intertwined and profoundly social.
Which is right? How should one read the Bible? Well, when one considers that the Bible was written by Mideasterners and not Europeans or North Americans, one must realize that the Bible is written out of a corporate, social and interdependent cultural perspective. Thus, when one reads the Shema, “Hear, O Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord alone. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength” (Deut. 6:4-5); one is primarily reading instructions to the nation (a corporate entity) to be centered in Yahweh, and only secondarily to individuals within that nation.
In order to capture the authentic message of the scriptures, it is important for us who are westerners (and especially Americans) to remove our cultural individualistic sunglasses and see through the clear discerning glasses of a people who both viewed life and wrote their Bible from a corporate, social and interdependent perspective.
Much of the church today uses the lectionary each Sunday to cover much of the Bible in a three-year cycle of weekly readings. Those readings are from the Hebrew Bible, the Gospels and the Epistles (including Acts). The lectionary we use in the dispersed religious community of Partners In Urban Transformation is the Common Lectionary (Revised), developed by the Consultation on Common Texts. The Consultation is a forum for liturgical renewal among many of the Christian churches of North America. For this year, we are using Cycle C.
We hope you will find these Bible studies helpful both for your personal reflection upon scripture and in your sharing of scripture through the sermons you may preach or the Bible studies you may undertake.
Robert Linthicum
December 2, 2007