Intelligent conversation

           On occasion I get to be with young, inspiring minds, in a virtual world of blogging.

The last string of enlightened commentaries sprang from a lecture held by John Behr, a teacher and spokesman for the Orthodox community. The discussion is wide ranging and inquisitive, but also marked by a drive for truth, for giving room for true faith and true life -

           Questions that are being raised deal with relating to attitudes to and of contemporary historical scholarship in regards to the Bible texts. The questions deal with a variety of theological interpretations, from the early patristics to the postmodern mindset. 

           How do we react to new and intriguing information about a historical discoveries which may influence the way we read the Bible? Do we dismiss it and say it is not relevant to faith? Do we look it in the eye and seek to find faults, analysing their scientific methods and presuppositions, in order to defend our tradition? Do we heed the new scholarship, and in the process reject the traditional views, without really understanding their depth?

          Are we more enlightened in our perspectives these days? Do we have more knowledge, insight, wisdom? What are our caveats in this respect? Do we possess a deeper understanding of God, a clearer way of how to live Soli Deo Gloria?

         

 Perhaps I mix the questions, the focus, the intentions behind it all - but I cannot see the value of theological work if it does not relate to the lived life of the believer and the church. So, I expect there to be a meaning.

   

       As I pondered these aspects, I looked up the readings for this upcoming Sunday. (In the Norwegian church there is a set order of readings from the Bible throughout a three-year cycle.) This Sunday the Gospel text is from Matt. 7: 7-12.

"7 “Ask, and it will be given to you;

seek, and you will find;

knock, and it will be opened to you.

8 For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds,

and to the one who knocks it will be opened.

9 Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? 10 Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent?

11 If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!

12 “So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.""

          I thought it was a fitting passage which speaks into this situation. For, clearly, we are encouraged to ask - both ask questions and to request petitions; to seek - to investigate and to seek God; to knock - to test out, try things out, try and fail, and try again... It is never in vain. Essentially, we learn to live, and live in dependent relationship to God, who is the giver of all good things. And this is further reflected in our relationships to others.