The Bible as Literature

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Be Neighborly Oct 13, 2022

Show notes

Throughout the story of Scripture, it is the Lord who delivers his people from their enemies. This deliverance is not about victory in the conventional sense, where one group of human beings claims victory against another. On the contrary, it is God, in his unparalleled position of strength, who puts down all sides, leaving everyone, under the pressure of his might, free from conflict with each other—delivered from the hands of their enemies.

Richard and Fr. Marc discuss Luke 1:74-75
Episode 452; Luke 1:74-75

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God Speaks Biblical Hebrew Oct 11, 2022

Show notes

This week Fr. Paul explains that even if God understands your language he will only answer you in the Biblical Hebrew he wrote. (Episode 243)

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The Command of God Oct 04, 2022

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This week Fr. Paul explains that the command of God in Genesis is interconnected with his command to Moses in Exodus and, ultimately, his command in the letter to the Romans. (Episode 242)

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Romulus Was a Thug and a Criminal Sep 29, 2022

Show notes

In tribal experience, as in American mythology, life originates with the forefather. How often on this program have we mentioned the blasphemous depiction of George Washington seated in glory, riding upon the clouds, flanked by the angelic hosts? In this sense, the Capital Rotunda is a kind of Platonic Fold: an event horizon where the crisp, clean philosophical constructs inside our brains collide with the messy and often painful complexities of the real world. Are you sure that we are different than the other nations?

“‘Whose image is this? And whose inscription?’” (Mark 12:16)

For all our talk of “universal values,” we like the Romans, worship our tribal patriarchs etched in the stones of our eternal city. Not as pretty as the one in Italy, but the same thing.

Thank God, our only Father, and Patriarch, not for Zacharias, but for God’s willingness to put his mouth on the lips of Zacharias for our sake as he did with the prophets of old. Much prettier to my Semitic ears than a building with a painting of George, Romulus, or anyone else.

Richard and Fr. Marc discuss Luke 1:70-73
Episode 451; Luke 1:70-73

The following music was used for this media project:
Music: Road Trip by Frank Schroeter
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You Should Not Enjoy Scripture Sep 28, 2022

Show notes

This week, Fr. Paul explains that you should not enjoy scripture but rather hear it and obey. (Episode 241)

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Quiet, Zacharias is Speaking Sep 22, 2022

Show notes

Self-styled students of the Bible often impose personal arguments on their study of the text. In some cases, this problem is obvious, for example, when religious thinkers take sides on either side of the culture wars or when political thinkers assume their ideological conviction or political stance is somehow “scriptural.” It gets nastier when our religious ideas shut us out of the gospel because our theology is in literal contradiction with what is written. But the worst of all is, unfortunately, the hardest to see. That’s when the coolaid is so sweet, so culturally ambient, so assumed that you don’t know you’ve been drinking it, and you can’t see when you are serving it.

Richard and Fr. Marc discuss Luke 1:68-69
Episode 450; Luke 1:68-69

The following music was used for this media project:
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Dabar, Voice, Staff Sep 20, 2022

Show notes

This week, Fr. Paul relies on grammatical functionality to explain how the shepherd leads his flock in Scripture with the biblical dabar. (Episode 240)

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It Was Zacharias Sep 15, 2022

Show notes

Zacharias was silenced for speaking his own words. Words that build defend and secure the things that serve Herod’s agenda: a thriving community centered by a bountiful temple life.

Everyone believes in and worships this agenda as much as, if not more, than the Romans prayed to their emperors. In reality, the two idols are in symbiosis. A happy mob, a happy emperor, vice versa, etc., etc.

So the silencing of Zacharias becomes more curious, more deafening: a genuine threat to Herod’s temple life.

But then something odd happens. Zacharias starts speaking again. What could he say that could be riskier than silence? Why did it have to be him? Why couldn’t anyone else speak the words?

It could not have been anyone else. And it wasn’t.

It was Zacharias.

Richard and Fr. Marc discuss Luke 1:67
Episode 449; Luke 1:67

The following music was used for this media project:
Music: Horde Of Geese by Alexander Nakarada
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The Wilderness Sep 14, 2022

Show notes

This week, Fr. Paul reminds us that the wilderness in Scripture is like a visit from God, it can be good news, or it can be bad news. (Episode 239)

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Fierce Loyalty Sep 08, 2022

Show notes

Institutional thinking has no comprehension of personal loyalty. Fierce loyalty. The kind you don’t get to choose. The kind you are born under. Like someone in Luke born under the authority of Zacharias. That someone doesn’t get to choose another priest any more than a sheep could a shepherd; or a slave their patrician; or a Bedouin their sheikh. But in the institutionalized west, the community is a structure built around the idea that fierce personal loyalty to a tribal chief is dysfunctional.

If the word community is supposed to have any connection to the biblical function “flock,” then our so-called communities are no communities because there is no possibility of a flock without a shepherd. Moreover, if the sheep are not fiercely loyal to that shepherd, they cease functioning as a flock.

In Luke 1, that fierce loyalty remains necessary for the biblical function “shepherd-of-flock” with a tiny adjustment; when Zacharias opens his mouth to speak, someone else calls the shots.

That, my friends, is the meaning of John’s name.

Richard and Fr. Marc discuss Luke 1:64-66
Episode 448; Luke 1: 64-66

The following music was used for this media project:
Music: Birds From The East by German Tretyakov
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