Brian Blount continues to give voice to the way the Word can and does continue to engage us anew in discussion and debate...
This is because deep down we know that even the inspired biblical authors, when they applied God's prophetic and incarnate Word to their very human situations, allowed those situations to influence how they heard God and therefore how they talked to each other. ....slavery...women as inferior to men...the power of empire demanding allegiance.... are a testimony to the face that the biblical authors were themselves creatures of their contexts who, just as we do today, felt the inspiration of God and then translated the Word of God for their lives through those contexts.
Some folks would never let this sit. To give writers a say in how the Word is brought to the page and presented to us...is, for some, just plain wrong...or denies God's hand in the writing of the biblical texts. Too often, we forget the real presence of our God within the lives of the faithful writers who attempted to make sense of who their were as God's people in a time that was as confusing and troubled and strange as our own. In reading some of the "pre-history" chapters at the beginning of Genesis, I am so often thanking our God for various faithful people (and groups of people) who took stories and made them fit into their time by honestly facing their life situations and trusting so much in their God that they made sure they were passing on stories to their children in their day by adding to the storyline a voice that would tie the present day with the faithfulness of the ancestors. This makes for a lasting word as it is shaped by the context in which faithful people were attempting to make sense of it all. Unfortunately, as we all know, the context of the day often left us with items (slavery and patriarchy) that has not served subsequent generations. Therefore, we must enter into dialogue with those times and those writers and be willing to bring to life this "lasting word" that does not rest.
Connection: Imagine how this "lasting word" comes to life today to inform us of whose we are and what that means as the day unfold.
Lord of Life, you challenge every generation to listen to your word of life and make it our own. Be with us in our wrestling and our debate and our conversations so that we will be a faithful generation who is waiting to hear your voice coming among us even now. Amen.
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