Practicing RIGHTEOUSNESS
doing JUSTICE

I was about to preach at an evening service in a small church in a remote village in rural Honduras. I could barely see my notes, because the church was lit by only a few candles – all the congregation could afford, after their village was devastated by Hurricane Mitch a year earlier. Without wishing to be too graphic, the truth is that I was also fighting the worst case of diarrhea of my life! To top it off, I had just finished a bitter argument with one of my students, who refused to eat the food offered to us – because (very understandably) he didn’t want to end up getting sick like me.

In short, I was miserable! So I said to my friend and translator, “Miguel, I’m not sure I have a good message for these people tonight. So if I’m preaching badly, you just go ahead and say whatever you want to say.” Without missing a beat, Miguel responded, “Jeff, that’s what I always do when you preach.”

What power a translator has! The Italians have a saying, “traduttore traditore” – “the translator is a traitor.” I don’t know about that, but I do know that a translator has the potential to dramatically alter the meaning of the words she is using.

With that in mind, translating the words of the Bible must be a dangerous undertaking! I was thinking about the danger of translating today, after reading a comment about the book of Matthew, in David Bosch’s masterful book, “Transforming Mission: Paradigm Shifts in Theology of Mission.” Bosch focuses our attention on one of Matthew’s favorite Greek words “dikaiosyne,” which shows up in some of Jesus’ most famous sayings. For example, “…seek first the kingdom of God and his dikaiosyne, and all these things will be added to you.” (6:33)

According to Bosch, dikaiosyne can be translated as righteousness (a distinctly religious concept, suggesting a spiritual/moral quality to which we can aspire and receive from God), justification (God’s merciful act of declaring us just), or justice (our right conduct toward others, and especially those who are oppressed). All three concepts are contained in the one word, dikaiosyne. What a rich word it is! (You can continue this guest article by Jeff Johnsen HERE)

Here's the catch... We translate the scriptures with our lives, not merely with our words. We might say the right words, but how are these words translated by our lives? What we really believe is most accurately translated by our actions, not by our words. The problem with that is that... the first book of the Bible others are likely to read is the Book of You and Me. -- Bob

It's a Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood

Here are some pics from our Earth Day outreach
in the Butchers Hill community

Created
in
Our
Image

Which Jesus do you worship, the Vegan Jesus, the Weeping Jesus, the Gentle as a Lamb Jesus, the Political Activist Jesus, the Plastic Dashboard Jesus? We have a tendancy to want to create him in our image rather than being created in his image. In spite of the archaic language, I like the imagery created in the old gospel hymn:

Have thine own way, Lord. Have thine own way!
Thou art the potter, I am the clay!
Mold me and make me, after they will,
While I am waiting, yielded and still.

That imagery comes straight out of the Book of Jeremiah: "The Lord gave another message to Jeremiah. He said, 'Go down to the shop where clay pots and jars are made. I will speak to you while you are there.' So I did as he told me and found the potter working at his wheel. But the jar he was making did not turn out as he had hoped, so the potter squashed the jar into a lump of clay and started again. Then the Lord gave me this message: 'O Israel, can I not do to you as this potter has done to his clay? As the clay is in the potter's hand, so are you in my hand," (Jeremiah 18:1-6). I'm not completely comfortable with the idea of being squashed by the hand of God like a lump of clay. But I love the idea of being gently shaped by the loving hands of my creator. And if we are completely honest, most of us haven't done the greatest job of shaping our own lives. We are always at our best when we give God full creative rights to our lives.
One of my sons goes to Vintage 21 Church in Raleigh, NC. They have put together a hillarious set of videos that pokes fun at the way we sometimes distort the image of Jesus. You can view one of the videos here. Enjoy! -- bob

The New Trinity
"Me MySELF and I"

From the folks who brought you Me/Church, now you can order Me/Worship. Isn't it about time someone was willing to produce a worship CD about the one person we really want to worship!

Check it out here. Enjoy -- bob

Me /Church...

Where it's all about Me!

Check it out here here --Bob