01/27/2013 ~ Third Sunday after the Epiphany ~ Known in Some Traditions as the Third Sunday in Ordinary Time ~ Nehemiah 8:1-3, 5-6, 8-10; Psalm 19 ~ 1 Corinthians 12:12-31a; Luke 4:14-21 ~ Church Annual Budget Meeting.
The Book
“So they, the Levities, read from the book, from the Torah of God, with interpretation.” — Nehemiah 8:8a.
Last Monday President Barack Obama was Inaugurated for a second term. A strictly literary analysis of the Inaugural Address, therefore one which has nothing to do with politics, would, I think, run something like this.
Obama referenced some of our founding documents, including the Declaration of Independence which says we hold some truths self-evident, including being created equal, and these truths are given by the Creator. The President also referenced the Constitution which starts with the words “We the people.”
Obama pointed out these documents guided those who went before us through many trials from Seneca Falls to Selma to Stonewall. All these places are about the struggle for civil rights. Seneca Falls was the first convention for women’s rights, held in 1848. [1] Selma was the march for voting rights for African Americans in 1965. Stonewall was a series of demonstrations in New York City for gay rights in 1969.
Therefore, in terms of literary analysis, Obama illustrated this: one can go from the founding documents which speak of freedom and make a transition over to the people about whom these documents of freedom speak, a transition over to the people for whom these documents of freedom have spoken and are speaking. (Slight pause.)
And these words are from the work known as Nehemiah: “So they, the Levities, read from the book, from the Torah of God, with interpretation.” (Slight pause.)
In the bulletin there is a write up which explains how the Torah was compiled [2] and a second one with a reading from Genesis. That Genesis reading might help you understand what the compiled Torah looks like. [3] Please do read them both when you have time.
Now, many scholars say the reading we just heard from Nehemiah illustrates the first public reading of the newly created Torah which, about 450 years before the birth of Jesus, came together in a form we might recognize today. In short, this is the first public reading for some of our founding documents.
There are those who claim we Christians are a “people of the book.” My claim is not that we are a people of the book. My claim is slightly different: we are a people about whom the book speaks. We claim God created us and we have rights granted by God. As such, these rights are unalienable, immutable, fixed, changeless, invariable.
Put another way (dare I say this on a day when we discussed the budget?) we, the church, are not a people of the budget. Budgets are important but do not help us understand or be community. The book helps us understand and be community.
Indeed, I want to suggest we can find ourselves in the book. How? We can find ourselves there because this is the claim made by the book: God is in covenant with us. God loves us. God seeks to work with us. That’s about us, not about the document, not about the book. (Slight pause.)
To complete the literary analysis of the Inaugural Address, the President said the founding documents point us not toward the founding documents but toward the journey in front of us. Obama said (quote): “Preserving individual freedoms ultimately requires collective action.” And our founding document, the Bible, points us toward action together, collective action.
So, the book, our book, Scripture, is not there to point toward the past. We are not a people trapped by the book. We need to refute the idea of Scripture as an idol.
Scripture is not an idol but a touchstone. If we treat Scripture as a touchstone, we are a people not bound by the book. We are a people freed by the book. You see, the book points us toward our journey with God, the journey, the action which lies before us.
In short, we must understand ourselves as a people who seek to be on a journey— a journey of love, a journey of faith, a journey of commitment, a journey of sharing— a people who seeks to be community of faith. And that is why we read the book: it points us toward the future. It points us toward community. Amen.
01/27/2013
United Church of Christ, First Congregational, Norwich, New York.
Annual Budget Meeting
ENDPIECE: It is the practice of the Pastor to speak after the Closing Hymn, but before the Congregational Response and Benediction. This is an précis of what was said: “All rituals of hazing are based on one thing: keeping the victim or victims of the hazing ignorant about what is really happening to them. This, of course, sets up a hierarchy: those in control and those not in control. Congregationalism is an anti-hazing way to organize. Congregationalism is based on each individual knowing full well what is going on, what is happening. That is true if we’re talking about the budget. That is true if we are talking about the Book— Scripture. However and therefore, the most tragic thing which can happen to an individual in a Congregational system is when an individual imposes ignorance on themselves. And, as much as we need to know about the budget, we need to know more about the Book— Scripture. We cannot be and we cannot remain ignorant about it if we are to be true to our heritage.”
BENEDICTION: Through God’s grace and by being attentive to God’s will, our deeds and our words will change our world for we will discover ways to proclaim release from the bondage or narrowness. Let us seek the God of Joy whose wisdom is our God. Let us go in peace to love and serve God. Amen.
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[1] Note: in the audio file you will hear the pastor mis-spoke and said 1814.
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[2] THE GRAF-WELLHAUSEN THEORY
The documentary hypothesis (sometimes called the Wellhausen hypothesis, after Julius Wellhausen, though he did not invent it, sometimes called the Graf-Wellhausen Theory since Karl Heinrich Graf came to a conclusion about the order in which the sources were written), holds that the Pentateuch (the Torah, or the Five Books of Moses) was derived from originally independent, parallel and complete narratives, which were subsequently combined into the current form by a series of redactors (editors). The number of these is usually set at four distinct schools, but this is not an essential part of the hypothesis.
In an attempt to reconcile inconsistencies in the biblical text and refusing to accept forced explanations to harmonize them, 18th and 19th century biblical scholars arrived at the theory that the Torah was composed of selections woven together from several, at times inconsistent, sources, each originally a complete and independent document. The hypothesis developed slowly over the course of the 19th century, by the end of which it was generally agreed that there were four main sources, combined into their final form by a series of redactors, R. These four sources came to be known as the Yahwist, or Jahwist, J (J being the German equivalent of the English letter Y); the Elohist, E; the Deuteronomist, D, (the name comes from the Book of Deuteronomy, D’s contribution to the Torah); and the Priestly Writer, P. Note: two names for God in Hebrew are Yahweh and Elohim. In the Y document God is referred to as Yahweh and in the E document God us referred to as Elohim.
The Wellhausen formulation looks like this:
* The Jahwist source ( J ): written c. 950 B.C.E. in the southern kingdom of Judah.
* The Elohist source ( E ): written c. 850 B.C.E. in the northern kingdom of Israel.
* The Deuteronomist ( D ): written c. 600 B.C.E. in Jerusalem during a period of religious reform.
* The Priestly source ( P ): written c. 500 B.C.E. by Aaronic priests in exile in Babylon.
* The Torah redactors: first JE, then JED, and finally JEDP, producing the final form of the Torah c. 450 B.C.E..
The hypothesis dominated biblical scholarship for much of the 20th century and, although increasingly challenged by other models in the last part of the 20th century, its terminology and insights continue to provide the framework for modern theories on the origins of the Torah.
A Note to those reading this in the blog: to see a Diagram of the Documentary Hypothesis you will need to look at the PDF text file in the footnote of the sermon on the web site of the United Church of Christ, First Congregational of Norwich, NY. That web site is: http://www.uccnorwichny.org/
That web site sub division is:
http://www.uccnorwichny.org/PastorsMessage/SermonArchive/tabid/38500/Default.aspx
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[3] A CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF GENESIS 6:5-8:22
This is an example of how the Graf-Wellhausen Theory works out in a text from Scripture. You will note these verses make sense read sequentially. However, that is not how they were written. There is a way to differentiate what follows in the two documents in this passage. The “Regular” type/text is a part of the “J” Document, probably written sometime in or shortly after the reign of David, between 1000 and 900 Before the Common Era (B.C.E.). The “Italic” type/text is a part of the “P” Document, probably written in conjunction with the Babylonian Exile. Sometime between 605 B.C.E. and 538 B.C.E. The important point is different strands in the following text were written 400 years apart. These were then woven together after the Exile into a text which looks like what we have today. This melding was done by a Redactor likely to have lived in the early 400s B.C.E. Hence, in a real sense this represents 3 different documents, “J,” “P,” and “R.” Note: the translation used here is the Inclusive Language Version and the verses are laid out as individual lines.
Genesis 6:5-8:22
[5] Yahweh saw that the wickedness of humankind was great in the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of their hearts was only evil continually.
[6] And Yahweh was sorry that he had made humankind on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart.
[7] So Yahweh said, “I will blot out from the earth the human beings I have created— people together with animals and creeping things and birds of the air, for I am sorry that I have made them.”
[8] But Noah found favor in the sight of Yahweh.
[9] These are the descendants of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation; Noah walked with God.
[10] And Noah had three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
[11] Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight, and the earth was filled with violence.
[12] And God saw that the earth was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted its ways upon the earth.
[13] And God said to Noah, “I have determined to make an end of all flesh, for the earth is filled with violence because of them; now I am going to destroy them along with the earth.
[14] Make yourself an ark of cypress wood; make rooms in the ark, and cover it inside and out with pitch.
[15] This is how you are to make it: the length of the ark three hundred cubits, its width fifty cubits, and its height thirty cubits.
[16] Make a roof for the ark, and finish it to a cubit above; and put the door of the ark in its side; make it with lower, second, and third decks.
[17] For my part, I am going to bring a flood of waters on the earth, to destroy from under heaven all flesh in which is the breath of life; everything that is on the earth shall die.
[18] But I will establish my covenant with you; and you shall come into the ark, you, your sons, your wife, and your sons’ wives with you.
[19] And of every living thing, of all flesh, you shall bring two of every kind into the ark, to keep them alive with you; they shall be male and female.
[20] Of the birds according to their kinds, and of the animals according to their kinds, of every creeping thing of the ground according to its kind, two of every kind shall come in to you, to keep them alive.
[21] Also take with you every kind of food that is eaten, and store it up; and it shall serve as food for you and for them.”
[22] Noah did this; he did all that God commanded him.
[7:1] Then Yahweh said to Noah, “Go into the ark, you and all your household, for I have seen that you alone are righteous before me in this generation.
[2] Take with you seven pairs of all clean animals, the male and its mate; and a pair of the animals that are not clean, the male and its mate;
[3] and seven pairs of the birds of the air also, male and female, to keep their kind alive on the face of all the earth.
[4] For in seven days I will send rain on the earth for forty days and forty nights; and every living thing that I have made I will blot out from the face of the ground.”
[5] And Noah did all that Yahweh had commanded him.
[6] Noah was six hundred years old when the flood of waters came on the earth.
[7] And Noah with his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives went into the ark to escape the waters of the flood.
[8] Of clean animals, and of animals that are not clean, and of birds, and of everything that creeps on the ground,
[9] two and two, male and female, went into the ark with Noah, as God had commanded Noah.
[10] And after seven days the waters of the flood came on the earth.
[11] In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on that day all the fountains of the great deep burst forth, and the windows of the heavens were opened.
[12] The rain fell on the earth forty days and forty nights.
[13] On the very same day Noah with his sons, Shem and Ham and Japheth, and Noah’s wife and the three wives of his sons entered the ark,
[14] they and every wild animal of every kind, and all domestic animals of every kind, and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth, and every bird of every kind— every bird, every winged creature.
[15] They went into the ark with Noah, two and two of all flesh in which there was the breath of life.
[16] And those that entered, male and female of all flesh, went in as God had commanded him; and Yahweh shut him in.
[17] The flood continued forty days on the earth; and the waters increased, and bore up the ark, and it rose high above the earth.
[18] The waters swelled and increased greatly on the earth; and the ark floated on the face of the waters.
[19] The waters swelled so mightily on the earth that all the high mountains under the whole heaven were covered;
[20] the waters swelled above the mountains, covering them fifteen cubits deep.
[21] And all flesh died that moved on the earth, birds, domestic animals, wild animals, all swarming creatures that swarm on the earth, and all human beings;
[22] everything on dry land in whose nostrils was the breath of life died.
[23] He blotted out every living thing that was on the face of the ground, human beings and animals and creeping things and birds of the air; they were blotted out from the earth. Only Noah was left, and those that were with him in the ark.
[24] And the waters swelled on the earth for one hundred fifty days.
[8:1] But God remembered Noah and all the wild animals and all the domestic animals that were with him in the ark. And God made a wind blow over the earth, and the waters subsided;
[2] the fountains of the deep and the windows of the heavens were closed, the rain from the heavens was restrained,
[3] and the waters gradually receded from the earth. At the end of one hundred fifty days the waters had abated;
[4] and in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat.
[5] The waters continued to abate until the tenth month; in the tenth month, on the first day of the month, the tops of the mountains appeared.
[6] At the end of forty days Noah opened the window of the ark that he had made
[7] and sent out the raven; and it went to and fro until the waters were dried up from the earth.[8] Then he sent out the dove from him, to see if the waters had subsided from the face of the ground;
[9] but the dove found no place to set its foot, and it returned to him to the ark, for the waters were still on the face of the whole earth. So he put out his hand and took it and brought it into the ark with him.
[10] He waited another seven days, and again he sent out the dove from the ark;
[11] and the dove came back to him in the evening, and there in its beak was a freshly plucked olive leaf; so Noah knew that the waters had subsided from the earth.
[12] Then he waited another seven days, and sent out the dove; and it did not return to him any more.
[13] In the six hundred first year, in the first month, the first day of the month, the waters were dried up from the earth; and Noah removed the covering of the ark, and looked, and saw that the face of the ground was drying.
[14] In the second month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, the earth was dry.
[15] Then God said to Noah,
[16] “Go out of the ark, you and your wife, and your sons and your sons’ wives with you.
[17] Bring out with you every living thing that is with you of all flesh— birds and animals and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth— so that they may abound on the earth, and be fruitful and multiply on the earth.”
[18] So Noah went out with his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives.
[19] And every animal, every creeping thing, and every bird, everything that moves on the earth, went out of the ark by families.[20] Then Noah built an altar to Yahweh, and took of every clean animal and of every clean bird, and offered burnt offerings on the altar.
[21] And when Yahweh smelled the pleasing odor, Yahweh said in his heart, “I will never again curse the ground because of humankind, for the inclination of the human heart is evil from youth; nor will I ever again destroy every living creature as I have done.
[22] As long as the earth endures,
seedtime and harvest, cold and heat,
summer and winter, day and night,
shall not cease.”
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