Tag: Janie B. Cheaney

Posted on

Bible Challenge Week 35: Messiah – Birth & Boyhood

“The Lord whom you seek will suddenly come into his temple; and the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight, behold, he is coming, says the LORD of hosts.”  Malachi, the last prophet and the last book of the Old Testament, rang with that expectation.  And the people were looking to the temple.  They had a beautiful sight to look to: all marble and gold, the pride of Jerusalem.

The Lord came suddenly, but not to the temple they were looking toward.  The glory they expected appeared behind them, in the skies over Bethlehem.

They were longing for the “day of the Lord” that Amos and other prophets assured them was coming.  Instead, the Lord himself came.  It’s a familiar story, but it should always surprise us.

For a .pdf download of this week’s challenge, with Old and New Testament scripture passages, thought questions, and activities, click below:

Bible Reading Challenge Week 35: Messiah – Birth & Boyhood

(This is a continuation of a series of posts about the “whole story” of the Bible.  I plan to run one every week, on Tuesdays, with a printable PDF.  The printable includes a brief 2-3 paragraph introduction, Bible passages to read, a key verse, 5-7 thought/discussion questions, and 2-3 activities for the kids.  Here’s the Overview of the entire Bible series.)

Previous: Week 34: Messiah – The Forerunner

Next: Week 35: Messiah – Baptism & Temptation

Posted on

Bible Challenge Week 34: Messiah – The Forerunner

This week we turn a page–literally.  And we turn an age.

When we left the Israelites in Babylon, they were no longer Israelites.  Instead they were called “Jews,” a name derived from the last tribe to claim its own territory: Judah.  The Jews were allowed to return to their capitol city and take up temple worship again–as soon as the temple was restored.  Also, they were apparently no longer tempted to combine worship of the Lord with rites for the pagan gods around them.  Malachi, the last prophet, had other complaints to make against them, and after him the Lord was silent for 450 years.

But the last book of the Old Testament ends with a specific promise: the promise of a blazing “day of the Lord” to be preceded by the prophet Elijah.  Does that mean Elijah, first of the prophetic age, would be resurrected to bring about a new age?  450 years of wondering followed Malachi, and 450 years of expectations about what this day, and this prophet would look like.

“For behold the day is coming, burning like an oven . . .” Mal. 4:1

As usual, God kept his word.  But not in the way that anyone expected.

For this week’s Bible Challenge, with scripture passages, discussion questions, and activities, chick below:

Bible Reading Challenge Week 34: MESSIAH – THE FORERUNNER *

*Please note: In the .pdf I mis-identified Herod as a Samaritan.  He was actually an Idumean, or Edomite (descendant of Esau), raised as a Jew.

(This is a continuation of a series of posts about the “whole story” of the Bible.  I plan to run one every week, on Tuesdays, with a printable PDF.  The printable includes a brief 2-3 paragraph introduction, Bible passages to read, a key verse, 5-7 thought/discussion questions, and 2-3 activities for the kids.  Here’s the Overview of the entire Bible series.)

Previous: Week 33: Prophets – Daniel

Next: Week 35: Messiah – Birth & Boyhood

Posted on

Bible Challenge Week 33: The Prophets – Daniel

“Daniel in the Lion’s Den” is one of the first Bible stories every child knows.  His book contains more biographical material than any other prophet except Jonah: we know his social class, his country of origin, his career, his titles.  He was an aristocrat, an administrator, a seer, and an exile.  His story is much like Joseph’s, although his perilous pit occured near the end of life rather than the beginning.

His prophesies are very different from the rest of the Majors and Minors–they actually foretell the future!  Even if somewhat cryptically.  Daniel’s visions are called “apocryphal” because they foretell cataclysmic events in an undetermined future time–maybe even the end of time.  Without getting caught up in the meaning of mixed-metal statues and multi-mouthed beasts, we can appreciate that Daniel’s life occurs near one of those hinges of history: the last, or almost the last, prophetic voice to speak before a long stretch of silence.  And then the prophesies begin to come true . . .

For this week’s reading challenge, with scripture references, discussion questions, and activities, click below:

Bible Reading Challenge 33: The Prophets – Daniel

(This is a continuation of a series of posts about the “whole story” of the Bible.  I plan to run one every week, on Tuesdays, with a printable PDF.  The printable includes a brief 2-3 paragraph introduction, Bible passages to read, a key verse, 5-7 thought/discussion questions, and 2-3 activities for the kids.  Here’s the Overview of the entire Bible series.)

Previous: Week 32: the Prophets – Ezekiel

Next: Week 34: Messiah I – the Forerunner

Posted on

Bible Challenge Week 32: The Prophets – Ezekiel

Get ready for a wild ride!  Ezekiel was blessed or cursed with the most far-out visions of any Bible prophet, and we can only imagine what his audience thought.  Besides seeing the visions, he also acted them out, such as lying on one side for 40 days while subsisting on Ezekiel bread.

“Can these bones . . . live?”

Wheels within wheels, bones upon bones.  Ezekiel saw his visions in the Spirit, for he was deported from Judah at an early age and never saw his homeland again.  It seemed as though the Lord would never look upon his people again–in one stunning vision, Ezekiel saw the Holy Presence depart from those golden rooms and columned halls.  Would the people ever return?  Would God Himself return?  Could the dry bones of lost glory ever be restored?

For a printable download of this week’s challenge, including questions, activities, and scripture passages, click below:

Bible Reading Challenge Week 32: The Prophets – Ezekiel

(This is a continuation of a series of posts about the “whole story” of the Bible.  I plan to run one every week, on Tuesdays, with a printable PDF.  The printable includes a brief 2-3 paragraph introduction, Bible passages to read, a key verse, 5-7 thought/discussion questions, and 2-3 activities for the kids.  Here’s the Overview of the entire Bible series.)

Previous: Week 31: The Prophets – Jeremiah

Next: Week 33: The Prophets – Daniel

Posted on

Bible Challenge Week 31: The Prophets – Jeremiah

Few prophets–few men or women, period–lived through as much dramatic and consequential history as Jeremiah, but he’d rather have skipped it all.  Most of us would–he was a living, breathing example of “shoot the messenger.”  His ministry spanned King Josiah’s reformation (he wrote an elegy for the funeral) to King Zedekiah’s rebellion that ended it all for the southern kingdom.

But with the Lord, the end is not The End.  As so many of the other prophets, Jeremiah saw a plan unfolding that was not quite within his understanding but it burned in his heart: “I have loved you with an everlasting love”:

I will bring them from the north and gather them . . the blind and lame . . .   He who scattered Israel will gather them . . . and turn their morning into joy.

“At this I awoke and looked around,” writes Jeremiah, “and my sleep had been pleasant to me.”  (31:36)

There’s day in which we all will awake, and look around, and reality will outshine our dreams.

For a download of this week’s challenge, with scripture passages, discussion questions, and activities for the kids, click here:

Bible Reading Challenge Week 31: The Prophets – Jeremiah

 

(This is a continuation of a series of posts about the “whole story” of the Bible.  I plan to run one every week, on Tuesdays, with a printable PDF.  The printable includes a brief 2-3 paragraph introduction, Bible passages to read, a key verse, 5-7 thought/discussion questions, and 2-3 activities for the kids.  Here’s the Overview of the entire Bible series.)

Previous: Week 30: The Prophets – Disaster!

Next: Week 32: The Prophets – Ezekiel

Posted on

Bible Challenge Week 30: The Prophets – Disaster!

We’ve experienced plenty of failure so far.  Israel failed as a people (with the golden calf), failed as a nation (throughout the period of the Judges), and failed as a Kingdom, first with Saul and then with a whole line of despotic, unfaithful kings.  But this is much worse than failure.

For no matter how bad things got, they always had the Lord.  They might share him with other local deities, but his presence was always somewhere nearby–in the tabernacle, the Ark of the Covenant, or the Temple.  The Temple was like a safe zone, where they could run after a rough patch with some foreign enemy and claim covenant status.  Their golden-boy king Solomon even foresaw that possibility in his dedicatory prayer for the temple.  The people might even repent–temporarily.  As for the temple, as long as it stood, they had an “in” with their God.  It seems never to have occurred to them that someday the temple would no longer stand.

Do we have some of the same kinds of assumptions?

To download a copy of this week’s challenge, with scripture passages, key verses, questions, and activities, click here:

Bible Reading Challenge Week 30: The Prophets – Disaster!

(This is a continuation of a series of posts about the “whole story” of the Bible.  I plan to run one every week, on Tuesdays, with a printable PDF.  The printable includes a brief 2-3 paragraph introduction, Bible passages to read, a key verse, 5-7 thought/discussion questions, and 2-3 activities for the kids.  Here’s the Overview of the entire Bible series.)

Previous: Week 29: The Prophets – Isaiah and Micah

Next: Week 31: The Prophets – Jeremiah

Posted on

Bible Challenge Week 29: The Prophets – Micah and Isaiah

Time is running out for the Northern Kingdom of Israel.  Amos and Hosea tried to warn them, but would they listen?  Noooo.  But Judah, in the south, has no reason to feel smug.  In fact, Judah is about to be visited by two of their own iconic prophets, who will let them know that they’re not so special.

We’re not so special either.  How many times do we have to be told?  For instance, the United States is operating at a budget deficit that’s 30% higher than last year’s, and the national debt is literally beyond imagining  (and I’m not one of those writers that uses “literally” figuratively).  We’ve been told, and told, and told that a crisis is at hand, and nobody is doing anything about it except talk.  Unlike journalists and bureaucrats, however, the Lord is plain about what should be done.  “What does the Lord require of you?” asks Micah.  There is an answer.

And there’s a further plan, far in the future.  Thank God.

For a .pdf download of this week’s Bible challenge, with scripture passages, thought questions, and activities, click below:

Bible Reading Challenge Week 29: The Prophets – Micah and Isaiah

(This is a continuation of a series of posts about the “whole story” of the Bible.  I plan to run one every week, on Tuesdays, with a printable PDF.  The printable includes a brief 2-3 paragraph introduction, Bible passages to read, a key verse, 5-7 thought/discussion questions, and 2-3 activities for the kids.  Here’s the Overview of the entire Bible series.)

Previous: Week 28: The Prophets – Jonah, Amos, Hosea

Next: Week 30: The Prophets – Disaster!

Posted on

Why Blood Atonement?

Early this month I sat in on a talk about the Shroud of Turin.

I don’t know what to think about the Shroud, but whether genuine or faked it’s a stunning piece of work.  The image of a crucified man is somehow burned into the cloth, which has not deteriorated near as badly as a fabric dating from the first century, or even from the 7th or 13th.  It’s fine linen woven in a herringbone pattern, very expensive for the time—only a wealthy man could buy it.  This costly fabric, and the costly myrrh and aloes found on it, were put to what a contemporary observer would consider a mean, lowly, thoroughly inappropriate use.

The man: his face is bruised, swollen at the cheekbones.  Eyes almost squeezed shut.  The nose is shoved a little out of place and the forehead clenched.  One shoulder is dislocated and one knee appears to be pushed harder against the cloth because rigor mortis set in while he was still on the cross (that is, he was thoroughly dead).  Those who took him down and wrapped him up would have had to force his arms and legs into place.  There’s a spear wound in his side and on his back are 110-120 lash marks left by the typical Roman scourge of three tails.  The body is naked, the hands crossed over his genitals for decency’s sake.

I gave my back to those who strike

. . . his appearance was so marred, beyond human semblance . . .

He was despised, and we esteemed him not

He was bruised for our transgressions

. . . and with his stripes we are healed

I don’t like sermons on the torture of Christ.  I don’t like detailed descriptions of his physical suffering or brutal, humiliating treatment.  I didn’t see The Passion of the Christ and probably never will.  I’m squeamish about blood and gore on the big screen, but also, it’s him.  It causes me to tremble.

But there on the cloth is the crucified man—is it him?  It’s somebody with a very specific description: Jewish male, 5’11”, well-built and muscular, type AB+ blood.  Battered and bloodied, pierced and shamed.  A curse, and accursed.

Whoever it is, it represents a hideous object planted—thrown, hurled—at the center of human history.  This is what it cost him.  This is what I cost him.

I’ve been having a discussion with a friend about theories of atonement.  She quotes Farther Richard Rohr, a Franciscan: “The terrible and un-critiqued premise is that God could need payment, and even a very violent transaction, to be able to love and accept [his own] children!”

Well.  Over ways are not his ways, and so on.  But Fr. Rohr’s premise is wrong.  It’s not that God requires payment to love those who are already his children.  God’s justice requires payment in order for God’s love to make confirmed and unrepentant rebels into children.

He takes sin very seriously; we don’t.  Since the fall, it’s impossible for corrupted flesh and blood to inherit the kingdom–unless the kingdom comes as flesh and blood and gives his back to those who strike.  He knows the cost; we don’t.

Yet it was the LORD’s will to crush him, and cause him to suffer,

and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

The Lord shed the blood of an animal—probably more than one—to cover the shame of the first humans, our parents.  He descended in fire at Sinai, protecting his holiness with smoke and lightning, to prescribe a temporary means of sanctification by blood: “You will be my people and I will be your God.”  But not your Father—not yet.  Not your Father by blood, until his own Son appears, in flesh and blood.

I don’t like the torture part, because I don’t like to think I had anything to do with it.  But that mark there—that’s from my playing holy while acting carnally.  That clenched brow is for my continual glory-seeking.  In my youth I sinned blatantly and today I sin subtly, in a way no one sees but me.  And him.

Are you washed in the blood of the lamb?  How repulsive is that thought to our sophisticated minds.  The ancient pagans used to drench themselves in the blood of freshly-slaughtered, still-bellowing bulls, in orgies of self-abnegation—aren’t we way, way beyond that?

Not really. God knows something we don’t: sin is serious.  He is serious.  His justice will see it punished, but his love will see the punishment that brought us peace fall upon Him, and heal us with those stripes.

 

Posted on

Bible Challenge Week 28: Kings & Prophets – Jonah, Amos, Hosea

Elijah and Elisha instituted the Age of Prophets with an explosion of signs and wonders.  Now comes the hard part.  Or actually, it’s always hard, speaking truth to stony hearts, but the miracles will soon be out while oracles and exhortations are in.  Israel (the northern kingdom, that is) is hanging on only by God’s mercy: Amos and Hosea are sent to warn them, first by words and then by actions.

Jonah is a special case, and not just because of his big fish adventure.  He is sent to warn Israel’s enemies, a signal to him (and to us) that God’s heart is for the world, not just one nation or one race.  Jonah as the first “global prophet” is a stunning success in some ways and a miserable failure in others.

For the .pdf of this week’s challenge, with Bible passages, questions, and activities, click here:

Bible Reading Challenge Week 28: Kings & Prophets – Jonah, Amos, Hosea

(This is a continuation of a series of posts about the “whole story” of the Bible.  I plan to run one every week, on Tuesdays, with a printable PDF.  The printable includes a brief 2-3 paragraph introduction, Bible passages to read, a key verse, 5-7 thought/discussion questions, and 2-3 activities for the kids.  Here’s the Overview of the entire Bible series.)

Previous: Week 27: Kings & Prophets – Elijah

Next: Week 29: Kings & Prophets – Micah and Isaiah

Posted on

Bible Challenge Week 27: Kings & Prophets – Elijah

This week we turn to the next chapter in the Bible saga.  We’re not done with kings; in fact, since the kingdom divided, we’ve doubled that number.  But a new era is beginning, when more and more of God’s word will be entrusted to prophets.  Prophesy is hardly new in Israel: from the beginning of their residence in Canaan, bands, or “schools,” of roaming holy men (and a few women) appear in the narrative.  But in the vast majority of cases we don’t know their mission or their message.  Aside from Moses and Nathan, we don’t even know their names.

With Elijah’s appearance, that changes.  The era of the prophets has arrived, and this diverse group, spanning hundred of years, from various backgrounds and abilities, will be responsible for one-third of the content of the Old Testament.

Elijah, however, will be better known for what he did than what he said.  In fact, as in so many periods of Israel’s history, a new age is signaled by an explosion of miracles.  What does that say about Elijah, and his protoge Elisha?  For the .pdf of this week’s challenge, with Bible passages, questions, and activities, click here:

Bible Reading Challenge Week 27: Kings & Prophets – Elijah

(This is a continuation of a series of posts about the “whole story” of the Bible.  I plan to run one every week, on Tuesdays, with a printable PDF.  The printable includes a brief 2-3 paragraph introduction, Bible passages to read, a key verse, 5-7 thought/discussion questions, and 2-3 activities for the kids.  Here’s the Overview of the entire Bible series.)

Previous: Week 26: The Kingdom – Failure!

Next: Week 28: Kings & Prophets – Jonah, Amos, Hosea