John B. Cobb, Jr.

Jeremiah’s prophesies are not apocalyptic. Hence process theologians can take them much more straightforwardly. Jeremiah is hoping that a descendant of David will assume the throne of Israel and create a nation to which the widely dispersed Jews can return. He pronounced this vision of a hopeful future at a very low period of Israel’s condition. All of its leaders had been carried into exile or had fled to Egypt. Israel and Judah as nations had ceased to exist.

This Psalm expresses sentiments that are much closer to the American people these days. Placed on the lips of David, it asks God to recognize his virtue and give him the protection he deserves. It partakes of the self-righteousness against which I wrote in the commentary for last week.

The two passages from the Christian Old Testament raise the question of the relation of God and the natural world. The psalm celebrates the wonder of the normal cycles of weather as they bring forth harvests and provide food for animals. Joel sees the hand of God in the terrible destruction worked by locusts and also in being saved from this destruction.

One problem faced by serious believers in every generation is how to relate to the social and cultural context in which we find ourselves. Sometimes our inclination is to separate ourselves from it; sometimes, to attack it; sometimes, to adapt to it; and sometimes, to embrace it. The issue goes back a long way. Sometimes we feel like Pilgrims passing through an alien world; sometimes like settlers who transform the world into what they want; sometimes like part of the dominant culture or, at least, of what we judge best in it.

The Christmas story and the Easter story are the most joyful of the Christian year. In the first we celebrate the incarnation, in the second the resurrection. These are among the most distinctive of Christian doctrines, perhaps the most distinctive.

Both of these passages offer rich fare for preaching. I will comment only on one point. What does Paul mean when he writes to the Corinthians that he no longer views people "according to the flesh" or "from a human point of view"? Does he offer us a way of being in the world to which we should respond? Or is his vision illusory and even dangerous? For Paul, conversion meant putting on a new pair of glasses. He had earlier lived in a world from which God was largely absent, a world that hoped for a great change with the coming of the Messiah.

For process theologians, passages like these are particularly difficult. The apocalyptic element in the Bible makes little sense to us. But that does not mean that it should be denied or even belittled. We need to recognize how important it was for many early Christians to believe that soon Christ would come again in glory and that they would be vindicated whereas their enemies would suffer the fate they deserved. It seems that only an assurance of this kind could keep many faithful in the context of suffering and oppression.

Comments on the September Lectionary
In these comments we are allowed a great deal of latitude. I have decided to experiment with looking at the two New Testament passages (from Mark and James) in juxtaposition. Sometimes it is almost as if James had in mind passages similar to those in Mark, and is trying to apply them in some realistic and practical fashion. That is not easy, since Jesus’ teachings are here, as usual, extreme and one-sided. But since they grasp us as they grasped James, we need to share with James this difficult attempt.

The theme that for me connects these passages is that of the contrast between the human perspective and God’s. The passage in I Samuel resembles many other biblical passages in showing how God often selects the least, in this and other cases, the youngest, to play the crucial role. Here Samuel chooses Jesse’s youngest son, the one whom the father least expected, to be the successor of Saul. We find this easy to accept because the traditional primacy of the oldest son plays little role in our thinking today. But the idea was once startling.

The Christmas story and the Easter story are the most joyful of the Christian year. In the first we celebrate the incarnation, in the second the resurrection. These are among the most distinctive of Christian doctrines, perhaps the most distinctive.