process biblical interpretation

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.

The readings from Jeremiah, Colossians, and Luke provide material for an interesting take on the theme of the Reign of Christ. Colossians 1:11-20 includes a hymn (vv. 15-20) that embraces a number of themes: Christ’s pre-existence and status as the one in whom all things cohere; the resurrection and exaltation; Christ’s role as the head of the church; and Christ’s work of universal reconciliation through his death on the cross.

On this second-to-last Sunday of the lectionary cycle, the readings swing into full apocalyptic mode for the end of the Church Year. In this passage from Isaiah, we get the “positive” side of the apocalypse: the promise of a new heaven and a new earth, in which God’s holy mountain will be a peaceable kingdom and the city of Jerusalem will be re-created as a joy and its people as a delight.

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.

Although process theologians disagree on the issue of subjective immortality (the survival of the individual person after death as an experiencing subject), they are firmly united in the affirmation of objective immortality (the retention of all experience in the everlasting life of God). And the function of such an affirmation is to insure the meaningfulness of life.

The Isaiah text is a sobering indictment of the emptiness of religious activities if justice is not observed. The call to right behavior comes in verses 16 and 17. “Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your doings from before my eyes; cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; defend the fatherless, plead for the widow.” And what is right behavior, right religion, if not taking care of the orphan, the widow, the oppressed?

The Jeremiah and Joel texts are the peoples’ confessions of sin and requests for deliverance, even arguing their case with God. The texts involve lament and grief over their behavior with respect to God, their ruptured relationship. The poetic piling up of words of sadness and despair can become overwhelming, cascading images of failure, a steady beat of hopelessness.

The context of this remarkable section of Jeremiah is the return of Israel to its own land following its long exile. The first verses of the chapter sing with joy at the promise of peace and homecoming. But the chosen text takes the symbolism of the return one step further: God will make a new covenant with the people, writing God’s law within the heart.

Jews and Christians are particularly fortunate in their scriptures. This is not simply because of the magnificent passages that these contain, including some of what is in the lectionary for today. It is because the deeply human character of the writing is so manifest. Furthermore, the authors make no pretense of divine authority for what they write. Some do, no doubt, claim the authority of great figures from the past, such as Moses, David, or Paul for writings that are not factually theirs.

Three of the assigned texts for this week (Jeremiah, 2 Kings and Luke) focus on the important biblical theme of the permeable boundaries between those who are considered insiders and those who are considered outsiders regarding God’s grace. Against those who would like to maintain strict separations and divisions between people based on economics, ethnic identity, social position, religious commitments, God’s involvement in the world is not simply focused on the socially acceptable people, but on all people.