Truth in Interpretive Memory

NOTE: A portion of this post is taken from my soon-to-be-published book, Cracking the Book: How to Start Reading the Bible.

October 1 is a significant date for me.  Two years ago on October 1, I boarded a plane to the Holy Land as part of a pastoral sabbatical.  The experience moved me profoundly and brought new contours to the landscape of my pastoral ministry.

My three-week excursion included a week by myself in Galilee, a week of hiking all over Israel with nine other pilgrims, and a week on my own in Jerusalem.  I took copious notes on all my experiences.  I recorded every thought, every new insight, and every tidbit of new knowledge.  I anticipated that this perhaps once-in-a-lifetime pilgrimage would be the occasion when God would share a new and exciting word with me that would bring clarity and freshness to my ministry back home.  And yet, except for one powerful experience of prayer near the beginning of my sojourn, I received no epiphany.  On the last day of the trip, after I had packed my bags and was too exhausted to walk any more through the streets of the Old City, I recorded in my journal my disappointment that I had no more clarity about my ministry than the day I had arrived in Israel.

Soon after my return, I began organizing slides from my trip and creating a presentation to share with my church.  I spoke about my Holy Land experience to my congregation over four consecutive Sunday nights.  Then, I began receiving invitations to make the same presentation in different formats – for a retreat at another church, for an evening lecture at a center for spiritual direction, and at a senior citizens apartment complex.  In addition, I began working pieces of the presentation into the New Testament courses I teach at a local college and through our conference’s lay ministry training program.  My sermon preparation over the course of the year kept bringing me back to places I had visited, ground I had traversed, experiences I had soaked up. 

On October 1, 2009, I departed to a retreat house in the mountains for five days of prayer and meditation. During that time, I wrote in my journal with stunning clarity what I had gleaned from my Holy Land experience.  I hardly lifted the pen from the page as words flowed effortlessly.  I described how my understanding of the New Testament, my personal theology, my pastoral identity, and my experience of God had all deepened. Even though I left Israel with no clear word from God, the truth of my pilgrimage had become apparent to me in my prayerful remembrance of it.  It was only as I interpreted it that I came to see how God had indeed spoken powerfully to me in a way that had indeed invigorated my ministry and changed my life.

When we read the New Testament, we are not only reading about the events of Jesus’ life, death and resurrection.  We are reading texts that were composed between 30 and 90 years after those events took place – texts that show how the early church remembered Jesus, interpreted the meaning of his Messiahship, and developed a narrative that gave meaning and truth to the Christian faith.  Some skeptics claim that, because all the writings of the New Testament are so far removed from the actual time of Jesus’ ministry, they can’t be trusted.  But that is to miss the whole point.  If all we had were newspaper reports, or only historical research on the life of Jesus, we wouldn’t have truth.  We would only have a lot of uninterpreted facts.  The truth of the gospel comes in the early church’s interpretive memory of what happened, and was continuing to happen as they experienced the presence of risen Christ among them.  That’s how the Holy Spirit works.

It’s the same with all of our lives.  How you remember significant moments in your development is more important than the moments themselves.  The truth that events and people bring to your life often does not become apparent until you’ve had time to reflect on them, maybe for months, maybe for years. All those moments become the “stuff” of God’s creative work in our lives.  In my experience, most revelations do not come in big bursts, but over time, gradually, and with careful reflection.  Even the bursts of epiphany, when everything seems suddenly to become clear, are really culminations of long processes of interpreting how God is involved in our lives.

So pay attention.  Be mindful.  Be patient and wait for the Lord.

Copyright 2010 by J. Mark Lawson   

 

Comments

[Sasi]

When I was a young lad my paternal gradnmother would take great delight in telling a story of her youth. She was born before the end of the 19th century. In her childhood tent revivals as they were called often toured the American South. They were called tent revivals because a large circus-like tent was used by the traveling evangelist for his meetings or revivals. The preaching would go on for hours filled with emotionalism worthy of a carnival salesman and would conclude with a call to salvation. Many times the preacher would try and encourage the movement of the spirit among the congregation and if someone began to shout or writhe about this was ample testimony of such movement. When the preaching was done at night the kerosene lamps that were attached to the large poles that supported the tent would always attract creepy crawlies of all sorts. My gradnmother would recount how one day such a revival came to her small rural town. Everyone whether religious or not was excited because nothing much happened in the village she and her family called home. Her parents forbade her and her sisters from going to see such carrying on because they thought the whole affair to be unnecessary. Besides they had a church to go to and did not see the need of supporting some traveling preacher who had no church of his own. My gradnmother and her oldest sister, my great aunt Laura, ignored their parent’s wishes and after supper one night they told their parents there were going to take the buggy and visit a sick neighbor. To be sure all their bases were covered they did in fact pay a quick visit but left immediately thereafter for the revival.Once they arrived all of their expectations for excitement and strangeness were met. People of all sorts were there some with Bibles and some without. Some dared to even chew tobacco even though the preacher was opposed to such sinful pleasures and practices. They walked about and chatted with some local lads who seemed to fancy them. But at last the foot pump organ began to play and the service started. My gradnmother and great aunt took a seat near the back of the tent so as to make a quick exit if need be. The preacher started out a wee bit weak but was soon at full steam bellowing God's judgment on the wicked and the lost. As time passed some people were moved to tears and even repentance. Grandmother and auntie Laura soon were caught up in the emotionalism and all was going well, until a large hard shell bug crawled down the neck of Laurab4s dress. She began to writhe and almost dance trying desperately if not in vain to shake the bug from the inside of her dress. The more the bug moved the more she writhed and danced. So much so that the preacher began to take notice and he paused in his sermon to witness this manifestation of the working of the Spirit. He shouted with a joyous acclamation she has the Spirit..halleluiah My gradnmother who by this point was laughing uncontrollably screamed No she has the Bug With this they both hurriedly left the revival and spared not the whip to the horse.I tell this story to remind us that what often passes for the utterances and signs of the work of the Holy Spirit may in fact be something quite different. Jesus warns us not to readily accept the testimony of those claiming a calling from God. In Matthew, Mark and Luke He tells us to be careful of false messiahs. We live in age that is resplendent with messiahs complete with all the techno hype that goes with them. Some are called evangelists and sometimes they are called psychologists who have all the answers to all the questions. Sometimes they are politicians and sometimes they are religious leaders such as imams and pastors. Sometimes they are learned scientists and social philosophers. Sometimes they are celebrities and CEO's. Sometimes they are on the Internet with all kinds of titles and academic degrees. In fact there is one such association that claims an independent sacramental identity, when in fact this movement exist only in the virtual space of computer and blogs!As we walk the road to Jerusalem let us pray for the wisdom to discern what it is real and of substance. Remember sometimes it is only the bug not the Spirit!Peace and BlessingsBishop Andrew Gerales Gentry

[Barbara Knoops]

Mark, I look forward to reading your book when it comes out. I was always sorry I wasn't able to sit in on any of your presentations since I had moved to TN. I recently took my first class in lay leadership training in the Presbyterian Church (USA) and have been introduced to many good authors on the OT and next year on the NT. Tomorrow I leave for a trip to Europe where I look forward to many new exeperiences too, always looking for God's blessings in these experiences. God bless you!
Barb Knoops