Today, the Jesus Have I Loved, but Paul? Blog Tour goes to the Matrix and Missional land, with a review of ch. 3, “Christianity as Community.”
Think that Paul’s idea of Christianity is, basically, getting you, yourself, and you right before God? Think again…
James McGrath’s thoughts are here.
Look for Jamie Arpin-Ricci’s at missional.ca.
From James McGrath’s blog:
1 Chronicles 29:20 depicts the Israelites worshipping/prostrating themselves before Yahweh and the king. One verb, two objects. The king is said a few verses later to sit on Yahweh’s throne.
To claim that in Jewish literature no agent of God ever receives the same kind of worship that Jesus is depicted as being offered in the New Testament is to ignore fairly clear evidence from the Bible itself, never mind relevant extrabiblical evidence. Most scholarly studies recognize that this primary terminology of worship, which has as its root meaning prostration, is not consistently directed only to God Most High in Jewish literature.
McGrath is spot on. We take too little stock in how closely tied together are the identity of God and God’s representatives on earth in the Biblical narrative. God is so “other” in our thinking that we miss the ways the biblical narrative show that God is bound up with the persons of Adam, Israel, and the kings.
