I confess an inordinate like for the book of Ecclesiastes. Other than chapter 3, this one doesn't have a lot of fans; and even the fans want to delete "a time to hate." The one time I was asked to preach a baccalaureate, my text was chapter 5.
Proverbs is very popular, at least in my sub-world. I don't get much out of it, though. Too many answers.
Job is great; it can be a life in itself - but only if you read the middle chapters too, not just chs. 1 and 42.
Lutherans never trusted James, because of all that works stuff. See? Distrust of action.
Which brings us to Acts. We've always liked the witness to God's work in the world. When Acts comes up in the lectionary, we say things like, "See how the Holy Spirit is always one step ahead of the apostles!" Then we say the book should not be called the Acts of the Apostles, and there are no more apostles in our day, and other stuff to explain why the book ended.
We also like the gospel of John and the first letter of John and other books we can read, mark, learn and inwardly digest. We like anything we can meditate on indefinitely.
There's really no excuse for this. Scripture is Scripture, and the parts we don't favor are all the more the stuff we need. Struggle with it - struggle physically, not just mentally.
Friday, August 8, 2008
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