I Will Stand With You

I wonder which feels better? To have a friend comfort me or having a friend stand with me?  Is there a difference? In the verse below, Jesus teaches about mourning.  More specifically he notes that there is at least one blessing that we can find as we mourn: there are others present with us.

      Blessed are those who mourn, for others
            stand with them.

Most translations translate the word as "comfort."  And they are right.  But PARAKALEO very literally means to "call alongside" of someone.  Depending on the context of the passage in which it occurs, it is translated a variety of ways: comfort, encourage, exhort, etc.  In order to bring out the sense that it always involves having someone "alongside us" as they call, The Immanence Bible in Verse translates as "stand with them." 

The most comforting (or encouraging) thing about someone "calling alongside" me is that they are there to begin with. They have my back...and my side.  We are intimate friends even as we mourn.

Where does the Kingdom of Heaven begin? Not where you think...

As Jesus begins to teach up on the mountain, he starts with the poor.  And, as it turns out, something else begins with them.  Here's Jesus' first 'beatitude."--

He opens his mouth
      and teaches them, saying,
"Blessed, even as they gasp, are the poor,
      because the realm of upward vision
            begins with them.

At the end of The Immanence Bible in Verse is a section titled Translation Notes.  These notes explain some of the more unusual or atypical translations of the Greek text.  In the section for Matthew 5, under the phrase "even as they gasp", there is this note:

The word PNEUMA is a good example of the anachronistic impulses of our common translations.  Yes, it can mean "spirit."  But, it may also literally refer to "wind" or "breath." 

Jesus is not teaching about a spiritual condition (poor in spirit), but about the poor themselves.  In this context, it is their gasping breath, rather than their spirit, that is in view.  The blessing of being in this condition is knowing that something powerful begins with you.  The notes for this verse continue:

In addition to understanding the word (PNEUMA) more literally, TIBIV also understands the prepositional phrase to apply to the way in which the poor are blessed, rather than to the way in which they are poor.  It is not the "poor in spirit" who are under consideration, but the poor....who are blessed even in their gasping need.

It is not that typical English translations are wrong in how they understand the Greek genitive, but it is that TIBIV presents an equally literal translation that appears to fit the context more closely.  The "realm of upward vision" (kingdom of heaven) is not their reward for being poor in spirit.  This new realm (kingdom) is something that begins with them in their poverty.

For those of us who are middle class, this is sobering reality.  This new realm or kingdom, begins, not with us, but with those in true need.  May we stand with them.

Not a Disciple: Jesus wants us to Think

The first verse in The Immanence Bible in Verse is from what is now called Chapter Five of Matthew.  Of course, Bibles did not have verse numbers until more than 1,000 years after Jesus' appearance on the planet.  We divided the writings into chapters early on.  But verse numbers came much later. In TIBIV we go back in time: there are chapter numbers, but no verse numbers.

So, the first verse in TIBIV is this one:

Seeing the multitudes, he goes up
      onto a mountain. When he sits down
those who are thinking
      come to him.


Mountains are good places to learn and think.  And a good place leave the multitudes behind. When Jesus goes up onto a mountain, those who wanted to engage with him, as they thought things through, headed in his direction. It is an interesting commentary on our culture that most of our Bibles translate the Greek word MATHETES as "disciple."  That is not necessarily a bad translation.  The problem is that this Greek word comes from the root sense of "learning."  Not from "to discipline."  TIBIV tries to reflect that etymology a little more clearly and perhaps let us hear Jesus in a fresh way.

That's the point of this new translation, The Immanence Bible in Verse.  Jesus was not dictating precisely how a human life is to be lived. He was thinking through the idea of "the kingdom of heaven."  Or, as TIBIV translates (very literally), "the realm of upward vision."  Jesus wants us to think about life: about how we all might live in accord with the highest vision we have of human society.  That's the point of this challenge/teaching as found in Matthew 5.

Pabulum, Antichrist, and Homoousios

Pabulum

The mark of the Beast, Antichrist's sign,

is the vapid despair of our religious zeal.

Superficial intonations plea for the sinner's soul.

Prevenient grace availeth not.

Faux passion animates stammering lips.

And the echo of glossolalia rings hollow.

There's no reason for salvation.

The Holy Ghost still proceeds from the Father and the Son,

but homoousisos has no substance.

We have eaten the flesh and drunk the blood of Antichrist.

And we don't care.

The Need for Immanence

During his discussion with the philosophers of the day on Mars Hill, as reported in Acts 17, Paul quotes their own poets to make his point.  Speaking of God as an intimate presence, the poet celebrates this divine immanence in which we “live and move and have our being.”   With every breath we partake of divine connection.

This immediate and personal sense of Spirit has been largely lost in contemporary evangelical theology.  Or rather, it has been overshadowed by an unhealthy emphasis on God-as-literally-anthropomorphic.  A figure of speech has too often become a literal God.  And this has impoverished and distorted how we attempt to live the teachings of Jesus.

As a counterbalance to this current pendulum swing toward anthropomorphism, The Immanence Bible in Verse (TIBIV) intentionally emphasizes God as divine Immanence.  In these selected passages from TIBIV, we consider Jesus’ teaching afresh.  We listen to the poetry and the Breath of Immanence in his words.