After SVS 2010: Steven Hamilton, Signs & Wonders: Wisdom & the Reign of God

After SVS 2010 is an extended dialogue with presenters from the first annual Society of Vineyard Scholars conference, held Feb 11-13, 2010. Monday through Friday until March 26th we’ll profile an SVS presenter and dialogue with them around their paper. Click here for a brief intro and link directory of the series. Full text of papers are available to SVS members.
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Steven Hamilton, “Signs and Wonders: Wisdom and the Reign of God”

(Incidentally, Steven was snowed-in at the Baltimore airport during SVS, so he was unable to present as scheduled. I’m pleased to be able to remedy that somewhat by profiling his paper here.)

Abstract
In New Testament studies, the topic of Wisdom has gained real momentum recently, after many years of neglect. Yet as most scholarship has seemingly focused in the areas of Wisdom Christology, conventional Wisdom in James, the interaction of sapiential and apocalyptic thought in other New Testament literature, and the issues surrounding sophia in 1 Corinthians, there are many areas to which a wisdom-orientation can be brought to bear. What of Wisdom and the heart of Jesus’ message: the Reign of God?

The wisdom-orientation has a surprisingly significant impact in terms of the theology and praxis of the Kingdom of God.  This consideration will explore the frontiers of wisdom, seeking to understand how insights from the Hebrew corpus can be brought to bear in our present New Testament context of the Kingdom being both ‘now’ and ‘not yet’. While biblically-speaking, we access wisdom through an encounter with God rooted in awe and reverence, humility and worship, wisdom is not only found in the realms of religious gatherings, but all of life. The Reign of God is holistic, and as we experience the powers of the age-to-come inaugurated in Christ Jesus, the wisdom-orientation can aid the consideration of the Reign of God in our lives at our most charismatic as well as our most mundane.  In fact, the way of wisdom, much like that beheld in Job, is sought fervently, encountered with His Presence in surprising, satisfying ways, and then further shaped through interaction, devotion and contemplation.

Utilizing James Crenshaw’s point of departure –hokma as a shared paradigmatic approach to reality – we contemplate three major issues that a wisdom-orientation brings to the foreground: (1) a Trinitarian perspective vis-à-vis wisdom and how theologian-practitioners and scholars in the Vineyard movement may be uniquely positioned to explore our somewhat atrophied but burgeoning understanding of a Wisdom Pneumatology; (2) the shaping-nature of Wisdom and the Spirit connected to an underlying and holistic spiritual formation; and (3) how this wisdom-orientation dwells in the tension of ‘both/and’, bringing to the foreground our perspective and experience of the ‘now-and-not-yet’ of God’s Reign.  The Transcendent and Immanent modalities of wisdom are considered along with convergences of the sapiential, prophetic and apocalyptic in scripture, in Christ and in the Church.  Brief explorations of the further implications of a Wisdom Pneumatology on other areas like missiology, charismatology and ecclesiology are briefly considered.

Interview With Steven

Q: How did you become interested in your topic

A: I was studying Biblical and Ancient Near Eastern Civilization at the Baltimore Hebrew University.  I had a really great graduate group there with lots of great explorations and exchanges.  My advisor was Barry Gitlen, one of the lead archaeologists at the Philistine Ekron dig site and an expert in Philistine material culture and the 10th century, which is the time period of the rise of the monarchy under David.  This was a time when the ‘Wisdom’ perspective and tradition emerged as fairly distinctive in the history of Israel.  This emergence of the role of the Sage and Scribe can be seen to have had a rather significant impact on history, especially on the writing and transmittal of our ancient scriptures. I think that is where my deep interest in wisdom first took hold.

Q: How do you think your paper is relevant to the Vineyard movement at large?

A: I think a fuller Trinitarian aspect has been lacking in scholarship, the neglected third being Wisdom Pneumatology and I think the Vineyard – loaded with Kingdom theologian-practitioners and scholars – is primed for a major contribution to this field. I also think the wisdom-orientation recommends itself to the Vineyard as a ‘radical middle’ perspective that brings to the fore our Kingdom theology and praxis, especially the ‘both/and’ and ‘now-and-not-yet’ perspectives. I would even say that it dwells in this tension to the point of clarifying that this Kingdom tension is inherent to our place in this present aeon. Genuine Wisdom moves toward the essence of the musterion of the gospel of the Kingdom of God in Christ Jesus. I think the Vineyard has gathered a lot of wisdom from the praxis of the Kingdom of God, and applying that to the formational aspect in the theology of the Reign of God might be fairly helpful to the larger movement.  I have the feeling that this is a ‘Wisdom’ season for the Vineyard, not just in terms of leadership and culture, but in a distinctive way that Caleb Maskell outlined in his perspective at the UK and Ireland Vineyard National Leaders conference. Caleb even recommends Peter Leihart’s book Solomon Among the Postmoderns to the pastors and leaders in order to reach out to understand this emerging generation…and this book is essentially a commentary on Wisdom. Thus, I think that further explorations into the depths and riches of the biblical wisdom-orientation has much to recommend itself to the Vineyard movement.

Q: What do you think might be the practical implications of what you’re exploring?

A: Holistic Spiritual Formation. A balance that includes our most charismatic experiences and our most mundane.  Too often, I think many people think of their spirituality in a limited way, that the Kingdom really only breaks through in ‘prayer ministry times’ or when they can feel the Presence of God or even just on Sunday’s.  The wisdom-orientation can help us discover the transcendent and immanent aspects of the Kingdom, and also that we are ‘formed’ via these experiences, really all experiences, since spiritual formation happens as the Holy Spirit uses everything we experience to form us toward Christ; which includes our best and our worst, the felt Presence and Absence of God, our easiest and our most difficult seasons

Cross-training. I think a wisdom-orientation can help us bring issues together that have mostly been considered ‘either/or’ and bring them into a ‘both/and’ perspective. This experience just might propel us into new horizons vis-à-vis the theology and praxis of the Kingdom. For instance, a few years ago I was in Cincinnati at a small gathering and ended up in a group with Rose Madrid-Swetman talking about bringing together the charismatic and contemplative.  I have been trying to do this with a series of spiritual formation cohorts at our church, and the results have really been surprising and challenging, with real depth and new possibilities emerging for ministry, devotion, and experiencing God.

Steven will be available for further questions and dialogue in the comments.

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Steve Hamilton lives in Annapolis, Maryland and is married to Chaundra; they have three lovely girls together. A bi-vocational leader at the Central Maryland Vineyard, member of the Justice Response/VAST national leadership team with VineyardUSA and also a founding member of the Maryland Human Trafficking Task Force, he has spent almost 20 years in diverse endeavors as a civil servant with the U.S. government. He has studied bible and ancient near eastern civilization at the Baltimore Hebrew University and spiritual direction at the Sustainable Faith School of Spiritual Direction.

After SVS 2010: David Kushner, Echoes in Scripture

After SVS 2010 is an extended dialogue with presenters from the first annual Society of Vineyard Scholars conference, held Feb 11-13, 2010. Monday through Friday until March 26th we’ll profile an SVS presenter and dialogue with them around their paper. Click here for a brief intro and link directory of the series. Full text of papers are available to SVS members.
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David C. Kushner, “Echoes in Scripture: Joel in Acts 2″

Abstract
In Acts 2 Peter cites Joel 3 (2:28-32) as his preliminary text. Joel 3 is mis-quoted, and appears to be related only as a proof-text. The contention of this paper is that Joel echoes throughout the context, theological concerns and imagery of Acts 2, which itself outlines the over-arching themes of Acts. The sum result of the Joel 3 citation is an overlay of complementary contexts that enables readers to appreciate the development of early church theology, hermeneutic, nascent pneumatology of the Spirit’s role and power in the kingdom of God, and the groundwork for how God’s justice will be meted out through the community of faith.

A literary-theological investigation of the context of Joel, reveals an expectation of the Day of Yahweh signaled by the outpouring of his Spirit, which establishes justice, calling the faithful out from among the nations.  Joel portrays Israel in the midst of exile, experiencing alienation internally, spiritually and from foreign forces. Joel 3 functions as a crux for the parallel structures of the book, and centralizes the outpouring of the Spirit as the inauguration of the re-establishment of Israel as Zion, which is concomitant with Yahweh’s justice among the nations. As in the case of the Exodus, the calling of the faithful from among the nations brings both salvation to those who call upon the LORD, and judgment upon those who defy him. Furthermore, evidence suggests that some prophetic thinking (Joel and Ezekiel) envisions the Spirit being directly related to the dispensation of justice within Zion and outward to the nations (as in Numbers 11).

Acts 1-2 embeds the events of Pentecost in the context of the exodus.  Israel still awaits for the completion of her exile to be signaled by the installment of God’s Messiah on Jerusalem’s throne and the eradication of Roman domination. The theophanic imagery of God’s Spirit upon the disciples signals the return of God’s presence from Exile and “the last days” (ie, the day of Yahweh).  The citation of Joel, whose own context expects the day of Yahweh to be signaled by the outpouring of the Spirit and the subjugation of hostile empires to God’s righteous kingdom, allows all of these themes to be brought to the reader’s attention, without requiring explicit comment. Furthermore the subsequent sermon serves as an exposition on the final two verses of Joel3, bringing the rhetorical force of imminent judgment and the epiphany of Joel’s prophesy of God’s messianic kingdom into sharp relief for the hearers.

Monday Morning Poetry: Batter My Heart Three-Person’d God by John Donne

Part of his Holy Sonnets, this little poem accomplishes what Donne so often does: the scandal of God’s love and mercy.

Batter My Heart Three-Person’d God

Batter my heart, three-person’d God ; for you
As yet but knock ; breathe, shine, and seek to mend ;
That I may rise, and stand, o’erthrow me, and bend
Your force, to break, blow, burn, and make me new.
I, like an usurp’d town, to another due,
Labour to admit you, but O, to no end.
Reason, your viceroy in me, me should defend,
But is captived, and proves weak or untrue.
Yet dearly I love you, and would be loved fain,
But am betroth’d unto your enemy ;
Divorce me, untie, or break that knot again,
Take me to you, imprison me, for I,
Except you enthrall me, never shall be free,
Nor ever chaste, except you ravish me.

Sunday Morning Meditation: Too Much Mercy? Jonah 4:1-4

Jonah 4:1-4 – “Too Much Mercy?”

But Jonah was greatly displeased and became angry. He prayed to the LORD, “O LORD, is this not what I said when I was still at home? That is why I was so quick to flee to Tarshish. I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity. Now, O LORD, take away my life, for it is better for me to die than to live.”

But the LORD replied, “Have you any right to be angry?”

Sometimes, it seems, God is too merciful. Its one thing to relieve the suffering of those who are sick, or injured, or suffering unjustly, but what about those who are lazy or wicked? Aren’t we sending the wrong message when we extend a helping hand to those who seem to refuse to work, acknowledge God, or do what is right?

This is Jonah’s problem exactly. God sent him to the Assyrians – a wicked and morally depraved people – with a message of repentance, and Job, knowing full well the abundance of God’s mercy, does everything he can to avoid bringing that message of hope. Why? Because he knows God will forgive them completely, and Jonah has decided they don’t deserve God’s mercy.

We have a problem with genuine mercy. We’d much prefer people earn our alms, if not through their efforts then at least through their overwhelming gratitude. But sometimes, our hardness runs even deeper. Sometimes we have simply judged certain people to be beyond the privilege of mercy. We all do. What is it for you? Perhaps its people who seem lazy or ungrateful, or wear certain clothes or have certain jobs, or have no jobs at all; perhaps its people who have committed a certain kind of crime; or perhaps its people of a certain religion.

Our problem is that we often come to believe that mercy is the privilege of certain kinds of people, but, in fact, mercy is God’s privilege alone and He extends mercy to whomever He pleases. Just as He said to Moses “I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.” (Ex 33:19)

By displaying his anger in the sight of the repentant Assyrians, Jonah reveals not only his judgment of the Assyrians, but ultimately his judgment of God. Jonah simply believes he knows best who should and who should not be granted mercy. Like Jonah our problem is that we often judge God.

Its no surprise then that God responds by challenging Jonah’s anger. Our response to the mercy of God should always be rejoicing, for mercy is never the vindication of peoples sins, rather it is the demonstration of God’s power and glory at work in the world in spite of sin.

Help Me Welcome Matt Self Back to the Blogophere

I first started dipping my toes in the blog waters back in 2005. I don’t remember how, but I soon stumbled across Matt Self’s blog. At the time he was writing some of the most original and inspired commentary on life and faith I’d found anywhere.

Quite a lot has happened since then in Matt’s life that caused him to stop blogging in 2007 2006. I won’t get into that here because it’s not my story to tell, but his absence has been more than understandable. Still, perhaps selfishly, I’ve missed his voice and I’m sure others have too.

Today Matt decided to tentatively start writing online again and he’s looking for dialogue partners. Do me a favor: put him in your RSS reader or bookmark his address (click here). And comment from time to time. You won’t be sorry.