Much of what has been written thus far in this ground-breaking series has to do with the nature of the Bible and how we read it. In our shaping a missional hermeneutic, the argument is not that the certain biblical texts provide a basis for mission, but rather that the Bible in itself is a product of mission. Well says Wright that,...the whole canon of Scripture is a missional phenomenon in that sense that it witnesses to the self-giving movement of this God toward His creation and us, human beings in God's own image, but wayward and wanton.
In short, the Bible finds its origins in God and His mission to redeem creation. With no missio Dei there would be no Bible. Is the reverse true? With no Bible there would be no missio Dei? Or with no Bible there would be no Christianity? Something to think about...
And so a missional reading of the Bible is not forcing something foreign into the equation. Rather such a reading of the Bible is reading it for the same purpose as it was written. Why is it you and I can have Bibles in our possession? What is the source of these sacred texts? The source is a God on a mission. Abandon this perspective and you rip the heart out of Scripture. Keep it and the Bible is a book with divine origins telling of divine purpose. As Charles R. Taber writes,
And so a missional reading of the Bible is not forcing something foreign into the equation. Rather such a reading of the Bible is reading it for the same purpose as it was written. Why is it you and I can have Bibles in our possession? What is the source of these sacred texts? The source is a God on a mission. Abandon this perspective and you rip the heart out of Scripture. Keep it and the Bible is a book with divine origins telling of divine purpose. As Charles R. Taber writes,
The very existence of the Bible is incontrovertible evidence of the God who refused to forsake His rebellious creation, who refused to give up, who was and is determined to redeem and restore fallen creation to His original design for it...The very existence of such a collection of writings testifies to a God who breaks through to human beings, who disclosed Himself to them, who will not leave them unilluminated in their darkness...who takes the initiative in re-establishing broken relationships with us.
To sum up, the Bible is evidence that God won't leave us alone.
The upshot of this is that our theologies must have the reality of God doing things at the centre. I think too often we settle for a God who just sits on a cosmic throne doing, well, nothing. This is not the God presented in the Bible; the God who feeds the ravens, causes rain to fall and the sun to rise. And if He is so involved in the lives of birds, how much more is He involved in our own lives? I'm sure some of us can say with Jacob, "Surely the LORD is in this place, and I did not know it".
We must remember that what we call the New Testament was born out of God doing something, namely coming into our world in the person of Jesus Christ, who was raised from the dead for our justification. The NT isn't merely the result of a few Jews theologizing for the sake of it. At the heart of their theology -- which was written to churches -- was the mission of God as witnessed in Jesus. This is why I. Howard Marshall can say that New Testament theology is missionary theology. It is a collection of writings by people who took Luke 24 to heart - Jesus is the fulfilment of the mission of God, and so we must proclaim Him as such to as many people as possible.
It is these truths that shape a missional hermeneutic. As Wright so wonderfully puts it, such a reading of Scripture "proceeds from the assumption that the whole Bible renders to us the story of God's mission through God's people in their engagement with God's world for the sake of the whole of God's creation".
The upshot of this is that our theologies must have the reality of God doing things at the centre. I think too often we settle for a God who just sits on a cosmic throne doing, well, nothing. This is not the God presented in the Bible; the God who feeds the ravens, causes rain to fall and the sun to rise. And if He is so involved in the lives of birds, how much more is He involved in our own lives? I'm sure some of us can say with Jacob, "Surely the LORD is in this place, and I did not know it".
We must remember that what we call the New Testament was born out of God doing something, namely coming into our world in the person of Jesus Christ, who was raised from the dead for our justification. The NT isn't merely the result of a few Jews theologizing for the sake of it. At the heart of their theology -- which was written to churches -- was the mission of God as witnessed in Jesus. This is why I. Howard Marshall can say that New Testament theology is missionary theology. It is a collection of writings by people who took Luke 24 to heart - Jesus is the fulfilment of the mission of God, and so we must proclaim Him as such to as many people as possible.
It is these truths that shape a missional hermeneutic. As Wright so wonderfully puts it, such a reading of Scripture "proceeds from the assumption that the whole Bible renders to us the story of God's mission through God's people in their engagement with God's world for the sake of the whole of God's creation".
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