{"id":249,"date":"2011-12-05T21:33:10","date_gmt":"2011-12-05T21:33:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rjr.richardross.annaerossi.com\/?p=249"},"modified":"2011-12-05T21:33:10","modified_gmt":"2011-12-05T21:33:10","slug":"var-_gaq-_gaq-_gaq-push_setaccount-ua-25646250-2-_gaq-push_trackpageview-function-var-ga-document-createelementscript-ga-type-textjava-8","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rjr.richardross.annaerossi.com\/?p=249","title":{"rendered":"<script type=\"text\/javascript\">    var _gaq = _gaq || [];   _gaq.push(['_setAccount', 'UA-25646250-2']);   _gaq.push(['_trackPageview']);    (function() {     var ga = document.createElement('script'); ga.type = 'text\/javascript'; ga.async = true;     ga.src = ('https:' == document.location.protocol ? 'https:\/\/ssl' : 'http:\/\/www') + '.google-analytics.com\/ga.js';     var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(ga, s);   })();  <\/script>  <\/heat> Session Ten &#8211; Genealogy of Cain &#8211; Held on Sunday, December 4, 2011"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Programs of Interest<\/strong><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Ken mentioned a program of possible interest: Dr. Issam Nemeh dealing with Science and Religion which can be seen on the History Channel &#8211; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.history.com\/schedule\/12\/13\/2011\">http:\/\/www.history.com\/schedule\/12\/13\/2011<\/a>.\u00a0 NOVA is also presenting a series on the <em>Fabric of the Cosmos<\/em>, hosted by Brian Greene which can give food for thought.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Session Nine Revisited<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I mentioned how helpful it was for Mark to distinguish in the scripture: event and story.\u00a0 The group continued to struggle with the truth of a story the events of which historically either we know did not happen, or don\u2019t know whether they happened or not.\u00a0 Sometime we know they didn\u2019t happen because of the nature of the literature.\u00a0 Mike near the end of our discussion on this point made an observation that was extremely helpful to me.\u00a0 He reminded us that Jesus told parables which certainly convey a truth but are not depended on the event as narrated.\u00a0 For example, the Gospel reading for Sunday, November 13, 2011 is the Parable of the Talents, Mt. 25: 14 \u2013 30 <a href=\"http:\/\/www.usccb.org\/bible\/matthew\/25\">http:\/\/www.usccb.org\/bible\/matthew\/25<\/a>.\u00a0 Is this story truth, if and only if, there was someone who was planning on going on a journey and called his three servants \u2026 etc? Was Jesus referring in this parable to a specific person and his three specific servants who did what is reported that they did? Or are these characters in the parable representative of human beings who carry out representative actions?\u00a0 What is your answer to these two questions?\u00a0\u00a0 No matter what your answer, your answer is an effort to make sense out of the world in which you live.\u00a0 It is possible, however, for one of the answers to be mistaken.\u00a0 What happens if the same questions are asked now, not about a parable of Jesus, but the story of the first man and woman, Cain and Abel, etc? \u00a0How do you answer? And why?<\/p>\n<p><strong>God\u2019s Word: Story or Event, Story and Event.\u00a0 What is revelation?<\/strong><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>With Mark\u2019s distinction between event and story, another fundamental question arises, what is revelation?\u00a0 Our questions can be quite simple, this question is three words long; I just wish the answer could be given in three words but such is not the case.\u00a0 Revelation first of all is inclusive of both story and event by being in the category of meaning.\u00a0 Revelation is God\u2019s entry into the meaning of our world.\u00a0 And that meaning is a meaning of salvation and thus it is that Christians believe that Christ is the Savior of the World, Christ is revelation incarnate and the church as the Body of Christ is in the order of meaning.\u00a0 We are to be a meaning of salvation in our world and that is why it is so important to Rise to the Level of our Times. More on this as story and\/or event invite.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Genealogy as Literary Form<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I wanted to offer some context in which to read Gen: 4:17 \u2013 26 <a href=\"http:\/\/www.usccb.org\/bible\/genesis\/4\">http:\/\/www.usccb.org\/bible\/genesis\/4<\/a> and 5:1 \u2013 32 <a href=\"http:\/\/www.usccb.org\/bible\/genesis\/5\">http:\/\/www.usccb.org\/bible\/genesis\/5<\/a>.\u00a0 The notes for 5:1 \u2013 32 are particularly helpful.<\/p>\n<p>The Israelites, like many others of the same period, were groups of different tribes. By the time of the authorship of these biblical accounts the Israelites were already a kingdom, at one time untied and later divided; <a href=\"http:\/\/rjr.richardross.annaerossi.com\/?p=94\">http:\/\/rjr.richardross.annaerossi.com\/?p=94<\/a>.\u00a0 The closest I have experienced to belonging to a tribe was my growing up in an Italian family in the 40s.\u00a0 When ever anyone first visited us, we seemed always to ask, \u201cWhere you from?\u201d\u00a0 It seemed to matter whether the visitor was Calabrese, Sicilian, Napolitano, etc.\u00a0 My uncle was Sicilian and my dad, Romano and they had the hardest time even understanding one another.\u00a0 As I related my story, it was amazing to me to see how many of the persons around our table nodded in agreement.\u00a0 They too experienced similar family culture.\u00a0 Yet as Roseann mentioned, their [the Italian visitors] thinking was entirely different than our [American] thinking.<\/p>\n<p>What the scripture presents is a series of stories interspersed with genealogies [Read the notes].\u00a0 And the genealogies have a structure, that is, they\u2019re literary in form.\u00a0 And they tell the Israelites that these stories are their stories, they are about them, they are their heritage.\u00a0 It mattered first to the authors to create a larger sense of belonging among the\u00a0Israelites\u00a0than to their individual tribes and eventually it mattered to the tribes that they were part of something bigger, a kingdom, David\u2019s kingdom, the Kingdom of God.<\/p>\n<p>Now these stories are our stories in what they mean.\u00a0 To require these genealogies to be historically accurate is to ask of them something their authors never intended; it wasn\u2019t their meaning. It isn\u2019t that \u201cAdam\u201d and \u201cEve\u201d were historical persons, or that their children were two boys named \u201cCain\u201d and \u201cAbel;\u201d it\u2019s that they tell us about ourselves, our world, and, most importantly, our God.\u00a0 As you read this, what do you think?\u00a0 Does this fit into your world?\u00a0 If it doesn\u2019t, what do you think of it?\u00a0 If it does, how do you talk to those to whom it\u00a0doesn&#8217;t?<\/p>\n<p>And what has placed these genealogies in a different context has been the work of modern scholarship.\u00a0 As one member of the group exclaimed when I was attempting to explain this scholarship, are you trying to say that there are other books out there that are God\u2019s word beside the bible?\u00a0 The answer to that question comes back to the question of revelation.\u00a0 We believe in the unique and formative role that the Jewish and Christian scripture plays in our life.\u00a0 But we began this study by coming slowing to the recognition that the Spirit of God is given to all peoples.\u00a0 There is something to be learned from all of the writings of other civilizations, cultures.\u00a0 We are in a unique position in our times to carry out our mission in a way that is at the Level of our Times.<\/p>\n<p>Your questions, comments, concerns, issues are welcomed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Programs of Interest\u00a0 Ken mentioned a program of possible interest: Dr. Issam Nemeh dealing with Science and Religion which can be seen on the History Channel &#8211; http:\/\/www.history.com\/schedule\/12\/13\/2011.\u00a0 NOVA is also presenting a series on the Fabric of the Cosmos, &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/rjr.richardross.annaerossi.com\/?p=249\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-249","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rjr.richardross.annaerossi.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rjr.richardross.annaerossi.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rjr.richardross.annaerossi.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rjr.richardross.annaerossi.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rjr.richardross.annaerossi.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=249"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/rjr.richardross.annaerossi.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":251,"href":"http:\/\/rjr.richardross.annaerossi.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249\/revisions\/251"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rjr.richardross.annaerossi.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=249"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rjr.richardross.annaerossi.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=249"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rjr.richardross.annaerossi.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=249"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}