{"id":824,"date":"2013-11-22T12:22:22","date_gmt":"2013-11-22T16:22:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rjr.richardross.annaerossi.com\/?p=824"},"modified":"2013-11-22T12:23:30","modified_gmt":"2013-11-22T16:23:30","slug":"var-_gaq-_gaq-_gaq-push_setaccount-ua-25646250-2-_gaq-push_trackpageview-function-var-ga-document-createelementscript-ga-type-textjavascript-ga-42","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rjr.richardross.annaerossi.com\/?p=824","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> Jacob and Esau Part Ways &#8211; Held on Sunday, November 17, 2013"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><b>Outline of Post on the Scripture Session held on 11\/17\/13<\/b><\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Previous Week\u2019s [11\/10\/13] Review<\/li>\n<li>Background to today\u2019s Reading<\/li>\n<li>Reading: Gen. 33: 12 &#8211; 17<\/li>\n<li>Discussion<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><b>Previous Week\u2019s [11\/10\/13] Review<\/b><\/p>\n<p>The central point of the previous week\u2019s conversation dealt with a question that was implicit in our conversation but never came to foreground.\u00a0 So I decided to ask it explicitly; namely what is revelation.\u00a0 Now the answer to this question is very complex but I thought it would be good to take a first step.<\/p>\n<p>What brought the topic up was that in our effort to understand the meaning of the text we referred to two or three different translations.\u00a0 I then asked whether the different translations really mattered.\u00a0 At first we thought it didn\u2019t. \u00a0I pointed out, however, that it must have mattered at least to those persons and institutions who actually produced the different translations.\u00a0 The three versions that we referred to were the New American Bible which is the version that is on the Bishop\u2019s website and is the basis of our weekly conversations; the New International Version and the New Revised Standard Version which appear in parallel columns in the <i>The New Interpreters\u2019 Bible<\/i>, the commentary that guides me in my presentations.\u00a0 In addition, Kai brought his 1850 copy of that has in parallel columns a German translation and St. Jerome\u2019s Vulgate, the Latin version issued in 382 CE.<\/p>\n<p>As a matter of fact, we do not have any \u201coriginal\u201d copies of the Bible; that is, contemporary with the authors\u2019 or editors\u2019 composition of their works.\u00a0 Since this is simply factually true, what then is the source of revelation? \u00a0The first step in answering the question is to come to grips with the basic category to understand revelation is not directly the words but rather their meaning; the words mediate the meaning of the text and that is why there has been and probably always will be additional translations.\u00a0 Furthermore, the meaning of the text is very rich and allows for many different interpretations.\u00a0 Few, indeed, are the defined meanings.\u00a0 Now for Christians, the meaning is measured by what the early church communicated to us as the words and deeds of Jesus.\u00a0 It is Jesus&#8217; life that throws a backward shadow on the Jewish Scriptures, out of which the early church selected out of the whole specific texts which had a specific meaning for those doing the selection.<\/p>\n<p>At the same time, because the scripture is written it serves to control, as it were, the message.\u00a0 The Jesus story cannot be whatever we want it to be.\u00a0 There have been and will be misunderstandings of the meaning of who Jesus is and what he did.\u00a0 For Catholics it is the role of the church to define. \u00a0Contrary to public opinion perhaps very little has been defined yet the very little is very important.\u00a0 Our best summary of the defined is simply to recite the Apostle\u2019s Creed and search for its meaning.\u00a0 Remember the written word itself only communicates to intelligent and valuing persons whose intelligence and values are, de facto, shaped by their concrete history.\u00a0 That does not mean that the meanings and values are relative. Nor can the truth be contained in the literal meaning of the words as that meaning is construed by persons who deny the very historicity of the bible itself. \u00a0Truth is always in human minds and human minds are always historically situated. \u00a0I want to conclude this effort to share the category in which revelation occurs with a reminder that revelation is a complex yet fascinating reality for us who believe.\u00a0 God has entered into the very fabric of our lives; the very meaning of our lives, the ultimate meaning of our lives. \u00a0If this raises further questions, thoughts, observations, etc. see comment link below.<\/p>\n<p><b>Background to today\u2019s our readings.<\/b><\/p>\n<p>These six verses bring to a close the relationship of Esau and Jacob with the exception of Esau\u2019s appearance at the burial of Isaac, his and Jacob\u2019s father.\u00a0 Their parting reveals the ambiguity of both human life and God\u2019s relations with us.\u00a0 Deception again seems to be part of Jacob\u2019s style.\u00a0 Esau seems to be straightforward.<\/p>\n<p>Faryl, pointed out correctly, though that the story is told from the point of view of Jacob.\u00a0 Most of what we know of Esau is in relationship to Jacob.\u00a0 For me, this is part of the continuous selection by God of particular people, particular individuals and not other peoples nor other individuals.\u00a0 God, nonetheless, is the God of everyone and over time the meaning of the story becomes clear on this point.\u00a0 The chosen are chosen not only as privileged but much more to the point as responsible.\u00a0 Jesus always serves for Christians as the lens in which to hear \/ see \/ understand the biblical stories.<\/p>\n<p><b>We are reminded as we listen to \/ read the passages to wonder <\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Who are the characters in the story<\/li>\n<li>What role do these characters play<\/li>\n<li>What is the plot of the story, the author\u2019s intent<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Reading: Gen. 33: 12 \u2013 17: Jacob and Esau Part Ways.\u00a0 <\/b><a href=\"http:\/\/usccb.org\/bible\/genesis\/33\">http:\/\/usccb.org\/bible\/genesis\/33<\/a><\/p>\n<p><b>Discussion<\/b><\/p>\n<p>There are only two characters in this episode, Jacob and Esau.\u00a0 What matters though is what each says and does.\u00a0 It is in their words and deeds that we are both limited in our imagination and invited to imagine.\u00a0 I began our conversation with a question, who begins the dialogue.<\/p>\n<p>Tim already had not only an answer to that question but thoughts about the whole of the passage.\u00a0 He knew that it was Esau who began the dialogue but Tim reflected how he thought Jacob heard Esau.\u00a0 Having left Haran dealing the entire time with Laban, Tim felt that Jacob didn\u2019t want to lose his independence, didn\u2019t want to have anyone else lord it over him.\u00a0 So from the beginning Jacob was intent on going his own way and read Esau as possibly wanting to have a common life together.\u00a0 For Tim it came to the point that once again Jacob lies to Esau.\u00a0 He has no intention in the story of meeting up with Esau in Seir.\u00a0 Faryl quipped that Jacob has a history of deception so it is not something that we should be surprised to find out.<\/p>\n<p>Ken, drawing on his own experience of dealing with his dad, talked about what two parties might know but never actually say.\u00a0 It was like the unspoken message that he and his father had at times.\u00a0 They said one thing but actually meant another and both knew that it was the other that was meant.\u00a0 The gist of human conversation revealed in our own lives.<\/p>\n<p>Tim, in response to an early observation of Faryl, that the story was written from the point of view of Jacob, recognized that the same thing could be said of how we [US] tell the story of the Native Americans.\u00a0 They are the bad guys, the savages. Etcs.\u00a0 I mentioned that winners write the history and only later, sometimes much later, is the history corrected.\u00a0 This is a pattern that is rather continuous, the winners\u2019 version is corrected to better approximate the reality of what happened.<\/p>\n<p>Jesus is the stark, contradictory even, model though of winners writing history.\u00a0 He is the loser on the human scene.\u00a0 His followers betray him, deny him, do not defend him; the authorities of his people condemn him and the state power executes him.\u00a0 His Father responds to all of this by raising Jesus from the dead.\u00a0 There was no corpse.\u00a0 The risen Jesus embraces his followers, forgives his followers, and chooses his followers to spread the message. \u00a0They are changed, become what they might only have dreamed to be. \u00a0They become his witnesses.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019m not sure exactly how this part of our conversation lead to what was to occupy the remainder of our time together.\u00a0 Tim, like all of us, has experienced the commercialization of Christmas now beginning before Thanksgiving.\u00a0 The experience of this, for Tim, for Heber, for Rosemarie to name those who joined in the conversation were incensed by it.\u00a0 They felt that Christmas was being taken away.\u00a0 Heber brought up not allowing children in school to sing Christmas carols as another example.\u00a0 Ken did remark that it all depends on what Christmas we\u2019re talking about.\u00a0 Tim was conscious too that many good things happen at Christmas time and not only Christians do these good things. \u00a0There is no question that Christmas season for the economy is all about the exchange of money.<\/p>\n<p>Rosemarie pointed out that there are two factors that form our thoughts, experience and observation.\u00a0 She pointed to the obvious advertising barrage that confronts us almost every moment of the day and now starting even before Thanksgiving; too much.\u00a0 She felt that our [US] culture is an attack on Christianity today and that this attack is stronger than we think.<\/p>\n<p>The topic swept up many of the members into an emotional exchange.\u00a0 Values were being challenged and people have sharp opinions.\u00a0 Perhaps those of you who are reading the website might want to voice your own opinion.\u00a0 The relationship of a religion in a culture is highly complex and significant factor in our lives.\u00a0 More on this later.<\/p>\n<p>You are invited to respond to these or other questions that might arise within you as you read this passage.\u00a0 Your comments, observations, questions are welcomed.\u00a0 See \u201ccomment\u201d link below<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Outline of Post on the Scripture Session held on 11\/17\/13 Previous Week\u2019s [11\/10\/13] Review Background to today\u2019s Reading Reading: Gen. 33: 12 &#8211; 17 Discussion Previous Week\u2019s [11\/10\/13] Review The central point of the previous week\u2019s conversation dealt with a &hellip; 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