Month: February 2024

I’m grateful for gratitude. In the old days, it was called counting your blessings.

Now there is social-scientific research that demonstrates that positive benefits, that “simply expressing gratitude may have lasting effects on the brain. While not conclusive, this finding suggests that practicing gratitude may help train the brain to be more sensitive to the experience of gratitude down the line, and this could contribute to improved mental health over time.” https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/how_gratitude_changes_you_and_your_brain

Snow!

I arrived in Sweden yesterday in the beautiful snowy weather. The primary reason for being here for a few weeks is that my visitor’s visa will expire in a few days, and I need to leave the country. With some frequent flier miles, it made sense to head back to Sweden where I have free housing (in my condo where Anya lives), will present at paper at Uppsala University (and much better in real life than via Zoom with sketchy electricity and pathetic Internet), and have access the libraries of the Nordic African Institute and Uppsala University, but especially, have time to be with Anya.

So, I’m recognizing all the things for which I am grateful:

• Drinkable water from the tap,
• On-demand hot showers,
• Fast and consistent Internet,
• Eating salads and raw vegetables with reckless abandon, and
• Especially, being with Anya!

However, my devotion that I prepared for my Wartburg Seminary students and didn’t have a good opportunity to give (the group was too jet lagged to make it work as planned), is that gratitude is good, but let’s think theologically about beyond gratitude. What do I mean?

I’ve learned that gratitude is important. I personally bought and passed out blank gratitude journals to my small groups in Sweden and the USA to encourage a practice of ending the day by jotting down three things they are grateful for. Yet, I’ve led many groups to Africa which has caused me to think a little more complexly. For youth especially (but not exclusively), I soon hear something to the effect of, “Wow! I took X for granted! Now, I’m thankful for X!” Fill in X with my first four bullet points above, but also, other things: education, good roads, access to health care (those who can afford to travel have access to health care), etc. This is good, but I encourage us to go beyond this beginning reflection to a deeper understanding.

Let me explain. In my family, we often pray a quick table prayer, “For life and health and every good, we give you thanks, O Lord.” Yes, I am grateful the Lord, and yet, 1 Thessalonians 5:16–18, states, “Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.”

If I’m only able to give thanks when things are good, we have our own milder form of prosperity gospel. Instead, we are invited by the Holy Spirit to have a deeper dependency upon Jesus Christ that is deepened when things are not good and easy, as well as greater compassion for others that comes from deeper identification with their conditions.

There is a Franciscan Blessing that reflects this.

MAY GOD BLESS YOU with discomfort,
at easy answers, half-truths,
and superficial relationships
so that you may live
deep within your heart.

May God bless you with anger
at injustice, oppression,
and exploitation of people,
so that you may work for
justice, freedom and peace.

May God bless you with tears,
to shed for those who suffer pain,
rejection, hunger, and war,
so that you may reach out your hand
to comfort them and
to turn their pain to joy.

And may God bless you
with enough foolishness
to believe that you can
make a difference in the world,
so that you can do
what others claim cannot be done,
to bring justice and kindness
to all our children and the poor.

Finally, related to this “shift” of thinking, I draw upon the wisdom of my ELCA missionary colleague and friend, Bethany Friberg.

Bethany (right) with Wartburg Seminary President, Kristin Largen

One colleague here was informing the Wartburg Seminary group of the work of the ELCA in East Africa, especially Tanzania. He described the long-term work of Dr. Steve and Bethany Friberg in a very remote area of the country. He described their service as “sacrifice.” Yes, they have given up a lot of conveniences, living in a place that—especially early on—had very limited resources in a very simple and rustic way of life. Anya and I have stayed in their guest room and know the basic place they’ve called home for over 22 years. This was in my head when we went back again in January to visit the Fribergs. In our 4 days in rural Ketumbeine, we saw their amazing work that has been such a huge blessing in so many ways to many, many people in that remote area. Bethany told our group (in a close paraphrase), “Some people say that we have sacrificed a lot to be here in the bush, but I believe it is a privilege.”

So, I’m encouraged by Bethany to be grateful, and yet to go beyond a latent prosperity gospel to not just evaluate well-being according to blessings but the privilege of being a blessing.

Mungu akubariki! (God bless you! in Kiswahili)
Mikitamayana Engai! (God bless you! in Maa)

I’ve been to 2 bishop consecrations in my life. The first one was in Sweden, where I could bicycle to the Uppsala Cathedral. To be honest, I went because I wanted to see someone from the royal family. I hit the jackpot with both the king and queen! I knew that I would have to get their early to get a good seat. I was chatting in a low voice with a woman from church, joining the quiet hubbub of many conversations. Soon, there was a hush that swept over the whole cathedral. The king and queen walked down the center aisle to the high alter, where their special chairs awaited. The amazing thing was that there was no magnetometer, no security check of bags. I thought this would never happen in the USA!

This morning, I was able to catch a ride with Randy Stubbs, my colleague at Tumaini University Makumira, as he was playing piano. But because the Vice President of Tanzania was going to show up, the VP’s motorcade would shut down the roads. So, Randy and the choir needed to be there by 7:30 am, which meant being picked up at 6:30 am.

I found an edge of a pew toward the back, thinking it was a place to sit that was not going to be squished. I had to work to not be pushed off though, when things were packed to overflow plastic chairs in the side aisles. I also chose the spot that had a likelihood of cross breeze from the open doors, and I was right and happy.

Before the service, there was a parade of the clergy with 198 pastors in the Diocese (though some came later, and later, and later). When the VP showed up, half a dozen clergy were displaced to plastic chairs.

The service started around 9:00 am and finished at 2:25ish. So, over 5 hours! (5 hours of trying not to be pushed too far off the end of the armless pew, and a pew that had a center pillar that was higher than the ends, so a bit of a teeter-totter for 5 hours!)

Prayers for Bishop Godson Abel Mollel

Prayers for Assistant to the Bishop Laretoni Loshiye

Assistant to the Bishop Loshiye is brother to one of my Wartburg Seminary students, who was here for the January-Term course last month, and I was invited to greet him last week in the Diocese office in Arusha.

Yes, is is a strange worship service with a 300 person choir, a long sermon (didn’t time it, but I’d guess 30 minutes minimum, but after the consecration, the VP also spoke for about 30 minutes (where he gave 20 million Tanzanian shillings–almost $8,000–and promised to tarmac the dirt road to the church!

The new Assistant to the Bishop of the North Central Diocese

I also greeted Maria Laiser, the widow of the late Bishop Laiser, who I met last month in Ketumbeine. Then there is food, but they didn’t start serving right away.

Afterwards, Randy and I went to the bishop’s party that was massive–and located at a Diocese high school. Randy estimated 15 roasted goats, but we didn’t wait for the food, as we were ready to head home.

This is a special roasted goat called kakey kakey!

Mungu akubariki! (God bless you! in Kiswahili)
Mikitamayana Engai! (God bless you! in Maa)

I used the phrase “holy, canonical, Scripture” in a conversation yesterday. This is a phrase I learned from reading David H. Kelsey’s book, Eccentric Existence: A Theological Anthropology, vol. 1 (Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2009), as well as most of volume 2. I was invited by my beloved Fuller Seminary professor (and form whom I was a teaching assistant), Charlie Scalise, to read these books together—one chapter a month. This was one of the greatest gifts of my life, as we met in a coffee shop and unpacked this theology with Charlie’s guidance over a couple of years. The time did include theological discussions on the challenging book but also professional guidance as a new faculty member at Trinity Lutheran College, as well as pastoral care. These were months of conversations that were before, during, and after Eric’s death. I will be forever grateful for the mentoring over these years. I am also grateful for the deeper understanding of “holy, canonical, Scripture.”

Women reading the Psalms in Maa in the Kimaasai Bible, Biblia Sinyati, at Irbiling Lutheran Church.

Yesterday, I was in a Zoom meeting with my research team at VID Specialized University, in a conversation to shape a research proposal to submit to the Norwegian Research Council (NFR in Norwegian). Three other biblical studies colleagues—including Knut, my “doctor father”—started these conversations over 2 years ago, as we all work really well together. The other 2, besides Knut, are my hiking buddies when I’m in Norway. However, the challenge we realized is that the project needs to be multi-disciplinary, and the NFR does not consider both Old Testament and New Testament scholars as multi-disciplinary! So, we are expanding our scope and the target area of research to be beyond a Maasai project but also to include the Sámi people group—the indigenous people of northern Scandinavia. This makes sense for a Norwegian funded project. Both the Maasai and Sámi are pastoralists, both have had histories of colonialist oppression, and both are still dealing with government policies that are oppressive. In addition, there are Christian traditions and inculturated interpretations in both contexts. This is interesting for us biblical interpretation geeks!

Our research approach is to recognize that religion sometimes had a negative role supporting colonialism and oppressive treatments—not always, but all too often. So, religion and corrective biblical interpretations can be part of the restoration of Shalom—which includes justice, and we think that the NFR could consider this approach favorably. The foci of our research are: 1), the Bible, 2) Indigenous people groups (Sámi and Maasai), and 3) sustainability hermeneutics (hermeneutics simplified is the philosophy of interpretation).

So, we’ve added a very brilliant Sámi researcher (with a PhD), who is an expert on the Sámi traditional religion, Christianity in Sámi contexts, and the role of the Church of Norway that was complicit in colonization and oppression.

The Zoom meeting included a discussion on what is “Bible.” Is it just the Hebrew and Greek texts of the Christian Bible? Does it include how people interpret the Bible in various contexts? Does it include the intersection of how the Christian teachings get interpreted through the traditional Indigenous stories? I actually have written an article comparing the Jacob and Esau story in Genesis 27 with a Maasai legend that has distinctive similarities (yet, I’ll come back to this in wrestling with “holy, canonical, Scripture”). Forthcoming publication: “Twin Stories of Brothers: A Comparative Analysis of Jacob and Esau with the Maasai Legend of Senteu and Olonana” in Religion och bibel, the Nathan Söderblom Sällskapet (Society) journal, Uppsala, SWEDEN, spring 2024.

So, does “Bible” have to be written? Does it include sacred oral stories from Indigenous peoples? If so, how do we understand “sacred?” Which stories are sacred, and how do we know this?

I then brought “holy, canonical, Scripture” into the conversation. I said that I, as a researcher, have a broad hermeneutic that eagerly engages various perspectives, and the theorizing upon this is question is an important part of research, and yet, as a biblical scholar and person of faith, I want to make sure that “holy, canonical, Scripture” remains a valid conversation partner in our research.

Not so elegantly, I added that if there is not a place for “holy, canonical, Scripture” as a dialogue partner in this research, then I don’t see a place for me in this research, as it is not in alignment with my calling. I really don’t like this sense of what can be seen as a threat, such that I will drop out if X doesn’t happen, but I was clear that I really do endorse the scholarly conversation and theorizing that is diverse. And still, I understand that my calling is such that my scholarship is to be in service to the church—not just for my professional development, getting fancy grants, getting published, etc. If we diluted or lost the perspective that Christian Scriptures are revelations from YHWH and authoritative for life and faith (yes, the interpretation of these issues remains HUGE, but that I why I am a biblical scholar!), then I would not see a project worth investing my time in.

One colleague added that there is an article she read stating, “If everything is sustainability, then nothing is sustainability.” So, similarly, if everything is Bible, then nothing is Bible. Another noted, for those of us who are biblical scholars, we are experts in exegeting the ancient Hebrew and Greek texts in their ancient contexts (and analyzing historical and contemporary interpretations), and we are not experts in analyzing oral literature of other people groups. This indicates that if that if the understanding of “What is Bible?” gets really broad, then for us biblical scholars, we actually lose our competence.

In this conversation, I am grateful for my year at Wartburg Theological Seminary and colleagues there who made it clear that the gospel of Jesus Christ is central. Yet, good and very important aspects—like social justice and environmentalism—masquerade as gospel, which is then a false gospel. My colleague at Wartburg, Samantha “Sam” Gilmore, teaches homiletics. She made it plain for evaluating a sermon by asking, “Did Jesus have to die for this sermon?”

I truly value the oral literature of the Maasai, and I cherish innovative ways to link the gospel of Jesus Christ to a different culture, as Paul did in his speech on the Areopagus (Acts 17:22-23), but Jesus didn’t have to die for the truths within the oral literature of the Maasai. That is the crux (pun intended) of “holy, canonical, Scripture,” it reveals the God of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Many other sources can point to this, but they are not divine revelations that bring us to Jesus Christ.

An “authentic” African Christianity?!?

Tangential but related to the crux of this conversation is a paper I reviewed this week. It was submitted to a journal, and I was asked to be one of the “blind” (anonymous) reviewers. In the paper, the African author stated, “We need to develop an authentic African Christianity.” I believe this is impossible. Now, I am one who has focused my professional calling on inculturated interpretations of the Bible in Africa, so I’m passionate about legitimate, valid, and plausible (these are all technical terms, let me know if you’d like to know more) contextual interpretations of Scripture and manifold expressions of Christianity around the world. So, why do I think that an “authentic” African Christianity is impossible.

First, there are over 3,000 people groups in Africa. So, which context will determine what is “authentic” for the other 3,000 people groups on the continent? The one cultural expression that wins would then have a colonial-like domination (a “power over” form of colonizing the mind or African church).

Second, and more critically, the revealed holy, canonical, Scriptures are written in ancient Hebrew and classical Koine Greek. So, every expression of Christianity is intercultural. Yes, there are legitimate, valid, and plausible expressions of Christianity in every context and even every language! (See Lamin Sanneh, Translating the Message.) However, Christianity will never be an authentically American, African, Norwegian, Peruvian Christianity. Even for Palestinian Christians in the Levant—who are probably the closest candidates for authenticity with a direct lineage to the early church—there are 2,000 years of cultural changes and a spoken language that is different than the Scriptures. Christianity will always be intercultural in every context.

Finally, Christianity must always provide a critique of a culture. Note that I’ve already affirmed that every culture is a vehicle for inculturating the gospel, so I’m not denigrating culture as a whole. (See Stephen Bevans, Models of Contextual Theology.”) However, there is no culture so pure that it does not stand without a need for transformation by the Holy Spirit, because cultures are products of humans with an inherently sinful nature. So, if it becomes “authentically” African (or American or Brazilian or São Tomé and Príncipian), then that form of Christianity has diminished its power to be transformed by the Holy Spirit in order to be more in alignment with God’s creation and prophetic ideals—which are transcultural.

Yes, this is what a biblical interpretation does on a beautiful Saturday—after finishing doing my laundry by hand—which gave me a great opportunity to ponder these issues.

Mungu akubariki! (God bless you! in Kiswahili)
Mikitamayana Engai! (God bless you! in Maa)

The first blessing is actually good. I was able to arrange for another lay pastor’s daughter to get into a vocational training program to be a seamstress! This is lovely!

The other shower was not a blessing; it was a leaky roof. Fortunately, it was leaking into my bathtub. The black things are dried mushrooms!

The black things are dried mushrooms!

Today, the workers came and ripped out the old roof. When the rains came, it was much louder in the house!

In process

In process. They did a hauling out and sweeping up.

The end of the day’s work is a huge improvement.

There is some spackling and painting yet to be done.

I am grateful. I gave the workers a soda as they were doing their magic so show my appreciation. Now, I have to reconsider if I’m going to paint the whole bathroom. The workers know that I have a plastic drop cloth, as I covered the sheet-rock on my porch when the rains came in a deluge and were splashing up on the sheet-rock. The workers were pleased to know I took care of the sheet-rock while they were away for lunch.

My evening was cleaning up and moping up sheet-rock dust.

Mungu akubariki! (God bless you!)