Hello there - 5 weeks down and only 2 more before "reading" week
- however since my Old Testament timeline is due in the end of this
week and the big exegetical paper is due in at the end of next week - I
think I'll need a week to recover! Apologies for subscribers who didn't get the email last Monday - there seems to be something horribly wrong with the system. Once again I'll always aim to update on either Sunday or Monday every week...famous last words...
So let's get on with the blog...last week was our brief overview of the Old Testament (all 4000+ years) so this week followed on by looking in detail at just a few parts of it (we'll do much much much more detail later in the year) to give us an exciting taster (or at least that's what they told us
)Introduction to Judaism
We had an absolutely smashing day on Tuesday learning all about Judaism - their main pillars of belief (monotheism, covenant, election, purity, messiah and The Land), including the many feasts and festivals (passover, Shauvot, Sukkot, Rosh Hashana, Yom Kippur and Hannukah). Man these people know how to celebrate - Christmas and Easter are dull in comparison (and completely secularised in this country) - methinks we need to party more as Christians (see photos later on) - am putting on my thinking cap of how we can celebrate All Saints Day bigtime (why should halloween get all the fun?!)
But the thing that blew me away is how they view the law - not as a burden but as a privilege. They see it as the responsibilities of being God's chosen people. I guess the best way of seeing this is to think of marriage. My marriage vows to Jennie including sharing everything and loving her through thick and thin (and boy have we been through the thick...) - do I see this covenant as a burden or as a privilege of being the only man in Jennie's life until she dies...
Lamentations
Had a day looking at the book of lamentations - which reflect the sorrow of the people at the destruction of Jerusalem (and the temple) by the Babylonians in 587 BC after a three month siege.
It's just a fab book to express your deepest sorrows - this really resonated with my journey - that expressing these feelings is totally ok - it's part of our honest and real relationship with God - and we needn't be afraid of it. Brill.
Other stuff
We also looked briefly at how the old and new testaments fit together - is the God depicted before Jesus the same as the one depicted afterwards?
And finally looked at the historical and theological run-up to the birth of Jesus - particularly who were the key players in the social world Jesus was born in (Pharisees, Sadducees, scribes, zealots and Palestinian and Hellenistic Jews), the difference between the temple and the synagogues and the expectations that people had about the coming Messiah and why Jesus didn't quite fit into their mindset of the one who would set them free from the Romans. Really interesting stuff and we'll being doing more on that next week.
Cooking
Part of our service is cooking for all the students - so me together with 3 others (well actually three others with me!
) prepared a meal for 38 of lasagne and banana cake. They were stuffed - so mission accomplished.Jennie's 30th birthday party
Finished the week with Jennie's fancy dress party - we all had to dress up from one of the decades of the 20th century. So Jen went for 60's and of course I had to be 80's...
Jim and Claire from the 20's:
Mikko, Olivia and baby lydia all in 60's outfits (the baby one was so cute!):
Penny and Andrew from the 70's:
Dan and Lulu from the 70's (Lulu shaved her head especially - such dedication):
And finally Jennie with my friend, Paula, from bible college:
It was great fun (though the tidying wasn't!
)Baby is still with us after 10 days of us knowing about him/her - so we are very happy. The sickness and heartburn (according to the doctor) are indeed good signs!!Until next week readers...
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