"Finding the Key" - Episode 5 in the series, "Sacred Scripture"

In this 5th episode, Patrick asks Jonah to tell us how in the world he came to love sacred scripture or "the Bible." He shares how, despite his strong, direct experience of Christ's presence in his life, it was really hard to relate to the Bible, especially the Old Testament. This remains true until he found a key that unlocked the whole thing for him. At first, Jonah reached out for an understanding of God and Christ by reaching for Rudolf Steiner's work, and his students, known as Anthroposophy.  And there were prejudices about what was in the Bible that he had to shed and overcome. He himself had been deeply wounded by an overreach and misuse of scripture which kept it at arms length. Overtime, though, he found a key that opened "the window" of scripture. This key had to do with what it means to be a human being, to be on a path of becoming truly human and how this all is connected to the mysteries of Jesus Christ. The deep longing of Jonah's soul to understand who the divine creator word is, the one we know as "Christ," and who the human was/is into whom Christ incarnated - this pursuit unlocked the Bible for him. Tracking the mysteries of the being who calls himself most often, "The Son of Man" in scripture became the key that unlocked the whole story of the whole bible.

The story culminates in Jonah sharing his own wrestling with the more difficult elements in the Bible.  Jonah takes us into the challenging ideas of "guilt" and "sin" and, ultimately, the theme of "Divine Wrath." This theme appears in the Hebrew scripture (Old Testament), especially in the prophetic books, but is also very much present in the gospels, the letters of the apostles and the Book of Revelation. In other words, an honest engagement with scripture cannot avoid "God's wrath" ("Do not avenge yourselves, beloved, but leave room for God’s wrath. For it is written: “Vengeance is Mine; I will repay, says the Lord.” Romans 12:19 BSB).  How can this element of wrath be united with this other truth: "God is love" (1John 4:8)? We get to hear how Jonah engaged this troubling and challenging element that Scripture presents and how it opened his mind and heart up to a much deeper understanding to who God is, how life works and the deeper nature of love.

Many thanks to Camilla Lake for show notes and Podcast/Patreon production and communications. Thanks also to Elliott Chamberlin who composed our theme music, “Seeking Together.”

The Light in Every Thing is a podcast of The Seminary of The Christian Community in North America. Learn more about the Seminary and its offerings at our website. This podcast is supported by our growing Patreon community. To learn more, go to www.patreon.com/ccseminary.

Notes

• An excellent source of the harmonization of biblical, spiritual-historical and anthroposophical Christology is Emil Bock's, The Three Years, and his book on The Childhood of Jesus explores in great detail the mysteries behind the two different genealogies in Matthew and Luke and their spiritual background.
• The "son of man" can be found in