Matthew and the Didache
Introduction
The issue of how the Bible is, can be and must be a guide for faithful living is at the heart of the work the pastor does and it is at the heart of the work the Bible professor does. This question is present with varying levels of intensity and consciousness in every pastoral care situation, sermon, Christian formation setting and committee meeting. The question is also present, with varying levels of implicit or explicit attention, in every class preparation and delivery, research or reflection assignment, senior interview, advising session or informal conversation between student and teacher. How the Bible interacts with individual readers and with the congregation as a collective reader to inspire and nurture a lively faithfulness, however, is often intuitive at best and a source of conflict at worst. As Bible professors and as pastors we are often vague and groping in the way we understand the connection between the biblical text and all the ethical decisions we make in the course of living. We know that it is not a rule book. We know that the Bible is not, despite many attempts to make it so, an answer book. We know that there are linguistic, cultural and historical issues that must in some sense be gotten right if we are to first do no harm, whether we work with these issues explicitly or not. Daunted by this miasma of uncertainty, Christian scholars and pastors alike often end up simply not really using the Bible as an authoritative source for ethics (Roger Spohn, What are they saying about Ethics?). Such practice, or lack of practice, is a disservice—to the biblical text as well as to Christian scholarship and ministry.
Objectives
I propose to revise my Matthew course (BIB 000) in light of the above concerns about the use of the Bible for ethical decision making with the assistance of an Engaging Pastors grant. Matthew, and especially the Sermon on the Mount, is arguably the key text for Mennonite ethical thinking. Yet in our denominational journey with the biblical text as life guide it has fared no better than the rest of the canon. If we are to recapture the Bible as the foundation for Christian discipleship, something in which both teachers and pastors are invested, this course seems to be a prime location for such effort. But I believe the best opportunity for new thinking, and especially the new engagement of professors and pastors around an issue vital to both that this program is designed to stimulate, may be best served by gathering around one of Matthew’s sister texts—the Didache. The Didache is an excellent entry point for recapturing the Bible as the foundation for Christian discipleship for two reasons. It continues the Jewish tradition of developing ethics, halakha, from Scripture and it shows how the early church used the teaching of Jesus as the basis for a Christian halakha. By convening this working group, I hope to accomplish the following objectives:
- To gain from working pastors a better sense of their specific enthusiasms and frustrations in the use of the Bible as a guide for faithful living in their churches.
- To gain from study of the Didache (referenced to relevant NT writings, of course) with this group, a better sense of how the early Christians went about relating biblical texts to their faithful living.
- To compile and test with each other suggestions for strengthening and enlivening that connection between text and ethical living that will serve us all in our striving for excellence in our varied ministries—whether that is pasturing or teaching.
Rational
This less direct approach into the dynamics of using the biblical text as a foundation for ethics has several distinct advantages. One is that it is a text that is less known to us. One of the problems of gospels study is that they are overly familiar. We have read and heard them read most of our lives and we think we know what they say as well as how they may best be appropriated—notwithstanding substantive evidence to the contrary. Reading a text like the Didache has the effect of slowing us down, making us think harder. Reading and talking about a noncanonical text also has the advantage in that it is a text about which we have fewer preconceptions and in which we have less intense investments. We may have a clearer and freer insight into what is happening in the text for that reason. Because it is a less privileged text, it has heuristic advantages and may elicit a kind of honest grappling with the issues that is not available within the constraints of our regular curriculum. On the other hand, it is a text that is deeply pertinent both biblically and historically and also deeply engaging. As such it also offers unique enrichment to our regular curriculum—I have hopes of not only the process of this EP project enhancing my course revision but also the content of the project.
Strategies
I hope to work with a small group (5-7) of active pastors in a seminar setting with Perry Yoder at his retirement home in Ely, Minnesota for several days in July or August this summer (2007). Perry’s knowledge of the Jewish ethical tradition and his interest in the use of the law in New Testament teaching, especially the Pauline corpus, will be a valuable and vital component of the inquiry. In addition to his specific inquiries in this area he is also eager to launch his retirement vision of providing a setting for scholars and pastors to study and rejuvenate. His interests therefore dovetail nicely with my own sense that hosting pastors is an important component of Engaging Pastors. In the EP projects in which I have been involved, the pastors have consistently and fervently appreciated our hospitality—our attention to beauty, warmth, food and worship on their behalf. Pastors tend to others everyday—and often come to these meetings personally depleted. The beauty of Perry’s setting, the opportunities for hiking and canoeing, the silence and sauna will be restorative and will be uniquely conducive to spiritual renewal, creative thought and the kind of reflection that will enhance the service of the biblical text in the church as well renew the pastoral and teaching ministries of the participants.
As part of the work of the seminar, and part of their honorarium, the pastors will be asked to write two short reflection papers, one before they come and one two months after the seminar. The focus of these reflection papers will be congregational use of the Bible as a guide for faithful living and what their experience in the congregation has to offer seminary Bible professors. The first one will be more descriptive of their ministry practices, with some reflection on these practices. The second will take into account the conversation of the seminar and be weighted on reflection. I will then use these papers as well as the conversation of the seminar to revise the Matthew course, checking with the group of pastors by email and phone as I find it helpful. That work will be part of my sabbatical in the fall of 2006 and will also enhance my participation in the colloquies in which in which I will participate that year. I will also write a more general reflection paper on the conversation and how it more my teaching beyond that single course revision.
Evaluation plan
At the end of the seminar, I will conduct an evaluation session that will include conversation about what worked and what suggestions the participants might have for improvement. I will also ask the participants to fill out an evaluation form with similar questions and send it to the EP office when they submit their second reflection paper. Perry and I will also do our own reflection on the quality of the event after the participants have dispersed.