History and Metanarrative

 Wednesday after Trinity Sunday

Lectionary Texts:

OT: 1 Samuel 10:17-27a

NT: Mark 3:7-19a

Today our OT text is a combination of the Late/Samuel (10:17-23a) source the Early/Saul (10:23b-27a) source. Notice how negative the Samuel source is toward Saul. Whereas back in 9:15 God reveals to Samuel that he is to anoint Saul king, in 10:20-22 Saul wins the lottery. He is chosen by lot in something of an elimination tournament. When he wins, they can't find him. He has hidden himself among the baggage. The reading then returns in vv. 23-24 to the Saul source to show Saul in the highest possible light. 

This combination of two utterly disparate sources by the 6th century BC Deuteronomic Historian plays into our discussion of History and Metanarrative. 

There are so many questions here:

1. What do you see in this combination of disparate sources? Do you see chaos or do you see order?

Modern historians want to see history objectively. The historian see that events happen. They don't necessarily have any relationship to one another. There is no overall pattern of history. Humans (historians) create such patterns, or as some historians would call them, myths. One of the most common such myths is "the myth of progress," created primarily by the nineteenth century pop historian/philosopher/biologist Herbert Spencer. The myth (believers in it would call it a "theory") is that humanity is continually making progress from caveman to modern man. We are becoming ever more civilized and advanced. It is a part of evolution. Evolution is always evolving into something better. That is the way things are and will be.

Most modern historians would regard Spencer and the myth of progress as hopelessly naive. No serious historian would consider Europe in the 9th century AD Dark Ages as more advanced than the Roman Empire of the 2d century AD. Meanwhile the Arab world was reaching the zenith of civilization in the 9th and 10th centuries only to suffer continuous decline thereafter. 

While the 21st century is vastly superior to all others in science and technology, it is wreaking utter misery on the planet with all sorts of pollution and environmental destruction, overpopulation, collapsing infrastructure, mindless wars, and fragile economies. 2020 was the worst year since Vietnam. This is not progress. 

2. Does the Bible in itself contain objectively a metanarrative of individual sin and salvation or was that metanarrative a creation of interpreters and theologians? In other words, is the metanarrative objective or subjective? I lean toward the latter view. I do so first because there can be other metanarratives, as Black Theology has taught us. The Black metanarrative is not the movement from indivdual sin to individual salvation, but from a whole people's slavery to a whole people's freedom. The Exodus is the key event of the OT, not the Genesis 3 fall of two individuals from God's grace. Jesus died at the hands of an oppressive Roman government who tried to silence his message of justice and freedom. His resurrection portends the rise of the oppressed from slavery to freedom. It seems to me that either one of these metanarratives is a plausible way to read the Bible. 

3. Are we better off to read the Bible without any metanarrative? 

We'll deal with this question and others tomorrow. 

Gracious and Mysterious Creator,

You have created is with minds to seek and question. Yet we know our abilities are limited. What is incomprehensible to our finite minds, let our hearts infinitely embrace. Through the power of the Eternal Source of All, the guidance of the Holy Spirit, and the encompassing love of Jesus Christ, keep us faithful to You as we encounter the awesome mysteries of this life. Amen.

                                          (from the Order of St. Luke Daily Office, vol. 4-A Ordinary Time. p. 84

                                          This is a prayer for the week after Trinity Sunday).

Faithfully,

Christian