Angharad Wyvern AKA Yewtree over at the dance of the elements has tagged me with this impossible task. It’s called “The Bible in Five Statements” challenge:
Summarise the Bible in five statements, the first one word long, the second two, the third three, the fourth four and the last five words long. Or possibly you could do this in descending order. Tag five people.
Ay yi yi.
Okay, but only because I don’t know how to say “no” to memes, and this one, if nothing else, is quite a puzzler. And also because I’m looking forward to inflicting it on my five victims. Disclaimer: this is nothing more than a snapshot of where I happen to be at the moment. Check back with me next year, next month, next week, or even later this afternoon, and I’m sure I will come up with entirely different responses.
To summarize the Bible in five statements…
- Interruption
- God story
- Sacred myth evolving
- Transformational mystery expressed textually
- Western wisdom source, often misunderstood
Yewtree mused on the challenge of this exercise so eloquently that I’m just going to quote her:
What aspect of this multivalent text to focus on? The liberal or the conservative interpretation? Western Christianity or Eastern Orthodoxy? A Kabbalistic or esoteric interpretation? The Arian and Unitarian views? Changing human perceptions of the divine – from tribal thunder god to all-embracing universal consciousness? How notions of justice changed from tribal codes apparently dictated from the top of Mount Sinai towards concepts of compassion and inner conscience (starting with Micah and Amos, and later promoted by Yeshua)? Very tricky to summarise all that in 15 words…
Yup. That pretty nicely summarizes the craziness of this exercise.
So I am tagging Mike Morrell, Fencing Bear, Darrell Grizzle, Episcopalifem, and the Girl Who Cried Epiphany. But there are others I’d like to hear from, so even if you’re not on this list, please wrestle with this knotty problem and share your offerings with me, here on this blog. You all know that I’m a lame slacker when it comes to reading other peoples’ blogs, so please, post your thoughts here. I know that’s an irritating thing for me to say and an annoying request for me to make… but try to just embrace it as an interruption to your day…
Ooooo! Goody!
Let me give this some thought Carl. I’m traveling today and tomorrow, but I will have time in the car to think on it. I’ll definitely play!
Hope you had a wonderful thanksgiving!
Wow – this is a tough one, and I’m pretty sure I can’t touch yours. Lemme see what I can do though…
Don’t worry about touching mine. I think the beauty of this meme is that endless wonders can be squeezed out of our various sets of 15 words. The Grateful Dead used to sing, “Let your life proceed by its own design,” so in that spirit, let your five statements unfold in their own way.
Ouch.
We bolted.
God chases us.
Painful gift: we embrace.
Baby steps at His side.
Revelation.
Historically true.
Names the Creator.
Love flows through it.
More than we can understand.
[...] thanks to Carl for calling me back to this world so unexpectedly. He tagged me in a meme, “The Bible in Five Statements.” Both because mommy duty calls and because my relationship with the Bible has shifted over the last [...]
Carl, You’ve called me back! I have been away from blogging ever since I learned I was pregnant and all priorities realigned themselves. But, now our baby girl is five weeks old and it may be time to return to this rich exchange of ideas. Thanks and blessings, Marisa
Kingdom
Such Grace
Fallen from Above
In search of Gnosis
In the name of Love
[...] a Comment Tags: bible, Bible in five statements, Holy Writ, Scripture So Carl McColman tagged me in a meme – the Bible in five statements. As Matt Stone has put the challenge: Summarise the Bible in [...]
Love
Love lost
Love sought by us
Love comes to us
Love lives in us forever
OK, so that was 16, not 15. Drop forever, if you like.
Phil, bless you, your problem is that you have two four word statements. So we need to edit down your third statement “Love sought by us” to three words. To keep the integrity of your thought, I’d recommend changing “Love sought by us” to “We seek love” — not only does it get you to the correct (!) wordcount, but also nukes the passive voice. If you want to be poetic and keep each phrase beginning with the word “Love,” then cast it as “Love we seek.”
All this is to say that I have no desire to drop forever. I’m an eternalist, through and through.
I never could follow instructions.
[...] As I mentioned the other day, Carl at the Website of Unknowing tagged me in the “Bible in Five Statements” meme. [...]
We must always know where to start…
God
God’s creation
God’s people rebel
God’s people’s rebellion persists
God overcomes rebellion with Love
[...] in Five Statements Meme Posted on December 4, 2009 by episcopalifem Recently, Carl over at the Website of Unknowing challenged me to a new meme – The Bible In Five [...]
Finally got mine up…they are no where near as good as those here, and, it took me ages to think of what I wanted to say! Thanks for inviting me to play!
[...] tagged me for a blog meme called “The Bible in 5 Statements.” (Carl McColman tagged her.) I haven’t been tagged by a meme for a very long time, so I’m finding this [...]
[...] December 5, 2009 by arulba I was tagged by Kay who was tagged by Eileen who was tagged by Carl McColman [...]
[...] Here’s another. [...]
[...] 10, 2009 by Michael A challenge: summarize the Bible in five statements, the first one word long, the second two, the third three, [...]
[...] The Websight of Unknowing [...]
[...] tagged me for a blog meme called “The Bible in 5 Statements.” (Carl McColman tagged her.) I haven’t been tagged by a meme for a very long time, so I’m finding this [...]