God’s Mission in Our Community

Write a report for your Church Committee OR your Ministry Area Council, entitled “God’s Mission in Our Community”.

This assignment relates to my Church, St. David’s Church in Llanfaes, Brecon.   

Introduction

This report will outline in general what mission is and will briefly review the context of St. David’s Church, Llanfaes. I will draw on academic works from various scholars to make recommendations to the PCC for new projects that will result in better engagement with younger people in the parish. In order to make recommendations I will ensure that the project meets the five marks of mission, explore the Fresh Expressions movement and try to explain the theological rational behind the recommendation.

What is Mission

Mission has two threads: God’s Mission or Missio Dei and the Church’s Mission or Missio Ecclesiae. In this report “The Church” refers to the Global Anglican Church as a body.

With regards to God’s Mission, Michael Moynagh states in his book Church for Every Context (Moynagh, 2012) (p105) that God is the father that sends the Son and the Spirit. The word “Mission” has its roots in the Greek word apostello, meaning to send (Fernando, n.d.). Missio Dei is firstly and foremostly an activity of God (Moynagh, 2012) (p121)

Moynagh argues that the Church’s mission is to be drawn into the self-giving mission of God. However, David Bosch states in his book Transforming Mission (Bosch, 2005) (p519) that the Church does not simply undertake God’s mission but it is God’s Mission that establishes the Church.

In recent times mission have focused on Fresh Expressions of Church. Fresh Expressions comes almost naturally from a church’s participation with Missio Dei (Sheir-Jones, 2009) (p8). Sheir-Jones goes on to explain that Fresh Expression are alternative, culturally sensitive, incarnational worship for the unchurched.

An important part of understanding what mission is is the five marks of mission. Wallis and Ross in their work Mission in the 21^st Century, detail the five marks of mission (Andrew Wallis and Cathy Ross, 2008) (pXIV):

1.    To proclaim the Good news of the Kingdom;

2.    To teach, baptise, and nurture new believers;

3.    To Respond to human need by loving service;

4.    To seek to transform unjust structures of society; and

5.    To strive to safeguard the integrity of creation and sustain and renew the of the earth.

The Church in Wales, being in communion with the Anglican Church, is tasked with upholding the threefold ministry of bishop, priest and deacon to ensure the historic four marks of the church are defined in practice. Those four marks are One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic (Moynagh, 2012) (p109).

Why do we need to engage in mission?

We read in Mark 12:29-31 that we are to love God with all our hearts and to love your neighbour as yourself. There is no greater commandment (NSRV, 1995). In this context we take that to mean that we must engage with those currently not involved with the Church and have no access to the Gospels.

Current nature of Mission in St. David’s

The context of St. David’s Church is that we are set on the outskirts of Brecon, with Brecon Cathedral in the town centre along with another main church, St. Mary’s. The Cathedral and St. Mary’s are very much of the Anglo-Catholic tradition. St. David’s is currently in interregnum and the area Dean has appointed a non-stipendiary priest to lead St. David’s. Regular Sunday worship is about 20-25. Brecon has a lack of ethnic diversity and St. David’s reflects that. As with most Anglican churches St. David’s is populated by mostly ladies with only a few men. St. David’s has an active Sunday school which takes place at the same time as Sunday Eucharist.

Pastoral

We have two licenced pastoral lay visitors who are active. Our non-stipendiary vicar has taken a lead role pastorally and is very much at the front as opposed to just celebrating the Eucharist. There is a strong sense of fellowship within the congregation and reflects the Llanfaes area which is a close community.

Evangelistic

In terms of evangelism, St. David’s has been very much a centripetal or “Come and join us”. We are embarking on a project that will see the church hall being incorporated into the Church building. The congregation are very active, but it does seem to be the same old faces at the events that are put on. As those people drift away or become too unwell to attend, the congregation declines. Much of the activity around St. David’s is about fund raising to keep it open and restore it.

Fresh Expressions of Church

In 2004 the Church of England commissioned a report entitled Mission Shaped Church. This report planted the seed of Fresh Expressions of Church (Church of England, 2004).

Fresh Expressions are new forms of church emerging from contemporary culture and aimed towards those who do not go to church (Fresh Expressions , 2017). Each Fresh Expression has its own identity such as a Café Church or Messy Church to name some of the more identifiable fresh expressions.

Recommendation

The recommendation of this report is that St. David’s takes an initiative to engage the younger generation in a Fresh Expressions of Church Style which could be done in two ways. Firstly, to manage the churchyard in a manner to sustain wildlife and secondly to turn over a small portion of the churchyard to growing vegetables.

These recommendations would have an element of worship within them. The idea being not to attract people to regular Sunday worship but to have these as Fresh Expressions of the Church as independent acts of worship.

The vegetables could be given to the foodbank or sold to the community and the money given to the Foodbank. This will in no way replace any of the services currently held at St. David’s but will be seen as a Fresh Expression of Church (Sheir-Jones, 2009). As discussed in our module workbook, Fresh Expressions is contextual and incarnational and borne out of the culture and networks of the membership (Anon., 2017) (P69).

Many Fresh Expressions revolve around food or sharing of a meal and therefore growing food supports this idea further. Children are very engaged when things are growing and with wildlife.

Theological rationale and motivation

Reasons for Decline

Some of the reasons for a decline in church numbers was discussed in Roxburgh’s book Missional Mapmaking: Skills for Leading in Times of Transition. Roxburgh (Roxbugh, 2010) (Pages 89-109) detailed eight of the preeminent forces that are causes for decline in the Church as follows:

·       Globalization

·       Pluralism

·       Rapid Technological change

·       Postmodernism

·       Staggering Global Need

·       Loss of Confidence in Primary Structures

·       Democratization of Knowledge

·       Return to Romanticism

The reason for the recommendations is that during our Lent course the group studied stewardship. By managing the churchyard in a sustainable manner, we are encouraging wildlife and teaching our younger people to look after the environment. By growing vegetables, we are teaching the young people life skills and by adding an element of worship and religious education we are sharing the Word with more people that just wouldn’t be interested in coming to Sunday Eucharistic services.

We are taught in Matthew 28 verse ¹⁹ Go therefore and make disciples of the nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, ²⁰ and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you, And remember, I am with you always, to the end of age. (NSRV, 1995). To put that into our context and as already set out above, one of the five marks of mission is to baptise, teach and nurture new believers.

Baptism is a core part of the Anglican church. Again we are taught in Mark 16 verses ¹⁵ And he said to them, ‘Go into all the world and proclaim the good new to the whole creation. ¹⁶ the one who believes and is baptized will be saved; but the one who does not will condemned. (NSRV, 1995). In the Life Application Study Bible, it says that is not the waters of baptism that saves but the grace of God (Life Application (NIV), 2011). This means that baptism with belief is the core, not just baptism.

The book of Acts is an important missional text believed to be written by St. Luke and describes much of the missionary journeys of St. Paul who is often seen as the great missionary. It is clear from his writings that St. Paul did not stay a long time in his missional visits just long enough to establish a church and leaders then move on. He was not keen to depend financially on the people he sought to reach and made a living by leatherworking or tent-making (Moynagh, 2012) (p13). Paul was tended to perform mission in teams. It is acknowledged that Paul was the first Christian Theologian because he is the first missionary (Bosch, 2005)(p124).

In John 4.35-38 (NSRV, 1995), Jesus says “I sent you to reap what you have not worked for. Others have done the hard work”. In the Life application study Bible it suggests that the ‘others’ may mean the Old Testament prophets paving the way for the Gospels (Life Application (NIV), 2011). This suggests that we have a continuation of God’s Mission from Old Testament to New Testament and through our work continuing into the future.

Conclusion

We are taught that mission does not mean that one has to go off to different places to preach, but to bring the word of God and knowledge of Jesus to the unchurched. Whilst Sunday worship and Eucharist are important it is often not the most appealing service because it is steeped in a thousand years of tradition. To the new believer this can be off putting as it can be difficult to follow and understand. By launching our “Fresh Expression” style worship we can engage with different people, bringing more young people into our church. When we say church, it is meant as a body of Christ rather than getting them into the church building on a Sunday morning. Our mission is to spread the Word of God and the Gospels to those who don’t normally get to hear about them.

Some of Roxburgh’s eight reasons for the decline of church can be turned to our advantage. For example, using technology such as Facebook and Instagram to share what we are doing and connect with a larger unchurched audience. The Democratization of Knowledge started with the advent of the printing press and has been used to the benefit of the Church in re-printing reliably translated Bibles. 

We find in the Epistles that St. Paul’s in mission(s) planted a church, developed the leaders then moved on to allow the church to grow beyond him. Without that style of early church leadership, we may be looking at a very different Christianity indeed. St. David’s church must also adopt this style with regards to Fresh Expressions because once the one person driving the project has gone the project may fail. All good organisations plan for the future (Ramsden, n.d.).

The criteria for mission in the Five Marks of Mission, was given by Andrew Wallis and Cathy Ross, and the four marks of church are One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic by Moynagh.

Thus, the recommendations achieve the five marks of mission in these ways:

1.    Proclaiming the Good News by ensuring that we include Bible verses and worship with each activity;

2.    Teaching, Baptising and Nurturing new believers by using an activity to bring a Bible reading into our context;

3.    Respond to human need by loving service by either giving the food produced to the foodbank or selling it and raising money for the foodbank;

4.    Transform unjust structures of society by our acts of worship perhaps focusing of prayers for those being unjustly or unfairly treated; and

5.    Safeguard the integrity of Creation, sustain and renew the life of earth by managing the church yard sustainably to develop habits for wildlife that doesn’t usually live there.

References

Andrew Wallis and Cathy Ross, 2008. Mission in the 21st Century. London: Orbis Book.

Anon., 2017. Introducing Christian Mission. s.l.:St Padarn's Institute.

Bosch, D. J., 2005. Transforming Mission. 21st ed. New York: Orbis Books.

Church of England, 2004. Mission Shaped Church. [Online]
Available at: https://thewearypilgrim.typepad.com/files/mission_shaped_church-1.pdf
[Accessed 25 June 2019].

Fernando, A., n.d. Mission and Evangelism. [Online]
Available at: https://www.esv.org/resources/esv-global-study-bible/mission-and-evangelism/
[Accessed 10th June 2019].

Fresh Expressions , 2017. What is a Fresh Expression. [Online]
Available at: http://freshexpressions.org.uk/about/what-is-a-fresh-expression/
[Accessed 28th June 2019].

Life Application (NIV), 2011. Life Application Study Bible NIV. Great Britian: Hodder & Stoughton.

Moynagh, M., 2012. Church for Every Context. London: SCM Press.

NSRV, 1995. The Holy Bible. Oxford: Oxford Unversity Press.

Ramsden, D. J., n.d. 10 tips for successful succession planning. [Online]
Available at: https://www.investorsinpeople.com/knowledge/10-tips-for-successful-succession-planning/
[Accessed 6th July 2019].

Roxbugh, A. J., 2010. Missional Mapmaking: Skills for Leading in Times of Transition. San Francisco: Josey-Bass.

Sheir-Jones, A., 2009. Pioneer Ministry and Fresh Expressions of Church. London: SPCK.

Spencer, S., 2007. Studyguide to Christian Mission , London: SCM. Moodle eBook.

What is Christian Mission and how has it been expressed in the Life of the Church

Introduction

In this essay I hope to answer the question posed ‘What is Christian Mission and how has it been expressed in the Life of the Church’. I aim to show how scripture informs us of our understanding of the nature of God’s mission, the different ways in which mission relates to culture and the ways that the church carries out its mission.  I will briefly explain what mission is and the difference between God’s mission and the mission of the church. Within that there will be an explanation of the five marks of mission. I will also explore what Fresh Expressions of Church is and how that works in a mixed economy.

What is Mission

Mission has two threads: God’s Mission or Missio Dei and the Church’s Mission or Missio Ecclesiae.

Michael Moynagh states in his book Church for Every Context (Moynagh, 2012) (p105) that God is the father that sends the Son and the Spirit. The word “Mission” has its roots in the Greek word apostello, meaning to send (Fernando, n.d.). Missio Dei or God’s Mission is firstly and foremost an activity of God. (Moynagh, 2012) (p121)

The Church’s mission, as Moynagh argues, is to be drawn into the self-giving mission of God. However, David Bosch states in his book Transforming Mission (Bosch, 2005) (p519) that the Church does not simply undertake God’s mission but it is God’s Mission that establishes the Church.

The New Testament contains an important Missional statement. In Mathew 28:19 (NSRV, 1995) calls for us to go and make disciples of all the nations. And from the Old Testament Isaiah 6:8 where the Lord says “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?” (NSRV, 1995)

In order to understand what mission is, five marks of mission were written by Anglican Consultative Council (Anglican Communion Council , 2019) in order to give some criteria to mission. These are detailed further by Wallis and Ross in their book Mission in the 21^st Century (Andrew Wallis and Cathy Ross, 2008) (pXIV) and are as follows:

1.    To proclaim the Good news of the Kingdom;

2.    To teach, baptise, and nurture new believers;

3.    To Respond to human need by loving service;

4.    To seek to transform unjust structures of society; and

5.    To strive to safeguard the integrity of creation and sustain and renew the of the earth.

Along with the five marks of mission The Church in Wales, being in communion with the Anglican Church, is tasked with upholding the threefold ministry of bishop, priest and deacon to ensure the historic four marks of the church are defined in practice. Those four marks are One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic (Moynagh, 2012) (p109). In her book Pioneer Ministry and Fresh Expressions of Church, Angela Sheir-Jones defines One, Holy, Apostolic and Catholic. She goes on to state that these definitions are methods of authentication and do not invalidate the creedal marks of the Church (Sheir-Jones, 2009) (p14).

We also learn three styles of Church (Moynagh, 2012) (Pxvii):

·       Attractional (Come see what we do);

·       Engaged (Go out into the community, then come to our church); and

·       Incarnational (Go out into the community, listen to them and stay there).

How has Mission been expressed in the life of the Church.

Within the Church in Wales the bench of Bishops commissioned a team of advisers to conduct a review of the church (Church in Wales, 2019) known as the Harries report.  The team were Lord Richard Harries, former Bishop of Oxford, Professor Charles Handy, former prof. of London School of Business and Professor Patricia Peattie, former chair of the Episcopal Church in Scotland. A report was submitted to the Governing Body in Sept 2012 and made 50 recommendations (Anon., 2012). Mission was first mentioned as recommendation 22. The 2012 report stated that there were a number of Bishops’ advisors responsible for different areas of the church’s work. It was a recommendation that a Director of Mission and Ministry, but this appears to have been largely ignored.

Mission Shaped Church.

There is a general decline in church numbers often called ecclesial turn (Moynagh, 2012) (p73), and secular sciences seem to be able to explain more and more about the world we live in. Richard Dawkins in his book “The God Delusion” discusses his thoughts on the ‘God of Gaps’ (Dawkins, 2006)(p125). He states that we today’s church is guilty of squeezing God in the gaps of science. Church leaders look for new and innovative ways to increase church attendance against a backdrop of the Sunday Eucharist becoming distant from the general population, such as the Fresh Expressions movement.

Mission Shaped Church was a report from a working party chaired by Rt Rev Graham Cary, Bishop of Maidstone in 2004. This report was widely circulated in the Anglican communion and formed the basis of Fresh Expressions (Church of England, 2004). The report pleaded for flexible approaches to new Christian communities (Moynagh, 2012)(p51).

Most fresh expressions come almost naturally from a church’s participation with Missio Dei (Sheir-Jones, 2009) (p8). Sheir-Jones goes on to explain that Fresh Expression are alternative, culturally sensitive, incarnational worship for the unchurched.

Fresh Expressions are new forms of church emerging from contemporary culture and aimed towards those who do not go to church (Fresh Expressions , 2017). Each Fresh Expression has its own identity such as a Café Church or Messy Church to name some of the more identifiable fresh expressions. A Welsh example of Fresh Expressions is “The Lab” in Newport. The Lab is an experimental church that meets on a Sunday for worship and revolves around sharing a meal, primarily for young adults. They live and work as youth workers in the community (Introduction to the Lab, 2011). Fresh Expressions are incarnational, which means that it takes its mark from the culture of the people it aims to reach. As discussed in the course workbook, Fresh Expressions of church are not used as a transition to regular church worship but are seen as their own churches (St. Padarn's Institute , 2017) and may even use existing church buildings. To add a theological dimension, in Acts 2:42-47 (NSRV, 1995) we find the early church meeting together around a meal.

Mixed Economy

Steven Croft states in his book Jesus’ People: What the Church Should Do Next, that for decades now the Church has been gradually rediscovering what it means to be shaped by God’s mission however, he boldly argues that a mission shaped church in not enough and that we need to go further (Croft, 2009) (p9). He also suggests that we need to grow traditional churches that welcome children but also to plant new fresh expressions of church in different locations and networks in order to reach out to hard to reach groups and those not usually reached by the church. In effect, developing a mixed economy of church.

Mixed Economy is a term used by many theological writers such as Sheir-Jones, Croft and Moynagh. Mixed economy means a number of different styles of worship. For example, in my own church we have a monthly spoken Eucharist, Monthly Healing service, Morning Prayer and Sunday Eucharist and a messy church style craft day during the holidays. We are exploring other forms of worship not linked to Sunday worship such as a monthly meditation and children’s vegetable garden.

In looking at how mission has been expressed in the life of the Church, Moynagh has an excellent chapter detailing this (Moynagh, 2012) (Chapter 2). In essence, he sets out the changing face of the church through the ages. He describes the church as deeply contextual and incarnational.

In the concordance section of the Life Study Bible (Life Application (NIV), 2011) mission is not specifically mentioned as a subject but spreading the Word of God is. And ultimately that is what mission is – bringing the gospels to those previously untouched by them.

Moynagh goes on to discuss the fact that Jerusalem as the seat of power and authority in the Judeo-Christian world was very different from the mostly gentile society in Christian Antioch. Together these important early Christian groupings formed what we would now term the first mixed economy.

In Antioch we find the Diache or teaching of the apostles which seems to be a first attempt at a sort of Catechism for the early church. We see in Acts 11:19-26 (NSRV, 1995) that St Paul and Barnabas started their missionary journeys from Antioch. It is clear from his writings that St. Paul did not stay a long time in his missional visits but just long enough to establish a church and leaders then move on. He was not keen to depend financially on the people he sought to reach and made a living by leatherworking or tent-making (Moynagh, 2012) (p13). Paul was tended to perform mission in teams. It is acknowledged that Paul was the first Christian Theologian because as the first missionary (Bosch, 2005)(p124)

Later in Britain there were church plantings by pioneers who established monasteries in places such as Iona and Lindisfarne. Celtic mission was deeply rooted in scripture, these highly mobile apostolic teams were able to move with the nomadic Celtic tribes. (Moynagh, 2012) (p32). And more locally in Wales we have St. David who travelled extensively spreading the Word (BBC, 2014).

Augustine came to the UK and lived among the lost bringing hope from the new outpost of Canterbury and near the seat of the Kentish King Ethelbert. Augustine had permission to adapt Latin tradition to the English people – meaning that Augustine’s mission had to learn the same lessons of the earlier Celts.

The Incarnational and centrifugal mission of Augustine was continued and adapted by the Benedictines which continued for the next one thousand years. Benedict understood that conversions required community based around sharing resources and food, which as we learned earlier from Croft is an important part of Fresh Expressions.  

Conclusion

We can see that mission has been essential to the Christian movement right from the very first days after the ascension to today’s fresh expressions.

In this essay I have attempted to explore the mission of the church through the ages clearly and to explore this in more detail would be a much larger piece of work. I have shown that the early church members were pioneers and had something new to offer. As time goes on that offer becomes less easy to communicate.

Christianity has become popular because of its ability to be deeply incarnational. In more recent times secularism and science has taken the place of Christianity, we see this in the writings of Richard Dawkins. Christianity has become mainstream with Church Buildings and a liturgy which is hard to follow for the contemporary unchurched. This may be part of the reason why Church numbers are falling as it has lost its incarnational focus and has become centripetal in its approach. Something new needs to happen and Fresh Expressions has the potential to take that place, being incarnational, listening and responding to the needs to the local society using the five marks of mission.

Bibliography

Andrew Wallis and Cathy Ross, 2008. Mission in the 21st Century. London: Orbis Book.

Anglican Communion Council , 2019. Marks of Mission. [Online]
Available at: https://www.anglicancommunion.org/mission/marks-of-mission.aspx
[Accessed 7th July 2019].

Anon., 2012. Church in Wales Review. [Online]
Available at: https://cinw.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/Church-in-Wales-review-English.pdf
[Accessed 25 June 2019].

BBC, 2014. Historic Figures - St. David. [Online]
Available at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/david_st.shtml
[Accessed 28th June 2019].

Bosch, D. J., 2005. Transforming Mission. 21st ed. New York: Orbis Books.

Church in Wales, 2019. Background. [Online]
Available at: https://www.churchinwales.org.uk/review/background/
[Accessed 25 June 2019].

Church of England, 2004. Mission Shaped Church. [Online]
Available at: https://thewearypilgrim.typepad.com/files/mission_shaped_church-1.pdf
[Accessed 25 June 2019].

Croft, S., 2009. Jesud' People Whar the Church Should do next. London: Church House Publishing.

Dawkins, R., 2006. The God Delusion. London: Bantum Press.

Fernando, A., n.d. Mission and Evangelism. [Online]
Available at: https://www.esv.org/resources/esv-global-study-bible/mission-and-evangelism/
[Accessed 10th June 2019].

Fresh Expressions , 2017. What is a Fresh Expression. [Online]
Available at: http://freshexpressions.org.uk/about/what-is-a-fresh-expression/
[Accessed 28th June 2019].

Introduction to the Lab. 2011. [Film] UK: The Lab.

Life Application (NIV), 2011. Life Application Study Bible NIV. Great Britian: Hodder & Stoughton.

Moynagh, M., 2012. Church for Every Context. London: SCM Press.

NSRV, 1995. The Holy Bible. Oxford: Oxford Unversity Press.

Sheir-Jones, A., 2009. Pioneer Ministry and Fresh Expressions of Church. London: SPCK.

St. Padarn's Institute , 2017. Introduction to Christian Worship. s.l.:Church in Wales.

Reflection on Exodus 32:7-14

Wootten R CWTH4010 Assign 2

Write a reflection on one of the following texts below

This should include a discussion of the text’s meaning in its original context and theological reflection on its relevance to contemporary Christian life and witness.

Genesis 1:24-31

Exodus 32:7-14

Deuteronomy 17:14-20

1 Samuel 15:17-26

Introduction:

In this reflection I have chosen Exodus 32:7-14. This paper will review the passage, look at the theology behind it and its original context and. examine its relevance to Christian life today In order to ensure the passage is fully understood in its original context, it is necessary to reference other parts of the Bible as well as review modern scholars and their interpretations. It is necessary to explore the possible author(s) of the passage/text along with attempting to draw some conclusions as to who the passage was originally intended for and what it may have meant to them. In this essay we will also examine what this may mean to us today.

Setting the context:

The answer as to who wrote the books of the Old Testament is unclear at best. One way of validating ancient books and documents is to compare the document with other texts and books of the same time. It was almost impossible to do this with regard to the Old Testament until the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls in 1947, however Marc Brettler suggests in his essay that researchers were able to date certain books in the Bible due to the fact that some books are written in a style of Biblical Hebrew (Brettler, 2012) whereas others are written in Greek or Aramaic which dates them based on when the languages were popular and more widely used. As a result, the Torah was attributed to Moses until the 19^th Century. However, Robert C. Walton discusses in his book the theory that it may not have been Moses but his acolytes that wrote the Torah. The evidence suggested within Walton’s book is that it may not have been Moses who wrote the Torah as it contains details of Moses’ death and also contains material from later times, (Walton, 1980). This is pertinent as Exodus 32:7-14 falls within the Torah and it is important to understand the context of which we are working in. Whoever the author(s), we can be sure that we were not the intended audience, as it is understood that when writing the Torah, it was most likely aimed at those people at that time. Due to much later historical records we now understand that they were not writing the Bible as we know it today. It was developed into a Canon of Scripture around the 5^th Century CE. The Life Application Study Bible helpfully gives a preface to each of the biblical books. For Exodus, it voices the opinion that the original audience would have been the people of Israel (James C. Galvin, 2005).

Prior to verses 7-14, Moses had gone up to Mount Sinai for the first time. Whilst he was there, his brother Aaron was ministering to people. The people had become disillusioned and turned away from God looking for other Gods to worship. Aaron asked them to take off their earrings and fashioned them into a golden calf.

At the time of the early Israelites, the surrounding areas were more motivated towards polytheism than monotheism and in turn, idolatry. Babylon to the north-east and Egypt to the south had both developed polytheist religions. It is therefore reasonable to accept that the people of Israel were used to worshiping idols and a pantheon of Gods as a result of interaction with those nations and trade. Thus, when Moses is made aware of the fact that they had been making sacrifices to the calf it would be upsetting but not a surprise to him.

Reflecting on the passage:

Verse 7 is interesting as God says, ‘Go down, because your people whom you brought up out of Egypt…’. Yet in verse 11 Moses reverses this when he says to God ‘…Whom you brought up out of Egypt’. What is most interesting here is the acknowledgment of one to the other of their role in bringing the Israelites out of Egypt and freeing them from slavery and persecution. To an observer, it almost seems as though God is identifying with humanity in his statement to Moses, or alternatively that they both acknowledge once again that Moses is an instrument of God.

In verses 7-8, God tells Moses to go back down the mountain as the people have abandoned Yahweh and turned back to worshipping false idols. As previously stated, idolatry was not uncommon in the area in those times, however, God had been in conference with Moses on Mount Sinai. The first commandment is ‘You shall have no other God before me’ yet, in a matter of approximately forty days, they had broken this commandment.

In verses 9-14 Moses appeals to Yahweh not to anger at his people nor to destroy them and because of this appeal, God’s wrath becomes defused. This implies God changed his mind (Howe, 1992). However, in his Exodus Commentary, Alan Cole suggests that God didn’t change his mind but rather that God regretted something that he was about to do (Cole, 1977). Cole therefore does not believe that Moses altered God’s mind. Malachi 3:6 supports this theory as it states, ‘I am the Lord, I do not change…’. Another supporting approach is that God sits outside of time (Brace, 2005), therefore, regretting a decision that has currently not been carried out is feasible. However, much later in the Bible we have a reference to God changing his mind in Jonah 3:10 where God had seen that the people of Nineveh had turned from their evil ways and He relented. There are many other examples on similar terms to this such as in 2 Samuel 24:16 where the Lord had sent a plague on Israel and an angel to destroy Jerusalem. Thus, the process theologian would look to Exodus 32 and see in the text evidence that God can change.

Moses, in his appeal to God in verse 12, asks God to consider what the Egyptians may say of the people of Israel. Israel is dear to Moses and to think of the Egyptians speaking of Israel harshly would be disturbing to him. Also, as Yahweh is the God of Israel, it would have been objectionable to think of the God of Israel as weak or unable to keep his people from polytheism (Benson, 2004). In Verse 13 Moses reminds God of Abraham, Isaac and the promise to make their descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky. In his appeal to Yahweh, Moses is, in effect saying if Israel is cut off what would happen to the covenant made with the patriarchs.

In the Life Application Study Bible an alternative view is expressed in the commentary that God was willing to forgive His people and show mercy (James C. Galvin, 2005).

This passage suggests to us that God is omnipotent, forgiving and merciful.

Relevance to Christian Life and witness:

Since the New Testament we consider God to be a much more merciful God than how he was portrayed in the Old testament, which is why many Christians skip over the Old Testament or just consider it setting the scene for Jesus’s appearance. However. the Old Testament is much more than that.

In verse 10 we have what many Christians dislike about the Old Testament – an angry God willing to wipe out all of the people and start again. Here is the dichotomy – God, although portrayed as angry, was willing to show mercy. Therefore, we have the God traditionally characterised by the New Testament. There are many times in the Old Testament that God has, or at least threatened to, strike out at humanity. If we look at Numbers 14:12, we can see that God promised to make them, the people of Israel, into a great nation after He threatens to destroy them, much like He does in Exodus 32:10.

Rolf Jacobson argues via his website that the reason the early Israelites had lost their way was that they had lost their spiritual leader and as such lost sight of God and their direction (Jacobson, 2010). It is perhaps fair to say that many people in the western world have lost sight of God and lost their direction as many people in today’s society are happier to follow the celebrity on Instagram than attend the local church.   

In contemporary society we tend to worship new idols. We only have to look at the cult of celebrity and the worship that people give them. Idols do not have to be actual images of God but could easily be money, fame, status, power or material things that mark status or power. Some Protestants may argue that the Catholic faith worships idols in their appeal to the images of the saints and statues to Jesus (Kreeft, 2017). Mark Clavier discusses consumerism and our worship of the consumer state in his 2019 book ‘On Consumer Culture Identity the Church and the Rhetorics of Delight’. In his research he suggests that the church has to compete with the massive marketing machine that keeps our consumer driven society motivated. (Clavier, 2019)

What we cannot know from the Bible passage relating to Aaron is whether he was just trying to appease the people and keep everyone settled until Moses’ return or did he revert to the old ways of worshiping idol-gods. What we do know is that Moses’ people had committed a sin. Clavier goes on to explain that sin is addictive and likens it to Gollum from ‘Lord of the Rings’ in that sin becomes ‘our precious’  (Clavier, 2019).

Conclusion

To conclude in this reflection, I have reviewed Exodus 32:7-14. When considering the original context, it is important to remember that we were not the original audience. There is a school of thought among many theologians and scholars about God changing his mind or, as according to Cole, not changing His mind but regretting the decision he was about to make. The Bible has a number of instances where God has done this.

If we believe the Torah to be written by Moses’ contemporaries after his death, we must ask the question; why include this? I believe that Exodus 32;7-14 is primarily an illustration of the peoples’ sin and the failure of the law. Its inclusion in the Old Testament was to remind people not to stray from the laws of God. Like many of the books in the Old Testament its inclusion makes us think and leads us towards faith. Bringing that into the Christian perspective we can also understand that to mean we should be following Gods path. When Jesus was asked which of the commandments was the most important he replied in Matthew 22:37 ‘Love the Lord with all your heart and with all soul and with all your mind. ³⁸ This is the first and greatest commandment. ³⁹ And the second is like it: Love your neighbour as yourself. ⁴⁰ All the Law and Prophets hang on the two commandments’. If we were able to keep just those two commandments, we would be a much more peaceful society.

Bibliography

Brace, R. A., 2005. DOES GOD DWELL WITHIN, OR....... OUTSIDE OF TIME?. [Online]
Available at: http://www.ukapologetics.net/2godoutoftime.htm
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Brettler, E. &. H., 2012. The Bible and the Believer. First ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Clavier, M., 2019. On Consumer Culture Identity The Church and the Rhetorics of Delight. London: Bloomsbury.

Cole, A., 1977. Exodus. Leicester: Inter-Varsity Press.

Jacobson, R., 2010. Commentary on Exodus 32:7-14. [Online]
Available at: https://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=751
[Accessed 17th March 2019].

James C. Galvin, 2005. Life Application Bible (NIV). London: Hodder and stoughton .

Kreeft, P., 2017. Catholics and Protestants - What Can We Learn from Each Other. 1st ed. San Francisco: Ignatius Press.

Walton, R. C., 1980. A Basic Introduction to the Old Testament. London : SCM Press.