"In the fullness of time" is an expression that means something will happen after a long period of time or a series of events. (Credits: AI)
My life in retrospect can easily be subdivided into distinct eras, some decades in length, which makes me feel much older than 75.
I'm not unique in all that, but I do have a memory unlike many, one that easily takes me back to my pre-kindergarten days. Well, kindergarten wasn't even around then!
Actually it was avaliable in some states, and just in case you are ever playing Jeopardy, Margarethe Schurz founded the first kindergarten in the United States in 1856 in Watertown, Wisconsin.
The first American English-language kindergarten in Boston in 1860,
though given that my earliest days were in the South, not yet!
My biblical knowledge began well before my formal education. Flannelgraph stories were the thing back then, once you were old enough to leave your mom and the church sanctuary, where most adults met for Sunday School in the smaller churches, which were my lot growing up.
A flannelgraph is a board covered with flannel fabric that is used for visual storytelling. For those Gen Z's reading, Smart boards and iPads had not yet made it into Sunday School classrooms. You can imagine how the story of Noah and the Ark, with amazing animals from other continents grabbed our attention as kids, given most of us were yet without TV's!
This year, unlike any of the years in my half century of disciplined annual reads through scripture, it seems I have now outgrown the "flannelgraph" stage of my life. No longer reading within the limited historical and spiritual context provided by my Pentecostal denomination, limits earlier imposed upon the Spirit. Though in no way should one infer distain on my part for the deep spiritual experiences despite our academic limitations. At least I'm still humble, and hungry for new aHa's!
Not that I haven't done research occasionally when the text demanded it, but often that was by cross reference with my Strong's Exhaustive Concordance, Thompson Chain Reference, etc. Just being honest!
Meanwhile, in my "secular" education, securing two advanced degrees. Go figure!
Now, with years of internet access (even that makes a statement to those who were not yet alive in the late 80's) information is boundless, not to speak of being now near instantaneous by way of AI.
At least in reference to my openess to the Spirit, in seems the Fullness of Time has come! It is as if the Spirit each morning is now saying, "Come Let Us Reason Together."
As well, my cabin talks over these 17 years have provided a tangental awareness uncommon for most Boomers, learning from the six different generations with whom I have spent time.
Each seems in a different stratosphere, often bringing up ideas that we Boomers, let alone my Silent Gen dad, whom I am blessed to still have around, never dared to think, or haven't been courageous enough to share with each other.
In all fairness, many earlier generations were conditioned not to share, out of fear of eternal damnation. Many younger have no such idea, knowing the graciousness of God, though moral boundaries did seem more sacred then!
Just the other morning my younger cabin mate ask if I was aware of the Mesopotamian culture reflected in Moses' Creation story and beyond? It was only then that I began to more fully understand the "cultural baggage" that is a part of us all, and yes, even those â€â€"holy men of God (who) spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost." 2 Pet 1:21 KJV.
Thus the necessity of spiritual discernment when reading the text or hearing the preachment of the best intended of men and women. Yes, even when reading my posts!
Sure I had heard of Mesopotamia! I have three college degrees, the first from a Baptist college, but I never truly considered the ramifications, given a text truly inspired by the "I Am"!
My young friend's insights led me to the link below,* only one of many now available online, though such reads unlikely read by the average Joe and Jill outside of seminary. Even among those so informed, often times withheld for the academic arena alone, or if mentioned from the pulpit, likely labeled as liberal heresy.
It wasn't just a new piece of information for me, but a timely affirmation of what I have felt for some time. You see, much of how the Old Testament reads, as if direct downloads from God, was so in contrast with the Christ, whom Christians believe was God incarnate, that we have had to "slice and splice" the narrative with an Old Covenant- New Covenant justification, though the same "unchanging Elohim."
Even within the last Century, clergy have had to find means for explanation when it seems the Calling of God, without gender restraints, falls upon females as well as men! Given Paul's mandate in 1 Corinthians 14:33b-36
that women be held to silence in the church, one must assume either modern day heresy or historical bias!
Now you know why so many women hung with Jesus, given he afforded such freedom from the "cultural biases" of their day, even among the best intended of patriarchs!
"Unavoidable, the (Hebrew) migrants brought with them a great deal of cultural baggage from the land of their birth, including much of the detail that is now found in the early chapters of Genesis. But that patrimony was not left intact; it was transformed in conformance with the new quest and ideals.
Thus the opening account of Creation in Genesis differs from its Babylonian analogue by its overriding emphasis on an omnipotent Creator–a concept missing from, indeed alien to, Mesopotamian polytheism. The narrative about the Garden of Eden incorporates various imported data about the Sumerian Paradise. But it contributes also a new notion of individual responsibility..."*
Why am I so compelled to risk such conversation at this point in my life?
As I mentioned earlier, each morning I hear, "Just Write", the Spirit reinforcing what has stuck with me since months back in my read through Isaiah 1:18, "Come Let Us Reason Together!"
For the first time ever, as I crossed over into the New Testament this morning, I now understood why the writer of Matthew's Gospel began the lineage of Jesus, not with Adam, but with Abraham. Herein, the Spirit possibly differentiating the Gospel message from a blend of cultural folklore, a paradigm shift, moving the reader toward faith alone.
There, I finally said it!
Brother Paul will pickup on that much stronger in the Epistles, though as mentioned earlier, he himsrlf, as was the case with John Mark, Peter and the best of men, each had their own baggage. Hear again his own words,
"And such trust have we through Christ to God-ward: not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God; who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life."
2 Corinthians‬ â€3:4â€-‬6‬ â€KJV‬‬
Genesis 1-11 is so loaded with overlap of the Mesopotamian culture, yet most necessary for the writer to lay groundwork for a story being explained to thousands of "brick and straw" descendents having just survived the Exodus out of Egypt.
It is highly likely that many ancient customs had carried forward, needing much realignment with the grounding of Abraham's faith and even likely to be a part of what their Levite leader, Moses wrestled with personally; likely schooled in Pharoah's house from "kindergarten" through the grad school of their day.
You might want to begin thinking differently as you read, you heart open to the Spirit, as perhaps was the writer here in Matthew‬ â€1:1â€-‬2‬ â€KJV‬‬:
"The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. Abraham begat Isaac; and Isaac begat Jacob; and Jacob begat Judas and his bretheren."
Shalom!