[1]
John 6:27 Common English Bible
27 Don’t work for the food that
doesn’t last but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Human
One[a] will give you. God the
Father has confirmed him as his agent to give life.”
Our Adventist church uses a liturgical style worship in it’s
9:00 service, following loosely the Revised Common Lectionary[2].
I attend this service regularly and have the privilege of reading the liturgy
at least once in most months of the year. I value the experience and gain a
personal blessing and try to make the reading a blessing for those who hear me.
The actual liturgies are written locally, which often gently try to correct
some of the perceived Adventist departures from common modern norms. For
example, the Adventist Church official policy is to only ordain males to be
pastors. So our current liturgies try to encourage us to think in a gender
neutral manner.
On Sabbath, August 3, 2024 the gospel reading for the day
was John 6:24-35. The liturgist chose to read it from the Common English Bible
(CEB) version. Most English versions, in fact all of English versions on the
Bible Gateway website, except the CEB, read “Son of Man,” the name which Christ
tended to call Himself. The CEB, which I quote above, tries to be gender
neutral and translates the name as “Human One.” Because most people will not
recognize this appellation, it gives a marginal reading at “[a]” as the “Son of
Man.” I knew it sounded strange to my ear when he read it.
My personal feeling is that this steals the intended meaning
of the text, in order to appease a fanatical element in the church. This turns
our attention away from Jesus’s intended meaning of His Mission as Messiah to
that of gender equality issues. The Adventist mission is to prepare the world
for the Second Advent of Christ and Sabbath sanctity and the end of the Great
Controversy—the Universal Climax to the eradication of sin and Satan. Gender
inequality is an unfortunate result of Satan’s rebellion against Christ. It has
societal importance, and Satan is using it to direct our attention away from
our divinely assigned mission.
Lord please keep our attention on what You have assigned
us to accomplish in these last days of earth’s history.
[1]
https://www.google.com/search?q=gender+inequality+images&oq=GEner+inequality+ima&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUqCQgBEAAYDRiABDIGCAAQRRg5MgkIARAAGA0YgAQyCQgCEAAYDRiABDIJCAMQABgNGIAEMgkIBBAAGA0YgAQyCQgFEAAYDRiABDIJCAYQABgNGIAEMggIBxAAGBYYHjIICAgQABgWGB4yCAgJEAAYFhge0gEKMjE4ODFqMGoxNagCCLACAQ&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#vhid=ZTJdnZU4eonWHM&vssid=l
[2]
See the Wikipedia entry at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revised_Common_Lectionary
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