A week ago one of my many rabbis Rev. Dr. Frederick Holmgren died at 97 years of age. He was for decades professor of Biblical Literature at North Park Theological Seminary. He was my Hebrew and Old Testament teacher. I will always remember him as a gentle and happy soul.
I’ll never forget the tense morning of one semester’s final exam. Our bluebooks were ready. Fred entered as always with a smile on his face, settled himself, pulled out a folder with what we feared to be his unanswerable essay question, and then began to pray, something along these lines….”Oh dear God, bless us these students as they write now. They have studied and reflected; give them now freedom from anxiety to write with gratitude about all they have learned of your goodness and love. Amen.” Then taking his paper out of its pocket, he read it to himself silently, giggled a bit as he often did, crunched it into a ball, there it into the corner wastebasket and said, “I want you to write this morning about the God of Bible you have come to know.” And off we went, writing. And off he went, leaving a basket for our finished products.
He diffused the anxiety in the room with grace and humility. He prayed for our comfort and freedom to express ourselves. His test question was not devoid of the need for knowledge but focused on relationship with the Divine, as pietists are prone to do. I have never felt as much as I did that day a teacher being so much “with us” as students.
His life’s work was to connect Hebrew scripture and Jewish faith with New Testament and Christian faith. In many seasons of life he was under fire for this, accused hither and yon from those who saw things differently. Yet he never lost his gentle and soft-spoken witness to the God who cares about us all.
One example, reflecting on the hardest Hebrew text of Abraham and Isaac on Mount Moriah (Genesis 22:1-19): “Nearly every person who reads the narrative concerning Abraham and Isaac gives some thought of the question: How could a father do this to his son? That same question is often at the front of the mind with regard to the death of Christ: Why did God, the Father, do this horrible thing to his Son? However, the New Testament writers present the event in quite another manner. God is not depicted as doing something to Jesus; rather, they see the Father present in the suffering of the Son. Paul’s statement overwhelms the mind but it expresses the experience of the early Christians: ‘God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself.'” He continues, “We are not alone. The Mt. Moriah story, and the narratives that surround it, point the preacher to one of the central themes of the Hebrew Bible: Immanuel — God with us (Exodus 3:11-12, Isaiah 7:14, Psalms 103)…it is this “with us” God of the Hebrew-Jewish tradition who reveals himself in the life and teachings of Jesus(Matthew 2:20-23). The presence of this ‘son’ of Abraham reminds us that God is for us and not against us. He wishes life and future for all of us.” (Glad Hearts, p.325-326)
May his memory be a blessing, and may Fred Holmgren rest in peace and rise in glory.
Peter Hawkinson
Comments