Saturday Night's Alright (For Dining)

First of all, I went to pay some bills today and got to check number 666 and found that it was missing. Anyone else ever stumble upon this little dose of superstition?
Saturday night my family was invited to have dinner with some friends in New Albany. This is probably the most unique couple we are friends with seeing that the husband is Jewish and the wife is an African-American Christian. After the first hour of pleasant conversation Jenn and I were ushered into what seems to be their continuous debate about theological issues. Last year the wife began attending the worship service that I led on Saturday nights at New Albany Nazarene. Due to the influence of N.T. Wright, and others, I stressed the necessity of understanding Jesus within the context of first-century Judaism. After we moved to Newark the wife began attending a Messianic Jewish congregation in Gahanna. In the past few months the husband has begun attending with her. He practices Reform Judaism as opposed to Orthodox Judaism or Conservative Judaism. Their banter was informing and at times very entertaining as the fulfilled some stereotypical behavior. We conversed about of tithing, hermeneutics, film, politics and a range of other topics. He is very much convinced that the Hebrew Scriptures are an exaggeration of the facts. This and many of his other opinions exasperated his wife who has a very high view of scripture and its authority. I agreed with him that scripture was written by man and is the result of oral tradition, which is renown for its tendency to exaggerate the facts. I agreed with her that the scriptures are inspired and I said that I think God was at work to retain the fundamental integrity of the story through oral tradition. It seemed that he was not willing to allow for God’s interaction with man within the development of scripture.
She is very encouraged because the husband has decided to attend a Seder this year for the first time in their marriage. He also wanted there to be a Seder plate on the table for our dinner as a symbolic gesture. We thought we were going to do an abbreviated Haggadah but he didn’t feel completely comfortable with it as the night progressed. All in all we had a wonderful time with our friends and enjoyed a delicious dinner and fascinating conversation.