Big Storms Last Night

These pictures say it all. Half of a bradford pear tree fell down and I guess the rest of the tree will have to go. In addition, the hard drive in my desktop got fried, or at least it picked an oddly coincidental time to die on me. Fortunately, I use Carbonite  on-line backup, so I can restore my files once my computer is fixed. It will take awhile and be enormously frustrating, I’m sure, but it will get done. In the meantime, I’m working on my laptop – so see, God is good! And yes . . . I use good surge suppressors, but obviously, not good enough. Surprisingly, no other equipment on that particular surge suppressor seems to have suffered any ill effects.

The New Testament Gateway

You might want to visit Mark Goodacre’s well-organized New Testament Gateway and then bookmark it. This Duke professor has amassed quite a collection of links to various New Testament resources on the web. The site is inclined toward the academic, but if you’ll spend a little time exploring the resources, you’ll find that there is much there for the rest of us. Want to look at the text to the apocryphal Gospel of Peter or the Gospel of Mary Magdalene? They are available via the non-canonical page. How about the writings of Josephus? Yes, you can get to that as well.

Because these are mainly materials in the public domain, the translations are often not the most recent. But these resources will get you started. You might especially spend some time with Prof. Goodacre’s links to introductory materials.

A fun site if you like ancient history

Here’s a site that has some interactive maps of the Roman republic and empire. You can ask to see maps of Roman influence at various times, the provinces under Diocletian, and so on. It is a minor diversion but interesting.

UP!! – A great movie

We went to see UP!! today. I couldn’t pass up an animated movie that got 98% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes. UP!! did not disappoint. It was moving, heartwarming, and funny. It is pretty amazing how much they can get you to emotionally commit to an animated character, but they do. Go see it – I’ll surprised if you don’t enjoy the 96  minutes.

 

Fun with the grandson

My son, his wife, and their son, Nate, were visiting this weekend, as they are planning to move to Dallas in the near future, or at least as soon as they can get their Austin house sold. Nate is now 16-months old and is an absolute joy. Being a grand dad is just as great as I hoped it would be. Here are a few pictures of Nate and me  having big fun! God is good.

Thin Places

Mark Roberts has been posting a blog series with reflections on the biblical stories of “thin places,” by which he means those places where there isn’t much separating heaven and earth. For example, one of the most dramatic biblical stories of such a place is Mt. Sinai in the book of Exodus. I think you’ll find the series pretty thought-provoking. The following is from Roberts’ introduction to the series:

The woman who introduced me to the phrase “thin place” explained its meaning. “A thin place,” she said, “is a place where the boundary between heaven and earth is especially thin. It’s a place where we can sense the divine more readily.” I wondered why this person, a respected Christian leader, seemed to have a hard time speaking of relationship with God. “Thin place” almost functioned as a circumlocution, a way getting around actually saying “God is especially present here.” I also wondered about the whole idea of thin places. Are there such places? If so, why are they thin? Something about the whole notion of thin places made me nervous, theologically speaking, but I couldn’t quite put my finger on the problem.

Since my first exposure to the phrase “thin place,” I’ve probably heard it used five hundred times, maybe more. In certain Christian circles, Celtic Christianity has become wildly popular, and so has the use of “thin place” to describe places where people experience God (or “the divine,” if you prefer). I have tended to resist this language, partly because of its trendy overuse, and partly because of my nagging discomfort about its meaning.

Well, in the irony of God’s sovereignty, I’ve ended up in a place that people love to identify as thin. In my eighteen months as Senior Director of Laity Lodge, I’ve heard Laity Lodge described as a thin place probably a hundred times or more. When people say this, they mean to compliment Laity Lodge as an unusual place that fosters intimacy with God. For them, the barrier between earth and heaven does seem to become very thin at Laity Lodge. They have experienced God with more immediacy and intimacy when on retreat in the Frio River canyon than in their ordinary lives. In many cases, people have had life-transforming experiences at Laity Lodge through the presence and power of God’s Spirit.

Beginning today, I want to reflect a bit on the notion of thin places (sometimes called thin spaces). I’m not starting this blog series with a clear sense of where I’m headed. And I’m not planning to grind any particular axe. Rather, I want to think about the idea of thin places, especially in light of Scripture. I want to consider what makes a place thin, and how this description might be helpful (or not).

“Did you ever break a bone?”

A few years ago, we asked the St. Andrew congregation what question they would have for God if they could ask only one question. For the last several weeks, we’ve been taking a look at some of these questions in my 11:00 Sunday class, “Something Else.” We finish the series this weekend, as we consider the following question that an adult wanted to ask God: "Did you ever break a bone?” I don’t really know if this was meant to be a serious question, but I’m treating it that way. How would you try to answer it? My wife says that even she has no idea what I would possibly do with this one. Come Sunday to find out! We meet at 11:00 in Festival Hall.

Alas . . . the Holy Who?

I was sorting through some papers on my desk and came across a depressing survey done by the Barna group, the premier pollsters of all things Christian. Not long ago, they did a survey of self-professed Christians regarding “spiritual beings.” Here is a quote from a summary of the findings:

Much like their perceptions of Satan, most Christians do not believe that the Holy Spirit is a living force, either. Overall, 38% strongly agreed and 20% agreed somewhat that the Holy Spirit is “a symbol of God’s power or presence but is not a living entity.” Just one-third of Christians disagreed that the Holy Spirit is not a living force (9% disagreed somewhat, 25% disagreed strongly) while 9% were not sure.

I can’t say I’m surprised that a majority of Christians understand the Holy Spirit to be a symbol not a living entity; i.e., a “what” not a “who.” Still, it is disheartening and says much about the condition of theological and biblical education among adult Christians in America. That so many fail to comprehend their implicit denial of the Trinity (for I’m sure that most would automatically say “yes” if asked whether they believe in the Trinity) ought to make plain the case that, yes, doctrine matters.

Judges and Apostles

On Sunday, May 31, I'll begin a new series in my class at 11am in Festival Hall. We'll be taking a look at some women from the Bible wit whom many people are barely familiar. We'll begin with the stories of Deborah,the Israelite, and a non-Israelite named Jael. Their stories are in the book of Judges. This painting depicts Jael's murder of Sisera, the Canaanite general, for which Deborah and the Israelites celebrated her. There are many such surprising stories of women to be found in the pages of Scripture.

Beauty and Easter

I thought you might enjoy Bishop N. T. Wright's Easter sermon this year. As you may know, he is one of the foremost New Testament scholars of our day. He is presently the Bishop of Durham in the Church of England.

"We live, after all, in a world that is in danger of forgetting what beauty is about. The subject we now call ‘aesthetics’ actually became a separate subject in the late eighteenth century, with the word itself creeping into English only in the 1830s. That tells its own story. People before then were interested in anything and everything under the sun; why had they not discussed beauty, what makes something beautiful, how beauty works, so to speak, as a separate topic before then? The answer, I think, goes right to the heart of our present cultural dilemmas, and opens up a rich viewpoint from which we may see even the meaning of Easter itself in a new light."

"Reason, Faith, and Revolution"

Stanley Fish has written some reflections on Terry Eagleton's new book: Reason, Faith and Revolution. Eagleton's book is, in part, a response to the "new atheists," such as Christopher Hitchens, who wrote God is not Great in 2007. Eagleton asks why it is that everyone is talking about God. Eagleton's answer, according to Fish is "elaborated in prose that is alternately witty, scabrous and angry, [and] is that the other candidates for guidance — science, reason, liberalism, capitalism — just don’t deliver what is ultimately needed." Theology addresses questions which science can't tackle and vice versa. Fish closes with this:

"One more point. The book starts out witty and then gets angrier and angrier. (There is the possibility, of course, that the later chapters were written first; I’m just talking about the temporal experience of reading it.) I spent some time trying to figure out why the anger was there and I came up with two explanations.

One is given by Eagleton, and it is personal. Christianity may or may not be the faith he holds to (he doesn’t tell us), but he speaks, he says, “partly in defense of my own forbearers, against the charge that the creed to which they dedicated their lives is worthless and void.”

The other source of his anger is implied but never quite made explicit. He is angry, I think, at having to expend so much mental and emotional energy refuting the shallow arguments of school-yard atheists like Hitchens and Dawkins. I know just how he feels."

A Cautionary Tale

Given my education and background (MBA etc.), I am a reasonably knowledgeable reader when it comes to business and economics. Recessions come and go and, perhaps, we were about due for one. But this has been a particularly scary recession because of the problems in the financial sector. The question is this: What really triggered the world-wide financial crisis that has taken down some of the largest and, we thought, safest financial institutions? From the beginning, I thought Peter Wallison of AEI had it about right. He recently gave a speech on this topic as part of a debate with Richard Posner. It is a bit lengthy, but well worth the effort. If we are to come up with the right solutions, we need to understand and admit the causes. Here is an excerpt:

"Let's begin with some numbers that are not well known--even now. There are 25 million subprime and other non-prime mortgages outstanding, with an unpaid principal balance of over $4.5 trillion. . . . 25 million subprime and Alt-A loans amount to almost 45 percent of all single family mortgages in the United States. These subprime and Alt-A mortgages are defaulting at unprecedented rates. As these mortgages decline in value so does the capital and the financial condition of every bank and financial institution that is holding them. This includes not only US banks and financial institutions but banks and other financial institutions around the world. More than any other cause, the sharp decline in the value of these mortgages accounts for the world-wide financial collapse we are now experiencing."

Glendon says no to Notre Dame

You may have heard that Mary Ann Glendon has told Notre Dame that she will not accept its highest award, the Laetare Medal, because of the honorary degree to be given to President Obama next month and the university's presentation of her role at commencement. Here is the text of her letter. She is one of the country's most prominent Roman Catholic intellectuals. She is the Learned Hand Professor of Law at Harvard Law School.

The Wesley Report

For several years, Shayne Raynor has had a website devoted to all things Methodist. He does some posting himself, but concentrates on lots of links to Methodist news stories and analysis. I think you'll find it interesting.

Jesus Interrupted?

Bart Ehrman's newest book is out. In it, he claims to reveal the Bible's hidden contradictions and tell us why we didn't know about. We spent a little time with Ehrman's latest in my 11:00 class a few weeks ago. As with the rest of his popular writing, the book is easy to read but is misleading.

Reviews are beginning to come in. Ben Witherington has written a five(?) part series on his blog. Check it out. You'll have to look through the archived posts to read the full series, as I don't think he has collected all the parts into one place.

I'm Back!

After a long hiatus (yes, that's an understatement), I've decided to begin blogging again.

I'll be posting not only some of my thoughts and observations, I'll also be linking to helpful news and resources on the web regarding Christianity, the Bible, religion and so on. I'll also post information re upcoming events at St. Andrew that are related to our learning ministries and author series.

You might also check out the websites and blogs that I've listed on this page.

Anyway, check back once in awhile, get an RSS subscription, or sign up to follow this blog.

And I'd always like to hear from you. Just click on the "comments" at the bottom of each post.

Grace and Peace!

"The Rapture" -- yet another book

Yesterday morning Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins of Left Behind fame were on Good Morning America pushing their latest book, The Rapture. It doesn't seem like a book that ABC would promote, but perhaps it is because of the huge Left Behind sales. It frustrates me to see the continuing publicity around these books, but at least it may spur interest in my fall St. Andrew Academy class, Revelation: Cracking the Code or Why You Won't Be Left Behind.

The so-called Rapture is a recent, peculiarly American, and regrettable innovation in biblical interpretation. It was part of a biblical interpretation scheme invented by John Darby in the early 19th-Century and then popularized by the Scofield Bible and its successor, the Ryrie Study Bible. It presupposes that the Bible is a complicated puzzle, requiring that we rearrange bits and pieces in order to understand what God is telling us about Jesus' return and the consummation of God's kingdom. It turns much of the Bible into a movie script that is just waiting for someone (God, I guess) to hit the button and get everything rolling. It is as if God would give us the wrong sort of book! Frankly, the whole thing is appalling theology and misguided biblical interpretation.

Some will say that it serves a useful purpose, despite its shortcomings, because it scares people into Jesus' arms. But consider this: If the greatest commandments are to love God and love neighbor, does anyone seriously think that we can be scared into loving anyone? We might be terrified into saying the right words or acting like it. But could you scare someone into truly loving you? I don't think so.

A good book on the subject is The Rapture Exposed: The Message of Hope in the Book of Revelation by Barbara Rossing. Two more excellent books are Revelation and the End of All Things by Craig Koester and In God's Time: The Bible and the Future by Craig Hill.

The Meltdown of "Liberal Christianity"

Christ Church Episcopal is not far from St. Andrew and is one of the largest Episcopal churches in America, with more than 2,000 attending each weekend. You may have read the story in the Dallas Morning News about Christ Church's decision to disassociate from the Episcopal Church -- USA. This op-ed in the LA Times by Charlotte Allen is excellent and will help you grasp why Christ Church made such a momentous decision. There is more on Christ Church's website. Big changes lie ahead in some of the mainline denominations. Thankfully, the UMC has begun to re-embrace its Wesleyan biblical roots in the last 15 years -- though there is still much work to do.

Back to blogging!

Yikes . . . May 20 my last blog posting? I guess I let things get away from me in the lead-up to our wonderful vacation. But I'm back now and will try to get back on a regular posting schedule. Check back here in a few days.

A Friend in Deed

The May 28 Sermon Background Study, "A Friend in Deed," considers David's friendship toward Saul.

The Amalekite had expected a celebration from David, but instead David responds in unreserved and sincere grief – tearing his clothes, weeping, and fasting. David grieves for himself, for Jonathan, and all of Israel. Things may have been headed this way for a long time, but the death of God’s anointed is only an occasion for grief. Yes, good things will come of David’s ascension to the throne, but Saul’s story is still a tragedy, and David is right in the middle of it.

A Memorable Commencement

The May 21 Sermon Background Study, "A Memorable Commencement," takes a look at the book of Proverbs, imagining it as God's commencement speech.

Today, we’ll try to imagine that the book of Proverbs is a commencement address, God’s commencement address. Like most of the commencement addresses I’ve heard (and I’ve heard more than my share!), the book of Proverbs is filled with lots of good advice. Look at today’s passage: fight wickedness, be honest and prudent, don’t gossip, no payback, work hard. Pretty hard to go wrong with any of that. Indeed, wise pithy sayings are how most of us think of the book of Proverbs, but God is too good a commencement speaker to simply knit one piece of advice after another into a speech.

Always There, Always Loving

The May 14 Sermon Background Study, "Always There, Always Loving," closes out our four week series Extreme Makeover. The Scripture passage is from the book Ruth.

In the lives of Naomi and Ruth, the good purposes that God brings out of the tragedy includes what we’d probably label as ordinary and miraculous, though we shouldn’t label them as either. Sometimes, God’s work is simply more surprising than at other times. But still, the “ordinary” includes the love and friendship that develop between the two women and Naomi’s redemption. The “extraordinary” lies in Ruth’s baby, who will go on to be the grandfather of David, the great king of Israel. Large and small, God works in it all.

Extreme Transformation

The Sermon Background Study for May 7 is the third in our Extreme Makeover series. The Scripture passage is drawn from Romans as we consider one of the most extreme makeovers of all – Paul’s conversion from a violent persecutor of the church to God’s apostle to the Gentiles.

While on a trip to Damascus to round up some of the Jesus-followers, Saul was visited by Jesus. Saul saw a blinding light, fell to the ground, and was asked point-blank by Jesus, “Why do you persecute me?” At Jesus’ instructions and though temporarily blinded, Saul made his way to Damascus where a Christian named Ananias, doing himself as he was instructed by Jesus, laid hands on Saul. He was then filled with the Holy Spirit and restored to sight. (Acts 9). Saul would soon learn what God had told Ananias: Saul was the one God had chosen to take the Good News of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles.

In Spite of Ourselves

The Sermon Background Study for April 30 is the second in our Extreme Makeover series. Personal transformation is very difficult, but we can be confident that God's transformation of us proceeds in spite of ourselves. It was true with the ancient Israelites and it is true with us.

As it was with the ancient Israelites, so it is with us. Despite all our good intentions, we do what we know is unwise and sometimes hurtful. Likewise, too often we fail to do that which we know we ought to do. If our extreme makeover were left solely in our own hands, it would be doomed from the outset. Such is the power of sin.

Yet, we are not left to our own devices. Sin may still be a part of our world and of our lives, but its days are numbered. God’s victory over sin was won 2,000 years ago on a cross outside Jerusalem. The proof is this victory is Jesus’ resurrection and its power is the power of God’s Spirit.

"Are God and the Spirit the Same?"

This is a question that was e-mailed to me when we read through Mark.

After Jesus’ resurrection, his disciples had to come to grips with what had happened, who Jesus really was. As they talked and remembered and reflected, what emerged was their recognition that not only was Jesus the Jewish Messiah, he was God incarnate. This posed a problem for Jesus’ first followers, as they were all good monotheistic Jews. How could Jesus be God-made-flesh if there is only one God? And what do they make of the Comforter promised by Jesus at his last supper with the disciples (John 14:15-31)? How about this overpowering Spirit who came upon them at Pentecost (Acts 2)?

What emerges is seen in Paul’s letters, which are the oldest Christian writings we have. Throughout them, without surrendering his monotheism, Paul embraces both Jesus and the Spirit as fully and completely God, though neither is all of God. For Paul there is one God who is inherently relational; one God whose very being is a community of three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

If you go looking for a neat little formula for this in Paul (like Erasmus’ insertion of 1 John 5:7 in the 16th century) you will be disappointed. Instead, Paul’s Trinitarian understanding of God is woven throughout, embedded in his paragraphs, sentences, and phrases, such as the “Spirit of Christ.”

What does Jesus mean when he promises that where two or three believers are gathered, he will be among them (Matthew 18:20)? He can’t mean bodily for he returned to God’s dimension (“heaven”) to be with the Father (Acts 1). But surely he means that he will be with them in more than just memory or a feeling. Rather, the Spirit is God present with us and the Spirit is Christ present with us. When Paul speaks of the Spirit dwelling within us, he is speaking of Christ dwelling within us (see, for example, Romans 8:9-11).

So . . . no, God and the Spirit are not the same, in that there is more to God than the Spirit. But . . . the Spirit is fully and completely God, though not all of God.

If you ever think you have this all figured out, you can bet that you are getting something wrong! Contemplating God’s being requires humility first.

The Teacher Who Transforms

This Sunday's (April 23) Sermon Background Study begins a four-week series entitled Extreme Makeover: Life Edition. We'll be looking at transformation as we continue with our Thru the Bible project.

It is very tempting to think that we can divorce the teachings from the teacher, that the teachings are the keys to the kingdom. J. Budziszewski calls this “The Second Tablet Project.” When Moses brings down the two tablets, the first speaks to our relationship with God (no other gods, for example) while the second tablet speaks to our relationships with others (no coveting, for example). Thus, the Second Tablet Project refers to the attempt by many in our world to live according to the second of the tablets while disregarding the first – trying to live by the teachings while ignoring the teacher.

God's Future Now

The Sermon Background for Easter tries to help us see the larger story of Easter. What must it have been like of the disciples on Easter Monday?

Easter is a very public proclamation that God has acted decisively in human history to rescue us and to renew all of creation. God has called us to build for his kingdom as we confidently await its final consummation. And, thankfully, God is with us in this. God’s Spirit enables us to do the work that God has given, refreshing us in our prayers, our worship, our learning, our loving, and our serving. God’s new creation has begun and we are summoned to be part of it. Alleluia. Christ is risen indeed!

Witherington on the Gospel of Judas and on Joel Osteen

Ben Witherington has two new posts up. The first is on the Judas Gospel, which ABC has been pushing the last couple of days. The second is on Joel Osteen, the latest of the prosperity preachers.

YHWH Returns to Zion

The Sermon Background Study for Palm Sunday should help you see that Jesus enters Jerusalem not only as Messiah but also embodying YHWH’s return to Zion.

It is not just the Messiah whom the crowds welcome into the city, it is the Lord God himself. Centuries before, Ezekiel had brought to the people terrifying visions of God’s departure from the temple in Jerusalem before its burning by the Babylonians. In the centuries since, despite the rebuilding of the temple, there wasn’t really any sign that God had returned. The Jews still awaited the fulfillment of God’s promise: “See, I am sending a messenger to prepare the way before me, and the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple” (Malachi 3:1). What must the crowds of followers have thought when, on Monday, Jesus didn’t head for the Antonia Fortress to confront the Romans but to the temple, where he would invoke the words of Jeremiah pronouncing judgment on the people and their temple. A couple of decades later, long before the writing of any of the Gospels, Paul would describe the body of Christ as God’s temple, as well as each individual believer (see 1 Corinthians 3:16-17 & 6:19-20).

Self-sufficiency?

I was taught to be self-reliant, always ready to “pull myself up by the bootstraps.”  Many of us are.  Understood correctly, self-reliance is a good thing.  Paul supported himself with his skills as a tent-maker rather than relying on others for financial support.  He was committed to his ministry and knew that he couldn’t stand by and leave it up to others.

But as we are inclined to do in all things, too often we turn a healthy self-reliance into an unhealthy self-sufficiency.  We forget that we actually need others.  We forget that just as God is inherently relational, so are we.  We are not independent of others, we are dependent upon them to help us realize our purpose and to teach us about love.  God does not call us to some sort of self-sufficient isolation, but to community and fellowship.

Indeed, much of the biblical story is devoted to shaking us out of our misguided self-sufficiency and self-centeredness.  The long story of God and his people makes us realize that we are dependent upon God, that it is he who strengthens us and enables us to accomplish all that we do.

What do we make of the Psalms?

In a recent book, Philip Yancey confesses that for much of his life he had little use for the Psalms.  He saw Christians around him use the Psalms as some sort of spiritual medicine cabinet – “depressed? read Psalm 37; failing health? read Psalm 121.”  This was an approach that never worked for him.  He always seemed to land on the wrong sort of Psalm!  Yancey came to realize that he was approaching the Psalms the same way he approached Paul’s letters or the stories of the Old Testament.  But the Psalms are different.

All of the Bible -- the stories, the histories, the letters, the poems, the proverbs, all of it – is God’s word for the people of God, as we proclaim each time scripture is read during worship at St. Andrew.  But the Bible is also the spiritual journal of God’s people.  It is our story of our relationship with God -- all the hopes, all the troubles, all the joys, and all the disappointments.  You can best appreciate the Psalms if you think of each one as a mini-spiritual journal, a letter written by one of God’s children.  Thus, the Psalms reflect the full range of human emotions.  Sometimes the psalmist (the journal writer!) is filled with boundless joy, but at other times the psalmist is sad or angry.  It is all here.  To get some sense of what I mean, read Psalm 22 (“My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?”) and then Psalm 23 (“The Lord is my shepherd”).  Could there be a stronger contrast?  Here is another example.  Read Psalm 102 (“my bones burn like glowing embers”) and then read Psalm 103, from which today’s scripture is taken.  Psalm 103 is a majestic hymn of praise without even a hint of darkness.

It surprises many Christians to learn that the New Testament writers quoted more from the Book of Psalms than from any other Old Testament book.  But, like them, we need to make these ancient Hebrew prayers our own.  Yancey writes, “Psalms, located in the exact center of the Bible, gives us a comprehensive record of life with God through individually fashioned accounts of how the spiritual life works.  I come to the psalms not primarily as a student wanting knowledge, but rather as a fellow pilgrim wanting to acquire relationship.”

What are the psalms?

We are reading a psalm a day right now in our Bible reading plan. I’ve been asked – “What are the psalms?”

Psalms is a book of Hebrew poetry compiled over many centuries.  Some Psalms are emotional, others are instructive.  Some sing words of praise, others are songs of lament or even anger.  I love Philip Yancey’s description of the Psalms as “spirituality in every key.”  He means that every emotion you will ever have in your own walk with God can be found in these ancient poems.  They express our deepest yearnings and hopes.  David, the boy shepherd who went on to be Israel’s greatest king, wrote many of the Psalms.  The Bible tells us that David “was a man after God’s own heart” and his Psalms take us inside David’s heart.  Sometimes David can hardly contain the joy he feels in his relationship with God.  Yet, at other times, he can hardly contain his sadness at the depth of his own sin.  Such are the Psalms.  Reading them is to take a journey of the human heart.  These are Israel’s prayers and ours.

"Give Me Your Tired, Your Poor"

The Sermon Background study for April 1 and 2 takes a look at the remarkable calls to generosity and social justice that we find sprinkled throughout Deuteronomy.

A member of our congregation wrote me this week after reading the book of Numbers: “I must tell you, though, that I was really bothered by reading Numbers and about the slaughter of the Midianites. I understand why Moses advocates killing the men and the sinful women. However, why does he say to kill all of the boys as well? And God condones this? This is troublesome.”

Who among us isn’t troubled by such stories? And there is more to come as we read through Joshua, Judges, Samuel and the rest. Some of these stories are so shocking and troubling that they can blind us to the message that we ought to hear in these books.

It is very hard for us to comprehend just how different the world of the ancient Near East was from our own. Life was brutal, short, and cheap. It was a world in which “an eye for an eye” was moral progress. Abraham isn’t shocked when God tells him to sacrifice Isaac because child sacrifice was practiced by some of the cultures in and around Canaan. Only half-jokingly, I suggest to my students that they try to imagine the world of Conan the Barbarian!

If we imagine well, if we really come to grips with life in the ancient world, then we’ll find that it is not the bloodshed that shocks us. Rather, we are surprised by God’s demands for compassion, generosity, and justice for even the weakest persons. The community of God’s people was to be dramatically different from any community, society, or culture the world had yet seen.

"The Heart of the Law"

The Sermon Background Study for March 25 and 26 takes is drawn from Deuteronomy 6:1-9. The study is a brief primer on the Law.

When we come to the Law, we cannot remind ourselves too often that it is summed up in God’s teachings that we are to love God and one another in all that we say and do, in things large and small, whether it is our lifelong friend or our most despised enemy. As disciples of Jesus Christ we are called to follow his example, leading lives of sacrificial love.

"Do Our Beliefs Really Matter?"

The Sermon Background Study for March 18 and 19, takes a look at Paul’s letter to the Galatians and considers whether what we believe really matters.

Galatia was an area in ancient Asia Minor (modern-day Turkey) visited by Paul on his first missionary journey in the late 40’s AD. Paul’s success in Galatia was largely among the pagans, not the Jews (4:8-9). Many Galatian pagans believed the Gospel and were baptized into the body of Christ. After Paul’s departure, the Christian communities in Galatia were “running a good race” (5:7) until some people came to the communities teaching and preaching a gospel that differed from that taught by Paul. This set the stage for a confrontation. So far as Paul was concerned, there simply was no other Gospel than the one that he had brought to the Galatians. The question for us is this: what is the problem and how could it matter so much?

"Decisions, Decisions"

The Sermon Background Study for March 11 and 12 took a look at the Israelites' rebellion and retreat in the wilderness (Numbers 14).

But, of course, being shaped into God’s people meant they were being shaped for responsibility. They were to be the ones through whom God would restore all of humanity to a right relationship with God. God led them from Mt. Sinai to the borders of Canaan so that the Israelites might move into the land that God had promised to Abraham centuries before. Yet despite all that had happened, the people seemed plagued by fears, doubts, and anxieties. Sometimes they went so far as to wish they were still back in Egypt. Far from being responsible people, ready to trust God in all things, time and again they quickly forgot about their escape from Pharaoh and even the food God had rained down upon them from heaven (Exodus 16). They could see only the unknowns ahead and embrace only their own fears.

Back from Spring Break!

We are back from a few days in San Antonio. With the Spring Bible Academy Session beginning the week of March 27, it is great to get back into something like a normal routine. Will Bill's illness and passing, things have been pretty topsy-turvy in our home for awhile.

I've failed to post links to the most recent background studies, but I'll do that this morning.

Earthly and heavenly sanctuaries (Hebrews 8)

In Hebrews 8:3-5, the author talk about how the priests provide only a hint of what goes on in the true sanctuary of heaven, and how God said “Be careful to do it exactly as you saw it on the Mountain.” What do you think this means? I am assuming that he was talking about all the animal sacrifices. Why is it so important to do it exactly as God says in Leviticus.

In the biblical view, there is the earthly realm/dimension (I'm sitting in it now) and the heavenly (God's space/dimension; where Jesus is sitting right now . . . unless he is standing or laying down!). For the ancient Jews, the Temple was the place where these two realms/dimensions met -- literally. When the High Priest stepped into the Holiest of Holies, the High Priest was stepping into heaven/God's space/dimension.

In Exodus, when God gives Moses the instructions on the building of the tabernacle, God also allows Moses to peek into the heavenly realm and see the real thing (the heavenly tabernacle) so that the copy on earth could be as exact as possible.

Much of Hebrews is spent building up Jewish believers. They have chosen well in choosing Jesus. The old priests were good but Jesus is better. The old tabernacle/temple was good but the real thing (in the heavenly realm) is better. The old covenant was good but the new covenant is better.

In all this, Moses and the Jews and we are not to mistake the copy for the real thing. It isn't that the copy is bad, it just not the real thing. Our hope lies not in the copy but in God's truest reality.

Isn't Hebrews a challenging book! I'm sure it is because none of us know and understand our Old Testament as we should.

The death of Aaron's sons (Lev. 10)

I was quite disturbed by God’s killing Aaron’s two sons after they offered the “strange fire” when in addition to the sacrifices that God required.  What do you think was the “strange fire” and why did God kill them?

Most readers are troubled by the killing of Aaron's two sons. The "strange fire" is simply a wrongly offered sacrifice. The NRSV has "unholy fire" and the NIV has "unauthorized fire." I think that both translations get the point.

Why is God's holiness dangerous? Why can't the people even touch the mountain of God? Why does God not want to travel with his people for fear that they will sin and his holiness will consume them? At times, it seems that God's consuming holiness is not a conscious act on God's part but simply what happens when the unholy meets the holy -- perhaps like antimatter and matter.

Donald Gowan's book, The Theology of Exodus, really opened my eyes about the many and varied OT, as well as some NT, depictions of a "dangerous" God and the non-ration aspects of God, the "numinous" as Otto put it. When we talked about some of these passages in my staff covenant group, Jay Cousino reminded me of a line from C.S. Lewis' Narnia. When the children ask if Aslan the lion is safe, they are told "He is good, but he is not safe."

Bill Merz has passed on

I won't be posting until next week. My wife's brother-in-law, Bill Merz, died this morning after a long fight with cancer. His memorial service will be Monday in Atlanta. He will be much missed by his family and countless friends. Bill was one of the most Christ-like people I've had the privilege to know. He knew his Lord as few people do. Now, Bill is with his Lord. We take great comfort in that . . . as we should. Please keep the Merz family in your prayers.

Something we need to "unlearn"

There is a long-standing misconception among Christians about the Pharisees1 and the Law. Many of us were taught mistakenly that the Pharisees led the Jews in an effort to keep every detail of God’s Law so that they would be made right with God (or, as Christians often put it, so that they could earn their way into heaven).

But the Jews did not suppose that their behavior could make them right with God. For the Jews, God’s great act of salvation was the Exodus from slavery in Egypt . . . and the Exodus happened before God gave the Law to Moses on Mt. Sinai. The order here is crucial. It was salvation and then the Law; not, the Law and then salvation. Grace, then law. For the Jews, keeping God’s Law (his instructions about how to live in right relationship with God) was what ought to follow God’s acts of grace. By his grace, God had given them the covenant and the law. The proper and thankful response was to keep the covenant and obey the law.

In laying down his challenge to live as New Covenant people, Jesus was neither calling his disciples to a new standard of morality nor abandoning the Law they had been given. He was calling them to a renewed understanding that God’s law was, and is, grounded in love, forgiveness, and mercy.

1. There were perhaps only 6,000 or so Pharisees in Jesus’ day. Despite their small numbers, they wielded enormous influence as they were seen by most Jews to be the spiritual leaders of Israel, the keepers of God’s Law. Paul, the apostle of Christ, was a Pharisee.

What do you desire?

We live as we desire to live. Even if we are burdened by bad choices we once made or by circumstances thrust upon us, the biblical view is that we live the sort of life that we wish to live. But there is a BIG problem here: though we are made in God’s image, we do not naturally desire God nor the things of God. It is this lack of desire for God that underlies all the biblical talk about new hearts, new selves, new clothes, new creation, and the rest.

We sometimes use words such as “conversion” to describe this change of heart, this newly found desire for God. For without this rebirth, this renewal of our hearts, we will not live as God’s New Covenant people. We won’t even want to. Paul understood that in establishing new churches, he was really running around founding colonies of a new human race – a race with hearts turned toward God!

Christians often put too much emphasis on the timing of this rebirth. In truth, most Christians couldn’t tell you the moment of their rebirth. (John Wesley thought he could, but then six months later told his brother he wasn’t so sure!) I know that I could not. But I do know that today, I desire God. I want to walk in God’s way, to live today and every day in a manner that is pleasing to God . . . and I pray every day that God will hold me close and keep the flame of desire burning strong.

If we are to embrace Jesus’ challenge, if we are to live as God’s New Covenant people, then we must desire it. Such desire cannot be found within us, it is a gift from God. It is a gift that we can pray for every day. Perhaps even the desire to pray for desire is a sign of our own rebirth.

Already/Not yet

The March 5 Sermon Background Study takes us back to the New Testament's already/not yet perspective. The Kingdom of God has come already, but not yet. Both are true. Grasping this perspective is enormously helpful, even essential, to grasping much of Paul. This is another of the "ands" of the Christian faith, as in God is three and one. Our faith is built on these "ands," not on "ors."

I wrote something on this a few years ago for our adult classes. You might find it helpful.

Drawing Nearer to God

The Sermon Background Study for March 4 and 5 is drawn from Hebrews. We explore both the atoning death of Jesus as the sacrifice to end all sacrifices, as well as the meaning and practice of Lent.

Lent is about the intentional practice of drawing nearer to God. You might ask whether we ought to be doing that every day of the year. Of course we should, but we don’t. Or at least most of us don’t. Lent is a period of forty days when we discipline ourselves in ways that we probably would not sustain for the rest of the year. It might be more time set aside for daily Bible reading or prayer. We might fast regularly or meditate. We might care for others in new ways. Lent is about the dramatic rearrangement of our priorities. We desire to come to Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter standing as close to God as we can get, clear of all the anxieties, worries, and commitments that take us away from God.

Shadows

The Sermon Background Study for Feb 25 and 26 is drawn from Leviticus and explores the sacrificial system as a foreshadowing of Jesus’ death.

I bet you never thought you’d hear Leviticus chapter 1 read from the pulpit. Chances are you never have before and never will again. The only reading from Leviticus in the Revised Common Lectionary is from chapter 19, regarding loving one’s neighbor. In contrast, what we are reading today is just . . . well . . . gross. There is nothing in our lives that prepares us for this, no point of reference. In fact, like the preparers of the Lectionary, we’d probably prefer to skip it, seeing nothing here of value for our own day, our own lives. But when we commit to reading through the Bible, we don’t get to skip parts. This is all Scripture, inspired by God and given to us so that we might come to know God. Granted, though all Scripture is equally inspired, it is not all equally useful. But, surprisingly, even in passages like today’s, we can find important insights into God’s nature and our own.

Decompressing God

For many years, I tried to squeeze God into a small corner of my life. I tried to compress him into a tidy package that I could control and that would not interfere with my “real” life. I went to church, taught Sunday School from time to time, served on various committees, and sang in the choir. But my faith was shallow, it had no roots. I can’t ever really remember asking myself – what would God want me to do?

Only now, am I really beginning to understand how short-changed I was all those years! Yes, there is the “real” world that I can see and touch and smell. But every bit as real is the present-but-still-coming kingdom of God. Only now am I beginning to understand the writer of Hebrews: “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen” (11:1). Of course, the truth is that I’m surrounded by stuff I can see and touch and smell. It takes some effort to hang on to the reality of God and his kingdom.

So, as Moses taught more than 3,000 years ago, we immerse ourselves in God. We “decompress” God . . . we let him fill every part of our lives . . .  through worship and prayer and service and caring and study. We help each other in this, for we shouldn’t delude ourselves that it is easy. Christians have taken off for the desert or a mountaintop to try to stay centered upon God. We seek to remember God as we live out our exceedingly busy and frantic lives. Nonetheless, no less than the ancient Israelites, we strive to build our lives around the fullness of God.

The truth about sin

I remember leaving a St. Andrew worship service about six years ago at which I overheard a young woman say to her friend, “There was simply too much talk about sin today. That was such a downer.” Ok . .  .those may not have been her exact words. I don’t think young people actually use the word “downer” anymore. But her point was clear to me.

Sin may be a “downer” but if Christians are anything, we are realists. Rose-colored glasses have no place in our pockets. Sin is real and its presence explains a great deal about ourselves and our world. The problem when we begin to talk about sin is that it is commonly misunderstood.

We tend to think of sin only as the breaking of a rule, as if we might look back over our day and count the sins we committed. But this is not the best way to go about understanding sin.

Sin is whatever separates us from God. Sin is whatever diminishes the image of God in us all. Sin is whatever keeps us from functioning as God intended. Sin is our brokenness . . . and we are all broken . . . and we are often too blind to even know it.

Adam, Eve, you, and I were all created by God so that we might love God and one another. When we chase after false gods or dishonor our parents or covet our neighbor’s house or commit adultery, we are separated further and further from God. Adam and Eve, giving in to their pride and desiring to be like gods themselves, chose to follow their own way rather than God’s way. And the result was that God came to walk with them in the evening and Adam hid from God! Separation.

In the biblical worldview, Adam and Eve’s choice is still with us. They ran from God, causing a tragic rip in the relationship between God and humanity. It is as if their bad choice passed on to us a flaw in our moral DNA, a flaw that we cannot fully heal ourselves, but must be healed by God. This is the truth about sin.

The Message//Remix

I and many other Christians have tried reading through the Bible before. We usually began with Genesis and planned on reading straight through to Revelation. Many of us would sail right on through Genesis and Exodus, though we might bog down a bit in all the details about the tabernacle and the priests’ garments.

But then we’d hit Leviticus . . . and then Numbers . . . and then Deuteronomy. There is a lot here that would test our resolve – look at Leviticus 1! And if we persisted, Chronicles and the prophets lay not far down the road.

The reading plan we are using this year is a help. But I am also supplementing my reading from the NRSV in the Renovare Spiritual Formation Bible with Eugene Peterson’s The Message, a paraphrase of the Bible in contemporary language. I’m finding that Peterson helps me to make better sense of some of the more difficult (dare I say boring). The “Remix” is an inexpensive edition of The Message with verse-numbered paragraphs.

I am particularly enjoying Peterson’s rendering of the psalms. I’ll confess that I’ve always had trouble connecting with the psalms. They never spoke to my heart or, to put it better, my heart was tone-deaf to many of the psalms. I’ve found that Peterson’s paraphrases help me to connect with the feelings of the psalmists as I never have before.

The Message//Remix is my March book recommendation. You shouldn’t replace your NRSV/NIV/TNIV translations with Peterson’s paraphrase, but I do think that you will be blessed if you use The Message to supplement your Bible reading this year.

Forty?

The number 40 comes up lots in the Bible. What's its significance?

Living in a world without clocks, the ancients did not share our obsession with precise timekeeping and chronology. "Forty" days or years is not a precise figure. Rather, it describes a relatively long time. The Bible tells us that the Israelites wandered in the wilderness for forty years because we are to grasp that they wandered for a long time -- long enough for an entire generation to die off. It rains on Noah and the ark for forty days and nights because it rained for a long time, long enough to flood the earth.

"Fortys" are typically associated with periods of hardship or affliction. Forty days is how long Ezekiel lies on his side to symbolize the punishment of Judah. Moses fasts forty days on Mt. Sinai.

Sometimes the connection of "fortys" is obvious. Jesus spending forty days in the wilderness is surely meant to evoke the Israelites wandering in the wilderness. Jesus' responses to Satan in the wilderness are quotes from Deuteronomy's references to the wilderness experience.

Numbers that appear frequently in the Bible have symbolic meaning. In the case of "forty" it is most often symbolizing a long period of time.

A Promise Kept

This week's Sermon Background Study takes a look at the conversion of Cornelius, a Roman Centurion, as told in Acts 10 and 11.

It is difficult for us to grasp the enormity of the controversy surrounding Peter’s baptism of Cornelius. In the minds of many fellow Jews, Peter shouldn’t have eaten with the Gentiles much less have baptized them into the body of Christ. Yet, Peter rightly realized that he could not stand in God’s way on this. He went to Jerusalem to explain himself to the leaders of the Christian community. Later, there would be a conference in Jerusalem on this very question – must Gentile men seeking entrance into the community of believers first be circumcised . . . and avoid pork . . . and keep the Sabbath . . . and so on.

Were the first Christians communists?

Were the first Christians communists?
I invariably get a question something like this whenever I teach the opening chapters of Acts. We read about their having “all things in common” with no claims of private ownership and we imagine Moscow, not Jerusalem.
There are three directly relevant passages in Acts: Acts 2:42-47, 4:32-37 and the story of Ananias and Sapphira in chapter 5.

First, the TNIV translation that “No one claimed that any of their possessions were their own” is better than the NRSV, “no one claimed private ownership of any possessions.” As Jews, the believers knew that the world and everything in it is God’s and we are merely stewards. God is the owner; we are the trustees.

Second, the process of selling possessions to raise money is on-going, not completed: “they would sell their possessions and goods” (2:45). Even 4:35 can be read “for as many as owned lands or houses sold them as needed and brought all the proceeds of what was sold.”

But most important, the ambiguities in Luke’s grammar are cleared up by the events. What is the point of noting Barnabas’ generosity, if selling the field is something that he is required to do? Even more to the point, when Ananias lies to Peter about having turned over all the proceeds of a sale, Peter’s replies, “Didn’t it belong to you before it was sold? After it was sold, wasn’t the money at your disposal? What made you think of doing such a thing? You have not lied just to human beings but to God.”

In all these passages, Luke wants us to see that the transformed hearts of the believers has resulted in their recognizing that all they own is to be shared as needed, that this is what it means to be good trustees of God’s world. There was simply to be no needy persons among them and from what we know of the early church in its first centuries, the Christians did a remarkable job of living this out.

Winning at Money

This week's Sermon Background Study takes a look at the first Christian community in Jerusalem. What does Luke mean when he says that they held all things in common? We also consider our own abundance -- what it might mean to make do with more.

I know that there are those in our congregation who struggle to make do with less. But a quick trip around our parking lot, or those of our nearby schools, reveals that for many of us, the problem is making do with more. In a recent article,[1] Tim Stafford notes that while our abundance creates limitless possibilities for our lives, too many of us lack any signposts pointing us in the right direction. The field is open but we are not sure where to head, so we are frozen in place or drift as the breezes blow. Stafford is also correct that this is a much bigger issue for the children of boomers than for the boomers themselves, who may not have grown up around the abundance we enjoy now.

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[1]from “Making Do With More” in the Feb 2006 issue of Christianity Today. Stafford’s question for us is this: In an age of abundance, how do we survive with our souls intact? You can find the article on-line at www.christianitytoday.com. Search for the article name.

Slow blogging!!

My apologies for the slow blogging pace this week. I know I've got quite a backlog of questions to get to. My wife, Patti, has been away for a week and a half helping her sister and brother-in-law, who is fighting late-stage cancer. So Robby and I have been on our own. In addition, I'm preaching at 9:30 and 11:00 this Sunday. So bear with me, I'll pick up the pace as I am able.

Winning at School

This week's Sermon Background Study is titled "Winning at School." We take a look at Christian learning and the meaning of "disciple." There is also an extended text box on the question of whether the God of the Old Testament is also the God of the New Testament.

Read again Proverbs 1:7. This “fear-of-the-Lord” is not about being terrified of God. It is the English translation of a two-word Hebrew phrase that refers to genuine awe-filled reverence for God. This is where true wisdom and the knowledge that really matters begins. God is our teacher, showing us how to be all that our loving God hopes we will be.