tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22261594377582425522024-03-14T05:44:59.008-07:00Too Much Love - A Nathanael & Kyle BlogTwo Men. One Mission: Serve Jesus better, together. And then blog about it. Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13882771326518337537noreply@blogger.comBlogger35125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2226159437758242552.post-40283998308568719032017-01-26T08:11:00.000-08:002017-01-26T08:11:20.705-08:00New President. Same Jesus. <div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">New Year. Same Person. Details change. But the themes are the same.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It’s simple really, the details change but the themes are the same. As we welcome (or anti-welcome) the beginning of a new federal administration in American politics we have to ask ourselves what is the role of Christianity in the public life. Donald Trump is a new face, a new ideology, and represented a marked change from the Obama era. Yet, things are not really that different. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">2,000 years ago, Jesus was asked what to do in regards to taxes. His answer, as was often the case, was both simple and profound, easy to implement but had far-reaching ramifications: </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“</span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Then the Pharisees went out and laid plans to trap him in his words.</span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">They sent their disciples to him along with the Herodians. “Teacher,” they said, “we know that you are a man of integrity and that you teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. You aren’t swayed by others, because you pay no attention to who they are. Tell us then, what is your opinion? Is it right to pay the imperial tax[</span><a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+22:15-22#fen-NIV-23890a" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #b34b2c; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">a</span></a><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">] to Caesar or not?”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">But Jesus, knowing their evil intent, said, “You hypocrites, why are you trying to trap me? </span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Show me the coin used for paying the tax.” They brought him a denarius,</span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">and he asked them, “Whose image is this? And whose inscription?”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Caesar’s,” they replied.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Then he said to them, “So give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.” Matthew 22:15-22</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Give to God what is God’s and to Caesar what is Caesar’s. Simple concept, profound and far-reaching implications. Join this together with Jesus’ testimony to Pontius Pilate that “My Kingdom is not of this world. If My Kingdom were of this world, My servants would have been fighting, that I might not be delivered over to the Jews. But My Kingdom is not from the world” (John 18:36, ESV). </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">God’s is God’s. Caesar’s is Caesar’s. The Kingdom of Heaven is not of this world. These concepts are simple to describe, as it is, but what are the implications of where they lead us?</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The theme’s are the same even though leaders change. Early Christians (and Jesus HIMSELF!) protested corrupt government, yet they were not obsessed with government of this world. They understood that their purpose was to give their due to God. To give what had God’s image to God; the same as they paid taxes with the coins that bear the image of Caesar so they lived a life that paid gratitude to the one whose image they beared--God’s. </span></div>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In a few weeks, I am going to expand on and talk about this topic. If you journey with me, we will consider how though the details of life change, the themes are the same. Our mission as Christians transcends the beginning (or end!) of any federal administration. </span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13882771326518337537noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2226159437758242552.post-71341014217929621512015-02-13T19:50:00.000-08:002015-02-13T19:50:03.586-08:00The Authorship of God: Rethinking God as Creator. <span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">One evening, I was writing a list of things that I was thankful for and I didn't get very far:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">1-God made the universe. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">And that is where I was stuck for the next 10 minutes. At the core of Christian theology is the belief that God can be neither created nor destroyed. We ask the obvious question, "Who made God?" Our belief, founded on scripture, replies back, "No One made God." </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">That realization, for the first time ever, made me nervous. I almost had a panic attack. I kid you not. Because I immediately linked those thoughts together with the Apostle Paul's quote of </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px;">Epimenides and</span><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> Aratus, greek intellectuals, in Acts 17:28 where he says "</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 24px;">For in Him we live, and move, and have our being; as also certain of your own poets have said, ‘For we are also His offspring.’" (KJ21). </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="line-height: 24px;">And this is where the panic struck, if God is created by no one and we are His offspring and draw our existence from Him, God did not create us out of nothing. No, He fashioned us and the whole universe from Himself. Indeed, the universe is infused with His very essence and power. </span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="line-height: 24px;">Let's pause. This is not pantheism. God is not in the trees, the trees are in God and are fashioned from power and order which have to come from God. Science says the universe is naturally disordered, Christianity believes God provides the source of order. So, we all live and move, in a sense, within God. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="line-height: 24px;">Which leads me to my point: God as Author. The Bible describes God as Creator, referring to how He made the world. However, I wonder if it's useful to think of God as Author, He does not create from nothing--instead He pulls from Himself to make and sustain life and everything that that entails. Indeed, in Him we live and breathe and have our being. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="line-height: 24px;">I looked up that phrase in the Greek, can you guess what it means? More or less what it means in English. The only thing that is somewhat complex is the phrase "have our being" which is from the Greek word "esmen." Esmen is best translated as "we are." Remind you of anything? Perhaps Hamlet's "To be or not to be" </span></span>soliloquy?<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="line-height: 24px;"> This question of existence and who we rely on for existence permeates scripture. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="line-height: 24px;">Consider Moses and God conversation where Moses asks God, in a polite way, who are you/where can I claim my power as a prophet is coming? God's answer is complex in it's simplicity: </span></span><span style="background-color: #fdfeff; color: #001320; font-family: Trebuchet, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; text-align: justify;"> </span><span style="background-color: #fdfeff; color: #001320; font-family: Trebuchet, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; text-align: justify;">"I AM WHO I AM. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: 'I AM has sent me to you.'" Exodus 3:14 (NIV). </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="line-height: 24px;">God has no reference point outside of Himself. No one made Him. The universe is sustained by His power and only exists because He uses part of Himself to give it order. So, all of life is infused with the essence of God. Part of God is concerned with allowing that lily of the field to be beautifully robed and part of Him is concerned with the joining of the sperm and egg that will be the next child conceived on earth. </span></span><br />
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God as Author shapes us and molds us by the power of His Word. His Logos. Through the gift of the Living Word, who became flesh and dwelt among us.<br /><br />To be continued. . .Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13882771326518337537noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2226159437758242552.post-29666541031375411252014-04-20T21:16:00.000-07:002014-04-20T21:39:33.636-07:00Surprise <br />
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We arrived at my friend Bryn's (he is a boy) parents' house on the thankfully-warmer-than-expected Easter Sunday afternoon, ready to carpool out of state for an Easter dinner. Bryn and his wife were housesitting for his parents - and somewhere in the house there was a surprise, an Easter basket his parents had left for them. Bryn's wife, Mollie, was determined to find it. Most of the house had been searched twice, and desperate text messages back to mother-in-law had afforded a few clues. But it was nowhere to be found. As we drove to New Hampshire, a creeping pessimism lurked and we joked that maybe the basket didn't really exist; this alone would explain its complete impossibility to locate. Seeing how preoccupied Mollie especially was with finding the basket, I made it my mission to bring it up throughout the day, just to annoy them both. That is, until I began to worry that the threats to make me walk back to Massachusetts were serious.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBY8M3i-oaObCcteGCxaTj8QQB5Eew5yiXQMXEl3D_mhXCD315jTxISYoQRjmuo4Gpus6XC8R-3f-l10VptHbOI3gh2vpt1V10DU06FL-Brl4nwbw3tEeZBa-fCcGdO9ReD-0R9O9T8fM/s1600/3286229563_bb143c50b3_m.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBY8M3i-oaObCcteGCxaTj8QQB5Eew5yiXQMXEl3D_mhXCD315jTxISYoQRjmuo4Gpus6XC8R-3f-l10VptHbOI3gh2vpt1V10DU06FL-Brl4nwbw3tEeZBa-fCcGdO9ReD-0R9O9T8fM/s1600/3286229563_bb143c50b3_m.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Credit: <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/ronnie44052/3286229563/in/photolist-61oMyp-5t3Mnz-5t3Sjt-9AEGvQ-7QTtDt-7QTtUx-7QWKjQ-7QTtce-cJJjF-7QuXgy-bJRm5p-ndMEVS-9BfQxU-9BqRdW-5LESTo-6a9uD4-66XswK-6ad9bq-6evNtF-5TAt4V-5P2zuf-bLJ8ci-54vAqq-9ExHdR-9ExGLX-9C15aD-4AdWsP-6hVJVi-8hJTn-64MQX5-55VLoB-55ZQz9-5LNHED-672P8w-ev7Hqv-55VLmi-569ihu-55VFyz-566TTQ-55ZTdo-4EarG9-562GRX-4U8gGc-5sfc5G-5Mdcrm-5ghJmq-5gdokg-5Z1qnD-7QsqK6-5RYtGv" target="_blank">Ronnie44052 on Flickr</a></td></tr>
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I live most of my life somewhere between extreme optimism and extreme pessimism. There are surprises I look for in my life, and the longer they don't show up, my dual emotions of pessimism and optimism become more intense. I begin to doubt that the surprise will ever come, yet my longing continues to occupy my mind without fail. I fear, I hope. But the further they push, the more they they morph into nothing more than an obsessive disappointment. I keep longing for something I don't believe, deep down, I'm going to find.<br />
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But my Easter weekend was filled with lots of little surprises.<br />
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On Saturday night, I felt the emptiness of not having had the opportunity to go to any worship services throughout Holy Week. A surprising impulse overwhelmed me. Seeing as it was going to be a clear, star-filled, night, I suggested the organization of an impromptu Easter vigil under the stars with seminary classmates. I don't typically expect my whimsical ideas to become reality. I hope for them to, I long for them to, but I also realize that many of my spontaneous ideas are often unrealistic. But, to my delight, a faithful gathering of willing guitar-players, Scripture-readers, and worshipers, materialized. And we had a beautiful evening. I began to feel hope in my bones for the first time in a long time - hope for the sins, failures, burdens, I'd been carrying and had begun to feel so heavy. We celebrated the power of the resurrection breaking in the midst of darkness, and I remembered that this dead-filled life could know surprise. Surprise.<br />
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I made another spontaneous decision. I said yes to an invitation to go to a sunrise service on the beach. At 6 AM. The churches sponsoring the service were local churches I had never heard of, from denominations that are more-often-than-not quite liberal, especially in New England. But we sang simple, beautiful, hymns full of Gospel truth. The sermon was given by a woman. And despite my rather outspoken opinions in favor of full equality between men women in ministry, I often ashamed to find an old unfair bias that a woman, especially from this particular denomination, was likely to be quite liberal. But she preached forcefully and with conviction about the necessity of believing that Christ had truly risen, that the miracles of Scripture are trustworthy, and how this reality must radically transform our lives. Here in 'liberal,' 'godless,' New England, from the mouths of pastors not on the unofficial list of churches part of the Evangelical culture surrounding my school, I heard the Gospel preached. Surprise.<br />
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I don't usually have many friends to sit with at my church. The church I attend here in New England is small, and reeling from a severe split several years ago that left it pretty shook up. For a variety of reasons, it's hard to get to know people there, and only one or two friends from school go to this church, and we usually don't go to the same services. Today, my carpool buddy had to work in the nursery, so I expected a lonely Easter Sunday. To my great delight and surprise, my friend Julie on staff at the seminary (a fellow Tennessean who glows with all the southern goodness I miss from home) decided on a whim to visit my church. It was nice to have someone to share Easter service with. Surprise.<br />
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There are many surprises I'm looking for in my life, and I wonder when I'm going to find them. I wonder when Saturday will turn to Sunday. This weekend, I had a few very quiet, simple, tiny, reminders that surprises happen. Hope peeks its head around the corner from time to time, from places we don't expect. There is a God who loves to fill the world with surprises.<br />
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And because of these little surprises, my heart was softened to ponder anew the great surprise of the resurrection. The great surprise that death turned to life, that God has come to put everything to right again. And because of this surprise, I can have hope in all the surprises I'm looking for but haven't found yet.<br />
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There are so many tombs inside of me. Tombs of my own past, my own present, my fears for the future. Tombs of my desires for other people or other parts of the world - for friends who are suffering, or countries filled with war. When will anything come out of those tombs? Are there any Easter baskets to be found here? I hope for a yes, and I fear a no. But I look to the resurrection, and hope bursts up from the ground again.<br />
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I would be remiss if I did not note the fact that this is a rare occasion in which the Eastern and Western Easter days fall on the same Sunday. I hope so much for a Church more truly united. I'm pessimistic about this hope, but I desire it so badly. But I am reminded, that if God could raise a man from the dead, He can unite His Church by the power of that same resurrection. I hope and pray that our shared commitment to the resurrected Christ could lead us on side-by-side. We share one joy, one victory, one baptism, one Spirit, one Father, one Risen Son - the world needs the Gospel we proclaim, much more than it needs our fighting and our disagreements. May the necessary humility start with me. May the Lord surprise us all. Because He is risen, I believe it can happen.<br />
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Children dying, families breaking, diseases ravaging, sins enslaving, Satan scheming, lies persuading, wars raging, wicked prospering, and the innocent losing. Truth is silenced, and enemies kick the innocent while they're down. I have hope, and fear. Optimism and pessimism. I want to find surprises, I want to find Easter baskets, I want to find resurrection in these things. In me, in others, in the world. But I lose my hope. I lose my wonder. I stop believing that the Easter basket can be found, that the dead could walk with life.<br />
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But because He lives, I can face tomorrow. And I believe that, somehow, someway, somewhere, that darned Easter basket will be found. Maybe not tomorrow, maybe not in this life. But there is reason to hope. Because He is risen. I'm ready to be surprised. I'm ready to drop these obsessive pessimisms and live with hope. To believe in miracles. To walk with the freedom of hope. To believe that I will rise out of the grave, on the other side of all my fears and failures. That the love of Christ will never let me go, and I will rise into the air with Him, and my feet will never again set foot on the cursed ground from whence sprang all our angst and pain, but walk in a new heavens and a new earth with my risen Lord.<br />
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"O Death, where is your sting? O Hell, where is your victory? Christ is risen, and you are overthrown. Christ is risen, and the demons are fallen. Christ is risen, and the angels rejoice. Christ is risen, and life reigns. Christ is risen, and not one dead remains in the grave. For Christ, being risen from the dead, is become the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep."</div>
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<i>St. John Chrysostom - Paschal Sermon</i></div>
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Oh love, don't let me go</div>
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Won't you take me where the street lights glow?</div>
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I can hear rain coming like a serenade of sound</div>
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Now my feet won't touch the ground</div>
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Gravity, release me</div>
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And don't ever hold me down</div>
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Now my feet won't touch the ground</div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14561352796505791092noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2226159437758242552.post-25742639906242435442014-04-18T08:01:00.001-07:002014-04-18T08:44:02.313-07:00Forsaken <span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br class="Apple-interchange-newline" /></span>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">I hate conflict. I hate honesty. It hurts too much to receive someone's true feelings. And it's scary to dish it out to others: The other person might get angry. They might leave. Openness, and vulnerable honesty, in relationships frightens me. I think it frightens a lot of us. </span><br />
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But relationships without honesty, openness, expression of anger and hurt, are bound to whither and spoil. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">The same is true of our relationship with God. God desires open honesty from us. And if we are honest, we will admit that there are days where we are confounded by Him, angry at Him. There are days when we want to scream at Him. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">When we bury those feelings deep down, we lock ourselves away from the open, honest, gracious presence of God and we retreat further and further from Him. The inability to tell God how we feel, even (especially) when we are angry at Him, is the first stepping stone to smothering our relationship with Him.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Of course, I don't buy the relativistic lie that whatever we feel is right is right, but there is a reality to 'subjective truth,' - that is, a truth to how we feel and perceive. God's desire for truthfulness from us requires telling Him how we really feel, even if deep down we know that our feelings may not be based in 'truth.' He wants real honesty, not forced honesty, a forced adherence to some external concept that has no reality for what we actually feel or perceive. </span><br />
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That is not to say that God does wrong. When we put Him on trial, He will come out above reproach. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">But when you ignore pain, when you ignore ‘evil’ (whether objective or subjective - whether real or perceived), in a relationship - the relationship dies. Sometimes that can’t be helped. An abusive individual may not be able to accept honest accusation and the relationship must end. But when this is the case, the one who is abused must still be able to name and identify the evil, to name and identify the pain. Or else they continue to be abused internally - closed up, cut off, unable to have relationship with anyone else and susceptible to be used by others. Honesty about what we feel and have received and have experienced is necessary to be a whole, mature, human being - able to live and have freedom and relationship. But in good relationships, real or perceived misdeeds, real or perceived concerns and pains, must also be admitted, and ideally - communicated, or else true relationship withers and dies. True love wants the other person to be free, independent, whole. Someone who doesn't just see things our way because we tell them, but who can be their whole selves, honest and independent with us. That's the riskiness of love. And that's the love God wants with us. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Christian psychologists Henry Cloud and John Townsend write in their acclaimed book <i>Boundaries </i>"In our deeper honesty and ownership of our true person, there is room for expressing anger at God. Many people who are cut off from God shut down emotionally because they feel that it is not safe to tell him how angry they are at him. Until they feel the anger, they cannot feel the loving feelings underneath the anger." God doesn't want a passive recipient who has no sense of self, no independence. He wants us to stand up as whole, independent, people so that we can embrace Him with all the real love and real, free, relationship that He created us for in the first place. God takes the risk of us getting mad at Him in order to have a real relationship with Him. He doesn't want us to just accept things as passive, weak, slaves, but as whole people who can relate to Him and love Him freely and authentically. </span><br />
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And you know what? The bizarre and liberating thing is that God doesn't necessarily disagree. We do face injustice, His ways are confounding, there is evil that seems to have no valid explanation. When I am honest with Him, He never tells me to be quiet. Maybe He will after a while, as He did for Job, but He gives me my 30+ chapters of ranting first. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">He just suffers with me. He just walks this earth with me. He just dies for me. He just walks my journey with me, and becomes a victim right alongside of me.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">I identify so well with Moses, when he stands on the mountain shouting at God: 'Take my soul but do not punish Israel!' He desperately wanted God to be merciful, and was incensed, angry, despaired, that God might not be merciful to Israel (who certainly did not deserve it!). When a tsunami kills tens of thousands of people on the other side of the world and my theology suggests that these people are all in hell, how can I be at peace? How can I not yell. How can I not plead God to be merciful: 'Break Your own rules! Be unjust! Isn't Your mercy greater?!'</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Some tell me to sit down because 'God is God and He gets to do what He wants, and He is perfectly just and cannot contradict His justice, just be thankful that you get saved, because you don't deserve it.' And I guess there's something to that. God told Job that at the end of the day, He is above reproach. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">But I look at Moses on the mountain, and I know he knows what I'm feeling. And so does Job when God lets him shout 'it's not fair!' And Habakkuk reeling: 'why do the wicked prosper and the innocent suffer!?' And, Abraham when he tries to bargain with God to leave Sodom alone for the sake of the handful of good people who might be there.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">That is the confounding thing about God - the more He teaches us to love, the more hurtful and the more confusing is the evil in the world, the more He confounds us. But this is the reality of the journey of faith. Indeed, I believe He wants us to be incredulous and to shout back, so that we might really feel His mercy for ourselves, to be incredulous at what seems like a lack of mercy. I imagine God looking down at Moses and smiling: 'now you get it, kid. Now you get it.' </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Until I have screamed at Him 'Break your own rules! Remember mercy!' I haven't really felt love, or desired mercy, like He does. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Yes, that awful thing you experienced was wrong. And yes, you were horribly abused. And yes, you grew up in a terrible, underprivileged, broken, community that you didn't choose to be a part of. And And the holocaust happened. And I find myself prone to sin when I didn't choose to be a sinner, I was just born this way. But He didn't intervene into these things. And that's enraging. That's confusing. And just as the abused person cannot be whole and complete without being able to identify evil for what it is, God doesn't want us to ignore the pain or the evil we see or experience. Yes, God will come out above reproach, but He lets us scream and question and blame. We can't understand evil, we can't understand love, we can't understand mercy, until we have been free to feel these things for what they are. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Indeed, Jesus knows too. When Martha accuses Him: 'why weren't you here to save Lazarus?' Jesus doesn't rebuke her, he just breaks down and weeps.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">And on that cross, he shouts <i>with </i>us, <i>as one of us</i>: "Why have you forsaken me!?" He shares in the words of David in his fear, anger, confusion when God seemed to abandon Him. The shouts of anger and incredulity across the centuries all get summed up in Jesus on the cross. He doesn't just say 'well this is the way things are - sucks doesn't it?' He screams NO. This is not the way things are supposed to be. Evil is evil, tragedy is tragedy, wrong is wrong. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">And as one who believes in a real Satan, a prince who ruled this world in death until he was defeated in the resurrection, God shouts a resounding NO at his rule, at his power, at his order. God doesn't just stand off disconnected as a sovereign who knows nothing of what it's like to be one of us, who toys around with us like puppets and tells us to just swallow that this is the way things are, but He comes in as the rebellious warrior against the kingdom of death, who says NO to the present order. God shouts NO with me at brothels, tsunamis, hell, judgment, sin, and abuse. I'm not told to just accept these things and get over it, but to reel, scream, condemn, and say NO. He says NO with me. </span><br />
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We are so prone to shut down our own feelings in the name of 'faith.' We tell ourselves that our feelings are invalid since, after all, we have all these theories and systems and apologetic answers for the problem of evil. Yes, indeed, our perception of evil and injustice is really just a misunderstanding of God's sovereignty, etc. etc. etc. but if we just read a couple more C.S. Lewis books (see <i>A Grief Observed </i>for Lewis at his most honest), we can bury those feelings away and get over it. What a pathetic god. A god who needs us to fashion a theological system to justify Him. <table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqPI5YPxdsRCJxmAaRStEwM09Blqd7ZMyvVRPoVeiDoX3oKLzU_xzCl3QMrE3RXfDEflGybIVHK4qAmZ6mLDiq2zaVrQ2eaiF68JJxG4DS27QRpSvrwPyyPvVFHT6Upyv_wK3s70wG-fc/s1600/8598322891_58a86b4c02_m.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqPI5YPxdsRCJxmAaRStEwM09Blqd7ZMyvVRPoVeiDoX3oKLzU_xzCl3QMrE3RXfDEflGybIVHK4qAmZ6mLDiq2zaVrQ2eaiF68JJxG4DS27QRpSvrwPyyPvVFHT6Upyv_wK3s70wG-fc/s1600/8598322891_58a86b4c02_m.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Credit: <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/69214385@N04/8598322891/in/photolist-e6NDQp-e6W9Pv-87DoMQ-4zJeT9-87DqtG-87AcvH-87DpVf-87DpbG-7Pjtsy-e7o8aW-Gxto5-62DnQ8-j47Lud-nbnoFx-ndhntK-ndoGPM-nbkrJ5-ndk8b8-nbn7zj-ndn7ZU-ndgBLV-ndjyhU-ndpzHv-nbhivU-ed7S2P-ndrCbm-ndn1Qj-ndhXp8-nbdACX-ndnWb7-ndkm5X-nbhR54-ndoSye-ndcdb5-nbma7m-nbm4eZ-ndoRoi-ndoSqi-nbhhup-ndjPuZ-nbm44Z-nbhkuy-ndqSeo-nbm3Rp-ndkaeM-nbbwtt-ndjCUv-ndkY87-ndn1XT-ndmHNK" target="_blank">Don McCullough on Flickr</a></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Our faith should not rely upon a system. Our faith does not hang upon a theodicy. I don’t believe we can ‘justify the ways of God to man,’ as Milton attempted. We can think through logical quandaries, we can play around with answers, and maybe come up with something sufficient for us in different ways and at different points in our journey, but they are not ultimately sufficient. We cannot prove God’s case for Him. To do so is to trust in a philosophical system, not the Living God. That’s a God we can predict and control and put in a test-tube. A computer program. But no. He’s wild, unpredictable, remarkable. The Judge: all reason, all answer, rests with Him. Not with us. And because of that fact, we are free to be open and vulnerable before Him. To be ready to be put in our place, indeed, but not to put Him in place for ourselves. He's got that covered. And as long as we put Him in place for Himself, we have made Him distant, disconnected, uncaring for our feelings and patronizing. </span><br />
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But that's not who He is. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">As Barth put it, He is not just the Judge. He is also the ‘Judge, judged in our place.’ The One who gave up all rights to defend Himself, to take ‘responsibility' for all the evil. To take the responsibility for it all: Both our own mistakes, and for the very kingdom of Satan itself. He fulfills Satan's claim upon us. </span><br />
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'God, get down off your throne and rescue the girls who are in brothels being raped!' </span><br />
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He doesn't say 'get over it kid, you just don't get it. If you'd just let me explain, you'd understand that this is the best of all possible worlds. . . '</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br />He might tell me to be quiet. He might remind me that I was not there when the world was made. I cannot tame Leviathan. There are days we need humbled. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"> But he also whispers, I know.' </span><br />
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His voice wanders through the streets and somewhere in the quiet sobs of a 13 year old girl who has had all innocence stolen from her you can hear the echo throughout the ages of that first Good Friday: </span><br />
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'Why have you forsaken me!!!!!?' </span><br />
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And broken, weeping, with the Comforter by my side, groaning in and with and through me, I look up at the cross. I see blood and tears. I see tsunamis, and suicides, and brothels. I see a God of remarkable humility, remarkable grace, remarkable power. I don't know how it all fits together, I don't know how He's going to pull it all off, but I know He feels anger and pain and love, more painfully and more powerfully than I do. I can't justify Him, I just gaze at the cross. And after I've had it out, after I've done my part to put the nails in, I fall down and know I am forgiven. In awe. I know I am heard. I know somehow that His love will work all these things out. I can have faith. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Somewhere in the darkness and the screaming and the forsakenness, I know that Sunday's coming. I did not know how to hope for it until I had known despair. </span><br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14561352796505791092noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2226159437758242552.post-71984602542202463032014-03-29T11:53:00.002-07:002014-03-29T13:54:52.197-07:00A Seminary Student's Take on 'Noah'<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">I saw Noah last night. I along with about 40 other seminary students were just about the only people there. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Here are some theological, cultural, Biblical reflections of a seminary student; conveniently divided by headers representing themes in my musings, and addressing different FAQs. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">This is not a review, more of a series of cultural/theological reflections. But there are some spoilers. So, you were warned. </span><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">How does it relate to the Bible? </span></b><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Yes, Noah adds to the Bible. Quite a bit. But before this puts us on the defensive, let's acknowledge a few things: </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">1. We have a history of doing the same thing. Milton's <i>Paradise Lost </i>adds immense amounts of speculative, fictional, material to the creation account. C.S. Lewis's <i>Narnia </i>series speculatively adds to the Biblical stories. Heck, <i>Left Behind </i>presents a fictional depiction of the end times, based on a particular theological assumption about Biblical prophecy. Early Christian art and worship and writings do quite a bit of speculating, and playing off of legendary material to add to the Biblical stories. We've done this plenty of times. So if we critique doing so, we have to critique this whole tradition of our own. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">2. This is not just the Bible's story. The story of Noah is told and re-told in various non-canonical sources: Christian, Jewish, apocryphal, etc. The filmmaker never promised to be making a movie based strictly on the Bible. He did use the Bible as his basic outline and framework, but he did draw upon these other accounts and did some of his own speculating. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">3. The director's attempt was to create a contemporary Midrash <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/paul-raushenbush/noah-the-movie_b_5022132.html" target="_blank">(as he says in this interview).</a> A Midrash was a genre of Jewish literature from the period between the Old and New Testaments, which expanded upon Old Testament stories and gave a speculative reading, trying to connect theological and narrative details throughout the Old Testament and inspire theological reflection, speculation, and worship. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">In this, Noah begs us to revisit the long lost Christian imagination, something we gained from Judaism actually. There is so much beauty in the ability to speculate, to ask theological 'what-ifs,' in art, treatises, and fiction. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">But lets look at the positive. I don't think anything blatantly contradicted Scripture, and the overall outline of the story was faithful to Genesis. I thought it followed Genesis pretty closely, actually. </span><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">The Justice of God </span></b><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">The judgment of God was not sugar-coated in 'Noah.' Human depravity was powerfully and poignantly depicted, and God's prerogative in bringing judgment was portrayed as completely legitimate. You watched the movie understanding and almost rooting for God's judgment (but with the sober realization of what it meant). </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Creationist Ken Ham <a href="http://time.com/42274/ken-ham-the-unbiblical-noah-is-a-fable-of-a-film/" target="_blank">wrote about the film</a>: "<span style="background-color: white; color: #282828; line-height: 26.8799991607666px;">Also, while the extreme wickedness of man was depicted, the real sin displayed in the film was the people’s destruction of the earth. Lost within the film’s extreme environmentalist message is that the actual sins of the pre-Flood people were a rebellion against God and also man’s inhumanity to man."</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #282828; line-height: 26.8799991607666px;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">I.could.not.disagree.more. Literally. I could not disagree more. </span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #282828; line-height: 26.8799991607666px;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Yes, human 'wasting' of the world was a huge theme. BUT IT IS ALSO A HUGE THEME IN GENESIS. </span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #282828; line-height: 26.8799991607666px;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">And while we're at it, let's not forget that this is a huge theme in C.S. Lewis's Narnia series. Human mistreatment of animals, including eating meat, is one of the starkest examples of human sin, in his fantasy land. 'Noah' is in good company here, in describing human assaults on the animal kingdom. And also, industrial wrecking of creation is a MAJOR theme in J.R.R. Tolkien's <i>The Lord of the Rings. </i>Saruman arguably represents industry, with his war on 'good and green things.' We've given Lewis and Tolkien free passes here. And, as an amateur Biblical scholar-in-training, I think it makes perfect sense for those who lived so close to the time of Adam and who wanted to return to Eden, to be very poignantly aware of the fact that eating/attacking animals was one of the most explicit and easily identifiable symptoms of the fall. God did not seem to be happy with animal-eating (it was forbidden until Genesis 9, see below) and those who wanted to please God (Noah) would understandably not be so either. </span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #282828; line-height: 26.8799991607666px;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">But by no means were other sins ignored by the film. In fact, human treatment of creation was ultimately sidelined compared to other depictions of human depravity. You see people eating people, murdering each other, raping and pillaging, etc. A poignant montage that expands upon the Cain and Abel narrative describes the root of murder, violence, and war (you even see silhouettes of warriors wielding different weapons of history: spears, swords, guns, cannons - one of the most brilliant moments of the film, in my mind), and it is clear that this hatred and violence is stemmed from rebellion against God. The 'bad guys' are clear that they have defied God and <i>want</i> to defy His righteousness and become their own gods. The primary antagonist states that he desires to claim the world for his own and make it in his 'own image,' an explicit slap in the face to God. The 'good guys' are clear that human sin is, at its root, a rebellion against God. </span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #282828; line-height: 26.8799991607666px;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Besides, the war on creation is a clear and explicit theme in Genesis, one that has been ignored in contemporary theology. Human use and abuse of animals and creation, as a part of the curse, is clear in early Genesis. It is mentioned in Genesis that Noah did not eat meat (Aronofsky didn't make this up): it was God's will that it be this way, until he permitted meat-eating after the flood (Genesis 9). Judaism has a tendency toward vegetarianism, and meat-eating is treated as a Divine accommodation to a less-than-ideal circumstance, throughout the Old Testament and the New Testament. Everything in 'Noah' is operating within clear Biblical parameters and, yes, makes it relevant to contemporary questions. </span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #282828; line-height: 26.8799991607666px;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Why don't we look at our society as if we were missionaries? Instead of worrying over its apparent political agenda we could use it as a hook for drawing people to the Gospel: <i>You see human misuse of creation, you are disturbed by it. We've been talking about this from the beginning! This is what our Bible tells us to expect! And God wants to restore His creation! The solution is not the government, not any human king. He sent Jesus to renew the world again! Jesus is the New Adam, brought to bring peace to the creation order again! Come to the living water, come to His garden, come be the grape on His vine! Come wait with us for the time when the lion shall lie down with the lamb. </i></span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #282828; line-height: 26.8799991607666px;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">What a much more powerful testimony that would be. </span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #282828; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 26.8799991607666px;">Furthermore, humans=bad and creation=good was not the final verdict of the story. In the end, we see Noah realize that God graciously wants to make a new beginning for humanity, to come into their proper role as stewards and benevolent governors of creation. Unlike in radical, secular, environmentalism, humans are not a problem that need largely eradicated (though Noah thought so for a part of the movie, and ended up being wrong). In fact, 'Noah' shows them to be the solution - through the gracious redemption of God. We know how the story continues, with Jesus representing the fulfillment of the renewed humanity. The second Adam (a theme hinted at when one of the Nephilim looks at Noah and says 'I see Adam in your eyes, the man I once knew and loved'). Humanity can return to Eden. But, only through God's grace. </span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #282828; line-height: 26.8799991607666px;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">There is only one thing, in my mind, to explain the critiques of Noah as environmentalist propaganda: Biblical illiteracy. If we knew our Bibles, we would see how this very powerfully plays upon key Biblical themes and concepts, and does so in relevant, contemporary ways. </span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #282828; line-height: 26.8799991607666px;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Ouch. That smarts. </span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #282828; line-height: 26.8799991607666px;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">It looks like an atheist has read his Bible more closely than the rest of us. </span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #282828; line-height: 26.8799991607666px;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Also, there was nothing that had any connection to global warming. There were no advertisements about who to vote for. I did not walk out wanting to be a Democrat or to vote for carbon tax caps. I walked out wondering at human rebellion against God, and God's mercy in continually offering to remake the world alongside of us, and to save us. I walked out wanting to read my Bible and ponder the mercy of God. </span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #282828; line-height: 26.8799991607666px;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">I wonder if Ken Ham fell asleep in the movie, because I don't think we watched the same thing. </span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #282828; line-height: 26.8799991607666px;"><b><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Noah is not Righteous</span></b></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #282828; line-height: 26.8799991607666px;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">This is the topic of a book coming out from one of our professors here at Gordon-Conwell - Dr. Carol Kaminski's <i>Was Noah Good? </i>Mark Driscoll <a href="http://www.charismanews.com/opinion/43310-mark-driscoll-noah-was-not-a-righteous-man" target="_blank">said the same thing in a recent blog</a><u>: "Noah Was Not a Righteous Man." </u>I agree with them both. And consistent with them, the movie shows Noah as fallen, sometimes mistaken. This is a very Protestant message. We have long echoed with Paul that the righteousness of the Old Testament patriarchs was not by their own merit, but because of their faith and God's grace. They were fallen and depraved like the rest of us, but God showed mercy to them for their faith. </span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #282828; line-height: 26.8799991607666px;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">We see Noah becoming convinced that humans need to be completely eradicated. He is convicted by human depravity - a depravity he realizes exists inside of him too as he comes to recognize that it was not by personal merit, but by grace, that God elected him to build the ark. But he begins to take this to an extreme, convinced there is no hope for the human race. He claims to be told by God to murder his grandchildren to keep the human race from continuing. And the film never tells us if he heard correctly, but the movie is pretty clear that Noah was not supposed to kill them (it might be implying it was a similar situation to Abraham sacrificing Isaac). That is not what God wanted. God wanted the human race to be redeemed. To begin again. And I think the film is telling us that God wanted Noah to learn this for himself. </span></span><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Election and Free Will</span></b><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">The cliche Protestant conversation of sovereignty vs. free will. Calvin vs. Arminius. Grace vs human effort. The film beautifully explores these themes. Noah tries to come to grips with whether he was chosen because of his righteousness, or in spite of his righteousness. And the film never answers this question. We see a fallible Noah who God graciously raised up to do His purpose. Noah was 'elected' by God, graciously, but also was given responsibility and freedom by God to be obedient to God or not. We see a God who is sovereign, powerful, who chooses us. We also see a God who asks for obedience, who takes risks. </span><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">The hiddenness of God. </span></b><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">The God of this film is mysterious, ambiguous, unpredictable, hidden. Noah never hears Him speak directly. And we begin to see by the end, that God had a divine purpose in His hiddenness, to pull up Noah to seek righteousness on his own impetus. This, I thought, played upon some of the most fascinating and beautiful themes of the Old Testament: the God who risks (or appears to risk, depending on your theological assumptions) - putting decisions in our own hands, trying to evoke righteousness, goodness, from us on our own free will. Even if you are a staunch Calvinist, you must see that this is an important theme in even Augustine: We become free to choose the good, when we are freed from the bondage of sin. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">I cannot help but wonder that when God gets Moses all riled up to the point that he says 'damn my soul instead of destroying Israel' (and God 'changes His mind!') or when Abraham pleads with God 'if there are just a few righteous, spare these people' (and God compromises with him) or when the prophets lament 'why are You silent in the face of injustice?' or when Job questions God's wisdom and goodness (and God lets him!) - God is playing a masterful game of teaching us to love mercy and justice, to the point that we would even dare to question Him. What if God wants this reaction from us? I think this is a clear possibility in the Old Testament literature. This speculative possibility is powerfully depicted in Noah. It's fictional/speculative, absolutely. But it presents a fascinating, imaginative, theologically provoking 'what if' that forces us to think through larger Biblical themes. A task that good Jewish and Christian art has always sought to achieve. Again, think of Milton's <i>Paradise Lost, </i>which features all sorts of speculative and mythological and flat-out fictional additions to the Creation account. It provokes wonder, theological questioning, wrestling, and ultimately - worship at the mystery of God. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">I have known this in my own life. The more God teaches me of His love, the more I am inclined to be angry and confused by His confounding ways. By dying children and wars between peoples. I think God desires this independence and honesty from us. I am convinced of this. He will continue to humble and put us in our place, but He also wants openness and genuine relationship with us. And that is where real faith comes into play. Faith in a God I can't always understand. Faith in a God who confounds me. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">That sounds a lot more like the faith of Abraham, of Noah, of all the patriarchs of the Old Testament, than the sentimental health and wealth 'gospel' of the West. Faith in a God that is wild, mysterious, just, merciful, dangerous. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">He is not a tame lion, as Lewis said. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><b>Was there <i>anything </i>I didn't like? </b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Sure. I thought it moved too slow. There were some liberties that were over the top, in my opinion. There was a minor character who dies mid-way through and I wish she didn't die, but it turned out to be pretty key to Noah's character development and I came to appreciate its role in the story. I thought the 'watchers' (based upon the Nephilim from Genesis) were a little bit odd/over-the-top and reminded me of the Ents in the<i> Lord of the Rings</i> too much (but gosh, when one of them died and cried out 'forgive me, Creator,' I teared up. Beautiful). </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Also, I am certainly bugged by the fact that people a lot of people will see the movie and never go back and read their Bible and have all sorts of mistaken ideas about what's in the Bible. This is the same problem with most people getting their history from movies. </span><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Let's Stop Letting the World Define The Name of the Game</span></b><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">When the 'world' starts delving into moral, theological, biblical, philosophical territory - we are quick to critique. We are quick to tell them why they're wrong. We need to stop pretending, though, that we live in a Christian society. We live in a post-Christian society. A society that needs re-evangelized. We need to switch to Paul's posture in Acts 17. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">What if we saw these as mission opportunities? What if we saw the positive things - a film that raises poignant questions about God and His justice and His mercy. What a beautiful, powerful, way to introduce the Gospel to people! It's not a Christian film. But it raises questions that most of our culture has not wanted to ask. This is a good thing! </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">I came out of that theater thirsty to revisit the Gospel story in light of the questions raised in the film; to consider the way Jesus represent the pinnacle of God's constant refrain of giving humanity and His creation a second chance. I came out of the theater wanting to look to the people in there with me and say: look at Jesus! Look at the fulfillment of what God started! </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">What if some other people who had never really heard the Gospel walked out of the theater feeling the same way? What an opportunity. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Let's not get lost in our critiques of some political agenda or its biblical literalness to miss the opportunity this presents, and the way it may evoke good, honest, questions among people that we have an opportunity to answer. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Our supposedly post-Christian society is going by the millions to see a movie about God, mercy, judgment, sin, and grace. It is far from a perfect movie: theologically, cinematographically, etc. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">But I see it as an opportunity. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><a href="http://www.pluggedin.com/movies/intheaters/noah-2014.aspx" target="_blank">Jim Daly of Focus on the Family sums up my thoughts well: </a></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">"</span><span style="background-color: #edefeb; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;">The film expresses biblical themes of good and evil; sin and redemption; justice and mercy. It is a creative interpretation of the scriptural account that allows us to imagine the deep struggles Noah may have wrestled with as he answered God's call on his life. This cinematic vision of Noah's story gives Christians a great opportunity to engage our culture with the biblical Noah, and to have conversations with friends and family about matters of eternal significance.""</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">And today, I am pondering the mysterious, radical, perplexing, beautiful, mystery of God. His mercy. His justice. My wickedness. My faith. His hope. His salvation. That seems like a good result to me. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #fdfeff; color: #001320; font-family: Trebuchet, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; text-align: justify;">"By faith Noah, being warned by God concerning events as yet unseen, in reverent fear constructed an ark for the saving of his household. By this he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith." Hebrews 11:7</span><span class="p" style="background-color: #fdfeff; color: #001320; font-family: Trebuchet, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 13px; text-align: justify;"><br /></span><br />
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14561352796505791092noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2226159437758242552.post-54063386085974909392014-03-27T10:44:00.000-07:002014-03-27T20:43:09.446-07:00World Vision - Only a Brief Respite Until recently, evangelical Christians who affirmed the traditional, conservative Church's position on homosexuality have, honestly, had it easy. The Christians who were more approving of homosexuality were liberal protestants, often nominal believers anyhow, with a lower view of Scripture and who were cloistered in mainline denominations: The Episcopal Church, the PCUSA, etc.<br />
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And so we separated. We drew lines.<br />
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That 'easy' scenario is coming to an end.<br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNpsYxz5QukGwe57xacwxsCD3X75Zke5xYWChaAmvCuPxgIlieZKEr0eV7hhUgWPaRpd0fbUx6p4U6-ErijMlDLKrR6F9_YCUeYuQZwKggRFDEIhyphenhyphenzGXBjhFLZFLgcO1pKAdxrOixwgFM/s1600/92297092_6b87942666_m.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNpsYxz5QukGwe57xacwxsCD3X75Zke5xYWChaAmvCuPxgIlieZKEr0eV7hhUgWPaRpd0fbUx6p4U6-ErijMlDLKrR6F9_YCUeYuQZwKggRFDEIhyphenhyphenzGXBjhFLZFLgcO1pKAdxrOixwgFM/s1600/92297092_6b87942666_m.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Credit: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/90664717@N00/92297092/in/photolist-9a3Hb-aBkpC-cT6Ao-dusTy-dRXd8-dRYck-dRYcm-dS1mV-dS1mW-dS1n1-kjy8b-JxHmB-Y7cU4-Y7gAg-2fFu5c-2whifp-3Kn53c-4qRtxj-4sQHEA-4Gu37a-4JgC83-4JhaKr-4JoeeY-4MUY4z-4RzeYv-4Rzzur-4RDYdm-5izQii-5jXaaH-5k2fNb-5k2mbw-5puThN-5sprz5-5sMLZg-5sMMdF-5tGx1f-5Jc6az-5UGWpz-5UGWuZ-5UMiJs-67jppr-6nZs2X-6o4D6W-6qkmkx-6TP5Yr-6TPPAg-6TPQcD-6TPRgB-6TPRFt-6TPSFx-6TPT2p" target="_blank">Akuppa John Wigham on Flickr</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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No longer is it possible to write off 'pro-homosexual' Christians as non-Bible-believers, or nominal, or even as liberal protestants. No longer is it possible to turn away and pretend these people don't exist.<br />
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In the next several decades, there will be more and more people who consider themselves Bible-believing, self-described 'Evangelicals' (or something equivalent), who are more moderate on homosexuality. They claim their beliefs are consistent with an authoritative reading of Scripture. They are active in churches and in ministries. They have conversion stories.<br />
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World Vision made a decision that, agree with it or not, is one that many denominations, para-church organizations, etc are going to face in the coming decades. No longer are we defining evangelicalism over and against a nominal liberal protestantism, but the very definition (there never was a really good one anyhow) of evangelicalism itself is being entirely redefined.<br />
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This identity crisis shows up in slightly (but barely) less controversial venues as well. More and more evangelicals are becoming outspoken about having egalitarian perspectives on gender, more 'liberal' views about evolution (which are often, actually, more consistent with the diversity of views on evolution in the early 20th century) and denominations and para-church organizations are having to choose whether to welcome this bigger tent, or draw lines. Mark Driscoll, John Piper (to some extent), and Cedarville University (which just ruled not to allow women Bible professors teach male students) have drawn lines on women. The Evangelical Presbyterian Church, the denomination I am a part of, allows a diversity of views on the role of women in ministry among their churches. Self-proclaimed-as-Bible-believing Open Theists are barred from certain denominations or Christian institutions (such as the Evangelical Theological Society), but allowed in others.<br />
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We used to say (in practice if not in words): 'just have a high view of Scripture and believe in evangelism and mission and you can be an evangelical.' But then people started proposing interpretations of Scripture that made others of us uncomfortable: maybe husbands don't have to be heads of household (egalitarianism), maybe the future doesn't exist (open theism), maybe imputed righteousness isn't Biblical (the new perspective on Paul), maybe evolution and the Bible aren't inconsistent, maybe it's not wrong to practice monogamous homosexual behavior, etc. Christians are proposing these arguments who love evangelism and missions and claim that Scripture is their highest authority. And suddenly, we're finding ourselves having to choose either to allow this interpretive diversity as consistent with evangelicalism's basic ecumenism and Bible-centrism, or draw lines regarding which interpretations are okay. We are now faced with having a big, wide, open tent, or go back to a Catholic posture where the Church has to authoritatively draw a line against certain interpretations (which is the posture of an emerging neo-Fundamentalism that makes many of these issues, lines of orthodoxy). We used to feel this way about baptism, predestination, eschatology. But we finally learned to get along and say 'these things are just representative of different interpretations.' But now, that attitude has journeyed into more controversial territory, and many want to slam on the brakes.<br />
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The ecumenism and diversity of evangelicalism, the door that Protestantism opened, has now become threatening and the options at either extreme appear to be relativism or a Protestant version of Catholicism.<br />
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I'm not saying evolution, homosexuality, women in ministry, are all equal issues. That's another discussion. But these are all examples of a phenomenon sweeping across evangelicalism forcing us to define what evangelicalism, and what orthodox Christianity, is and means and a new tendency to cloister ourselves into different camps in the same way we used to be very territorial about our denominations.<br />
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Many people pulled their support from World Vision when the decision was announced. Many churches who support World Vision were going to have serious debates (and still might) about their relationship with World Vision. The seminary I attend has a close relationship with World Vision, and I imagine there was going to be a pretty big controversy here over it. This is just one taste of a series of controversies that is going to threaten to tear the Evangelical world apart over the coming decades. Seminaries, para-church organizations, denominations that were created to try and stand in the middle on various controversial issues, are going to be torn right down the middle and/or pressured to take sides. Whether it be homosexuality, women's ordination, open theism, Reformed/Lutheran vs. N.T. Wright's soteriology, more and more rifts and team-choosing is going on. And places like Gordon-Conwell, where I am, are right in the middle and it's going to be harder and harder to stay out of things.<br />
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This is just the beginning.<br />
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What if this same thing happens for the International Justice Mission, who does some of the best human trafficking work in the world? Or at Young Life? Or Intervarsity Fellowship? What happens when an otherwise conservative self-proclaimed-Christian gay couple ask to go as missionaries with Wycliffe? As far-fetched as those might sound, it's not outside of the realm of possibility in the coming years. And organizations are going to start taking sides. Para-Church organizations are, most likely, going to go more to the left in order to try and keep as wide a constituency as possible so they can accomplish the things they want to accomplish. That was exactly the calculation World Vision made.<br />
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And the fact of the matter is that World Vision does things that no other organizations do. It cannot be avoided that choosing to provide or deny support based on their decision or re-decision requires making, at least to some degree, choices of priorities. And you are setting a precedent that will bear certain fruit in the future, because this is just the start. And so, while possibly off-base in the short-term, in the long term, the question being posed by those who support WV's initial move is actually prescient: 'is having rules against homosexual practice [or your beliefs about Open Theism, or women in the pulpit], or helping the poor, or supporting evangelistic meetings for college students, etc., most important to you?' At the moment, that might be a false choice. But I think we're inevitably headed to a world where it won't be and we must choose between compromising and negotiating between those difficult questions, or retreating from the rest of Christianity (and maybe the rest of the world) all together. We will have to decide if we can be in or give to churches, denominations, organizations, that contain Christians who hold beliefs that we might find reprehensible. And our solution might be to create a whole lot more relief agencies. A non-gay version of World Vision. A non-complementarian version of Young Life. And the goals of each of those endeavors will suffer. So, the choice between 'helping the poor' and 'evangelism' and doctrinal uniformity, is going to be a choice many of us will have to make.<br />
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Conservative evangelicals have not won a victory in World Vision's retraction. We/they have just put off for another year or two something none of us will be able to avoid.<br />
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<i>We </i>might assume that, clearly, this debate over homosexuality is different than those over baptism, or Donatism, or transubstantiation, or over women in ministry. But, gosh darn it, people once saw (and some still see) these as <i>the </i>deal-breakers between the Church and not-the-Church. Wars have been fought over (at least ostensibly) these issues. It's a bit anachronistic of us to think that this is necessarily different. Maybe it is different. But let's be honest with ourselves. What were once 'hills to die on' are now just matters of opinion. We need to have very careful, historically-informed, reasons to see the homosexual debate within the Church as different than the things we now don't care as much about. Things that we now don't let get in the way of unity or para-church cooperation. <i>But homosexuality is clearly unbiblical - it's different. </i>Ok. Maybe so. But the same exact thing has been said about plenty of other issues too. That needs to be seriously weighed. And I do think the historical-theological argument against condoning homosexual practice (the claim that this has never been questioned in Church history) has quite a bit of weight. But to be fair, the issues that are arising represent questions that have never really been asked in Church history.<br />
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At the very least, we need to learn to listen to one another's arguments. The vilification and name-calling and shouting gets nobody anywhere. <i>The conservatives hate poor people! </i>Or <i>The liberals hate the Bible! </i>Neither accusation was really quite fair and showed a lack of listening. It might have been fair to certain extents, or in certain specific cases, but those accusations get in the way of real dialogue. If you think the pro-homosexual group are clear apostate heretics, that doesn't change that the correct and most powerful, Christ-like, posture is still humility and an attempt at understanding. The same if you think the conservatives who pulled support are poor-hating reprobates. What are you afraid might happen if you listen, and give them a fair hearing? What are you afraid might happen if you quietly wait and try to discern the best response, waiting on the Holy Spirit? We have not been given a spirit of fear, but a spirit of courage, and of hope. Because in the midst of all these things Christ is still on the throne. God is still in heaven.<br />
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I would say the same thing whether we were talking about Arianism, Gnosticism, or any other great heresy of Christian history. There's nothing to be afraid of by listening and engaging.<br />
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(I'm not necessarily saying a pro-homosexual perspective is heretical, I'm just playing in hypotheticals here to get a point across).<br />
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And as we go through all these debates I - along with most evangelicals/post-evangelicals my age - really wonder where our priorities are. Because whether liberal or conservative, starving kids in Africa seemed to be treated pawns in a culture war, last week. And that scares us, and that angers many of us. To support or stop supporting World Vision over this issue, while I understand to an extent, was done so quickly and decisively it seemed more like personal comfort as far as being on the 'right side' took the front seat, and suffering human beings took the backseat. Jesus loves doctrinal purity, but I think He may love people more. Those aren't mutually exclusive, but sometimes they <i>do</i> come into conflict. We need to be darned careful what we do when those things are at odds.<br />
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Do not forget justice and mercy. Do not forget that we will give account for what we did for 'the least of these' at the pearly gates. Switching to an organization more in line with your beliefs might be the right thing to do. I don't necessarily want to judge or condemn people who feel/felt convicted to switch to a different organization. But don't think of helping the poor as 'points' you rack up before God, or treat sponsorships as 'votes' for or against right doctrine. Think about the people. Think about the kids. Don't let kids become pawns, collateral damage, to satisfy your conscience or even collateral damage to orthodoxy. I will repeat that: <i>do not make children collateral damage, not even to orthodoxy. </i>Take a moment and think of Marco - the Bolivian child who had a sponsor one day and not the next. That kid had nothing to do with any of this. Jesus is with that person, and you will have to explain to Jesus why you pulled His support and gave it to another organization. And, yes, other funds may be used to pick up the slack. And yes, you may still be giving the same amount of money somewhere else. But that is not enough to make your decision 'right,' it is only enough to satisfy your own conscience. In the same way, if you <i>start </i>supporting Isaq in Sudan because you like your favorite organization's decision to allow gay employees, remember you will have to explain to Jesus your motives. That is not enough to make your decision 'right,' it is only trying to please your conscience (though, gosh darn it, I'm thankful that Isaq gets support whatever your motives). In both cases, suffering children are objects. <i>That </i>is worthy of judgment, even if you have all the 'right beliefs' about everything else.<br />
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2,000 kids were dropped from World Vision before the decision was retracted. World Vision got themselves into quite a pickle, and retracting their decision was a pretty big sacrifice and an embarrassment for them. I respect that they seemed to have those 2,000 kids as their top priority in it all.<br />
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(Although it's kind of a moot point, <u><a href="http://jenhatmaker.com/blog/2014/03/25/world-vision-gay-marriage-and-a-different-way-through" target="_blank">this excellent post</a></u> suggested that if you felt inclined to pull support from World Vision, the wise and most loving thing to do in terms of the kids, was to give a 3-month notice or to draw support gradually. I don't think you'd be in danger of hell-fire for that. This is an example of the right posture: being honest with yourself and your convictions, but also making sure children didn't become objects).<br />
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Those are not black and white rules I'm offering. Just considerations that I think should be reflected upon.<br />
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You thought the wars between liberal protestants and conservative evangelicals/fundamentalists were harsh? That was nothing compared to what's coming; the very splintering of evangelicalism itself.<br />
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And we need to be very careful, very creative, very nimble as we enter this new world. Pray first, speak second. Wait for the Holy Spirit, not relying first on our own judgment, or our own exegesis, or our own feelings. Wait on God. Be patient, hopeful, calm, confident in the Lord. Because the very work of the Gospel is going to be constantly at risk of being sidelined. Yes, doctrinal purity is key to the Gospel. But don't forget that the Pharisees had their doctrine, and their exegesis, technically correct and still were condemned by Christ. They still missed the point. I daresay that doing what is best for the Gospel will matter a lot more in the end, and that may mean losing fights - even fights we see as matters of heresy.<br />
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I mean, don't we worship a man, a God, who lost a whole lot of fights, at least by the world's standards, anyhow?<br />
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14561352796505791092noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2226159437758242552.post-67919882668539631692014-03-20T12:48:00.002-07:002014-03-20T12:48:26.669-07:00Love meOh Lord, love me when I don't know how to be loved.<br />
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Love me when I don't know how to love You back.<br />
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14561352796505791092noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2226159437758242552.post-44590466152038129712014-03-19T16:53:00.001-07:002014-03-20T19:59:34.955-07:00Chivalry's Not Dead - Stealing the Third-Culture-Kid Label My dad grew up in Hixson (yes, that's 'hick-son'), Tennessee; descended from mountain-residers and farmers, a mixture of Scandinavian, Irish, Scottish, and possibly Native American blood. A pretty typical southerner's story.<br />
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My mom grew up in upstate New York, descended from Ohoians of ambiguous descent on one side, and Welsh-Canadian on the other.<br />
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I lived most of my life in Tennessee, in a city with a unique mixture of southern charm and east-coast cosmopolitanism. I learned to open doors for girls, but I rarely listened to country music.<br />
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I remember my first cross-cultural experience, a mission trip to the Czech Republic. We were instructed of some of the cultural norms and social graces we might need to know. One stuck out: <i>you don't offer your seat on the subway for a young woman, but you do for an elderly person. </i><br />
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That was my first encounter with the idea that the way my culture 'did things,' is not the way everybody else 'did things.' And respecting and adapting and being different is okay. I began to learn from that experience that I'm actually fairly adept at adapting to different cultures. I even had a sliver of an accent when I got back.<br />
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I spent quite a bit of time with family in upstate New York over the years, and eventually went there for college. Now I live in New England. I still say 'ya'll,' but when I come home they accuse me of sounding like a Canadian.<br />
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My home culture is, and always will be, the South. But the north is a pretty important part of who I am too. I love both sweet tea, and New England fish fries. I love the warm hospitality of southern homes, and appreciate the blunt honesty of the northeastern disposition. Give me either a Chick-fil-A or a Tim Horton's, and I'm happy.<br />
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And seriously - the passive aggressive way southerners drive is ten times more dangerous and nerve-wracking to me than the straightforward aggression of the North. I'd rather be cut-off than tailed for 20 miles.<br />
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Attending an undergraduate school with a lot of missionary children we had a name for this: 'third-culture kids.' I may never have experienced the confusion and shock of moving to America after living in southeast Asia with Dutch parents. But I think I know a tiny, tiny, taste of the phenomenon.<br />
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Growing up in the South, Rush Limbaugh was on the radio regularly. He warned me often of the evils of feminism, which were to greet me in the north. There were women out there who would try to turn me into an effeminate man-child. Upstart, independent, women wanted to de-masculate me (apparently).<br />
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I moved up north and I began to hear a different side of things. Women who really didn't care if you opened doors for them (and were happy to open doors for me). Who felt strongly about having a career, or being in ministry. I certainly see where the concerns of conservatives come from, there are extreme forms of feminism that wreak havoc on both men and women. But I was blessed by knowing 'Christian feminists' who were full of grace and respect. They did not try to de-masculate me. They wanted me to be successful and mature and the best follower of Christ I could be. They also happened to not care if I opened doors for them all the time, or whether I took the initiative in relationships, etc.<br />
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I began to become more 'egalitarian' and 'feminist' in some of my disposition and opinions. And I adapted relatively well to this northern context, and its different expectations and norms. I no longer believe that women who don't want their doors open for them are ungracious or stuck-up. It's just different. And I can see how it might be patronizing to people. At the same time, I understand the grace, respect, and tradition it represents for people in the South and would challenge my northern friends to recognize how it might not be always patronizing for those who are used to it.<br />
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I have come to realize that it is helpful to think of this contrast in terms of cultural differences. That may not be the only or even the best way of thinking of these differences - there is still plenty of room to pass moral judgment on one set of customs or another (or parts of either). But it has brought me no peace to feel the compelling need to dissect and pass judgment on one or the other. To an extent. I do have my own opinions about these things. But I also realize that these are not hills (always) worth dying on. These are largely matters of culture that need to be held in proper perspective. Lobbying bombs over the mason-dixon line, accusing the other of moral turpitude, really gets us nowhere and is such a frivolous distraction from preaching the Gospel.<br />
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The Gospel challenges culture, for sure. But... some things.... just don't matter.<br />
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Now, that's not to deny there are a lot of moral issues bound up in all this. It's not to deny that many men have suffered backlash by extreme feminism (a move that does not help women or men - though to be fair, the extreme counterreaction against feminism has, under the guise of 'defending men,' made men more wimpy and more 'demasculated,' in my opinion. The extremes on either end have tended to have results in common, ironically). It's also not to deny that many (more) women have been patronized and abused. And both of these things have happened in the opposite context that you might expect, and vice versa. There is plenty of room for comparison, critique, and judgment. These things <i>do </i>matter. A lot.<br />
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And, to put all my cards on the table, I have tended to think more like a northerner on my opinions about gender relations and such.<i> I</i> still have judgments and opinions.<br />
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Personally, I think gender-inclusive language in writing, or in translating the Bible (when it comes to humans, not God), is a good idea. But I also support it for practical, cultural, missional reasons: I will not die on a hill that is not central to the Gospel. If translating the greek word <i>adelphoi </i>as 'brothers and sisters' (which is a perfectly fair translation) in the Bible will remove a stumbling block to the Gospel for those who might find exclusively masculine language off-putting because of their cultural background: I'm all for it. We need not change the culture into our image before sharing the Gospel no more than I need to make people learn Latin to worship God or read the Bible.<br />
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On the other hand, when I come home to the South, I remember that I will always be a southerner. At least to some degree. I still feel at home with saying 'yes ma'am' and 'yes sir,' and opening doors for women. I need not run from the culture that made me who I am. I need not turn the South into New England.<br />
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This is all a bit hard for me to admit. I'm a die-on-molehill kind of guy. It comes from a mixture of sincerity (I'm an idealist who likes to see things change for the better - er, what I think will be better), and arrogance.<br />
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Like I've said: I'm not un-opinionated about these things. But if I were a pastor in a traditional, southern, conservative context - what would I do? I struggle with it. Sure, my egalitarian principles would come out. I would be in favor of women pastors, and am part of a denomination that is usually in favor of female ordination anyhow - but would have to carefully balance conviction with culture if my congregation weren't on the same page. I hope I would keep main things the main thing. I don't need every family in my congregation to agree with me, though I would want to encourage people to consider the underlying issues of the heart that led me to my egalitarian principles: in your home, do you respect and uplift one another? Do you feel free and independent and whole, together? How can we prevent the abuse of women and become more proactive about dealing with this overly-ignored issue? Men, can you learn to have the self-confidence and the strength to not be in charge from time to time - because I believe true strength and self-confidence comes in the ability to humbly step aside (without being a doormat). I wish the John Pipers and the Mark Driscolls could join me and realize that, differences aside, we can both work together on these concerns, which are infinitely more important than who makes the decisions at home. Some things are more important than others.<br />
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I do get bugged when people accuse folks like me, who have a technically 'egalitarian' reading of the Bible of capitulating to culture. I don't think it's quite that simple. In many ways, complementarians do the same. They read their culture of male leadership and the dichotomy of homemaker vs. breadwinner (categories entirely foreign to the cultural context of the Bible) into the way they read Scripture too. In fact, I would dare suggest that I think my reading of Scripture is actually more counter-cultural than the complementerian.<br />
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But anyhow, I digress. I'm not saying all interpretations are culturally relative. Not by a long shot. But it's tricky. Culture impacts the way all of us read Scripture. There aren't any of us who are exempt from that reality. And none of us have a whole handle on the culture of the Bible, or exhaustive comprehension of what Paul is saying about the culture he's writing in. Call me a Pentecostal, but I think interpretation must rely more on the Holy Spirit and less on parsing verbs. It requires humility, and nimbleness, and a lot of God's grace. The relationship between text and culture is not easy, and we will never be able to turn it into a formula. We must rely on something more substantial: God Himself.<br />
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I was touched this week <a href="http://www.relevantmagazine.com/god/church/mark-driscoll-posts-open-letter-apology" target="_blank">to read Mark Driscoll's apology</a> over the way he marketed his books and artificially pushed them to best-seller status. The sincerity and grace he expressed was refreshing to me, and I began to realize that although I vehemently disagree with him on several of his favorite pet issues, he and I aren't all that different. We are both in need of a grace that is bigger than either of our sinful personalities. And we both have a temper. I was also t<a href="http://rachelheldevans.com/blog/brand" target="_blank">ouched to read a similar article by Rachel Held Evans</a>, who stands on the opposite side of Driscoll on many of these gender debates. She too wrote about the strange dynamic of a public face that has a distance from her real, vulnerable, self. And her need for humility and grace.<br />
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If these two people can start speaking the same language, maybe there's hope for this rag-tag gang known as the Church.<br />
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And so I sit here in my friend's North Carolina home. Sweet tea is in the refrigerator. Later, we'll jump in his parents' car: every station will be pre-set to either Christian radio or country music. We'll pass at least two Cracker Barrels. And I may feel compelled to let a woman step in front of me in line at the burrito place. We'll come home and, over dinner, hear stories about how his mother, an emergency room doctor, limited her career to stay at home with the kids. And while my convictions lead me to hope I can have a family where my wife and I both can balance work/ministry and family, I'll receive with bated breath their treasure trove of marriage advice - because in the few days that I have known this family, this is one of the most loving and Christ-like families I have ever known and I want to learn everything I can from them.<br />
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And I think to myself: it's a big, crazy, wild, beautiful, world. And Christ plays in 10,000 places in it. And there's so little that I know.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14561352796505791092noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2226159437758242552.post-72212997374570817712014-03-13T16:42:00.000-07:002014-03-14T17:16:17.131-07:00Waists, doorknobs, and the occasional dog. A permanently downward gaze marks my journeys into the dreamscape. I always think I know who is standing next to me, but when I think back I can never know for sure.<br />
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I see no faces, only waists and doorknobs and the occasional dog. <br />
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Lewis wrote a book about this - Till We Have Faces, right? <br />
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I always seem to know where I am. Last night it was an intersection next to the post office in my hometown. Not long later it was Park Street, downtown Boston. <br />
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<em>But there is no sidewalk, or that traffic light there, at home. And why doesn't the car I'm driving have a windshield? </em><br />
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<em>And this shop is in Beverly, not downtown Boston. </em><br />
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<em>And why is Panera Bread an apartment complex? </em><br />
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These thoughts rumble around in the fog and don't become conscious until later. In the journey, all things seem completely the way they're supposed to be. No questions asked.<br />
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<em>Do the people in my dreams have downward gazes too? </em><br />
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I don't think they do. They seem pretty confident and upright. They talk without listening very well. In fact, I rarely feel 'heard,' or at all acknowledged, by anyone in my dreams. <br />
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I wonder if that's all an illusion. Maybe their heads are down too. How could I know the difference? Maybe they aren't heard by me either. <br />
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<em>And so we walk with purpose, down streets that are both familiar and unfamiliar.</em><br />
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The faux-familiarity is a security measure on my part. It lets me know that there's no need to stand up straight. There's no need to look beyond the waists or the doorknobs or the occasional dog. They are all I need. <br />
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Now, I'm sitting at a library computer translating some Hebrew from Nehemiah. This is not dreamscape. I double-checked, I just looked Ryan in the eye. <br />
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Oh Nehemiah, you silly old man. You keep sneaking up on me, still after all these years. <br />
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Nehemiah just heard the news of the break-down of Jerusalem. And he wept. He prayed. He mourned. And he 'prayed to the face of God.'<br />
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Face to face. Like Moses, really. Naked, vulnerable. Weeping and broken.<br />
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<em>I set some valuable object down by a lamp-post, somewhere between Park Street and Panera Bread. I just leave it at a lamppost. Why in the world? It was not cheap. It'll get stolen. </em><br />
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I'm rather reckless in my dreams.<br />
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<em>We get to Panera Bread. We find a table. </em><br />
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<em>'I'd better go get what I left behind,'</em><br />
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<em>I pass a hallway of apartments. I know because they have apartment-like doorknobs. </em><br />
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<em>A dog greets me on my way down the stairs - don't ask me where the stairs came from, they weren't there before. </em><br />
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<em>I tighten my belt. </em><br />
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<em>I'm scared. What if it's stolen? </em><br />
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<em>I run down the street. </em><br />
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What's the purpose of an anchor? It's a security measure. When the tide wants to take you out to sea, you can be confident because you left insurance that you won't go anywhere. <br />
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I think that valuable object was like an anchor. An excuse to not leave my world. An excuse not to sit down with this friend over coffee. That would require sitting face to face. I would have to give up my view of waists, doorknobs, and the occasional dog.<br />
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There's always a way out. Always an exit strategy.<br />
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I always have to give myself something to be afraid of. I plant the seeds of my own panic, to prevent standing face to face.<br />
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I do the same with God, I'm sure. How often do I stand before Him face to face, like Nehemiah? He gets a mask, while my gaze remains downward - a gaze wrapped up in piety: prayers for others, events, things, the future. But rarely standing face to face, vulnerable.<br />
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Relationships are a dialectic of sorts. We want to have faces. We want to be seen, naked, without masks. But somehow, we find ourselves often unable to lift our gaze. We don't want to see someone else's face. We leave them waiting for faces. And so we push and pull and play this crazy war of espionage. How could they not stop and listen to us? How could they not hear our screaming?<br />
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This is where resentment grows. We want to know and be known. But we fail at both. <br />
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Waists and doorknobs and the occasional dog are so much easier to face, than an actual face. The world of waists, doorknobs, and the occasional dog may not have much to offer - but it's safe. It's so beautifully safe.<br />
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Babies go through a period in their development where they have not yet realized that things and people exist even when they aren't looking at them. Eventually we mature past that point. But maybe there's something still legitimate about that deep-seated sentiment.<br />
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We are not fully real without being known and seen. This whole creation exists only by the intentional work and gaze of God. A God who is nothing if He is not in relationship in the Trinity - knowing, seeing, gazing upon one another's faces. <br />
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Night has melded into waking day. Coffee has been drunk, a meeting conducted, 5 lines of homework completed. <br />
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But.<br />
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<em>Still running. Passing so many people on the street. </em><br />
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So many emails need to be written.<br />
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<em>Still running. Relief, contentment, apathy. </em><br />
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I'm hungry. <br />
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<em>'Look up, son.'</em><br />
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<em>His head is bowed down, looking down from the cross. He had to go up there to get me to look up. And He found me. Here is my soul, in the world of waists, doorknobs, and the occasional dog - known, loved, gazed upon. My safe spaces weren't safe enough. </em><br />
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<em>'Look up, son.' </em><br />
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<em>How did you find me here? </em><br />
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<em>I knew I'd disappoint you</em></div>
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<em><em>If I showed to you this child</em></em></div>
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<em><em>Who is crying out inside me</em></em></div>
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<em><em>Lost in the wild</em></em></div>
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<em>But how did you find me here?</em></div>
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(See: David Wilcox, How Did You Find Me Here?)<br />
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14561352796505791092noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2226159437758242552.post-91667454684395587032014-03-09T16:27:00.001-07:002014-03-09T16:37:09.644-07:00Looking at water<i>Eh. I'll just go up to the next exit and go home that way. </i><br />
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My foot remained firmly planted on the gas. </div>
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<i>Well, I'll drive up the interstate for a bit, then take the scenic way home. </i></div>
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Still, didn't budge. </div>
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Somewhere in my ankle, words were being spoken. Softly, reverberating along empty corridors, the voice found its way up to my head. But by then, my foot was already following those muffled orders.</div>
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Sometimes my body is more spiritual than my soul. </div>
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I'd 'felt' that voice before. It took my legs up mountains, it tapped 'purchase' when thinking about getting a train ticket. It takes me away from noise, into places where there were pillars of fire by night. </div>
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<i>'You need a vacation' </i></div>
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The words of a friend from earlier in the day decide to pay a visit. It knocks on the front door and sits down on the couch. Even after a couple cups of coffee, they still won't leave. </div>
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<i>Okay, fine, I'll go for a walk in a town on the coast. </i></div>
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I took a couple wrong turns. Which is nothing unordinary. </div>
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Brief moments of deja vu. Probably breaks in the space-time continuum. But for whatever reason, the coast looked a little bit like Europe. And that pothole too. That gas station reminds me of a family road tri- oh wait, that did happen. I've used their bathroom and then my sister and I picked out some donuts. </div>
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Oh, and a friend from college and I played music on that beach. </div>
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I get out, start walking. It's beautiful. The first warmish day in a while. Seagulls are being noisy, water is lapping up against the rocks. Every now and again, a parent and child walk by. </div>
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<i>'So. We going to talk?' </i></div>
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<i>Oh that's why You brought me out here?</i></div>
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<i>'Don't play dumb.'</i></div>
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<i><br /></i></div>
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<i>Fine. Just... just give me a minute. </i></div>
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<i><br /></i></div>
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<i>'Fair enough.'</i></div>
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<i><br /></i></div>
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Shops, pubs, used bookstores, greet me. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
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<i>I hope no one things I'm crying. It's just the cold air. </i></div>
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<i><br /></i></div>
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<i>'Don't you have better things to think about?'</i></div>
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<i><br /></i></div>
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<i>Fine. You know I'd love to talk. But I don't know where to start. </i></div>
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<i><br /></i></div>
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<i>'Just start somewhere.' </i></div>
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<i><br /></i></div>
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<i>Okay. Well, Lord, I pray for Ukraine - please-'</i></div>
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<i><br /></i></div>
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<i>'Stop putting me over there. I'm not 'over there.' I'm right here.' </i></div>
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<i><br /></i></div>
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<i>Ugh. Alright. Well, I'm worried about my career. About where to do my next degree, if I'm cut out for-</i></div>
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<i><br /></i></div>
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<i>'Stop putting me in the future. I'm right here.' </i></div>
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<i><br /></i></div>
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<i>That's all I know how to talk about. </i></div>
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<i><br /></i></div>
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<i>'I know. But that's what I'm here for.' </i></div>
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<i><br /></i></div>
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<i>I know. </i></div>
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<i><br /></i></div>
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<i>I. </i></div>
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<i><br /></i></div>
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<i>I just don't know how to let You get close. It scares me. </i></div>
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<i>'Which is why work, other people, other parts of the world, are so much easier to talk about.'</i></div>
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<i><br /></i></div>
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<i>Yes. I know. I guess it's like that sermon I had to listen to for class the other day. </i></div>
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<i><br /></i></div>
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<i>'The one about Mary and Martha?'</i></div>
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<i><br /></i></div>
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<i>Yeah, that one. It's not so much that I love to serve more than I love You. I can be pretty lazy, honestly. It's...</i></div>
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<i><br /></i></div>
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<i>'It's that being busy - especially in your thoughts, more than in real life, honestly - is safe. It keeps me in the other room.' </i></div>
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<i><br /></i></div>
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<i>Yeah. And I do that to people too. </i></div>
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<i><br /></i></div>
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<i>'Well of course you do. They're persons. Just like me. A being that is not you. It's not a safe place to be.'</i></div>
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<br /></div>
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So what do I do? </div>
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<br /></div>
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<i>'First, you stop asking those sorts of questions. You use those to make space, too. Just know that I love you. I always will. You can always be in the room with Me. There's nothing to be afraid of. Nothing I can't take. Nothing I can't hold. Nothing I can't cherish.' </i></div>
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<i><br /></i></div>
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<i>I know. It's just really hard to remember some times. </i></div>
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<i><br /></i></div>
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<i>'I know.' </i></div>
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<i><br /></i></div>
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<i>Can't you just help me let that be enough?</i></div>
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<i> Gosh, that really is a good song...</i></div>
<div>
<i><br /></i></div>
<div>
<i>'Always.' </i></div>
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<i><br /></i></div>
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<i>'I mean it, Kyle. Always. I'm always, always, always, here. Always.' </i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>Oh look, that's a pretty starfish on that building. </i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>'Remember those days I used to tell you to look up at the stars, to remind you that I was with you?'</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>How could I forget?</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>'Then, remember.' </i></div>
<div>
<i><br /></i></div>
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<i>I think I'll go home and write this down. Probably put it on my blog. </i></div>
<div>
<i><br /></i></div>
<div>
<i>'You know you're going to put words in my mouth and embellish it to make you look all cool and holy and 'authentic,' right?' </i></div>
<div>
<i><br /></i></div>
<div>
<i>Yes. I know I will. </i></div>
<div>
<i><br /></i></div>
<div>
<i>'Okay. Go for it. Just don't forget - you're really not all that great at prose.' </i></div>
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<i><br /></i></div>
<div>
<i>Fair enough. </i></div>
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<i><br /></i></div>
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<i><br /></i></div>
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Some days you just need to drive off, and look at some water. </div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14561352796505791092noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2226159437758242552.post-30709470654207671232014-03-06T12:14:00.001-08:002014-03-06T12:17:25.427-08:00"Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD" ? <div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"<span style="background-color: #fdfeff; color: #001320; line-height: 20px; text-align: justify;">Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD" </span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgno7ZLVGnsbH9ONS12WRCS2iIyDvON_72uSiMnUxeKKiwXhOqys_5I4U3JGSnXprCZdAx3SDFhAR1tt2CgfkbdEj2zu1NcdQwpHBV5S6ysRXtR7Em875bO0uDAqfiyYy2vsl3CzS9yyrk/s1600/americaundergod.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgno7ZLVGnsbH9ONS12WRCS2iIyDvON_72uSiMnUxeKKiwXhOqys_5I4U3JGSnXprCZdAx3SDFhAR1tt2CgfkbdEj2zu1NcdQwpHBV5S6ysRXtR7Em875bO0uDAqfiyYy2vsl3CzS9yyrk/s1600/americaundergod.jpg" height="319" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="background-color: #fdfeff; color: #001320; line-height: 20px; text-align: justify;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/15965815@N00/367579597/in/photolist-ytWBg-Joa6e-KHnjp-2Z8nKG-3cty3d-3oUmbq-45YpEb-4cT8yG-4pQBG2-4trWHn-4tvZom-4AdjUS-4Cou6T-4CQnGU-4Ghuq2-4KwB3R-4M7sEh-4RiejK-4Rnz1S-4RnAjm-51VmKf-54SNA6-559pQr-55Unhe-585Jkb-585Jm3-5qjHdD-5t37FM-5t7wCs-5tpHb2-5KHWHR-5TSUDc-5WKYMn-5WKYP6-648nGc-6k8G9Z-6kPDqn-6kPF5R-6kTMTo-6kTNos-6s1nDH-6sWdNf-6z4Wzp-6Eaivf-6FUhqH-74w4tJ-79oaB2-7jKnsR-7wx1GK-9i6dcT-dCZWyA" target="_blank">(Photo credit: Marshall Astor, on Flickr) </a></span>
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<span style="color: #001320;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 20px;">Do nations, countries, and empires rise and fall based upon their relationship to God? Does God's Word promise that America is doomed to decline because of her rapid secularization and apparent abandonment of her Christian roots?</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #001320;"><span style="line-height: 20px;">This raises a<i> lot</i> of questions. The most controversial, in my mind, is: What exactly do we mean by a country with Christian roots? How does one define a 'Christian nation'? Do we mean something different than the Holy Roman Empire? America might have put 'God' on a lot of buildings and in documents, and the Church has always been a celebrated and supported part of American life and society (until recently). But looking back over history and distinguishing vibrant Christianity from a deistic civil, nationalistic, religion is hard to do. And besides, while all this was going on, America committed many sins from the very beginning. I cringe over how kitschy it is to bring these things up, but it is true that we have in our history the deliberate and biblically-justified displacement of peoples and slavery, greed, gluttony (all sins worthy of many sharp Biblical condemnations - condemnations just as harsh as anything to do with sexuality). To claim that our contemporary sins are <i>really</i> the ones bringing judgment and our downfall, seems a bit historically naive (and Biblically selective) to me. I don't deny things have gotten, in many ways, worse and I think it's clear that we're in a cultural tailspin. But getting too specific seems, at best, messy and, at worse, pharisaical. </span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #001320;"><span style="line-height: 20px;">One might say 'well, at least we used to acknowledge God, even if we made mistakes, now our society doesn't even want to acknowledge God.' Fair enough. Maybe. But if we're going to use the Bible to find parallels, we must note that in the Old Testament, God's greatest wrath was saved for those who worshiped God with their lips, but denied Him with their actions (see Micah, or the early chapters of Isaiah, as examples). The Bible doesn't give us good reason to say something like that. </span></span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #001320;"><span style="line-height: 20px;">As a seminarian, I feel most strongly about the exegetical issues this all raises. And I want to propose that attempts to use passages like Psalm 33:12 to predict the decline of America, or diagnose America's (or any other country's) spiritual or political problems, or cite natural or other disasters as God's judgment, is a pretty serious misuse of Scripture. </span></span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #001320;"><span style="line-height: 20px;">I will make a few exegetical points about why I think this is a bad interpretation, but then I do want to affirm some of the correct sentiments these interpretations represent. But lastly, and most importantly, I wish to show why passages such as these are meant most of all, to give us hope - not a spirit of condemnation or fear. </span></span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #001320;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 20px;">First, <b>Six </b>exegetical problems: </span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #001320;"><span style="line-height: 20px;"><b>1. This interpretation ignores Scriptures that emphasize opposite truths. </b></span></span></span><br />
<span style="color: #001320;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 20px;">No, I don't believe Scripture contradicts itself, but Scripture must be used to help interpret Scripture. And if a particular interpretation is contrary, or chastened, by another verse - we need to rethink our interpretation. </span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #001320;"><span style="line-height: 20px;">Consider these other verses: </span></span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #001320;"><span style="line-height: 20px;">"</span></span><span style="background-color: white; text-align: start;">He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous." (Matthew 5:45) </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; text-align: start;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; line-height: 19px;">"Righteous are You, O Lord, when I plead with You; yet let me talk with You about Your judgments. Why does the way of the wicked prosper? Why are those happy who deal so treacherously?" </span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 19px;">(Jeremiah 12:1)</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 19px;">Righteousness and success do not always go together, and the Bible attests to the fact that often, just the opposite is the case! </span><br />
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<span style="line-height: 19px;">The story of Job clues us into this dynamic, does it not? Job's friends keep trying to convince Job that his sins must be the cause of his suffering, but the story ultimately reveals that God's ways cannot be known. Sin and suffering on the one hand, and righteousness and success on the other, don't always go together. </span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="line-height: 19px;">And we know this too from history. Many great empires have come and gone without recognizing God or Christ. The longest-unshaken empire is arguably the Chinese, largely Buddhist, dynasty. </span></span><span style="color: #001320; line-height: 20px;">Rome was doing quite well before Christianity came along (its decline began around the same time). And while it is wrong to blame Christianity for Rome's decline, as Edward Gibbon did, it's pretty clear that Christianity did not save Rome (well, at least not in the West). </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #001320; line-height: 20px;">So, whatever this verse means, it does not appear that it can mean that godliness and success always go together, for that contradicts a whole lot of other Scriptures. </span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 19px;"><b>2. It takes the verse out of its immediate context</b></span><br />
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<span style="line-height: 19px;">The second half of Psalm 33:12 is rarely quoted. The next clause reads: "</span><span class="indent-1-breaks" style="background-color: white; line-height: 0; text-align: start;"> </span><span class="text Ps-33-12" style="background-color: white; position: relative; text-align: start;">the people he chose<span class="crossreference" style="font-weight: bold; vertical-align: top;" value="(<a href="#cen-NIV-14379AB" title="See cross-reference AB">AB</a>)"></span> for his inheritance."</span></span><br />
<span class="text Ps-33-12" style="background-color: white; position: relative; text-align: start;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="text Ps-33-12" style="background-color: white; position: relative; text-align: start;">Who did God call 'his inheritance'? Israel. No one else: </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #404040; line-height: 15px; text-align: left;"> "For Yehovah’s portion is His people; Jacob is the allotment of His </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #404040; font-weight: 700 !important; line-height: 15px; text-align: left;">inheritance</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #404040; line-height: 15px; text-align: left;">." (Deuteronomy 32:9). </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="line-height: 19px;"><br /></span></span><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="line-height: 19px;">This passage is not giving a general principle about all nations, but about the people of God - who had a unique relationship with God. </span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="line-height: 19px;">The same goes for other passages cited along these lines: </span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; text-align: start;">"If</span><span style="background-color: white; text-align: start;"> my people, who are called by my name,</span><span class="crossreference" style="background-color: white; text-align: start; vertical-align: top;" value="(<a href="#cen-NIV-11339A" title="See cross-reference A">A</a>)"></span><span style="background-color: white; text-align: start;"> will humble</span><span class="crossreference" style="background-color: white; text-align: start; vertical-align: top;" value="(<a href="#cen-NIV-11339B" title="See cross-reference B">B</a>)"></span><span style="background-color: white; text-align: start;"> themselves and pray and seek my face</span><span class="crossreference" style="background-color: white; text-align: start; vertical-align: top;" value="(<a href="#cen-NIV-11339C" title="See cross-reference C">C</a>)"></span><span style="background-color: white; text-align: start;"> and turn</span><span class="crossreference" style="background-color: white; text-align: start; vertical-align: top;" value="(<a href="#cen-NIV-11339D" title="See cross-reference D">D</a>)"></span><span style="background-color: white; text-align: start;"> from their wicked ways, then I will hear </span><span class="crossreference" style="background-color: white; text-align: start; vertical-align: top;" value="(<a href="#cen-NIV-11339E" title="See cross-reference E">E</a>)"></span><span style="background-color: white; text-align: start;">from heaven, and I will forgive</span><span class="crossreference" style="background-color: white; text-align: start; vertical-align: top;" value="(<a href="#cen-NIV-11339F" title="See cross-reference F">F</a>)"></span><span style="background-color: white; text-align: start;"> their sin and will heal</span><span class="crossreference" style="background-color: white; text-align: start; vertical-align: top;" value="(<a href="#cen-NIV-11339G" title="See cross-reference G">G</a>)"></span><span style="background-color: white; text-align: start;"> their land." (2 Chronicles 7:14)</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; text-align: start;">To apply verses such as these to our own country is to blatantly rip the passage out of its context. These are promises toward Israel, part of God's unique and special relationship with Israel (and dealing with a particular period in time). For its contemporary relevance, as I will show later, we must apply it to the Church. </span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 19px;"><b>3. Such verses don't necessarily promise political/economic/social success, anyhow: </b></span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="line-height: 19px;">In fact, Psalm 33:12 was a prayer that reflected a promise that was true even in times of failure. It is a promise not directly about political success or prosperity. Even when Israel was chastised, they were still God's inheritance. And they were still blessed, even in their destitution and in their suffering. Even in their sinfulness. When Israel was punished by nations who did not know God, that did not mean that God's blessing had moved, been abolished, or had been traded for one people to another. His promise to Israel was still true (see Hosea 11, as an example). </span></span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="line-height: 19px;">And so, it is a stretch to apply this verse to other nations. It was a statement about Israel's relationship with God, which did not directly have to do with Israel's material success. </span></span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #001320; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="line-height: 20px;">It is true that God prospered Israel in times of righteousness, and let her suffer in times of unrighteousness. So, for this one nation at least, there seems to be a correlation in certain ways, in Israel's history. But these were based on explicit promises God made with Israel (blessings and curses in Deuteronomy), not with all people - and God always revealed explicitly when He was casting specific</span></span><span style="line-height: 20px;"> judgment at a point in history. </span><span style="color: black;"><span style="line-height: 20px;">And, yes, there are nations that are judged in the Old Testament for their unrighteousness. But apart from a specific revelation from God, we cannot ultimately know when and how and why God is operating in one way or another. Scripture is clear (as I have illustrated above) that, unless God tells us exactly what He's up to, we cannot know or depend for sure on a correlation between righteousness and success. The rain falls on the just and unjust alike. The wicked prosper, and the righteous suffer. </span></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="line-height: 19px;"><br /></span></span><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="line-height: 19px;"><b>4. It ignores the New Testament </b></span></span></span><br />
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<span style="line-height: 19px;">Some (Dispensationalists) will disagree with me, but I maintain the traditional position of all Christian history, that the Church is the continuation of the people of God. The story of Israel is the Church's story. If we are baptized into Christ, we are Abraham's descendants. The Church is Israel. </span></span><br />
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<span style="line-height: 19px;">And thus, this promise to Israel, is ultimately (in light of the New Testament) a promise to the Church - not one that can be willy-nilly applied to any institution or country. The Church is blessed because God is her Lord. <i>She</i> is the nation of God. Indeed, the New Testament is filled with 'nation' and 'empire' terms used to describe the Church - using the Greek word 'ekklesia' (which we translate as Church) which is used in the Greek version of the Old Testament for 'the assembly' of Israel. The people of God, Israel/theChurch (one thing!)<i> </i>is blessed because <i>she</i> belongs to the Lord. The Lord chose her, formed her, made her, keeps her. When the <i>Church</i> humbles herself, the Lord heals her 'land' (which, in the New Testament age, I do not </span><span style="line-height: 19px;">believe means we will become prosperous). </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 19px;"><b>5. It ignores the cross </b></span><br />
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<span style="color: #001320;"><span style="line-height: 20px;">When God talks about punishing Israel for her unrighteousness, I believe He is setting up for the atoning death of Christ. It becomes clear, in the New Testament, that sin was a problem that no one could escape from (Romans 1). </span><i style="line-height: 20px;">All </i><span style="line-height: 20px;">people are under God's wrath. Jews and Babylonians, Americans and Nazis, Israelis and Al-Qaeda. God may deal in temporal judgment here and there (and He announces it in divine revelation), but on the whole, sin is judged, defeated, destroyed, and dealt with on the cross and ultimately at the final judgment. Jesus takes upon himself the curse of sin and fulfills the demands of sin, death, and justice. The clear message of the New Testament is that Jesus <i>is, represents, </i>and <i>fulfills </i>Israel - He purifies Israel from/takes on Himself, the sins God said He would punish her for. In the grand scheme of history, sin and justice have already been dealt with. </span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #001320;"><span style="line-height: 20px;"> I do believe God disciplines His people, and those who He is drawing to Himself, in everyday affairs. And, it is clear that many sins have general consequences. But to look for God's judgment in everyday affairs is to miss that the big picture of all the talk about judgment and purification in the Old Testament is pointing to the act of Christ and the eschatological judgment of God. America's sins, Israel's sins, are dealt with on the cross and at the final judgment, as are mine and yours - for those who accept this grace. To look for temporal judgment in history is to ignore the trajectory of Scripture pointing us to the cross. </span></span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #001320;"><span style="line-height: 20px;"><b>4. The People of God, Especially in the New Testament Age, Are Called to Suffer </b></span></span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #001320;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 20px;">This is where, I think, the Anabaptists understand the Bible well. The people of God, in this time of waiting for our promised inheritance of righteousness to come (for the Kingdom to be established) are in diaspora. We are not in control, we have not yet inherited the earth. We will perennially suffer at the hands of the powerful. Anabaptists would be wary of any close relationship between Church and state for this reason - this side of eternity all power and dominion is the tool of evil. I don't go as far, but I am also uncomfortable with too close of a relationship - I fear that if the Church is in power, she is likely being corrupted (or at high risk of it). But whatever one thinks about all that, we are compelled to realize that the Church's power and comfort will wax and wane, and our predominant call is to suffer. But that does not mean God's promise has left us. We are still blessed, for we are the nation whose God is the Lord. What that means for a state that embraces the Church, I do not think we can easily say. If a society </span><i style="line-height: 20px;">truly </i><span style="line-height: 20px;">grasps the call of Christ, I'd think they'd be likely to suffer - and if they survive and proposer, it may mean that the call of Christ has not been really kept. I'm not sure it's quite that black and white, but those are categories worth considering. We must remember that the kingdoms of this earth, even if closely related to the Church, are not themselves the Church. They come and go, they rise and fall, but the Church remains - the beloved possession of God. </span></span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #001320;"><span style="line-height: 20px;">We in America especially, have a tendency to associate 'blessedness' with material success. This is why we have such a problem with health & wealth gospel teachings in the West. But, in the New Testament, it is clear that the blessing of the people of God, the blessedness of the sons of Abraham whose God is the Lord, is the promise of the coming Kingdom (Ephesians 1:3). Our blessing is in heaven, it is yet to come, it is coming with Christ. And in the meantime e will definitely suffer. The blessing of the Lord does not mean wealth or success in this life. So, it is wrong to look for political or material success as a sign of God's favor or disfavor - certainly for the Church and, I would say, of a society that embraces Christianity (in some way or another). </span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #001320;"><span style="line-height: 20px;">It is a false, and wholly unbiblical, attitude to tell <i>anyone </i>- a person, a family, a country, a government - that if they accept God they will suddenly be 'okay.' America could have a massive revival and still collapse. The Bible offers no guarantees about these things - and the closest it comes is to promise the exact opposite! Coming to the Lord may mean remarkable </span></span></span><span style="color: #001320; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 20px;">suffering, all the way to the loss of ones whole life! Complete and utter sacrifice, complete 'failure' by the world's standards, is what we celebrate every Sunday morning! To speak like this is to sell a false gospel, and a false promise, and to create a hoard of Christians (if it even works) who are not ready to follow Christ and will fall away at the first sign of trouble - like the disciples who all abandoned Jesus in Gethsemane. They were still waiting for Jesus to become the political hero they had expected - to take over society, to take over the culture, to pull it in by the reigns and make it godly, prosperous, and victorious. They were not ready to pay the price of walking to the cross with Him. They were not willing to realize that the real battle, is not against flesh and blood. That the <i>real </i>Kingdom is not of this earth. That the path of God's redemption plan was one of utter self-sacrifice and <i>loss</i>! </span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #001320; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 20px;">Please, pray for our country! Serve the good of our country (and whatever country you find yourself in!) Seek revival, pray for revival! Tell everybody about Jesus and about the judgment that's coming!</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #001320; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 20px;"> But do not sell a false Gospel. </span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #001320;"><span style="line-height: 20px;">Countries, nations, kingdoms come and go. Material success and prosperity, and freedom and peace, will come and go. The Church will have power and influence some days and none the next. These things do not shake us. They cannot surprise us. And we may never know for sure what God is up to in all of these things. Our blessing and our inheritance is sure yet. </span></span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #001320;"><span style="line-height: 20px;"><b>But to be fair...</b></span></span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #001320;"><span style="line-height: 20px;">All that said, it is impossible to ignore the correlation between the decline of the West as a society, and the secularization of the West. Christianity has long been a crucial part of the West's roots, and the West is cutting off all its roots. Of course it is going to whither and collapse. Christianity gave the West so much of its culture and its vitality - free enterprise, hospitals, the early scientific revolution, abolition, philanthropy, the fine arts, its moral compass - all these bulwarks of Western civilization were strongly helped, if not instigated, by Christianity. And as a Christian I wear these things proudly. </span></span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #001320;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 20px;">As the world changes drastically, we see Christians in the West scrambling to come to terms with the fact that there is only so much we can do, or (and I'd say) have the responsibility to do, to preserve these roots. We preach, we serve, we build, we pray, we influence, we hope - but we cannot claw to control the tides of culture of history, or we will lose our witness. That is not the attitude of a people of hope - it assumes that we are only succeeding if the culture or the kingdom is thriving, and accepting us. And this is why you hear some people say 'when America rejects God, we should go to _______ where things are better.' What ridiculousness. What a slap in the face of the Great Commission, of the call of the Church. When we abandon the 'hard places' we've <i>really</i> missed the whole point. We were never promised a happy, peaceful, God-honoring culture to live in and do our work. And the goal of our work is not necessarily a prosperous, godly, country (it's not wrong to hope<i> for</i> such things, but we can't set our hopes <i>on</i> them, when we are so consistently warned in Scripture that most of our call as a Church will not look like this, and the fact that times of comfort lead to times of apathy and corruption). We were called to go to all the earth, to walk like Jesus walked, into the darkest, most hell-riddden corners of this earth. </span></span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #001320; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 20px;"> Yes, we must be prophetic. We can point to the depravity and futility of the world and culture around us, as the Church has always done. And there <i>may</i> be times where we can point to circumstances as God's chastisement or discipline. But we must be very, very, careful about pointing to specific instances as God's judgment, or make theological predictions about the relationship between Christianity, Christian vitality, and the rise or decline of a people. Where God has not explicitly spoken with historical specificity, these things we cannot know for sure. We can only point to the ultimate judgment, and the breaking of sin in the death and resurrection of Christ, and speak prophetically about the general judgment of God. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #001320;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 20px;"><b>In conclusion</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #001320;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 20px;">Augustine witnessed the collapse of the Western half of the Roman Empire. Early Christian hopes that Christianized-Rome represented the Kingdom of God, were dashed in a few short years. Augustine put pen to paper and wrote one of the most important texts of theology ever constructed - </span><i style="line-height: 20px;">Civitas Dei (City of God</i><span style="line-height: 20px;">). The legacy of this text, and of Augustine's political thought as a whole, is complicated and wrought with contradictions (other writings of Augustine, arguably, undermined the message of the <i>City of God</i>). Nonetheless, that thesis is important for us today: The kingdoms of this earth, are not the Kingdom of God. Empires, nations, countries, will rise and fall, but the City of God is not shaken. Our citizenship is to another Kingdom. </span></span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; line-height: 18px; text-align: left;">“The Heavenly City outshines Rome beyond comparison. There, instead of victory, is truth; instead of high rank, holiness; instead of peace, felicity; instead of life, eternity,” </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; line-height: 18px; text-align: left;">― Augustine of Hippo, </span><i style="background-color: white; color: #181818; line-height: 18px; text-align: left;"><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/5814" style="color: #666600; text-decoration: none;">City of God</a></i></span><br />
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<span style="color: #001320;"><span style="line-height: 20px;">America might collapse, with or without embracing Christianity (just as Rome collapsed even after embracing Christianity). And the Church may suffer or prosper as she lives among righteous and unrighteous peoples. But whatever comes, her inheritance, her Kingdom, her promise, her blessing, is in heaven with Christ. And this gives us great hope. No matter kings that may fall, or kings that may rise, no matter what we suffer, our victory is secure. Indeed, as it was with Christ, our moments of greatest victory come when we let go and suffer unjustly. For that is when the glory of God is displayed against the depravity of this world. So do not be afraid of crumbling kingdoms, or of persecution, or of nations that reject the Lord and His people. God's power is as strong as ever, our inheritance, our blessing, is a sure as ever - and indeed, God's glory may be about to be displayed in new and glorious ways - just as occurred at calvary. His light shines brightest in the darkness. </span></span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #001320;"><span style="line-height: 20px;">This people of God is blessed, because she is the Lord's inheritance. She is meek and she is poor, but she shall inherit the earth (Matthew 5). She is beaten down, but she is never destroyed (2 Corinthians 4). And at the last day she shall shine like the stars in the sky (Daniel 7) - the stars of Abraham's descendants (Galatians 3:29). </span></span></span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14561352796505791092noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2226159437758242552.post-44202970984102121782014-02-13T08:01:00.001-08:002014-02-13T08:04:26.132-08:00So Let’s Be Trendy and Talk About Science and the Bible: How Postmodernity Might Save Our Skins <div class="MsoNormal">
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I don’t write about science often. It’s not one of my
strengths. But with the recent buzz over the Ham-Nye debate, and yesterday being
Charles Darwin’s birthday – I feel obliged. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwpGFWKyyvqsAlUmijUZp_8HOI7MGNAGoZlXHqaoIkR1xyrmQuPtWHP6NgW2giCftYZXihKDCUFdijW8iH0n6c2pY2zL0deTFXIYw8sI7eUcOMEhhANVYavgNFA3weGOX76m3vAXsHQGE/s1600/7640520446_843dc307df_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwpGFWKyyvqsAlUmijUZp_8HOI7MGNAGoZlXHqaoIkR1xyrmQuPtWHP6NgW2giCftYZXihKDCUFdijW8iH0n6c2pY2zL0deTFXIYw8sI7eUcOMEhhANVYavgNFA3weGOX76m3vAXsHQGE/s1600/7640520446_843dc307df_n.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/redeye-/7640520446/sizes/l/" target="_blank">From redeye on Flickr</a></td></tr>
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It is common for Christian thinkers, and pastors, to
critique the onset of postmodernity. And there are good reasons to do so –
Western civilization has met a point of futility and utter disaster in its
abandonment of God. Yet it is important to remember that ‘Postmodernity’ is not
a life philosophy. It is not a ‘religion,’ per se. I do certainly believe that
humans are inherently religious beings who will make gods out of anything they
can get their hands on. But postmodernity does not have a central core of
doctrines or philosophical claims to bind it together. It is, most
fundamentally, a critique of modernity. And there are many aspects of modernity
worth critiquing, and many of these critiques that we Christians can give some
tentative, nuanced, endorsements to. <o:p></o:p></div>
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One of the central features of modernity was its elevation
of scientific knowledge. Science was the cool kid on the street. It was the
field of study that provided certainty and clarity to our universe. Human
reason was elevated, even worshiped in the Enlightenment, and science was the pinnacle of human
intellectual achievement. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Very quickly, the elevation of reason began to be criticized
– by Kant, and those who followed him. In these first steps of the betrayal of
the age of reason, science was still granted a privileged status. Perhaps
certainty in ‘subjective’ fields of knowledge is not all its chalked up to be,
but science is an ‘objective’ field of study. It is assured. It is clean.<o:p></o:p></div>
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The early stages of postmodernity began, and we started to
realize that all sorts of things get in the way of our capacities for reason.
Bias, privilege, emotion, history,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>experience - the utter smallness of humanity in a big, complicated
world, all gets in the way of our thinking. Dark gothic literature began to
explore the horror and the mystery of that which is still unknown. Novels like <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Frankenstein </i>considered the potential of science untamed and unfettered by morality. But for most of the world, science remained
the privileged category of certainty. It, at least, is objective. It is
uncomplicated by history or morality or culture. An atom is an atom whether you
are a 2<sup>nd</sup> century peasant, or a 21<sup>st</sup> century biologist.
The earth revolves around the sun whether the Church lets you believe it or
not. <o:p></o:p></div>
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And then along came Thomas Kuhn (1922-1996), a philosopher of science
who would coin the phrase ‘paradigm shift,’ in his attempt to trace the way
scientific knowledge changes, morphs, and develops over time. He obliterated
the myth that science deserves to be in a special category of certainty. We have
assumptions that we bring to the ‘data.’ We conduct experiments and analyze
empirical data through the lens of the assumptions we have developed within our
historical context and within our point in the history of science. For example,
the theory of relativity changed the way we interpreted data and the way we
conducted experiments. Someday we may stumble on enough empirical evidences to
force us to reshape the paradigm, but the conceptual framework remains behind
our data-gathering. It’s a theory-driven field of study, just like anything
else, and theories change as time changes. As new discoveries are made,
cultural attitudes transform, and as intellectual climates ebb and flow. It's by no means useless or doomed to failure - absolutely not. But it is not a clean, objective, process. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Science was now brought into the postmodern critique of certainty. Scientific reasoning changes and morphs with transitions in cultural values and other historical contingencies, just like other fields of knowledge. It can be driven by bias, self-interest, emotion, etc., just like anything else. Including religion. The science obsession of the Nazi regime and the related eugenics movement has jaded us - realizing what happens when science replaces morality or religion as the arbiter of truth and ethics. </div>
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Science was pitted against religion all throughout the
scientific age. It brought confident, clear, testable, truths while religion
was supposedly subjective and human-driven.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Yet, since the work of Kuhn, no reputable theorist or philosopher treats
science as deserving a privileged position. It is subjective, theoretical, and
human, as well.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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The exceptions might be the ‘New Atheists,’ like Sam Harris,
or Richard Dawkins – people who are remarkably ‘behind the times’ in terms of<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> </i>scientific thought and philosophy. <o:p></o:p></div>
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The postmodern critique of science has in many ways rescued
us from the intractable conflict between science and religion. Apologetically,
we felt long inclined to defend Christianity on the basis of science, in
response to our scientific age which had so smugly thought it had found ‘real
knowledge’ unlike had been found in religion. That’s not a worthless endeavor,
but it often missed the bigger picture – and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">assumed</i> the rest of the world’s perspective that science is the
only sure field of knowledge. Postmodernity has made these debates largely
irrelevant, and has handed us an apologetic ‘golden goose,’ as it were.
Scientific data need not be a stumbling block to faith – science is (at least
to some degree) just as subjective as any other field of study. It changes and
morphs with time. Evolutionary theory might be discarded 200 years from now,
and a new paradigm will govern how we theorize and analyze data. Although we
got stuck in ruts of arguing over minutia of science and missing the big
picture, at least we have been progressive enough be willing to question the
Enlightenment-western arrogance that led to the assumption that whatever we now
believe about science is certain and unquestionable. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Yet, we must stand our ground that scientific data does not
provide comprehensive knowledge. It is a limited field. It can’t really tell us
much about the validity or invalidity of Scripture, much less the existence or
non-existence of God. It is not a specially privileged field of knowledge. <o:p></o:p></div>
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And so, the trick up our sleeve in contemporary apologetics
is that we demand more from the secular world. We need not be on the defensive.
You have tight arguments and hefty evidence for evolutionary theory? So what?
What does that prove? That’s supposed to challenge my belief in God or my
belief in the Bible? We should certainly not approach such conversations with arrogance - quick, impersonal, intellectually dishonest answers has demolished many a'faith. But in the big apologetic picture, we need not be on the defensive against science. The world has, at least somewhat, moved on - and we have that on our side. <o:p></o:p></div>
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We must be clear with ourselves that this goes both ways.
The phenomenon of ‘Creation Science,’ bothers me a bit. And it’s not because I
necessarily have a problem with people believing evolution isn’t true or that
the earth is young. How dare I think it worthwhile to tell the little old lady at church who has loved the Lord her whole life that she's wrong about the age of the earth. I <i>personally</i> don’t think a young earth reading of Genesis
is exegetically defensible – I think it is a gross anachronistic misreading of the text to
think the text gives an exact chronology or time frame (or excludes the possibility
of evolution). But that’s neither here nor there.<br />
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What I have a problem with is
filling our kids with scientific data and arguments to ground their faith in.
This assumes the very modern-enlightenment idea that the battle for faith must
take place in the scientific realm. You can never prepare a child for every bit
of data they will read, or every argument they will encounter. As soon as one's creation-science artifice has been chipped away at college by something they
were not prepared for and no creation scientist has yet written an article
about, the whole faith comes crumbling down because their faith has <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">really </i>been in science. Not in the
Bible, much less in Christ. I believe the more healthy thing to do is to help our kids have a faith
grounded in something much deeper than the whims of science – that human,
subjective, privilege-driven field. Tomorrow, half the arguments for a young
earth will be proven wrong. And the day after, half the arguments for
evolutionary theory will be proven wrong. This cannot, and should not, be the
battle-ground of our faith. It’s too uncertain, too subjective. <o:p></o:p></div>
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I will clarify: I’m not a complete relativist in
terms of scientific knowledge (any more than Kuhn was). After all, I take antibiotics and I get better.
I get on planes and they stay in the air. We certainly know things now that generations before us did not. I’m all for scientific endeavor and what it can
discover and what it can accomplish.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And
I personally lean towards an old earth and some form of theistic-evolutionary
theory, because – from the best we can do – that this makes the most sense to
me (and I certainly don’t think it contradicts Scripture). But at the end of
the day, I don’t put much stock in it all; at least not as far as my faith is
concerned. My faith is in something deeper. The
confidence I have is from my personal encounter with Jesus, and the sustenance
of the Church and the power of the Spirit. I proclaim what has been proclaimed
by the Church from the beginning: That Christ died and rose again and that we
must depend upon Him for salvation. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Science isn’t going to tell me much about the validity or
invalidity of that belief.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> Its parameters are too small. </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14561352796505791092noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2226159437758242552.post-8572227500270684272014-01-26T14:37:00.001-08:002014-01-26T19:29:44.992-08:00Concerning Hypocrisy I didn't feel inclined to say much about the Duck Dynasty fiasco, for a variety of reasons. But listening to the radio in the car the other day, I did have this one belated thought: <br />
<br />
What does it say about our society when Phil's (undoubtedly crass and, I'd say, insensitive) words earn such swift and decisive reprimand, but our pop songs blatantly treat women like animals and practically advocate rape (Thanks Pitbull for the beautifully artful line: 'Face down, booty up. . . She says she won't but I bet she will' or shall I thank Robin Thicke's classic 'you know you want it.'). Yet, there is comparatively hardly any outrage, and such songs even jump to the top of the charts.<br />
<br />
(See my previous rant on sexist pop music,<a href="http://toomuchlovenathanaelkyle.blogspot.com/2013/11/pop-justice.html" target="_blank"> here.</a> )<br />
<br />
In a world that is 'sexually liberated' and 'egalitarian,' sexual exploitation is yet rampant. Women are still not treated equally in the work place, and are tossed around like sex objects in pop culture.<br />
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I'll go further. One particular instance of hypocrisy has stood out to me.<br />
<br />
What does it say when our 'pro-gay' culture is yet full of constant degrading jokes and stereotypical portrayals of gay people on TV, or when reprehensible slurs typically reserved for the dark corners of the Internet appears in our music (or spewing from Alec Baldwin's mouth). I think Macklemore got many things wrong, but he certainly has a point: 'have you read the Youtube comments lately?' And indeed, 'if I were gay I'd think rap music hates me.'<br />
<br />
What does it say when I, the Christian, am the one person who doesn't laugh or jeer behind the back of a cross dressing man who comes into my secular place of employment?<br />
<br />
Or when young people struggling with their sexuality, if they ever betray to their peers any hint or clue as to their struggle, are bullied - sometimes to the point of committing suicide?<br />
<br />
What does it say when gay people are token friends, or token characters in a movie, that makes one 'politically correct'? Or when they are treated as a voting block to be toted around for political points?<br />
<br />
I'll be the first to admit that the Church is full of problems, and has made many mistakes on this issue in particular. But this behavior from our society strikes me as the utter definition of a culture of ridiculous hypocrisy. Quite stellar hypocrisy, actually.<br />
<br />
I guess we're not the only ones.<br />
<br />
I have this radical notion that the Church should be, and is, the one place where LGBTQ people can be treated with dignity in a world that promises to do so, but continues to do the opposite.<br />
<br />
There is a growing diversification of views on homosexuality <i>within </i>Evangelicalism - the disagreement over homosexuality, in the next generation, will not be between Evangelicals and liberal protestants but will increasingly becoming an inter-Evangelical disagreement. But I want to be clear that this notion of bestowing dignity does not require one to abandon one's traditional opinions on homosexuality, any more than Jesus gave up his notions of right and wrong to dignify prostitutes, or adulterers; not to mention the pagan Gentiles and the poor. I was blessed by a gentleman <u>from <a href="http://blog.leadthemhome.org/" target="_blank">this</a> organization</u> who came to speak at our seminary campus last Fall. He maintains an unapologetic conservative position on homosexuality, that more than a few Christians might disagree with, but whatever your opinion I don't know how you can help but respect that he works tirelessly to equip churches to understand and love homosexual people better. I especially respect that he helps equip public schools to prevent the suicide of youth who struggle with their sexual identity (such suicide rates are astronomically high, the Church has a crucial opportunity here to provide love and support and save the lives of those thrown under the bus of a culture that, really, doesn't seem to care all that much).<br />
<br />
I love the story of Wesley Hill, a celibate Christian man. He tells the beautiful story of his life in the book <i>Washed and Waiting. </i>He explains his experience of feeling attracted to the same sex since the day he had his first conscious sexual feeling. <i> </i>He describes in heartbreaking ways how he spent his whole life feeling constantly 'dirty' and utterly despised by God, because of feelings and tendencies he had known since puberty. But how, in the midst of confusion, pain, loneliness, infinite attempts to try different ways to change his orientation, and conflict about what lifestyle to pursue, he came to know (through the love of Christian mentors, friends, and his parents) that in the middle of all these things, God loved him, and saw him as a beloved child. Hill explains gracefully how church leaders can, and must, show the same love and provide the same dignity to people with similar lives and struggles. We can do so because we serve a God of abundant love.<br />
<br />
Don't get me wrong, there are plenty of non-Christian people who are loving and respectful of others. Many people, Christian and non-Christian, have raised awareness to the aforementioned suicide issue, for example. Many non-Christian feminists would agree with us in their disgust at the sexualization of women (and men) in pop culture. There have certainly been times in the past when the Church has gotten its act together by being shown up by people outside the Church, and there are some ways that this is the case now. I don't mean to simply portray this as a mere game of 'good guys' and 'bad guys.' But, yet, I remain astounded by the starkness of the 'big picture,' our culture represents a cycle of dizzying futility and hypocrisy.<br />
<br />
We offer something none of the rest of the world does - the remarkable message that you are loved by God just for who you are. This is not to deny that we are all sinners in need of radical transformation. But we are loved by God <i>while we are yet</i> sinners, and we Christians owe that same love to everyone around us. We offer a call and a dignity that allows us to be understood as human beings, not a sexual identity, not a nationality, not our failures or our successes.<br />
<br />
There is a wide open market for a context in which homosexual people are treated with dignity. Because the rest of the world, while talking big, keeps failing miserably.<br />
<br />
The Church is not counter-cultural so much for thinking certain things are right and wrong. We are counter-cultural for doing this very thing the rest of the world has failed to do. That's the trick up our sleeve. That's the punch line to the joke. We can lose the 'culture battle' and still win the war, because we have dared to love recklessly, better than our supposedly progressive society. You think the Church is slandered for her position on homosexuality? Such radical love is what will make us <i>really </i>hated. Such will lead to actual persecution, though it still may take the form of accusing us of monstrosities resulting our 'moralism.' Don't be deceived by the rhetoric, and don't let it become a self-fulfilling prophecy. We don't win by becoming what we are caricatured to be. We win by the utter surprise of being more sincerely loving than the world. This is what worried me about the Duck Dynasty reaction: Phil was definitely treated unfairly, and we should stand up for a society of fair and open dialogue, but we shouldn't be tricked into becoming martyrs for crassness. That's a victory for the world, not for Jesus. We win by not playing the game.<br />
<br />
There have been many times in which the Church has inflicted severe and inexcusable pain upon homosexual people, and many others, and it is important that we recognize and own that fact. In fact, this is necessary so that we do not become like the world, or what the world accuses us of being. We offer something our hypocritical world avoids: A willingness to truly and sincerely apologize for our mistakes, because we understand the dignity of humility, and we know the power of grace. We pursue the sincere and meek love we have known in our Lord.<br />
<br />
But at the end of the day, our moral opinions or the mistakes that we have made, is not what's really, actually, the most offensive. It's just easy fodder for a much deeper contention. What is offensive about us is our love, and the dignity we dare to bestow to those the rest of the world doesn't seem to <i>actually</i> care about. That is what put Jesus on the cross, marked as a common criminal and branded by the religious authorities as a friend of those they hated: sinners, the poor, Gentiles.<br />
<br />
Come to the cross. Come to the place where you are a human being, not your gender, not your sexuality, not your race or nationality, not your mistakes or your successes, not your sins or your righteousness, not your sincerity or your hypocrisy, not your wounds or your woundings, but simply a human loved by a gracious God just the way you are, Who wants to become the only, most central, defining factor in your life. Come bring your pain to Him, who doesn't want to turn your pain into a political agenda, but wants to hold you in His arms just as you are.<br />
<br />
<br />
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14561352796505791092noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2226159437758242552.post-14824610538658812192013-11-24T20:18:00.001-08:002013-11-25T07:40:40.319-08:00Pop Justice Neil Postman warned us of an age when 'entertainment' would be our primary mode of discourse. Right on schedule, our moral norms are now transferred through entertainment - especially for those must susceptible (namely, the young). We hand our emotions over to the sounds and images and through it, we are formed into who we are. I do not mean to be a mere prophet of doom of the evils of television and pop music. I love my sitcoms. And I'd consider losing a limb to see U2 in concert. It's a transition of discourse like others that have taken place. There are pros and cons to such a transition. It allows us to think anew about how cultural forms besides words form us - consider how the pre-modern world was largely shaped through liturgy, art, and religious music. But we must at least be cognizant of the fact (and the attendant dangers to this fact) that entertainment profoundly shapes our behaviors and social norms. And vice versa. Look to our entertainment to see what we value and how we live.<br />
<br />
The picture is sobering.<br />
<br />
Our pop songs feature men speaking the same words as rapists: "you know you want it" (Robin Thicke). Or they feature the manipulative language of a boy talking a girl into a one-night-stand: "I know we only met but let's pretend it's love. . .tonight let's 'get some'" (One Direction). A boy dances on stage acting out the ogling of scantily clad women who are stoic, nameless, impersonal (Justin Bieber). A man announces point blank that he's 'a dog' and that he wants his women 'like Miley Cyrus. . . facedown, booty up' - objectified and faceless. A slave. (Pitbull 'Timber').<br />
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<a href="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8243/8540093912_b65d1be940_z.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8243/8540093912_b65d1be940_z.jpg" width="287" /></a><br />
<br />
Our music worships rape, abuse, and exploitation - why the heck are we so surprised over sexual violence in our society? We worship and glorify it and call it 'entertainment.' We dance to it at our parties, we get drunk on it. We unleash these songs on young people and we wonder why they turn around and exploit and abuse one another. Where are role models telling our young men to treat women with respect? Where are the encouragers telling our young women that they deserve to be treated better? Why are we only openly offended when a woman takes too much of her clothes off? We expend all our energy shaming Miley, while the likes of Robin Thicke and Pitbull get free passes for creating music that celebrates demanding women to be subservient to their monstrous desires. At least Pitbull is honest: the way we found Miley acting at the AMA is exactly how he wants her. She may deserve some criticism, but in a sick way she becomes the victim that allows us to ignore the real problem - and we perpetuate her exploitation by joking and ridiculing her.<br />
<br />
We act shocked when teenage rape/sexting cases hit the news, or when a forced prostitution ring is uncovered. What blissful and damnable ignorance. Parents have no clue about the culture of sexual exploitation that exists among young people. So many are ignorant of the sex-slavery industry that is rampant here in the West (it's by no means a 'third world' problem). Don't they realize that those few scapegoat cases are merely the tip of the iceberg?<br />
<br />
Why should we be surprised, when the hymns are of rape, and the liturgy on stage is one of assault? <br />
<br />
This is not the prudish ramblings of a culture warrior expecting this sinful world to be good, or calling for people to hide from it. It's the indignant fuming of someone looking for justice.<br />
<br />
Indeed, merely hiding away from 'the depravity of the world' does little good. The Church must offer an alternative set of symbols and values: Songs, sounds, images, practices, words, of justice, respect, value, and love. Not as an alternative sub-culture that mimics the world's forms (in diminished quality, typically) and gives us an escape from the world - but in dynamic, prophetic, active ways.<br />
<br />
And so, it is in this spirit that I say to all women, including Miley: I just want you to know that you are worth so much more than this world tells you that you are. You are golden. You are loved. Pitbull may want you on your hands, 'twerking,' but Jesus wants to look at your face, and behold the beautiful, free, independent, whole person God has made you to be. And I see you that way too. To all men: you can live for so much more than this. For building up and not tearing down. For giving, not for taking. For serving, not for demanding. Come to the table, where you find all that you are looking for in giving yourself for others, and being given to by others. Find your identity in the humility of mutually serving and being served by women - live for their dignity while so much of the rest of the world finds their identity in exploiting and dominating over women.<br />
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All Christians, men and women, are called to submit to one another, just as Christ has given all to us; not to exploit and take from one another. We come to the table of Christ where there is reconciliation between the sexes, in stark contrast to a world where we enslave and dominate. We live in a new community in which we sing about, gaze upon, and liturgically mimic the One who came to heal, uplift, and dignify us <i>while we are yet sinners - loving us merely because He chooses to, not because of anything we do.</i> Through these symbols, sounds, and actions, we are reminded that we are set free, we have worth, in Christ. The world, especially our youth, is thirsty for such a community. Let us show the way, and in doing so announce freedom for the captives that are shackled to the violent sex gods that are hiding behind stylized synth tracks.<br />
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<i>She must and shall go free. </i><br />
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14561352796505791092noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2226159437758242552.post-34029853098448389992013-10-19T21:04:00.000-07:002013-10-19T21:05:35.275-07:00The Embrace of the Divine<span style="background-color: white; color: #3e454c; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.222222328186035px; line-height: 16.666667938232422px; white-space: pre-wrap;">In especially Eastern Christian art, you regularly see holy figures making a sign with their right hand: two fingers standing together, thumb and ring finger touching with the pinkie nearby. This gesture spells out a particular short-hand for the name of Christ, but it also symbolizes the two natures of Christ, and the three Members of the Trinity, respectively. </span><br />
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More than merely a stuffy declaration of dull dogma, or a fetish for symbolism, this represents a quiet, simple, and yet poignant statement of the core of the Christian message. The two doctrines expounded in this gesture are not selected at random. The disputes over these two doctrines (the Trinity and the incarnation) defined the early Church and her identity, and the Orthodox Church especially has always placed great significance in these doctrines and expounding and symbolizing them abundantly. Yet, I do not believe it is incidental that these two doctrines are declared together in this one gesture. Together they make for a remarkably profound and holistic declaration: The God who is eternally embracing, accepting, and communing with Himself in perfect fellowship, has come and opened His fellowship to His creation. He humbly comes to our world - to you and me! - in embrace, acceptance, and communion in the form of the incarnation: when the fullness of His 'hypostatic union' came and united to our brokenness. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #3e454c; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.222222328186035px; line-height: 16.666667938232422px; white-space: pre-wrap;">At the end of all things, the Lord shall descend and 'God's dwelling shall be with humanity.' We shall live in communion and harmony with our God. The God of fellowship shall fellowship with us, eternally. We shall be caught up in the symphonic embrace of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.
This small gesture represents the most tremendous and profound of truths, and its quiet declaration is scattered throughout museums, churches, art textbooks, and the annals of history. The world cannot escape from the preaching of these dead saints, who tell us with their hands about the embracing Three-in-One who has come to embrace us.</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14561352796505791092noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2226159437758242552.post-5632855685539026722013-08-01T03:11:00.000-07:002013-08-01T11:16:19.487-07:00'In Christ Alone' and the PCUSA: Getting the Story Straight and Rambling on the Atonement<i>(We will be returning to the multi-part series on marriage. But first, this little diversion). </i><br />
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The recent controversy over the PCUSA's decision to exclude the popular contemporary hymn 'In Christ Alone' provides a fabulous object lesson on two items: 1st, the danger of jumping to conclusions and, 2nd, the history of Christian views of the atonement. </div>
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And I never pass up an opportunity to talk about the history of Christian views of anything. </div>
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The actually-not-so-recent decision by the PCUSA to keep 'In Christ Alone' out of their new hymnal (it took place back in May, I believe, but people are just now talking about it as far as I can see) has been cited by many as another evidence of the PCUSA's slide into liberalism and apostasy. The decision was over the line 'and on the cross as Jesus died / the wrath of God was satisfied.' The PCUSA committee wanted to include a version of the hymn (which has appeared elsewhere) that says 'and on the cross as Jesus died/the love of God was magnified.' </div>
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The PCUSA has been accused, by making this decision, of caving to modern relativism and its distaste for a God of wrath and judgment out of a wimpy desire for a more tolerant, loving, 'soft,' God. </div>
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But, I'm afraid that most of these accusations fail to even bother to try and understand what actually took place amongst the PCUSA decision-makers, and serves as an unfortunate example of hastily jumping to conclusions. </div>
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I don't deny the importance of being on guard against false doctrine, Paul's letters regularly attest to the importance being watchful. But such a vigilance should not exist at the expense of cool reason or thoughtful engagement with what's really going on. </div>
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I also don't deny that the mainline denominations have been, in many ways, slipping into an un-orthodox theological liberalism. My home church left the PCUSA and I supported that decision, and still do. </div>
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And, I really do like 'In Christ Alone,' a lot. </div>
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But I'm not willing to concede that this decision is just another step in their 'path of apostasy.' That strikes me as way too simplistic. </div>
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You see, here's the thing. </div>
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<a href="webkit-fake-url://24496EE6-4982-4F26-B1C5-70BA61F9A5F4/3374281260_51ab30b6dc_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="3374281260_51ab30b6dc_n.jpg" border="0" src="webkit-fake-url://24496EE6-4982-4F26-B1C5-70BA61F9A5F4/3374281260_51ab30b6dc_n.jpg" /></a>Throughout Christian history there have been a number of different views regarding what is, theologically, happening on the cross. Why exactly is Jesus dying? What is the significance of His death? This question is what we call the issue of the atonement. And there are, naturally, different 'theories' of the atonement.<br />
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As I go into some info about these different theories, I really encourage you to do your own research, because my assessments are, I'm sure, full of mistakes. </div>
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In the Middle Ages, a theologian by the name of Anselm taught a view on the atonement that focused on God's honor. God's honor was threatened by sin, and someone had to make amends for this threat. Sin had to be atoned for to rescue God's honor. The Reformers, Calvin especially, never really rejected this basic frame of mind and taught, similarly, that God's justice needed satisfied. God's justice cannot merely be turned aside, it must be fulfilled. Calvin (as he is usually caricatured, anyway) taught this in a very clear legal-framework; in terms of crimes that had to be paid for, to God, by somebody so that we may stand before God as justified. This view is called the Penal Substitution view of the atonement. </div>
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This, arguably, differs from the view of the Church Fathers; or at least from what the emphasize. </div>
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In early Christian writings, you find very little about God's wrath being satisfied, actually. Usually, instead, their focus is on the defeat of satan and the defeat of death. When humanity fell, Satan and death gain dominion over the human race. Christ comes to satisfy that dominion and overturn it. Yes, God is somehow involved in all this, in that He is the one who placed the curse of death upon the earth. And yes, the atonement is still substitutionary. In fact, it is more broadly substitutionary than the penal view, in that Christ is taking on all that is broken in humanity and putting it to death, not just the legal consequences of sinful actions. </div>
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But in the Patristic teachings there is little discussion of a need for God's wrath to be satisfied. The emphasis is more upon God's grace and love in offering Himself to be handed over to death in our place - but with the knowledge that through this action He would defeat death and all of creation would begin to be freed from death and sin. The emphasis is upon God's love being manifested on the cross, not so much His wrath. </div>
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There is variation among the Fathers/or at least rather varying ways of describing all this. Forgive me for the simplicity of this description. </div>
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Athanasius' classic text 'On The Incarnation' would be considered one of the most key articulations of the Patristic view. I highly encourage you to sit down and read it for yourself. I recommend this version: http://www.spurgeon.org/~phil/history/ath-inc.htm</div>
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"It was unworthy of the goodness of God that creatures made by Him should be brought to nothing through the deceit wrought upon man by the devil; and it was supremely unfitting that the work of God in mankind should disappear, either through their own negligence or through the deceit of evil spirits." -Athanasius </div>
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<i>In this quotation, God's motivation is to save humanity from 'their own negligence' and 'the deceit of evil spirits' not His justice. </i></div>
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Gregory of Nazanzius quite explicitly tosses out what would later be described as penal substitutionary atonement: "To whom was that blood offered that was shed for us, and why was It shed?...if to the Father, I ask first, why? For it was not by him that we were being oppressed.” –Gregory of Nazanzius</div>
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According to Gregory, God had no wrath that needed satisfied by Jesus to save us. Instead, with the rest of the Fathers, he emphasizes that humanity did not need its dues paid to an ever-vengeful God, but needed recreated and rescued from death and sin. The cross is thus not a symbol of God's justice or wrath, at least not in any explicit or exclusive way, but is more so a symbol of love and His challenging of the forces that have entrapped humanity in sin. </div>
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There are other, newer, theories of the atonement that take slightly different angles, try various synthesis of these and other views, etc. I am not very familiar with these, so I shall not bother to comment on them. </div>
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None of these views necessarily deny that God is just or wrathful. They just deny that God's justice is what needs satisfied for us to be saved. Indeed, it affirms His wrath against sin and evil, because here once and for all they are destroyed and cast out. </div>
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For a long time, people have been proposing problems with the Medieval/Reformed view of the atonement. E.g., 'How can God punish Himself?' It has been a topic of some debate, and certain mainstream, protestant, groups have never been thrilled with it with it or, at least, believe we should not focus so exclusively on it as if it is the only image of the atonement in the Bible. </div>
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The song, 'In Christ Alone,' has a very specific and very exclusive view of the atonement. One that I have personally struggled with. I am honestly not sure that I can agree with it because I lean toward the more Patristic view of the atonement. I am not sure that the cross is God satisfying His own wrath, but God sticking a knife into the heart of death and winning victory for the renewal of His beloved creation.</div>
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It's hard to say exactly what was going on at the PCUSA. And I can confess that my research has been pretty shallow. But from what I have seen, no one (certainly not the condemners) have given much evidence for what the discussion was really about. All I have found is this account purportedly by one of the participants, that has already been lost to the Internet under a wave of alarmist reactions to the apostasy of those Presbyterians. And this view makes it sound like differing views over the atonement was exactly the issue at hand, not some distaste for God's wrath. </div>
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Here are some of the reflections by a member of this committee (from here: <a href="http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.christiancentury.org%2Farticle%2F2013-04%2Fdebating-hymns&h=hAQHB9LBK&s=1" rel="nofollow" style="color: #3b5998; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">http://www.christiancentury.org/article/2013-04/debating-hymns</a>) </div>
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"The text agreed upon was one we had found by studying materials in other recently published hymnals. Its second stanza contained the lines, “. . . we discovered that this version of the text would not be approved by the authors, as it was considered too great a departure from their original words. . . . We were faced, then, with a choice: to include the hymn with the authors’ original language or to remove it from our list.</div>
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. . . People making a case to retain the text with the authors’ original lines spoke of the fact that the words expressed one view of God’s saving work in Christ that has been prevalent in Christian history: the view of Anselm and Calvin, among others, that God’s honor was violated by human sin and that God’s justice could only be satisfied by the atoning death of a sinless victim. While this might not be our personal view, it was argued, it is nonetheless a view held by some members of our family of faith; the hymnal is not a vehicle for one group’s perspective but rather a collection for use by a diverse body.</div>
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Arguments on the other side pointed out that a hymnal does not simply <em>collect</em> diverse views, but also <em>selects</em> to emphasize some over others as part of its mission to form the faith of coming generations; it would do a disservice to this educational mission, the argument ran, to perpetuate by way of a new (second) text the view that the cross is primarily about God’s need to assuage God’s anger. The final vote was six in favor of inclusion and nine against, giving the requisite two-thirds majority (which we required of all our decisions) to the no votes. The song has been removed from our contents list, with deep regret over losing its otherwise poignant and powerful witness." </div>
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From this account, the discussion has little to do with the issues that have been brought up by critics. </div>
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For whatever it's worth, C.S. Lewis opts for the Patristic view (known as the Christus Victor view of the atonement) in The Chronicles of Narnia. There is really nothing in that story about God's anger or honor needing to be assuaged, only of man's need to be rescued from the dominion of Satan (the White Witch) and Christ's (Aslan's) willingness to offer Himself to Satan in our place - all the while knowing that this act would break Satan's power and lead to death itself "working backwards." Lewis quite clearly rejects the Reformed/Medieval view in Narnia, and seems to lean this way in his other writings as well. </div>
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I know I personally would be quite conflicted over creating a hymnal that has a song that promote a very exclusive and specific view of the atonement that, in the grand scheme of Christian history, is far from monolithically ascribed to and which I personally am uncomfortable with based on my reading of Scripture and my engagement with early Christian writings.<br />
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Though, I will say, it is odd for a traditionally Reformed denomination to be running away from important Calvinist thought.<br />
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But that's different from being liberal or unorthodox.<br />
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In fact, quite the contrary in the minds of my ardent Arminian friends.<br />
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It may very well turn out that there is more to the story. But no more to the story has been given as far as I know. At the very least, none of the condemners have given any detail or insight into what happened whatsoever, and have only drawn conjectures based on the PCUSA's final decision.<br />
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This is problematic on a number of levels, not the least of which is the lack of charity. The Church has enough controversy and division without it having to be...shall we say.... manufactured (there's been a lot of that going on lately). </div>
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Also not the least of which is the ignorance it reveals about different views of the atonement and of Christian history. This proves one of the many dangers of evangelicals' oft-cited historical amnesia. Because we don't know the history of our own theology, we jump to ridiculous conclusions when faced with something different to what we are used to. There is a long history of Christians believing, or at least leaning towards saying, that God's love, and not so much His wrath/justice (at least in the way we typically think of these things), are what is 'going on' on the cross. There need be nothing earth-shattering or apocalyptic about this, if we knew history. </div>
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I think it's also interesting that in h<a href="http://www.firstthings.com/onthesquare/2013/07/no-squishy-love" target="_blank">is, now popular, critique of the PCUSA's decision, entitled "No Squishy Love,"</a> Timothy George (who I have great respect for and whose book on reading Scripture with the Reformers looks tremendous, though I have not read it yet) compares the change of this hymn to various historical heretics who denied God's wrath. The funny thing is that Athanasius, known primarily for his stalwart stand against the heresies of the 4th century, would quite possibly agree with the non-wrath version of the hymn. Th<a href="http://therebelgod.com/AtonementFathersEQ.pdf" target="_blank">is fabulous article puts it well: </a></div>
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“While Athanasius uses legal vocabulary at times, his
guiding framework for understanding sin and salvation is not of sin as
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paradigm of sin as corruption, and salvation as an escape from death. From this
perspective, the problem of the atonement is not an angry God, but a sick and
dying humanity.” ("Substitutionary Atonement and the Church Fathers" by Derek Flood). </div>
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Historical amnesia leads one to believe that everything different than the way you think must be apostasy. Usually when that happens, you end up throwing out a good chunk of Christian history as apostate without even realizing what you're doing. If the PCUSA is apostate for this decision, so must much of the early church and the beloved C.S. Lewis. And the Eastern Orthodox Church, which never bought into any of this penal substitution stuff (though many of my Protestant friends might not have any problem accusing them of heterodoxy), for that matter. </div>
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Just earlier today, actually, while not even thinking about this case, I started to dream ahead to when I am (as I hope to be) teaching theology. I imagined what sort of a syllabus I would put together. I know exactly what my first two assignments would be.<br />
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First, I would have my students write a 1-page description of how they would describe the Gospel to someone.<br />
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Second, I would have them read Athanasius' classic text, 'On the Incarnation.' (including C.S. Lewis's marvelous Introduction to a newer translation)<br />
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Then, I would have them compare this text to what they originally wrote. I wager that they would find some significant differences, not the least of which would be (though they wouldn't necessarily know the right terms for it) a difference in their understanding of the atonement.<br />
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I would hope that these differences would be a source of surprise.<br />
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This assignment would hopefully help to show how easily we get lost in our contemporary mindset (a danger Lewis himself warned of in his introduction to a translation of On The Incarnation) assuming that the way we think is, clearly, the way everybody has always thought. We so easily miss how many ideas we take for granted and assume as true, that have not always been believed. Indeed, scores of men and women sincerely trying to understand and live out the same faith and reading the Bible as you or I have come to a variety of different conclusions on a variety of different things and this must be taken into account in understanding our own opinions. This awareness would serve to remind us not to wallow in the small world of just what is right in front of us, but the need to be in touch with the vastness of the Christian Tradition, to constantly keep, as Lewis remarks: "the clean sea breeze of the centuries blowing through our minds."<br />
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"And this can be done only by reading old books," he adds (Introduction, On the Incarnation by Athanasius). </div>
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Without this cleansing breeze, we will make many mistakes. </div>
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<i>For further reading,<a href="http://streetpastor.wordpress.com/2013/07/31/the-wrath-of-god/" target="_blank"> I recommend this PCUSA pastor's discussion of the situation.</a> I don't agree with everything he says, nor do I think his caricature of penal substitution is fair, but this gives you another example of the more complicated picture within the PCUSA. This decision was not made by a bunch of liberal hippies scheming about how they can get rid of the wrathful God of the Bible, but seems like the decision of people well informed by Christian history and the varying tenable descriptions of the atonement - and wisely aware of the various issues of navigating the relationship between theology and church life. </i></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14561352796505791092noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2226159437758242552.post-41076672425046046072013-06-24T17:16:00.002-07:002013-06-25T04:46:06.949-07:00Marriage and Kids: A Modern Evangelical 'Sex Cult''? <i>This is part 1 in a series titled 'The Bridegroom, The Bride, and the Kingdom: Discontented Evangelical Reflections on Sex, Society, and Asceticism' - a series of posts getting to the heart of the issues we wanted to write and reflect on when we started this blog. Please comment and add thoughts, critiques, and reflections. These are ideas we want to work on together. </i><br />
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Much of the ancient world was rife with sex-cults; religious institutions and practices that were deeply sexual in their purpose and nature. Ba'al worship was particularly lascivious, based on a mythology of a promiscuous, violent, incestuous, rapist-god. The purpose of such cults was to express, which in turn shaped the expression of, the desire and need for fertility for the sake of social survival and/or for particular sexual practices. Mythology was about sex and family, and sex and family were about mythology. These cults were worldly and idolatrous, because they elevated human, worldly, needs to ultimate and divine significance.<br />
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It remains a relatively universal tendency that one's sexual practices, norms, and beliefs about sex are influenced by one's mythology; your 'theological narrative' as it were, and vice versa. When God entered history with Israel, and ultimately with Christ, He offered a new mythology that placed all of creation under the Lordship of One Creator and One Savior, ultimately orienting us toward a different sort of consummation: the marriage of God with His Creation; Christ with His Church. This was not to say that the longings that drove sex-cults were not important to Him: He cared about the wellbeing of His creation. But nothing was to stand in His place.<br />
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Contemporary Christianity sometimes operates as if it possesses a mythology that worships human marriage, sexuality, and reproduction, to the detriment of our worship of God and the minimization of this true theological narrative (most clearly expressed in Rev. 20 & 21). It's an old and relatively understandable form of idolatry, but one that has taken on a new tone and nature in the post-industrial, evangelical world.<br />
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One of my favorite bloggers, Rachel Held Evans, recently <span style="color: red;"><span style="color: red;"><b><a href="http://rachelheldevans.com/blog/sex-and-the-path-of-holiness" target="_blank">wrote a fantastic piece titled 'Sex and the Path of Holiness.</a>'</b> </span> </span>She critiques here the false choice our rhetoric places between purity & virginity vs. a notion of the unchaste (woman, particularly) as 'damaged goods.' She is not advocating a loosening of norms when it comes to pre-marital sex, but instead for turning away from hanging one's entire purity and worth on whether one is a virgin or not. This quotation is particularly poignant:<br />
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<span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">"<strong style="line-height: 27px; text-align: left;">Perhaps instead of virginity…or even purity (which carries something of an either/or connotation, I think)…we ought to talk about the path of holiness.</strong><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 27px; text-align: left;"> Holiness, to me, means committing every area of my life— from sex, to food, to time, to work—to the lordship of Jesus. It means asking how I might love God and love my neighbors in those areas so that the Spirit can grow love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control in the sacred soil of everyday life."</span></span></div>
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She cites another blogger, <a href="http://www.theveryworstmissionary.com/2013/03/sex.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: red;"><b>Jamie Wright, writing about her personal experience:</b></span></a><br />
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<span style="color: #3d85c6;">"...everything I believed about my own sexuality was built on two huge lies. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #3d85c6;">The first comes from our culture, and it tells us that sex outside of marriage isn't a big deal. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #3d85c6;">The second is from the Church, and it tells us that sex outside of marriage is the biggest deal of all the deals ever.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #3d85c6;">We've made virginity the goal, when it is purity that we should be aiming for; They're not the same thing. Sexual purity is a lifelong practice that doesn't begin or end with a single sex act, just as it doesn't begin or end on a wedding night." </span></div>
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I have noticed a great number of young evangelicals, like myself, more than a little dissatisfied with what we were taught about chastity and sexually purity - especially in terms of what their goals are. The problem is perhaps best revealed by our inability to find a way to explain sexual purity in any other terms than preparation for marriage/the preservation of pleasure in marriage.<br />
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We were told that the purpose of our sexuality is for <i>marriage - </i>human marriage is the entire goal and end of our sexuality. That saving ourselves <i>for marriage </i>(and really, no other reason) is what God's Word demands of us. That if we save ourselves and avoid lust we will <i>enjoy marriage better, </i>implying that this enjoyment should be one of our supreme concerns.<i> </i>Sexual purity, we were taught at least implicitly, is as Wright says above, 'the biggest deal of all deals ever' - a unique sin that marks us in ways other sins, it is implied, do not; because it defiles <i>the marriage bed</i>. We, now as young adults, feel pressure in some corners to <i>get married and make babies quickly. </i>We feel second-rate if we are <i>not married, or are married but not having kids</i>.<br />
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There's truth in all these things. And places for each of these teachings (especially when trying to encourage young people to make good decisions that they have not been well prepared to make by their culture). I believe this often, however, amounts to an evangelical obsession towards marriage and the nuclear family that borders on <i>idolatry</i>. Sometimes it sees as if we treat human sexuality and marriage are our mythology; our ultimate theological narrative. All of our sexual ethics, and other ethical dimensions as well, fall around this mythology. This emphasis is at odds with and competes with the Biblical sexual/relational/marital narrative of the marriage of the Lamb and the Church.<br />
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Please do not misunderstand me: family is <i>absolutely</i> a crucial institution. And I applaud and join with those who speak about the need for strengthening families. So much depends on this.<br />
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But so much seems missing here.<br />
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The point that Evans talks about above is, I think, the smoking gun. It reveals that we practically <i>worship</i> the human marriage bed. We laud virginity, and shame its absence, in a way that reveals an obsession with marriage and 'the ideal wedding night' as the ultimate goal for which we strive. As she perceptively asks us, what about holiness for its own sake? Or self-control (as Jamie Wright advocates) for its own sake? Is there anything worth living for, or a basis for making decisions about sex, that's bigger than a wedding night?<br />
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This missing link is also partially revealed in our apparent inability to deal sensitively and effectively with the complicated family lives around us. We live in churches where single individuals are often seen as 'missing something'; and the pressure on them to settle down and start popping babies can become pretty enormous. Very few are told how to be constructive with their singleness. As a result many men and women become angsty, desperate, insecure, and self-obsessed as a result. When they do get married, they probably make for not terribly emotionally-well-adjusted mates. For somewhat different reasons in either case, single pastors of each gender have trouble getting appointed at churches. We arguably also don't know how to deal very well with divorcees, single parents, barren couples, remarried couples, those who chose not to have kids (if they are ever allowed to voice such a desire), those with family (or themselves) in homosexual relationships (like it or hate it, it's a reality that churches will increasingly have to deal with), or those who are not chaste, as if an indelible mark has been placed on them that ruins their ability to be the best Christian they could otherwise be. We pay lip-service to 'new beginnings' and getting a new, spiritual virginity, but the fact we have to formulate such language tells us that we treat this failing as uniquely grave and detrimental. It's as if we don't exactly know how to find a place for these people in our 'religious cult,' because they don't fit into our mythology in which 'pure' marriage and kids are the ideal of all ideals.<br />
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Mother's or Father's Day are among the most explicitly celebrated non-liturgical holidays in the American Church. Perhaps there's a proper place for them, but for too many in the pews these are uncomfortable and painful days, and they are not often handled very well by pastors. They can be deeply painful days for the infertile, and those who have miscarried. Or whoever might feel less important for not cranking out babies. And for those who have to smile and lie through their teeth about how they feel about parents who abused them.<br />
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Family is one of our favorite buzz words. We create a myriad of organizations about 'family.' Defending 'traditional marriage' or 'traditional family values,' are some of our favorite political talking points. It's almost literally the only thing we <i>can</i> talk about. Walk through a Christian book store and find countless books (perhaps even the majority of the book you will find) on improving marriage, finding a spouse, parenting, how to date, and (my favorite category of fringe-worthy texts) how to have good 'Christian' sex. I don't want to say all these things are necessarily wrong. There's plenty of important topics that need to be talked about within these areas. I merely want to point out the overwhelming degree to which we talk about family, sex, and children. I think it's suggestive of a misappropriation of priorities. This is perhaps best illustrated by the relatively minimal selection of books on theology, rigorous discipleship, justice, the poor, and classic Christian writings, at Christian bookstores. They're there, but rarely on the front table when you walk in and usually relegated to a small corner - to leave room for the Christian romance novels, of course.<br />
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I'm purposefully being hyperbolic. This is not the case everywhere, and the situation is quite complicated on the ground - but I think there's some general truth here. Our worship of marriage as the pinnacle and crux of the Christian life too often marginalizes too many people and leaves them feeling un-celebrated, second-rate, and half-Christian. It turns our focus from God. It creates false expectations. And it ultimately undermines the ability to actually <i>have</i> healthy marriages and families.<br />
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We need a new mythology.<br />
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Many early Christians had a much different attitude towards sex and marriage. And, often for good reason, we have rejected many of their attitudes (such as that of Augustine, who saw sex as 'the original sin'). But they are worth bringing into the conversation to shake up our assumptions. Many (but not all) early Christians put a heavy emphasis on the portions of Scripture that seem to advocate sexual asceticism; abstaining from marriage and family. The cultural pressure to marry in order to perpetuate wealth, prosper the state, and create a legacy, was a major influence here. Renouncing sex, family, and possessions in order to live for the service of others, holiness, and a Kingdom not of this world, became the counter-cultural rallying cry of some early Christians: <i>We don't live for these things anymore. </i>In a world in which people often had to cut ties with family to become Christians, and Christianity as a religion of 'families' was largely foreign, such attitudes were more natural. (In future posts, we will talk more about the relationship between the Church and society in terms of their views of marriage - past and present.)<br />
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We may find plenty to critique here, but let's not fail to point the finger back at ourselves. We often focus too exclusively on other portions of Scripture, especially the Old Testament with its admonition to 'multiply' and the blessings of having a 'quiver-full,' and its celebration of marriage and sexuality (Song of Solomon). The early Christians perhaps had too low a view of sexuality and family. We, at the same time, have too low a view of a state of being non-married and without kids. Neither seems entirely biblical to me. Perhaps we ought to try and balance out these extremes, or find a new way to understand how they relate to one another.<br />
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I think the balance comes in recognizing more consciously that marriage is not the be-all and end-all of the Christian life: Christ is. This requires putting all things, even good things, on the altar - willing to follow whatever path we are called to, trusting that God is with us...and with those called to a different path than our own. He is our goal.<br />
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No wonder we live with rampant sexual promiscuity, pornography, lust, and are watching our families deteriorate. We make marriage and self-fulfillment and children the goal of our sexual ethics, instead of self-denial and commitment to God. Without such discipline, we will never conquer these huge issues. Grasp onto this world and you will lose it all. We'll never solve our family and marriage problems by making family and marriage the ultimate goal. All we do is create self-obsessed, short-sighted, individuals not well suited for healthy marriage in the first place. How can we expect to repair our human marriages without paying attention to our eternal and supreme marriage to Christ?<br />
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The elephant in the room is the fact that many Christians in my generation (like the rest of the west, different only in degree), are putting off or avoiding marriage, and having very few kids, compared to the rest of the world. An obsession with marriage and family is not the proper response. Encouraging increased commitment to Christ, is.<br />
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Christ gave His body to us. Our body belongs to Him. He is our first love, our ultimate spouse. All that we do should be directed toward that relationship. Our sexuality, our whole being, belongs to Him above anyone else (even our spouse/hypothetical spouse). For some, this commitment means marriage and kids. For others it might be something different. The worship of Christ and the cultivation of this union between Christ and His bride - becoming a holy people for Him is the goal for all. <i>That</i> is the marriage at the center of our worship that should direct our sexual, and other, practices. That is our ultimate mythology; our theological narrative upon which all else depends.<br />
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We do not have to give up the celebration of marriage to put Christ first. To the contrary, putting Christ first puts marriage in its proper context and makes it beautiful and whole. Indeed, bad spouses are bad Christians. Likewise, bad Christians are bad spouses. I like the Orthodox understanding of marriage as an 'icon' of Christ and His Church. It anticipates the union of God with humanity, and between humans, that will come in the Kingdom. It has eternal significance. Yet it is also <i>subservient </i>to the call to Christ. For all these reasons, the Eucharist is central to the Orthodox wedding ceremony. And this is also why the Orthodox can be comfortable celebrating both celibacy and marriage; they are different paths toward the common goal of becoming the spotless bride of Christ.<br />
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This perspective gives marriage a beauty and significance far beyond the wildest dreams of many evangelicals, while yet taking it down from the lofty place of idolatry where we have placed it.<br />
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I am inclined to think that a healthy church will find a way to honor, celebrate, and find a key role in the Kingdom for temporary singleness and (I think we should consider the place for) lifelong celibacy, or barrenness, ( I realize this is controversial, but I would include couples who intentionally avoid bearing children - I think this might be a legitimate calling some people might have - though I would encourage couples without kids to strongly consider and pray about adoption), or those who are not 'spotless virgins,' and training everyone to make their ethical decisions with Christ foremost in their minds. Marriage, sex, and reproduction are not our gods. Yahweh is our God. Christ is our God, our spouse.<br />
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A healthy church will live in the strange contrast between enjoying what God provides and desires for us, and living in simplicity, humility, and self-sacrifice in order to remain humble before Him and focused on serving others - particularly the 'least of these' who are the very body of our First Love. This is the whole reason why the Church has long encouraged fasting; from food and sex, and trying to live as detached from possessions as possible. To make sure that nothing, even generally good things, become gods and get in the way of serving others and being close to God.<br />
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Can we re-orient our perspective to not live for a worldly sex-cult, but for the cosmic marriage of God with His creation that we look forward to? The marriage supper of the Lamb?<br />
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We wait for Him to come for His bride. May we be found wanting only Him.<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/brianac37/7442939362/" title="Holy Trinity Church, Stratford upon Avon by brianac37, on Flickr"><img alt="Holy Trinity Church, Stratford upon Avon" height="341" src="http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5464/7442939362_e0b5c7e15f.jpg" width="500" /></a>
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<i>In part 2, we hope to challenge our assumptions about what the Church's relationship to society's definition of marriage is or should be, in a post tentatively titled: 'They're Re-Defining Marriage? That Happened A Long Time Ago.' </i>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14561352796505791092noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2226159437758242552.post-73585121538605872672013-06-16T21:03:00.001-07:002013-06-16T21:03:47.928-07:00Function of MythThere is little need to remind most of you that today is Fathers's Day. Fathers, as Kyle pointed out, are such an important part of the Biblical story. Indeed, God is described as Father. The Father of the whole word.<br /><br />So what does this have to do with myth? Let us consider myth as the story you tell yourself to connect what you see in the world with your perceptions and beliefs about reality. As anyone can tell you, where you come from shapes you. Who your father is or isn't, was or wasn't has a major impact on shaping your personal myth. Especially when considering who God is and what you can expect from life based on relying on God.<br /><br />Matthew 7:9-11 points out that even our earthly fathers, as evil as us broken humans are, can still give good gifts. How much more can our Heavenly Father give us good gifts? Words cannot even express how much more God can provide for us.<br /><br />But, and this is the kicker, do we believe it? Do we believe this "myth"?<br /><br />Hopefully, I can get some reader response--what, my friends, is your myth? What is the story you tell yourself about the world and how it works? How to reconcile the world in your head with the world around you?Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13882771326518337537noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2226159437758242552.post-40142741181844565822013-06-16T13:50:00.002-07:002013-06-16T13:51:59.426-07:00The Prodigal Jesus: Happy Father's Day<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Today as I was reflecting on Father's Day and the story of the prodigal son, I began to wonder if the parable of the prodigal son is about not only about us sinners, but is <i>also </i>about Jesus. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">A few passages to consider: </span><br />
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Exodus 4:22: </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">"<span style="background-color: white;">Then you shall say to Pharaoh, ‘Thus says the </span><span class="small-caps" style="background-color: white; font-variant: small-caps;">Lord</span><span style="background-color: white;">, </span><sup class="crossreference" style="background-color: white; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: top;" value="(<a href="#cen-ESV-1624A" title="See cross-reference A">A</a>)"></sup><span style="background-color: white;">Israel is my </span><sup class="crossreference" style="background-color: white; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: top;" value="(<a href="#cen-ESV-1624B" title="See cross-reference B">B</a>)"></sup><span style="background-color: white;">firstborn son."</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;">Hosea 11:1-3: </span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;">"</span><span style="background-color: white;">When Israel was a child,</span><span style="background-color: white;"> </span><sup class="crossreference" style="background-color: white; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: top;" value="(<a href="#cen-ESV-22242B" title="See cross-reference B">B</a>)"></sup><span style="background-color: white;">I loved him,</span></span><br />
<span class="indent-1" style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span class="indent-1-breaks" style="line-height: 0;"> </span><span class="text Hos-11-1" style="position: relative;">and out of Egypt I <sup class="crossreference" style="font-weight: bold; vertical-align: top;" value="(<a href="#cen-ESV-22242C" title="See cross-reference C">C</a>)"></sup>called <sup class="crossreference" style="font-weight: bold; vertical-align: top;" value="(<a href="#cen-ESV-22242D" title="See cross-reference D">D</a>)"></sup>my son.</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; text-align: left;">The more they were called; </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; text-align: left;">the more they went away;</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; text-align: left;">they kept sacrificing to the Baals,</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; text-align: left;">and burning offerings to idols."</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; text-align: left;">A few verses later, God predicts that he will destroy his son, Israel: </span></div>
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<span class="indent-1" style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; text-align: left;"><span class="text Hos-11-2" style="position: relative;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span class="indent-1" style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; text-align: left;"><span class="text Hos-11-2" style="position: relative;">11:6 "</span></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 16px; text-align: left;">A sword</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 16px; text-align: left;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 16px; text-align: left;">will flash in their cities;</span></div>
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<span class="indent-1-breaks" style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 0.42em; line-height: 0; text-align: left;"> </span><span class="text Hos-11-6" style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 16px; position: relative; text-align: left;">it will devour their false prophets</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 16px; text-align: left;">and put an end to their plans."</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; text-align: left;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; text-align: left;">And yet a few verses later, God recoils in compassion, promising to re-establish his people (this theme is all throughout the prophets: impending judgement but future restoration): </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">11:8</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"> "<span style="font-size: 16px;">How can I give you up,</span><span style="font-size: 16px;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16px;">Ephraim?</span></span></div>
<span class="indent-1" style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: 16px;"></span><br />
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<span class="indent-1" style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px;"><span class="indent-1-breaks" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 0.42em; line-height: 0;"> </span><span class="text Hos-11-8" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; position: relative;">How can I hand you over, Israel?"</span></span></div>
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<span class="indent-1" style="background-color: white;"><span class="text Hos-11-1" style="position: relative;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Matthew 2:14-15: </span></span></span></div>
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<span class="indent-1" style="background-color: white;"><span class="text Hos-11-1" style="position: relative;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">"<span class="text Matt-2-14" id="en-ESV-23184">And he rose and took the child and his mother by night and departed to Egypt</span> <span class="text Matt-2-15" id="en-ESV-23185">and remained there until the death of Herod. <sup class="crossreference" style="font-weight: bold; vertical-align: top;" value="(<a href="#cen-ESV-23185R" title="See cross-reference R">R</a>)"></sup>This was to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet, 'Out of Egypt I called my son.'" (citing Hosea)</span></span></span></span><br />
<span class="indent-1" style="background-color: white;"><span class="text Hos-11-1" style="position: relative;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span class="text Matt-2-15"><br /></span></span></span></span>
<span class="indent-1" style="background-color: white;"><span class="text Hos-11-1" style="position: relative;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span class="text Matt-2-15"><br /></span></span></span></span></div>
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<span class="indent-1" style="background-color: white;"><span class="text Hos-11-1" style="position: relative;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Matthew 3:17: </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span class="indent-1" style="background-color: white;"><span class="text Hos-11-1" style="position: relative;">"</span></span><span style="background-color: white;">and behold, </span><sup class="crossreference" style="background-color: white; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: top;" value="(<a href="#cen-ESV-23210AI" title="See cross-reference AI">AI</a>)"></sup><span style="background-color: white;">a voice from heaven said, </span><sup class="crossreference" style="background-color: white; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: top;" value="(<a href="#cen-ESV-23210AJ" title="See cross-reference AJ">AJ</a>)"></sup><span style="background-color: white;">“This is my beloved Son,</span><span style="background-color: white;"> with whom I am well pleased." </span></span></div>
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<span class="indent-1" style="background-color: white;"><span class="text Hos-11-1" style="position: relative;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></span></span></div>
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<span class="indent-1" style="background-color: white;"><span class="text Hos-11-1" style="position: relative;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Matthew 27:54: </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span class="indent-1" style="background-color: white;"><span class="text Hos-11-1" style="position: relative;">"</span></span><span style="background-color: #fffefd; color: #001320; line-height: 21px; text-align: justify;">When the centurion and those who were with him, keeping watch over Jesus, saw the earthquake and what took place, they were filled with awe and said, “Truly this was the Son of God!”</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: #fffefd; color: #001320; line-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: #fffefd; color: #001320; line-height: 21px; text-align: justify;">Psalm 16: 9-11</span></span></div>
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<span class="text Ps-16-9" id="en-NIV-14102" style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: 16px; position: relative;"><sup class="versenum" style="display: block; font-size: 0.75em; font-weight: bold; left: -4.8em; position: absolute; vertical-align: top;">9 </sup>"Therefore my heart is glad<sup class="crossreference" style="font-size: 0.65em; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: top;" value="(<a href="#cen-NIV-14102S" title="See cross-reference S">S</a>)"></sup> and my tongue rejoices;</span><br />
<span class="indent-1" style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: 16px;"><span class="indent-1-breaks" style="font-size: 0.42em; line-height: 0;"> </span><span class="text Ps-16-9" style="position: relative;">my body also will rest secure,<sup class="crossreference" style="font-size: 0.65em; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: top;" value="(<a href="#cen-NIV-14102T" title="See cross-reference T">T</a>)"></sup></span></span><br />
<span class="text Ps-16-10" id="en-NIV-14103" style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: 16px; position: relative;"><sup class="versenum" style="display: block; font-size: 0.75em; font-weight: bold; left: -4.8em; position: absolute; vertical-align: top;">10 </sup>because you will not abandon me to the realm of the dead,<sup class="crossreference" style="font-size: 0.65em; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: top;" value="(<a href="#cen-NIV-14103U" title="See cross-reference U">U</a>)"></sup></span><br />
<span class="indent-1" style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: 16px;"><span class="indent-1-breaks" style="font-size: 0.42em; line-height: 0;"> </span><span class="text Ps-16-10" style="position: relative;">nor will you let your faithful<sup class="footnote" style="font-size: 0.65em; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: top;" value="[<a href="#fen-NIV-14103b" title="See footnote b">b</a>]">[<a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm%2016&version=NIV#fen-NIV-14103b" style="color: #b37162; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: top;" title="See footnote b">b</a>]</sup> one<sup class="crossreference" style="font-size: 0.65em; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: top;" value="(<a href="#cen-NIV-14103V" title="See cross-reference V">V</a>)"></sup> see decay.<sup class="crossreference" style="font-size: 0.65em; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: top;" value="(<a href="#cen-NIV-14103W" title="See cross-reference W">W</a>)"></sup></span></span><br />
<span class="text Ps-16-11" id="en-NIV-14104" style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: 16px; position: relative;"><sup class="versenum" style="display: block; font-size: 0.75em; font-weight: bold; left: -4.8em; position: absolute; vertical-align: top;">11 </sup>You make known to me the path of life;<sup class="crossreference" style="font-size: 0.65em; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: top;" value="(<a href="#cen-NIV-14104X" title="See cross-reference X">X</a>)"></sup></span><br />
<span class="indent-1" style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: 16px;"><span class="indent-1-breaks" style="font-size: 0.42em; line-height: 0;"> </span><span class="text Ps-16-11" style="position: relative;">you will fill me with joy in your presence,<sup class="crossreference" style="font-size: 0.65em; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: top;" value="(<a href="#cen-NIV-14104Y" title="See cross-reference Y">Y</a>)"></sup></span></span><br />
<span class="indent-1" style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: 16px;"><span class="indent-1-breaks" style="font-size: 0.42em; line-height: 0;"> </span><span class="text Ps-16-11" style="position: relative;">with eternal pleasures<sup class="crossreference" style="font-size: 0.65em; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: top;" value="(<a href="#cen-NIV-14104Z" title="See cross-reference Z">Z</a>)"></sup> at your right hand."</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fffefd; color: #001320; line-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fffefd; color: #001320; line-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Luke 15:24 (from the parable of the prodigal son): </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fffefd; color: #001320; line-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: white;"><b>"</b></span><span style="background-color: white;">For this son of mine was dead and is alive again;</span><sup class="crossreference" style="background-color: white; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: top;" value="(<a href="#cen-NIV-25613T" title="See cross-reference T">T</a>)"></sup><span style="background-color: white;"> he was lost and is found.’ So they began to celebrate."</span></span></div>
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<span class="text Heb-2-15"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Matthew 17:22-23:</span></span></div>
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<span class="text Heb-2-15"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span class="text Heb-2-15" style="font-size: 16px;">"</span><span class="text Matt-17-22">When they came together in Galilee, he said to them, <span class="woj">“The Son of Man<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><b> </b></span>is going to be delivered into the hands of men.</span></span> <span class="text Matt-17-23" id="en-NIV-23724" style="font-size: 16px;">They will kill him, and on the third day he will be raised to life.”</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Luke 24:5: </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">"<span style="background-color: #fffefd; color: #001320; line-height: 21px; text-align: justify;">And as they were frightened and bowed their faces to the ground, the men said to them, “Why do you seek the living among the dead?" </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Hebrews 2:11-15</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span class="text Heb-2-11" id="en-NIV-29989"><sup class="versenum" style="font-size: 0.75em; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: top;">" </sup>Both the one who makes people holy<sup class="crossreference" style="font-size: 0.65em; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: top;" value="(<a href="#cen-NIV-29989S" title="See cross-reference S">S</a>)"></sup> and those who are made holy<sup class="crossreference" style="font-size: 0.65em; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: top;" value="(<a href="#cen-NIV-29989T" title="See cross-reference T">T</a>)"></sup> are of the same family. So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters.</span> <span class="text Heb-2-12" id="en-NIV-29990"><sup class="versenum" style="font-size: 0.75em; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: top;">12 </sup>He says,</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span class="text Heb-2-12" style="position: relative;">“I will declare your name to my brothers and sisters;</span><br /><span class="indent-1"><span class="indent-1-breaks" style="font-size: 0.42em; line-height: 0;"> </span><span class="text Heb-2-12" style="position: relative;">in the assembly I will sing your praises.”<sup class="footnote" style="font-size: 0.65em; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: top;" value="[<a href="#fen-NIV-29990h" title="See footnote h">h</a>]">[<a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=hebrews%202&version=NIV#fen-NIV-29990h" style="color: #b37162; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: top;" title="See footnote h">h</a>]</sup><sup class="crossreference" style="font-size: 0.65em; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: top;" value="(<a href="#cen-NIV-29990V" title="See cross-reference V">V</a>)"></sup></span></span></span></div>
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<span class="text Heb-2-13" id="en-NIV-29991"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><sup class="versenum" style="font-size: 0.75em; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: top;">13 </sup>And again,</span></span></div>
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<span class="text Heb-2-13" style="position: relative;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">“I will put my trust in him.”<sup class="footnote" style="font-size: 0.65em; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: top;" value="[<a href="#fen-NIV-29991i" title="See footnote i">i</a>]">[<a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=hebrews%202&version=NIV#fen-NIV-29991i" style="color: #b37162; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: top;" title="See footnote i">i</a>]</sup><sup class="crossreference" style="font-size: 0.65em; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: top;" value="(<a href="#cen-NIV-29991W" title="See cross-reference W">W</a>)"></sup></span></span></div>
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<span class="text Heb-2-13"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">And again he says,</span></span></div>
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<span class="text Heb-2-13" style="position: relative;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">“Here am I, and the children God has given me.”<sup class="footnote" style="font-size: 0.65em; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: top;" value="[<a href="#fen-NIV-29991j" title="See footnote j">j</a>]">[<a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=hebrews%202&version=NIV#fen-NIV-29991j" style="color: #b37162; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: top;" title="See footnote j">j</a>]</sup><sup class="crossreference" style="font-size: 0.65em; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: top;" value="(<a href="#cen-NIV-29991X" title="See cross-reference X">X</a>)"></sup></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span class="text Heb-2-14" id="en-NIV-29992"><sup class="versenum" style="font-size: 0.75em; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: top;">14 </sup>Since the children have flesh and blood,<sup class="crossreference" style="font-size: 0.65em; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: top;" value="(<a href="#cen-NIV-29992Y" title="See cross-reference Y">Y</a>)"></sup> he too shared in their humanity<sup class="crossreference" style="font-size: 0.65em; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: top;" value="(<a href="#cen-NIV-29992Z" title="See cross-reference Z">Z</a>)"></sup>so that by his death he might break the power<sup class="crossreference" style="font-size: 0.65em; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: top;" value="(<a href="#cen-NIV-29992AA" title="See cross-reference AA">AA</a>)"></sup> of him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil<sup class="crossreference" style="font-size: 0.65em; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: top;" value="(<a href="#cen-NIV-29992AB" title="See cross-reference AB">AB</a>)"></sup>—</span> <span class="text Heb-2-15" id="en-NIV-29993"><sup class="versenum" style="font-size: 0.75em; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: top;">15 </sup>and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear<sup class="crossreference" style="font-size: 0.65em; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: top;" value="(<a href="#cen-NIV-29993AC" title="See cross-reference AC">AC</a>)"></sup> of death."</span></span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Rodin's Prodigal Son</td></tr>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">In the Old Testament, Israel is portrayed as God's son. The Father calls His son out of Egypt and brings him to a land to possess. Yet the son is wayward, a prodigal son. God promises to punish Israel, his son, yet also that he would not leave them destroyed - he plans to restore His son out of his deep compassion. </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">In Matthew's Gospel, especially, Jesus is portrayed as Israel the Son. Matthew explicitly quotes Hosea ('out of Egypt I have called my Son') as a prophecy of the life of Christ. </span></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 16px;">The story of Israel reflects itself in the story of Christ.</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 16px;"> In this parallelism, the Gospel writers are trying to point out that Christ is the fulfillment of and substitute for, Israel. In Christ, wayward Israel must be destroyed and made alive. Israel's sins must be put on Him and through His death Satan's hold on Israel is destroyed. Although Israel as a political entity was destroyed and restored all once before, this was just a shadow of what was to come: Israel still had to die and be made alive again, to be fully redeemed from sin. This is the mission of Christ and in Him, Israel is made new. The son (Israel, the body of Christ, the communion of Christ) is restored and exalted and blessed forever with new, eternal life. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 16px;">This is the beautiful complexity of biblical imagery; confounded by the incarnation. We are the prodigal son, and so is the Godhead incarnate in Christ; his humanity is the flesh of the sons of Abraham, and of all human beings - destroyed and resurrected with and for us. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">All who are in Christ die and are made alive again - the fulfillment of God's promises to Israel to destroy and rebuild her, fulfilled in all who take part in Christ's body and blood. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px;">Romans 6:5-8: "</span><span class="text Rom-6-5" id="en-ESV-28058" style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px;">For <sup class="crossreference" style="font-size: 0.65em; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: top;" value="(<a href="#cen-ESV-28058I" title="See cross-reference I">I</a>)"></sup>if we have been united with him in <sup class="crossreference" style="font-size: 0.65em; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: top;" value="(<a href="#cen-ESV-28058J" title="See cross-reference J">J</a>)"></sup>a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.</span><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px;"> </span><span class="text Rom-6-6" id="en-ESV-28059" style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px;"><sup class="versenum" style="font-size: 0.75em; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: top;">6 </sup>We know that <sup class="crossreference" style="font-size: 0.65em; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: top;" value="(<a href="#cen-ESV-28059K" title="See cross-reference K">K</a>)"></sup>our old self<sup class="footnote" style="font-size: 0.65em; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: top;" value="[<a href="#fen-ESV-28059a" title="See footnote a">a</a>]">[<a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Romans+6&version=ESV#fen-ESV-28059a" style="color: #b37162; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: top;" title="See footnote a">a</a>]</sup><sup class="crossreference" style="font-size: 0.65em; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: top;" value="(<a href="#cen-ESV-28059L" title="See cross-reference L">L</a>)"></sup>was crucified with him in order that <sup class="crossreference" style="font-size: 0.65em; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: top;" value="(<a href="#cen-ESV-28059M" title="See cross-reference M">M</a>)"></sup>the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.</span><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px;"> </span><span class="text Rom-6-7" id="en-ESV-28060" style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px;"><sup class="versenum" style="font-size: 0.75em; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: top;">7 </sup>For <sup class="crossreference" style="font-size: 0.65em; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: top;" value="(<a href="#cen-ESV-28060N" title="See cross-reference N">N</a>)"></sup>one who has died <sup class="crossreference" style="font-size: 0.65em; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: top;" value="(<a href="#cen-ESV-28060O" title="See cross-reference O">O</a>)"></sup>has been set free from sin.</span><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px;"> </span><span class="text Rom-6-8" id="en-ESV-28061" style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px;"><sup class="versenum" style="font-size: 0.75em; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: top;">8 </sup>Now <sup class="crossreference" style="font-size: 0.65em; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: top;" value="(<a href="#cen-ESV-28061P" title="See cross-reference P">P</a>)"></sup>if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him."</span></span></div>
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<span class="text Rom-6-8" style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The story of the prodigal son is, in many ways, the story of Israel and the story of Christ as the bearer and fulfillment of Israel's story. And it is <i>also </i>each of our stories as sinners who come to God. The story of Israel is a parallel for the story of the whole world: we are all created and beloved by God, all have been wayward, and in Christ we die and rise anew. </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">We are children of God, and He is well pleased in us, whom He has called out of Egypt. He has broken the bonds of sin on us and freed us from captivity. He has destroyed our temple and built us a new, everlasting temple (we <i>are </i>a temple, just as Christ was the temple that he predicted would be destroyed and rebuilt in three days). We are whom He has redeemed and called as His own. </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">What a beloved, recklessly, loving, Father we have. He is prodigal, reckless, in His love for us: throwing a party for us for having returned home. We were dead, and now we are alive. </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">He calls us His son. He becomes one of us and identifies with us. He sends the eternal Son who becomes the son Israel. Son of Adam, son of Abraham. Son of man, son of God. Eternal Son, Israel-son. What a ridiculous set of inconceivable mysteries and absolutely confounding, seemingly contradictory images. </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">But we know this: </span></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 16px;">He is a Father worth celebrating today, no matter what experiences you have had with your earthly fathers.</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 16px;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 16px;">We have been adopted into an eternally, recklessly, loving family who does not give up on His wayward children but becomes one of them to lead them through death and out the other side into a glorious new life together. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 16px;">Happy Father's Day. </span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14561352796505791092noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2226159437758242552.post-14145087428426351212013-06-12T16:43:00.000-07:002013-06-12T16:43:17.963-07:00Thankful, Assured, and Advertising? That's it? <span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">If we're saved by grace, why should we do 'good works'? </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">This is the question that Ligon Duncan proposes to answer in this recent video for the Gospel Coalition's New City Catechism series (a series that sounds like a great idea to me!).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">His opening point is, I believe, his best: "in salvation we are saved not only from the penalty of sin, but the power of sin."</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">It is unfortunate, in my opinion, that Duncan sets this notion aside in his summary of the three reasons growth and good works are important in the Christian life. These three reasons are, to express gratitude to God, to be assured of our salvation, and to draw others to the Gospel. This, it seems from what he says, is <i>why </i>God desires to free us from sin. For these three reasons. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Is that really it? </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">I believe that seeking salvation from the power of sin for its own sake, should be the central reason we pursue Christian growth. I believe Scripture is overwhelming in its claim that freedom from sin is one of the <i>primary reasons </i>Christ dies for us. John Piper gives a better account of the work of God in growing in holiness in <a href="http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/ncc/2013/05/28/q32-what-do-justification-and-sanctification-mean/">this description of sanctification</a> for the same video series. But, something still seems missing.<i> </i>He still does not give a substantial reason for seeking sanctification in a way that makes sense. So much of the witness of Scripture seems missing here. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"> All too often, our attempts to explain the gospel <i>begins </i>with the doctrine of justification - how do we 'get in the club'? This ignores that the place from which we develop our doctrines is a Bible which is first and foremost a comprehensive narrative. Our 'justification' is one piece in a bigger puzzle that makes sense only when we understand the whole story. When we start with justification, questions about ethics and holiness get left to the side and have to be shoved in somewhere later with half-hearted motivators like 'gratitude' and 'advertising for the faith.' We are missing the 'big picture' of what salvation is about. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">When you look at the story of Scripture from cover to cover as a whole story, instead of just a sourcebook for rules and doctrines, this whole 'salvation' thing takes on a much more multifaceted meaning than we often get from overly-Reformed descriptions of salvation that focus more on God's judgement and His desire to preserve His holiness, than on His 'hell-bent,' relentless, desire to free His creation from the clutches of sin and death.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Paul, in Romans, is confronted with this same question about grace and works. If we are saved by grace, why should we stop sinning? What follows is a multiple-chapter elaboration on God's plan of salvation <i>from sin and death</i>.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">In Romans 6:6 he says that we were saved, "<span style="background-color: white;">that we should no longer be slaves to sin." We have been united to Christ in his death and resurrection. In that mysterious and mystical relationship, we take part in His defeat of sin and the birth of new life out of darkness (read the whole chapter!). </span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;">Paul continues to deal with some related issues, particularly pertaining to the Old Testament law. But he brings his thoughts to a glorious crescendo in chapter 8, describing how we are the beginning of God's imminent restoration of all creation: "</span><span class="text Rom-8-22" id="en-NIV-28139" style="background-color: white;">We know that the whole creation has been groaning<sup class="crossreference" style="font-weight: bold; vertical-align: top;" value="(<a href="#cen-NIV-28139AR" title="See cross-reference AR">AR</a>)"></sup> as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.</span><span style="background-color: white;"> </span><span class="text Rom-8-23" id="en-NIV-28140" style="background-color: white;">Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit,<sup class="crossreference" style="font-weight: bold; vertical-align: top;" value="(<a href="#cen-NIV-28140AS" title="See cross-reference AS">AS</a>)"></sup> groan<sup class="crossreference" style="font-weight: bold; vertical-align: top;" value="(<a href="#cen-NIV-28140AT" title="See cross-reference AT">AT</a>)"></sup> inwardly as we wait eagerly<sup class="crossreference" style="font-weight: bold; vertical-align: top;" value="(<a href="#cen-NIV-28140AU" title="See cross-reference AU">AU</a>)"></sup> for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies" (8:22-23). </span><span style="background-color: white;"> </span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;">This is why becoming a righteous and just person matters; because God came to redeem His creation and make it new. This is at the heart of His works in Christ. To ignore Christian growth and holiness is not just to ignore a chance to be grateful, a chance to be assured, or a chance to advertise for the faith. To miss this is to miss the <i>whole</i> <i>point</i> of salvation. </span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;">I do not believe we can achieve Christian perfection in this life, nor does our salvation depend on it. We are saved by grace. Yes, absolutely. And if we are in Christ, we will be with Him in the new world. But I also believe that the work of God in Christ is fundamentally about renewing the creation, and we are called to join in this renewal. We were not simply cleared from a death sentence and handed a ticket to heaven. We have been redeemed, renewed, recreated. The God who made the heavens and the earth has begun that same creative process all over again right here in the middle of this world, through Christ, the firstfruits of the new creation. </span></span><br />
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What does this mean for our daily lives? For our relationships? For our career plans? These are hard questions. But they are issues central to the questions we are exploring in this blog. How can we live more cognizant that we serve a God boiling over with love for His creation which has been tormented by sin, death, and decay? A God who can never fill us with 'too much love'? A God who wants us to treat everyone around us with the same self-emptying, boundless, love that He shows in His acts of redemption? How do we <i>be </i>and <i>announce in word and deed </i>the new creation? </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: white;">2 Corinthians 2:17: "Therefore, if anyone is </span><sup class="crossreference" style="background-color: white; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: top;" value="(<a href="#cen-ESV-28878A" title="See cross-reference A">A</a>)"></sup><span style="background-color: white;">in Christ, he is </span><sup class="crossreference" style="background-color: white; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: top;" value="(<a href="#cen-ESV-28878B" title="See cross-reference B">B</a>)"></sup><span style="background-color: white;">a new creation.</span><span style="background-color: white;"> </span><sup class="crossreference" style="background-color: white; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: top;" value="(<a href="#cen-ESV-28878C" title="See cross-reference C">C</a>)"></sup><span style="background-color: white;">The old has passed away; behold, the new has come."</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">I believe that Paul is here making an intentional allusion to an important doctrine expounded by the Old Testament prophets, particularly Isaiah, regarding God's plan to make a new creation: </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: white;">"</span><span style="background-color: white;">See, I will create</span></span><br />
<span class="indent-1" style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span class="indent-1-breaks" style="line-height: 0;"> </span><span class="text Isa-65-17" style="position: relative;">new heavens and a new earth." -Isaiah 65:17</span></span></span><div>
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Let us try and learn how to go forth to love and to serve, knowing that the Redeemer God who tramples over death by death and makes all things new, is with us. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">"</span><span style="font-size: medium;">But men, having turned from the contemplation of God to evil of their own devising, had come inevitably under the law of death. Instead of remaining in the state in which God had created them, they were in process of becoming corrupted entirely, and death had them completely under its dominion.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: medium;">[...]</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: medium;">He saw how unseemly it was that the very things of which He Himself was the Artificer should be disappearing. He saw how the surpassing wickedness of men was mounting up against them; He saw also their universal liability to death. All this He saw and, pitying our race, moved with compassion for our limitation, unable to endure that death should have the mastery, rather than that His creatures should perish and the work of His Father for us men come to nought, He took to Himself a body, a human body even as our own. . . . </span><span style="font-size: medium;">Thus, taking a body like our own, because all our bodies were liable to the corruption of death, He surrendered His body to death instead of all, and offered it to the Father. This He did out of sheer love for us, so that in His death all might die, and the law of death thereby be abolished because, having fulfilled in His body that for which it was appointed, it was thereafter voided of its power for men." </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: medium;">-</span><span style="font-size: medium;">St. Athanasius, On The Incarnation of the Word of God </span><br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14561352796505791092noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2226159437758242552.post-84714906441592606302013-06-11T16:37:00.000-07:002013-06-11T20:49:38.794-07:00In Which N.T. Wright Answers My QuestionI was thankful and overjoyed (giddy like a 13 year old girl at a Justin Bieber concert, actually) that a question I posed to New Testament Scholar N.T. Wright was selected for a blog interview of reader-generated questions at one of my favorite blogs: the blog of <a href="http://rachelheldevans.com/">Rachel Held Evans</a>.<br />
<br />
I asked about the relationship between his views of eschatology and social ethics. Is the pursuit of justice for this world, full of people who will ultimately not be saved living on a planet yet to be fully redeemed, worthwhile. N.T. Wright is perhaps most well known for his book <i>Surprised by Hope </i>(which I cannot recommend highly enough, especially if you have never thought outside the '<u>Left Behind</u> eschatology' box and never sat down to realize that the resurrection should be, actually, central of our faith and particularly our eschatology). My question was largely revolving around his particular eschatological views and why exactly doing good in this world, in this body, matters (as he contends it does). You can read my full question and his full response at the original post <a href="http://rachelheldevans.com/blog/ask-nt-wright-response">at Rachel's blog, here.</a><br />
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One line from his response particularly struck me. Wright writes (I love saying that), <span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">"<span style="background-color: white; line-height: 27px; text-align: left;">The point of justice and mercy anyway is not ‘they deserve it’ but ‘this is the way God’s world should be."</span></span><br />
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This reminds me of some thoughts I've written about previously, <a href="http://toomuchlovenathanaelkyle.blogspot.com/2013/05/when-god-wastes-his-love.html">particularly on what I like to call 'the frivolousness' of God's love.</a> [some have challenged me on this language so I say it with some tentativeness. read the original post on the subject, linked to just above, for a fuller explanation]. That is, noting the way that God shows love as an end in and of itself; risking that those whom He shows love to might still reject Him. Care for the other is central to His nature and is acted upon for its own sake. He shows love abundantly, toward all.<br />
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The Spirit is at work in the believer to make them like Jesus. As we share in His death and His resurrection life we become increasingly <i>like </i>Him. This is how the eschaton filters into our own day and age. This is how our future resurrected, glorified, selves begin to come to life in the here and now. To be like Jesus is to be frivolous with our love; to show love unequivocally. Showing mercy and justice to the undeserving - which is the significance of very central act of Jesus, His sacrifice - regardless of the response or consequences. Pursuing justice in the world around us matters, because it is in showing justice and mercy to all people unequivocally that we become like Jesus and the 'not yet' becomes a bit more 'now.'<br />
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I think the lesson to learn here is that N.T. Wright's particular eschatological views are not entirely necessary to believe that seeking justice is important... but it is better than some views in this respect. What is most important, however, is that we are called to follow Christ's example even though we don't have all the details figured out of <i>why </i>and <i>what becomes of the good we do</i>. We are called, first and foremost, to be obedient to what we know God wants us to do, and what we know is consistent with His character. We know that He is a God who desires to redeem creation and calls us to be a part of that work, in some way or another (this does distinguish us from some, particularly extreme dispensational, views). That is enough to tell us to get to work.<br />
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"Christ did not know measure in His love for people, — and in this love He lowered Himself in His Divinity to the point of being incarnated as Man and took upon Himself the sufferings of all. In this sense He teaches us by His example not of a measured limit in love, but rather an absolute and immeasurable surrendering away of oneself, by definition a laying down of one’s soul for others."</div>
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- Saint Maria Skobtsova of Paris</div>
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I highly recommend you <a href="http://rachelheldevans.com/blog/ask-nt-wright-response">check out the original post</a> to see the question and answer in their fullness. There are some great questions about sexuality, reconciling God's justice and mercy, open theism, and others.<br />
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Thanks, Dr. Wright! </div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14561352796505791092noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2226159437758242552.post-14837143344161976772013-06-10T07:39:00.002-07:002013-06-10T14:11:14.225-07:00The Cad at the Communion Table <!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<!--StartFragment-->
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
We each possess a monster within us. But it is not
a foreign monster. This monster looks so much like us that we are scared to
look it in the face. It is the monster that desires nothing more than to
exploit; to take, steal, lust, abuse.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I am not married, nor have I ever been anywhere
particularly close to being married. I hope to be married one day. But in this
desire for marriage, my inner-monster finds a safe way to sneak into the depths
of my heart and life. My desire for companionship, sexual union, surrender to
another, are easy paths for the exploiter to reside inside of me. Marriage
becomes an idol. And then darker and more horrid things become even greater
idols and marriage itself must be sacrificed. It's a clever trick. I become a
monster and any hope of being a good spouse is abandoned at the altar of
selfishness. A selfish person cannot be a good spouse. Worshipping the joys and
desires of marriage undermine any hope of having that which I desired. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I must learn to re-orient myself. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
We must kill lust and selfishness in order to have
any hope of healthy marriages. We cannot become one flesh with someone when our
only concern is how to feed the monstrous desires of our own
flesh. Scripture is quite clear on the call to love your spouse's body as
your own. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
How can we give ourselves, or prepare ourselves to
give, to a spouse in this way? <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
We must first be a good spouse to our Lord. It is
in that relationship that we most fundamentally learn to give and to give up
our selfish desires. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Christ entered into this world to redeem a people for Himself; a people
to be His bride: <o:p></o:p></div>
<!--EndFragment--><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/khrawlings/3383659848/" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" title="bread and wine #1 by khrawlings, on Flickr"><img alt="bread and wine #1" height="243" src="http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3420/3383659848_3a3ea409c4.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">"<span style="background-color: #fffefd; line-height: 21px; text-align: justify;">And I will betroth you to me forever. I will betroth you to me in righteousness and in justice, in steadfast love and in mercy." -Hosea 2:19</span></span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: white;">"Then came one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues and spoke to me, saying, “Come, I will show you the Bride, the wife of the Lamb.” -Revelation 21:9</span> </span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
<br />
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We must devote ourselves fully to Christ our
bridegroom.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
When we come to the Eucharistic table, to take
communion, we are not merely remembering Christ's death. The Eucharist is
a marriage feast. It is an anticipation of THE marriage supper of the Lamb.
There, Christ becomes one flesh with His bride, the Church. We are in Him, and
He is in us. This is no mere memorial, it is an anticipation. Much more than
this, it is a consummation. We become one flesh with Him in His sacrifice. He
gives all to us and we give all to Him. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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Yet here's the catch: we must give up all our
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wherever He would lead us. We must be ready to give up wealth, comfort, family,
friendship, marriage, our safety, and our very lives.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
He has given all for us and to be one flesh with
Him. We must be ready to do the same.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This is not something that merely takes place in
our heart. This is not a task for mere cognitive exercise (cognitive prayer and
cognitive Bible study). We must pray with and in the midst of our living. We
must learn Scripture by living it. Devoting ourselves to our spouse cannot be a
mere cognitive exercise. What lover can be a worthy spouse by thoughts alone?<o:p></o:p></div>
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Christ has told us quite explicitly how to love
Him, how to bless Him: we must keep His commandments, and we must love 'the
least.'<o:p></o:p></div>
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What spouse would let their beloved wander naked
and hungry in the streets? To let their spouse be bound in brothels? To die in
the wars of the power-drunk? All these are our beloved, our Christ. This is
where we become His bride: in the dark places of the world where He has gone
before us to suffer with the suffering.<o:p></o:p></div>
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We are called to trade
our inward-focused motion to an outward one; actively blessing and loving our spouse. I
believe this is necessary to become a good spouse. We should look for our
partners to be those who have been running ahead into darkness to care for the
suffering, to work for the Kingdom. If I am to marry I hope to find someone in
the trenches with Christ. Someone who, like Christ, is to be found with the
suffering; where we love other bodies above our own, because we are devoted
first and foremost to the body of Christ.<o:p></o:p></div>
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But in this journey, we may be called to abandon
everything.<o:p></o:p></div>
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To gain your life you must lose it. And there is no
guarantee of getting back everything you gave up.<o:p></o:p></div>
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But you will gain a feast. A marriage feast with the Lamb. A
marriage, a home, an eternal Love.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/centralasian/8076484228/" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;" title="[ F ] Juan de Flandes - The Marriage Feast at Cana (1496) - Earlier Sketch by Cea., on Flickr"><img alt="[ F ] Juan de Flandes - The Marriage Feast at Cana (1496) - Earlier Sketch" height="500" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8466/8076484228_a7421612c5.jpg" width="399" /></a><br />
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<i>Lord, teach us to love You. Teach us to see You in the suffering humans around us. Let us learn to turn aside our selfish desires and the comfort we find in being inward-focused. You call us out. You call us to love you with our whole selves. To be one flesh with you. To be married to you. To be your beautiful bride. Lead us to the table to break bread with you. Let us drink wine with you. Let us live this marriage feast in our daily lives and work - let us celebrate the Eucharist in giving ourselves away to the needy. That is the marriage feast we are called to partake in. That is the holy consummation of our marriage to you. We suffer with You, we walk into death with You, knowing that You have gone ahead and before us, and came out victorious out the other side. We will always be together. Transform this whore at Your communion table into Your lovely bride. </i></div>
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<i>Amen. </i></div>
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Update 6/10/13: An apt quotation that Miroslav Volf posted on Facebook today: </div>
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"<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; line-height: 17px; text-align: left;">A Christian lives not in himself, but in Christ and in his neighbor" -Luther</span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14561352796505791092noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2226159437758242552.post-55850101802465895162013-05-30T11:45:00.001-07:002013-05-30T11:47:49.964-07:00Peace and Principalities <span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Many in the early Church were explicitly against war and violence, to a degree that might shock many contemporary Christians. The relationship between our faith and government, violence, war, defense, are all tricky issues. They are issues that I have been wrestling with a great deal lately, and which I have been researching (at least in terms of early Christian views on these issues). Scholars disagree on the nature of this pacifism in the early Church. Some argue that they were more concerned about the idol worship associated with being in the army than a condemnation of violence per se. I am quite convinced by George Kalantzis's (of Wheaton College) new book (<i>Caesar and the Lamb</i>) arguing, to the contrary, that an overwhelming majority (practically unanimous) of the Fathers were solidly against violence itself; they were rather explicit about it.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Regardless, these issues are tricky. It was much easier to be a pacifist when Christianity was a minority religion in a pagan empire. When Christians gained political clout and eventually became the majority, these questions became a lot more complicated. So, like I said, it's tricky.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I don't presume to give an answer, but a few reflections.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Many in the early Church held to a deep sense of hope that I think is sometimes lacking in the Church today. While living in an empire that persecuted them, tortured them, killed them, and that operated on war and power and greed, the early Church had hope because they knew that they were the living body of the resurrected Christ. Christ had died and been raised again. This was a solid fact to stand upon. A solid hope in the midst of all the darkness. A brand new world was breaking forth into the old one, and everything was different now. The power of God had been unleashed on earth and death itself had been turned upside down. Carl F. H. Henry put it well: "<span style="color: #323333;">The early Christians did not say ‘look what the world is coming to!’ but ‘look what has come into the world!’" </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="color: #323333;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #323333;">When it came to their views of violence, they were wildly full of hope. Violence and death are not parts of the world God intended; and they had hope that God can and would put all things to right. A hope grounded in the resurrection. Miracles can happen. They have happened. Things can change. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="color: #323333;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #323333;">Perhaps we have learned some valuable lessons and gained a wise caution, by having a bit more reserve about how imminent we understand the Kingdom to be, than many early Christians possessed. Seeing the Kingdom as too imminent (or imminent in the wrong ways) has led to some great atrocities. Many of early Christians (up until the 3rd century or so) believed the end was right around the corner. We no longer think this way and often talk about the way things 'must be' until the end comes. There is some wisdom here, but this can often be rather fatalistic in a way that I don't think is Biblically warranted. </span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #323333;">There needs to be some balance. But I think we could use a healthy dose of their hope. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="color: #323333;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #323333;">We may decide that violence is a necessary evil until the end is actually here. We may not be able to agree with many early Christians' almost entirely unequivocal pacifism. But there is something from them to learn. If we decide to believe that war is a necessary evil, let us never forget that it is still an evil, and that we are given power in Christ to pursue a different way. We must be spokespeople for peace, and for hope. </span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #323333;">I will leave you with a paraphrase of the words of Origen (3rd century). Origen had seen a lot of violence. His father was violently persecuted while Origen was but a boy. His spiritual mentor was also killed, along with many others in the city in which Origen was living. Yet, he remained hopeful about a different way to live in the world. </span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #323333;">A man by the name of Celsus had written a long treatise condemning Christianity on a variety of levels. We don't have the original document - we only know that Origen responded (extensively) to Celsus several years later, and his response has been preserved. This is my paraphrase of a part of that response: </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">"Celsus has argued that we are detrimental to the wellbeing of society, because we refuse to fight in the emperor's armies. 'If everyone became Christians,' he argues, 'the empire would collapse because there would be no army.' </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 14px; text-align: left; white-space: pre-wrap;">Celsus, don't you understand? We are actually the best soldiers the emperor has. We take up arms with something much more powerful than a sword. We wage war with prayer. </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 14px; text-align: left; white-space: pre-wrap;">We do battle against the forces of evil which are the true and ultimate source of violence. </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 14px; text-align: left; white-space: pre-wrap;">We pray for peace. We pray for the advancement of the Gospel of peace to all people. And we live and pray knowing that our God has already won the victory."</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #323333; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Our battle is not against flesh and blood. It is not ultimately against nations, or religions, or even ideologies or 'extremists.' We may disagree with Origen and decide there is a time and a need to physically resist evil actions and protect the innocent. There are a lot of good reasons to come to this conclusion. But we must never confuse that type of war with the greater war, against powers of evil and sin. These are powers that cannot ultimately be defeated by the sword, but by love; a love that is willing to die for the wellbeing of others, including enemies. That's the power in us, that's the hope we have, because it has already been accomplished. Love incarnate in Christ gave everything and death was destroyed. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="color: #323333;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #323333;">He who lives by the sword shall die by the sword. He who dies by the sword shall live, and shall conquer. Indeed 'more than conquerers.' </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="color: #323333;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #323333;"> </span><span style="color: #323333;">We live in the hope of the resurrection, the hope that there is a power greater than the sword that will, and can, beat spears into pruning hooks. That is the power of God. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">"For when we, so large a number as we are, have learned from His teachings and His laws that it is 'not right to repay evil for evil;' that it is better to suffer wrong than to be its cause, to pour forth one's own blood rather than to stain our hands and conscience with the blood of another: the world, ungrateful as it is, has long had this benefit from Christ by whom the rage of madness has been softened and has begun to withhold hostile hands from the blood of fellow beings."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">-Arnobius of Sicca (4th century) </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">In other words, Arnobius writes: 'you should be grateful for our example of submissiveness to suffering and our non-violence. It's changing the world.' Perhaps he's a bit naive. Perhaps he's too much of an idealist. But I think we could use a bit of this hope and conviction. </span></div>
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14561352796505791092noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2226159437758242552.post-5786697365047688742013-05-23T21:24:00.000-07:002013-05-23T21:24:20.588-07:00The Long Dawn: A Call for Prayer<i><span class="text 1Sam-15-22-1Sam-15-23" id="en-MSG-3400">"Then Samuel said,</span></i><br />
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<i><span class="text 1Sam-15-22-1Sam-15-23">Do you think all <span class="small-caps" style="font-variant: small-caps;">God</span> wants are sacrifices—</span><br /><span class="indent-1"><span class="indent-1-breaks"> </span><span class="text 1Sam-15-22-1Sam-15-23">empty rituals just for show?</span></span><br /><span class="text 1Sam-15-22-1Sam-15-23">He wants you to listen to him!</span><br /><span class="text 1Sam-15-22-1Sam-15-23">Plain listening is the thing,</span><br /><span class="indent-1"><span class="indent-1-breaks"> </span><span class="text 1Sam-15-22-1Sam-15-23">not staging a lavish religious production.</span></span><br /><span class="text 1Sam-15-22-1Sam-15-23">Not doing what <span class="small-caps" style="font-variant: small-caps;">God</span> tells you</span><br /><span class="indent-1"><span class="indent-1-breaks"> </span><span class="text 1Sam-15-22-1Sam-15-23">is far worse than fooling around in the occult.</span></span><br /><span class="text 1Sam-15-22-1Sam-15-23">Getting self-important around <span class="small-caps" style="font-variant: small-caps;">God</span></span><br /><span class="indent-1"><span class="indent-1-breaks"> </span><span class="text 1Sam-15-22-1Sam-15-23">is far worse than making deals with your dead ancestors.</span></span><br /><span class="text 1Sam-15-22-1Sam-15-23">Because you said No to <span class="small-caps" style="font-variant: small-caps;">God</span>’s command,</span></i><span class="indent-1"><i><span class="indent-1-breaks"> </span></i><span class="text 1Sam-15-22-1Sam-15-23"><i>he says No to your kingship."<br />-1 Samuel 15:22-23, The Message </i></span></span></div>
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Let me tell you a truth: I am not a good person. Some of you are not surprised by this comment, others of you might think I'm being too critical. Bare with me. <br /><br />This week I was reminded again, in various ways, of my own selfishness. I lusted, I hated, I discriminated, and I valued myself higher than others. And those were just the sins I kept out of the view of the world, forgetting, of course, the more public displays of my own inequities. </div>
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<br />I am not good because I make my view of the world about me. That's self-centered and narrow minded. My view of the world needs to be about so much more than just me, my successes and my failures. <br /><br />Too often, I try to hide up my inadequacies with religious words or actions. Today, I want to back away from any attempt to write a profound post but simply to ask you to pray with me. God does indeed invite us into relationship with Him and prayer is how we consummate that relationship. <br /><br />So, today (and on many subsequent days), I invite you to enter with me into the Kingdom of God here on earth. . . What I like to call the Long Dawn and Kyle likes to call the first building blocks of the New Kingdom. Let us enter into the Kingdom by asking God to be with the dying and hurt in this world. <br /><br /><i>For the families of those killed in the <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-22476774" target="_blank">Bangladesh factory collapse</a>, may You, God of those in pain, reveal Yourself and Your love. </i><br /><br /><i>Lord, have mercy. </i><br /><br /><i>For the family and friends of the <a href="http://www.thestar.com/news/world/2013/05/23/london_hacking_attacker_british_report.html" target="_blank">British soldier hacked</a> to death in London, God, be present in their suffering. </i><br /><br /><i>Lord, have mercy. </i><br /><br /><i>For <a href="http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=44979&Cr=democratic&Cr1=congo#.UZ7pcEpxpCo" target="_blank">Goma, Democratic Republic of Congo</a>, for the ongoing violence there and for the promise of peace in that region. </i><br /><br /><i>Lord, in Your mercy, hear our prayer. </i><br /> </div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13882771326518337537noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2226159437758242552.post-51864446973903459702013-05-14T19:57:00.002-07:002013-05-14T20:04:02.574-07:00Last Things and the Modern Age: Reflections on Re-Visiting the Alma Mater<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Psychoanalyzing one's theology can be illuminating.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">There are days that I wonder if Freud and certain other modern atheist psychologists were on to something. Some have followed the trend of reducing man's religious impulse to naturalistic explanations - often some sort of unmet emotional needs, or at least contending that they develop to as serve some other practical purpose for individuals and/or societies. There are days that I might seem like one suffering from a religious neurosis. There are days that I am quite ironically aware that my theological tendencies or opinions can often form under the need to comfort myself, or in order to fulfill feed some psychological deficiency. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">This is perhaps especially true of the direction my thoughts often turn as I consider the eschaton; that is, my thoughts on the last things, the end of the world, and the nature of the Kingdom of God.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">The modern world, as many have noted, is hyper-mobile. In pre-modern societies, it was common that an average individual would spend their entire life in a single community. Their relationships, significance, and identity all revolved around and existed in this one place that remained in some comparatively significant degree, intact. In the modern world, we are constantly in motion. Alvin Toffler writes brilliantly about this in <i>Future Shock, </i>in which he considers the consequences of the hyper-mobility of the modern age: relationships are always transient, identity is constantly fluid and infinitely reconstructable because we are constantly moving from one place to another and so is everyone around us, etc. We're constantly coming together and breaking apart, and expecting most things in our life to be temporary. We guard ourselves against intimacy, rootedness, or having a solid identity. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">I don't like this arrangement very much. I hate change. I hate goodbyes. I hate transience. These can be relatively normal and expected feelings of mine. I don't think this hyper-mobility is terribly healthy or quite 'natural,' and to be discontented with it is understandable. On the other hand, however, this situation is somewhat unavoidable and must be adapted to in some meaningful way. And living in fear of or constantly at war against change is harmful (and always has been). I am self-aware enough to realize that my disdain of change can go too far, and that I can have real attachment issues by which I can cling too tightly to the past. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">and sometimes my psyche and all its deficiencies, I nowadays quite readily acknowledge, likes to play with my theology. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">I am currently visiting my alma mater, one year after my graduation. On this visit, I watched yet another graduation take place. Watching other friends graduate and see them gearing up to spread around the world and see the end of their temporary time together was painful in and of itself; both via empathy and because many of them are my friends. They have been many miles away from me throughout this year, of course, but having them all here in one place was comforting, with some notion in the back of my mind that <i>back</i> <i>there</i> things are continuing on in some sense like they used to (read: as I had lived it). But more than this, it was even more painful to watch and see it serve as a catalyst to re-living my own graduation and all the emotions that came with it. To put the icing on the cake, there is also the renewed realization that little by little, my visits will become less frequent as those I know leave, and others I have never met replace them. Not to mention that the dispersion of my own cohort becomes ever wider. Some, thankfully, will be moving closer to me in coming years. Some are going far away. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">In short, I was very quickly a basket-case of emotions, bemoaning change in all the many ways it came to torment me. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Even though we would laugh about the inane over-usage of the politically-correct term 'community,' thrown around at my alma mater, having since met people who went to different sorts of schools does give me a renewed appreciation for the sorts of seemingly unique relationships and dynamics that are/were formed at my alma mater because of the sort of place it is. My school was small, and drew students of particular tendencies, qualities, and interests (as I guess all schools do - but a Christian liberal arts school has a somewhat consistent aura that fits me better than other contexts would). There was some sense of consistency - seeing more or less the same people on a regular basis. Most people were known/recognizable to most others and as I result, I had some sense of feeling known. Many in the community had long roots there, and I was constantly meeting grandchildren of my old family friends, meeting professors who taught a parent or an aunt or uncle, etc. I often walked over the bridge where my grandparents got engaged. We were small enough to have a deep sense of sharing in a great many of the same experiences; many inside jokes, pains and joys experienced together, stories about peers and professors that we could all feel some sense of attachment to. And, most importantly, I formed many deep and extremely meaningful relationships during those years.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">We all knew that this arrangement was going to be temporary. That we were living there in order to establish ourselves for our futures; which could take us any number of different directions. But the sense of place, belonging, intimacy - yes, community - and its relegation to the past is, quite naturally, painful. One of the relatively unique pains of the modern world.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Of course, I have realized, it's not just this mobile world in which things change. Even a life lived in a consistent, pre-modern, community will be filled with various vicissitudes (nice alliteration, eh?). There is a great deal of truth to the realization we attribute to Heraclitus: you never step in the same river twice. This world is inherently transient. Nothing is permanent. Even those things we hold as whole memories ('my time in high school') are nothing but a long list of changes with perhaps certain regularities we can point to to give it some sense of completeness, sometimes perhaps rather arbitrarily. When you put the present under a microscope, you realize how unique are the particularities of each specific moment. These things we feel nostalgic about are, in some sense, mental constructions. A formulated sense of permanence that didn't ever exactly exist quite in that way. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">In a vast sea of different theological views opinions about the end of the world, all with long names, I find myself jumping around a few different camps. I tend to believe, quite strongly, that the resurrection of Christ is intended to announce that the New Creation long promised by Yahweh has now begun to exist and grow right here in the middle of this old world. The Jews were expecting a resurrection at the end of history. For Jesus to be resurrected in history was the announcement that the new world had started right now. He was the first fruit of a new creation that we take part in. In Him we are a new creation; the old has gone the new has come. We are being made new day by day. This new world, among many other things, is one of restored intimacy and community. It also provides a certain sense of place, for we are being formed for life in a city (a New Jerusalem). </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">N.T. Wright has made this powerful statement: </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">"<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; line-height: 18px; text-align: left;">What you do in the present—by painting, preaching, singing, sewing, praying, teaching, building hospitals, digging wells, campaigning for justice, writing poems, caring for the needy, loving your neighbor as yourself—will last into God's future. These activities are not simply ways of making the present life a little less beastly, a little more bearable, until the day when we leave it behind altogether (as the hymn so mistakenly puts it…). They are part of what we may call building for God's kingdom.”</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; line-height: 18px; text-align: left;"> </span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">And here's when my psyche waltzes in, to play speculative theology. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">I believe that the fellowship we share in this life are among the first building blocks of the New Kingdom. In some (limited) sense, we are literally entering into Kingdom, eschatological, life right now through our relationships in Christ. I wonder if this might also stretch beyond just people, but also places and experiences and times. </span><br />
<div>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="color: #181818;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; line-height: 18px;">I wonder if our Christian communities, friendships, and the senses of place that we build around these fellowships have some part to play in the Kingdom. And one day, everything old will collapse and all the transient pieces of the Kingdom will no longer be hidden and ephemeral, but NOW. Things are not merely to be wiped away and started anew - the <i>new </i>is already here and there is a clean relationship between the new in the now and the new in the future. Our intimacy, community, relationships, are the beginning of heaven coming to earth; the descent of the New Jerusalem. </span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i style="background-color: white; color: #181818; line-height: 18px; text-align: left;"></i><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">I am tempted to believe believe that, in a real sense, my time at my alma mater (and in some ways, 'parts' of every moment I have lived in Christ) is the beginning of the new world. Those moments, those places, those memories, those relationships, will in some real way be <i>there </i>because they have already begun to be part of the <i>coming-here, which is eternal.</i> Maybe we will visit the 'places' that form part of our life of the New Kingdom in our pasts. There is a certain eternal permanence (which is at the same time pregnant with infinite possibility for newness) hidden, mixed up, in the things that when we put under a microscope are nothing but a long list of changes and minutes passing.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">In our hyper-mobile world, the promise of the eschaton is particularly poignant in its promise to fulfill the things our transience has taken ever more irrevocably from us: true intimacy, community, permanence, a substantial and lasting sense of place and belonging and roots. Perhaps nostalgia is a particularly modern form of 'longing' for heaven. A particularly modern form of desire, like the 'stabs of joy' Lewis wrote of. I recall when I first read about this notion of Lewis's being struck with a sense that I knew <i>exactly </i>what he was talking about. I believe many have felt the same. Lewis often described feeling these stabs of joy in certain aesthetic moments. And indeed, I have too. But I often find (especially as I live through one of the most transient periods of my life - young adulthood) that these longings appear most often in an intense and piercing desire for the 'past.' Nostalgia. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
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<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="text-align: left;">I still believe we can live forever</span><span style="text-align: left;"> </span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="text-align: left;"></span><br /></span>
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; text-align: left;">You and I we begin forever now</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="text-align: left;">
</span><span style="text-align: left;"></span></span>
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; text-align: left;">Forever now</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="text-align: left;">
</span><span style="text-align: left;"></span></span>
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="text-align: left;">Forever</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="text-align: left;">
</span><span style="text-align: left;"></span></span>
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="text-align: left;">I still believe in us together</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="text-align: left;">
</span><span style="text-align: left;"></span></span>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="text-align: left;">You and I we're here together now</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="text-align: left;">
</span><span style="text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: center;">
Together now</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
(Switchfoot: Where I Belong)</div>
</span></span><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">We (or at least I) desperately grasp on to whatever ephemeral moments of Kingdom-life we can hold on to. That last coffee with a friend before she leaves without any clue when you will see her again. That moment you catch yourself dozing and wondering if your old roommate and friend is across the room, sleeping, like he used to be. Cueing up that piece of music you performed when you were in the college choir. Trying to catch a glimpse of a tree blowing in the sunny spring wind, reminding you of a myriad of beautiful spring moments spread across the years - playing in my backyard as a kid, sitting at my desk writing poetry in high school, napping out on the quad in the middle of finals week. That gathering back at your old favorite restaurant with your high school friends, while you're all back home for the holidays. Taking an extra long stare at that shirt which reminds you of the one your dad used to wear when you were a kid and would go outside to wash the car with him.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"> In
these 'Gatsbian' moments "... we beat on, boats against the current,
borne back ceaselessly into the past." (Fitzgerald, in <i>The Great Gatsby</i>);
trying desperately to hang on to the past, and find a fulfillment for the
nostalgia. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">As
stated above, senses of nostalgia are based upon partially romanticized
versions of the past - attaching a sense of permanence and place to things that
are really somewhat arbitrary and ultimately transient; piles of particularly
prevalent particulars. But maybe our senses of place which largely form our
senses of nostalgia represent a longing that will have some very literal
fulfillment in the end. Maybe the things, places, sights, sounds, memories, of
our past will in some way or another be part of our eternal Home. Nostalgia
is a longing for reunion, for intimacy, for so many things that 'once
were' yet are at the same time nothing that this world can fully satisfy until
time as we know it has collapsed in the final death of death. Nostalgia for
something that sort-of-has-existed, but which is also still yet to come. A
going-back that sometimes I mistakenly believe I can clasp and possess, but is
actually only to be found in going forward. That's the trickiness of nostalgia,
I guess. You don't feel it until things have passed, and that which you long
for is somehow more substantial and more permanent than it was when it was the
present. It is at once a longing for the past, and a future permanence that is
both 'old' and 'new.' Somehow past, present, and future. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Going
forward will feel a little bit like going backward. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Maybe
Plato was onto something. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<!--EndFragment--><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">And here we get to the long and short of it. If nothing else, these ideas helps me with my attachment issues. They will get me through another night with tears at the brim - thinking of that afternoon I said those last goodbyes on graduation day. It provides a way to deal with the memories that find themselves rolling down my cheeks and landing in a wet spot on my shirt.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"> I need to something to hold on to in order to believe that this pain means something, and that it will be healed. Maybe an individual of greater faith than I can be more at peace in trying to desire Christ above desiring my memories and my time with my friends. To have a faith that is ready for anything, and to be satisfied in all things in Christ. And I strive for that; to be satisfied in knowing that whatever the end will look like, it will be good. But this pain wants <i>them </i>and <i>that time </i>and <i>that place</i>. And I need to believe that this pain is from a hole that they, along with and through Christ, will fill. I don't think this has to be a contradiction, but maybe my desires need further sanctification since they are, after all, suspiciously similar in content to the neuroses of my own psyche. But I need them tonight. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">There is work to be done and we must go about it somehow, striking a balance between stoic peace and passionate longing, being in peace no matter what happens and yet allowing ourselves to ardently hope to find whoever may be counted among your 'you's; the 'second-persons' in your life; the loved ones who have been right in front of you at various stages along these rivers and these roads: the 'you' of you, that <i>you</i> are longing to one day reach again in a state of permanence, the desire for which I suspect is at the root of our nostalgic longings. It is good to maintain connections with old friends, enjoy the past, celebrate the good, make friendship and community a priority. We should be cultivating healthy longings for heaven - healthy senses of nostalgia. We must be cultivating in ourselves a love so rich and so intimate that the 'not yet' of this life indeed causes us pain as we wait for what is to come. And yet we must continue on; trying to remember that we are pilgrims, following Christ from one station to the next, trying to be contented in Him and at peace with where He has us. Trying to also live in the Kingdom-life that is right in front of us: loving those with us, relishing the communities we have in this season. We can long, we can desire, we can relish and encourage closeness and community and intimacy. But we can also follow Christ into the transience with hope. I hope some day I can be better at doing so. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Until then, my heart hangs onto whatever semblance of a theological explanation and source of comfort that I can pull together. </span><br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-family: tahoma, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px; text-align: left;">a year from now we'll all be gone</span></i></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: white;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: white;"><i><span style="font-family: tahoma, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px; text-align: left;">all our friends will move away</span></i></span></div>
</div>
<span style="background-color: white;">
<i></i></span>
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: white;"><i><i><span style="font-family: tahoma, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px; text-align: left;">and they're going to better places</span></i></i></span></div>
</div>
<span style="background-color: white;"><i>
<span style="font-family: tahoma, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px; text-align: left;"></span></i></span>
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: white;"><i><span style="font-family: tahoma, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px; text-align: left;"><i>but our friends will be gone away</i></span></i></span></div>
</div>
<span style="background-color: white;"><i><span style="font-family: tahoma, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px; text-align: left;">
</span></i></span>
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: white;"><i><span style="font-family: tahoma, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px;"><br /></span></i></span></div>
</div>
<span style="background-color: white;"><i>
<span style="font-family: tahoma, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px; text-align: left;"></span></i></span>
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: white;"><i><span style="font-family: tahoma, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px; text-align: left;"><i>nothing is as it has been</i></span></i></span></div>
</div>
<span style="background-color: white;"><i><span style="font-family: tahoma, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px; text-align: left;">
</span><span style="font-family: tahoma, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px; text-align: left;"></span></i></span>
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: white;"><i><span style="font-family: tahoma, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px; text-align: left;"><i>and i miss your face like hell</i></span></i></span></div>
</div>
<span style="background-color: white;"><i><span style="font-family: tahoma, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px; text-align: left;">
</span><span style="font-family: tahoma, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px; text-align: left;"></span></i></span>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: white;"><i><span style="font-family: tahoma, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px; text-align: left;"><i>and i guess it's just as well</i></span></i></span></div>
</div>
<span style="background-color: white;"><i><span style="font-family: tahoma, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px; text-align: left;">
</span><span style="font-family: tahoma, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px; text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: center;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>but i miss your face like hell</i></div>
</div>
</span><div style="text-align: center;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: tahoma, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<span style="font-family: tahoma, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px; text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: center;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>been talking bout the way things change</i></div>
</div>
</span><span style="font-family: tahoma, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px; text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: center;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>and my family lives in a different state</i></div>
</div>
</span><span style="font-family: tahoma, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px; text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: center;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>and if you don't know what to make of this</i></div>
</div>
</span><span style="font-family: tahoma, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px; text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: center;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>then we will not relate</i></div>
</div>
</span><span style="font-family: tahoma, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px; text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: center;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>so if you don't know what to make of this</i></div>
</div>
</span><span style="font-family: tahoma, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px; text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: center;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>then we will not relate</i></div>
</div>
</span><div style="text-align: center;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: tahoma, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<span style="font-family: tahoma, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px; text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: center;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>rivers and roads</i></div>
</div>
</span><span style="font-family: tahoma, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px; text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: center;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>rivers and roads</i></div>
</div>
</span><span style="font-family: tahoma, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px; text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: center;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>rivers 'til i reach you</i></div>
</div>
</span><div style="text-align: center;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: tahoma, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
</i></span><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
(The Head and the Heart: 'Rivers and Roads')</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
---</div>
<br />
<br />
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14561352796505791092noreply@blogger.com2