Do we as Christians hunger and thirst after righteousness or do we satisfy our hunger and thirst in pretty much the same way the rest of the world does? More often than not it seems, we satisfy our hunger and thirst with that which is not bread and water. Oddly, that is the road to gluttony because those other things fail to satisfy the hunger and thirst and we simply need more and more.
I know that I am guilty of this very thing and I sense in myself the need to get away and spend time alone in what the Gospels refer to as a desolate place with the Lord. I can attempt to satisfy the thirst with people or books or other activities or things and what I really need is time alone in the Word and with the Word.
Summer is particularly difficult because we have so many other things going in our life and it seems that I lurch from one thing to another and all of them are good things (well, most of them), but they leave me with less and less time to spend just feasting on the Lord. When I examine the way I spend my time I realize that I am spending time and money on what the Lord says through Isaiah " that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy?
Thursday, July 23, 2009
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
I thirst
I have been teaching through the book of John and last week was teaching particularly on chapter 6. It is an incredibly confrontational scene where Jesus makes extraordinary claims and eventually many who were following him turned back after hearing him on this occasion.
One of the things He says is that anyone who believes in Him will not thirst. All through the Bible we have images of hungering and thirsting that have to do with seeking God and His kingdom. We see it in the Psalms, in the prophetic writings (see Isaiah 55 for example), and in the teachings of Jesus. He has said something similar to the Samaritan woman at the well in John 4 and she has proven the depth of her thirst by staying with Him in his metaphor, even after He has pointed out her relationship problems. The promise here is that the thirst we have for spiritual sustenance will be met in the presence of the Holy Spirit and the promise that Jesus will be with us always even to the end of the age (Matt 28).
At the cross, Jesus says, "I thirst." Does that have a double meaning beyond the obvious one that the soldiers attempt to meet? Does it also tell us something of the separation He experienced?
One of the things He says is that anyone who believes in Him will not thirst. All through the Bible we have images of hungering and thirsting that have to do with seeking God and His kingdom. We see it in the Psalms, in the prophetic writings (see Isaiah 55 for example), and in the teachings of Jesus. He has said something similar to the Samaritan woman at the well in John 4 and she has proven the depth of her thirst by staying with Him in his metaphor, even after He has pointed out her relationship problems. The promise here is that the thirst we have for spiritual sustenance will be met in the presence of the Holy Spirit and the promise that Jesus will be with us always even to the end of the age (Matt 28).
At the cross, Jesus says, "I thirst." Does that have a double meaning beyond the obvious one that the soldiers attempt to meet? Does it also tell us something of the separation He experienced?
Friday, July 10, 2009
Long Time
It has been a long time since I have posted. Lots of stuff keeping me busy but I am going to try and keep this updated a few days a week.
I talked to a young woman named Holly yesterday who told me an incredible story and I want to share it with you. You will hear it again but I felt it was important to share with you now.
Ten years ago Holly was married and living in Atlanta. She and her husband had a trained German shepherd police dog and one day she was walking the dog along the Chattahoochee River when the dog saw something off the trail towards the river and decided to chase after it. Holly had the leash in her hand and also wrapped around her wrist. The area where they were had a steep embankment leading down to a cliff and a 30 foot drop down to the river. As the dog ran down the embankment she ran along behind it, pulled by the leash. The dog took a sudden turn to the right but her momentum carried her directly down the hill, causing both her and the dog to lose their balance and slide down the hill towards the cliff’s edge. Miraculously, there was a tree between her and the dog and the leash caught on the tree and she and the dog went over the edge of the cliff and were no hanging by the leash off the cliff.
Holly began to scream for help and the dog, hanging by its neck, began scrambling for a foothold. It was able to get its front paws on the ground atop the cliff when Holly realized that if the dog were able to pull itself onto the ground and safety, Holly’s weight would then pull the dog around the tree and they would both fall the 30 feet to the river. Holly gave the command to the dog to be still and the dog immediately obeyed the command. They hung there together, Holly by her hold on the leash, the dog by its neck, for 30 minutes until someone heard and responded to her cries for help and rescued them. Holly has rotator cuff problems to this day and the dog broke two vertebrae in its neck that were surgically repaired.
The dog was trained to obey the command of the master, the dog’s experience of its master was that the master loved the dog and therefore was to be trusted always. On this day, the dog trusted the command of its master in a life and death situation and obeyed at the cost of even trying to save its own life. Do we know and love the Lord who died for us in obedience to the Father's command enough to trust Him this completely? It makes me think back to Genesis and how everything was perfect until one of the created things decided to not act in obedience to the Lord's command. Until that moment in Genesis 3 the Lord spoke and it was so. Sometimes I think that giving us reasoning ability wasn't that great an idea.
I talked to a young woman named Holly yesterday who told me an incredible story and I want to share it with you. You will hear it again but I felt it was important to share with you now.
Ten years ago Holly was married and living in Atlanta. She and her husband had a trained German shepherd police dog and one day she was walking the dog along the Chattahoochee River when the dog saw something off the trail towards the river and decided to chase after it. Holly had the leash in her hand and also wrapped around her wrist. The area where they were had a steep embankment leading down to a cliff and a 30 foot drop down to the river. As the dog ran down the embankment she ran along behind it, pulled by the leash. The dog took a sudden turn to the right but her momentum carried her directly down the hill, causing both her and the dog to lose their balance and slide down the hill towards the cliff’s edge. Miraculously, there was a tree between her and the dog and the leash caught on the tree and she and the dog went over the edge of the cliff and were no hanging by the leash off the cliff.
Holly began to scream for help and the dog, hanging by its neck, began scrambling for a foothold. It was able to get its front paws on the ground atop the cliff when Holly realized that if the dog were able to pull itself onto the ground and safety, Holly’s weight would then pull the dog around the tree and they would both fall the 30 feet to the river. Holly gave the command to the dog to be still and the dog immediately obeyed the command. They hung there together, Holly by her hold on the leash, the dog by its neck, for 30 minutes until someone heard and responded to her cries for help and rescued them. Holly has rotator cuff problems to this day and the dog broke two vertebrae in its neck that were surgically repaired.
The dog was trained to obey the command of the master, the dog’s experience of its master was that the master loved the dog and therefore was to be trusted always. On this day, the dog trusted the command of its master in a life and death situation and obeyed at the cost of even trying to save its own life. Do we know and love the Lord who died for us in obedience to the Father's command enough to trust Him this completely? It makes me think back to Genesis and how everything was perfect until one of the created things decided to not act in obedience to the Lord's command. Until that moment in Genesis 3 the Lord spoke and it was so. Sometimes I think that giving us reasoning ability wasn't that great an idea.
Thursday, May 7, 2009
Born blind and born again
Sometimes chapter divisions get in the way of the story. We tend to think of them as discrete units and lose the flow of the story. The Good Shepherd in John 10 should be connected with the healing of the man born blind in chapter 9. After his healing, the Pharisees conduct an investigation for one purpose, to determine if Jesus gets credit because they have already agreed that if anyone confesses Jesus as the Christ (Anointed One, Messiah) they will be put out of the synagogue. This is a severe punishment to be kept out of the communal gathering and worship and the man's parents are careful to avoid the trap set for them: "We know that this is our son and that he was born blind. But how he now sees we do not know, nor do we know who opened his eyes. Ask him; he is of age. He will speak for himself."
They weren't there so they have no first hand knowledge of how this happened. They do, however, know what they have undoubtedly heard about the healing but the punishment is more severe than they are willing to bear. The man himself, though, knows and isn't afraid of what they can do to him for confessing Jesus as the healer. He has already lived in a type of prison of blindness and as such has more or less nothing to lose. His blindness has already made him unclean and unfit for public worship, thus the disciples question that begins the chapter, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?" He knows that in forty years none of these have healed him so he knows the difference between these men and Jesus and isn't afraid of them.
In Luke 12 Jesus tells them not to fear those who have power over only the body, but to fear the one who has power over the soul as well. This man has already experienced the power of Jesus and seen that it is greater than the power these men wield, he is unafraid to stand up to them. His logic is irrefutable, I was blind but now I see, sound familiar? He has received amazing grace and now he is receiving the opposite of grace from those who had nothing to do with the healing, I think I will follow the healer, whatever the consequences.
The Pharisees' summary judgment on the matter, They answered him, "You were born in utter sin, and would you teach us?" And they cast him out. They didn't have to ask the question the disciples asked about who sinned, they had already decided the answer to that question and they were unteachable. He has been born again, and indeed he does have something to teach them.
They weren't there so they have no first hand knowledge of how this happened. They do, however, know what they have undoubtedly heard about the healing but the punishment is more severe than they are willing to bear. The man himself, though, knows and isn't afraid of what they can do to him for confessing Jesus as the healer. He has already lived in a type of prison of blindness and as such has more or less nothing to lose. His blindness has already made him unclean and unfit for public worship, thus the disciples question that begins the chapter, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?" He knows that in forty years none of these have healed him so he knows the difference between these men and Jesus and isn't afraid of them.
In Luke 12 Jesus tells them not to fear those who have power over only the body, but to fear the one who has power over the soul as well. This man has already experienced the power of Jesus and seen that it is greater than the power these men wield, he is unafraid to stand up to them. His logic is irrefutable, I was blind but now I see, sound familiar? He has received amazing grace and now he is receiving the opposite of grace from those who had nothing to do with the healing, I think I will follow the healer, whatever the consequences.
The Pharisees' summary judgment on the matter, They answered him, "You were born in utter sin, and would you teach us?" And they cast him out. They didn't have to ask the question the disciples asked about who sinned, they had already decided the answer to that question and they were unteachable. He has been born again, and indeed he does have something to teach them.
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
Who's the Good Shepherd?
On Sunday our readings included the 23rd Psalm and John 10 - I am the Good Shepherd. I had some other things I was preaching but this image of Jesus as Good Shepherd is one that is particularly powerful when we consider the kind of claims He made for Himself.
In Ezekiel 34 God says:
"For thus says the Lord GOD: Behold, I, I myself will search for my sheep and will seek them out. 12As a shepherd seeks out his flock when he is among his sheep that have been scattered, so will I seek out my sheep, and I will rescue them from all places where they have been scattered on a day of clouds and thick darkness. 13And I will bring them out from the peoples and gather them from the countries, and will bring them into their own land. And I will feed them on the mountains of Israel, by the ravines, and in all the inhabited places of the country. 14 I will feed them with good pasture, and on the mountain heights of Israel shall be their grazing land. There they shall lie down in good grazing land, and on rich pasture they shall feed on the mountains of Israel. 15 I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep, and I myself will make them lie down, declares the Lord GOD. 16 I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strayed, and I will bind up the injured, and I will strengthen the weak, and the fat and the strong I will destroy. I will feed them in justice.
Does all that sound familiar? These are the kinds of things Jesus says about his ministry. Do you think maybe when He said these things the people who heard them knew how radical His claims were to equality with God? These are incredibly clear comparisons. Ezekiel uses many of the same images here that David used in the Psalm and Jesus then picked them up and said He was here to do those things. Let's be clear, He knew what He was saying, there was only one Good Shepherd and it was Yahweh.
In Ezekiel 34 God says:
"For thus says the Lord GOD: Behold, I, I myself will search for my sheep and will seek them out. 12As a shepherd seeks out his flock when he is among his sheep that have been scattered, so will I seek out my sheep, and I will rescue them from all places where they have been scattered on a day of clouds and thick darkness. 13And I will bring them out from the peoples and gather them from the countries, and will bring them into their own land. And I will feed them on the mountains of Israel, by the ravines, and in all the inhabited places of the country. 14 I will feed them with good pasture, and on the mountain heights of Israel shall be their grazing land. There they shall lie down in good grazing land, and on rich pasture they shall feed on the mountains of Israel. 15 I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep, and I myself will make them lie down, declares the Lord GOD. 16 I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strayed, and I will bind up the injured, and I will strengthen the weak, and the fat and the strong I will destroy. I will feed them in justice.
Does all that sound familiar? These are the kinds of things Jesus says about his ministry. Do you think maybe when He said these things the people who heard them knew how radical His claims were to equality with God? These are incredibly clear comparisons. Ezekiel uses many of the same images here that David used in the Psalm and Jesus then picked them up and said He was here to do those things. Let's be clear, He knew what He was saying, there was only one Good Shepherd and it was Yahweh.
Thursday, April 9, 2009
The hopeless of liberal religion
There is a church sign near my house that says, "Human sacrifice is a crime and a sin God would not commit." That sentiment was posted last week and I pass it several times a day. It is all I can do not to drive in and ask the pastor how he spends the 30 pieces of silver that represent his paycheck each week. It is amazing to me that a church that stands in the tradition of Calvin could possibly publicly deny that there is meaning in the crucifixion and continue to exist within that denomination. It is equally incredible that they chose to post this during Holy Week. It has certainly not made my Holy Week better to see it.
When you lose confidence in the Bible as truth, when you lose confidence in the Creeds, the church's interpretation of the Scripture from early in the history of the church, when you no longer believe that which stands at the center of the faith, is it not intellectual and spiritual dishonesty to continue to claim to be Christian? I believe it clearly explains the perceived demise of the church in America because such "churches" are in steep decline but should we actually count them as Christian at all?
1 John 4.22 is plain, "Who is the liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, he who denies the Father and the Son." John isn't talking about a single person in history when he writes this about antichrist, he has just affirmed that many antichrists have come. This is the week to declare our faith in the power of the cross, the power of the blood shed for us, and the power of the resurrection. At the end of the week hope lives for me but not, sadly, for this pastor and his flock who empty the cross of meaning. If there is no cross, the resurrection doesn't apply to me, there is no redemption. Come quickly Lord Jesus.
When you lose confidence in the Bible as truth, when you lose confidence in the Creeds, the church's interpretation of the Scripture from early in the history of the church, when you no longer believe that which stands at the center of the faith, is it not intellectual and spiritual dishonesty to continue to claim to be Christian? I believe it clearly explains the perceived demise of the church in America because such "churches" are in steep decline but should we actually count them as Christian at all?
1 John 4.22 is plain, "Who is the liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, he who denies the Father and the Son." John isn't talking about a single person in history when he writes this about antichrist, he has just affirmed that many antichrists have come. This is the week to declare our faith in the power of the cross, the power of the blood shed for us, and the power of the resurrection. At the end of the week hope lives for me but not, sadly, for this pastor and his flock who empty the cross of meaning. If there is no cross, the resurrection doesn't apply to me, there is no redemption. Come quickly Lord Jesus.
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
What is an evangelical?
I was talking to a friend yesterday who started making fun of "evangelicals." Her shtick was that evangelicals are the idiots who scream into their microphones and rant about everyone and everything going to hell. When she asked if I were one of them, she was joking. I replied that my theological convictions are evangelical yet I don't tend to yell and I certainly don't regularly condemn people to hell from the pulpit or anywhere else for that matter. She was surprised that I would associate myself with evangelicals given her completely secular idea of what that means.
How do we reclaim ground once we have lost it? I don't have any idea whether her opinion of evangelicals was changed for the better given her regard for me or whether her opinion of me took a shocking hit given her disregard for evangelicals. She still has the image of what she has seen and heard that has formed her definition of evangelical long before she met me three years ago and she has current images that continue to shape her impression. She also has known me for three years and has become a good friend in that time in a context where she would never expect an evangelical to appear at all, much less be there weekly for three years, an AIDS food bank.
I wonder how helpful labels are when it comes to our religious identity when I have these kind of conversations. Secular people, by all polling data, have a decidedly negative opinion of evangelicals, which they view as judgmental flat-earth society type people who deny any scientific claims and advances by positing some very unlikely and silly sounding alternatives such as God put the fossil evidence in the rocks at creation to fool scientists in the 20th century. They don't take us seriously as thinking people and while that isn't my goal in life, it does matter if we are trying to reach them. Paul never apologizes for the cross which he says is folly to the world, and I don't either. If that attitude towards the cross were the mark of an evangelical rather than some of the other things people associate with that term it would be helpful in restoring some credibility to the title. We need, in some ways to recover the gospel and become truly evangelical and apostolic in the original sense of those terms rather than simply condemning all the time.
How do we reclaim ground once we have lost it? I don't have any idea whether her opinion of evangelicals was changed for the better given her regard for me or whether her opinion of me took a shocking hit given her disregard for evangelicals. She still has the image of what she has seen and heard that has formed her definition of evangelical long before she met me three years ago and she has current images that continue to shape her impression. She also has known me for three years and has become a good friend in that time in a context where she would never expect an evangelical to appear at all, much less be there weekly for three years, an AIDS food bank.
I wonder how helpful labels are when it comes to our religious identity when I have these kind of conversations. Secular people, by all polling data, have a decidedly negative opinion of evangelicals, which they view as judgmental flat-earth society type people who deny any scientific claims and advances by positing some very unlikely and silly sounding alternatives such as God put the fossil evidence in the rocks at creation to fool scientists in the 20th century. They don't take us seriously as thinking people and while that isn't my goal in life, it does matter if we are trying to reach them. Paul never apologizes for the cross which he says is folly to the world, and I don't either. If that attitude towards the cross were the mark of an evangelical rather than some of the other things people associate with that term it would be helpful in restoring some credibility to the title. We need, in some ways to recover the gospel and become truly evangelical and apostolic in the original sense of those terms rather than simply condemning all the time.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)