DownshoreDrift

CS Lewis on What We Will One Day Be

I am working through the concept of "Loving People" for a series that we are starting in our church over the next few weeks as part 2 of our vision/mission movements through spiritual formation.  This week, I want to talk about Sacrificial Love and the Imago Dei.  We are the Beloved. We are greatly loved by God and we are loved sacrificially, without deserving it.  The love of God to us in Christ actually costs God something - it cost Him His Son.  True love - Agape Love - is love that costs.  We have been lavished with love from God and that love actually changes us. It restores us to who we were created to be.  It recognizes the Imago Dei - the "Image of God" upon each of us (Genesis 1:26-28).  Because we are made in God's image and because He has come after us to rescue us and restore us to Himself, we are freed from all that keeps us from living as creatures who bask in God's glory.  We are all far more than we think we are.

CS Lewis, when dealing with this concept in The Weight of Glory says this:

"It is a serious thing," says Lewis, "to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person you talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror and a corruption such as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare. All day long we are, in some degree, helping each other to one or other of these destinations. It is in the light of these overwhelming possibilities, it is with the awe and the circumspection proper to them, that we should conduct all our dealings with one another, all friendships, all loves, all play, all politics. There are no 'ordinary' people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilisations -- these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whome we joke with, work with, marry, snub and exploit -- immortal horrors or everlasting splendours. This does not mean that we are to be perpetually solemn. We must play. But our merriment must be of that kind (and it is, in fact, the merriest kind) which exists between people who have, from the outset, taken each other seriously -- no flippancy, no superiority, no presumption. And our charity must be a real and costly love, with deep feeling for the sins in spite of which we love the sinner -- no mere tolerance or indulgence which parodies love as flippancy parodies merriment."

This is exciting and sobering at the same time.  The waitress who frustrated me because she was slow on my order; the mechanic who didn't fix my car the way I wanted; my child's teacher who did not perform to my expectations; my children, my spouse, my co-workers and friends - all of these people are made in the Image of God and are dearly loved by Him.  To fail to see them as God sees them - with incredible worth, potential, and an eternal destiny awaiting them of great splendor or unspeakable horror - is to fail to rightly value them as I should and thus, to fail to love them at all.  Furthermore, to not value the creation as I should is also to not worship the Creator correctly as well.  How I value and treat others says everything about how I see and worship, and yes, love God.

1 John 2:9-11

⁹ Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates his brother is still in the darkness. ¹⁰ Whoever loves his brother lives in the light, and there is nothing in him to make him stumble. ¹¹ But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks around in the darkness; he does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded him.

May we walk in the light and see one another rightly.

Christmas Eve Truce of 1914: Peace, for a Night

Following is a fascinating story as told by Private Frederick W. Heath and reprinted by Alan Nothnagle of how World War One stopped on Christmas Eve almost 100 years ago and there was "Peace on Earth," at least for one night, in the trenches of France where the Germans, French, and British had been previously slaughtering one another. It was a Christmas miracle and a touching story of what happens when Christmas overcomes war. I think of Isaiah 2:4, which says,

"He will judge between the nations and will settle disputes for many peoples. They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore."

That Christmas Truce

Written in the trenches by Private Frederick W. Heath

The night closed in early - the ghostly shadows that haunt the trenches came to keep us company as we stood to arms. Under a pale moon, one could just see the grave-like rise of ground which marked the German trenches two hundred yards away. Fires in the English lines had died down, and only the squelch of the sodden boots in the slushy mud, the whispered orders of the officers and the NCOs, and the moan of the wind broke the silence of the night. The soldiers' Christmas Eve had come at last, and it was hardly the time or place to feel grateful for it.

Memory in her shrine kept us in a trance of saddened silence. Back somewhere in England, the fires were burning in cosy rooms; in fancy I heard laughter and the thousand melodies of reunion on Christmas Eve. With overcoat thick with wet mud, hands cracked and sore with the frost, I leaned against the side of the trench, and, looking through my loophole, fixed weary eyes on the German trenches. Thoughts surged madly in my mind; but they had no sequence, no cohesion. Mostly they were of home as I had known it through the years that had brought me to this. I asked myself why I was in the trenches in misery at all, when I might have been in England warm and prosperous. That involuntary question was quickly answered. For is there not a multitude of houses in England, and has not someone to keep them intact? I thought of a shattered cottage in -- , and felt glad that I was in the trenches. That cottage was once somebody's home.

Still looking and dreaming, my eyes caught a flare in the darkness. A light in the enemy's trenches was so rare at that hour that I passed a message down the line. I had hardly spoken when light after light sprang up along the German front. Then quite near our dug-outs, so near as to make me start and clutch my rifle, I heard a voice. There was no mistaking that voice with its guttural ring. With ears strained, I listened, and then, all down our line of trenches there came to our ears a greeting unique in war: "English soldier, English soldier, a merry Christmas, a merry Christmas!"

 Friendly invitation

 Following that salute boomed the invitation from those harsh voices: "Come out, English soldier; come out here to us." For some little time we were cautious, and did not even answer. Officers, fearing treachery, ordered the men to be silent. But up and down our line one heard the men answering that Christmas greeting from the enemy. How could we resist wishing each other a Merry Christmas, even though we might be at each other's throats immediately afterwards? So we kept up a running conversation with the Germans, all the while our hands ready on our rifles. Blood and peace, enmity and fraternity - war's most amazing paradox. The night wore on to dawn - a night made easier by songs from the German trenches, the pipings of piccolos and from our broad lines laughter and Christmas carols. Not a shot was fired, except for down on our right, where the French artillery were at work.

Came the dawn, pencilling the sky with grey and pink. Under the early light we saw our foes moving recklessly about on top of their trenches. Here, indeed, was courage; no seeking the security of the shelter but a brazen invitation to us to shoot and kill with deadly certainty. But did we shoot? Not likely! We stood up ourselves and called benisons {blessings} on the Germans. Then came the invitation to fall out of the trenches and meet half way.

Still cautious we hung back. Not so the others. They ran forward in little groups, with hands held up above their heads, asking us to do the same. Not for long could such an appeal be resisted - beside, was not the courage up to now all on one side? Jumping up onto the parapet, a few of us advanced to meet the on-coming Germans. Out went the hands and tightened in the grip of friendship. Christmas had made the bitterest foes friends.

The Gift of Gifts

Here was no desire to kill, but just the wish of a few simple soldiers (and no one is quite so simple as a soldier) that on Christmas Day, at any rate, the force of fire should cease. We gave each other cigarettes and exchanged all manner of things. We wrote our names and addresses on the field service postcards, and exchanged them for German ones. We cut the buttons off our coats and took in exchange the Imperial Arms of Germany. But the gift of gifts was Christmas pudding. The sight of it made the Germans' eyes grow wide with hungry wonder, and at the first bite of it they were our friends for ever. Given a sufficient quantity of Christmas puddings, every German in the trenches before ours would have surrendered.

And so we stayed together for a while and talked, even though all the time there was a strained feeling of suspicion which rather spoilt this Christmas armistice. We could not help remembering that we were enemies, even though we had shaken hands. We dare not advance too near their trenches lest we saw too much, nor could the Germans come beyond the barbed wire which lay before ours. After we had chatted, we turned back to our respective trenches for breakfast.

All through the day no shot was fired, and all we did was talk to each other and make confessions which, perhaps, were truer at that curious moment than in the normal times of war. How far this unofficial truce extended along the lines I do not know, but I do know that what I have written here applies to the -- on our side and the 158th German Brigade, composed of Westphalians.

As I finish this short and scrappy description of a strangely human event, we are pouring rapid fire into the German trenches, and they are returning the compliment just as fiercely. Screeching through the air above us are the shattering shells of rival batteries of artillery. So we are back once more to the ordeal of fire.

---

While Some Churches Cancel Christmas Sunday Services, Christ Remains a Scandal

Christmas Day is on a Sunday this year, and just like in 2005, we hearing about churches cancelling their Sunday services because it is Christmas and they want to free people up to be with their families. I understand that the secular version of Christmas is about family and friends and gift giving and what not, and I'm not saying that there is anything wrong with that - those things are worth celebrating and Christians should celebrate them too. But, the Christian version of Christmas is obviously about Jesus and it just seems like a big cave to the secular nature of the holiday for churches to cancel their weekly Sunday worship service because it happens to also be Christmas Day.

Of course, the vast majority of churches ARE having worship on Sunday, but it is the ones that aren't that are attracting attention. Many of the churches that are not having worship are REALLY large - like of the 10,000 to 20,000 members variety. I say something about this here not to cast judgment on other churches (admittedly, I do not know every reason why every church cancels worship on a Sunday). But, since the megachurches usually set the trends for the rest of Evangelical Christianity (what the megas do one year, others seem to do in following years thinking that if the big churches do it it must be a good thing), I think that it is worth considering if this is the best approach.

My view is that it is better for churches to go ahead and have worship on Sunday (radical, I know), even if, perhaps ESPECIALLY if, that Sunday happens to be Christmas Day.  Christmas is the day that Christians have chosen to celebrate the birth of Christ. It is when we celebrate the Incarnation, when God put on flesh and made His dwelling among us, when Jesus

Who, being in very nature God,
   did not consider equality with God something to be grasped,
⁷ but made himself nothing,
   taking the very nature of a servant,
   being made in human likeness.
⁸ And being found in appearance as a man,
   he humbled himself
   and became obedient to death—
      even death on a cross!   (Phil. 2:6-8)

Jesus went through a great deal to be our Savior, including being born very, very small, as a human baby, to live among us and take our sins upon Himself and die so that our sins would die with Him and raise from the dead to give new life to all who believe in Him.  Worshiping Christ with the church on the day that we set aside to honor His birth, especially when that day is a Sunday, the day each week that we gather for worship to celebrate the Resurrection, seems like the appropriate thing to do.

It is not my intention to reduce our relationship with Christ to attendance at a worship service on a certain day. Obviously, that would be a mistake. I also do not take aim at individuals or families who, for different reasons, are genuinely not able to be in worship on Sunday - Christmas Day. I am not anyone's judge and do not intend to decide in every case whether an individual or family should or even could attend worship on Sunday. But, I do find it ironic that churches are cancelling their worship services on Sunday. Why would you cancel outright?  Maybe a reduced, scaled down worship service would be appropriate. Worship in church on Christmas used to be one of the biggest days of the year. Now, we are cancelling services because some pastors/leaders say that it is better to stay home with our families and enjoy the day. What if there are even better ways to celebrate than spending the entire day immersed in consumer electronics, wrapping paper, and rich food?  What if being in God's presence with the Body of Christ was actually better?

No, I don't think that you are going to hell if your church cancels worship on Christmas. But, I do think that it sends a message, as a church, about what your priorities are, and that is important too. I will not be looking around my church to see who is there or who isn't and judging anyone. I have no idea what each situation is and why people come and why they don't. But, I will worship God with whoever does come and thank Him for Jesus' birth and life and death and resurrection, as we do every Sunday as a worshipping community of Christ.

I know that some might say that I should not talk about this, that it is better to live and let live and not to make a big deal out of what others do. I am supposed to be positive all the time, especially at Christmas. Ok. But, I also know that Christ is a scandal, a stumbling block, and even an inconvenience. He messes with our traditions, customs, and cultural practices. He calls us to reorient around Him, not the other way around, and perhaps this seems strange to us. But, we are in good company if it does. 1 Corinthians 1:20-25 says, 

²⁰ Where is the wise man? Where is the scholar? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? ²¹ For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe. ²² Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom, ²³ but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, ²⁴ but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. ²⁵ For the foolishness of God is wiser than man’s wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man’s strength.

We live in a country with complete freedom to worship how we choose and that can sometimes be a mixed blessing when choices are made according to what we prefer or what seems easiest to us. Everything is very convenient for us. We have air conditioning and heat and automobiles and comfortable seats and nice sound systems and messages tailored for us that are not too long with video and pastors who are entertaining and relevant and coffee and donuts and good friends and greeters and smiling faces and nothing that would make us uncomfortable. And, we have constructed a religion that does not really require us to sacrifice anything at all because it is all so wonderful and easy and hey, let's just spend time with our families at home in our pajamas and I'm sure that Jesus is okay with that.  Maybe He is and I've got it all wrong. Maybe it doesn't matter to God if we cancel worship on Sunday because it is Christmas Day. Maybe God doesn't care if we celebrate Christmas at all. I don't know. I'm not trying to speak for God here. But, it just strikes me as strange, odd even, that those who are known by the name of Christ, as Christ-followers, would be ones who find it too inconvenient to worship Christ together on the day we celebrate His birth.

It just seems to me, that if we are Christians and if we are going to do a bunch of Christmas stuff because it is the time that we celebrate the birth of Christ and we say that Jesus is the "Reason for the Season," that it is contradictory to cancel worship on Sunday because it happens to be Christmas Day and we are used to having that day off.  We only get a chance to have worship on Christmas day once every 6-8 years. Maybe instead of seeing it as an inconvenience, we could see it as a great blessing - something our children will remember and be thankful for. Perhaps we should see it as a chance to make a prophetic statement about what we value most - that we are people who orient our lives around Christ and the worship of the Saints together.

At the time of Christ's birth, there was no room for Him in the Inn and he was born in a stable among the animals. Let us make room for Christ in the midst of our traditions and festivities so that we can celebrate Him with the Body of Christ, His family, the children of God. Let us reorient around Christ, even at, no especially at Christmas.

"Let every heart prepare Him room . . ." 

Tim Keller on the Role of Church in Society

There is a debate raging (and it has been going on for a long time now) about the role of church in society in relation to culture. Many different models have been put forward over the years of what it means for the church to engage the mission of God to a broken world. Some say that the church is primarily to be the place where salvation is found as the people of God come together to grow in Christ and be strengthened. In other words, church is for believers. Others say that church exists for the lost and that the church should be oriented toward people who do not know God. Some try to say that it is the church's job to reform society or even to take over culture. Others say that the church should stay out of all of that and just focus on teaching people how to live for Jesus while preaching the Word and engaging in worship.

This is not an academic debate. Where you stand on this issue will probably speak to how you see the church and how you take part in the life of your church and how your church participates in its community. Is the church a citadel standing against the forces of darkness?  Is it a missionary band? Is it a refuge against the encroaching evil of the world? Is it a lighthouse? Is it a town square where everyone can gather?  You metaphors dictate your mood regarding the church and how it functions.

Tim Keller gives us some helpful guidance on the role of the church in society. He says,

While the mission of the institutional church is to preach the Word and produce disciples, the church must disciple Christians in such a way that they live justly and integrate their faith with their work. So the church doesn't directly change culture, but it disciples and supports people who do. Another balance has to do with society's cultural institutions. Rather than taking them over, or avoiding them as a corrupting influence, or treating them with indifference---Christians are to be a faithful presence within them.

The church cannot do everything nor should it. I have heard people say that the reason that the government is involved in social issues in America is because the church abandoned its duty. That is one of those somewhat true statements. Yes, the church did retreat in large part from social justice issues around a century ago, but the government also amped up what it means to care for the poor far beyond what the church would ever be capable of doing. The fact that people are on welfare is not necessarily because the church failed to take care of the poor. Rather, it might be because the church failed to effectively tell an alternate story about what true compassion is and what it looks like to be a just society.  The problem with poverty in America is not just that the church does not give enough to the poor, but also because Christians have not engaged the social, political, and educational realms with a strong enough vision of how we are to best live life on this planet. So, instead, we have a lesser story that has taken over in absence of the true story that God would have us live out.  Our job is not to eradicate every problem in the world, but rather, to live out a different story and give witness to the One who will make all things new. 

The role of the church is to help people live out the gospel of the Kingdom in all realms of life.  It is to be a "faithful witness" to Christ and His reign and rule in all spheres. The church can only do this as it disciples people to live "Christianly" in every sphere of life, whether that be at work, at home, in the community, or in relationship with the church. We should help people think through how they can be salt and light and both proclaim and demonstrate the gospel of the Kingdom. We are to be yeast, a seed, a quiet but unyielding witness, a faithful presence in the midst of a world going mad. Of course, the church collectively gives witness to the truth of Christ and can work together to do much good in the world as it proclaims and demonstrates the gospel, but the greatest impact that the church can have is when it disciples its members to live out the life of Christ by loving God and loving people everywhere.

The Incarnation of Christ that we celebrate at Christmas is all about Christ breaking in to our world in a cosmic invasion to bring the good news of the Kingdom of God to us - to reconcile us and all of creation back to God through sacrificial love - love that led to the Cross and triumphed through the Resurrection. We, as the people of God in the church reflect the Incarnation when we live redemptive lives in the world - not trying to take over, but attempting to live subversively as citizens of a different order altogether.

The revolution begun in Bethlehem continues and the church is as the center of it.   

We Are All Atheists: The Death of Christopher Hitchens (1949-2011)

Christopher Hitchens, writer, philosopher, and iconic atheist died yesterday (12.15.11), the same day that President Obama declared the U.S.-Iraq War to be officially ended. Hitchens, is best known by many as one of the "New Atheists," a breed of militant deniers of God's existence who did more than just silently disbelieve - he was passionate about spreading unbelief everywhere he went. He was eager to debate Christians and did so with wit and ferocity, angering many, but often winning respect, even from his opponents.

One thing that I liked about Hitchens was his desire to speak about things without pretense. He did not believe in God and was ready to live with the implications. He did not cling to God as a security blanket or a comfort as he continued to live life how he wanted. In many ways, Hitchens was more honest and forthright than many who claim to be Christians or Deists, but live as they see fit. Hitchens believed that we are alone in the universe, but was content to live with the consequences without developing philosophical escape hatches that he called "God."  Many who claim to be God-fearers are actually just people who are scared of being alone in the universe, so they cling to an idea of "God" without any real desire to know Him or follow Him or live under His demands. "God" becomes a force that keeps away the terror of night and who, perhaps, can help them out in a pinch, when they have exhausted their own resources. Hitchens saw through all of that as a sham and had no use for it.  For the record, I don't believe in that God either.

Hitchens' brutal honesty was no more clearly on display than in one of his last essays for Vanity Fair where he writes about his impending death. (Picture accompanies the article and is taken recently, after cancer has taken its toll). He says,

I am typing this having just had an injection to try to reduce the pain in my arms, hands, and fingers. The chief side effect of this pain is numbness in the extremities, filling me with the not irrational fear that I shall lose the ability to write. Without that ability, I feel sure in advance, my “will to live” would be hugely attenuated. I often grandly say that writing is not just my living and my livelihood but my very life, and it’s true. Almost like the threatened loss of my voice, which is currently being alleviated by some temporary injections into my vocal folds, I feel my personality and identity dissolving as I contemplate dead hands and the loss of the transmission belts that connect me to writing and thinking.

Hitchens was wasting away. The part that struck me was when he said, "I feel my personality and identity dissolving as I contemplate dead hands and the loss of the transmission belts that connect me to writing and thinking."  That is what death is - the slipping away of personality and identity - everything dissolving away from its original intent. A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about St. Athanasius from the 4th century and his work on The Incarnation of the Word of God. He says something similar when he links the concept of sin and its effects: 

For God had made man thus (that is, as an embodied spirit), and had willed that he should remain in incorruption. 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. For the transgression of the commandment was making them turn back again according to their nature; and as they had at the beginning come into being out of non-existence, so were they now on the way to returning, through corruption, to non-existence again. The presence and love of the Word had called them into being; inevitably, therefore when they lost the knowledge of God, they lost existence with it; for it is God alone Who exists, evil is non-being, the negation and antithesis of good.

Even though Hitchens was not one to believe in God, he was having the same experience that we all have - he was wasting away because of the toll that sin has taken on the human race. It causes us to disappear, to dissolve, to lose everything. Sin is the great solvent that sends us flying into bits and pieces all over the universe, alienated from God and ultimately from one another. Turning from God leads to death and death is manifested in non-existence, just as Athanasius said (I am speaking here of the affects of sin on humanity, not affirming annhilationism - we will all live forever somewhere).

But, the truth is, we are all subject to this. We are all bound over to unbelief, rebellion, and destined to come apart and dissolve, just like Hitchens. He is no different from us.  His life, as accomplished and well-intentioned as it might have been, demonstrates that good arguments, conversation, and evidence does little to bring a person from death to life.  We cannot will another to reappear and escape dissolution. Hitchens dissolving and disappearing is the fate that awaits all of us.  Without the grace of God - without God supernaturally saving and revealing Himself, we are all atheists fundamentally.

Many say they believe in God even though they do not know Him. But, if we do not know Him, what good is cognitive belief?  Even the demons believe and tremble and they are headed to eternal perdition.  Real life is not about what you think to be true - it is about Who you know. The tragedy of Christopher Hitchens is not that he did not believe in God. The tragedy is that he did not know God and find his life in Him. There are many who believe in God who, not knowing Him and finding their life in other, lesser things, will face the same fate as Hitchens when they too dissolve and continue, as Athanasius said, "on the way to returning, through corruption, to non-existence again."

Jesus Christ makes God known to us. That is what the Incarnation is all about - "The Word (Jesus) became flesh and made His dwelling among us."  That is what Christmas is all about. I wish that Christopher Hitchens would have believed in God. But, even more than that, I wish that he would have truly known God through Christ. Unless we truly come to know God and are reconciled to Him through Christ, none of us are really better off than the atheist who denies His existence altogether.

I do not condemn or judge Christopher Hitchens for his unbelief. God is his judge, not me, and it was God that he rejected. He was honest about it and did not continue with the pretense that many do of claiming to believe in God while living entirely for himself as a functional atheist.  As I think about his life and influence, it is important for me to realize that but for the grace of God, I would effectively be an atheist just like he was.

Christian Leaders Should Become Irrelevant

With all the talk of relevance and of trying to relate to people, be value added, and gain power and prestige in the world so it will listen to our message, the truth of the Incarnation shouts to us from Bethlehem long ago: "Power is made perfect in weakness."

Henri Nouwen in his beautiful little book, "In the Name of Jesus" says it well:

"Feeling irrelevant is a much more general experience than we might think when we look at our seemingly self-confident society. Medical technology and the tragic increase in abortions may radically diminish the number of mentally handicapped people in our society, but it is already becoming apparent that more and more people are suffering from profound moral and spiritual handicaps without having any idea of where to look for healing.

"It is here that the need for a new Christian leadership becomes clear. The leader of the future will be the one who dares to claim his irrelevance in the contemporary world as a divine vocation that allows him or her to enter into a deep solidarity with the anguish underlying all the glitter of success and to bring the light of Jesus there."

___________________

He did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. ~ Philippians 2:6-7
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Breaking In

Breaking In

The whole world lay still, silent, strapped down

Loaded beneath the weight of groaning and longing

For a new day, a breakthrough, a hope,

Some form of deliverance

A little happiness,

A moment of light,

Someone to heal the rift,

A breaking of the dawn.

 

Into this, came the most unexpected surprise.

Unheralded, overlooked, away from home,

A quiet young woman, confused but excited,

Frightened, yet hopeful.

Looking for her deliverance and the salvation of her people

From the chains of oppression and from their own sins.

 

Refugee stragglers, mocked, ridiculed, and talked about

Behind their backs and laughed out of the room.

Angels? The Messiah? “God” came upon her?

Mary was out of her mind. Everyone said so.

Joseph, distraught, confused, overwhelmed, but directed

By the Angel and welcomed Mary in – against all reason.

 

Into this scandal, with all the rules shattered,

God broke in.

The Word became Flesh and made His dwelling,

His abode, His habitat

Among us.

Us.

God came near.

Light broke into darkness and the darkness fled.

It rose up and battled the light, but the light overcame it.

Light won and now we can all see.

 

Chains were broken, hope replaced despair.

Only the poor could see – only those with kid eyes

Who were not burdened down by their own expectations and mental barriers,

The walls that seem to be erected as we try to control and figure out

How to make this life work and how to get God to work for us.

 

But, God came near by becoming very, very small and He shattered all our ideas.

He replaced our perceived notions and propositions with Himself.

Some ran to Him. Some ran away. Some tried to kill Him.

Some succeeded, for a moment.

But, Light and Love broke through anyway.

Death could not hold Him.

 

Victory swallowed up the grave.

All things were made new,

And are being made new.

Christ has broken in.

Life has broken in.

Salvation is appearing, love is redeeming,

And all things are being made new,

And are being made new,

And are being made new.

 

And Christmas keeps coming.

St. Athanasius on the Incarnation of Christ, Part 2

I am reading through St. Athanasius' The Incarnation of the Word of God as part of my Advent study. This passage is just stunning. We should put away trite explanations of why Jesus came and consider what Athanasius, the Father of Orthodoxy and the theological force behind the First Council of Nicea and the Nicene Creed (325 AD) had to say:

The Divine Dilemma and Its Solution in the Incarnation

(6) We saw in the last chapter that, because death and corruption were gaining ever firmer hold on them, the human race was in process of destruction. Man, who was created in God's image and in his possession of reason reflected the very Word Himself, was disappearing, and the work of God was being undone. The law of death, which followed from the Transgression, prevailed upon us, and from it there was no escape. The thing that was happening was in truth both monstrous and unfitting. It would, of course, have been unthinkable that God should go back upon His word and that man, having transgressed, should not die; but it was equally monstrous that beings which once had shared the nature of the Word should perish and turn back again into non-existence through corruption. 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. As, then, the creatures whom He had created reasonable, like the Word, were in fact perishing, and such noble works were on the road to ruin, what then was God, being Good, to do? Was He to let corruption and death have their way with them? In that case, what was the use of having made them in the beginning? Surely it would have been better never to have been created at all than, having been created, to be neglected and perish; and, besides that, such indifference to the ruin of His own work before His very eyes would argue not goodness in God but limitation, and that far more than if He had never created men at all. It was impossible, therefore, that God should leave man to be carried off by corruption, because it would be unfitting and unworthy of Himself.

(7) Yet, true though this is, it is not the whole matter. As we have already noted, it was unthinkable that God, the Father of Truth, should go back upon His word regarding death in order to ensure our continued existence. He could not falsify Himself; what, then, was God to do? Was He to demand repentance from men for their transgression? You might say that that was worthy of God, and argue further that, as through the Transgression they became subject to corruption, so through repentance they might return to incorruption again. But repentance would not guard the Divine consistency, for, if death did not hold dominion over men, God would still remain untrue. Nor does repentance recall men from what is according to their nature; all that it does is to make them cease from sinning. Had it been a case of a trespass only, and not of a subsequent corruption, repentance would have been well enough; but when once transgression had begun men came under the power of the corruption proper to their nature and were bereft of the grace which belonged to them as creatures in the Image of God. No, repentance could not meet the case. What—or rather Who was it that was needed for such grace and such recall as we required? Who, save the Word of God Himself, Who also in the beginning had made all things out of nothing? His part it was, and His alone, both to bring again the corruptible to incorruption and to maintain for the Father His consistency of character with all. For He alone, being Word of the Father and above all, was in consequence both able to recreate all, and worthy to suffer on behalf of all and to be an ambassador for all with the Father.

(8) For this purpose, then, the incorporeal and incorruptible and immaterial Word of God entered our world. In one sense, indeed, He was not far from it before, for no part of creation had ever been without Him Who, while ever abiding in union with the Father, yet fills all things that are. But now He entered the world in a new way, stooping to our level in His love and Self-revealing to us. He saw the reasonable race, the race of men that, like Himself, expressed the Father's Mind, wasting out of existence, and death reigning over all in corruption. He saw that corruption held us all the closer, because it was the penalty for the Transgression; He saw, too, how unthinkable it would be for the law to be repealed before it was fulfilled. 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. Nor did He will merely to become embodied or merely to appear; had that been so, He could have revealed His divine majesty in some other and better way. No, He took our body, and not only so, but He took it directly from a spotless, stainless virgin, without the agency of human father—a pure body, untainted by intercourse with man. He, the Mighty One, the Artificer of all, Himself prepared this body in the virgin as a temple for Himself, and took it for His very own, as the instrument through which He was known and in which He dwelt. 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. This He did that He might turn again to incorruption men who had turned back to corruption, and make them alive through death by the appropriation of His body and by the grace of His resurrection. Thus He would make death to disappear from them as utterly as straw from fire.

On Christ and Gratitude

It is easy to complain. Giving thanks can be difficult because we must accept what is and be grateful for it. We tend to be people who strive and dissect and find fault with things, even good things. Always in a state of perpetual disappointment, we saunter through life looking for something, anything, to truly satisfy us. But, the self-absorbed person will find fault with everything because satisfaction, at least the way we long for it, always proves to be elusive.

A lack of gratitude and thankfulness comes from the sorrow and frustration we feel over unmet expectations. Something within tells us that things should be better or different. The amount of frustration and negativity in our life directly correlates with the distance between our expectations and what we perceive to be reality. When we have expectations of one thing and something else happens that does not meet those expectations, we grumble and complain and are often terribly hurt or feel rejected or unloved. We sometimes stop trusting God because He did not provide for us what we expected. But, aren't we admitting that we were placing our hope in our expectations instead of God? When disappointment results (as it inevitably will), we blame God or others instead of recognizing that we were all along placing our hope in the wrong thing - a thing that could never satisfy us anyway.

I think that much of our lack of gratitude and thankfulness actually comes from a deep awareness that things are not as they should be and we live with a profound disappointment. Discontent with what we see in the world and in the performance of others, we find our comfort in the fact that at least WE know how things should be. At least we have our standards, wherever we got them from.

But, God commands us to be thankful. How can we be thankful when so much is wrong and we lack so much, especially compared to others? As in all things, we start with God. Unchanging, all-powerful, inordinately wise, we trust that what He gives us is what we are to have. This is not fatalism. We pray, ask, seek, and knock. But, it is a way that we trust and receive, believing that God knows best and knows what we need better than we do. So, with God at the center, we place our faith in Him, instead of our circumstances, no matter how good we think they are supposed to be.

Second, we believe that every good and perfect gift comes from our Father of Lights who does not change like the shifting shadows (James 1:17). Every good thing in life comes from God, and there are many good things, if we have eyes to see. Once we release our expectations and forsake our entitled perspective, we are in position to receive the good gifts that God has for us and to receive them with joy.

EDIT:  There was one other thing that I wanted to add, but I was typing this out on my Blackberry while I waited for Caelan in the dentist's office today and I sent the post before I got this in.  Jesus changes everything. He said in Revelation 21:5, "Behold, I am making all things new."  Even if we are in bad situations and we find it hard to be thankful, faith in Christ changes our perspective because we meet Him in the midst of the struggle and He is always redeeming and restoring and working.  We can have HOPE in what Christ is going to do. Hope is essential to cultivating thankfulness. Christ is making all things new. The earth is going to be restored. What we see is not all that there is.  The victory has already been won and we are just waiting for it to be fully revealed. While there are always good things in the present and in the past, even, there are very good things coming in the future when everything will be made new, namely full reconciliation to Christ. We can thank God for that, I think.

In Flanders Fields: 11th Hour of the 11th Day of the 11th Month

The cessation of hostilities from WWI happened at this time in 1918, marking what came to be known as Armistice Day or later, Remembrance Day, eventually becoming what we call Veteran's Day here in America.  In Canada, a poem called "In Flanders Fields" was written during the war, inspired by the poppies that grew all over the battlefields where soldiers had been buried. The poppies were bright red, which of course, reminded observers of the blood that had been spilt (HT: David Fitch). Up to 35 million people died in World War 1 (soldiers and civilians on both sides), including 6 million Allied soldiers. Here is the text of the poem:

St. Athanasius On Rebellion Causing Man to Disappear

I started reading St. Athanasius' On the Incarnation this morning as I am thinking about the approaching Advent/Christmas season and saw this regarding God's original intent for the creation of man and what happens when we turn to corruption instead of God:

For God had made man thus (that is, as an embodied spirit), and had willed that he should remain in incorruption. 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. For the transgression of the commandment was making them turn back again according to their nature; and as they had at the beginning come into being out of non-existence, so were they now on the way to returning, through corruption, to non-existence again. The presence and love of the Word had called them into being; inevitably, therefore when they lost the knowledge of God, they lost existence with it; for it is God alone Who exists, evil is non-being, the negation and antithesis of good.

A big lie that the world tells us is that if we want to be fulfilled and liberated, we must throw off all constraint, be free, and indulge every desire in the pursuit of pleasure and self-enhancement. Christianity and the Bible are considered to be abusive and life-denying because they keep us from doing all that we desire. But, Athansius tells us that God created us out of non-existence into existence. It is God who makes us real and alive and full of life and purpose. Sin (rebellion against God and enlargement of self) actually sends us back toward non-existence because it moves us away from God, who is Life. Any movement away from God is a movement away from life and a movement toward non-existence - a move back to the primordial chaos.

Rather than fuflilling and enhancing life, sin/grasping actually diminishes and destroys life, causing us to get smaller and smaller as we focus on ourselves and our base desires, until there is nothing left of us. Smeagol/Gollum from the Lord of the Rings comes to mind. Sin/Rebellion against God shrinks our soul and our capacity for real life, leaving us with a cheap imitation that keeps us distracted while it deceives us to think that what it offers is the Real. Continually disastisfied with what we have, we engage in the continual search for what will satisfy, often becoming enthralled with the search, not noticing that we never find what we're looking for.

Christ changes all of that.  He tells us to come to Him to drink from streams of living water that will never run dry (John 7:37-39). We find that true life, the Real, is not found in living according to our own will, but according to the Will of the One who created us.  Life is found with the Life-Giver, not apart from Him. When we move away from God, we actually begin to shrink and disappear as people. But, when reconciled to God, we experience real life.

CS Lewis in his intro to Athanasius' work says this in referring to the miracles of Jesus,

His approach to the Miracles is badly needed today, for it is the final answer to those who object to them as "arbitrary and meaningless violations of the laws of Nature." They are here shown to be rather the re-telling in capital letters of the same message which Nature writes in her crabbed cursive hand; the very operations one would expect of Him who was so full of life that when He wished to die He had to "borrow death from others." The whole book, indeed, is a picture of the Tree of Life—a sappy and golden book, full of buoyancy and confidence.

So, in Christ, life has broken into our death and reconciliation to God also involves our reemergence as humans - God's creation, made in His image, with real weight and glory and substance, not shrinking, disappearing wretches who are consumed with self and infected with death.

 

The Five Books In My Bag This Week

Some pertinent quotes from the five books that are in my bag this week. This might become a regular feature on Downshoredrift. I read a lot and I tend to study in according to themes and movements. This is what I've been reading and working through this week, personally and for our church. Maybe you will find this helpful.  

Eugene Peterson on our need for diversity in the church in Practice Resurrection, pp. 35-36: "The Ephesian letter shapes our imaginations to an awareness not only of ourselves but of all the other pilgrims on the road in simultaneous diversity and unity. This company of called fellow-travelers, all different and all one, is the church. Paul's metaphor for it is a human body to which Christ is the head, "the body of Christ" (Eph. 4:12). Everybody different, everybody organically connected. Shimmering diversity and harmonic unity - "joined and knit together by every ligament" is Paul's vivid metaphor (4:16). "Christ and the church" (5:32) is the paradigmatic form for this multitudinous and yet improbably unified company . . . Maturity develops in worship as we develop in friendship with the friends of God, not just our preferred friends. Worship shapes us not only individually but as a community, a church. If we are going to grow up in Christ we have to do it in the company of everyone who is responding to the call of God. Whether we happen to like them or not has nothing to do with it." 

Dallas Willard on Our God Bathed World in The Divine Conspiracy, pp. 61-62: "Jesus' good news about the kingdom can be an effective guide for our lives only if we share his view of the world in which we live. To his eyes this is a God-bathed and God-permeated world. It is a world filled with a glorious reality, where every component is within the range of God's direct knowledge and control - though he obviously permits some of it, for good reasons, to be for a while otherwise than as he wishes. It is a world that is inconceivably beautiful and good because of God and because God is always in it. It is a world in which God is continually at play and over which he constantly rejoices. Until our thoughts of God have found every visible thing and event glorious with his presence, the word of Jesus has not yet fully seized us."

 

Michael Wells in Heavenly Discipleship, pp. 79-80: "The point is that the source of your anxiety and fear is that you trust a weak self. Do you see why you need Jesus? You were not created to carry all the concerns of life; you were created to be dependent. You cannot fly, and neither can you carry anxiety. The only One who can, Jesus, must carry the anxiety of every person. But how can He carry what He has not been given? Psalm 46:10 is clear: "Cease striving," or literally, get your hands off! Why do you keep your hands on? There is only one reason, and that is unbelief. You cling to belief in your own ability to do a better job than He would. Pride upholds trust in the slightest bit of self's strength. Humily lays aside all perceived strengths, embraces weakness, and abandons itself to God."

Kenneth Boa in Conformed to His Image, p. 280: “One of the great enemies of process spirituality is the craving to control our environment and the desire to determine the results of our endeavors. Many of us have a natural inclination to be manipulators, grabbers, owners, and controllers. The more we seek to rule our world, the more we will resist the rule of Christ; those who grasp are afraid of being grasped by God. But until we relinquish ownership of our lives, we will not experience the holy relief of surrender to God’s good and loving purposes . . . Our resistance to God’s rule extends to our prayerful attempts to persuade the Lord to bless our plans and to meet our needs in the ways we deem best.  Instead of seeking God’s will in prayer, we hope to induce him to accomplish our will. Thus even in our prayers we can adopt the mentality of a consumer rather than a servant.”

Kent Carlson and Mike Lueken in The Renovation of the Church, p. 79: "I am convinced that personal pastoral ambition, and a pastoral ethic centered around productivity and success, is brutal to our souls and destructive to the souls of the people we lead. We must become skilled at detecting the odor of personal ambition and then flee from it as if the church's future depends on it. I believe it does. . . . Personal ambition has a symbiotic relationship with consumerism. The two go hand in hand. They feed off each other. As a Christian leader who is motivated by personal ambition, I can appeal to the basic consumer tendencies of teh people I desire to be a part of my church or ministry. If I do this well, I will be rewarded by their attendance, their support and their allegiance, and my church or ministry will grow. Everybody is satisfied. Everybody gets what they want. The lighted match of my ambition ignites the dry timber of consumerism, and we have a raging fire that is very difficult to put out. While I suspect that there is not much that I can do about the cultural force of consumerism in our country, I believe I can do much abou the forces that drive me as a Christian leader."

 

 

Is Our Christianity Actually Christless?

I was rereading some of Michael Horton's Christless Christianity the other day and I ran across this passage where Horton talks about some of George Barna's research on the current state of the church and Christians and what they believe. It was interesting to me and the implications are pretty huge. I will reprint it here, but know that this is Horton quoting and interacting with Barna. Until I pick up again at the end, this is not mine.
 It comes from pages 30-32.

_________________

Based on numerous studies conducted by his research group, George Barna concludes, "To increasing millions of Americans, God - if we even believe in a supernatural deity - exists for the pleasure of humankind. He resides in the heavenly realm solely for our utility and benefit. Although we are too clever to voice it, we live by the notion that true power is accessed not by looking upward but by turning inward."

Unless something changes, Barna thinks,

It will be every man for himself, with no second thoughts or regrets about the personal or societal implications of this incredibly selfish, nihilistic, narcissistic way of life . . .

Most Americans have at least an intellectual assent when it comes to God, Jesus Christ, and angels. They believe that the Bible is a good book filled with important stories and lessons. And they believe that religion is very important in their lives. But this same group of people, including many professing Christians, also believe that people are inherently good; that our primary purpose is to enjoy life as much as possible.

Eighty-two percent of Americans (and a majority of evangelicals) believe that Benjamin Franklin's aphorism, "God helps those who help themselves," is a biblical quotation. A majority believe that "all people pray to the same god or spirit, no matter what name they use for that spiritual being" and that "if a person is generally good or does enough good things for others during their life, they will earn a place in heaven." It should not surprise us, then, when President Bush says, "I believe that all the world, whether they be Muslim, Christian, or any other religion, prays to the same God. That's what I believe."

After citing a series of reports, Barna concludes,

In short, the spirituality of America is Christian in name only . . . We desire experience more than knowledge. We prefer choices to absolutes. We embrace preferences rather than truths. We seek comfort rather than growth. Faith must come on our terms or we reject it. We have enthroned ourselves as the final arbiters of righteousness, the ultimate rulers of our own experience and destiny. We are the Pharisees of the new millennium.

... Barna's studies suggest that most Americans value time and efficiency over everything else, minimizing long-term commitments, maintaining "independence and individuality at all costs," even to the point of being skeptical of institutions, people, and authorities. After all, people are being told every day, "You are unique" and you shouldn't submit to the expectations of others. Above all, "Trust your feelings to guide you. Relying upon absolute principles places unrealistic limitations on you. Only you know what's right or best for you at any given moment, in those circumstances."  Finally, "Set goals and achieve them . . . Have fun . . . Stay in good health . . . . Discover and revel in the purpose of your life." These are the principal values according to Barna's survey of American adults today...

...The challenge before us as Christian witnesses is whether we will offer Jesus Christ as the key to fulfilling our narcissistic preoccupation or as the Redeemer who liberates us from its guilt and power. Does Christ come to boost our ego or to crucify our ego and raise us up as new creatures withour identity in Him? According to the Apostle Paul, there is a glory awaiting us, to be sure, but it is the glory that comes to us by virtue of our being in Christ: "For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him n glory" (Col. 3:3-4). Our righteousness before a holy God is not inheient; it is a gift to those who are in themselves unrighteous."

__________________________

Me again: So, the question is, "Are we trying to find self-fulfillment, or fulfillment in God alone?" Reading the above, I can hear the hiss of the Serpent in the Garden of Eden as he tempted Adam and Eve to eat the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.  He questioned what God really said. He questioned God's goodness. He told them that God was holding something out on them, that He didn't want them to be like Him (even though God had made them in His likeness).  So, He tempted Eve to grasp for life outside of what God had provided - to grasp for what she could get for herself. Adam went right along with her. The result was shame and blame and running from God and trying to cover ourselves with fig leaves, which are just the ways that we try to improve ourselves and cover our shame on our own. Spiritual and physical death resulted and Adam and Eve were banished from God's presence. But, God covered them with the skin of animals, which required the shedding of blood, foreshadowing that the only way that we could be covered is through the sacrfice of Christ on our behalf - only God could heal us (see Genesis 3).

Since then, we have set out on a quest for self-fulfillment and personal improvement projects. We have even tried to use God (religion?) to have our best life now so that could gain more prosperity and self-esteem. But, all the while, the Cross of Christ stands on a lonely hill beckoning us to come to Him for life. We must die to self and embrace Christ and who He is and what He has done. He is our only hope - not gaining happiness for ourselves in this world.

The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.  Jesus alone makes this possible. We need Jesus.    

Churches Should Not TRY to Attract Christians From Other Churches

Kent Carlson and Mike Lueken in Renovation of the Church put it like this regarding the epidemic of Christian consumerism and church hopping/shopping:

"We can also push back at consumerism by not yielding to the temptation of attracting people from other churches to come to our church. As painful as this might be, we should gently and kindly suggest that it would be formationally beneficial for them to go back where they came from. When we try to attract people by intimating that our church offers something better than the other church, we are complicit in the whole sorry mess of consumer Christianity. We are now stuck in this wearisome game of keeping these people satisfied so they don't go to another church. Using terms popular in church-growth circles, once we have attracted them through the front door, we have to learn how to close the back door."

In addition, Eugene Peterson says,

"If we are a nation of consumers, obviously the quickest and most effective way to get them into our congregations is to identify what they want and offer it to them, satisfy their fantasies, promise them the moon, recast the gospel in consumer terms: entertainment, satisfaction, excitement, adventure, problem-solving, whatever. This is the language we Americans grow up on, the language we understand. We are the world's champion consumers, so why shouldn't we have state-of-the-art-consumer churches? ... There is only one thing wrong: this is not the way in which God brings us into conformity with the life of Jesus and sets us on the way of Jesus' salvation. This is not the way in which we become less and Jesus becomes more. This is not the way in which our sacrificed lives become available to others in justice and service. The cultivation of consumer spirituality is the antithesis of a sacrificial, 'deny yourself' congregation. A consumer church is an antichrist church."

What do you think about these two statements?

Blaise Pascal on Accepting What God Sends Our Way

Tomorrow, I go in for surgery on my stomach to address an issue from two years ago as an infection has come back. Not fun. But, tonight, I was putting together the notes for the Wednesday Night Bible Study and I ran across these words that Blaise Pascal prayed in his Pensees:

With perfect consistency of mind, help me to receive all manner of events. For we know not what to ask, and we cannot ask for one event rather than another without presumption. We cannot desire a specific action without presuming to be a judge, and assuming responsibility for what in Your wisdom You may hide from me. O Lord, I know only one thing, and that is that it is good to follow You and wicked to offend you.  Beyond this, I do not know what is good for me, whether health or sickness, riches or poverty, or anything else in this world. This knowledge surpasses both the wisdom of men and of angels. It lies hidden in the secrets of Your providence, which I adore, and will not dare to pry open.

We really can see the events of each day as opportunities to experience God in fresh ways, to grow in Him, and for Him to prove Himself strong in our lives. Instead of shrinking back from difficulties and challenges, we can go through these things with God.  May it be.

Dallas Willard on The Failure to Understand Jesus As Reality

From The Divine Conspiracy,

"It is failure to understand Jesus and his words as reality and vital information about life that explains why, today, we do not routinely teach those who profess allegiance to him how to do what he said was best. We lead them to profess allegiance to him, or we expect them to, and leave them there, devoting our remaining efforts to 'attracting' them to this or that."
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

The Apology of Aristides, Fasting, and the Lifestyles of Early Christians

At LIFE Group this past Friday night, we were sitting outside by the fire and talking about prayer and fasting and how the discipline of fasting has a two-fold objective, which is to put away distractions and dependencies to bring us to God and then to give ourselves away to others.  Gabe Posey, a member of our group, brought up The Apology of Aristides, which was a 2nd century writing by the Athenian philosopher, Aristides, that he delivered to Emperor Hadrian as a defense of Christianity.  I had never heard of this, so I asked him to send it to me, which he did.  This is really interesting:

But the Christians, O King, while they went about and made search, have found the truth; and as we learned from their writings, they have come nearer to truth and genuine knowledge than the rest of the nations. For they know and trust in God, the Creator of heaven and of earth, in whom and from whom are all things, to whom there is no other god as companion, from whom they received commandments which they engraved upon their minds and observe in hope and expectation of the world which is to come. Wherefore they do not commit adultery nor fornication, nor bear false witness, nor embezzle what is held in pledge, nor covet what is not theirs. They honour father and mother, and show kindness to those near to them; and whenever they are judges, they judge uprightly. They do not worship idols (made) in the image of man; and whatsoever they would not that others should do unto them, they do not to others; and of the food which is consecrated to idols they do not eat, for they are pure. And their oppressors they appease (lit: comfort) and make them their friends; they do good to their enemies; and their women, O King, are pure as virgins, and their daughters are modest; and their men keep themselves from every unlawful union and from all uncleanness, in the hope of a recompense to come in the other world. Further, if one or other of them have bondmen and bondwomen or children, through love towards them they persuade them to become Christians, and when they have done so, they call them brethren without distinction. They do not worship strange gods, and they go their way in all modesty and cheerfulness. Falsehood is not found among them; and they love one another, and from widows they do not turn away their esteem; and they deliver the orphan from him who treats him harshly. And he, who has, gives to him who has not, without boasting. And when they see a stranger, they take him in to their homes and rejoice over him as a very brother; for they do not call them brethren after the flesh, but brethren after the spirit and in God. And whenever one of their poor passes from the world, each one of them according to his ability gives heed to him and carefully sees to his burial. And if they hear that one of their number is imprisoned or afflicted on account of the name of their Messiah, all of them anxiously minister to his necessity, and if it is possible to redeem him they set him free.

And if there is among them any that is poor and needy, and if they have no spare food, they fast two or three days in order to supply to the needy their lack of food. They observe the precepts of their Messiah with much care, living justly and soberly as the Lord their God commanded them.

Every morning and every hour they give thanks and praise to God for His loving-kindnesses toward them; and for their food and their drink they offer thanksgiving to Him. And if any righteous man among them passes from the world, they rejoice and offer thanks to God; and they escort his body as if he were setting out from one place to another near. And when a child has been born to one of them, they give thanks to God; and if moreover it happen to die in childhood, they give thanks to God the more, as for one who has passed through the world without sins. And further if they see that any one of them dies in his ungodliness or in his sins, for him they grieve bitterly, and sorrow as for one who goes to meet his doom.

This gives us a great picture of the lifestyles of the early Christians. Apparently, they were dramatically different from the pagans around them. What I find of particular interest here is the statement above in bold that says that if there were any who were poor and needy among them who had no food, others would fast for two or three days to supply what was lacking in the poor in their midst.  Those who had food would sacrifice for those who did not.  This goes along with the injunctions about true, Biblical fasting in Isaiah 58:6-9.

⁶ “Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen:
to loose the chains of injustice
   and untie the cords of the yoke,
to set the oppressed free
   and break every yoke?
⁷ Is it not to share your food with the hungry
   and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter—
when you see the naked, to clothe him,
   and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?
⁸ Then your light will break forth like the dawn,
   and your healing will quickly appear;
then your righteousness will go before you,
   and the glory of the LORD will be your rear guard.
⁹ Then you will call, and the LORD will answer;
   you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I.

The perspective of the early Christians was that their life was not their own and that they were to sacrifice for one another. May we have the same perspective.

 

The Church We Need, Not the Church We Want

I was talking with a friend of mine about the church the other day and he mentioned how much he had grown to love the church. He said that there were certain people that he and his wife connected with that were really helping them grow and that they really enjoyed spending time with. He said that his experience of the church was great and he really enjoyed it. I was glad to hear it.

Then, a thought hit me. I told him that what he was experiencing was not the church.  Or, it was just a small part of it.  What he was experiencing was great – it was the love between brothers and sisters in Christ that we get to experience when we are in good relationships and when encouragement is flowing from one to the other in really positive ways. But, that wasn’t really the church – at least not all of it.

I told him that the “church” really happened when he spent time with someone that he didn’t really like, when he gave of himself to others, and when he was with someone who aggravated him, but yet he persevered in relationship because they were unified in Christ.  I’m not talking about tolerating sin here. I am talking about being in relationship with those that we don’t have much in common with – except for Jesus.

We experience the church when we forgive, when we overlook an offense, when we love sacrificially, when we give of ourselves. The church happens when we get outside of ourselves and we cross barriers, be they racial, social, economic, or just personality differences. The church really happens when people who are different and would not be together except for Jesus, begin to live life together because of Jesus.

Jew. Greek. Male. Female. Barbarian. Scythian. Slave. Free.  Rich. Poor.  Impressive.  Invisible. Brilliant. Common.  Broken pieces formed together to make something beautiful. Everyone and everybody.

Overcoming the "God as a Means to an End" Idolatry Through Prayer

This morning, I was reading Psalm 73 and it affected me greatly. It says that God is good, but the Psalmist lost his vision of that because he began to focus on the arrogant and wicked and how they seemed to prosper even though they didn't follow God. Why was this? Why did wicked, prideful people who had no use for God seem to do well in their lives, be healthy, and appeared to be free from burdens? I can hear Asaph, the Psalmist saying, "But, Lord, I have done everything right! I have followed you and trusted you and I am struggling and am not seeing success! And, these other people who don't do things your way, only exalt themselves, and have no desire to do right seem to have one success over another and don't seem to have nearly as many problems as I do. What's going on!"  He goes on to say that the wicked are "always carefree, they increase in wealth."  Then, Asaph says that he has kept his heart pure in vain - he followed God for nothing.

This is one thing that I love about Scripture. It is honest and it captures what we all think at times. In reality, we often follow God so that He will bless us and give us what we want. We want prosperity, health, and a good life.  We follow God so that He will give us those things and so that He will protect us from evil and harm.  We obey so that we will receive blessings and so that things will go well with us. When trouble comes we wonder what has happened. What did we do wrong? Then, we look and see people who do not follow God who are super successful and seem to be happy and we wonder if following God is really worth it. If they are going to be rich and healthy and happy without following God and we are going to follow God and still struggle and have problems, then what is this all for?

When the wicked prosper and the righteous struggle, it is actually a great blessing. It reveals our motives and what we really desire. It shows us how we see God as a means to an end and not the End Himself. It reveals to us how we are really just following God and obeying Him as a talisman to ward off evil and bring blessing. Our jealousy, envy, and bitterness over the blessings of those who we think do not deserve it shows that what we really want are those same blessings - our hearts have been captured by what the world has to offer - and we use God to get them. We use God to gain control and secure blessing and keep evil at bay. This is Christian witchcraft, plain and simple, and it is not just the prosperity preachers who are guilty. We are all guilty when we see God as the means to some understanding we have of blessing apart from just being in His presence.

The Apostle Thomas and the "Good Ground" for the Gospel in India

I ran across an old book today on the The Search for the Twelve Apostles by William Steuart McBirnie (1973).  In it, he quotes from a special publication that was "published to commemorate the visit to India of the Patriarch of the Church of the East" (145).  This volume was called Souvenir of India, In Honour of the Visit to India of His Holiness Maran Mmar Eshai Shimun XXIII and was written and published by the Editorial Board of the Publicity and Information Committee of H.H. The Patriarch Reception Committee, Enrakulam, Kerala State, India, 1962. 

Here is the quote that I found interesting from the foreword of the commemorative volume:

More than one thousand and nine hundred years ago, the holy Apostle St. Thomas, after establishing the first Christian Church among his own people in ancient Babylon, turned to India, led by the Holy Spirit, and with an evangelical zeal traversed this subcontinent preaching the good news and baptising those who believed in Him. His words 'had fallen into good ground, bearing fruit bringing forth a hundred-fold' and spreading to countries all over Asia. But by the vicissitudes of history, through all the centuries, this Church, founded on the blood of martyrs, has become almost extinct, leaving a scattered remnant.

India, in the 30-40 years right after the time of Christ was considered good ground for the gospel and it was planted there and grew rapidly.  That is amazing when you think about it.  What made India "good ground" for the gospel so that there was a huge harvest?  One can only think that God's soveriegn power worked mightily through the Holy Spirit, the preaching of the Word, persecution of believers, prayer, miracles, and faithfulness. God sent Thomas and likely others to India very soon after the Ascension of Christ and many believed. How different this is from the India that we have seen over the past several hundred years - the Hindu India, steeped in Caste and idolatry. (See an interesting article from Time Magazine on St. Thomas from 1953).

If India was once responsive to the Gospel, what happened in history so that the church there was almost snuffed out of existence before the arrival of missionaries from the West in the 1600's?  Why did India then rise up and push Christianity out?  What made the good ground go bad?

I'll look at this more in depth in another post.