Being Merciful to God
In Hebrews, chapter four, we are told, “Today if you hear his voice, do not harden your heart.” We don’t want stone hearts but soft and merciful hearts. But did you know that we can be merciful to God? This idea is spoken of in several places throughout the Bible and is in the form of a poignant question in Hosea 6:4 & 7, “ O Ephraim, what shall I do with you? O Judah your mercy (toward me) is like a morning cloud, like the dew that goes early away.” God concludes in verse 7, “they betrayed me.” So, how can we merciful to God? How can we have soft hearts toward Him? How can we avoid acting treacherously toward the Lord?
My seventy-one father is visiting. He told me today that he wanted to clean under my refrigerator! He plans on doing the refrigerator and then washing the entire kitchen floor. Isn’t my Dad nice? I told him that he doesn’t have to do this, but he is insisting! But imagine the following scenario: What if I came in from Bible study at Red Wing and decided to dump dirt all over the floor he is scrubbing? Picture my Dad, laboring over my kitchen, and I bring in the yucky stuff. Is this kind of behavior merciful to my Dad? The answer is, “No!” In one place in Isaiah, God is pictured as a kind of janitor, laboring in the muck of our sins and weaknesses and burdens. He’s cleaning it up and he’s glad to do it because of his great love for us. But if we continue in sin without even trying to do better aren’t we just mucking up God’s great work through Jesus?
Because of my ministry and because of my particular personality, I am often tempted to people-please, a fatal flaw if allowed to continue! In me, people-pleasing takes the form of making promises too quickly and then not being able to keep those promises. The author of Hebrews is telling me to have mercy, to have a tender heart, not only towards my fellow man but also towards God himself. I have shed many tears because I have hurt people important to me. But I also need to remember that I am hurting God, adding to his burdens. It is very easy to deceive oneself. People-pleasers tell themselves they are being kind, but there is no kindness in disobedience toward the Lord. In the end, we will fail both God and man.
Friday, June 22, 2012
Friday, January 27, 2012
David's Prayer
David's Prayer
In most, if not all of our Bibles, Acts 3:16 reads something like, “By faith in his name, this man whom you see and know was made strong.” The apostle Peter is here addressing the crowds who have come running. He is talking of the man born lame, for 40 years a beggar at the “Beautiful Gate” who is now walking and leaping and praising God in the temple. How was all this done? Not by the power or piety of the disciples but by the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob (3:13). How was the man healed? By “faith in the name of Jesus” (NIV). But this is not what the Bible actually says. In Greek, the original language of the New Testament, we read, “by the faith OF his name.” What could this mean? Indeed many times in the Bible we see “faith of...” The King James Version, cleaving to the original language, furnishes some examples of this, as in Romans 3:22, Galatians 2:16 and many other places.
To understand what the “faith of the name of Jesus," we need to review the story of faith. One of the first times we see the word for “faith” in the Bible is with Abraham. In Hebrew the word for faith is “emunah." We read that Abraham “believed in the Lord” (Genesis 15:6). For me, the word faith gets very confusing. I find that the word "established” is a better translation for the emunah/faith word of the Bible. We could then say of Abraham, Abraham was “established" in God, that is, "solid" on the Lord. But with Abraham’s descendants it is not so. In fact, God says specifically that they are not faithful, not “established" in God, “they are a perverse generation, sons in which there is no faithfulness” (Deut. 32:20). How does God deal with this faithlessness, this lack of being established or solid? We glimpse the answer in Deuteronomy 7:9. Where we let the banner of faith fall to the ground, God picks it up. The word for faith is now attached only to God, “God has caused you to go out with a strong hand, and redeemed you from the house of slaves, from the hand of Pharaoh, king of Egypt. Because of this know that the Lord your God, he is God, the faithful God.”
But the story of faith does not end here. Remember David: how he wanted to build a house for God but God says, “No, I will build a house for you.” And here the word “emunah” is used again, God says that he will be faithful to the house of David, he will establish David’s dynasty (2 Sam. 7:16). And in David’s prayer we begin to know how glorious this promise is. David understands that God's establishing David's dynasty is going to be as big as the Exodus (vs. 23) The Lord’s establishing David and his seed will mean freedom and rest and peace and life for the people.
But the final scene in the story of faith is yet to come. The prophet Isaiah has a vision. He sees that God will indeed establish the son of David...and how! In his vision the son of David, this root of Jesse, is a “root out of dry ground,” a suffering servant, but in the midst of his suffering, God will be faithful and loving. We see the effects of that faithful, establishing love in Isaiah 53. This Jewish man of sorrows is beaten but “by his stripes we are healed,” he dies a criminal’s death but God turns that death into something holy, an offering given by God that takes away sin. This Davidic messiah goes to the grave but God in his love raises him up and promises that he will see his children. God in his establishing and established love for the servant declares him to be “in the right” and “making many right.” God in his faithful love for his “boy” gives him all wealth, many children, victory, resurrection from the dead-- the kingdom is his, all things are his.
And isn’t this all exactly what happened to Jesus? Jesus the Davidic Messiah is saved in the garden, enabled to give that triumphant shout on the cross, triumphant even in the tomb, raised from the dead, exalted at the right hand of the Father. If this isn’t the effect of faithful love, I don’t know what is! I should add one more fact, a "by the way" for us to think on: the goal of this faithful love, incredibly, is us. To paraphrase Isaiah 55:3, God promises his people, I will give you the faithful love that I give to this root of David, but more on that in another article.
All this helps us understand the mysterious phrase in Acts 3. What has made the lame man walk and leap, is the “establishment” of the name of Jesus. God has established the name of Jesus Anointed of Nazareth. This is clues us in to the meaning whenever we see the mysterious "faith of Jesus," it is the establishment of Jesus, God’s loving establishment his only begotten son.
Long ago David had prayed, Lord emunah “establish” your name, and now God has done it (I Chronicles17:24). Why did David pray this prayer? Because he knew that where the name of the Lord is established, there is healing, and David wants healing and health and life for his people. In Acts 3 and in our own lives, David’s prayer has been answered.
In most, if not all of our Bibles, Acts 3:16 reads something like, “By faith in his name, this man whom you see and know was made strong.” The apostle Peter is here addressing the crowds who have come running. He is talking of the man born lame, for 40 years a beggar at the “Beautiful Gate” who is now walking and leaping and praising God in the temple. How was all this done? Not by the power or piety of the disciples but by the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob (3:13). How was the man healed? By “faith in the name of Jesus” (NIV). But this is not what the Bible actually says. In Greek, the original language of the New Testament, we read, “by the faith OF his name.” What could this mean? Indeed many times in the Bible we see “faith of...” The King James Version, cleaving to the original language, furnishes some examples of this, as in Romans 3:22, Galatians 2:16 and many other places.
To understand what the “faith of the name of Jesus," we need to review the story of faith. One of the first times we see the word for “faith” in the Bible is with Abraham. In Hebrew the word for faith is “emunah." We read that Abraham “believed in the Lord” (Genesis 15:6). For me, the word faith gets very confusing. I find that the word "established” is a better translation for the emunah/faith word of the Bible. We could then say of Abraham, Abraham was “established" in God, that is, "solid" on the Lord. But with Abraham’s descendants it is not so. In fact, God says specifically that they are not faithful, not “established" in God, “they are a perverse generation, sons in which there is no faithfulness” (Deut. 32:20). How does God deal with this faithlessness, this lack of being established or solid? We glimpse the answer in Deuteronomy 7:9. Where we let the banner of faith fall to the ground, God picks it up. The word for faith is now attached only to God, “God has caused you to go out with a strong hand, and redeemed you from the house of slaves, from the hand of Pharaoh, king of Egypt. Because of this know that the Lord your God, he is God, the faithful God.”
But the story of faith does not end here. Remember David: how he wanted to build a house for God but God says, “No, I will build a house for you.” And here the word “emunah” is used again, God says that he will be faithful to the house of David, he will establish David’s dynasty (2 Sam. 7:16). And in David’s prayer we begin to know how glorious this promise is. David understands that God's establishing David's dynasty is going to be as big as the Exodus (vs. 23) The Lord’s establishing David and his seed will mean freedom and rest and peace and life for the people.
But the final scene in the story of faith is yet to come. The prophet Isaiah has a vision. He sees that God will indeed establish the son of David...and how! In his vision the son of David, this root of Jesse, is a “root out of dry ground,” a suffering servant, but in the midst of his suffering, God will be faithful and loving. We see the effects of that faithful, establishing love in Isaiah 53. This Jewish man of sorrows is beaten but “by his stripes we are healed,” he dies a criminal’s death but God turns that death into something holy, an offering given by God that takes away sin. This Davidic messiah goes to the grave but God in his love raises him up and promises that he will see his children. God in his establishing and established love for the servant declares him to be “in the right” and “making many right.” God in his faithful love for his “boy” gives him all wealth, many children, victory, resurrection from the dead-- the kingdom is his, all things are his.
And isn’t this all exactly what happened to Jesus? Jesus the Davidic Messiah is saved in the garden, enabled to give that triumphant shout on the cross, triumphant even in the tomb, raised from the dead, exalted at the right hand of the Father. If this isn’t the effect of faithful love, I don’t know what is! I should add one more fact, a "by the way" for us to think on: the goal of this faithful love, incredibly, is us. To paraphrase Isaiah 55:3, God promises his people, I will give you the faithful love that I give to this root of David, but more on that in another article.
All this helps us understand the mysterious phrase in Acts 3. What has made the lame man walk and leap, is the “establishment” of the name of Jesus. God has established the name of Jesus Anointed of Nazareth. This is clues us in to the meaning whenever we see the mysterious "faith of Jesus," it is the establishment of Jesus, God’s loving establishment his only begotten son.
Long ago David had prayed, Lord emunah “establish” your name, and now God has done it (I Chronicles17:24). Why did David pray this prayer? Because he knew that where the name of the Lord is established, there is healing, and David wants healing and health and life for his people. In Acts 3 and in our own lives, David’s prayer has been answered.
Friday, September 16, 2011
Our Thoughts and His: A Comparison
Justice Is A Love Story
Do you ever wonder why the Holy Spirit came to Jerusalem first of all? Or to ask the same question in a different way: Why would Jesus turn the disciples walking sadly on the road to Emmaus back to Jerusalem? Why would he then command the disciples to remain in Jerusalem? (Luke 24:33, Acts 1:4) The answer is...a love story. It is perhaps not surprising that in our times, as in the Roman Empire, when we do not value the relationship between a man and a woman, in these times, as in Jesus’ day, when there is moral toxicity all around us and in us, in these times when marriage is held in less and less esteem, the Bible has something to say against the culture of Rome and against our culture. The Bible has as its heart a love story between a man and a woman.
Jesus is the suffering servant, the Messiah of Isaiah 52-55. He appears to his disciples with the marks of the cross in his body. Though exalted by God, he is despised and rejected by men, “a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief;” he who dies and is raised and “justifies many.” (53:3&11) But as the ad men on TV say, “Wait! There’s more!” The most immediate beneficiary of God’s action in Jesus, the place, or shall we say, the person with whom this justice (Romans 3:22 KJV) begins is...drumroll please, Jerusalem! “Sing O barren one who did not bear; break forth into singing and cry aloud you who have not been in travail! For the children of the desolate one will be more than the children of her that is married. Enlarge the place of your tent and let the curtains of your habitations be stretched out; hold not back, lengthen your cords and strengthen your stakes...for your children are coming home....for a brief moment I forsook you but with great compassion I will gather you. In overflowing wrath for a moment I hid my face from you, but with everlasting love I will have compassion on you” (Isaiah 54). This is why the gift of the Holy Spirit comes to Jerusalem, this is why Peter preaches the good news to the city that had killed Christ. Because the Lord loves his city. He loves her like crazy! He loves her and her awful mess. (Isaiah 40: 2 Heb.) He will give his only begotten son on a cross to save her and all of us from all our awful messes. He pours out his blessings upon “Lady Jerusalem” because though she and all the world meant it all for evil, rejecting Jesus, calling for his blood, rejecting their Lord, God meant it all for good. (Genesis 50:20, Psalm 51:4 Heb.)
We have all kinds of ideas about words like “justice, “faith,” “love,” “hope.” We call many things faith that are not. We call many things justice that are anything but. We have all kinds of ideas and thoughts. Man’s imagination is evil from youth. But God’s imagination is different, “as high as the heavens are above the earth,” so high are God’s thoughts in comparison to our own. (Isaiah 55:9) Look at Isaiah 52, 53, 54, and 55 where God talks about faith, love, justice, the good news. Nothing is as we thought, thank God! To God, justice is a man loving a woman, God loving and saving Lady Zion. (53: & 54) To God, faith is his faithfulness, that is, his establishment or “enfaithment” of Jesus. (55:3) To God, hope is the future that God gives us through the suffering servant, beginning in Zion. (53:11&12a ) To God, the good news is the man of sorrows, “the arm of the Lord revealed.” Reader, this is how I interpret the Bible and what I share with you. Search the scriptures yourself to see what you see. But in the end what’s most important is how God himself interprets scripture. He is our teacher and can be relied upon to lead us into all truth. Because when it comes down to it, we don’t want our thoughts, our ideas, we want to have his perspective on things and see things like he does. There is simply no future in anything else. His perspective is the only perspective. We were created in Christ Jesus. (Ephesians 2:10) As Peter said, “Lord to whom shall we go, you have the words of eternal life.” (John 6:68)
Do you ever wonder why the Holy Spirit came to Jerusalem first of all? Or to ask the same question in a different way: Why would Jesus turn the disciples walking sadly on the road to Emmaus back to Jerusalem? Why would he then command the disciples to remain in Jerusalem? (Luke 24:33, Acts 1:4) The answer is...a love story. It is perhaps not surprising that in our times, as in the Roman Empire, when we do not value the relationship between a man and a woman, in these times, as in Jesus’ day, when there is moral toxicity all around us and in us, in these times when marriage is held in less and less esteem, the Bible has something to say against the culture of Rome and against our culture. The Bible has as its heart a love story between a man and a woman.
Jesus is the suffering servant, the Messiah of Isaiah 52-55. He appears to his disciples with the marks of the cross in his body. Though exalted by God, he is despised and rejected by men, “a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief;” he who dies and is raised and “justifies many.” (53:3&11) But as the ad men on TV say, “Wait! There’s more!” The most immediate beneficiary of God’s action in Jesus, the place, or shall we say, the person with whom this justice (Romans 3:22 KJV) begins is...drumroll please, Jerusalem! “Sing O barren one who did not bear; break forth into singing and cry aloud you who have not been in travail! For the children of the desolate one will be more than the children of her that is married. Enlarge the place of your tent and let the curtains of your habitations be stretched out; hold not back, lengthen your cords and strengthen your stakes...for your children are coming home....for a brief moment I forsook you but with great compassion I will gather you. In overflowing wrath for a moment I hid my face from you, but with everlasting love I will have compassion on you” (Isaiah 54). This is why the gift of the Holy Spirit comes to Jerusalem, this is why Peter preaches the good news to the city that had killed Christ. Because the Lord loves his city. He loves her like crazy! He loves her and her awful mess. (Isaiah 40: 2 Heb.) He will give his only begotten son on a cross to save her and all of us from all our awful messes. He pours out his blessings upon “Lady Jerusalem” because though she and all the world meant it all for evil, rejecting Jesus, calling for his blood, rejecting their Lord, God meant it all for good. (Genesis 50:20, Psalm 51:4 Heb.)
We have all kinds of ideas about words like “justice, “faith,” “love,” “hope.” We call many things faith that are not. We call many things justice that are anything but. We have all kinds of ideas and thoughts. Man’s imagination is evil from youth. But God’s imagination is different, “as high as the heavens are above the earth,” so high are God’s thoughts in comparison to our own. (Isaiah 55:9) Look at Isaiah 52, 53, 54, and 55 where God talks about faith, love, justice, the good news. Nothing is as we thought, thank God! To God, justice is a man loving a woman, God loving and saving Lady Zion. (53: & 54) To God, faith is his faithfulness, that is, his establishment or “enfaithment” of Jesus. (55:3) To God, hope is the future that God gives us through the suffering servant, beginning in Zion. (53:11&12a ) To God, the good news is the man of sorrows, “the arm of the Lord revealed.” Reader, this is how I interpret the Bible and what I share with you. Search the scriptures yourself to see what you see. But in the end what’s most important is how God himself interprets scripture. He is our teacher and can be relied upon to lead us into all truth. Because when it comes down to it, we don’t want our thoughts, our ideas, we want to have his perspective on things and see things like he does. There is simply no future in anything else. His perspective is the only perspective. We were created in Christ Jesus. (Ephesians 2:10) As Peter said, “Lord to whom shall we go, you have the words of eternal life.” (John 6:68)
Wednesday, May 11, 2011
Statement Against 10-A
Statement Against 10-A, by Amy Kosari
A vote against 10-A is a vote for justice. The other day I was reading the theologian Mark Achtemeier’s address to the Covenant Network and the accompanying article. He said that he had once “succumbed to the temptation of ecclesiastical tunnel vision.” “I read authors I agreed with, I talked with those I agreed with, I hung out with those I agreed with.” That is a good warning to all of us and heeding it I would like to try to get to the crux of the argument of the other side: For five hundred years Protestants have preached that we are justified by faith in Christ, “the justice of God by faith in Jesus for all believers.” All believers, Paul wrote, not some. America sought to do justice to her slaves and later to women. Now it is proposed that we do justice to women who love women and men who want men--And why not? Are not there women and men who are faithful to their partners, even “till death do us part”? And do not they wish to occupy our pulpits to proclaim their faith in Christ? Surely it is meet and right that we extend to them the right hand of fellowship after so long a time when we blocked them from proclaiming this faith?
But what if justification by faith in Christ is a wrong translation? What if justification by faith is in fact when a man marries a woman? Again I ask, what if justification by faith in Christ is a wrong translation? What if, as some scholars now say, we are justified by the faith of Jesus? I think there is an even better translation. We are justified by the "establishment" of Jesus. After all, what is justice? Justice is when (to quote Isaiah 53:11 and 55:3) “the just one, my slave, shall justify many, by “the pities of David, the established ones”. Let me break that down. Justification is when the righteous slave of Isaiah 53 makes many, a numberless many, right when they were in the wrong. And how is it that the slave, the man of sorrows, Jesus, how is it that he justifies many? Isaiah 55 tells us, it is by the mercy of God, when God the Father establishes, is faithful to, the suffering servant. And here’s the final piece of the puzzle. What is the immediate effect of justification? Answer: A woman is made happy (Isaiah 54), a once despairing woman is married. And who is this woman? Zion and her assembly, “our feet are standing within thy gates.” Justification by faith, justice itself is when a man marries a woman. A colleague of mine once said, “Amy, marriage, love between a man and a woman, romance, the Song of Songs these are merely side issues.” On the contrary, it turns that romance is the good news, romance is justification, the romance between Jesus and his assembly is justification. Vote against 10-A and vote for justice.
I know what I am saying is quite new. Give me a call, talk to me. Let’s heed Mark Achtemeier’s warning and not isolate ourselves but talk with those with whom we do not agree.
A vote against 10-A is a vote for justice. The other day I was reading the theologian Mark Achtemeier’s address to the Covenant Network and the accompanying article. He said that he had once “succumbed to the temptation of ecclesiastical tunnel vision.” “I read authors I agreed with, I talked with those I agreed with, I hung out with those I agreed with.” That is a good warning to all of us and heeding it I would like to try to get to the crux of the argument of the other side: For five hundred years Protestants have preached that we are justified by faith in Christ, “the justice of God by faith in Jesus for all believers.” All believers, Paul wrote, not some. America sought to do justice to her slaves and later to women. Now it is proposed that we do justice to women who love women and men who want men--And why not? Are not there women and men who are faithful to their partners, even “till death do us part”? And do not they wish to occupy our pulpits to proclaim their faith in Christ? Surely it is meet and right that we extend to them the right hand of fellowship after so long a time when we blocked them from proclaiming this faith?
But what if justification by faith in Christ is a wrong translation? What if justification by faith is in fact when a man marries a woman? Again I ask, what if justification by faith in Christ is a wrong translation? What if, as some scholars now say, we are justified by the faith of Jesus? I think there is an even better translation. We are justified by the "establishment" of Jesus. After all, what is justice? Justice is when (to quote Isaiah 53:11 and 55:3) “the just one, my slave, shall justify many, by “the pities of David, the established ones”. Let me break that down. Justification is when the righteous slave of Isaiah 53 makes many, a numberless many, right when they were in the wrong. And how is it that the slave, the man of sorrows, Jesus, how is it that he justifies many? Isaiah 55 tells us, it is by the mercy of God, when God the Father establishes, is faithful to, the suffering servant. And here’s the final piece of the puzzle. What is the immediate effect of justification? Answer: A woman is made happy (Isaiah 54), a once despairing woman is married. And who is this woman? Zion and her assembly, “our feet are standing within thy gates.” Justification by faith, justice itself is when a man marries a woman. A colleague of mine once said, “Amy, marriage, love between a man and a woman, romance, the Song of Songs these are merely side issues.” On the contrary, it turns that romance is the good news, romance is justification, the romance between Jesus and his assembly is justification. Vote against 10-A and vote for justice.
I know what I am saying is quite new. Give me a call, talk to me. Let’s heed Mark Achtemeier’s warning and not isolate ourselves but talk with those with whom we do not agree.
Friday, April 29, 2011
For Those Who Are Weary of Our Denominational Troubles
Elijah the prophet, he ran away
He just didn't have the heart,
Anymore to stay.
"I'm all alone!" to God he cried,
And in the desert, he would have died
But in his mercy God woke him up
And gave him a meal from heaven on which to sup
And brought him to the mountain,
The truth to show: seven thousand in Israel
Never to Baal did go.
Not by power and not by might
The still, small voice wins the fight.
Be encouraged in that fight today,
For God goes ahead and gives us words to say.
Dear prophet Elijah shows us well
Not to run and hide but stay and tell
The grace of God in the face of wrong
Of Man and of Woman, Jesus, his Bride, Love's True Song--
To sing... for to him, Our Savior, we will always belong.
Not by power and not by might
The Holy Spirit will give us sight
A vision to tell to those in need
For Jesus Messiah, he is Lord indeed!
He just didn't have the heart,
Anymore to stay.
"I'm all alone!" to God he cried,
And in the desert, he would have died
But in his mercy God woke him up
And gave him a meal from heaven on which to sup
And brought him to the mountain,
The truth to show: seven thousand in Israel
Never to Baal did go.
Not by power and not by might
The still, small voice wins the fight.
Be encouraged in that fight today,
For God goes ahead and gives us words to say.
Dear prophet Elijah shows us well
Not to run and hide but stay and tell
The grace of God in the face of wrong
Of Man and of Woman, Jesus, his Bride, Love's True Song--
To sing... for to him, Our Savior, we will always belong.
Not by power and not by might
The Holy Spirit will give us sight
A vision to tell to those in need
For Jesus Messiah, he is Lord indeed!
Friday, March 18, 2011
Writing in The Earth: The Woman Caught in Adultery
There is a secret to the story in John 8 of the woman caught in adultery. You might remember how it goes: Jesus is teaching in the temple and the scribes and Pharisees bring a woman who has been caught in the act of adultery and make her stand before them all. Then they ask Jesus, “Teacher, this woman has been caught in the act of adultery. Now in the law Moses commanded us to stone such women. What do you say?” They do this to test Jesus, that they might be able to bring some charge against him. In response, Jesus does a strange thing. He bends down and writes on the ground. What is Jesus doing? Had the scribes and the Pharisees been less intent on their evil they might have known from the beginning. In Jeremiah 17: 13 we read “O Lord, the hope of Israel, all that forsake thee shall be ashamed, and they that depart from me shall be written in the earth, because they have forsaken the Lord, the fountain of living waters. Heal me, O Lord, and I will be healed; save me and I will be saved: for you are my praise.” We can now understand what Jesus is doing. When he bends down and writes in the earth he is saying in effect, “Haven’t you scribes and Pharisees departed from the Lord?” “Aren’t your hearts dry like the dust of the earth because you have forsaken the fountain of living waters?” But the religious leaders go on questioning Jesus, they don’t notice what he is doing. Jesus then straightens up and puts it to them plainly, “Let him who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” And again, Jesus bends down and writes in the earth. This, at last, breaks through the blindness of the men; they begin to “get” what Jesus is doing and saying and one by one starting with the elders they leave, until no one remains but Jesus and the woman. Jesus straightens up and says to her, “Woman, where are they, has no one condemned you? And she says, “No one, Lord.” Jesus replies, “Neither do I condemn you. Go, and from now on no longer sin.” Jesus could have thrown stones at the woman. He was without sin after all. But God sent his only begotten son into the world, not to condemn it but to save it, as John 3 tells us. I consider Isaiah 53-55 a summation of the good news and it tells us that “all we like sheep have gone astray” but the Father sends the Son to die on a cross, and “by his wounds we are healed.” To us, Jesus looks like a criminal on the cross, hated by God (vs. 4) but in fact, God makes Jesus into a holy offering for sin there, but the word of the cross is so that we, like the woman may go free, sinning no more. Golgotha is not condemnation but salvation. It is the Lord healing us and “we shall be healed.” Jesus Jehovah dies, hung on a tree and the gospel is preached and one by one people who were once dry as dust begin to drink from the fountain of living water and in turn, they themselves become fountains of living water, welling up to eternal life.
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
What A Surprise!
At my churches we read chapter by chapter through the Bible and some months ago a seemingly small detail was brought to my attention. When God commands the sons of Israel to rest on the sabbath day (Saturday) and also to give their children, servants, and livestock a rest, there’s a glaring omission. No mention of the wives!
“But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day: because the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.”
Why is this? Think of what a wife is to man. Whereas your son or daughter may be said to belong to you, a woman throughout the Bible is emphatically not the property of her husband. A wife is simply not “his” to rest or not rest. A woman hears God’s command to her husband, and as we will see, it is hers to obey, study and interpret but it is not the husband’s lookout to cause her to do any of the above! This goes back to the very beginning. Eve was created to be a “help” to her husband. The word for “help” in Hebrew is “ezer.” The only other person in the Bible who is said to be a help to man is God himself. A woman, single or married, is like an angel sent from God for the help of mankind.
But the Bible does not put women up on an ivory pedestal either. The temptation to burden women by idealizing them is tempered when we remember how Eve was deceived by the serpent. In addition, man seems to have “pride of place.” The bare fact is that Adam was created before Eve. Judah may have been favored by God but Reuben is always the first born. Throughout the Bible we see God giving weight to birth order. The first born is set apart to God (Exodus 34:19, Numbers 18:15). The fact that Adam was created first also helps to explain another issue that is prominent throughout the Bible. Again and again, we see God addressing men. Not exclusively but repeatedly. We see it in the ten commandments and throughout the Old Testament. We see it in the New Testament where Jesus, Paul, Peter, James and John speak to the “brethren,” in their sermons and letters. For many hundreds of years students of the Bible have surmised that when the Bible uses the term “brothers” it refers to both brothers and sisters. Today some people use the word “mankind” to refer to both men and women. But the Bible is doing something much more interesting. When the Bible says “brothers,” it means exactly that, because it is memorializing the one on one relationship that God had with Adam in the very beginning. Peter addresses the crowds in Acts 3 as “men of Israel” because he is remembering how the ten commandments were given to the men of Israel. In turn, the ten commandments are given to the men of Israel because the Bible is remembering the very beginning, how God commanded Adam in the garden with the singular “you,” “you shall not eat...”. Now what is interesting here is that by the time Eve is created she is more than aware of God’s command and she has taken it to herself to obey, study and interpret both for herself and Adam! We hear her telling the serpent, “we may eat freely of the fruit of the trees of the garden but of the fruit of the tree in the midst of the garden, God has said, ‘you (plural) shall not eat it, neither touch it lest you (plural) die.’” Notice Eve’s thinking here. First she interprets the command to be spoken by God to both her and Adam and second that the fruit of the tree should not only not be eaten but not touched. In the same way, when the crowds at Jerusalem hear Peter speaking to the “men of Israel” women are clearly not addressed but at the same time he is very much addressing them in the sense of the sermon being for women to hear, obey and research perhaps even more than the men! Let’s ask one more question to illustrate: How a woman can be a help to man? As Proverbs 31 tells us a good wife, “considers a field, and buys it,” a good wife is “trusted by her husband,” and a good wife “reaches out her hands to the poor,” but first and foremost, women, whether they are single or married, can be a help to mankind by being what they seem to have been created to be, students of the Bible and theologians.
“But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day: because the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.”
Why is this? Think of what a wife is to man. Whereas your son or daughter may be said to belong to you, a woman throughout the Bible is emphatically not the property of her husband. A wife is simply not “his” to rest or not rest. A woman hears God’s command to her husband, and as we will see, it is hers to obey, study and interpret but it is not the husband’s lookout to cause her to do any of the above! This goes back to the very beginning. Eve was created to be a “help” to her husband. The word for “help” in Hebrew is “ezer.” The only other person in the Bible who is said to be a help to man is God himself. A woman, single or married, is like an angel sent from God for the help of mankind.
But the Bible does not put women up on an ivory pedestal either. The temptation to burden women by idealizing them is tempered when we remember how Eve was deceived by the serpent. In addition, man seems to have “pride of place.” The bare fact is that Adam was created before Eve. Judah may have been favored by God but Reuben is always the first born. Throughout the Bible we see God giving weight to birth order. The first born is set apart to God (Exodus 34:19, Numbers 18:15). The fact that Adam was created first also helps to explain another issue that is prominent throughout the Bible. Again and again, we see God addressing men. Not exclusively but repeatedly. We see it in the ten commandments and throughout the Old Testament. We see it in the New Testament where Jesus, Paul, Peter, James and John speak to the “brethren,” in their sermons and letters. For many hundreds of years students of the Bible have surmised that when the Bible uses the term “brothers” it refers to both brothers and sisters. Today some people use the word “mankind” to refer to both men and women. But the Bible is doing something much more interesting. When the Bible says “brothers,” it means exactly that, because it is memorializing the one on one relationship that God had with Adam in the very beginning. Peter addresses the crowds in Acts 3 as “men of Israel” because he is remembering how the ten commandments were given to the men of Israel. In turn, the ten commandments are given to the men of Israel because the Bible is remembering the very beginning, how God commanded Adam in the garden with the singular “you,” “you shall not eat...”. Now what is interesting here is that by the time Eve is created she is more than aware of God’s command and she has taken it to herself to obey, study and interpret both for herself and Adam! We hear her telling the serpent, “we may eat freely of the fruit of the trees of the garden but of the fruit of the tree in the midst of the garden, God has said, ‘you (plural) shall not eat it, neither touch it lest you (plural) die.’” Notice Eve’s thinking here. First she interprets the command to be spoken by God to both her and Adam and second that the fruit of the tree should not only not be eaten but not touched. In the same way, when the crowds at Jerusalem hear Peter speaking to the “men of Israel” women are clearly not addressed but at the same time he is very much addressing them in the sense of the sermon being for women to hear, obey and research perhaps even more than the men! Let’s ask one more question to illustrate: How a woman can be a help to man? As Proverbs 31 tells us a good wife, “considers a field, and buys it,” a good wife is “trusted by her husband,” and a good wife “reaches out her hands to the poor,” but first and foremost, women, whether they are single or married, can be a help to mankind by being what they seem to have been created to be, students of the Bible and theologians.
Wednesday, December 22, 2010
Mystery of God
The Mystery of God
In Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians, he writes, “When I came to you brethren, I did not come proclaiming to you the mystery of God in lofty words or wisdom.” Sometimes it is tempting to us, out of exasperation or weariness to fall back on “the mystery of God.” I might say to myself, “Well, I can’t understand any more about this passage in scripture so I am going to stop studying and chalk it up to God’s mysterious ways.” But it turns out even the “mystery of God” does not end there but is a further call to be students of the Bible. In English, the word “disciple” simply means learner. We are “learners” of the Lord, engaged in program of continuing education that lasts way past college; as long as Jesus is our teacher, we’re his learners.
We can see the mystery of God at the very beginning of the Bible. Think of Eve. Were you and I creators of the universe, we probably would have created Adam and Eve at the same time. That’s the “logical” way. Spare Adam loneliness and pain, make Eve and Adam together! Instead, God does it differently, mysteriously. He operates on Adam--takes a rib out. Adam must have been sore when he woke up! God’s way, God’s illogical, foolish ways work out better than our ways. Had it been done our way, Adam would have just accepted Eve as a piece of the furniture of creation; he would have taken her for granted. But God did it his way, and Adam declares, “This at last is bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh.” It is the closest that Adam has ever come to praising God. As the Bible says, “The foolishness of God is wiser than the wisdom of men.”
We see the hiddenness, the mystery of God over and over again in the Bible. We see it in Abraham and Sarah: having a baby at the ages of 99 and 90 respectively. We would have done it differently were we God. We would have given them baby Isaac at the normal time. God’s way is better. Had Abraham and Sarah conceived in their youths, they couldn’t have helped concluding that Isaac was par for the course. In their extreme old age, however, Isaac’s birth can only be seen as a miracle, nothing less than resurrection from the dead (Hebrews 11:12).
We see the mystery of God in the Exodus from Egypt; were I the Lord God, I would have rented fleets of buses and bused the children of Israel direct to the promised land. But it is only through the Red Sea that the children of Israel, “believe in God and in his servant Moses” (Exodus 14:31). And it is only after the indirect route, forty years in the wilderness, that the Israelites can fell the walls of Jericho by (of all things) walking round it, shouting and blowing trumpets. Were we in charge we would just used tanks or something and the world would never have seen a living picture of the Spirit of God, “not by might and not by power but by my spirit says the Lord” (Zechariah 4:6).
And perhaps most mysterious of all, we see the cross of Jesus Christ: Jews and Gentiles saved from enemies far deadlier than a human army of any nationality. Through the foolishness of the cross we are saved from our own sins, from death and from the devil. Is this the way we would have done it? Would a cross have been in our thoughts and plans? Long ago the prophet Habakkuk prophesied that the “just by faith shall live” (Habakkuk 2:4). In the historical context the meaning is plain. Those who had faith and trusted God and were calm in the face of the Chaldean onslaught would be saved, would survive. But God gives this prophest a new meaning. In Isaiah the “just one” is the man of sorrows whose death with criminals is turned, by God’s faith and mercy (Isaiah 55:3) into a holy offering for the sin and rebellion of Israel and the world (53:8). And by this same power of faith and mercy, the Lord Jesus Jehovah is raised from the dead, “he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days...and divide the spoil of the great” (53:10,12). Is this the way we would have accomplished salvation? No indeed, “From of old no one has heard or perceived by the ear, no eye has seen a God besides thee, who works for those who wait for him” (Isaiah 64:4).
As we look forward to Christmas we see again the mystery of God and we see not just in the Bible but in life how Jesus’ words come true: “I thank thee O Father, Lord of heaven and earth because thou hast hid these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to babes, yes Father for such is your gracious will” (Matthew 11:25). And one by one, as children we enter the kingdom of God (Mark 10:14).
In Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians, he writes, “When I came to you brethren, I did not come proclaiming to you the mystery of God in lofty words or wisdom.” Sometimes it is tempting to us, out of exasperation or weariness to fall back on “the mystery of God.” I might say to myself, “Well, I can’t understand any more about this passage in scripture so I am going to stop studying and chalk it up to God’s mysterious ways.” But it turns out even the “mystery of God” does not end there but is a further call to be students of the Bible. In English, the word “disciple” simply means learner. We are “learners” of the Lord, engaged in program of continuing education that lasts way past college; as long as Jesus is our teacher, we’re his learners.
We can see the mystery of God at the very beginning of the Bible. Think of Eve. Were you and I creators of the universe, we probably would have created Adam and Eve at the same time. That’s the “logical” way. Spare Adam loneliness and pain, make Eve and Adam together! Instead, God does it differently, mysteriously. He operates on Adam--takes a rib out. Adam must have been sore when he woke up! God’s way, God’s illogical, foolish ways work out better than our ways. Had it been done our way, Adam would have just accepted Eve as a piece of the furniture of creation; he would have taken her for granted. But God did it his way, and Adam declares, “This at last is bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh.” It is the closest that Adam has ever come to praising God. As the Bible says, “The foolishness of God is wiser than the wisdom of men.”
We see the hiddenness, the mystery of God over and over again in the Bible. We see it in Abraham and Sarah: having a baby at the ages of 99 and 90 respectively. We would have done it differently were we God. We would have given them baby Isaac at the normal time. God’s way is better. Had Abraham and Sarah conceived in their youths, they couldn’t have helped concluding that Isaac was par for the course. In their extreme old age, however, Isaac’s birth can only be seen as a miracle, nothing less than resurrection from the dead (Hebrews 11:12).
We see the mystery of God in the Exodus from Egypt; were I the Lord God, I would have rented fleets of buses and bused the children of Israel direct to the promised land. But it is only through the Red Sea that the children of Israel, “believe in God and in his servant Moses” (Exodus 14:31). And it is only after the indirect route, forty years in the wilderness, that the Israelites can fell the walls of Jericho by (of all things) walking round it, shouting and blowing trumpets. Were we in charge we would just used tanks or something and the world would never have seen a living picture of the Spirit of God, “not by might and not by power but by my spirit says the Lord” (Zechariah 4:6).
And perhaps most mysterious of all, we see the cross of Jesus Christ: Jews and Gentiles saved from enemies far deadlier than a human army of any nationality. Through the foolishness of the cross we are saved from our own sins, from death and from the devil. Is this the way we would have done it? Would a cross have been in our thoughts and plans? Long ago the prophet Habakkuk prophesied that the “just by faith shall live” (Habakkuk 2:4). In the historical context the meaning is plain. Those who had faith and trusted God and were calm in the face of the Chaldean onslaught would be saved, would survive. But God gives this prophest a new meaning. In Isaiah the “just one” is the man of sorrows whose death with criminals is turned, by God’s faith and mercy (Isaiah 55:3) into a holy offering for the sin and rebellion of Israel and the world (53:8). And by this same power of faith and mercy, the Lord Jesus Jehovah is raised from the dead, “he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days...and divide the spoil of the great” (53:10,12). Is this the way we would have accomplished salvation? No indeed, “From of old no one has heard or perceived by the ear, no eye has seen a God besides thee, who works for those who wait for him” (Isaiah 64:4).
As we look forward to Christmas we see again the mystery of God and we see not just in the Bible but in life how Jesus’ words come true: “I thank thee O Father, Lord of heaven and earth because thou hast hid these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to babes, yes Father for such is your gracious will” (Matthew 11:25). And one by one, as children we enter the kingdom of God (Mark 10:14).
Thursday, August 06, 2009
The Science of Biblical Intertextuality
Some say that midrash or "intertexuality" is an art rather than a science. If midrash is a science what are its rules? What can we learn from the rabbinical rules of midrash? Need we take rabbinics with a grain (or perhaps a spoonful) of salt?
Monday, March 16, 2009
The Wrath of God and Our Present Controversies (Part I of Series)
In Judges 2:14 we read that because the Israelites turned to other gods, “the anger of the Lord was kindled...he gave them over to plunderers who plundered them; and he sold them into the power of their enemies round about so t hat they could no longer withstand their enemies.” But then, just a verse later, we read that in response to the suffering of Israel, God in his pity “raised up judges who saved them out of the power of those who plundered them” (vs. 16). It is interesting here that instead of withdrawing the Philistines and the other enemies of Israel, to whom God himself had handed them over, he raises up both judges and kings to stand against and defeat the enemies of Israel.
This is what is happening in the encounter between David and Goliath, the story of the young shepherd boy who defeats the giant Goliath and rouses the discouraged army of Israel so that with a great shout they rise up to pursue their oppressors and drive them from the land.
And this is the background to Romans 1, a chapter that in recent days invites much controversy.
In Romans 1:18-2:3, we learn that all society is thankless, we do not count our many blessings, and so, as he did with the Israelites, God hands us over to our enemies, not enemies of flesh and blood like the Philistines, but enemies that are ethereal but even more powerful. “We fight not against flesh and blood but the powers and principalities." Paul lists those enemies in his “vice catalogue” that begins in verse 1:24: “therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts...women exchanged natural relations for unnatural and men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another.” But of course this catalogue of vices does not end there but goes to encompass envy and murder, strife and deceit, malignity and gossiping, slander and hating God, to name a few.
This understanding of Romans 1, helps me as a minister to answer some the questions that have been asked of me, especially as the debate grew heated around Proposition 8 in California.
Many have asked over the years if I thought men and women are “born that way” as ”lesbians or homosexuals.” The answer is is, yes of course that is possible. On the other there are also a large number of people, some known to me personally, who chose sometime in early adulthood to reject the opposite sex. But whether people have a genetic predisposition to it or whether they chose to go a certain way makes no difference to the apostle Paul. God can hands over ALL society even the littlest child in the womb to sins that range from passion for those of their own sex to a predisposition for deceit. Just as the littlest one in Israel was oppressed by the cruel and continual raids on Israel by the Philistines so from the littlest to the oldest we are all harassed and harried by the vices that attack us constantly.
And here I must emphasize that it is ALL society, including you and me, that have been thankless. ALL of us have been handed over to the vices that the Apostle Paul lists in Romans 1. Chief among them to be sure, is the unnatural relations between men and men, women and women. These unnatural relations stand like a Goliath above all the others but we must remember an entire army of giants is behind him! Perhaps we love and admire the opposite sex, we are not perhaps DIRECTLY oppressed by this “Goliath” of a vice, but we necessarily fall prey to one of the other giants on the list. If we are not envious, we are faithless; if we are not disobedient to parents, we are heartless; if we are not liars we are gossips. Not one of us can avoid the cruelties of the enemy that lies within and without.
But is this bad news? No! and no again I say!
When God in his anger against our thanklessness betrays us into the hands our enemies, in his pity he raises up a savior to stand against these enemies and give us the victory! God has raised up such a savior and his name is Jesus Christ of Nazareth!
He is our victory over all our enemies, including the Goliath of unnatural relations that we meet everywhere and know so intimately. But it is not just Goliath who is felled, but his many brethren. I can testify personally, I was, and am and would be in the power of many of the vices listed EXCEPT for Jesus. Except for Jesus I am bossy and mean to name just a few of my sins (some of which I believe I was born with), but that “except” makes all the difference in the world.
Many among my friends and extended family have told me that they believe there to be “nothing wrong” with so-called “gay marriage.” They say, “why not live and let live? No one is harmed.” I completely understand their point of view because I was once of the same opinion. But the Lord Jesus knows better. The Bible is as the theologian N.T. Wright points out “a love story.” How true that is, not just between Adam and Eve, but also between the suffering servant of Isaiah 53 and “Lady Zion” of Isaiah 54, between Jesus and his bride the church. There is no other book that cares so much about men and women liking and loving one another. In fact, the gospel itself is inseparable from the romance between God and Zion. We cannot proclaim the cross without proclaiming the love a man (God, the suffering servant) for a woman (Zion, the church).
Sometimes our troubles seem and indeed are, overwhelming. Our enemies, Paul’s entire catalogue of vice, poison our lives. But we are no different from the army of Israel standing utterly cowed before Goliath and their powerful enemies... and then comes someone entirely unexpected, a young shepherd going down to the stream to pick out five smooth stones for his slingshot. And suddenly when no expects it the giant falls flat, dead. And we rise up with a shout of victory, driving the cruel armies of the Philistines away. If it was such with Shepherd David, how much more is it with the Shepherd Jesus? The Israelites chased the enemy to their own gates, but with the Lord Jesus, even the “gates of hell shall not prevail.”
This is what is happening in the encounter between David and Goliath, the story of the young shepherd boy who defeats the giant Goliath and rouses the discouraged army of Israel so that with a great shout they rise up to pursue their oppressors and drive them from the land.
And this is the background to Romans 1, a chapter that in recent days invites much controversy.
In Romans 1:18-2:3, we learn that all society is thankless, we do not count our many blessings, and so, as he did with the Israelites, God hands us over to our enemies, not enemies of flesh and blood like the Philistines, but enemies that are ethereal but even more powerful. “We fight not against flesh and blood but the powers and principalities." Paul lists those enemies in his “vice catalogue” that begins in verse 1:24: “therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts...women exchanged natural relations for unnatural and men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another.” But of course this catalogue of vices does not end there but goes to encompass envy and murder, strife and deceit, malignity and gossiping, slander and hating God, to name a few.
This understanding of Romans 1, helps me as a minister to answer some the questions that have been asked of me, especially as the debate grew heated around Proposition 8 in California.
Many have asked over the years if I thought men and women are “born that way” as ”lesbians or homosexuals.” The answer is is, yes of course that is possible. On the other there are also a large number of people, some known to me personally, who chose sometime in early adulthood to reject the opposite sex. But whether people have a genetic predisposition to it or whether they chose to go a certain way makes no difference to the apostle Paul. God can hands over ALL society even the littlest child in the womb to sins that range from passion for those of their own sex to a predisposition for deceit. Just as the littlest one in Israel was oppressed by the cruel and continual raids on Israel by the Philistines so from the littlest to the oldest we are all harassed and harried by the vices that attack us constantly.
And here I must emphasize that it is ALL society, including you and me, that have been thankless. ALL of us have been handed over to the vices that the Apostle Paul lists in Romans 1. Chief among them to be sure, is the unnatural relations between men and men, women and women. These unnatural relations stand like a Goliath above all the others but we must remember an entire army of giants is behind him! Perhaps we love and admire the opposite sex, we are not perhaps DIRECTLY oppressed by this “Goliath” of a vice, but we necessarily fall prey to one of the other giants on the list. If we are not envious, we are faithless; if we are not disobedient to parents, we are heartless; if we are not liars we are gossips. Not one of us can avoid the cruelties of the enemy that lies within and without.
But is this bad news? No! and no again I say!
When God in his anger against our thanklessness betrays us into the hands our enemies, in his pity he raises up a savior to stand against these enemies and give us the victory! God has raised up such a savior and his name is Jesus Christ of Nazareth!
He is our victory over all our enemies, including the Goliath of unnatural relations that we meet everywhere and know so intimately. But it is not just Goliath who is felled, but his many brethren. I can testify personally, I was, and am and would be in the power of many of the vices listed EXCEPT for Jesus. Except for Jesus I am bossy and mean to name just a few of my sins (some of which I believe I was born with), but that “except” makes all the difference in the world.
Many among my friends and extended family have told me that they believe there to be “nothing wrong” with so-called “gay marriage.” They say, “why not live and let live? No one is harmed.” I completely understand their point of view because I was once of the same opinion. But the Lord Jesus knows better. The Bible is as the theologian N.T. Wright points out “a love story.” How true that is, not just between Adam and Eve, but also between the suffering servant of Isaiah 53 and “Lady Zion” of Isaiah 54, between Jesus and his bride the church. There is no other book that cares so much about men and women liking and loving one another. In fact, the gospel itself is inseparable from the romance between God and Zion. We cannot proclaim the cross without proclaiming the love a man (God, the suffering servant) for a woman (Zion, the church).
Sometimes our troubles seem and indeed are, overwhelming. Our enemies, Paul’s entire catalogue of vice, poison our lives. But we are no different from the army of Israel standing utterly cowed before Goliath and their powerful enemies... and then comes someone entirely unexpected, a young shepherd going down to the stream to pick out five smooth stones for his slingshot. And suddenly when no expects it the giant falls flat, dead. And we rise up with a shout of victory, driving the cruel armies of the Philistines away. If it was such with Shepherd David, how much more is it with the Shepherd Jesus? The Israelites chased the enemy to their own gates, but with the Lord Jesus, even the “gates of hell shall not prevail.”
Monday, February 23, 2009
Verse for Us Today
Put on The Whole Armor of God
Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we are not contending against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world rulers of this present darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in heavenly places. Therefore take the whole armor of God, that you may be able withstand the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand therefore having girded your loins with truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the equipment of the gospel of peace; besides all these taking the shield of faith, with which you can quench the flaming darts of the evil one. And take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. Pray at all times in the spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end keep alert with all perserverance, making supplication for all the saints.
Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we are not contending against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world rulers of this present darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in heavenly places. Therefore take the whole armor of God, that you may be able withstand the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand therefore having girded your loins with truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the equipment of the gospel of peace; besides all these taking the shield of faith, with which you can quench the flaming darts of the evil one. And take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. Pray at all times in the spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end keep alert with all perserverance, making supplication for all the saints.
Friday, February 20, 2009
The Faith OF His Name
In most, if not all of our Bibles, Acts 3:16 reads something like, “By faith in his name, this man whom you see and know was made strong.” The apostle Peter is here addressing the crowds who have come running. He is talking of the man born lame, for 40 years a beggar at the “Beautiful Gate” who is now walking and leaping and praising God in the temple. How was all this done? Not by the power or piety of the disciples but by the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob (3:13). How was the man healed? By “faith in the name of Jesus” (NIV). But this is not what the Bible actually says. In Greek, the original language of the New Testament, we read, “by the faith OF his name.” What could this mean? Indeed many times in the Bible we see “faith of...” The King James Version, cleaving to the original language, furnishes some examples of this, as in Romans 3:22, Galatians 2:16 and many other places.
To understand what the “faith of the name of Jesus," we need to tell the story of faith. One of the first times we see the word for “faith” in the Bible is with Abraham. In Hebrew the word for faith is “emunah." We read that Abraham “believed in the Lord” (Genesis 15:6). For me, the word faith gets very confusing. I have found that the word “solid” is a better translation for the emunah/faith word of the Bible. We could then say of Abraham, Abraham was “solid” on God. But with Abraham’s descendants it is not so. In fact, God says specifically that they are not faithful, not “solid” on God, “they are a perverse generation, sons in which there is no faithfulness” (Deut. 32:20). How does God deal with this faithlessness, this lack of solidity? We glimpse the answer in Deuteronomy 7:9. Where we let the banner of faith fall to the ground, God picks it up. The word for faith or solidity is now attached only to God,
“God has caused you to go out with a strong hand, and redeemed you from the house of slaves, from the hand of Pharaoh, king of Egypt. Because of this know that the Lord your God, he is God, the faithful, the 'solid on you' God.”
But the story of faith does not end here. Remember David: how he wanted to build a house for God but God says, “No, I will build a house for you.” And here the word “emunah” is used again, God says that he will be faithful to the house of David, he will be solid on behalf of David’s dynasty (2 Sam. 7:16). And in David’s prayer we begin to know how glorious this promise is. David understands that God being “solid” on the side of his dynasty is going to be as big as the Exodus (vs. 23) The Lord’s being solid behind David and his seed will mean freedom and rest and peace and life for the people.
But the final scene in the story of faith is yet to come. The prophet Isaiah has a vision. He sees that God is indeed going to be solid behind the son of David...and how! In his vision the son of David, this root of Jesse, is a “root out of dry ground,” a suffering servant (this suffering servant is also the Lord God, but more on that in another article!)but in the midst of his suffering, God will be faithful and loving. To paraphrase Isaiah 55:3, God promises his people, I will give you the solid (faithful) love that I give to this root of David. We see the effects of that faithful, “solid” love in Isaiah 53. This Jewish man of sorrows is beaten but “by his stripes we are healed,” he dies a criminal’s death but God turns that death into something holy, an offering given by God that takes away sin. This Davidic messiah goes to the grave but God in his love raises him up and promises that he will see his children. God in his solid
love for the servant declares him to be “in the right” and “making many right.”to paraphrase Isaiah 53:11. God in his solid, faithful love for his “boy” gives him all wealth, many children, victory.
And isn’t this all exactly what happened to Jesus? Jesus the Davidic Messiah is saved in the garden, enabled to give that triumphant shout on the cross, triumphant even in the tomb, raised from the dead, exalted at the right hand of the Father. If this isn’t totally solid love, I don’t know what is!
This is the meaning behind that mysterious phrase in Acts 3. What has made the lame man walk and leap, is the “solidity” of the name of Jesus. God has established, solidified the name of Jesus Anointed of Nazareth. This is clues us in to the meaning whenever we see the mysterious "faith of Jesus," it is the solidity of Jesus, God’s solidly loving up his only begotten son.
Long ago David had prayed, Lord emunah “solidify” or “establish” your name and now God has done it. Why did David pray this prayer? Because he knew that where the name of the Lord is established, there is healing and David wants healing and health and life for his people. In Acts 3 and in our own lives, David’s prayer has been answered.
To understand what the “faith of the name of Jesus," we need to tell the story of faith. One of the first times we see the word for “faith” in the Bible is with Abraham. In Hebrew the word for faith is “emunah." We read that Abraham “believed in the Lord” (Genesis 15:6). For me, the word faith gets very confusing. I have found that the word “solid” is a better translation for the emunah/faith word of the Bible. We could then say of Abraham, Abraham was “solid” on God. But with Abraham’s descendants it is not so. In fact, God says specifically that they are not faithful, not “solid” on God, “they are a perverse generation, sons in which there is no faithfulness” (Deut. 32:20). How does God deal with this faithlessness, this lack of solidity? We glimpse the answer in Deuteronomy 7:9. Where we let the banner of faith fall to the ground, God picks it up. The word for faith or solidity is now attached only to God,
“God has caused you to go out with a strong hand, and redeemed you from the house of slaves, from the hand of Pharaoh, king of Egypt. Because of this know that the Lord your God, he is God, the faithful, the 'solid on you' God.”
But the story of faith does not end here. Remember David: how he wanted to build a house for God but God says, “No, I will build a house for you.” And here the word “emunah” is used again, God says that he will be faithful to the house of David, he will be solid on behalf of David’s dynasty (2 Sam. 7:16). And in David’s prayer we begin to know how glorious this promise is. David understands that God being “solid” on the side of his dynasty is going to be as big as the Exodus (vs. 23) The Lord’s being solid behind David and his seed will mean freedom and rest and peace and life for the people.
But the final scene in the story of faith is yet to come. The prophet Isaiah has a vision. He sees that God is indeed going to be solid behind the son of David...and how! In his vision the son of David, this root of Jesse, is a “root out of dry ground,” a suffering servant (this suffering servant is also the Lord God, but more on that in another article!)but in the midst of his suffering, God will be faithful and loving. To paraphrase Isaiah 55:3, God promises his people, I will give you the solid (faithful) love that I give to this root of David. We see the effects of that faithful, “solid” love in Isaiah 53. This Jewish man of sorrows is beaten but “by his stripes we are healed,” he dies a criminal’s death but God turns that death into something holy, an offering given by God that takes away sin. This Davidic messiah goes to the grave but God in his love raises him up and promises that he will see his children. God in his solid
love for the servant declares him to be “in the right” and “making many right.”to paraphrase Isaiah 53:11. God in his solid, faithful love for his “boy” gives him all wealth, many children, victory.
And isn’t this all exactly what happened to Jesus? Jesus the Davidic Messiah is saved in the garden, enabled to give that triumphant shout on the cross, triumphant even in the tomb, raised from the dead, exalted at the right hand of the Father. If this isn’t totally solid love, I don’t know what is!
This is the meaning behind that mysterious phrase in Acts 3. What has made the lame man walk and leap, is the “solidity” of the name of Jesus. God has established, solidified the name of Jesus Anointed of Nazareth. This is clues us in to the meaning whenever we see the mysterious "faith of Jesus," it is the solidity of Jesus, God’s solidly loving up his only begotten son.
Long ago David had prayed, Lord emunah “solidify” or “establish” your name and now God has done it. Why did David pray this prayer? Because he knew that where the name of the Lord is established, there is healing and David wants healing and health and life for his people. In Acts 3 and in our own lives, David’s prayer has been answered.
Thursday, October 02, 2008
Family of God
The Family of God
There's a popular hymn called the “Family of God.” Part of the chorus goes, “I’m so glad that I’m part of the family of God.” Now, we certainly are a part of the family of God, but often we picture this family as simply the people around us in church. And it is true that these are our brothers and sisters in the Lord, but what we might miss is that we brothers and sisters have been joined to the family of Jesus. And this Jesus is not only God but also a Jewish man, whose lineage can be traced back to David, Judah, and Abraham. We have been grafted into this family. We have been adopted into the family of Israel
Reading chapter by chapter through the Old and New Testaments in my churches, we're now in Leviticus. It’s amazing stuff, surprising and very down to earth. Just the other day we were reading about skin diseases: yellow or black hairs growing out of the leprous spot, itching, swelling, all these things and more. Woah! Kind of gross, but certainly down to earth! The subject of mildew or other diseases that can affect cloth or even houses also comes up, and that’s talked about just as frankly and realistically.
All this got me asking the question, what is the law? This talk of diseases, leprosy, mildew and mold, not to mention the intricate details of the making of the tent of meeting (Exodus 25), how exactly to offer the atonement sacrifice (Leviticus 8), what to eat (cows, goats ok) and what not to eat (shrimp, pork, not okay), what does it have to do with me? What does the law mean for me, a shrimp loving, pork eating girl who never even knew what a tent of meeting was before reading the Bible? What does this have to do with us average Gentile believers? There is a simple answer. The law is righteousness. It’s what’s right to do and it’s the way to attain life, even eternal life. As I write, I plan on sitting down to a nice pork chop later in the evening if at all possible, so what gives? Am I going against any hope of eternal life and doing what’s right? On the contrary. You and I, bacon lovers all, have been grafted into the family of
Israel by Jesus. Jesus brings us right back to that wilderness, that honeymoon time between God and his people (Hosea). Through Jesus, I attain that righteousness that the law aimed at. Through Jesus I have that eternal life that was the purpose and goal of the law. Both the Jew and the Gentile are brought to the back to the wilderness where God espoused his people to himself. Both Jew and Gentile are brought back to righteousness, brought back to health, wealth and well-being, grace and truth, but not by our own deeds but by the Lord Jesus who seeks and saves the lost. As other writers have pointed out, "Jesus makes us kosher." I do hope to have that pork chop later on and I will eat with joy and thanks because our beautiful savior Jesus makes me as clean and pure as crystalline water from a mountain river.
What does all this thing called the law have to do with me? It is home, the home of truth, the home of life, and God wants me to be there. I notice as read on in the Torah (the first five books of Genesis) that I am actually interested in this stuff. How come? How would any Gentile possibly become interested in these things that are so foreign to us? There’s only one reason; I have been awakened to it by the Lord, “Wake, O sleeper, rise from he dead and Christ with give you life.” Thinking about the chapters we are on now I can’t help but reflect that had I my own way, I’m sure I’d like to remain in la-la land the realm of ideas where things aren't messy, but God has woken me up to real life, the world where there are diseases and mildew, where you actually have to think about exactly how you are going to make that tent or house or bookcase, the real world where your feet on on the ground and your heart is with your fellow man and with
God, soaring to the heights of glory. All I have to say is that this Gentile, this woman who was sitting in darkness, thanks her Lord who brought her into the light, into the family of God. She is home.
There's a popular hymn called the “Family of God.” Part of the chorus goes, “I’m so glad that I’m part of the family of God.” Now, we certainly are a part of the family of God, but often we picture this family as simply the people around us in church. And it is true that these are our brothers and sisters in the Lord, but what we might miss is that we brothers and sisters have been joined to the family of Jesus. And this Jesus is not only God but also a Jewish man, whose lineage can be traced back to David, Judah, and Abraham. We have been grafted into this family. We have been adopted into the family of Israel
Reading chapter by chapter through the Old and New Testaments in my churches, we're now in Leviticus. It’s amazing stuff, surprising and very down to earth. Just the other day we were reading about skin diseases: yellow or black hairs growing out of the leprous spot, itching, swelling, all these things and more. Woah! Kind of gross, but certainly down to earth! The subject of mildew or other diseases that can affect cloth or even houses also comes up, and that’s talked about just as frankly and realistically.
All this got me asking the question, what is the law? This talk of diseases, leprosy, mildew and mold, not to mention the intricate details of the making of the tent of meeting (Exodus 25), how exactly to offer the atonement sacrifice (Leviticus 8), what to eat (cows, goats ok) and what not to eat (shrimp, pork, not okay), what does it have to do with me? What does the law mean for me, a shrimp loving, pork eating girl who never even knew what a tent of meeting was before reading the Bible? What does this have to do with us average Gentile believers? There is a simple answer. The law is righteousness. It’s what’s right to do and it’s the way to attain life, even eternal life. As I write, I plan on sitting down to a nice pork chop later in the evening if at all possible, so what gives? Am I going against any hope of eternal life and doing what’s right? On the contrary. You and I, bacon lovers all, have been grafted into the family of
Israel by Jesus. Jesus brings us right back to that wilderness, that honeymoon time between God and his people (Hosea). Through Jesus, I attain that righteousness that the law aimed at. Through Jesus I have that eternal life that was the purpose and goal of the law. Both the Jew and the Gentile are brought to the back to the wilderness where God espoused his people to himself. Both Jew and Gentile are brought back to righteousness, brought back to health, wealth and well-being, grace and truth, but not by our own deeds but by the Lord Jesus who seeks and saves the lost. As other writers have pointed out, "Jesus makes us kosher." I do hope to have that pork chop later on and I will eat with joy and thanks because our beautiful savior Jesus makes me as clean and pure as crystalline water from a mountain river.
What does all this thing called the law have to do with me? It is home, the home of truth, the home of life, and God wants me to be there. I notice as read on in the Torah (the first five books of Genesis) that I am actually interested in this stuff. How come? How would any Gentile possibly become interested in these things that are so foreign to us? There’s only one reason; I have been awakened to it by the Lord, “Wake, O sleeper, rise from he dead and Christ with give you life.” Thinking about the chapters we are on now I can’t help but reflect that had I my own way, I’m sure I’d like to remain in la-la land the realm of ideas where things aren't messy, but God has woken me up to real life, the world where there are diseases and mildew, where you actually have to think about exactly how you are going to make that tent or house or bookcase, the real world where your feet on on the ground and your heart is with your fellow man and with
God, soaring to the heights of glory. All I have to say is that this Gentile, this woman who was sitting in darkness, thanks her Lord who brought her into the light, into the family of God. She is home.
Thursday, July 17, 2008
Mark 2--Dialogue
A: Why do the scribes say that Jesus is blaspheming when he forgives the paralytic's sins? Why do they say, "Who can forgive sins but God alone?"
M: It's true, only God can forgive sins. Thinking that we can forgive sins might make us think we were gods ourselves.
A: But at the Beautiful Gate in Acts 3, Peter says, "I have no silver or gold, but what I have I give you; in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth stand up and walk." They later say to the crowds, "Men, Israelites, why are gazing as if by our own power or godliness we made him to walk." Jesus says in Mark 2, "which is easier to say to the paralytic, 'your sins are forgiven' or to say, 'stand up and walk."' This implies that both are equally difficult,indeed impossible with man. But with God all things are possible, therefore by God's power we can forgive sins.
M: Okay, but only by God's power. But there is something I still don't like in that formulation. I'm confused.
A: Yeah, me too, let's go back to the original question how come the scribes are saying that only God can forgive sins? Is this because in Torah it is God who gives the sacrifices that cover sin? In Torah the whole thrust seems to be God freeing the children of Israel first from the iron furnace of Egypt and then from their sins. At first as you read Leviticus for instance it seems like these people out in the desert are appeasing God for some reason, then it slowly dawns on you that God is providing for the forgiveness of sins; it's all him. But even in Leviticus it says, "the priest shall make atonement" for so and so's sin.
S: The question still stands then, why do the scribes who know the Bible backwards and forwards say that Jesus shouldn't say, "Son, your sins are forgiven."
A: I'm confused.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
M: It's true, only God can forgive sins. Thinking that we can forgive sins might make us think we were gods ourselves.
A: But at the Beautiful Gate in Acts 3, Peter says, "I have no silver or gold, but what I have I give you; in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth stand up and walk." They later say to the crowds, "Men, Israelites, why are gazing as if by our own power or godliness we made him to walk." Jesus says in Mark 2, "which is easier to say to the paralytic, 'your sins are forgiven' or to say, 'stand up and walk."' This implies that both are equally difficult,indeed impossible with man. But with God all things are possible, therefore by God's power we can forgive sins.
M: Okay, but only by God's power. But there is something I still don't like in that formulation. I'm confused.
A: Yeah, me too, let's go back to the original question how come the scribes are saying that only God can forgive sins? Is this because in Torah it is God who gives the sacrifices that cover sin? In Torah the whole thrust seems to be God freeing the children of Israel first from the iron furnace of Egypt and then from their sins. At first as you read Leviticus for instance it seems like these people out in the desert are appeasing God for some reason, then it slowly dawns on you that God is providing for the forgiveness of sins; it's all him. But even in Leviticus it says, "the priest shall make atonement" for so and so's sin.
S: The question still stands then, why do the scribes who know the Bible backwards and forwards say that Jesus shouldn't say, "Son, your sins are forgiven."
A: I'm confused.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Monday, April 14, 2008
Holy Hands
The Godfather
In Paul’s first letter to Timothy, he writes, “I want men in every place to lift up holy hands in prayer without anger or quarreling (I Timothy 2:8). This is the same passage where Paul tells women they need not “teach” their men. That is, as both the unusual Greek verb and the entire context suggest, women need not “teach” with a frying pan! Neither by cast-iron nor by an unending stream of yelling and nagging are women to “teach” no matter how bull-headed their husbands. In the same way, men don’t need to use their fists, no matter how foolish or how deserving their opponent.. Instead of lifting up hands to hit, men now lift up holy hands to pray.
The idea of holy hands is not new. In Israel’s battle with the Amalekites when Moses lifted up his arms, the battle would turn to the Israelites. When Moses in weariness let his arms come down, the battle would favor the Amalekites. Eventually Aaron and Hur gave Moses a rock to sit on and themselves held Moses’ hands steady until sunset and the victory of the Israelites. The secret of the story is found by looking carefully at the Hebrew. When Moses would raise his hands up either his left or his right hand would touch the throne of God hovering unseen at Moses’ side. Being in touch with God means victory.
Paul remembers all of this when he writes to Timothy about holy hands. Men and women don’t need to be constantly on the offensive because we go hand in hand with God. When we pray, he’s right there.
In that same passage, Paul says that women don’t need to do their hair for five hours a day (as some of the Roman styles of the time literally required). The women of Timothy’s church can get by on say, an hour of preparation if necessary. Why? Because they are in touch with “Fairest Lord Jesus,” who gives them a beauty far beyond the neck-numbing braids and curls of Roman fashonistas. Jesus gives women a beauty both within and without, shining in all that they do and all that they are.
For both men and women, the secret is that we are in contact with the Lord, as David says “I am continually with thee; thou dost hold me by the right hand.” In other words, God has our back, so we can relax. We are in tight with a real “Godfather,” namely, God the Father. We can afford to be generous. We can afford to be long-suffering. We can afford to have largesse, after all we are soldiers of the king of kings.
In Paul’s first letter to Timothy, he writes, “I want men in every place to lift up holy hands in prayer without anger or quarreling (I Timothy 2:8). This is the same passage where Paul tells women they need not “teach” their men. That is, as both the unusual Greek verb and the entire context suggest, women need not “teach” with a frying pan! Neither by cast-iron nor by an unending stream of yelling and nagging are women to “teach” no matter how bull-headed their husbands. In the same way, men don’t need to use their fists, no matter how foolish or how deserving their opponent.. Instead of lifting up hands to hit, men now lift up holy hands to pray.
The idea of holy hands is not new. In Israel’s battle with the Amalekites when Moses lifted up his arms, the battle would turn to the Israelites. When Moses in weariness let his arms come down, the battle would favor the Amalekites. Eventually Aaron and Hur gave Moses a rock to sit on and themselves held Moses’ hands steady until sunset and the victory of the Israelites. The secret of the story is found by looking carefully at the Hebrew. When Moses would raise his hands up either his left or his right hand would touch the throne of God hovering unseen at Moses’ side. Being in touch with God means victory.
Paul remembers all of this when he writes to Timothy about holy hands. Men and women don’t need to be constantly on the offensive because we go hand in hand with God. When we pray, he’s right there.
In that same passage, Paul says that women don’t need to do their hair for five hours a day (as some of the Roman styles of the time literally required). The women of Timothy’s church can get by on say, an hour of preparation if necessary. Why? Because they are in touch with “Fairest Lord Jesus,” who gives them a beauty far beyond the neck-numbing braids and curls of Roman fashonistas. Jesus gives women a beauty both within and without, shining in all that they do and all that they are.
For both men and women, the secret is that we are in contact with the Lord, as David says “I am continually with thee; thou dost hold me by the right hand.” In other words, God has our back, so we can relax. We are in tight with a real “Godfather,” namely, God the Father. We can afford to be generous. We can afford to be long-suffering. We can afford to have largesse, after all we are soldiers of the king of kings.
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
Beauty Is Truth Article
Did you know that scientists have discovered tiny
chips of paint on the great statues of the ancient
western world? We are inclined to think of Greek and
Roman statues as bone white, unpainted, but it turns
out the statues were definitely done up in glorious
color. And now scientists and scholars have been able
to recreate the way they looked originally. In the
new show at Harvard, we see a copy of the statue of
the goddess Athena. She is dressed in bright green and
yellow. With golden hair and determined eyes she looks
strong, wise and terrifying. A bust of the Emperor
Caligula is also recreated. In color we are able to
see the look of sheer cruelty and perversion on his
petulant yet supremely regal face.
To go into any of the temples and see these statues
must have been overwhelming. The unpainted statues
were beautiful, but painted their beauty is rachetted
up several notches, they become truly awe-inspiring.
It was the Greek belief that in the faces of these
statues one could truly experience the divine. Seeing
the restored versions, I begin to see their point.
It was a painted statue that the cruel Antiochus
Epiphanes(“The Shining One”--215-164 B.C.) put into
the temple at Jerusalem. Let’s look at the situation
for a moment from the Greek point of view. To quote
Keats memorializing this belief in his poem “Ode on a
Grecian Urn”, “Beauty is truth, truth beauty-- that is
all ye know on earth and all ye need to know.”
Antiochus Epiphanes probably really believed that he
was saving the Jewish nation through the sheer
loveliness of the statues of the gods. He believed he
was force for the enlightenment of the whole earth,
bringing truth and glory to benighted Israel. He
despised their lack of imagery, their silly rules for
the Sabbath and their strange belief that pork eating
was forbidden. He would show them what civilization
really meant, and so into the sanctuary he brought the
“abomination of desolation.”
Antiochus Epiphanes did not understand or accept
Israel’s critique of the whole notion of beauty as
something of supreme value. The Greeks and the Romans
believed that beauty was “where it was at.” It was
this belief in beauty that helped to cause so much
confusion in the ancient world. In Sparta for
instance, women were lovers of other women and men
with men, because marriage between a man and a woman
did not matter much. It was a low thing in fact. The
Spartans seemed to have believed that beauty
transcended any relationship between the two genders.
It was beauty alone in either man or woman which was
to be worshipped and adored as the pathway to truth.
We can see the same viewpoint in the great Socratic
dialogue, “The Symposium” and throughout the great
writings of the ancient Western world.
Where does the Bible stand? We find that it has
something very surprising to say on this issue.
Beauty is demoted. In what must have seemed almost
inconceivable to the ancient world, to Israel what is
of prime importance is relationship between men and
women. God puts humble Adam and Eve, Jesus and his
bride the church front and center; it is Jesus who is
“the Way, the Truth and the Life” and his first order
of business is to bring truth and life to “Lady
Jerusalem” . In his suffering and death, he carries
away our sins, and makes a sad and grieving woman
(Zion) happy at last (see Isaiah 53 and 54). The
apostle Paul speaks of Jesus and his bride the church
whom he will one day present to himself “a glorious
church, not having spot or wrinkle or any other such
thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish”
(Ephesians 5:27).
God’s critique of the sophisticated Greeks works
itself out into everyday life. We read in Proverbs
31, “charm is a delusion and beauty is vain.” It is
the woman who knows the great goodness of the Lord
that is to be honored, not the Paris Hilton
look-alike. To the pilgrim on his way to visit the
gods and goddesses of Olympus, their images might well
have caused his knees to buckle and his breath to come
short so inspiring were they, but the Bible says these
things are vanity, dust and ashes.
It is the trustworthy woman “who sees that her
business goes well, who buys a field and plants a
vineyard out of her earnings...who reaches out her
hands to the poor” that is truly beautiful. Not to a
statue of Aphrodite does a man sing praises but rather
to his loving wife (Proverbs 31:27).
In the clash between Jerusalem and Athens, and even in
the societal clashes today God is teaching us how to
see. What is truly of value is the woman of Proverbs
31; then as now, it is the not the Playboy bunny
transfixed on glossy magazine pages, but the living
breathing woman who is to be adored and cared for, a
real non-airbrushed woman not a painted image. It is
in the love and liking between men and women that we
see a reflection of God’s glory, not in the beautiful
golden, stoney-hearted Athena.
chips of paint on the great statues of the ancient
western world? We are inclined to think of Greek and
Roman statues as bone white, unpainted, but it turns
out the statues were definitely done up in glorious
color. And now scientists and scholars have been able
to recreate the way they looked originally. In the
new show at Harvard, we see a copy of the statue of
the goddess Athena. She is dressed in bright green and
yellow. With golden hair and determined eyes she looks
strong, wise and terrifying. A bust of the Emperor
Caligula is also recreated. In color we are able to
see the look of sheer cruelty and perversion on his
petulant yet supremely regal face.
To go into any of the temples and see these statues
must have been overwhelming. The unpainted statues
were beautiful, but painted their beauty is rachetted
up several notches, they become truly awe-inspiring.
It was the Greek belief that in the faces of these
statues one could truly experience the divine. Seeing
the restored versions, I begin to see their point.
It was a painted statue that the cruel Antiochus
Epiphanes(“The Shining One”--215-164 B.C.) put into
the temple at Jerusalem. Let’s look at the situation
for a moment from the Greek point of view. To quote
Keats memorializing this belief in his poem “Ode on a
Grecian Urn”, “Beauty is truth, truth beauty-- that is
all ye know on earth and all ye need to know.”
Antiochus Epiphanes probably really believed that he
was saving the Jewish nation through the sheer
loveliness of the statues of the gods. He believed he
was force for the enlightenment of the whole earth,
bringing truth and glory to benighted Israel. He
despised their lack of imagery, their silly rules for
the Sabbath and their strange belief that pork eating
was forbidden. He would show them what civilization
really meant, and so into the sanctuary he brought the
“abomination of desolation.”
Antiochus Epiphanes did not understand or accept
Israel’s critique of the whole notion of beauty as
something of supreme value. The Greeks and the Romans
believed that beauty was “where it was at.” It was
this belief in beauty that helped to cause so much
confusion in the ancient world. In Sparta for
instance, women were lovers of other women and men
with men, because marriage between a man and a woman
did not matter much. It was a low thing in fact. The
Spartans seemed to have believed that beauty
transcended any relationship between the two genders.
It was beauty alone in either man or woman which was
to be worshipped and adored as the pathway to truth.
We can see the same viewpoint in the great Socratic
dialogue, “The Symposium” and throughout the great
writings of the ancient Western world.
Where does the Bible stand? We find that it has
something very surprising to say on this issue.
Beauty is demoted. In what must have seemed almost
inconceivable to the ancient world, to Israel what is
of prime importance is relationship between men and
women. God puts humble Adam and Eve, Jesus and his
bride the church front and center; it is Jesus who is
“the Way, the Truth and the Life” and his first order
of business is to bring truth and life to “Lady
Jerusalem” . In his suffering and death, he carries
away our sins, and makes a sad and grieving woman
(Zion) happy at last (see Isaiah 53 and 54). The
apostle Paul speaks of Jesus and his bride the church
whom he will one day present to himself “a glorious
church, not having spot or wrinkle or any other such
thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish”
(Ephesians 5:27).
God’s critique of the sophisticated Greeks works
itself out into everyday life. We read in Proverbs
31, “charm is a delusion and beauty is vain.” It is
the woman who knows the great goodness of the Lord
that is to be honored, not the Paris Hilton
look-alike. To the pilgrim on his way to visit the
gods and goddesses of Olympus, their images might well
have caused his knees to buckle and his breath to come
short so inspiring were they, but the Bible says these
things are vanity, dust and ashes.
It is the trustworthy woman “who sees that her
business goes well, who buys a field and plants a
vineyard out of her earnings...who reaches out her
hands to the poor” that is truly beautiful. Not to a
statue of Aphrodite does a man sing praises but rather
to his loving wife (Proverbs 31:27).
In the clash between Jerusalem and Athens, and even in
the societal clashes today God is teaching us how to
see. What is truly of value is the woman of Proverbs
31; then as now, it is the not the Playboy bunny
transfixed on glossy magazine pages, but the living
breathing woman who is to be adored and cared for, a
real non-airbrushed woman not a painted image. It is
in the love and liking between men and women that we
see a reflection of God’s glory, not in the beautiful
golden, stoney-hearted Athena.
Thoughts on Saturday's Special Presbytery Meeting
I really am praising God; listening to Dr. Capetz'
answers and the comments upstairs helped me
tremendously in understanding this issue Biblically.
I didn't understand before Saturday WHY the apostle
Paul speaks the way he does in Romans 1 and 2. Paul
does not speak the way he does because he is
a)homophobic or b) relying on traditional Jewish
attitudes towards homosexuals but rather, he speaks
the way he does because he has met Jesus on the road
to Damascus!
On the road to Damascus, Paul meets the Lord God,
Jesus who had died on a cross. This fact, effectively
forces Paul to open the Bible to Isaiah 53, where Paul
reads about a suffering servant. But the direct
result of the sorrows of this God and man is 1) the
justification of "many" and 2) (and here's the kicker)
the happiness and freedom of Jerusalem who is pictured
as a woman. Basically we are getting an updated
version of Adam and Eve here. Turns out, Adam and Eve
are not only in Genesis but in 2nd Isaiah!
Where the rubber meets the road in all of this is that
far from being an issue of relative unimportance,
right relationship, indeed, healed relationship
between men and women is at the very heart of the
Bible, hand in hand with the cross itself, not to
mention justice and mercy.
I just have to say how amazing this is; in an earlier
time I was a classics student and you know, there is
simply no other book in the world that centers on
making a woman happy and free and victorious. Oy vey,
that's for sure.
Believe me, Socrates had absolutely no idea of making
any woman happy and Sappho had no idea that a man
could ever possibly do this! There is simply no
precedent in any of the ancient writings for "this
now is flesh of my flesh and bone of my bone"
Anyway, I talked to the people at the annual meeting
about all of this and they seemed pretty pleased with
it.
It was only in the car ride home on Saturday that this
all started to sink it...and there's a lot more to go.
I think we've just begun to mine all the treasures.
answers and the comments upstairs helped me
tremendously in understanding this issue Biblically.
I didn't understand before Saturday WHY the apostle
Paul speaks the way he does in Romans 1 and 2. Paul
does not speak the way he does because he is
a)homophobic or b) relying on traditional Jewish
attitudes towards homosexuals but rather, he speaks
the way he does because he has met Jesus on the road
to Damascus!
On the road to Damascus, Paul meets the Lord God,
Jesus who had died on a cross. This fact, effectively
forces Paul to open the Bible to Isaiah 53, where Paul
reads about a suffering servant. But the direct
result of the sorrows of this God and man is 1) the
justification of "many" and 2) (and here's the kicker)
the happiness and freedom of Jerusalem who is pictured
as a woman. Basically we are getting an updated
version of Adam and Eve here. Turns out, Adam and Eve
are not only in Genesis but in 2nd Isaiah!
Where the rubber meets the road in all of this is that
far from being an issue of relative unimportance,
right relationship, indeed, healed relationship
between men and women is at the very heart of the
Bible, hand in hand with the cross itself, not to
mention justice and mercy.
I just have to say how amazing this is; in an earlier
time I was a classics student and you know, there is
simply no other book in the world that centers on
making a woman happy and free and victorious. Oy vey,
that's for sure.
Believe me, Socrates had absolutely no idea of making
any woman happy and Sappho had no idea that a man
could ever possibly do this! There is simply no
precedent in any of the ancient writings for "this
now is flesh of my flesh and bone of my bone"
Anyway, I talked to the people at the annual meeting
about all of this and they seemed pretty pleased with
it.
It was only in the car ride home on Saturday that this
all started to sink it...and there's a lot more to go.
I think we've just begun to mine all the treasures.
Letter to the Layman
An Appeal to My Presbytery, the Presbytery of the Twin
Cities Area
On Saturday, Professor Paul Capetz’ asserted that
affirming “chastity in singleness” (Book of Order
G-6.0106b) was tantamount to taking a vow of celibacy.
This assertion at its heart calls into question the
words of the angel Gabriel, “with God nothing will be
impossible” (Luke 1:37, RSV). As Jesus reiterated,
“with men it is impossible, but with God all things
are possible” (Matthew 19:26).
And yet, in restoring Professor Capetz as minister
member in the Presbytery of the Twin Cities Area, we
say to the church and the world that there is at least
one thing that is impossible with God, namely,
redemption for men who desire men and women who desire
women (see Romans 1:26-27).
That “homosexual orientation” is unchangeable goes
largely unquestioned in Western society today, but God
mercifully calls into question all our
impossibilities. Romans 1 tells us that our savior,
Jesus, “the just who shall live by faith” lives in
order to save us from our enemies. (Romans 1:17). As
King David saved the ancient Israelites from the
Philistines, themselves sent as a manifestation of
God’s wrath (see Judges 2:14, Romans 1:18), so the
clear implication of Romans is that the King of Kings,
Jesus, saves us from enemies far more terrible than
the Philistines, enemies not of flesh and blood, but
the powers and principalities of this world. God’s
mercy does and must abound in his son Jesus.
Romans chapter 1 shows us the glory of just Jesus
against the black background of universal sin (all we
like sheep had gone astray). But the just Jesus is
also the justifying Jesus. Romans 1 begins with the
resurrection of the dead and this is no accident. The
resurrection of the dead is inseparable from
restoration of right relationship between men and
women (R. 1:4,17ff).
Remember the woman of the city who was “forgiven
much” and therefore “loved much” bathing Jesus’ feet
with her tears, anointing him with precious oil (Luke
7:37-50). Somewhere she had heard the word of
forgiveness and in the gospel stories we see a woman
redeemed, transformed. Jesus said of such a one,
“wherever the gospel is preached this will be told in
memory of her” (Mark 14:9). Simon the Pharisee called
this woman a sinner as her tears fell on Jesus’ feet.
One could well guess that in Simon’s view it was
impossible that this woman be anything but what she
was known to be, one whose body and soul were corrupt
But what is inconceivable and well nigh impossible
with men is more than conceivable and do-able by the
word of God. As Luther said, “the word, the word, the
word will do it.” God the father delights, “sings
with joy” over what he has done and is doing in Jesus
(Zephaniah 3:17).
But not only that, it is “these sinners” who go
first into the kingdom and in so doing provide a
shining hope for us all. For when these are saved,
those to whom salvation was accounted by church and
society an “impossibility,” then hope springs up in
our own hearts; perhaps we in the pews and pulpits
and choir lofts too can be saved from our innumerable
miseries, weaknesses, sins and burdens that have grown
to heavy for us to bear. Our heart rejoices in Jesus,
the Anointed One, anointed both by God and by the
sinner who “once was lost but now is found.” Who can
doubt that that unnamed woman is now crowned in light
at the throne of the Lord of hosts?
Beloved brothers and sisters of the Presbytery of the
Twin Cities Area, I appeal to you by the mercies of
God. Let us not be conformed to this age but
transformed by the renewing of our minds.
Amy Flack (Minister Member of the Presbytery of the
Twin Cities Area, Ellsworth and Hager City, Wisconsin)
Cities Area
On Saturday, Professor Paul Capetz’ asserted that
affirming “chastity in singleness” (Book of Order
G-6.0106b) was tantamount to taking a vow of celibacy.
This assertion at its heart calls into question the
words of the angel Gabriel, “with God nothing will be
impossible” (Luke 1:37, RSV). As Jesus reiterated,
“with men it is impossible, but with God all things
are possible” (Matthew 19:26).
And yet, in restoring Professor Capetz as minister
member in the Presbytery of the Twin Cities Area, we
say to the church and the world that there is at least
one thing that is impossible with God, namely,
redemption for men who desire men and women who desire
women (see Romans 1:26-27).
That “homosexual orientation” is unchangeable goes
largely unquestioned in Western society today, but God
mercifully calls into question all our
impossibilities. Romans 1 tells us that our savior,
Jesus, “the just who shall live by faith” lives in
order to save us from our enemies. (Romans 1:17). As
King David saved the ancient Israelites from the
Philistines, themselves sent as a manifestation of
God’s wrath (see Judges 2:14, Romans 1:18), so the
clear implication of Romans is that the King of Kings,
Jesus, saves us from enemies far more terrible than
the Philistines, enemies not of flesh and blood, but
the powers and principalities of this world. God’s
mercy does and must abound in his son Jesus.
Romans chapter 1 shows us the glory of just Jesus
against the black background of universal sin (all we
like sheep had gone astray). But the just Jesus is
also the justifying Jesus. Romans 1 begins with the
resurrection of the dead and this is no accident. The
resurrection of the dead is inseparable from
restoration of right relationship between men and
women (R. 1:4,17ff).
Remember the woman of the city who was “forgiven
much” and therefore “loved much” bathing Jesus’ feet
with her tears, anointing him with precious oil (Luke
7:37-50). Somewhere she had heard the word of
forgiveness and in the gospel stories we see a woman
redeemed, transformed. Jesus said of such a one,
“wherever the gospel is preached this will be told in
memory of her” (Mark 14:9). Simon the Pharisee called
this woman a sinner as her tears fell on Jesus’ feet.
One could well guess that in Simon’s view it was
impossible that this woman be anything but what she
was known to be, one whose body and soul were corrupt
But what is inconceivable and well nigh impossible
with men is more than conceivable and do-able by the
word of God. As Luther said, “the word, the word, the
word will do it.” God the father delights, “sings
with joy” over what he has done and is doing in Jesus
(Zephaniah 3:17).
But not only that, it is “these sinners” who go
first into the kingdom and in so doing provide a
shining hope for us all. For when these are saved,
those to whom salvation was accounted by church and
society an “impossibility,” then hope springs up in
our own hearts; perhaps we in the pews and pulpits
and choir lofts too can be saved from our innumerable
miseries, weaknesses, sins and burdens that have grown
to heavy for us to bear. Our heart rejoices in Jesus,
the Anointed One, anointed both by God and by the
sinner who “once was lost but now is found.” Who can
doubt that that unnamed woman is now crowned in light
at the throne of the Lord of hosts?
Beloved brothers and sisters of the Presbytery of the
Twin Cities Area, I appeal to you by the mercies of
God. Let us not be conformed to this age but
transformed by the renewing of our minds.
Amy Flack (Minister Member of the Presbytery of the
Twin Cities Area, Ellsworth and Hager City, Wisconsin)
Friday, September 28, 2007
Well, anyway
Prayers
My prayers for instance
poor impoverished
simple things
sometimes that’s how my prayers are
not enough.
But there is a hope that sets all to right
For there is a God who hears
A prayer can be simple or complex
sound or silly
but what unites them all
Is that “amazing grace” our Father in heaven hears
and helps
our inarticulate whispers
our fumblings and mumblings
and our silly, not enough prayers
become in heaven
things of glory
perfume rising before the Lord
Sometimes there is no prayer
we cannot speak a single word
our tears have gone too deep
our hearts are like a frozen sea
black and bleak
but know that it’s those who cannot pray
that Jesus came to save
when silence is a shackle
and despair wells within
the Holy Spirit intercedes for us
with sighs too deep for words
And God hears
God hears the soundless cry
of those whose spirit is broken
“Blessed are the poor in spirit
“Blessed are those who mourn”
Oh yes, yes, my friend, the promise is for you
for you the comfort, the very kingdom of heaven come
down
And when in our pilgrimage
the way seems long
the answer far away
know that in the darkness
our Lord leads the way
and soon the kingdom coming
will dawn a glorious day
“Yea, though I walk through the valley
of the shadow of death
I shall fear no evil
for thy rod and thy staff
they comfort me...”
My prayers for instance
poor impoverished
simple things
sometimes that’s how my prayers are
not enough.
But there is a hope that sets all to right
For there is a God who hears
A prayer can be simple or complex
sound or silly
but what unites them all
Is that “amazing grace” our Father in heaven hears
and helps
our inarticulate whispers
our fumblings and mumblings
and our silly, not enough prayers
become in heaven
things of glory
perfume rising before the Lord
Sometimes there is no prayer
we cannot speak a single word
our tears have gone too deep
our hearts are like a frozen sea
black and bleak
but know that it’s those who cannot pray
that Jesus came to save
when silence is a shackle
and despair wells within
the Holy Spirit intercedes for us
with sighs too deep for words
And God hears
God hears the soundless cry
of those whose spirit is broken
“Blessed are the poor in spirit
“Blessed are those who mourn”
Oh yes, yes, my friend, the promise is for you
for you the comfort, the very kingdom of heaven come
down
And when in our pilgrimage
the way seems long
the answer far away
know that in the darkness
our Lord leads the way
and soon the kingdom coming
will dawn a glorious day
“Yea, though I walk through the valley
of the shadow of death
I shall fear no evil
for thy rod and thy staff
they comfort me...”
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