tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25854465449100420152024-03-17T22:03:05.361-05:00FaithWebby Patrick OdumPatrick Odumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08344818381111725780noreply@blogger.comBlogger622125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2585446544910042015.post-21048980455534462192024-03-08T15:55:00.003-06:002024-03-09T10:48:16.899-06:00The Center of the Universe<p> <i style="color: #313131; font-family: Avenir; text-align: justify;">The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn</i><span style="color: #313131; font-family: Avenir; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><i> </i></span><i style="color: #313131; font-family: Avenir; text-align: justify;">over all creation. For in him all things were created:</i><span style="color: #313131; font-family: Avenir; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><i> </i></span><i style="color: #313131; font-family: Avenir; text-align: justify;"> things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. </i></p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: Avenir; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: right;"><i>-Colossians 1:15-17 (NIV)</i></p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: Avenir; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px; text-align: justify;"><i></i><br /></p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: Avenir; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEio42FFNPnh1FPnI0fysaCKcBDG1_C7e3NqrhlxaISUHzPrZXq8adAi7Ry-yZHtziOX0C2DfO9ix9xU_oVBqHRq-LlOurmht3NdddJvZS8BTwaHUGzVkvV4c5l6dNyDCNuqJc0ElP_RSnH7HEL3gFW_tVdqeKeTMGL-1V9HNzqrhXE7nWPs6COj0pYRycOC/s1600/galactic-compass.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1063" data-original-width="1600" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEio42FFNPnh1FPnI0fysaCKcBDG1_C7e3NqrhlxaISUHzPrZXq8adAi7Ry-yZHtziOX0C2DfO9ix9xU_oVBqHRq-LlOurmht3NdddJvZS8BTwaHUGzVkvV4c5l6dNyDCNuqJc0ElP_RSnH7HEL3gFW_tVdqeKeTMGL-1V9HNzqrhXE7nWPs6COj0pYRycOC/w400-h266/galactic-compass.jpeg" width="400" /></a></div><p style="color: #313131; font-family: Avenir; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="color: #313131; font-family: Avenir; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;">Last month, <a href="https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2024/02/new-app-always-points-to-the-supermassive-black-hole-at-the-center-of-our-galaxy/">designer Matt Webb debuted his new app</a>. And the minute I read about it I decided immediately that I absolutely did not need it and positively had to have it.</p><p></p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: Avenir; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> I downloaded the app, called Galactic Compass, from the app store while I was still reading the article. When you open it, you see a big green arrow on your screen. That’s pretty much it. There’s a secondary screen you can click on with some numbers, like latitude/longitude, pitch, yaw, heading, and a few others. And those numbers, if you understand them, maybe give you a hint as to what the arrow on Galactic Compass actually points to.</p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: Avenir; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> Open up the app, put your phone on a flat surface, and the arrow points toward the supermassive black hole, Sagittarius A*, that is the rotational center of the galaxy we all live in, relative to our position on the earth and its position in orbit and rotation.</p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: Avenir; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> To hear him tell it, Matt taught himself to find the center of the galaxy living in an apartment with a great view of the stars at night. He originally used augmented reality and astronomy apps to identify the stars and figure out where Sagittarius A* was, but eventually was able — supposedly — to point in the direction of the galaxy’s center, wherever he was and wherever the earth was in its rotation. It has to do with math and physics and identifying the constellation Sagittarius, and — well, I understand it completely, as far as you know. I just don’t have the space here to explain it.</p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: Avenir; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> Eventually, he was able to code an app that will enable you, too, to point out the center of the Milky Way. All you need is a phone and a flat surface to place it on. (The math “breaks down,” Webb says, if your phone isn’t held flat. Something he’s working on for an updated version.)</p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: Avenir; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> The app’s free, so there’s no reason not to try it out. It’s a whole new way to procrastinate! Or, while you’re waiting for an oil change or a doctor’s appointment, you can ponder your place in the universe as you look toward the fixed point around which everything we know spins. That is, as a matter of fact, what Matt says about his app:</p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: Avenir; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0px 18px; text-align: justify;">"Once you can follow it, you start to see the galactic center as the true fixed point, and we’re the ones whizzing and spinning. There it remains, the supermassive black hole at the center of our galaxy, Sagittarius A*, steady as a rock, eternal. We go about our days; it’s always there.”</p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: Avenir; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> He uses what amounts to religious language to talk about the center of of the galaxy. Of course, what’s there isn’t God. It’s an unapproachable singularity <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spaghettification">that would “spaghettify” anyone who got near it</a>. There’s no love, no compassion. It doesn’t make or keep promises. It doesn’t care about justice or righteousness. You can’t even see it; it’s just a big wad of darkness that draws everything toward it. Knowing where it is won’t matter when you’re sick, or when someone you love dies, or when you’ve lost a job or are struggling with financial problems or are depressed. And while knowing about it may indeed tell you something about your place in an impersonal universe, it tells you <i>nothing </i>about your nature as God’s creation, made in his image. </p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: Avenir; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> It serves pretty well as a center for the galaxy, I suppose.</p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: Avenir; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> It’s not nearly as effective as a center of <i>your</i> universe.</p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: Avenir; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> So what is? What’s at the center of your universe? When life has you “whizzing and spinning,” where do you look to keep your bearings? What’s the fixed point for you, steady as a rock, eternal? </p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: Avenir; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> Some of us choose family, friends, people we love. Our children. A spouse. A social group. We find our identity in these people. Our lives revolve around whether we’re making them happy or they’re making us happy. We can’t conceive of what we would be apart from them. But if that’s our center, then when those relationships change we’re left adrift. </p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: Avenir; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> Some of us choose a career. The work we do becomes our orbit. Our arrows are constantly pointing toward what we accomplish in our chosen field. We evaluate the success or failure of a given day by how productive we’ve been. But if our work is our galactic center, then a career setback is a catastrophe. A layoff is universe-destroying. </p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: Avenir; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> Some choose wealth and financial security as the fixed point around which everything else spins. Others might choose experiences, joy, pleasure. Health is a popular center for a lot of universes. But none of those things are solid enough, powerful enough, or eternal enough to hold everything together indefinitely. Eventually, all of them will be lost to our sight and we’ll be left drifting in cold, empty space, without adequate bearings to tell us which way is up.</p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: Avenir; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> Paul begins his letter to the church in Colosse with something to say about what holds everything together. A big green arrow, pointing toward galactic center. “The Son,” Paul calls him here. Jesus, who is the image of a God who can’t in any other way be imaged. His is the power by which everything has been created, and his is the power that continues to hold what God created together. </p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: Avenir; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> But it’s not just that God through Jesus created and sustains everything. This power is not impersonal — Paul goes on to write that “God was <i>pleased</i><span style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span> to have all his fullness dwell in [Jesus].” God created through Jesus because he <i>wanted </i>to. He wanted to make this universe we inhabit, he made it for us and he called it “good” and he intended for human beings to represent him in it. And when we failed, in Jesus he created us all over again. He “reconcile[d] to himself all things…by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.” </p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: Avenir; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> Jesus is the center of the universe. He’s the center because it’s in Jesus that God’s power to create, sustain, and reconcile all come together. And every one of his created beings, especially us, needs to be sustained and needs to be reconciled. Jesus made us. Jesus holds everything together for us. Jesus gives us peace. </p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: Avenir; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> Whether you can ever point to the black hole at the center of our galaxy will likely never make an appreciable difference in your life. But if your internal compass doesn’t point to Jesus as the center of your universe, steady as a rock, eternal — well, there will come a time when you won’t know which way’s up.</p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: Avenir; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> But point all your arrows to him, and you always will. Even when everything else seems out of control.</p>Patrick Odumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08344818381111725780noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2585446544910042015.post-17427112770175484282024-02-23T15:49:00.000-06:002024-02-23T15:49:07.098-06:00Time-Traveling Bible Readers<p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> <i style="font-family: Avenir; text-align: justify;">His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness.</i><span style="font-family: Avenir; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><b><i> </i></b></span><i style="font-family: Avenir; text-align: justify;">Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires. (2 Peter 1:3-4, NIV)</i></span></p><p style="font-family: Avenir; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px; text-align: justify;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZpfP5Loh3vJhZkbEd_Pj_exzVtitiM6wqMbtxUQw_G6Mqm6uhghIbb-xVHehMs0BpiRMne52QL7QQZ7RkaBCSgyDG6Euh3yRUVHsRC0EwnuPOn2Csg_dS9_j0-CzNznO9dC3PyXmwrmfJhVjPCncd65CHUIPGqtobNLpkp0Ndp64uUya2iPQVAiNRmRRe/s3072/66207.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2304" data-original-width="3072" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZpfP5Loh3vJhZkbEd_Pj_exzVtitiM6wqMbtxUQw_G6Mqm6uhghIbb-xVHehMs0BpiRMne52QL7QQZ7RkaBCSgyDG6Euh3yRUVHsRC0EwnuPOn2Csg_dS9_j0-CzNznO9dC3PyXmwrmfJhVjPCncd65CHUIPGqtobNLpkp0Ndp64uUya2iPQVAiNRmRRe/w400-h300/66207.jpeg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p></p>
<p style="font-family: Avenir; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;">Back in 2011, the Chinese government banned time travel. Or at least strongly discouraged it.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Avenir; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> Now, before you celebrate that the United States can actually pull ahead in the Back to the Future Race, the Chinese weren’t actually concerned about you strapping a flux capacitor to your DeLorean and trying to get that piece of junk up to 88 mph. They just don’t want you to watch Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd try to do it. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Avenir; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> What China actually banned — uh, discouraged — is TV shows and movies about time travel. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Avenir; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> Their argued that shows with time travel plots treat “serious history in a frivolous way” and “casually make up myths, have monstrous and weird plots, use absurd tactics, and even promote feudalism, superstition, fatalism and reincarnation.” The government says such programming lacks “positive thoughts and meaning.”</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Avenir; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> All of that ignores that some of the most-beloved TV shows and movies ever include time travel — think <i>Dr. Who, Outlander, Russian Doll, Quantum Leap, Time After Time, Terminator, Back to the Future</i> (And a few lesser-known but still great ones like <i>Run Lola Run</i> and <i>Idiocracy</i>) — and seem to be just full of positive thoughts and/or meaning. Most people think the ban, or whatever it is, came about because of the popularity of a couple of Chinese TV shows of the era that featured protagonists drifting around in time.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Avenir; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> In a country known for wanting to control the narrative of its own history — <a href="https://www.nea.org/nea-today/all-news-articles/floridas-new-history-standard-blow-our-students-and-nation#:~:text=These%20new%20standards%20require%20middle,skills%E2%80%94a%20setback%20for%20students.">aren’t you glad we’re not like that?</a> — the almost-ban probably had a lot to do with the fear that the history seen in those shows might expose the official history as an alternate timeline. The reference to “reincarnation” and “superstition” suggests, too, that concerns about unregulated religious beliefs might have something to do with it. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Avenir; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> But it might also be this: the protagonists in those shows seemed to find some kind of happiness in the past, a happiness that they couldn’t find in modern-day society. Which cuts against the grain of the state’s narrative that they are an ideal society.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Avenir; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> China wants media consumers to keep their feet planted in the present, or in their version of the past, or in the sparkly future they envision. They don’t want people slipping around through the time stream, creating alternate pasts and other possible futures and holding up inconvenient mirrors to the world they live in now. <i> </i> </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Avenir; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> That’s how you know that a time-travel show or film is good; it’s not <i>really </i>about going back or forward in time. It’s about what traveling to the past or future says about the <i>present. </i>It’s about finding meaning in shared history, even when it’s painful to do so, and perhaps finding unity, joy, and hope in setting our eyes on a better future.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Avenir; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> Reading Scripture, in this way, is time-travel.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Avenir; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> I know, that sounds weird. But consider that the Bible is a set of ancient documents, the most recent of which was written, conservatively, almost two thousand years ago. Some of those documents tell stories that occurred in even earlier times, some in what we’d call prehistoric times. They’re written in ancient versions of unfamiliar languages, by long-gone cultures. They are firmly set in the past.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Avenir; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> But if we believe their central conceit — and why spend any time with them if we don’t? — they have something to say about our lives <i>now, </i>today. It’s amazing, really, that we’d give ancient writings from an obsolete culture that kind of influence. Of course, it’s because we believe that they say something about a God who doesn’t change, who is faithful throughout history. That they say something <i>from </i>that God, actually. That what he did in the past gives meaning for our present. That he’s doing the same things now that he did then. That we can expect him to do the same things throughout our lives and into eternity. That they tell us about hope, and life, and justice, and righteousness that overcomes death, sorrow, violence, and hatred. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Avenir; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> So reading Scripture is about slipping back and forth through time. No DeLorean or “strange things afoot at the Circle-K” required. But you can’t read Scripture correctly or helpfully without that slippage.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Avenir; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> Sometimes we like to think we can read Scripture with our feet only in the present. Saw something on social media just this week: “If a Bible question requires outside help, such as historical or cultural references, the question is not necessary to answer, since God has given us all things that pertain to life and godliness in His word, and that with that word we are complete, completely furnished for every good work.” Ironically enough, the OP misunderstands the text it quotes, <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2+Peter+1:3-4&version=NIV">2 Peter 1:3</a>. It’s God’s power, and <i>our knowledge of it through Jesus, </i>that gives us life and godliness. Peter, when he wrote those lines, new nothing about a New Testament. He’s certainly not saying that God gave us an instruction book, and all we have to do is read it. The Bible tells us of God’s power and love for us, but there’s nothing transforming about just reading it. Knowledge is necessary. One of the virtues that he tells us to add in the next few verses is knowledge. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Avenir; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> The Bible can be hard to read. <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2%20Peter%203:15-17&version=NIV">Isn’t it Peter who also tells us that some of what Paul wrote can be hard to understand and, so, prone to twisting by false teachers</a>? Things like historical context and an understanding of the language and culture of the biblical writers help to safeguard Scripture from being misused and abused. Reading the Bible with an understanding of the past helps us to <i>better </i>understand what it has to say to us today. And also what it <i>doesn’t </i>say to us.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Avenir; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> But to read it with our feet only in the past is to ignore that it does have something to say to us <i>now</i>. Jesus told some of his critics to “go and learn” what Hosea the prophet meant when he said that God desired “mercy, and not sacrifice.” They were <i>experts </i>at what Hosea meant back then. He thought they needed to do some work on what that meant for his day. He told his audience in one sermon, “You have heard that it was said…but I say….” It’s great to know what the biblical writers said. But we have to do the hard work of interpreting those words from long ago to understand what God is doing in us and through us now. And what our future looks like because of him. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Avenir; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> So it’s not either/or. If you aren’t willing to learn about what the Bible said back then, you shouldn’t be dogmatic about what you think it says <i>now</i>. And if all you’re interested in is what it said in its original time and place, you’re not going to be very good and applying it to life in a world that’s so much different.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Avenir; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> So grab your Bible and do some time-traveling. </span></p>Patrick Odumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08344818381111725780noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2585446544910042015.post-18369675479121678672024-02-15T09:19:00.005-06:002024-02-15T09:21:16.914-06:00"A Lunch-Pail Job"<p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> <span style="font-family: Avenir; text-align: justify;">John Stewart, the comedian who became famous for hard-hitting political satire while hosting </span><i style="font-family: Avenir; text-align: justify;">The Daily Show </i><span style="font-family: Avenir; text-align: justify;">for 16 years, has recently returned to the show on Mondays as part of a rotating slate of guest hosts. Stewart is, to me, almost always funny and occasionally insightful. Especially so this past Monday, as he reflected on the upcoming Presidential election and the choice between, in his view, two not-so-great candidates. Whether you agree with that assessment or not, it was what came next that I think most everyone would have to agree with.</span><span style="font-family: Avenir; text-align: justify;"> </span></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Avenir; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqOkIYXkvzxr3zd62DjQ57uUinZVeFczBT2vztK_hCAMDPAjj_eJZqlmjnExNtGvIkD1B6g3SWIcwez1zxPM02kZRnz60wkJLHCbjZyXHucbO2dFPcrd0DVozV4yRkBhDf8T9rEOJRQXD9lghhFbU3PX6NCTWV8aEVvYDNRPfQX1FoYw36AlIMaS_sSuEc/s2000/1592928384-ent20-julyaug-backpage.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1333" data-original-width="2000" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqOkIYXkvzxr3zd62DjQ57uUinZVeFczBT2vztK_hCAMDPAjj_eJZqlmjnExNtGvIkD1B6g3SWIcwez1zxPM02kZRnz60wkJLHCbjZyXHucbO2dFPcrd0DVozV4yRkBhDf8T9rEOJRQXD9lghhFbU3PX6NCTWV8aEVvYDNRPfQX1FoYw36AlIMaS_sSuEc/w400-h266/1592928384-ent20-julyaug-backpage.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p style="font-family: Avenir; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> He talked about how who wins the Presidency, while important in our government, is not the only thing we should be thinking about. His words really resonated with me, since I think sometimes we put far too much of the weight of our own happiness and well-being on which millionaire or billionaire spends enough money to win an election, and far too little on the everyday things we can do — or not do — to make our world better. Stewart said: </span></p><p></p>
<p style="font-family: Avenir; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0px 18px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;">“The work of making this world resemble one that you would prefer to live in is a lunch pail…job day in and day out, where thousands of committed, anonymous, smart and dedicated people bang on closed doors and pick up those that are fallen and grind on issues ’til they get a positive result <span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-emoji: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;">―</span> and even then have to stay on to make sure that result holds. So the good news is: I’m not saying you don’t have to worry about who wins the election. I’m saying you have to worry about every day before it and every day after. Forever.”</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Avenir; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0px 18px; min-height: 15px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Avenir; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> I have a cousin who, in the name of Jesus, ministers to inmates in prison. Week after week, he shows up, I suppose sometimes literally banging on closed doors so that, through prayer and love, he can help pick up the fallen. A “lunch pail…job.” He has no authority to reform prisons or change any broken systems. He just shows up and prays and worships and talks with prisoners. He’s served death row inmates who one week were there and the next…weren’t. If he stopped showing up, many of the gains he’s made in the lives of some of those men would likely be lost. Our world tends to discount the value of contributions like that. Politicians prefer high-dollar, high-visibility projects that produce easily-trackable results and translate well to votes. Administrators always think the answer is more funding.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Avenir; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> Just a few weeks ago, I tried to get in touch with some of those politicians about what we’d need to do to use our building to house a family of migrants who have been sent to our city by other politicians looking for splashy headlines. I was told if we couldn’t house 20 or 30 people they had no use for us. Bigger is better. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Avenir; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> I’m saying those attitudes are wrong. What my cousin Tom does <i>matters. </i>What small churches and individuals and organizations do in a neighborhood <i>matters</i>. What “thousands of committed, anonymous, smart and dedicated people” do to “grind on issues ’til they get a positive result” <i>matters. </i>They do help to make our world somewhere you would prefer to live. Especially when they’re done in the name of Jesus.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Avenir; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> One of Jesus’ best-known miracles is the feeding of the five thousand. He multiplies five loaves of bread and two fish to feed this huge crowd of people. When everyone’s full, there are twelve basketfuls of leftovers. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Avenir; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> And how does this miracle happen? </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Avenir; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> A little boy shares his lunch. He, literally, shows up with a lunch pail.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Avenir; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> Jesus tells the disciples that it’s up to them to get this enormous mob of people fed. They have no idea how they’re going to do that. But they tell him, “Well, we have this kid’s lunch here. That’s a start.”</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Avenir; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> It takes some courage, desperation, faith, or all of the above, to throw five pitas and two fish at more than five thousand people and call that a solution, doesn’t it?</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Avenir; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> Yet believers in Jesus do that every day at shelters, food pantries, schools, hospitals, orphanages. They’re underfunded and undersupplied, and they know it, but they give what they have to Jesus and they put on a brave face and they get to work. They show love, they pray, they encourage and offer grace, they get creative and thrifty, and in the churn of all of that Jesus multiplies what they have and makes it more than enough.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Avenir; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> Churches do the same in their neighborhoods. Missionaries on the field. They serve and give and share what they have. They see themselves as the body of Christ, his presence in the world, and they pray and start passing out what God has given them, and God increases it exponentially. He meets needs. He shows his love. He spreads the good news of Jesus with the words, actions, talents, and resources of his people.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Avenir; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> Jesus <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+25:14-30&version=NIV">told a story</a> to help change the perspective of his disciples on the things he would leave them to do in the world, and the resources he’d provide them to do it. In the story, a wealthy man goes away on business, and Jesus says “entrusted his wealth” to three servants, who he expects to multiply his holdings. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Avenir; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> That’s a different perspective than we sometimes have right there. God entrusts his <i>wealth</i> to us. We’re not as underfunded and undersupplied as we think. We don’t always see the worth of what God has left us because it isn’t always in currency that the world around us values, but that’s just a problem of vision. We have resources of skill, spiritual gifts, potential co-workers, and God’s power that we don’t even know about. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Avenir; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> In the story, the estate owner only asks for results in proportion to what he’s left. Maybe sometimes we expect more of ourselves than God does. He sees our efforts. He knows how hard we work to do his business in the world with what he’s given us. He doesn’t expect perfection, and he doesn’t demand unreasonable results. And he promotes from within: “Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things.”</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Avenir; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> And then sometimes we expect less of ourselves than God does. And he’ll make that clear to us as well, if we’ll listen.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Avenir; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+cor+15:58&version=NIV"> Paul told the church in Corinth</a>, “Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.” It’s interesting; that comes at the end of a chapter that’s all about the hope of resurrection. That’s his conclusion; if Jesus rose from the dead, so will we. And if we rise from the dead, then what we do for God here and now has ripples that we won’t even see until “the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality” and “Death has been swallowed up in victory.”</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Avenir; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> So keep at it. Keep praying and working and sweating and giving what you have to the Lord, knowing that he has already given all he has to you. Keep going until you hear “Well done, good and faithful servant.”</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Avenir; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> And then you’ll see, finally, what all your hard work has accomplished. And it’ll be glorious.</span></p><div><br /></div>Patrick Odumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08344818381111725780noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2585446544910042015.post-14748970668298362212024-02-09T16:22:00.002-06:002024-02-09T16:30:00.873-06:00Qualified<p><br /> <span style="color: #313131; font-family: Avenir; text-align: justify;">But now</span><span style="color: #313131; font-family: Avenir; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"> </span><span style="color: #313131; font-family: Avenir; text-align: justify;">apart from the law the righteousness of God (although it is attested by the law and the prophets) has been disclosed—namely, the righteousness of God through the faithfulness of Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. But they are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.</span><span style="color: #313131; font-family: Avenir; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"> </span><span style="color: #313131; font-family: Avenir; text-align: justify;"> </span></p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: Avenir; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: right;">-Romans 3:21-24 (NET)</p>
<p style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Avenir; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px; text-align: right;"><br /></p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: Avenir; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNmhF13Vx5S8rWDvANEiEhzfQTtPhOvYkWI1KfekkUhYw-MSHVEU-H9qDZKi7L83fgtcors-bvStGi8w27ORblpI-CKj-UTK_ehEOyV3HPdfwgq-CK3hZPI-sZs_12u4KwJ6Bmmk0PvVchL18JU3TvuBbvMdgap4cOpLPXO-EmLYUbTA7kEKZyjhcr3c_z/s1480/packers-3.jpg.webp" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1480" data-original-width="1110" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNmhF13Vx5S8rWDvANEiEhzfQTtPhOvYkWI1KfekkUhYw-MSHVEU-H9qDZKi7L83fgtcors-bvStGi8w27ORblpI-CKj-UTK_ehEOyV3HPdfwgq-CK3hZPI-sZs_12u4KwJ6Bmmk0PvVchL18JU3TvuBbvMdgap4cOpLPXO-EmLYUbTA7kEKZyjhcr3c_z/w300-h400/packers-3.jpg.webp" width="300" /></a></div><p style="color: #313131; font-family: Avenir; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;">When the Green Bay Packers fired Defensive Coordinator Joe Barry, they knew they’d have sift through a lot of coaches interested in the role. It’s a prestigious job with an organization that’s one of the best-established brands in professional sports. It’s a talented young team. I imagine it pays pretty well. You get to coach football for a living. There are worse jobs, I’m saying, even if you have to do it in Green Bay. </p><p style="color: #313131; font-family: Avenir; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> Still, they might have been surprised at exactly how deep the applicant pool goes.</p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: Avenir; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> Bill Port applied. He’s been coaching football for 23 years. He’s won 3 regular season championships and 3 playoff championships. A lot of NFL teams don’t have close to that kind of success. (Including the Midway Monstrosity of a team that plays in my city.) Not to mention that he’s a lifelong fan of the Packers.</p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: Avenir; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> A strike against him, though, is that his wins haven’t been at the NFL level. Or at the college level. Or the high school level, or even in Pop Warner football.</p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: Avenir; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> Or anywhere but on a screen, for that matter. Bill’s two decades of coaching experience is in <i>fantasy</i> football. He’s never called a corner blitz, dropped a safety into double-coverage, or helped a defensive lineman with his 3-technique. All of his coaching is for teams that didn’t really exist. </p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: Avenir; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> Bill didn’t really imagine he was going to get the job, but he sent a resumé to the Packers anyway, listing all his “qualifications.” He hoped they’d at least get a chuckle out of it. His cover letter said, “I heard your organization has a job opening and I figured I’d try this defensive coordinator thing. Please note, I’d prefer weekends off. Go Pack Go.”</p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: Avenir; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> Weekends off might be tough when you work for an organization that plays most of their games on Sundays. But, you know, who’s going to run his fantasy team if he’s working?</p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: Avenir; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> Well, Bill didn’t get the job. But Packers CEO Mark Murphy sent him a handwritten reply: </p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: Avenir; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0px 18px; text-align: justify;">“Bill, Thanks so much for your cover letter and resume regarding our Defensive Coordinator position. While your fantasy football experience is impressive, I regret to inform you that we have decided to go in a different direction.”</p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: Avenir; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;">Kind of him, really, to let him down gently that way. He didn’t have to include the last line, though: “I hear the Bears have an opening — you look to be a perfect fit for them. Thanks again.”</p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: Avenir; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> Oh, funny. But, seriously, Bill: the Bears have made dumber coaching moves.</p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: Avenir; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> Bill wasn’t seriously applying to be the Packers’ DC. He knew he wasn’t qualified by a long shot. </p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: Avenir; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> And I hope you’ll hear me when I say to you that he was <i>far </i>more qualified for that job than any of us are for the blessings God has given us in Jesus.</p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: Avenir; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> Ouch. That took kind of an abrupt turn, didn’t it? We need to hear it, though, because the fantasy that God would be lucky to have us on his team is alive and well and living in all kinds of guises in the church. It turns us into Pharisaical, hypocritical, hypercritical jerks who do nothing but stand in the way of people coming into the kingdom of God. It sends us spiraling into depression when our facades crack and our illusions fade. </p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: Avenir; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> Paul writes in Romans about being “justified,” a word that means to declare someone to be righteous or not guilty. It’s his way of talking about what makes someone “Israel,” the people of God. In Romans, he’s already said that “there is no one righteous, not even one.” Using mostly Psalms, he shows that Israel was never Israel because they were so good. The difference between them and those who weren’t Israel was never their righteous acts. “We have already charged that Jews and Greeks [non-Jews] alike are all under sin,” he writes. To be God’s people, both Jews and non-Jews need to be “justified” — pronounced innocent. </p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: Avenir; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> That’s hard to hear for someone who thinks they’re more qualified than most everyone else. Imagine that Mark Murphy had called a news conference to announce that Bill Port was a legit candidate for DC. That coaches who have been successful NFL Defensive Coordinators are no more qualified than him. No doubt the team would start to wonder if maybe Murphy wasn’t qualified for <i>his </i>job. </p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: Avenir; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> Here’s the thing: all of us, before God, are Bill Port. Our best is not enough. “Together they have become worthless; there is no one who shows kindness, not even one.” But sometimes we start to think that we’re Dan Quinn or Raheem Morris or even Bill Bellichick. </p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: Avenir; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> Some of us think that our Bible knowledge qualifies us. Some of us think that because we worship the “right way,” God is lucky to have us. Some of us are proud of our understanding of baptism, or our special gift of the Holy Spirit, or the sacraments we observe. For some it’s our good deeds, our positions on political issues, or our concern for social justice. Some of us have overcome sins. Please understand, none of those things are bad. But none of them qualify us to share in the blessings that God gives to his people.</p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: Avenir; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> What qualifies us, he says, is “the faithfulness of Jesus Christ.” I specifically chose a translation that renders it that way; the phrase can also be translated “faith <i>in </i>Jesus Christ.” It’s really not a one-or-the-other thing, because Paul talks about the necessity of faith in Jesus in many places, and even here this righteousness is for “all who believe.” But “the faithfulness of Jesus Christ” is just as valid a translation, and I think it’s the right one here. What qualifies us to be part of the people of God is not anything we do at all — other than to trust, as much as we can, in the faithfulness of Jesus. He obeyed God when we couldn’t. He suffered for our sins. </p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: Avenir; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> That might shoot a hole in your pride. It might make you rethink who you feel superior to, and why. God isn’t interested in your resumé. Your qualifications, such as they are, won’t impress him. They’re not that much better than anyone else’s — not enough to matter.</p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: Avenir; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> But it will also save you when your world is falling in and you have no one to blame but yourself. </p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: Avenir; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> God doesn’t reject you because of your resumé. As sure as Christ is faithful, we are justified. By his grace, through the redemptive work of Jesus and not our own.</p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: Avenir; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> Congratulations. God thinks he can make you qualified for this new position he has for you. </p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: Avenir; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> Time to get to work. </p><div><br /></div>Patrick Odumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08344818381111725780noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2585446544910042015.post-55902223710967706212024-02-02T16:04:00.003-06:002024-02-02T16:04:35.104-06:00Connection Point<p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> <span style="font-family: Avenir; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: justify;">This past</span><span style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; text-align: justify;"> weekend, our church hosted teenagers from all around our area for a time of worship, food, games, and sharing in our faith together. It was what we used to call a “youth rally” when I was a teenager, though I think that term has sort of gone the way of VHS, pay phones, and writing checks. We call it Connection Point around here, but the idea is the same as it was in the 1980’s — getting teenagers together so that they know that there are other people their age who take their faith seriously. And who also wrestle with that same faith.</span></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> Let me say up front, I’m not cool. Not in the least. (Not that anyone who knew me for more than a minute or so would ever be in any doubt about that.) Definitely not to teenagers. I’m 55, a minister, a dad; I’m a lot of things, but cool isn’t one of them. I haven’t studied teen/young adult culture as anything more than an interested outside observer. So I’m in no way an expert on anything I’m about to try to write about. Everything I’m going to say comes from my own experience and reflection.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> Primarily, that experience comes down to this: for quite a few years now, teenagers have tolerated my presence. I’ve enjoyed reading the Bible with them, looking forward to what they’re going to ask and what they’re going to say about Scripture when they feel like it’s safe. I’m grateful that most weeks I get to talk to them about their lives, pray with them about what they want to lift up to God, and encourage them when they’re feeling overwhelmed. I don’t think I usually have much to say that helps them — but I think <i>sometimes</i> I do. And sometimes, I think, just my willingness to listen gives them a chance to talk through something, to articulate it, to develop their vocabulary and their capacity to name whatever might happening in their lives, take ownership of it, confront their fears about it, and maybe know that God cares about it as much as they do.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> Every now and again, one of them will talk about something big with me. Those moments have been some of the most sacred of my life because they’ve trusted me enough to talk to me and pray with me about their most deeply-held and -felt truths. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> So I want to say some things to the church about teenagers.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> The first is this: You can’t expect <i>them</i> to listen if <i>you</i> don’t listen. And your listening has to come first. In that way, it’s like how we experience God’s grace. God offers grace before we know we need it and before we’re able to accept it. If you aren’t listening to teenagers, I promise you this — <i>they are not listening to you. </i></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> Teenagers are used to being close-mouthed around adults. They feel like they have to be. On the one hand, they’re learning how to be their own people, independent of their parents and other adults in their lives. Sharing something feels like they’re betraying that process. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> On the other hand, some of them have probably trusted adults, only to have it turn around and bite them. They’ve been disappointed, made to feel stupid, and even taken advantage of, perhaps, when they’ve been too open. Or they have friends who have. Once bitten, twice shy. So they’re careful.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> And that means if they’re talking to you about <i>anything, </i>you take it seriously. You care about it as much as they do. Eventually, they might see you can be trusted and open up more. <i>Maybe.</i></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"><i> </i>In our teen classes at church, we spend a lot of time just talking about what went on in their lives that week. We don’t always offer advice, not unless we’re asked. We just do what the Bible says; we rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep. And we pray, because God listens best of all. Even if we don’t get to what we were planning to talk about that morning. Because if you’re not listening to teenagers, they are not listening to you.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> Second, and to put it bluntly: Teenagers have amazing b.s. detectors. They know if you’re not being real with them. The last thing they want is for me to try to identify too closely with them. There’s very little that’s more inauthentic and pathetic to a teenager than a 55-year-old guy trying to be like them. They are not unable to relate to someone older than them — if they <i>want </i>to. What they don’t want is an older person trying to pretend to be like them. Not to mention that whatever of theirs you try to embrace, you immediately make uncool.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> That should flow both ways, incidentally. You don’t need to be them — and they don’t need to be <i>you. </i>They have the rest of their lives to be adults. Right now they’re in a difficult in-between time when they aren’t children, but haven’t completely found their place in adult society. They’re trying things. And if they sense that they’re not accepted as they are, they will disengage. Which is no different than the rest of us, really. Imagine if, every time you walked into church, you felt people were disappointed in you and disapproving of you. That’s exactly how many teenagers feel every Sunday.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> Third, teenagers are capable of much more than you think they are. Our teens planned and carried out our Connection Point themselves. Sure, there were some adults who helped. But we worked for <i>them. </i>When decisions needed to be made, it was the teens who made them. They were in front of their peers, speaking to them about faith, reading Scripture, leading activities, skits, and games. They planned the menu. They made our guests feel welcome. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> And because of that, it was <i>theirs. </i>They felt ownership of it. They felt pressure to put together something that would be meaningful to them, and they felt pride when they accomplished it.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> Most churches need to trust their teenagers more. Give them something to do, help them see that it matters, and they’ll follow through. We never had to force them to work. We didn’t worry about whether or not they’d show up. This was their thing, and they took it seriously.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> Fourth, teenagers deconstruct. It’s what they do. It’s what they <i>need </i>to do. They need to take apart what they’ve been asked to accept so they can see how it works, understand it, and decide if it’s going to be a part of them. And that includes the faith they’ve received. They need to decide if it’s going to be <i>their</i> faith. And how much of it. We need to give them space, while acting as guides.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> It’s messy, this deconstruction. It’s disorienting, for them but maybe even more for adults who love them and are invested in their acceptance of the faith. We just have to remember that we deconstructed our parents’ faith, too. Things that mattered a lot to them did not to us. We jettisoned things that our parents hoped we’d keep. And things that they never saw as significant became for us non-negotiable. We need to remember that it’s not our job to keep them in the faith — that’s God’s work. He can be trusted. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> Finally: our teenagers are paying attention to us. They’re watching when we traffic in conspiracy theories and distort truth. They’re listening to our cynical views of the world. They notice when we ignore science and dismiss their concerns about the environment. They see when what we say about loving our neighbor doesn’t fit with how we actually treat our neighbors. They notice when we ignore blatant injustice while grumbling about a pop star and her football-player boyfriend. They’re watching, and what they see will determine whether they see you as an ally or just another adult who doesn’t understand them. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> They need you to be an ally. They hope you’ll be. Give them reason to think you are. Don’t push and shove them toward the destination you want for them. Don’t impatiently drag them along behind you on your journey. Walk with them on theirs, as fellow disciples of Jesus. Be a point of connection between them, the church, and the world. You may just help them to grow.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> I know they’ll help you.</span></p>Patrick Odumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08344818381111725780noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2585446544910042015.post-3236833525428691072024-01-19T17:00:00.004-06:002024-01-20T09:45:58.288-06:00Go Pastor<p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> <span style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; text-align: justify;">A week or two ago, I had a conversation about something I had been thinking about for a while, but hadn’t had much of an opportunity to articulate. It had to do with the church title “Pastor,” and how people in and out of the church think about it.</span><span style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; text-align: justify;"> </span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #444444;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZ7GmfxjMzRET9Nx7TNxfk_flRj-BbZP1y72J54n0ewTcQTZ6xCVlGR82qLwA9DTNi67XWwHezny_-YYC7sRZJjQHcb2GpEAHCkyKP-iIItxkAVUGv7Q2FxhM-_iDM_ICSGXsHFdTL9Ct99tEomUwDJAWxqoeVHmfUyBqc4e77w2q9on82z_usKVKnv2Sk/s276/images.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="183" data-original-width="276" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZ7GmfxjMzRET9Nx7TNxfk_flRj-BbZP1y72J54n0ewTcQTZ6xCVlGR82qLwA9DTNi67XWwHezny_-YYC7sRZJjQHcb2GpEAHCkyKP-iIItxkAVUGv7Q2FxhM-_iDM_ICSGXsHFdTL9Ct99tEomUwDJAWxqoeVHmfUyBqc4e77w2q9on82z_usKVKnv2Sk/w400-h265/images.jpeg" width="400" /></a></span></div><p></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> The person I was talking to told me about a former pastor he had known at a megachurch who the vast majority of the church only saw on “stage” at weekend services. He waited backstage until it was time for him to come out and speak. He had a security team that helped get him in and out of the building. It didn’t sound, from this person’s perspective at least, that this pastor would have visited someone who was in the hospital, or attended a funeral in their family, our counsel them. There were other pastors who filled these roles.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> Of course, those pastors weren’t the ones who were well-known, who wrote books and headlined conferences and were live-streamed to thousands each week. It got me thinking about what it means to be a pastor, and about how young pastors learn about leading a church. If every pastor you see is a gifted communicator who is hustled to and from speaking engagements by a posse to rival a rockstar’s road crew, guess what you assume being a pastor is?</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> Aspiring pastors have plenty of examples of the pastor as a “celebrity,” at least in church circles. Fewer have good examples to follow of the pastor who visits the sick, comforts the grieving, celebrates marriages, and helps people mark the big events of their lives and make sense of the sorrow and struggle. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> You see it in the titles for pastors that proliferate in churches. Senior and Associate Pastors have been around for a long time now — mostly, but not always, to differentiate between the Person Who Preaches on Sunday and the Other Pastors. There have been Youth Pastors for decades. But now there are Teaching Pastors. Executive Pastors, in charge of a church’s day-to-day operations. Lead Pastors. Campus Pastors, for multi-site churches. There’s one church I ran across in a quick Google search advertising for a “Go Pastor,” who is apparently responsible for “developing and implementing” their strategy for helping people “find and follow Jesus.” (Coincidentally, “Go, Pastor,” is also what a church says when they’re sick of you.) There are Worship Pastors and Discipleship Pastors, Pastors of Ministries and Pastors of Recovery, even something called a NextGen Pastor at a church called, I kid you not, Cool Church. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> I know, I know; I sound like a Grouchy Old Man™ shaking a crooked finger around and ranting about “kids today.” Please understand, I have zero problem with any of those titles. (Well, maybe “Go Pastor” is just a tad too cute?) In my faith heritage, “minister”is what we generally call paid church staff, making us all sound like UK politicians. But we have plenty of Youth Ministers, Senior Ministers, College Ministers, Executive Ministers, and Worship Ministers. We’ve generally not used “pastor” for those roles because we say that biblically, pastors are elders — but that’s a little bit of an oversimplification. Elders, in the Bible, are usually envisioned as doing many of the roles that today we offload onto our hired staff “ministers.” I don’t think we’re as opposed to the idea of pastors as much as we are to the use of the term by other Christian groups. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> These days, I’m an elder <i>and </i>a minister, so I figure I actually <i>can </i>use the title “pastor” if I want to. Still, I tend to cringe a little inwardly if someone calls me “Pastor Patrick.” </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> Thing is, no one in the Bible invented those titles for church leaders. They came from existing cultural leadership roles that were just adapted for churches. They were doing what we do; trying to define what leadership looks like in the church.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> <i>Elder </i>is an English translation of a Greek word that just means “a person of advanced age.” It’s also used in the Greek translations of the Hebrew Scriptures for a word that denotes the same thing. The Old Testament is full of references to “elders” who sit in city gates where they can be located quickly to judge disputes. Elders were tribal leaders who were recognized and admired for their wisdom. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> In <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=titus+1:5-9&version=NIV">Titus 1</a>, Paul encourages Titus to appoint elders for the church “in every town” on Crete. He says that those who are so appointed are to be “blameless” — character seems to have been the main qualification, as seen largely in their family lives, interpersonal relationships, and reputation outside the church. They should also be well-acquainted with the “trustworthy message” of the gospel so that they can teach it and refute those who teach against it. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> In <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+tim+3:1-7&version=NIV">1 Timothy 3</a>, Paul uses a different term, “overseer,” for what seems to be the same role, with the same character requirements. Again, it’s a term that Paul borrows from the culture for a supervisor. The word, <i>episkopos </i>(“Episcopal” comes from it), was used for centuries before Christianity for Greek city officials. Through Latin, the word came down in English as <i>bishop, </i>which through a couple thousand years of evolution in usage has all sorts of added connotations. In the New Testament, though, it implies a responsibility as much as an office, burden instead of privilege. <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+pet+2:25&version=NIV">The word is used for Jesus in 1 Peter 2:25</a>, which may explain why Paul tells Timothy that whoever wants to be an overseer in the church “desires a noble task.”</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> Our word “pastor” comes from the Latin translation of the Greek for “shepherd.” “Shepherd” isn’t a uniquely Christian way of referring to a leader, either. In the Ancient Near East, kings were thought of as “shepherds,” as well as priests and other religious officials. <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Ezekiel%2034&version=NIV">In Ezekiel 34</a>, God says through the prophet that when the human “shepherds” of his people can’t be trusted, God himself will shepherd them. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> Jesus, of course, <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+10%3A11-15&version=NIV" target="_blank">referred to himself as the “Good Shepherd.”</a> So it’s a natural enough term to apply to leaders of churches. In <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+pet+5:1-4&version=NIV">1 Peter 5</a>, Peter applies all three of these terms to the same group of people in the space of two verses, instructing the “elders” to “be shepherds (pastors) of God’s flock that is under your care, watching over them (episkopos)….” He reminds these shepherds that the “Chief Shepherd” will appear one day to reward them for their service in caring for his flock. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> And it is <i>his </i>flock. Whatever terms we use for leaders in the church, whether we take them right out of the pages of the Bible or adapt them from our own culture — or a little of both — we must get over the cultural idea that leadership is about privilege and position. In the church, leadership is about service, as we looked at in <a href="http://www.faithwebblog.com/2024/01/leaders-in-kingdom.html">last week’s post</a>. It’s about responsibility. It’s about caring and nurturing and protecting the people God has entrusted us with. Church leaders don’t need to always be charismatic, but they must always have character. They must be counted on to do what’s right and what will help the church to flourish. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> The church has felt the need for paid staff, and that’s not a bad thing — though paid staff shouldn’t do everything. Sometimes we feel the need to differentiate by job title specific roles that need to be filled, and that’s fine too. As long as we don’t lose sight of the fact that what church leaders do is not to enrich or promote themselves. Leadership shouldn't keep us at arm's length from people and their needs. It’s a sacred trust given by God to care for his people. It’s a “noble task,” but not one to be taken lightly. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> Some say that there’s a major crisis brewing in the church — that fewer and fewer younger people aspire to be pastors or church leaders. If so, maybe that’s because we’re looking for people whose leadership qualifications look more like CEOs. People who can be CEOs will probably prefer to be. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> But CEOs aren’t necessarily qualified to care for God’s people. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> May God raise us up good shepherds, overseers, and elders. And may we recognize them when he does.</span></p>Patrick Odumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08344818381111725780noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2585446544910042015.post-5338023648542931822024-01-12T17:07:00.011-06:002024-01-13T10:10:24.111-06:00Leaders in the Kingdom<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;">…[W]hoever wants to become great among you must be your servant,<span style="font-family: Avenir; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;"><b> </b></span>and whoever wants to be first must be your slave— just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: right;"><span style="color: #444444;">-Matthew 20:26-28 (NIV)</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Arial; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0ualsxRDFiJTb3Q2PVpjVlYq4ZbZowTQsQbDDNWqI_l5VxgeABxizq4hnavfl5y88WRiK7UlAz5UZ0QXyPfprwV35HW7e6YH-DQ7lpzzH6_zrsJlcAMKcOJB0jJ-mVbtVGPsswE7hM4XGTsFRqSfLqHnUhdOEcCiRKEed47MB2Q3M_vppFbAvMBlJsyCo/s612/istockphoto-187250978-612x612.jpeg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="612" data-original-width="408" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0ualsxRDFiJTb3Q2PVpjVlYq4ZbZowTQsQbDDNWqI_l5VxgeABxizq4hnavfl5y88WRiK7UlAz5UZ0QXyPfprwV35HW7e6YH-DQ7lpzzH6_zrsJlcAMKcOJB0jJ-mVbtVGPsswE7hM4XGTsFRqSfLqHnUhdOEcCiRKEed47MB2Q3M_vppFbAvMBlJsyCo/w266-h400/istockphoto-187250978-612x612.jpeg" width="266" /></a></div><p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;">This has been a momentous week for football coaches. On Wednesday Nick Saban, head coach for the Alabama Crimson Tide football team, announced his retirement after 17 fairly successful seasons. Over a 50-year career, Saban was head coach for four different college teams and the Miami Dolphins of the NFL. He has a won-loss record of 307-88-1. He won 7 National Championships (1 at Louisiana State and 6 at Alabama), 11 Southeastern Conference Championships (2 at Louisiana State and 9 at Alabama) and 1 Mid-America Conference Championship (at Toledo).</span></p><p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> Then the next day, arguably the only coach as successful as Saban left his own team. Bill Belichick was head coach of the NFL’s New England Patriots for 24 seasons, and won nearly 70% of his games there (266-121). He won 6 Super Bowls (and lost in 3 others). The Patriots won their division 17 times in 19 seasons, including 11 straight. He was also defensive coordinator for two other Super Bowl champs. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> Both Saban and Belichick have had success that most coaches couldn’t even dream of. For reference, in over a century of football, my University of Tennessee Volunteers have won the same number of National championships that Saban won in his 17 years at Alabama. Tennessee's had <i>six </i>head coaches during Saban's tenure, with a combined record of 93-92. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> The Chicago Bears have also had 6 coaches during Belichick’s 24 years at New England. T</span><span style="caret-color: rgb(68, 68, 68); color: #444444;">heir combined record is 191-203.</span><span style="color: #444444;"> They’ve won, let's see... 0 Super Bowls in that time (they did lose one), and four division championships. </span><span style="color: #444444;"> </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> Both organizations will of course want someone who can approximate the success Saban and Belichick have had. But that’s easier said than done. Finding successful leaders is hard.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> In our world, we assume that certain qualities are common to good leaders, almost innate, and that other kinds of expertise can be learned. Businesses hire CEO’s with charisma, vision, and big-picture thinking who can delegate, represent the company well, inspire confidence, and get people to do their jobs successfully. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> In our world, character seems to be secondary when it comes to leadership. We routinely now elect government officials who we know lie, cheat, try to rig the system, and abuse and manipulate the people they’re supposed to lead. It’s mystifying to me how a nation in which freedom and democracy are values can be drawn to authoritarian figures. Some of us even seem to think that certain character flaws make a person more qualified for leadership — as long as they use those flaws to accomplish what we want them to accomplish. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> Churches sometimes seem to select leaders based on what we’ve learned from corporations or teams. (Sometimes we even borrow the language of those organizations.) Some churches want charismatic leaders who can get folks to show up and give money. Some look for authoritarian leaders who provide certainty. But church history, maybe especially our recent history, is littered with the wreckage caused by the failure of those churches have set up as leaders, but who use the church for their own purposes. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> The problem, of course, is that every leader shares one major flaw. They’re human.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> So maybe we shouldn’t be trying to learn about leadership from the Belichicks and Sabans, the Bezoses and Musks of the world. Character flaws in a CEO won’t necessarily sink a Fortune 500 company, or even a nation’s government. But character flaws in a church’s leaders are ticking bombs, waiting to blow up in everyone’s faces.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> Maybe, instead of looking for high-vision, high-energy leaders with plans and agendas, or totalitarian leaders who tell us what to do and condemn those who don’t fall in line, we should take seriously what Jesus said about leadership in God’s kingdom. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> Three of the four Gospels tell us about a dispute between Jesus’ disciples that I would have left out of the story. Two of them, James and John, had a mother who aggressively looked after her sons’ interests: “<a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+20%3A20-21&version=NIV" target="_blank">Grant that one of these two sons of mine may sit at your right and the other at your left in your kingdom,</a>” she asks Jesus. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> She isn’t really interested in seating arrangements. She’s asking for offices in the executive suite for each of her boys. Because that’s leadership, isn’t it? Position. Influence. Let’s just say it — power. Fame. Prestige. Glory. She wanted her boys to get the big contracts and the speaking engagements and the book deals. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> The other disciples hear about it, though, and they’re angry — likely because they didn’t think of it first. Because leadership, in our world, is a zero-sum game. And if you get the better place of influence, that might leave nothing for me. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> Jesus says a couple of things in response about leadership that we need to hear.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> First: he says that greatness in God’s kingdom is found in suffering. That sounds just wrong, but that’s how upside down <i>we </i>have it. “<a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+20%3A22&version=NIV" target="_blank">Can you drink the cup I’m going to drink?</a>” Jesus asks the ambitious sons of Zebedee. Want to be a leader in your church? Suffer like Jesus did. Leadership isn’t luxury. It isn’t having respect and glory. It isn’t privilege. It isn't being a decision-maker. You’ll have to bear insults and give love in response. You’ll have to forgive. You’ll grieve. You’ll hurt. You’ll plead with God to take it away, and sometimes you’ll think he didn’t hear. We can’t lead in Jesus’ name without expecting to suffer as he did.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> Second: <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+20%3A24-28&version=NIV" target="_blank">he says that greatness in God’s kingdom is found in service</a>. Leadership as the world knows it is all about ruling over others. Hierarchies are clear. Powerful people tell others what to do. But in God’s kingdom, the person who considers themselves to be “first” will be first to serve. To be a slave, even. You might wonder, how could someone looking in from the outside even tell who the leaders were? And the answer is, they probably couldn’t. This isn’t winning respect by being magnanimous and generous to those everyone knows are your subordinates. It’s doing away with the whole idea that leading involves subordinates. <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke+22%3A24-27&version=NIV" target="_blank">As Jesus told his ambitious disciples at the Last Supper</a>, “Who is greater, the one who is at the table or the one who serves? Is it not the one who is at the table? But I am among you as one who serves.” </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> In God’s kingdom, there’s one Coach. One CEO. One King. There’s one leader, and he gave his life for those he leads. If you want to lead like Jesus does, don’t look for someone to give you a position. Go find someone to serve.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> He’s the only leadership model that makes sense for us.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> And here’s one thing we don’t consider enough in all the church’s fascination with leadership: If leadership in the Kingdom isn’t about someone giving you position and influence, then <i>anyone </i>can lead. Just go find someone to serve. You don’t have to wait for a nameplate on a door, a title, a paycheck, or a place on the stage. And, honestly, anyone who isn’t <i>already </i>serving the church should never presume to be a leader in it. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> Leaders aren’t just someone we choose. We <i>become</i> leaders, Kingdom leaders, as we follow Jesus and love others like he has loved us. May he raise up Kingdom leaders among us.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> And may we recognize those he’s already raised up by their love and service.</span><span style="color: #444444; text-align: left;"> </span></p>Patrick Odumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08344818381111725780noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2585446544910042015.post-36723176143425561402024-01-05T14:00:00.004-06:002024-01-05T14:00:37.521-06:00Rocking the New Year<p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> <span style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; text-align: justify;">So Joshua called together the twelve men he had appointed from the Israelites, one from each tribe, and said to them, “Go over before the ark of the LORD your God into the middle of the Jordan. Each of you is to take up a stone on his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the Israelites, to serve as a sign among you. In the future, when your children ask you, ‘What do these stones mean?’ tell them that the flow of the Jordan was cut off before the ark of the covenant of the LORD. When it crossed the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. These stones are to be a memorial to the people of Israel forever.”</span><span style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; text-align: justify;"> </span></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: right;"><span style="color: #444444;">-Joshua 4:4-7 (NIV)</span></p><p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: right;"><span style="color: #444444;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Arial; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px; text-align: justify;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3rWxF-Ah2yOEJXeNw8Gz789TBbCWCsWoC4GFlVKYS9vXkcFEMC7OPhHy9oaAVzR2uZsK21d3goN9Bfp4kUyNYUHxq0D0hBXV5NdDjoWnnyLEciCycm4vl3SjSs5Ev8-i9tJJ3j1QhQI-UtIqC938olGjgt-EjUZoBULxb1HmdBA6kziQeSXoJKwcfF6bl/s630/For-web-mag.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="333" data-original-width="630" height="211" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3rWxF-Ah2yOEJXeNw8Gz789TBbCWCsWoC4GFlVKYS9vXkcFEMC7OPhHy9oaAVzR2uZsK21d3goN9Bfp4kUyNYUHxq0D0hBXV5NdDjoWnnyLEciCycm4vl3SjSs5Ev8-i9tJJ3j1QhQI-UtIqC938olGjgt-EjUZoBULxb1HmdBA6kziQeSXoJKwcfF6bl/w400-h211/For-web-mag.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><span style="color: #444444;"><br /></span><p></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;">Growing up in Tennessee, I was surrounded by memorials. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> Most of them were on Civil War battlefields, and the names are a vivid part of my childhood memories: Chickamauga, Lookout Mountain, Missionary Ridge, Stones River. Almost everywhere you go around Chattanooga or Middle Tennessee, you see memorials: plaques, statues, even cannons. They’re witnesses to the past, most of them testimonies to people generations gone whose courage and sacrifice helped to draw our nation back together. As a kid, I’d climb on the cannons and shoot down imaginary enemies. A little older, I’d read the plaques and the names and sometimes wonder what they were like, which of them went home and which were buried in the Tennessee clay under my feet, which had a life after the war and which left widows and orphans and grieving parents behind. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> The New Year is here, so it’s a good time to consider memorials. But not so much those elaborate Civil War memorials of my childhood that are so good at bearing mute witness to the past. It’s a different kind of memorial that’s on my mind today, less elaborate, almost crude, but more vital and living: A pile of stones standing on a riverbank.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> When the Hebrews crossed the Jordan River into the Promised Land, they brought those stones with them. The Jordan was the last obstacle, the one thing keeping a four-decade horde of wanderers from beginning to grow into a nation. Their leader, Joshua, the successor to Moses, knew a memorial was in order. So he tasked a representative from each of the twelve tribes that made up the fledgling nation with removing a large stone from the dry riverbed that God gave them to walk across. Once across, they were to use the stones to build a memorial. Kind of like those Civil War memorials.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> But not really, because this memorial was to serve a different function. It was less a memorial to the past than a marker for the future. Joshua imagined kids playing by the riverbank, or young men hunting, or young women washing clothes. He imagined a future when Israel was secure in the land, and imagined that future generation might need a history lesson. “What’s this pile of rocks here?” they might ask. And then those who knew the story could tell it: “You might have trouble believing this, but God stopped the flow of the Jordan so we could cross! This is who we are. We’re the people of the God who held up the flow of a river for us.”</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> There’s a movie coming out that you’ll never see. It’s called <i>100 Years, </i>and it envisions life on earth a century from now. Once the film was completed it was placed in a bulletproof, time-locked vault set to open on Nov. 18, 2115. A thousand people from around the world, including star John Malkovich and director Robert Rodriguez, have received invitations to be passed down to their descendants.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> Sounds right to me. Whatever the future holds for us, whether 100 years or a day from now, is locked. It’s inscrutable. This time of year is filled with predictions, and it’s filled with retrospectives, but rarely do the two inform one another. We memorialize the past with markers, and look toward the future with some mixture of hope, fear, uncertainty, dread, and anticipation. But rarely do we occupy the only ground we really can, the present, and let what our past tells us inform the future we know is coming.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> So here’s what our past tells us about the coming New Year. It tells us, for one, that we will face obstacles. We have to anticipate that there will be times in the next twelve months when taking a step forward will feel like wading out into a raging river. If you think being one of God’s people means that life should be easy and comfortable and free of conflict, well, then you just don’t know your history. There will be moments in 2024 where you find your way blocked and your fears mounting. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> But our past also reminds us, doesn’t it, that God goes with his people? Whatever you face between now and next January, you won’t face it without him. Where God’s people go, he goes with them, whether as a pillar of fire or an Ark of the Covenant or the Word made flesh. You know that’s true, because you remember what he’s already walked through with you. You will encounter no adversary, no obstacle, no snare or temptation or sickness or grief that he will not encounter with you. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> And where he goes, the dangers recede. Where he goes, rivers dry up and armies break and run and storms still and demons submit and grieving people find joy again. This year will bring nothing that he can't handle, that he hasn’t <i>already</i> handled. There is no hurt so deep, fear so powerful, obstacle so big, or enemy so strong that God is not deeper, more powerful, bigger or stronger still.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> The New Year seems like uncharted territory, and of course in some ways it is. But, look, there on the riverbank. Look at all those markers, all those memorials of how God has been with his people and helped them through and over and around the obstacles they’ve encountered on the way. Word and song and prayer remind us. Jesus assures us. The experiences of our family in Christ testify that we walk into this New Year’s inevitable mix of joys and sorrows, blessing and hardship, with the presence of God and in his power.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> So grab your rock as you cross. Make it part of the testimony of God’s people, so that when your children are scared and your friends are in doubt and even your own heart is weary, you’ll look ahead with hope and joy and anticipation.</span></p>
<p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal;"> On Sunday morning, </span><span style="caret-color: rgb(68, 68, 68); color: #444444; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal;">for the first time in 2024, </span><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal;">we’ll gather around the table and share bread and cup in memory of Jesus. But we won’t just look back on that awful past event. It will serve for us as a marker</span><span style="caret-color: rgb(68, 68, 68); color: #444444; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal;"> </span><span style="caret-color: rgb(68, 68, 68); color: #444444; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal;">to the future hope we have because of it. </span><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Avenir Light;">As we cross into a New Year, we share with the rest of God's <span style="caret-color: rgb(68, 68, 68);">people</span> in taking that hope firmly in hand to mark our passage and point the way to our future.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> May all who need such hope this year see it. And may we tell that story well. </span></p>Patrick Odumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08344818381111725780noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2585446544910042015.post-10698879438735244732023-12-27T16:24:00.001-06:002023-12-27T18:51:05.291-06:00Nativity<p style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; text-align: justify;">Legendary Chicago newspaper reporter Mike Royko had a column that he reran in the </span><i style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; text-align: justify;">Daily News </i><span style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; text-align: justify;">every Christmas Eve for about a quarter of a century. It was called “</span><a href="https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1997-05-04-9705040051-story.html" style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; text-align: justify;">Mary and Joe, Chicago Style</a><span style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; text-align: justify;">,” and told the story of the birth of Jesus as if the titular couple had come to Chicago instead of Bethlehem. I won’t spoil it for you, but suffice to say that things don’t go smoothly for them as they run into one bureaucratic roadblock after another. The City That Works, you know.</span><span style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; text-align: justify;"> </span></p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> Anyway, re-reading Royko’s column got me thinking. So you could say that what’s below is “inspired by” “Mary and Joe, Chicago Style,” and also by events in my city today. Oh, and also by what happened in Bethlehem all those years ago.</p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;">——</p><p style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBP1N5lL5UFBHXpm0x05slGni-2aSusFHz92qVxDCfTdp98XbJNQOrKyousOqV9OQfhHjaHPgUBoOx8ks7tpyAXKSelwPqE51Wn1mt2kJTQBg-rEp_X_sjrB_fKKMvcP7f4ef7LlRAwT5hcu7bjavHxetpuhtJ81d29BQBQiiHfBrrkdOPnBqy41_nhrcf/s820/90.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="461" data-original-width="820" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBP1N5lL5UFBHXpm0x05slGni-2aSusFHz92qVxDCfTdp98XbJNQOrKyousOqV9OQfhHjaHPgUBoOx8ks7tpyAXKSelwPqE51Wn1mt2kJTQBg-rEp_X_sjrB_fKKMvcP7f4ef7LlRAwT5hcu7bjavHxetpuhtJ81d29BQBQiiHfBrrkdOPnBqy41_nhrcf/w400-h225/90.jpeg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><br /></p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;">The bus they put Maria and José on didn’t actually go all the way to Chicago. It was supposed to, but after 25 hours it stopped in Aurora for gas just off the interstate, and the driver told them they were at the end of the line and made them get off. Their clothes weren’t heavy enough for the windy, cloudy, 40-degree day, so they huddled together while they tried to catch a ride to the city, where they figured they could maybe find a place to spend the night.</p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> They were luckier than their fellow passengers; because Maria was so obviously pregnant, a truck driver heading toward the city offered them a lift. They crowded into the cab with him, Maria trying to rest in the sleeper after what she’d just endured. It was warm, at least, and before they pulled out the driver bought them sandwiches and water at the gas station.</p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> Bouncing along in the semi, they were the most comfortable they’d been for a long time. And the most comfortable they’d be for a long time.</p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> By the time they got to the city, it was getting dark. Colder, too. The driver gave them some money and dropped them off at the cheapest motel he could find: unfortunately it cost more than they had. When José asked if they could just stay for a couple of hours, the desk clerk turned up his nose at them and sent them away. After walking around for a couple of hours, Maria’s water broke. A man living in a tent at a nearby park said they could have the tent for the night in exchange for the money the truck driver had given them. </p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> Maria’s baby was born in the cold, dirty tent, with José trying to keep things as warm and comfortable. They named him Jesús. None of them slept much, huddled under dirty blankets and trying to keep the cold, hungry, crying newborn warm.</p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> The next morning, a jogger found the little family and brought them breakfast and diapers. He helped them get to a police station, where they were told that they weren’t in the system because the bus driver hadn’t taken them to an official drop-off location in the city at the designated times. They were told they could sleep in the lobby of the station temporarily with other migrants. Someone gave them blankets, sleeping bags, pillows, and other necessities. Volunteers stopped by during the day with food and medication, and Maria got pain reliever for the first time since the birth. They could use the restroom to clean up, and after a day or two a volunteer drove them to a place where they could have showers. </p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> They had been there about a week when all the migrants were told they would have to clear out, that the city policies had changed and they couldn’t stay in the police station anymore. Because of Jesús, they were prioritized and driven to an emergency shelter, an empty brick building with boarded-up windows and paint slapped over graffiti. They were thankful for the shelter, <a href="https://blockclubchicago.org/2023/12/15/migrants-describe-inhumane-conditions-at-chicagos-largest-shelter/">but it was far from adequate</a>. There was food, but much of it seemed to be old and spoiled. The peeling paint, dust, and dirt made Maria and José fear for Jesús’ health. The bathrooms weren’t cleaned regularly, and the rooms were crowded with cots, over two thousand people crammed into the shelter. There was no privacy, and noise and activity was constant. The place was always cold.</p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> Even more problematic was the constant coughing. Maria and José worried about the eye infections and respiratory illnesses that seemed to be constantly going around. They hadn’t been there but a couple of days when Jesús developed a runny nose, started to cough, and developed a fever. Having heard stories about kids dying in the shelters, they begged for medical attention, only to be told that they had just missed the pop-up clinic, and that it would be another four days before anyone could see them.</p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> Every day, José went out with some of the other migrants to try to find work to pay for medicine and other needs that the shelter didn’t provide. Some days he’d get hired for a few dollars an hour. Other times he’d only be able to beg for spare change. One day he met one of his countrymen, who had managed to get some boxes of apples (somewhere, José didn’t ask where) and told him he could sell some at an intersection and they’d split the profits. At the end of the day, he demanded all the money that José had made selling his apples. </p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> There was a church near the shelter, so one day Maria took Jesús and walked down there. It was a big, comfortable building; not luxurious, but warm and inviting. There were some volunteers there getting ready for their weekly food giveaway, but they seemed too busy to strike up a conversation with Maria. She asked to speak to the pastor, and they were able to track him down. </p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> He was a nice enough guy and spoke enough Spanish that they could communicate. She told him their story, and he seemed sympathetic. Then she told him who Jesús’ Father was, and she could see that she’d lost him. It was that same look in the eyes that her parents had when she told them about the dream, or whatever it was, and tried to explain her pregnancy. A mixture of concern, fear, and judgment. When she asked if they could stay, just for a little while, in exchange for some work around the church building, he just smiled sadly and shook his head no. “I’m sorry,” he said. “We’re just not equipped for that.” They had looked into it, he explained, and the city required that they be able to house 20 migrants, or they couldn’t house any. Go figure. He offered her food from their pantry, but of course they had nowhere to store or prepare anything. She noticed the nice kitchen and how much room there was in the church, but she didn’t say anything more about it, accepted the little bit of money the pastor offered, and went back to the crowded shelter.</p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> The pastor would think back on that young woman and her baby a few days later, when three well-dressed guys that smelled like incense showed up asking about them. But he honestly couldn’t recall enough about her story to be helpful. And he didn’t even know about the shelter just down the street. </p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> That night, José pulled his cot next to Maria’s, as he did every night. They held Jesús between them and snuggled together under the blanket as best they could. And <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke+1:46-56&version=NIV">Maria sang her song</a>, the one José loved so much, that had taken shape in her heart just a few months ago: </p>
<blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><p style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><i>My soul glorifies the Lord</i><span style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><i> </i></span><i>and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,</i><span style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><i> </i></span></p><p style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><i>for he has been mindful of the humble state of his servant.</i><span style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><i> </i></span> </p></blockquote>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> He listened to her sing, hoping he still believed it. And when they got to the last line he found that, amazingly, he did. He sang the lines with her, looking at Jesús in his mother’s arms: </p>
<blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><p style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><i>He has…lifted up the humble.</i><span style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><i> </i></span></p><p style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><i>He has filled the hungry with good things….</i><span style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><i> </i></span></p></blockquote>
Patrick Odumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08344818381111725780noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2585446544910042015.post-7098961665246345842023-12-22T14:20:00.002-06:002023-12-22T14:45:36.337-06:00I Heard the Bells<p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> <span style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; text-align: justify;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; text-align: justify;">As we near Christmas this year, it’s with two destructive wars in the news, both between nations in which some think the other has no right to exist. People displaced by both wars stream to other countries, ours included, where they may not feel much welcome and find themselves distrusted, ignored, and actively despised.</span></span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-family: Avenir Light;"></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-family: Avenir Light;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3wu0ejHLCPlGZfxP0fTEP2YJm9N4kc9fUipUjNRZOZoBCta6CQYhaKeyl8Lrdq1wsCQ5VW_oNyNbd-KtAGQrigMok2INbLP4dakX5ntJVWjRjAfrTKc-wo7COPthP5mcIOVXIUQV5cqgoAdU4FnwY2STO4LC8lGU7phRSdhOm1-CszyfgvoyB5v4NxrwO/s530/DWHT56029_A2.jpeg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="530" data-original-width="530" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3wu0ejHLCPlGZfxP0fTEP2YJm9N4kc9fUipUjNRZOZoBCta6CQYhaKeyl8Lrdq1wsCQ5VW_oNyNbd-KtAGQrigMok2INbLP4dakX5ntJVWjRjAfrTKc-wo7COPthP5mcIOVXIUQV5cqgoAdU4FnwY2STO4LC8lGU7phRSdhOm1-CszyfgvoyB5v4NxrwO/w400-h400/DWHT56029_A2.jpeg" width="400" /></a></span></span></div><span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-family: Avenir Light;"> The governor of one of our states is using immigration issues — often involving people<br /> looking for asylum from dangerous situations in their home countries — to stoke fear and score political points. In my own city, we find ourselves too often unable to agree on what to do about those asylum-seekers who have been brought to us. A Presidential candidate — the front-runner for one party — said this week that migrants from Africa, Asia, and South America were “poisoning the blood” of the US, the kind of language normally used by advocates of white supremacy. Some of the members of his party have called him out for those comments, but others have tried to excuse them and, <a href="https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/politics/iowa-poll/caucus/2023/12/22/iowa-poll-shows-depth-of-republicans-support-for-donald-trump-poisoning-the-blood-speech-gop/71998614007/#:~:text=Pluralities%20of%20men%20and%20women,poisoning%20the%20blood%22%20of%20America." target="_blank">according to one poll</a>, 42% of voters are actually </span><i style="font-family: "Avenir Light";">more </i><span style="font-family: Avenir Light;">likely to support him after his words. </span></span><p></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> The divisions in our world — racial, political, ethnic, economic, and generational fissures — seem as wide and deep as a century and a half ago. We seem unable to agree on even the basic values; that human lives matter, that no one should have to live in fear of tyranny and violence, that freedom and responsibility must go hand-in-hand, that everyone should have access to basic needs like food, shelter, education, and health care, that those who have should share with those who don’t. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> I’m reminded this year of the Longfellow poem set to music, <i>I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day. </i>Longfellow wrote the poem after his wife died in 1861. Two years later his son, who had enlisted to fight in the Union Army in defiance of his father’s wishes, was severely wounded at the Battle of Mine Run. Longfellow wrote: </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0px 18px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;">I heard the bells on Christmas Day<br />
Their old, familiar carols play, <br />
and mild and sweet<br />
The words repeat<br />
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;">But the songs he heard played from “the belfries of all Christendom” didn’t match what he was seeing around him and feeling in his heart as his country tore itself apart. The carols were drowned out by the “black, accursed mouth[s]” of cannons “in the South.” So: </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0px 18px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;">In despair I bowed my head;<br />
"There is no peace on earth," I said; <br />
"For hate is strong,<br />
And mocks the song<br />
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!”</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;">This is one of those years I can relate to Longfellow. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> Can you? The danger, of course, is that we let the hatred around us infect us, turn us, make us sufficiently afraid and angry that we take the language and actions of hatred as our own. That we demonize everyone who thinks differently from us, call them names and accuse them of evil or idiocy. That we attack everything we consider evil except the evil that has squirmed into our own hearts and is reproducing itself there.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> That isn’t the response that the coming of Jesus should instill in us. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> Maybe we need to keep in mind the fact that Jesus came to a divided world, too. Paul writes in Ephesians 2: </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0px 18px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"><i>[R]emember that formerly you who are Gentiles by birth and called “uncircumcised” by those who call themselves “the circumcision”…were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners</i><span style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><i> </i></span><i> to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once</i><span style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><i> </i></span><i> were far away have been brought near</i><span style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><i> </i></span><i> by the blood of Christ.</i><span style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><i> </i></span></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;">Jesus came to a world where Jews were hated and could turn that hatred right back into the faces of the “uncircumcised” Gentiles. It was a world in which racial and ethnic supremacy was a live issue and no doubt divisions were perpetuated to try to prevent the “poisoning” of pure blood. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> Paul reminds those who were far away from Israel and their God that they had been “brought near by the blood of Christ.” Paul didn’t care about protecting the blood of Israel. He preached that the only truly pure blood had been spilled to end the hatred between Jews and non-Jews: <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0px 18px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"><i>For he himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by setting aside in his flesh</i><span style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><i> </i></span><i> the law with its commands and regulations.</i></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;">Paul’s saying that Jesus died to bring about peace, that what he did tears down the walls between human beings by rendering meaningless the things that we use to set ourselves apart. In Paul’s day, Jews might have used the Law of Moses to mark themselves off as distinct from and superior to the Gentiles. Gentiles, I’m sure, had their own dividing walls. And, of course, so do we have our walls that we erect, real and metaphorical barriers by which we keep separate those who are different, not like us, and, therefore, inferior, threatening, or even evil. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> Jesus died to destroy those barriers that we so self-importantly build to protect ourselves and to keep out those who we don’t think deserve what we have. To “protect our way of life.” To keep our blood pure. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0px 18px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"><i>His purpose was to create in himself one</i><span style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><i> </i></span><i>new humanity out of the two, thus making peace, and in one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross,</i><span style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><i> </i></span><i>by which he put to death their hostility. He came and preached peace</i><span style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><i> </i></span><i> to you who were far away and peace to those who were near.</i></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;">I guess who’s “far away” and whose “near” depends on which side of the wall you’re on, right? But Paul’s point is that whoever you think are far away from you and maybe even from God, and whoever you think are near, you’re wrong. In Jesus, there is peace — peace between human beings and God, and peace between human beings and each other. To those in Christ, whatever barriers we might put up to keep others far away are torn down. “Peace on earth, good will to man” is not just possible; it’s God’s agenda played out in Christ.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> Sometimes we try to separate issues of acceptance and justice and care for all people from the gospel. But Paul says here that Jesus didn’t just die for our individual sins. He died to redeem the sins that keep us apart and bring us together —“to create…one new humanity out of the two.” </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> You know what that means? It means that the dividing walls we’ve carried with us, dividing walls that maybe even were bequeathed to us by our ancestors, they belong to a pre-Christian time. When Christ comes, they are leveled. Done away with. And to cling to them is to cling to the old ways of hatred, injustice, and violence in the face of the love, grace, and compassion that God has given to us in Jesus. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> In Christ, God has brought us “near.” And he offers to us the chance and the responsibility and the spiritual power to do what we can to work out his purposes in our world — the creating of one new humanity out of the splintered, divided one that sin has created. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> Let’s welcome the coming of Christ to heal the division in our own hearts and minds.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> And then, through words and actions of peace, let’s begin to heal the divisions that plague our world. </span></p>Patrick Odumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08344818381111725780noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2585446544910042015.post-28328443150023384462023-12-15T13:22:00.002-06:002023-12-15T13:23:14.748-06:00Christmas Confusion: When Was Jesus Born?<p style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; text-align: justify;"> </span><span style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; text-align: justify;">In this series on mistakes and inaccuracies in the way we retell the stories of Jesus’ birth, we’ve already seen</span><span style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; text-align: justify;"> </span><span style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; text-align: justify;">that </span><a href="http://www.apple.com" style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; text-align: justify;">Jesus probably wasn’t turned away from an inn and born in a stable</a><span style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; text-align: justify;">. We don’t know</span><a href="http://www.faithwebblog.com/2023/12/christmas-confusion-we-three-kings-of.html" style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; text-align: justify;"> how many Wise Men came to give gifts to Jesus, and none were at the manger</a><span style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; text-align: justify;">. </span><span style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; text-align: justify;"> </span></p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> In this post we’ll talk about two related Christmas myths — one that has to do with the date we celebrate Jesus’ birth, and one that comes out of that.</p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiww2nHeGsYO4c0BuDoQWgyc8nEy7LPn-nVx_I7kNHQEcACaJfb8uIvlmcx6JL2LFAXcej-6qUeWU6pBMROYE4q0ipeWvTBP6uy8Wvyy9w954wHQDOzeYFVZai8Nlj3-gCT_f3hFxAlV-4Jyx-HacJJIf8B90JZN8N0B2ekowu3AKsmcZ8ueUGBsTYtl15/s1024/45370164432_6ff1621892_b.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="747" data-original-width="1024" height="291" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiww2nHeGsYO4c0BuDoQWgyc8nEy7LPn-nVx_I7kNHQEcACaJfb8uIvlmcx6JL2LFAXcej-6qUeWU6pBMROYE4q0ipeWvTBP6uy8Wvyy9w954wHQDOzeYFVZai8Nlj3-gCT_f3hFxAlV-4Jyx-HacJJIf8B90JZN8N0B2ekowu3AKsmcZ8ueUGBsTYtl15/w400-h291/45370164432_6ff1621892_b.jpeg" width="400" /></a></div><p style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> First, let’s talk about Jesus’ birthday.</p><p style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> We don’t know when it was. There. Done. There’s nothing in the New Testament’s stories of Jesus’ birth that tells us anything about what time of year it was. </p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> We do <i>kind of </i>know the year. Augustus was the Emperor in Rome; <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke+2:1&version=NIV">Luke tells us that much</a>. That narrows down Jesus’ birth to the range of January 16, 27 B.C. - August 19, A.D. 14. <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke+2:1-2&version=NIV">Luke also tells us</a> that Quirinius was governor of Syria, the Roman province in which the Holy Land was included. We’re on a little bit shakier ground there; we know that there was a census in A.D. 6, but that’s too late for the census mentioned in Luke, which is probably why Luke refers to it as “the <i>first </i>census,” to differentiate it from the later one that was better-remembered. </p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> We know the A.D. 6 census was too late because of the third bit of historical data we have: Herod the Great was King of Judea, according to both <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=matt+2:1&version=NIV">Matthew</a> and <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke+1:5&version=NIV">Luke</a>. He was a client king of Rome, and we know he reigned from 37 - 4 B.C. We also know that Jesus was “<a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke+3:21-23&version=NIV">about 30 years old</a>” when John the Baptist baptized him and he began his work, and that <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke+3:1-2&version=NIV">John began baptizing in the fifteenth year of Tiberius’ reign</a> as Emperor of Rome, which most historians estimate would have been A.D 28-29. Allowing for a few years of leeway in the estimate of Jesus’ age at his baptism, most New Testament scholars place his birth year between 6 and 4 B.C.</p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> But wait: Doesn’t “B.C” mean “before Christ?” How could Jesus have been born at <i>anything </i>“B.C.?”</p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> This gets complicated, but it springs from the fact that a Scythian monk named Dionysius, who lived about 500 years after Jesus, was the first one to really try to tie the calendar to his birth, and he was working with some incomplete or confused historical data. However it happened, his calculations were off by a few years. (Still, 4-6 years off isn’t too bad!)</p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> As to the specific date, there isn’t any solid biblical data. <i>Could </i>have been December 25th. (The often-quoted idea that shepherds wouldn’t have been out with their sheep in December assumes too much; the temperature right now in Bethlehem, on December 13th at 1 AM, is 53°.) Some interpreters have tried to set the time of the year from Zechariah’s temple service, assuming it was the Day of Atonement, but the text doesn’t say that it was. The fact is that we just don’t know. </p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> So, how in the world did we come to celebrate Christmas on December 25th?</p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> Well, not all of the church has, or does. Some Christians celebrate Epiphany, on January 6. Some Christians don’t celebrate Christmas at all, precisely because the Bible doesn’t tell us when Jesus’ birth was, or even that we should celebrate it. <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=romans+14:5&version=NIV">Paul’s words</a> probably apply here: “One person considers one day more sacred than another;<span style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span> another considers every day alike. Each of them should be fully convinced in their own mind.” Of much more concern than whether or not we celebrate December 25th as religious observance is that we choose to celebrate or not to celebrate out of reverence for the Lord, and that we not look down on Christians who make a different decision about that than we do.</p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> Here’s the second myth we need to consider: There’s a bit of popular “wisdom” among some Christian communities that Christmas’ origins are pagan, that December 25th is the church’s attempt to “Jesus-ify” the festivals of either Saturnalia (to honor the God Saturn) or Sol Invictus (the Sun god), and therefore Christians shouldn’t celebrate it all.</p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> Again, choose not to celebrate if that seems right to you, but you should know that there is no evidence that the date of December 25th has pagan origins. What is possible — though not certain — is that Christians chose the date of December 25th because of its proximity to the winter solstice, the day after which the sunlight hours begin to increase. The Romans likely chose the date for the festival for Sol for the same reason. For Christians, though, the increasing sunlight represented the light of Christ entering the world. </p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> If that’s the case, then December 25th was never intended to be historically accurate, but rather theologically significant. Especially in a non-literate world, using the calendar to tell the story of the birth of Jesus literally bringing light into the world would be memorable.</p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> Christmas’ supposed pagan roots developed out of hostility toward Catholicism during the Reformation of the 14th and 15th centuries. It was easy to claim the Catholics had just painted a Christian whitewash over a pagan celebration to fool poor, silly pagans into becoming converts. We know, however, that December 25th was fixed as the date of Christ’s birth sometime in the early 4th century — before there was a Catholic church or Pope as we know them. </p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> I think the value of Christmas isn’t in fixing with certainty the date of Jesus’ birth. As near as I can tell, that has never been its intent. Christmas is a celebration of Jesus coming into our world, becoming <i>us,</i> to overcome the sin that had broken us and show us what we can be. As the Son was willing to be incarnated, it’s good for us to have a date to mark on our calendars. It helps to make it real for us, maybe, to recognize that on one particular day in human history, God entered into our world in the form of Jesus to heal our disease, bear our sins, suffer our death, and bring us life. We don’t have to know the <i>correct </i>day. Jesus never asked us to celebrate his birthday. Certainly, many aspects of the celebration as we know it today don’t serve us well in remembering him at all. But I think we need a date on our calendars. To my brothers and sisters who might object, “We remember Jesus’ coming <i>every </i>day,” I’d just say, “Do we? Or are we more likely to just go about our business as usual, rarely recalling that he ‘<a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+1:14&version=NIV">became flesh and lived among us</a>’?”</p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> But I also think it’s good that we don’t know the date he was born. Because, of course, you can’t pin God to a date. One of the things the prophets of the Old Testament mocked about idols was that you had to put them on a cart if you wanted to move them. Israel’s God had led the patriarchs to the Promised Land. He had led their descendants through the Red Sea and the desert and across the Jordan when he brought them back. He <i>moves</i>. You can’t hem God in, most certainly not into a square on a calendar. When he became one of us, he did so for <i>all</i> of our days, our good ones and our bad ones, the ones filled with celebration, but also the ones filled with grief and pain. Or shame. Or failure. Our best days, and our worst. Faithful days, and unfaithful ones.</p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> I hope you’ve seen, as we’ve tried to explore some of these Christmas myths, that Christmas is an often-feeble, flailing attempt to capture something that can’t be captured — Immanuel. God With Us. This Christmas, and all year long, may you know with certainty that he is very much with you, always, in everything that you celebrate and everything that you must endure. That’s why we celebrate Christmas. </p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> May you and your family know the presence of God in Jesus this season.</p>Patrick Odumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08344818381111725780noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2585446544910042015.post-64010782016378739842023-12-08T14:53:00.002-06:002023-12-08T14:54:11.284-06:00Christmas Confusion: We Three Kings of Orient Aren't<p> <span style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; text-align: justify;">If you have a nativity scene displayed at your house this Christmas, you might have something there that doesn’t belong.</span><span style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; text-align: justify;"> </span></p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIyfiFGKN5dg7refMNywbEZHRzkjFhgfcCDAlcJjkK03a3RnlaH48N-_e1XEihuECtgV-cNgjvqOjcruPyI3dfUNUX_XAKPunV5ft3kjLMf5dh8VK5uUmx-XbI70ffAtkJh3sbZyZluPV4FXNnLE0XBlwluAI9aWaSN-jc2UOu4RELdnRATQWcdAPQ_-Mh/s1920/Gentile_da_fabriano,_adorazione_dei_magi.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1215" data-original-width="1920" height="254" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIyfiFGKN5dg7refMNywbEZHRzkjFhgfcCDAlcJjkK03a3RnlaH48N-_e1XEihuECtgV-cNgjvqOjcruPyI3dfUNUX_XAKPunV5ft3kjLMf5dh8VK5uUmx-XbI70ffAtkJh3sbZyZluPV4FXNnLE0XBlwluAI9aWaSN-jc2UOu4RELdnRATQWcdAPQ_-Mh/w400-h254/Gentile_da_fabriano,_adorazione_dei_magi.jpeg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> In this series on mistakes and inaccuracies in the way we retell the stories of Jesus’ birth, we’ve already seen one way that our decorations are wrong: <a href="http://www.apple.com">Jesus probably wasn’t turned away from an inn and born in an isolated stable</a>. Now we need to talk about a couple of other examples of Christmas Confusion. Oh, it’s nothing serious. But maybe if we dispel some of the confusion we can discover something about this story we haven’t seen before. </p><p style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> We’ll start here: If you have a wise man or two or three in your nativity scene, that’s not strictly right. There wasn’t any number of wise men at Jesus’ birth. </p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> They seem to have been convinced that “the King of the Jews” had been born <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=matthew+2:1-2&version=NIV">when they saw his star rise in the night sky</a>, according to Matthew, , the author of the Gospel that tells us about them. I suppose it’s possible that God gave them a sneak preview. But taking the story at face value suggests that they left on their journey, at the very earliest, on the night Jesus was born. And it’s unlikely they’d start a journey that long without some planning. Unless they happened to have some <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+2:11&version=NIV">gold, frankincense, and myrrh</a> lying around, they needed time to procure their gifts. They needed to assemble supplies. You might remember that King Herod had the boys in Bethlehem two years old and younger killed, “<a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+2:16&version=NIV">in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi</a>.” By the time they got to Bethlehem, Jesus and his parents were in a house, either the house in which Jesus was likely born, or another. He might have already been walking!</p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> We sing a Christmas song about the visit of the the wise men — “We Three Kings of Orient Are.” It’s a good song and everything, except for the fact that the description of the main characters is entirely wrong. </p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> We don’t know that there were three of them. Some traditions say there were twelve or more. Popularly, three is the number because there were three gifts: gold, frankincense, and myrrh.</p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> The song gives specific significance to each gift: gold in a crown, because he’s a king; frankincense, to burn as a sacrifice to God; myrrh, as a perfume used to anoint the dead. Certainly that all works in the song, as a convenient way to emphasize who Jesus was, but Matthew doesn’t say any of that. All three of those items were valuable because they were rare, but also because they were useful in various ways. </p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> Traditionally, the wise men have names: Melchior, a king of Persia, Caspar, a king of India, and Balthazar, a king of Arabia. I can remember, as a kid, wondering why in the world they were called “kings” in the song. It’s probably because of Isaiah 60:3, where <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Isa+60:1-3&version=NIV">God tells a renewed Israel, “Nations will come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your dawn.”</a> He tells them that “<a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Isaiah+60:5&version=NIV">the riches of the nations will come” to them</a>, and includes <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Isaiah+60:6&version=NIV">gold and incense</a> in the list. </p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> Matthew, who certainly isn’t shy about applying Old Testament prophecy to the events around Jesus’ birth, doesn’t explicitly quote Isaiah 60 — though who’s to say that it doesn’t fit? He certainly doesn’t call the wise men kings. He uses the word “magi,” which the NIV and some other English translations just transliterate. But the King James Version, and I guess most other English translations, call them “wise men.” </p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> Magi is itself a transliteration of a Persian word into Greek. It can refer to a class of scholars/astrologers/priests from Persia, practitioners of Zoroastrianism. It stands to reason that the Magi in Matthew were from Persia, as Matthew tells us that they came “from the East,” though he doesn’t get any more specific than that. </p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> They were apparently astrologers; everyone knows that they were alerted to the birth of Jesus by seeing a star “as it rose” — presumably a star they had never charted before. Astrology was a respected science in much of the world; it required knowledge of the night sky, some skill at mathematics, and in a world in which science and religion weren’t sharply delineated, it was thought to allow a person to discover the will of the gods. For this reason Magi were often in the service of kings, as were wise men in Egypt and Babylon. In fact, <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=daniel+5:11&version=NIV">Daniel was appointed chief of the Babylonian equivalent of magi</a>. </p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> Why the star signified to them the birth of “the King of the Jews,” we’re not told. Did they know, somehow, of <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Num+24:17&version=NIV">Numbers 24:17</a>? In any case, the star led them to go on a journey to “worship him” or “pay him homage.” </p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> There are warnings in the Old Testament against trying to divine the will of God by interpreting omens, and it could be said that Matthew’s Magi were doing just that. (Of course, those warnings apply to Jews, not non-Jews.) Philo, a Jewish philosopher and contemporary of Jesus who lived in Egypt, used the word <i>magi </i>to describe the Egyptian sorcerers who opposed Moses and Aaron, and Balaam, the prophet who tried to curse the Israelites. Some ancient writers, including Philo, admired the Persian Magi. Some seemed to fear or even despise them as charlatans. </p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> Still, in Jesus’ day the Magi would have been considered, at the very least, exotic. Strange, even suspicious; they were non-Jews who believed they could interpret the movements of the stars. They almost certainly worshipped other gods. But that all seems to fit with Matthew’s drift, doesn’t it? While the current King of the Jews doesn’t know where to find him and, far from worshiping him, wants to murder him, while the people close by who should have recognized him are disturbed by the news, non-Jewish, pagan sorcerers from far away travel months to honor him and bring him gifts.</p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> How hard it can be for God to get our attention sometimes! And other times, when our eyes are open and we expect to see him, how easy it can be notice him in the everyday events of our lives. And how easy worship can seem. Whatever the reputation of Magi in general in Matthew’s day, he wants us to join <i>his</i> wise men in traveling whatever distance we must and giving whatever we have to worship him.</p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> Interesting, too, that God reached the Magi where they were. I mean that literally, of course; they were in their home country, “in the East," when they saw the star. But I also mean it metaphorically. They were looking at the stars, so God showed them a star. They were experts in their craft, so God led them to Jesus through their craft. It doesn’t seem that God needs us to jump through his hoops. He doesn’t sit sullenly, waiting for us to find our way to him. He comes to us, where we are. Just before he tells us about the Magi, <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+1:20-23&version=NIV">Matthew interprets Jesus’ birth in terms of Isaiah’s “Immanuel” prophecy — “God With Us.”</a> In Jesus, God is with us. </p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> I’m thinking of the way you connect a bluetooth device to a phone or computer; it has to be “discoverable.” The processor has to be able to “see” the device, and has to have the proper language to connect to it. In Jesus, God is discoverable. He makes sure to speak our language, he shows up where are, he puts himself in our line of sight. We don’t necessarily need to remove ourselves from the events of our daily lives to see him. Maybe we just need to keep our eyes open for his light as we go about our lives.</p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> May you be blessed this Christmas to see his light once again. And may we all bring our gifts and honor him.</p><div><br /></div>Patrick Odumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08344818381111725780noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2585446544910042015.post-75132928755639840772023-12-01T14:26:00.007-06:002023-12-02T10:15:12.723-06:00Christmas Confusion -- Was Jesus Turned Away from an Inn?<p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; text-align: justify;"><br />Some of the best-loved stories in the Bible are the stories of Jesus’ birth. Every year, Christians revisit them. We read about how Jesus was born in a stable, maybe we see a Christmas pageant that reenacts the moment. We might hear a sermon about how the angels announced his birth to lowly, despised shepherds in the field. We sing songs, like “We Three Kings of Orient Are.” These are familiar stories, familiar carols.</span></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> And, very often, some of the things we believe about those stories and pass on in them are, well, wrong.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> Sorry, I hate to be that guy, shooting holes in beloved stories. But the Bible doesn’t say some of the things we’ve traditionally believed about those stories. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> Oh, I don’t think there are egregious errors in our Christmas stories. It would probably be fine if we never corrected them, honestly. The errors have noting to do with how reliable Scripture is, and they didn’t come about through people intentionally trying to deceive. Some of them came about because the stories of Jesus’ birth have been so often interpreted — in preaching, writing, and art — that some mistakes were bound to creep in. Some have to do with having more information about the language and culture of the New Testament.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> So, as we lead up to Christmas, I want us to look at a few of these Yuletide fallacies that just never seem to go away. Let’s correct them, and maybe see if there’s something more in these stories than we had imagined.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> And let’s just get the most beloved one out of the way first. That way, if you hate me and don’t want to read any more, you won’t have wasted the time already.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> Ahem…Jesus was not born in a stable.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> What’s that scraping sound? Sounds a little like…knives being sharpened? </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> Well, I’m sorry, I really am. I know you may have played the innkeeper in a Christmas pageant sometime, the one who turned Mary and Joseph away when they got to Bethlehem. Of course you probably already know that there isn’t an innkeeper in Luke 2:7, that’s a little artistic license to show how, as the King James Version says, “there was no room for them in the inn."</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> Well, there wouldn’t have been an inn either. Bethlehem was near Jerusalem, by our standards, but it was not Jerusalem. And even in Jerusalem there wouldn’t have been an inn on every corner. Bethlehem wouldn’t normally have had need of an inn; in Jesus’ time, estimates are that maybe 3,000 people lived there. When people traveled to Bethlehem, they likely stayed with family or acquaintances already there. The importance of hospitality in Jesus’ day was magnified by the fact that there was no Motel 6 available.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> The translation of the KJV is an assumption; the word translated “inn” can also mean “guest room.” It’s the same word, by the way, that’s used at the <i>end </i>of Luke, when Jesus tells his disciples to follow a man home and ask about a “guestchamber” (KJV) where they can eat together. Wonder if it was intentional that two of the three New Testament usages of this word bookend the story of Jesus’ life in the Gospel of Luke? </span></p><p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> Incidentally, Luke uses a different word when he specifically <i>does </i>mention an inn, in the parable of the Good Samaritan.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> So it likely wasn’t an inn that was too full for them. It was a house. The home of extended family or friends, already overextended by hosting other travelers from other places who had come to Bethlehem for the Roman census. Maybe family members had subdivided their house into sleeping quarters for travelers. Maybe they had an extra room. But whatever they had was full. As the NRSV says, “there was no place in the guest room.”</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> So what about the stable? Well, again, the Bible doesn’t say “stable.” It mentions a <i>manger, </i>a feeding trough for animals, but it doesn’t mention a stable. </span></p><p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIgjRTOiV-XNAdvnlxDIYWhxkLUJ1V2OD1CRe5Fv2YbxkIBLY2IPKblb0xBt6rNKp-TRYsidtevh9NVdoHXr0sgR-sGmHGXM-VRuAZDRICqI9kaPFvGZWMHTsv83Q6uCYD_YwtIs6-TAw5gQi3a2ZWhXaqTfgEbwXC3_cQCRxDbLniTyjOm_usLSP_dnmo/s836/Screen-Shot-2015-12-04-at-7.41.47-AM.png" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="429" data-original-width="836" height="205" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIgjRTOiV-XNAdvnlxDIYWhxkLUJ1V2OD1CRe5Fv2YbxkIBLY2IPKblb0xBt6rNKp-TRYsidtevh9NVdoHXr0sgR-sGmHGXM-VRuAZDRICqI9kaPFvGZWMHTsv83Q6uCYD_YwtIs6-TAw5gQi3a2ZWhXaqTfgEbwXC3_cQCRxDbLniTyjOm_usLSP_dnmo/w400-h205/Screen-Shot-2015-12-04-at-7.41.47-AM.png" width="400" /></a></div><span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; text-align: justify;">We know a little about houses in Jesus’ time. Average homes tended to be one room, where the family cooked, ate, and slept. (Our concept of privacy would have been alien to them.) Often there was a flat roof that provided more living (and sleeping) space. You can imagine it wouldn’t take many travelers with bedrolls spread out on the floor to fill up a house like that.</span></span><p></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> There was one other bit of space in the house. Usually it was a little lower than the main room, with a floor that sloped toward the door. That was necessary for cleaning; this space was for animals. If a family had a goat or sheep or whatever, they would come into the house at night, or to eat or drink. They were safe there from predators or thieves. They couldn’t wander off and get into trouble. And, yes, there were feeding troughs, in the house, either cut into the floor or portable ones made of wood. </span></p><p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> So what seems most likely is that instead of giving birth in a crowded room full of travelers, Mary brought Jesus into the world in the area of the house where the animals slept and ate. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> It wouldn’t have been a “silent night,” would it, in a houseful of people, some snoring, some talking, trying to get their excited kids to go to sleep, some maybe even grumbling about the sounds of labor keeping them awake? </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> But it was a holy night. One thing about this reconstruction of the story that I like is that Mary wouldn’t have been alone. Older women who had birthed children of their own would have been there to help, as would have been the custom. Jesus would have come into the world among family — extended family, maybe even family they had never met, but family just the same. He was born in David’s city, with the tribe of Judah all around him. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> What’s more holy than that? It’s fitting that Jesus, who came to save his people, was born among those people. That the one who never tried to look away from the need around him was born in a crowded house full of Jacob’s descendants doing what life required of them. The one who the prophet Isaiah called “God with us” was, from his birth, <i>with </i>people.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> If people had only known, right? If they had only known who was being born? Maybe they would have found a better place for Mary and Joseph. Then again, they were welcomed in extraordinary circumstances by an already-stressed homeowner doing their best to provide shelter and food for exhausted travelers.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> Told this way, the story of Jesus’ birth isn't about human blindness and deafness to God. It reminds us that Jesus intends to be among people. He intends to rub elbows with them, brush up against them. We don’t have to be alone to meet him; we can encounter him in crowded, loud, chaotic places where it doesn’t seem like there’s room for him. But God can and does make room.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> And we’re reminded that, if we want people to know Jesus, we can’t avoid them or hold them at arm’s length. We, too, will have to be willing to be crowded by their needs, their struggles, their impatience, their honest attempts to just get from one day to the next. If we’re waiting for the “right” moment to bring Jesus into someone’s life, maybe we’d do better to settle for the “wrong” moment. When it’s time, it’s time, no matter how crowded and chaotic life might be.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> That’s a good thing to remember this time of year. Maybe we don’t represent Jesus best by avoiding the chaos and noise and crowds of the season, but by embracing it all, welcoming it, and helping faith to be born in the middle of it. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> </span></p>Patrick Odumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08344818381111725780noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2585446544910042015.post-70068455204764433312023-11-24T14:27:00.000-06:002023-11-24T14:27:06.978-06:00Dressing to See Jesus<p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> <span style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; text-align: justify;">I’ve been seeing this thing on social media recently; you might have seen it. </span></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #444444;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHiVyeW1XaoKzTBrO2_uQ1zLvhVQnJILUjvkLwSHCxMW3D9inBzoX94dzXs7bmz3w5YktrUvpZkvdrvrUdGHCruRgmG4ynASAxqcNKTWH5o0FQydSoXBY88WvQVO5XGDK36J7cz0MAkaYu8pOtC0BKhsen5wEcZIb0H5eXbjTkg4P1DABzucW0fIyOAX40/s676/403901350_2516531888516014_8968616372800413136_n.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="676" data-original-width="526" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHiVyeW1XaoKzTBrO2_uQ1zLvhVQnJILUjvkLwSHCxMW3D9inBzoX94dzXs7bmz3w5YktrUvpZkvdrvrUdGHCruRgmG4ynASAxqcNKTWH5o0FQydSoXBY88WvQVO5XGDK36J7cz0MAkaYu8pOtC0BKhsen5wEcZIb0H5eXbjTkg4P1DABzucW0fIyOAX40/w311-h400/403901350_2516531888516014_8968616372800413136_n.jpeg" width="311" /></a></span></div><p></p>
<p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-family: Avenir Light;"> I'm not sure what it came from. It looks like it could have been an ad, maybe for a family clothing store. Whatever its original intention, the caption that’s been attached to it leaves no doubt as to what it’s been repurposed for. Now it's become one of those "back-in-the-good-old-days" reminiscences about how people used to dress the "right" way for church.</span></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> By the time I was old enough to have an opinion about what I should wear to church, in the mid-70s, things had changed somewhat. Like most of the men at church then, Dad mostly wore a sport coat and tie on Sunday mornings, as I recall. Mom and my sister dressed up to some degree, though by then pants were an option, in addition to dresses and skirts. (There was, I’ve been told, some difference of opinion about this among the women at church, but I guess Mom was kind of a trend-setter in that way.) </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> On Sunday morning I usually wore a “junior” version of what Dad wore. In my teen years, as things changed a little more, I could get away without a tie and a jacket. (The teen years also included my truly awful “Miami Vice” phase, which we won’t talk about except to say that I now wish <i style="font-style: normal;">someone</i> had found <i>something</i> in the Bible forbidding unconstructed blazers in pastel colors, just in general.) I could wear jeans on Sunday nights and Wednesday nights. No shorts though, ever. In college, I mostly continued the jacket and tie habit. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> When I started as a minister 30 years ago, I usually wore a suit and tie, like most of the men at church still did. Over the years I’ve gotten a bit more casual as the rest of the church has. Now suits and ties are for weddings and funerals, and church is a lot more dressed-down.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> But that’s true in general, isn’t it? What used to be “office casual” is now just office wear. Our culture is, in general, a lot more casual in dress. That's important to note; dress at church usually reflects larger cultural trends.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> Back to the social media post: “dressing for church like you’re going to see Jesus” is a bit problematic, isn’t it? I mean, forget for a moment the fallacy that going to church is about going to “see Jesus” at all. (Jesus doesn’t hang out at the church building all week, waiting for Sunday when he’ll finally have some visitors.) The fact is, we don’t know <i>what </i>people wore to see Jesus, back when they could, literally, <i>see </i>Jesus. <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke+18:35-43&version=NIV">A blind beggar shouted out for Jesus to heal him</a>: we’re not told what he wore, but I picture rags. <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=matt+8:2-3&version=NIV">Lepers came to see Jesus</a>; I’m just guessing they didn’t get dressed up first. <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+21:7&version=NIV">Peter took his clothes off </a>and dove into the Sea of Galilee to get to shore and see Jesus after his resurrection. Jesus doesn’t seem to have found that at all awkward. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> We’re not told much about what Jesus wore when he was on earth, but I doubt he had a big wardrobe to choose from. <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=matt+6:28-30&version=NIV">He told his disciples not to give a second thought about what they would wear</a>. He did, apparently, have one nice garment, woven in one piece. We know this because <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+19:23-24&version=NIV">the soldiers that stripped his clothes off before they crucified him cast lots for it</a>. When he died for us, he was stripped and exposed. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> No, I don’t think there’s much in the Bible about how we should dress to “see Jesus.”</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> When the Bible does talk about ornate clothing, it’s not exactly positive. Jesus mocked religious people <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Mark+12:38-40&version=NIV">who strutted around in flowing robes trying to impress everyone</a>. <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke%207:24-26&version=NIV">He said expensive, luxurious clothing was for palaces</a>, not for prophets. <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=James+2:1-4&version=NIV">James blasted the church</a> for showing favoritism to rich people in nice clothing over poor people in rags. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> In one of Jesus’ most famous parables, of course, a lost son comes home filthy and ragged <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke+15:22-24&version=NIV">and his overjoyed father gives him a robe and sandals</a><i>. </i>Which maybe suggests that the important thing to remember about coming to God is that <i>he </i>clothes us. What we wear isn’t relevant. <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Revelation+3:17-18&version=NIV">We’re all pitiful, poor, blind, and naked</a>. We all need his grace, whatever designers we’re wearing. If we’re using nice clothes to try to make ourselves more acceptable to God, we should reconsider. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> Maybe you don’t realize it, but dressing up for church is a relatively recent trend. For most of human history, most people had few garments, and they were likely handmade, worn, and more functional than stylish. Expensive clothing was a means of distinguishing social classes, worn by royalty and wealthy people. Often, in fact, people were legally banned from wearing the clothing of a higher class. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> During the Industrial Revolution, advances in manufacturing made new clothes available to more people. The middle class that was coming into being used the new clothing they could now afford to distinguish themselves from the lower classes. That trend spread to church as well. Eventually, some preachers even began to argue that sophistication and refinement were aspects of God’s character, and so Christians should model those characteristics in their dress, especially when they came to church. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> Well, maybe our dress at church should model other values than sophistication and refinement. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> Maybe our dress should model authenticity. If we dressed to reflect our spiritual condition, what would we wear? <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Isaiah%2064:6&version=NIV">Our righteousness is like “filthy rags</a>,” after all. Let’s not try to cover ourselves with fake piety in the form of a dress code for visiting the Lord. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> Maybe our dress should model humility. If our dress draws attention to ourselves, then maybe it’s not really appropriate if we want others, and ourselves, to “see Jesus.” <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+Tim+2:8-10&version=NIV">Paul encouraged the church to “adorn themselves</a>” with good deeds that give glory to God, not clothing and fashion that makes us stand out. I think that most of the time when people complain about how other people dress at church, it isn’t at all about seeing Jesus. It’s about the way <i>they </i>want people to see <i>their </i>church. It’s about pride. It’s about class. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> Maybe our dress should model acceptance. I worry that posting stuff like this to social media sends the message that the church is for people who are able to put together a good look. What about the retired senior who doesn’t have the disposable income to wear the most stylish clothing? The blue-collar worker whose wardrobe consists mostly of, well, blue collars? The single mom raising kids on minimum-wage jobs? What about the Christian who could afford to upgrade their wardrobe, but instead feels called to use that money to care for those in need? How about the person who wants to dress in ethnic garb? Do they have a place at our church? How about the non-believer who already wonders if the church is sincere in their faith? If we send people the message, even unintentionally, that they have to think about what they wear when they come to “see Jesus,” are we actually showing them Jesus?</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Romans%2013:14&version=NIV">Paul wrote that we are to be “clothed” with Christ</a>. Not Armani, Hermés, Dior, or Gucci. Let’s don’t waste a second of time worrying about what clothing to wear to “see Jesus,” and instead worry about being the kind of people in whom Jesus can be seen.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> I think that’s what you’ll find in most churches; mostly people who want Jesus to be seen in them. We’ll probably be wearing all kinds of things, but hopefully whatever we wear we’re growing into Jesus. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> Come join us, just as you are. </span></p>Patrick Odumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08344818381111725780noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2585446544910042015.post-46757307933576984352023-11-10T14:05:00.003-06:002023-11-10T14:15:37.383-06:00Trying a Different Bible: "In the Flesh" (Romans 8:8)<p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> <span style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; text-align: justify;">Not long ago I was talking with someone about Bible text and comparing how the translations we were using rendered the verses. It struck me that we can get so used to the Bible translations that we’re accustomed to using — whether by choice or happenstance — that we never consider or even know about other possible readings of difficult verses. In a lot of the Bible, that’s probably fine — there’s not that much variation in possible meaning. But in other places, not being aware of other translations can be problematic. We can miss nuance or alternate meanings that have been obscured by whoever it is that produced the translation we’re using. So, o</span></span><span style="caret-color: rgb(68, 68, 68); color: #444444; font-family: "Avenir Light"; text-align: justify;">ccasionally, I’m going to write about a translation that makes a contribution toward better understanding a particular text. This will be the first of those posts.</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWwqUAaEvbJI2L-T4ErraeYkExDUxIZ94AstURVee9S3lrBvrWRVxy1uYMPLEjbeD8wWqHZqD2ooCa4mbA9w5uT2jnRQa7c6e37s_ZT9RkhIehvi2rzZMlzi5-Af42TP_tfzry0_ry9zdh736K7QCnwYNVc49-Oz8wZdXPH6s61ApeesbCSx8s5nlIn7rF/s1500/image-asset.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="847" data-original-width="1500" height="226" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWwqUAaEvbJI2L-T4ErraeYkExDUxIZ94AstURVee9S3lrBvrWRVxy1uYMPLEjbeD8wWqHZqD2ooCa4mbA9w5uT2jnRQa7c6e37s_ZT9RkhIehvi2rzZMlzi5-Af42TP_tfzry0_ry9zdh736K7QCnwYNVc49-Oz8wZdXPH6s61ApeesbCSx8s5nlIn7rF/w400-h226/image-asset.jpeg" width="400" /></a></div><span style="caret-color: rgb(68, 68, 68); color: #444444; font-family: "Avenir Light"; text-align: justify;"><br /></span><p></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> I’ve written about Bible translations before, including <a href="http://www.faithwebblog.com/2021/09/english-bible-translations-1.html" target="_blank">a series on different available English translations</a>. Translation is an inexact science, at best. In fact it’s as much art as science. It’s not just a one-for-one swap of words. There is context and vernacular to consider. There are considerations about who your intended audience is. Are you creating a translation for reading aloud in a church, or for an individual reading silently? How do you best communicate figures of speech from one language into another?</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> Sometimes the choices translators make end up importing meaning into a text. All translation is a form of interpretation, but at some point you cross a line and enshrine a particular interpretation in your translation.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> When the New International Version was first published in 1978, there was a lot of controversy in some circles about the way it handled the word <i>sarx, </i>a Greek word that is often translated “flesh” in English Bibles. (We get the word <i>sarcoma, </i>through Latin, from it.) It has a range of meanings, though. Sometimes it means the “meat” that makes up a human body. Sometimes it’s used as a kind of a shorthand for the entire human being. It can be used to refer to human beings collectively. Sometimes, it’s contrasted with <i>Spirit</i>, and so you could actually translate it “<i>merely </i>flesh” if you were so inclined. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> Usually, you can tell by the context which of the range of meanings it has. And so you just need to understand something about the different ways the word can be used and figure out which is intended in a particular verse. It’s usually not all that hard. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> But translators have a decision to make with words like that. Do they translate <i>sarx </i>as “flesh” in every usage, and let the reader sort through the range of meaning? Or do they find different words and phrases to try to denote the different connotations the word has?</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> In 1978, the NIV translated <i>sarx </i>at least 20 times as “sinful nature.” A good example is Romans 8:8. Take a look at this comparison between the very literal way the New Revised Standard Version translates it and the way the NIV translated it in 1978:</span></p>
<blockquote style="border: medium; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;">NRSV — “…those who are in the flesh cannot please God.” </span></p><p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;">NIV — “Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God.”</span></p></blockquote>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> The NIV invented a phrase to translate <i>sarx </i>in those contexts that they thought required something more than just “flesh.” That phrase was “sinful nature.” In this case, the translation committee thought “controlled by the sinful nature” was better than “in the flesh.”</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> You see why they thought so, right? When we say, “in the flesh,” what do we mean? Physically present. When we’re “in the flesh,” we’re here. Maybe I’ve been gone for a while, but now I’m back, “in the flesh.”</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> So it’s easy for us to read Romans 8:8 as saying that there’s something about the human body that is displeasing to God. It suggests a disconnect between a part of us called “body" and a part of us called “spirit.” It can leave the impression that physicality is distasteful to God and that there’s something inherently sinful or at least distrustful about human drives, desires, and feelings. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> The NIV, by using “sinful nature,” was interpreting as they translated. Again, translation is itself a form of interpretation. But how much do you do? How much is too much?</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> Arguably, “sinful nature,” doesn’t solve the problem. It requires some interpretation as well. Some read it as the sin that we “inherit” from Adam — a doubtful concept linguistically and also theologically. For some, it means that in our human nature we are sinful, which still creates an unhelpful dualism between flesh and spirit.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> Most English translations just go with “flesh” and let readers interpret for themselves. Some are freer: </span></p>
<blockquote style="border: medium; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;">“People who are self-centered aren’t able to please God.” (Common English Bible) </span></p><p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;">“…[T]hose who identify with their old nature cannot please God.”(Complete Jewish Bible)</span></p><p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;">“If we follow our desires, we cannot please God.” (Contemporary English Version) </span></p><p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;">“Those who are ruled by their sinful selves cannot please God.” (Easy-to-Read Version) </span></p><p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;">“Those who obey their human nature cannot please God.” (Good News Translation) </span></p><p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;">…[T]he carnal attitude is inevitably opposed to the purpose of God…” (Phillips) </span></p><p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;">“….[T]hose who are still under the control of their old sinful selves, bent on following their old evil desires, can never please God.” (The Living Bible) </span></p><p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;">“Those who are determined by the flesh can’t please God.” (Kingdom New Testament)</span></p></blockquote>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> As you can see, the translations above also translate the Greek word usually translated “in” — <i>en</i> — as something else: “identify with,” “follow,” “ruled by,” “obey,” “under the control of,” or “determined by.” </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> Four verses later, in <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=romans+8%3A12-13&version=NLT" target="_blank">Romans 8:12-13</a>, Paul mentions living “according to the flesh,” which suggests that Paul means something other by “flesh” than just physicality. As a rough parallel, take the phrase “gasoline engine.” We understand that the engine isn’t made of gasoline. We mean that gasoline powers it. The same when we talk about a “wood stove:” The stove is intended to burn wood as fuel, it’s not made of wood. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> So when Paul writes that those who are “in the flesh” can’t please God, he isn’t saying that the bodies God made are inherently evil. In <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=romans+12%3A1&version=NIV" target="_blank">Romans 12:1</a> he writes that we should offer our <i>bodies </i>as living sacrifices. The only way we can worship and serve God is physically. True and proper worship is offering your body for God’s purposes. You can’t please God if you won’t do that, he says in our text. That’s what it means to be “in the flesh;” you refuse to allow your body to be under the influence of God’s Spirit.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> Romans 8:5 says, "Those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on what the flesh desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires.” That doesn’t mean it’s virtuous to deny your body what it wants. It’s just that, when there’s a conflict between the two, we follow the Holy Spirit. (See <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=gal+5%3A19-25&version=NIV" target="_blank">Galatians 5:19-25</a>)</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> When the NIV was revised in 2011, the committee all but did away with “sinful nature.” In the update, Romans 8:8 reads, “Those who are in the realm of the flesh cannot please God.” They left <i>sarx </i>as “flesh” and translated <i>ev </i>as “in the realm of.” I think that splits the difference pretty well. It lets Paul communicate that what he’s talking about is what rules us. What powers us. What drives the bus. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> Our bodies, and their needs, feelings, and desires, were created by God. But they weren’t created to rule us. They were created to do his work in the world. They are made holy in Christ by the presence of his Spirit. Let’s set our minds on what the Spirit wants us to do and to be in the world. </span></p>Patrick Odumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08344818381111725780noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2585446544910042015.post-32166705031235181472023-11-10T14:03:00.000-06:002023-11-10T14:03:05.719-06:00Good Thoughts on the Gaza Conflict<p><span style="color: #444444;"> <span style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; text-align: justify;">I never do this, but I recently saw this Facebook post from one of my friends, Evertt Huffard. He is a missions consultant and former professor at Harding School of Theology, who also has a family history of missions in the Middle East and Israel. (His uncle was also a former minister at the church where I serve.)</span></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> Huffard posted the following after the preacher at the church he attends wanted to say something about the conflict in Gaza, wasn’t sure what to say, and wondered “what Evertt Huffard thinks about this.”</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> I can understand his position; feeling the need to say something, but not sure what. Any stance on this war can be unpopular. It’s become, sadly for the people impacted most directly by it, a political football. Most of the opinions I’ve heard on the conflict seem one-sided, more propaganda than thoughtful reflection. And so I think I, too, will defer to Dr. Huffard’s words — a committed Christian, missionary, and scholar. These are his thoughts, in their entirety, with no editing from me:</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px; text-align: justify;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQC2jy08MsEAsuyjaEOisqdhOu33EK5d_FWdnzh2SfUlASAh2yR4d0g6BCVggg4yepuX969w_33NJsGBMH50ymtwmlkR6R6XsWmtU62k61dflD0x8T7ph6GSbbLyIPv22jVa7TUFefrt9kAS52ld7ZNd3zBTA737myZEG0FLURzmuxOIqorDuDTZDAHZG6/s1024/GettyImages-1715074100-1024x683.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="683" data-original-width="1024" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQC2jy08MsEAsuyjaEOisqdhOu33EK5d_FWdnzh2SfUlASAh2yR4d0g6BCVggg4yepuX969w_33NJsGBMH50ymtwmlkR6R6XsWmtU62k61dflD0x8T7ph6GSbbLyIPv22jVa7TUFefrt9kAS52ld7ZNd3zBTA737myZEG0FLURzmuxOIqorDuDTZDAHZG6/w400-h266/GettyImages-1715074100-1024x683.jpeg" width="400" /></a></div><p></p><p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;">The region has a special place in my life. My grandfather died in Israel and is buried in Jaffa. I went to high school with Palestinians on the West Bank for four years and our family was evacuated with 6,000 Americans during the 6-Day War. For five years I served a church of Israeli Arabs in Nazareth and taught in a Christian High School in Galilee. My wife and I have hosted more than 25 tour groups to Israel. We have friends in Israel today living in fear of what will happen next with threats from the north and increasing shortage of food and supplies due to 450,000 reservists called into military duty.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> What could I say to a church on a Sunday morning?</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> First, I would say something, because it has dominated the news for more than a week and creates a context to exercise our Christian worldview—a worldview rooted in the will of God revealed to us through the prophets and Christ. Micah would tell us to do what is good and what the Lord requires of us, namely: “to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God” (6:8).</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> Jesus challenged religious leaders in Jerusalem who were living under the oppression of Rome to focus on the “weightier matters of the law”—justice, mercy, and faithfulness (Mt. 23:23). Any response we give that reflects these values will likely be in stark contrast to much of what we are exposed to in the media. Some news sources use such loaded hateful terminology that if I listened to it for more than an hour I would be filled with hate. As a Christian I am resisting the impulse to let them shape my emotions and reactions.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> Second, we cannot be instruments of peace when we are subject to the biased narrative of either side that is seeking justification for violence and global approval for a war. “Evil men do not understand justice, but those who seek the LORD understand it completely” (Prov. 28:5). As we watch the news, with discernment, we need to watch our attitudes. I resist the impulse to be drawn into a mindset that would not lead to peace. I want to do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with my God.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> The violent attack on Israelis by the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) and other terrorists near the Gaza strip on October 7 created a greater shock wave through this small nation than 9/11 did in the US. Using the ratio of victims to population, the Hamas attack would be comparable to 40,000 people killed in the US on 9/11 rather than 3,000. The intense hatred that fueled their violence will only grow deeper with the anticipated retaliation. Granted, Hamas must be held responsible for its deadly attack. They have not cared for the Palestinians in Gaza, have been brutal to Israelis, and seriously thwarted a peace process anytime soon. The level of human suffering they are causing is difficult to comprehend. The images are difficult to look at or get out of our minds. We want justice, swift and clear. But justice must consider context, not just one tragic event. Decades of tension and five wars should alert us to the fact that if Hamas ceased to exist today, this human tragedy will not end. We must ask what or who created Hamas? Decades ago, Israel supported Hamas, a branch of the Muslim Brotherhood, to overthrow Arafat and the PLO, which has now returned to bite them. The same justice that would implicate Hamas will also have to implicate Israel for six decades of oppression of the Palestinians. It’s the reason Hamas portrayed their military mission as “enough is enough.”</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> Samuel Huntington, in The Clash of Civilizations, would call this a “fault line war” that could only be resolved by a balance of power among the primary parties and satisfying the interest of the secondary parties. “Fault line wars bubble up from below, fault line peaces trickle down from above” (1996:265, 298) Or as Jimmy Carter concluded, “It has always been clear that the antagonists cannot be expected to take the initiative to resolve their own differences. Hatred and distrust in the Middle East are too ingrained and pride is too great for any of the disputing parties to offer invitations or concessions that they know will almost inevitably be rejected” (Palestine Peace Not Apartheid, 2006:15). If true, the US has the responsibility to facilitate peace, but in all humility, our foreign policies reflect the dysfunction of our current government. Our foreign policy will have to radically change to bring peace to the region. I resist the impulse to put all the blame on anyone in the region when our own nation has contributed to the problem. None of the national leaders walk in righteousness. Only God can intervene and judge.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> Third, we can pray for the Arabs and the Jews who are crying for peace but living in fear for their lives and their family every day of this war, in the region and around the world. An awful irony of the massacre of Jews on the kibbutz and at the music festival near Gaza is that many of them were advocates for peace with the Palestinians and opposed the hawkish policies of their government.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> The US never initiated a serious peace process in the Middle East until after a war. Pray that after this one they will have the determination to do so. Pray for the Christians in Gaza, especially those who are suffering as they give medical care and aid to the victims. Pray for restraint among all sides in the region that this conflict will not escalate into an even greater one. Pray that through it all, the people of God will bring light into the darkness as they do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with God. I know there will be days when I must face the reality that Jesus faced when all he could do was weep over Jerusalem. Even though I have known this conflict my whole life, I resist the impulse to give up hope.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> I appreciate the focus on justice in nearly every paragraph of Huffard’s thoughts; we can all agree that God wants justice. I appreciate how we can adopt attitudes about this conflict (and other world events) that do not promote peace. What most of us can do about the war in Gaza is what we can do about other global events — watch ourselves. Try to be sure we are always advocates for “doing justice, loving kindness, and walking humbly with God,” that nothing makes us so cynical that we trade in those things for security, retribution, or hatred.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> Of course, we should pray. For a change of government policies toward peace. For compassion. For an end to the suffering of victims. For restraint. And, as Huffard puts it, “that through it all, the people of God will bring light into the darkness as they do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with God.”</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> Light in darkness. The gospel, the good news that through Jesus God has made Jew and Gentile into one people — “by which he put to death their hostility.” (Ephesians 2:11-16)</span></p>Patrick Odumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08344818381111725780noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2585446544910042015.post-1392768375413544012023-11-03T14:42:00.006-05:002023-11-03T14:51:01.654-05:00All Saints<p><span style="color: #444444;"> <span style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; text-align: justify;">These were all commended</span><span style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; text-align: justify;"> for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised, since God had planned something better for us so that only together with us</span><span style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; text-align: justify;"> would they be made perfect.</span></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span>Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run<span style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span> with perseverance<span style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span> the race marked out for us,.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: right;"><span style="color: #444444;">-Hebrews 11:39-12:1 (NIV)</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px; text-align: right;"><span style="color: #444444;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px; text-align: right;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRA4iqJosAXJMG13-gRA_8nfNDxZI2qLU_KZwR886c6fEWjQiINBsJoDufZzKnIDsNY0p3G9tpt_R-iViCxdfqF3q3dHonON5EMUm5CucaR7uN1MPu6z870-ghQgZLR0MHc7zscTULJFZYRWGElHo2idgY6l1m8F8KIIX2kdkoMgRuh9-aei-7XLyJe9p8/s730/BE1A0691-6CEA-4C67-96DC-F76155CB1C4F-730x486.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="486" data-original-width="730" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRA4iqJosAXJMG13-gRA_8nfNDxZI2qLU_KZwR886c6fEWjQiINBsJoDufZzKnIDsNY0p3G9tpt_R-iViCxdfqF3q3dHonON5EMUm5CucaR7uN1MPu6z870-ghQgZLR0MHc7zscTULJFZYRWGElHo2idgY6l1m8F8KIIX2kdkoMgRuh9-aei-7XLyJe9p8/w400-h266/BE1A0691-6CEA-4C67-96DC-F76155CB1C4F-730x486.jpeg" width="400" /></a></div><span style="color: #444444;"><br /></span><p></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;">I’m writing this on November 1, which for most people I suppose is just the day after Halloween. But if you’re a Christian who follows a calendar of the church year, there’s another name for the first day of the eleventh month of the year: All Saints’ Day. It’s also known sometimes as the Feast of All Saints, and an alternate name for the day, All Hallows’ Day, actually gave Halloween its name. (“Halloween,” or “Hallowe’en,” is a contraction of “All Hallows Evening,” which is the vigil that precedes the Feast of All Saints.) </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> All Saints’ Day is generally what it sounds like; it’s a celebration of “all the saints.” While it’s sometimes associated particularly with those canonized as Saints in the Catholic Church, it actually has a wider significance than that. Since at least the 4th century, the church saw the importance of commemorating martyrs for Christ, both known and unknown. Feast days were held at different times of the year, often around Easter or Pentecost. By the 6th century, these feasts expanded in meaning to include all the dead in Christ, not just canonized saints and martyrs. By the 8th century, Halloween and All Saints’ Day were being celebrated on November 1.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> Growing up in, and still being a part of, a non-church calendar church, I didn’t really know all that. Whenever I finally did hear about the Feast of All Saints — I’m almost sure I was a teenager before I knew anything about it — it was one of those “Catholic” things that preachers and teachers warned me against. Halloween, for me, was just about wearing costumes and trick-or-treating. Sometimes we had a Halloween party at church, with bobbing for apples and a costume contest, stuff like that. But I would have thought it strange if anyone tried to tell me that there was some religious significance to Halloween, or the day after. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> That was, I suspect, exactly what my Protestant forebears wanted to happen. During the Reformation, much of Catholic doctrine and practice was suppressed, discontinued, and slandered as superstition. It was at this time that Halloween and All Saints’ Day began to be associated with paganism. Reformers taught that Halloween, in particular, was a lightly Christianized observance of the ancient pagan festival of Samhain and associated it with demons and witchcraft. During the “Satanic panic” of the 1980s and 90s, many American churches taught that Halloween could be a dangerous gateway to the occult.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> The trouble with all of that is that there’s just no evidence for it.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> There was an impulse in the church to remember and celebrate the sacrifices of martyrs long before it was associated with November 1st. While it’s possible that the commemoration eventually landed on November 1st to Christianize Samhain, there’s no evidence for that, either. In fact, it can also be argued that Halloween and All Saints’ Day influenced the modern understanding of Samhain. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> So if you’re like me, maybe you think of All Saints’ Day as a “Catholic thing,” or a light Christianizing of pagan superstition. Maybe you’re uncomfortable about Halloween, or don’t think Christians should participate in even its secular traditions. I’m not trying to get you to observe All Saint’s Day or go trick-or-treating next year, but I want you to understand a little about the meaning of it — and maybe help us to recapture something that I think we may be in danger of losing in the church.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke+20:34-38&version=NIV">Jesus reminded his hearers</a> that God “is not the God of the dead, but the living, for to him all are alive.” His point is that death doesn’t put us out of God’s reach, and that the promise of resurrection gathers both the living and the dead together into God’s embrace. God is <i>still “</i>the God of Abraham…Isaac, and…Jacob,” and so even those ancient patriarchs are part of our community of faith. Their memory lives on, of course, but so in some way do <i>they.</i></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"><i> </i>In the book of <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=revelation+6:9-11&version=NIV">Revelation</a>, John sees “under the altar (in heaven) the souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God and the testimony they had maintained.” They’re appealing to God for justice, and he tells them to wait “until the full number of their fellow servants, their brothers and sisters, were killed just as they had been.” For John’s original audience, that “full number” might eventually include some of them, and John wants them to know that God won’t forget the faithful dead. While I think most everything in Revelation is symbol and not to be read literally, that doesn’t mean it isn’t true. Those martyrs are present, and God hasn’t forgotten them and they can expect vindication through resurrection. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> The best-known text about a community of faith that also includes those who have gone on before us is probably found in <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=hebrews+11&version=NIV">Hebrews 11</a> and <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=hebrews+12&version=NIV">12</a>. Hebrews 11 is what some people like to call the “Hall of Fame of Faith” chapter. It describes how a long litany of our ancestors in the faith lived their lives “by faith.” <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=hebrews+11&version=NIV">The chapter ends with a reminder</a> that our predecessors are united with us in receiving the fulfillment of God’s promises in Jesus, and then (after an unfortunate chapter division), <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=hebrews+12:1&version=NIV">we are reminded</a> that they serve as a “great cloud of witnesses” that exhort and encourage us to run our own races with the same faith that they had. “The world was not worth of them,” <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=hebrews+11:38&version=NIV">the author says</a>. We need to remember their faith and follow their best examples.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> See, all my life I’ve heard that I need to follow Jesus — and of course I do. The writer of Hebrews, in fact, <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=hebrews+12:2-3&version=NIV">includes him in our “cloud of witnesses”</a> when he tells us to “fix our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith.” In some ways, though not chronologically, Jesus is the example that we all follow, our spiritual ancestors and us. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> So of course I need to follow Jesus. But I also need the example of people I’ve known to see just how that looks in real life, up close. Oh, they won’t be perfect examples, any more than we are to the people who will include us in their cloud of witnesses. But to see people who do their best to walk and talk like Jesus in front of us, who live “by faith” in visible, tangible ways in our sight, is to be blessed beyond measure. And it’s fitting that we remember those people when they’re gone; to thank God for their example and to recall that we share a common hope, that we’ll see each other again around God’s throne.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> The people who taught you about Jesus. The ones who loved you with his love when you most needed it. The ones who prayed for you daily. The ones who encouraged you, and the ones who challenged you and sometimes infuriated you. The ones whose service shamed you and whose grace overwhelmed you. All these are your cloud of witnesses. When they are with the Lord, they are still a part of our community of faith.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> I’m thinking of many now who I’ve had the privilege over 55 years of life to know and to be known by. While I won’t see their faces or hear their voices again this side of heaven, they “<a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Hebrews%2011:4&version=NIV">still speak</a>” to me. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> Who are the saints you include in your cloud of witnesses? </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> And who will include you?</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> May we remember with gratitude all the saints who taught us to follow Jesus. </span></p>Patrick Odumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08344818381111725780noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2585446544910042015.post-87374491118879194492023-10-13T16:30:00.001-05:002023-10-13T16:38:33.470-05:00Death Takes; Jesus Gives Back<p><span style="color: #444444;"> <span style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; text-align: justify;">Jesus went to a town called Nain, and his disciples and a large crowd went along with him. As he approached the town gate, a dead person was being carried out—the only son of his mother, and she was a widow. And a large crowd from the town was with her. When the Lord saw her, his heart went out to her and he said, “Don’t cry.”</span></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> Then he went up and touched the bier they were carrying him on, and the bearers stood still. He said, “Young man, I say to you, get up!” The dead man sat up and began to talk, and Jesus gave him back to his mother.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: right;"><span style="color: #444444;">-Luke 7:11-15 (NIV)</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px; text-align: right;"><span style="color: #444444;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px; text-align: right;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjH8ppYYXnhdpW3_s4JsXAOS433p-0pTGdQ4i4S07MQLT-zghrxCjIAJZspMadksmIm1hIK34AHtAR224ShD0pQzqQXpKCrkiVKawbPxp6HDnCedaWkHM5Gm-xK8e9vSPEKa3iNaCNFOnDD6yx047JvD9S9ugKP82RJ8GSVpDQoQ6ZU5j-UKDGo0Nr7nlUg/s768/new-768x568.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="568" data-original-width="768" height="296" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjH8ppYYXnhdpW3_s4JsXAOS433p-0pTGdQ4i4S07MQLT-zghrxCjIAJZspMadksmIm1hIK34AHtAR224ShD0pQzqQXpKCrkiVKawbPxp6HDnCedaWkHM5Gm-xK8e9vSPEKa3iNaCNFOnDD6yx047JvD9S9ugKP82RJ8GSVpDQoQ6ZU5j-UKDGo0Nr7nlUg/w400-h296/new-768x568.jpeg" width="400" /></a></div><p></p><p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px; text-align: right;"><span style="color: #444444;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;">I had to do a funeral this past week. It’s part of the job, and obviously not one of the more enjoyable parts. I had a mentor once tell me that my job at a funeral was to be “the religious person in the room,” meaning that it was my task to remind frightened, grieving, shocked people of the hope that we Christians have in the gospel, the good news that Jesus’ resurrection is a preview of our own, and our loved ones’. I think that’s true enough, and I hope I’ve been more or less faithful in carrying out that responsibility. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> Still, speaking as just a person and not as a minister, death is frightening. The more people you love the more you fear it, and the longer you live the more losses you have to mourn. That doesn’t negate the hope of the gospel; if anything it should make us cling to it more tightly. But death is no joke, and there’s no anesthetic for the pain and grief and fear we feel in its presence. One thing you learn trying to be “the religious person in the room” in those moments is that faith doesn’t insulate us from grieving and mourning. Jesus wept at a funeral, and he knew he was about to put an end to that one!</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> At the funeral this past week I mentioned a story in Luke 7 that sometimes gets passed over in favor of the account of Lazarus’ resurrection, or Jairus’ daughter’s. It’s the story of a funeral procession Jesus meets while approaching the village of Nain, about 9 miles south of Nazareth. Luke is the only one of the Gospel writers to mention it, and at first glance it’s easy to see why the others don't. It happens near what must have been a pretty small settlement. Luke doesn’t name the woman involved, the mother of the deceased, which strongly suggests that she was no one important and nobody thought to get her name, or even the name of her son, who Jesus raised. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> This woman is in all other ways lost to history. We don’t know a thing about her, other than that she was a widow who had lost her only son. And that, I think, is exactly why Luke wants to mention her.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> Luke is especially concerned with overlooked people touched by Jesus. He alone tells us the story of a woman with a bad reputation who washes Jesus’ feet at the table of a wealthy Pharisee and anoints him with what was undoubtedly the most expensive thing she owned. Luke alone tells us of women who helped support Jesus’ ministry, and gives us a little of Mary of Magdala’s backstory. Only Luke tells us about Zacchaeus the despised tax collector. Through Luke alone we have the parables of the Good Samaritan, the Prodigal Son, and the Rich Man and Lazarus. In Luke, Matthew’s “blessed are the poor in spirit” becomes “blessed are the poor.” </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> So it fits with Luke’s specific take on the gospel story that he gives us this short, bare-bones account of an event that must had much more significance for the people directly involved. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> Death takes. That’s what it does. It greedily takes from us. That’s why we hate it and that’s why we fear it — we have no way to stop if from taking. We’re justly proud of our medical advances. We can do so much to treat once-untreatable illnesses like polio, influenza, smallpox, tuberculosis, even cancer and heart disease. We can transplant organs, and now even grow new ones. We have dialysis for chronic kidney disease that would have proven fatal in previous generations. Even our recent experience with COVID shows how far we’ve come in treating diseases that could kill millions. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> But all we can do is push back death a few years or decades. We can’t stop it from taking from us.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> We woke up Saturday to news of a Hamas incursion into Israel in which hundreds of people enjoying a music festival were massacred, even children and babies. Of course, that’s just the latest in a long litany of atrocities that human beings of all races, ethnicities, and religions have committed. Sometimes death doesn’t come against our will — we open the door and usher it in as an ally to ideology and dogma. But it will turn on even those who think it’s an ally. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> Death takes. Of course it takes from us people who we love, who share our lives, who we talk to and tell about our days and share life with. Who know us best and love us unconditionally. But death also takes our sense of safety. It takes some of the insulation with which we keep out the worst of the world, and keep a sense of its goodness in. It knocks us off-balance. It tends to make us a little smaller, make us draw in on ourselves more. It takes away something of the optimism and hope with which we look at the world and our own lives.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> Death takes in uncountable ways.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> The woman in Luke’s story knew well that death takes. In a place and time in which a woman alone was vulnerable and without much protection, she was a widow who had just lost her only son. Those who could be trusted to look out for her interests were gone. She felt the devastation that any parent who loses a child feels, but she was left alone.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> But Luke tells us, in one short sentence, that Jesus doesn’t let that stand. Jesus does the unthinkable. He disrupts the procession by touching the litter on which the deceased’s body was being carried to its tomb. In doing so, Jesus take the ritual impurity of a dead body on himself. No one outside of family was expected to contract that impurity; corpse impurity required seven days to pass. It’s significant that Jesus <i>touched </i>the litter. He was saying to this widow, “You’re not alone.” He tells her not to cry, which is rude to say at a funeral, but not if you know something the bereaved doesn’t know. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> He raises the dead man with just a command: “Young man, I say to you, get up!” Luke seems to include a bit of eyewitness testimony when he says that the man “sat up and began to talk.” (I know a few people who I suspect will be talking from the moment of their own resurrections too!)</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> But then there’s just a few words that end the account. It would have been fine to end it with the dead man sitting up. Even better, in some ways. But Luke ends it this way: “Jesus gave him back to his mother.”</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> That’s the gospel in a few words: Whatever death takes, Jesus gives back. I wish that giving back happened at every funeral I’ve ever been to. But in Christ that day is certain.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> At another funeral, Jesus said “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die….” Paul writes, “as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive.”</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> That’s why Paul reminded the church in Thessalonica that we don’t grieve like those who have no hope. We grieve what death takes. But we know that Jesus will give back what its taken. That was a decided when God took him out of death’s hands.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> Death takes. Jesus gives back. One day he’ll tell all of us to get up, too. And we’ll never stop talking about it. </span></p>Patrick Odumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08344818381111725780noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2585446544910042015.post-20124700711679920512023-09-29T16:27:00.004-05:002023-09-29T16:27:38.945-05:00Boast in the Lord<p> <span style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; text-align: justify;">Brothers and sisters, think of what you were when you were called.</span><span style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"> </span><span style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; text-align: justify;">Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. But God chose</span><span style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"> </span><span style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; text-align: justify;">the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not</span><span style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"> </span><span style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; text-align: justify;">—to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him. It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus,</span><span style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"> </span><span style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; text-align: justify;"> who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness</span><span style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"> </span><span style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; text-align: justify;">and redemption. Therefore, as it is written: “Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord.”</span></p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: right;">-1 Corinthians 1:26-31 (NIV)</p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px; text-align: right;"><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiieV_1MYhM1Df6aT7V4gNaszKoLRALFEg0WUfW7VUrGoysmwV-wY9fO2XIucEHJEt31ycbe8T1zd6NBOglM8fx7mQOsnlFFTojX39_Blj1GzarQZq8MTiWpOd_ELLu84Wzju8bIq0a_Amt5LXnQG69jmCEdW06ucd_V6vWs_jx-sjp6kYRiL1MVI9Ku3qU/s942/travis-kelce-taylor-swift-kc-chiefs-924-2023-billboard-1548.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="623" data-original-width="942" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiieV_1MYhM1Df6aT7V4gNaszKoLRALFEg0WUfW7VUrGoysmwV-wY9fO2XIucEHJEt31ycbe8T1zd6NBOglM8fx7mQOsnlFFTojX39_Blj1GzarQZq8MTiWpOd_ELLu84Wzju8bIq0a_Amt5LXnQG69jmCEdW06ucd_V6vWs_jx-sjp6kYRiL1MVI9Ku3qU/w400-h265/travis-kelce-taylor-swift-kc-chiefs-924-2023-billboard-1548.jpeg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px; text-align: right;"><br /></p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;">So last week we learned the most likely subject of Taylor Swift’s next breakup song.</p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> Last Sunday’s football game between the Bears and the Kansas City Chiefs was, predictably, a blowout. (The Bears are <i>bad.</i>) The TV crew had to do <i>something</i> to keep whoever was still watching entertained, so they kept showing us a shot of one of the boxes at Kansas City’s Arrowhead Stadium, where Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce’s mom was sitting with a special guest. Kelce had been very public about his interest in Swift, going so far as to try to give her bracelets he had made for her with his phone number on them at her show at Arrowhead in July. He had resorted to publicly suggesting that, since he had watched her play at Arrowhead, she should return the favor.</p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> Apparently, she took him up on it. She watched the game with his family and friends and celebrated with him as Kelce scored — while running the wrong route on the play — to put the Chiefs up 40-0. </p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> Next time Taylor Swift comes to Chicago, real Bears fans should just stay home.</p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> After the game, Kelce and Swift went out to dinner with family and friends. </p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> “Who cares?” you ask. Well, that’s just “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jYa1eI1hpDE">Mean</a>,” as Taylor might say. </p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> In the 24 hours after cameras started showing Swift at the game, Travis Kelce gained 100,000 more Instagram followers. Sales of his jersey and other merchandise soared <i>400 percent</i>. Whatever may happen romantically with Taylor, Kelce’s already benefitting from the Power of Swift and her influence over her fans, the Swifties. He and his brother Jason, a lineman with the Eagles, even hosted an online forum in which they answered football questions from Swifties. </p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> Travis Kelce, by the way, is not exactly anonymous. He’s the second best-known player and leading receiver on the defending Super Bowl champs. He’s one of the best-known faces of the multi-billion-dollar industry that is the National Football League.</p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> But <i>now </i>he has a taste of what it means to <i>really</i> be a star. You could say that <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w1oM3kQpXRo">Everything Has Changed</a> for him. Wonder if he’s <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wIft-t-MQuE">Ready for It</a>? His teammates are probably telling him, “Travis,<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dkk9gvTmCXY"> You Need to Calm Down</a>.” He’s bigger than his <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IdneKLhsWOQ">Wildest Dreams</a>.</p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> OK, I’ll stop.</p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> But notice this: Sometimes being associated with someone else makes it possible for us to rise higher than we ever imagined we could.</p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> Swift and Kelce (I’m going on record now as saying they should be known as Tayvis if they become a thing…) actually makes a really convenient parable for the gospel. What we are, we are because of Jesus.</p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> Paul wrote to the church in Corinth because they didn’t really understand that. They argued about whose spiritual gifts were more important. They fought over who had the deepest knowledge. They favored eloquent, convincing preachers and teachers. They were proud of themselves in ways they shouldn’t have been.</p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> Paul intends with his letters to shut a lot of that down. He reminds them that, when they came to Christ, most of them weren’t all that impressive. That the gospel message itself can sound like foolishness and weakness, with its focus on Jesus’ suffering and death and the impossible hope of resurrection — against the usual expectations that a savior should be known for his wisdom and power. He reminds them that they aren’t saved by their knowledge, or power, or goodness. They’re saved by God, “in Christ.”</p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> It would be good for us to remember that sometimes.</p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> When we’re too proud of our accomplishments we should remember.</p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> When we’re feeling really good about our morality and righteousness, we should remember.</p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> When we’re puffed up by how much we know — of God, or the Bible, or our jobs, or what have you — we should remember. It’s because of God’s love and grace and compassion and faithfulness that we’re “in Christ” at all. And whatever we need to know, whatever righteousness and holiness we have, and whatever hope for redemption there is — all of it is in Christ, in the work he undertook and finished for us, because of his love.</p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> So, if we’re going to “boast,” then it shouldn’t be about <i>anything </i>we’ve done. It should be entirely about what Jesus has done and is doing in us and in his church. </p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> And when we fail, we should remember that our failures don’t cancel out God’s love for us and what he has done in Christ to make us righteous and give us life and free us from sin and death and despair.</p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> In his next letter to the church in Corinth, which we conveniently know as Second Corinthians, Paul wants to make sure they got the point of the first letter. His job, he tells them, is simply to encourage them to be reconciled to God. God himself has made that possible: </p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 10px 18px; text-align: justify;">“God made him who had no sin to be sin<span style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span> for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” (2 Corinthians 5:21)</p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0px 36px; text-align: justify; text-indent: -36px;">He says the same in his letter to the church at Rome: </p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 10px 18px; text-align: justify;">“I am not ashamed of the gospel,<span style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span> because it is the power of God<span style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span> that brings salvation to everyone who believes…For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed<span style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span>—a righteousness that is by faith<span style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span> from first to last….” (Romans 1:16-17)</p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> This is our hope. Christ receives our sin, and we receive God’s righteousness. Our role begins and ends with faith in that reality. It’s an illusion that anything we might do nudges us into righteousness. Whatever we do — and there are things we should do — is in response to what God has already done in Jesus. Where we fall short, God’s grace is there already, was there long before when he sent Jesus to make us righteous.</p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> It is because of Jesus that we are made righteous. It’s because of our association with him that our sins are taken away. We don’t just believe in Jesus, and it’s more than having a relationship with him. Christians are baptized “into Christ.” We find ourselves “in him,” and in him is the righteousness and forgiveness and life that God wants us to have.</p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> In him, you’ll rise higher than you ever imagined you would. If you’re having trouble believing that, well….</p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> Shake it off. </p>Patrick Odumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08344818381111725780noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2585446544910042015.post-92076317067242530862023-09-22T16:06:00.006-05:002023-09-22T16:20:36.779-05:00Redeemers<p> <span style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; text-align: justify;">I ordered a chair this week. It came in a big, heavy box, as you might expect. The box had gotten pretty battered during shipping, and when I opened it and got the chair out, I saw that it had been damaged too. A noticeable rip in the upholstery, right where a similar-sized hole in the box was.</span><span style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; text-align: justify;"> </span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcxExw7H6s-0FTX35Uuv7QOFYV6YGiYEdJvcZUK3gbkQep1INg0Mr9WBPIAe_1s2isYVBkvUhiWACCH6-Wa67SuWR6VIzyWypjyD72r0WbXWY841GBwt4yh1EesuJ3qjGpQfhiF6bXNAynms-QlTcgs0lz45ul6qRlD0DQHqy8qyRTCn-SHF2vzY0VJOHW/s1640/A-Leather-Couch-Tear-Leather-Furniture-Repair-Liberty-Leather-Goods.jpg.webp" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="840" data-original-width="1640" height="205" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcxExw7H6s-0FTX35Uuv7QOFYV6YGiYEdJvcZUK3gbkQep1INg0Mr9WBPIAe_1s2isYVBkvUhiWACCH6-Wa67SuWR6VIzyWypjyD72r0WbXWY841GBwt4yh1EesuJ3qjGpQfhiF6bXNAynms-QlTcgs0lz45ul6qRlD0DQHqy8qyRTCn-SHF2vzY0VJOHW/w400-h205/A-Leather-Couch-Tear-Leather-Furniture-Repair-Liberty-Leather-Goods.jpg.webp" width="400" /></a></div><p></p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> I looked online to see about how to return the chair, and I immediately saw a problem. The company would send me a shipping label, they assured me. They were really sorry for the damage to my chair, and of course they’d issue a complete refund. Just box the chair back up, take it to the shipper of my choice, and, oh yes….<i>pay for shipping. </i></p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> I have no idea, and I don’t want to know, what shipping that chair back to the manufacturer would have cost!</p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> So I called their customer service number, and thankfully, this was one of those rare times that “customer service number” wasn’t an oxymoron. The woman I talked to was very friendly and helpful. She asked me to email her a photo of the damage, then within a few minutes assured me that they would send me a replacement chair and that I didn’t need to ship the ripped one back at all. </p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> So I got a free — if slightly damaged — chair out of the deal.</p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> I mentioned all this to a few people this week, and got interesting responses. Almost every one kind of shook their heads and <i>tsk-tsk’ed </i>the wastefulness of the company. I guess, since it directly benefitted me, I didn't consider that. I suppose there is a bit of wastefulness in it. Wouldn’t it make sense for the company to want the chair back? I mean, they could re-cover it and sell it as new, right? Who would know? Knock off a few bucks and they might even be able to sell it as-is. At the very least, wouldn’t it make sense for them to want the parts from that damaged chair, the frame and motors and actuators and whatever else? More sense, at least, than giving me a buy-one-get-one-free deal on a chair?</p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> But, of course, no. They buy all the parts in bulk. Those few parts, or whatever they could make by repairing or selling that chair as damaged, isn’t worth the price of shipping it back and the labor of fixing or stripping it. In their estimation, the cost to them is too high to justify. It's a lost cause. That damaged chair is just not worth it.</p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> In Chicago, we’re dealing with an influx of asylum-seekers from Central and South America sent to us from other states. Obviously, there’s a cost involved with trying to house around 13,000<i> </i>people without homes, jobs, and basic necessities. I don’t know all the right answers, except to say that the lives of these human beings, created by God and trying to make a way for themselves and their families, shouldn’t be manipulated for the sake of political theater. I also know that there are people in our city, just like in those states from which our asylum-seekers came, who would basically regard them in the same way that company regarded its chair. </p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> Not worth it. Not worth the trouble and expense. </p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> In the part of the Bible most Christians refer to as the Old Testament, there’s a series of laws that are pretty interesting. They all revolve around the role of family and next of kin. You might summarize these laws by saying that the next of kin had certain responsibilities. If someone intended to sell a field, the next of kin had the right of first refusal to buy it so that it would stay in the family. If someone was murdered, the next of kin had the obligation to avenge that death. If a person was facing the economic necessity of selling themselves into indentured servitude, his next of kin could purchase his freedom. If someone died, his next of kin was responsible for marrying the widow and bearing children in the name of his deceased relative. When parents had their first child, they were responsible for making an offering to God as a replacement for God’s requirement that every firstborn was consecrated to him.</p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> This next-of-kin was called a <i>ga’al </i>in Hebrew. It’s often translated “redeemer” in English Bibles.</p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> I love that God created laws for Israel to help make sure that human beings aren’t forgotten or ignored when they become expensive, when they tax our resources of patience, time, energy, money, and attention. What I take from those laws is that I need to find ways to make God’s concern for redemption a big part of the way I live. We all at times need a redeemer, someone who in our worst moments will speak up for us, come looking for us, defend us, invest in us, and help us to be free. We’ve all had someone like that in our lives, whether we admit it or not. And we all need to be a redeemer to the people in our lives sometimes. </p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> Of course, God’s concern for redemption comes from who he is. At least 17 times in the Bible, God is called Israel’s <i>ga’al — </i>their Redeemer. God is the next of kin for his people, their Father who vindicates them, protects them, avenges them, and frees them from slavery. Embedded deep in the concept of redemption is family. God expects his people to be family for each other because he is our family. And family doesn’t give up on each other when we become too expensive. </p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> You probably already know that redemption isn’t just an “Old Testament thing,” though.</p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> Paul writes this to Titus, the young servant he left to help the church in Crete: </p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0px 18px; text-align: justify;">“For the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people.. It teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, while we wait for the blessed hope—the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good.” (Titus 2:11-14)</p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;">To Paul, one of the ways that Jesus embodied the glory of God was in his role as Redeemer. Which actually answers a question about God as Israel’s Redeemer. The Law was explicit, more or less, about what the redemption price of a field or servant or firstborn child was. But how can God be a Redeemer? What cost can redemption have for him? </p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> You already know, don’t you? </p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> “Jesus Christ…gave himself for us to redeem us….” </p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> That’s what it took for God to Redeem us — the life of Jesus, the life of his Son. “For God so loved the world,” John wrote in his Gospel, “that he gave his only Son.” God refused to give us up, even when according to every metric we weren’t worth the expense. By most measurements we weren’t worth the cost of repair, not even of stripping for parts. </p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> But our Maker thinks differently. His metrics are not most metrics. We aren’t a commodity to him, we are his family. And family doesn’t give up on each other.</p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> So if anyone wants to tell you that you’re like my chair, too damaged to matter to anyone, tell them your Maker feels otherwise. He’s your Redeemer, and the cost he paid was the life of Jesus. He did that so you could finally get free of all the things that cheapen you and make you <i>his</i> — and eager to do good.</p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> And one of the ways he most wants us to do good is to treat other people in the very same way. As people who matter to their Maker, who could be set free to be good-doing people of God as well. </p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> We’ve been redeemed. Let’s be redeemers. </p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> To God, we’re all worth a second chance. </p><div><br /></div>Patrick Odumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08344818381111725780noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2585446544910042015.post-63916899445466388852023-09-08T13:31:00.003-05:002023-09-08T13:31:27.343-05:00On Prophets Outside the Camp<p><span style="color: #444444;"> <span style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; text-align: justify; text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://christianchronicle.org/dwindling-church-of-christ-seeks-new-future-as-community-church-campus/">I was reading this week</a></span><span style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; text-align: justify;"> about a church in my fellowship, the Churches of Christ, that has been dwindling in membership, shrinking by about 7/8ths over the last few decades. They’ve had hard decisions to make recently, most specifically what to do with a building that was bigger than they needed and could support. The church, like many churches of all stripes, had gotten considerably older and had largely become a “commuter congregation,” with fewer members who live in the neighborhood in which they’re located. They were weighing options: merge with another church? Sell their building and find something smaller?</span></span></p><p><span style="color: #444444;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #444444;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEir0e4j5TWP0ryIi_hnKzQnQWp-AHe5o6UtqeUfUAsHW4ZqDcIOhVD8gLYyF61b9gCjIeF3C0uqZG1e1MBbIXtvf5pnyN8lKKO7rD3vp0CHjK_HfH7TrbmKIO3en_lA9dT69oVFzxEqM_QZKDzoOv7TUmHVBdoINlFTrepSNrBCQksBklOlKhSu8x9yQhUC/s1000/shutterstock_249391420.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="702" data-original-width="1000" height="281" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEir0e4j5TWP0ryIi_hnKzQnQWp-AHe5o6UtqeUfUAsHW4ZqDcIOhVD8gLYyF61b9gCjIeF3C0uqZG1e1MBbIXtvf5pnyN8lKKO7rD3vp0CHjK_HfH7TrbmKIO3en_lA9dT69oVFzxEqM_QZKDzoOv7TUmHVBdoINlFTrepSNrBCQksBklOlKhSu8x9yQhUC/w400-h281/shutterstock_249391420.jpg" width="400" /></a></span></div><p></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> What they decided, however, was neither of those things.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> Recently, the church announced plans to become a new neighborhood campus for a multi-campus church.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> Maybe you’re not familiar with that concept. It’s been made possible in the last few years with the advent of technology, but what it boils down to is a church with multiple locations in a city or a metropolitan area. One church, but with worshipers attending in more than one building, usually hearing the same sermon simulcast from the live location through live streaming.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> The interesting — and somewhat controversial — thing about this particular case is that the Church of Christ is becoming a campus of a community church from a different denomination. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> Churches of Christ have had for most of our history a somewhat antagonistic relationship with other tribes of Christianity, to the degree that some of us wouldn’t even consider people in many other denominations Christians in any real sense. (In my experience that’s not the majority view, but it’s not unheard-of.) For many of us, our understanding and practice of baptism is the dividing line. An even more practical issue is the use of instruments in worship; most of “us” still prefer vocal music only, and for some it’s much more than a preference.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> There are varied reasons behind all these things, but a large part of it is our conviction that we are to be “New Testament Christians” who reject denominational divisions and unite around what the Bible says. Suffice to say that it makes the idea of one of “our” churches becoming a campus for another denomination hard to imagine for many of us. (Some of us will even object to my use of the phrase “<i>other</i> denominations.” For them, “the denominations” refer to everyone <i>but </i>us, who are “the Lord’s church.”)</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> Most of us, I suppose, are on some part of the spectrum of these views. While I think most of us appreciate the faith of people who aren’t “us,” and affirm their desire to please the Lord and be shaped by the Bible, at heart some of us — maybe even most of us — would see the decision of this church as a compromise of some sort. Even if we might understand the reasons for it.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> I was struck by the diversity in the comments section of the post. Some praised God that the work of his kingdom would continue in that place. Some, with kindness and compassion, expressed sentiments that they would struggle with the decision of whether or not to remain a member of that congregation. Both, I think, reasonable responses. Some attacked the publication of the article — not so reasonable, and a classic case of shooting the messenger! </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> But one sentiment — repeated more than once — has stuck with me. Some said that they’d rather that church had closed than make the decision they made. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> Don’t get me wrong: there are valid reasons for churches to close. Most every local expression of the church has a starting date and ending date, and it’s important for churches to make good decisions about their life cycle. I know of churches that have sold too-large buildings to provide affordable housing, and I think that’s amazing. Some churches at the end of their life cycle are able to give their resources to other churches and ministries to help them grow.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> But, with love, I struggle to understand an outlook that says it would be better for that church to have closed, for the site to have become a shopping center or what have you, than for the work of the kingdom to continue in that place with a new sign on the side of the building. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> I see it as similar to<a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Mark+9:38&version=NIV"> the attitude of Jesus’ disciples</a> when they met up with a guy who was using Jesus’ name to drive out demons. If there’s anything that looked like what Jesus was already doing it was that, right? It was what those disciples were told and empowered to do as well. But when they see this guy, doing <i>Jesus’ work</i> in <i>Jesus’ name</i>, they shut him down. He wasn’t one of <i>them</i>, see. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> I wonder if they stopped to think of <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=numbers+11:23-29&version=NIV">Eldad and Medad</a>, who didn’t make it to a meeting with Moses where 70 “elders” were filled with the Holy Spirit to help Moses. When the Spirit came, though, it also fell on them, even though they didn’t get to the official meeting. Someone told Moses, and Joshua advised him to stop their unsanctioned prophecy.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> Moses, though, disagreed. “Are you jealous for my sake? I wish that all the Lord’s people were prophets and that the Lord would put his Spirit on them!”</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> And <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Mark+9:38&version=NIV">Jesus said the same thing</a> about the non-sanctioned exorcist his disciples were so worried about. “Do not stop him….For no one who does a miracle in my name can in the next moment say anything bad about me,<span style="font-family: Avenir; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;"><b> </b></span>for whoever is not against us is for us.”</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> This squeamishness about people “prophesying outside the camp” is an aspect of my heritage that I reject. It doesn’t make me love and appreciate the good any less. But I don’t understand how we can so readily embrace an attitude that neither Jesus nor Moses seemed to have. Neither of them, apparently, felt the need to dictate to God how he does his work. Both recognized that he could give varied gifts in varied circumstances to different people and raise up servants who operate in different circles and in different ways to do the work of his kingdom in the world.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> Paul talked about how the very Jewish Jerusalem church gave his work among Gentiles “<a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Galatians+2:8-9&version=NIV">the right hand of fellowship</a>.” He refused, over and over, the tyranny of those who wanted to shackle his churches with their expectations. He <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Philippians+1:17-18&version=NIV">welcomed the preaching of the gospel even when he had doubts about the preachers’ motives</a>!</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> If Jesus, Moses, and Paul were comfortable with the idea that God can work where and with whom he pleases, I think it’s safe for us to be as well. That doesn’t require compromising anything we feel strongly about. It’s just recognizing that God doesn’t use anyone because we get every doctrinal “i” dotted and “t” crossed. He just might place his Spirit on folks outside our camp too, and that’s all right. Someone working in the name of Jesus is more likely to be an ally than an antagonist.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> To think that if it’s not “us” following Jesus, then the doors might as well shut, is to give in to the same sectarian, divisive impulse that we claim to believe has been a shame to Christianity. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> How about this, instead? Let’s be faithful to the tasks God gives us. Let’s preach the gospel to the best of our ability, every chance we get. Let’s serve with love to roll back the darkness in our world. And let’s pray for and encourage other servants of Jesus to do the same.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"> And when our time is done, let’s bequeath our efforts to those who will follow us, with all confidence in God.</span></p>Patrick Odumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08344818381111725780noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2585446544910042015.post-7483822437060753072023-09-01T14:21:00.003-05:002023-09-01T14:21:19.191-05:00Biblical but Not Christlike<p><span style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; text-align: justify;">I ran across a quote this week that is so good, I really might get it tattooed backwards on my forehead so I can see it every time I look in the mirror. It’s from Stephen Mattison, who I don’t know and couldn’t find in a quick online search. But I love his quote; it’s one of those that I wish I’d come up with:</span></p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px; text-align: justify;"><br /></p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0px 18px; text-align: justify;">Of all the things Satan could’ve used to destroy Christ, he decided to tempt Jesus with the Bible. In the same way, Satan will attack Christianity by tricking people into believing they’re “being biblical” without being Christlike at all.</p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0px 18px; text-align: justify;"> To be Christlike is to love your neighbor as yourself.</p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0px 18px; text-align: justify;"> To be “biblical” is to quote verses that align with your personal agendas and contextualize scripture according to your own opinions. </p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0px 18px; text-align: justify;"> Too many people are being “biblical” without being Christlike. May God help us sacrificially love others to the best of our ability.</p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px; text-align: justify;"><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhH9kwIUTgYsY14nvQMlqMcQdGE3ZjugBLySJydQMZrpI_iLqgs2HWw1EMpSAWYdho9zUQ2EHncQUY-256u5TzNWwdTTGn2_yguAdFTvpBW-a_r4URJaogzhXT4t_eBR3ABeDVAgEWypSSlbG_EuOAvWtdNiH_JrLAZgsMuafqyXZa-KNN4lNaL1Mw1tCFk/s950/4162-holy%20bible_edited.630w.tn.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="475" data-original-width="950" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhH9kwIUTgYsY14nvQMlqMcQdGE3ZjugBLySJydQMZrpI_iLqgs2HWw1EMpSAWYdho9zUQ2EHncQUY-256u5TzNWwdTTGn2_yguAdFTvpBW-a_r4URJaogzhXT4t_eBR3ABeDVAgEWypSSlbG_EuOAvWtdNiH_JrLAZgsMuafqyXZa-KNN4lNaL1Mw1tCFk/w400-h200/4162-holy%20bible_edited.630w.tn.jpeg" width="400" /></a></div><p style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px; text-align: justify;"><br /></p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;">On second thought, I guess it’s a little too long to tattoo on my forehead. </p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> But it is something I need to remember. How about you?</p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> What Mattison’s definition of “biblical” assumes is that we tend to use Scripture to backstop our own opinions and preconceptions. I do think that there’s a way of interacting with Scripture that minimizes this tendency, and to that degree gives us a chance to let the Bible shape us and change us. After all, one of the chief ways we know what it is to be Christlike is through what we see of Jesus in the Bible. </p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> As someone who cares about being “biblical,” though, I’m not ready to say that it’s necessarily antithetical to being “Christlike.”</p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> Mattison hints at a synthesis of the two: let Jesus’ ethic of loving God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength and loving our neighbors at least as much as we love ourselves also guide and order our reading of the Bible. Sometimes, I think, people who want to be “biblical,” like I do, accidentally end up prioritizing the Bible over Jesus. </p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> For instance: In my fellowship of churches, the Churches of Christ, we have historically emphasized the epistles of the New Testament and Acts over every other part of the Bible. I think that’s changed somewhat, but it hasn’t been long that you would be far more likely to hear a sermon in our churches that quoted Paul than one that quoted Isaiah or Leviticus — or even Jesus.</p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> This is because the epistles and Acts are where we’ve gotten much of our theology and practice. It’s easier. There seems to be more in those parts of the Bible that’s directly relevant and familiar. We’ve tended to regard the Bible as a collection of data points about particular topics, collated and synthesized all this data, and come to our conclusions. And a disproportionately large set of that data has come from those parts of the Bible.</p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> And so, when we look at Jesus, we tend to look at him through the epistles and Acts. </p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> We dismiss the scriptures of Israel, and sometimes even the Gospels, as having to do with the “old covenant” or “old dispensation,” and therefore not authoritative for us. Which is odd, since Paul himself told Timothy that the scriptures made him “wise for salvation through faith in Jesus Christ.” It’s odd, since the Gospels were written <i>for the church</i> every bit as much as Acts was. (Luke himself wrote Acts <i>and a Gospel.</i>)</p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> Of course, Luke and Paul and the other epistle-writers intended for their works to be understood in relation to Jesus. Paul’s letters, the book of Acts, the Gospels, Revelation — none of them mean anything at all without Jesus, and their authors knew that. </p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> Of course, Jesus understood what he was doing as a fulfillment of (not an undoing of) what we refer to as “the Old Testament.” </p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> Jesus’ opponents claimed that they were being “biblical” in their concern for Sabbath-keeping. After all, their “Bibles clearly said” that no work was to be done on the Sabbath.</p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> But, somehow, they found themselves on the wrong side of an argument with Jesus over whether he should heal someone on the Sabbath. <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+12:9-14&version=NIV">Not once</a>. <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke+13:10-16&version=NIV">Not twice</a>. Not <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+5:1-12&version=NIV">three times</a>. At least <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+9:1-16&version=NIV">four times</a> they had this exact debate. No wonder Jesus was frustrated with them. No wonder he said about a woman he healed in the synagogue, “Should not this woman, a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has kept bound for eighteen long years, be set free on the Sabbath day from what bound her?” They weren’t so “biblical” that they didn't care for their animals on the Sabbath. What in the world should keep them from caring about a woman who needed to be healed? </p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> What kept them from caring — or at least from seeing the need of that woman and the other people Jesus “violated Scripture” to heal — was the way they read the Bible. I hope that bothers us, at least a little. </p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> “Be imitators of me, just as I also am of Christ,” Paul wrote to the church in Corinth. Paul knew his Scriptures and could have told the church to follow him in that. But he didn’t. What qualified him as a paradigm for living as a Christian was that he followed Jesus. Because of an inconvenient chapter break, the specific way that he followed Jesus gets lost: “For I am not seeking my own good but the good of many, so that they may be saved.”</p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> May that always be our intent — not to do what’s good for ourselves, but for others. That’s biblical, but more importantly it’s what we learn from Jesus. </p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> Using Mattison’s terms, being “Christlike” must come before being “biblical.” Jesus is the rubric by which we should be checking our interpretations of the Bible. Any conclusion we draw from Scripture that doesn’t lead us to prioritize devotion to God and the well-being of our neighbors is not likely to be correct. Any reading of the Bible that obstructs people from entering God’s kingdom is just wrong. Any interpretation that demands sacrifice without offering mercy is mistaken. Any exegesis that values religious observance over spirituality, gratitude for God’s love, and human flourishing is wrong-headed. Any application of Scripture that would limit God’s work in the world to what we can categorize, understand, and give our stamp of approval to is far too narrow. If our reading of the Bible is primarily about proving a point, winning an argument, or finding support for a position instead of learning to give ourselves up for God and the people around us, perhaps we need to go back for a new reading. One shaped more by what we know of Jesus and guided by the Holy Spirit.</p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> Being Christlike is to be shaped by our relationship with Jesus, to learn from him as a disciple. To let him teach us everything — even how to read our Bibles. </p>Patrick Odumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08344818381111725780noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2585446544910042015.post-49541276301115823572023-08-25T15:04:00.003-05:002023-08-25T15:04:24.040-05:00The Way Things Are<p> <span style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; text-align: justify;">We’ve spent some time this week waiting for medical decisions. If that’s not something you’ve never had to do, then maybe you don’t realize how frustrating it can be. Doctors and hospitals seem to move glacially slow sometimes — largely, I guess, because when we’re waiting for them, it’s because we or people we love are sick. We want to get well.</span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBL3R84TU2IRvwnjFK6j6UXtr7FkJmhBeo84_NZZaipwbt7FVitjg2XqrEShkqhq7kGkaFNUgebxG-psXZ30tE027XeUBQMIKoCzUPFniXvb0LpVIdqyBZY0nV1KYT9T2m-dx-2IF9fYdb-vbQnoppBhEBTQFGqppwjE8CBUsjAxAyh5wHGCM9fNJF62EV/s760/patient-monitor-screen.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="552" data-original-width="760" height="290" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBL3R84TU2IRvwnjFK6j6UXtr7FkJmhBeo84_NZZaipwbt7FVitjg2XqrEShkqhq7kGkaFNUgebxG-psXZ30tE027XeUBQMIKoCzUPFniXvb0LpVIdqyBZY0nV1KYT9T2m-dx-2IF9fYdb-vbQnoppBhEBTQFGqppwjE8CBUsjAxAyh5wHGCM9fNJF62EV/w400-h290/patient-monitor-screen.png" width="400" /></a></div><span style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; text-align: justify;"><br /></span><p></p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> Doctors, meanwhile, have to wrestle with The Way Things Are. They have to look at the risks and side effects of treatment alongside the goal of making their patients well.</p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> I’ve been preaching from Jeremiah this month, and Jeremiah is a prophet of The Way Things Are. God sent him to give his people a theological perspective on what they’re mostly looking at with geo-political eyes. From their perspective, The Way Things Are is not acceptable. They’re being threatened, existentially, by the kingdom of Babylon. But they’re the kingdom of Judah, the people God has made a covenant with, so of course God must be on their side. Some of Jeremiah’s prophetic colleagues are telling the people that God is going to intervene and vindicate them. Just a year or two, these prophets say, and Babylon will be defeated. </p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> Jeremiah has been given a different message. One that doesn’t make him popular, but that has the advantage of being the truth. “The Way Things Are is going to be with us for a while,” he tells the people. He tells them that, for 70 years, they’re going to have to live under the Babylonian thumb. The time upon them is one in which they’ll live in exile in the kingdom of Babylon, away from the land that God gave them. Jerusalem, and the Temple upon which they’ve placed so much of their faith and from which they’ve gotten so much of their national identity, will fall into ruins. It will seem to everyone that God has given up on them. </p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> In chapter 29, the prophet tells God’s people to “build houses and settle down” in Babylon. They are to have children and build families. They are to “seek<span style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span> the peace and prosperity of the city.” They are to “pray<span style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span> to the LORD for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.” Jeremiah tells them that they’re in Babylon for the long haul; it’ll be their grandchildren and great-grandchildren who get to return to the land of promise and see Jerusalem again.</p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> That must have been a difficult message to swallow. But the Babylonian siege ramps are already against Jerusalem’s walls. God says, “I am about to give this city into the hands of the king of Babylon, and he will capture it.” He warns King Zedekiah that if he chooses to fight against Babylon, his army will fail. </p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> This is The Way Things Are. Israel can’t beat Babylon, God says, so they might as well — not <i>join</i> them, exactly, but invest in their lives there. They can prosper, even away from the Land of Promised, the city of David, and their cherished temple. They shouldn’t just blend in; they should keep their identity as God’s people. But their prosperity for the next several decades will be tied to the prosperity of the Babylonians. Like it or not, their future is entwined with the future of Babylon.</p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> Jeremiah is walking a fine line. His people need to recognize The Way Things Are. They need to be realistic about that. The Way Things Are is not the whole story, though. </p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> In chapter 32, Jeremiah buys a field. From a strictly financial point of view, it’s an odd decision. The value of land in the Kingdom of Judah is about to plummet. Jeremiah will eventually go into exile with the rest of his people. There’s going to be no one to farm or develop his new property. Jeremiah might as well dig a hole and put his money in it. With The Way Things Are, buying a piece of property makes no sense. </p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> I guess that’s why God has to tell him to go through with the purchase. But it isn’t that God wants Jeremiah to be a real estate baron; the purchase is symbolic. While the people should be investing in Babylon, Jeremiah’s example shows that they shouldn’t give up on the Promised Land either. </p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> God says: </p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0px 18px; text-align: justify;"><i>“Take these documents, both the sealed and unsealed copies of the deed of purchase, and put them in a clay jar so they will last a long time….Houses, fields and vineyards will again be bought in this land.”</i></p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;">Jeremiah’s purchase of land is a way of assuring the people that there’s a future life for them in the Promised Land. The deed to his field will be waiting for his descendants when they return. </p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> The Way Things Are now isn’t the way things will always be. </p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> That’s hard for most of us to understand. I guess it’s human nature to imagine that nothing will ever change. When things are tough, it seems they’ll always be tough. When we’re waiting for treatment options for a medical problem, or waiting for a bad situation at work to get better, or wondering if a relationship will survive, or worrying about financial problems, we tend to assume things will always be as they are now. It can he hard to imagine a better future.</p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> Jeremiah’s message from God encouraged his people to deal with the realities of The Way Things Are. Sometimes we use religion to avoid exactly that. We hide behind our doctrines, our systems, our rituals, our Bibles and our hymns and our prophets, because we don’t want to engage with things as they are right now. But we have lives to live, even with The Way Things Are. We have jobs to do, families to raise, prayers to pray. We can still find the beauty of God’s world to enjoy. We can prosper, even when we don’t like how Things Are, and we can help others to prosper too, in all the ways that we need and in all the ways that matter. </p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> We need to resist or urge to withdraw and not deal with The Way Things Are.</p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> But we can also get overwhelmed by The Way Things Are. Dragged down by it. That’s what Jesus was talking about, I think, when he warned about getting weighed down by fear and worry. We can lose all perspective. Give up on the hope of things ever changing for the better. When that happens, we can become bitter, angry, pessimistic people who delight only in dragging everyone else down into the muck to keep us company. To make our choices and live our lives as though nothing will ever change, there’s no hope of more or better, will inevitably lead us to bad decisions and all their repercussions. </p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> So God tells his people to invest in Babylon. But he also tells Jeremiah to invest in Jerusalem.</p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> I think it’s interesting that God told Jeremiah to put the deed to his new piece of property in a clay jar, so that it will last “a long time.” Sometimes life requires that we put our hope for a better future away for a while. </p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> When that happens, we have to take special care that our hope doesn’t get lost. We need to make sure that we preserve it so that, when the time comes, we remember that we have it. That means looking after ourselves spiritually, knowing that The Way Things Are doesn’t negate the promises and faithfulness and compassion and love and grace of God. That’s why we worship and pray and take Communion. We’re protecting our hope.</p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> God tells his people to invest both in Babylon and Jerusalem, both in The Way Things Are and The Way Things Will Be. In both cases, of course, he’s telling them — and us — to invest in <i>him. </i>It’s God who will help us to cope with The Way Things Are, help us to push through our fear and disappointment, prosper, and help others to prosper. And it’s God who will keep our vision of The Way Things Will Be in front of us, especially in the promises he makes to us in Christ.</p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> In Christ, may we never lose sight of the Way Things Will Be. And may we always make the most of The Way Things Are.</p>Patrick Odumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08344818381111725780noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2585446544910042015.post-55493256557077936792023-08-18T10:42:00.002-05:002023-08-18T10:42:15.562-05:00Pronouns<p> <span style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; text-align: justify;">Lately I’ve had some grammar conversations with Christians.</span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjm1OG8yJukNPhRp-AZa89CTon729WfNwJEEHE0gnbmJRXPwOjhwoGNTudCJnkfv5GXbi4wc5f55uH-5nGt3luqzkmlNDt7Bk3JDVI5w7xFl3nXDAtj0f0dGrhoXWS1JKOPNLItGV1KWAzGAIwmNQoaVApFiQFlzbtSKvTz7iem-x8jNdmw2PgFBUmSDGwH/s300/Nametag00.png.webp" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="196" data-original-width="300" height="261" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjm1OG8yJukNPhRp-AZa89CTon729WfNwJEEHE0gnbmJRXPwOjhwoGNTudCJnkfv5GXbi4wc5f55uH-5nGt3luqzkmlNDt7Bk3JDVI5w7xFl3nXDAtj0f0dGrhoXWS1JKOPNLItGV1KWAzGAIwmNQoaVApFiQFlzbtSKvTz7iem-x8jNdmw2PgFBUmSDGwH/w400-h261/Nametag00.png.webp" width="400" /></a></div><span style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; text-align: justify;"><br /></span><p></p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> Specifically, the conversations have been about pronouns. You know what I mean, the increasing practice in our world of identifying preferred pronouns in email signatures, resumés, CV’s, and so forth. </p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> The practice has developed out of sensitivity to those who, for various reasons, don’t think the pronouns that might usually be assigned to them based on the usual cues to their biological sex — dress, secondary sexual characteristics, speech, and so on — adequately convey their own understanding of their gender.</p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> And that’s the problem for some of us. For people who believe that our sex is given to us by God, and that our understanding of gender should come from that, it can seem like we’re in foreign territory. Why would we refer to a biological female as “he”? Why would we refer to a person of determinate biological sex as “they”?</p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> And, deeper still, the unasked question: “Why would a person’s gender not conform to their biological sex?”</p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> And the related question: “If I use someone’s preferred pronouns, or identify my own (even assuming they match my biological sex), am I compromising something of my faith?” Am I validating deeper theological problems, like the relative nature of truth or the goodness of God’s creation or questions of sexual morality?</p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> In many contexts in our world today, even asking questions like this would be considered inappropriate and offensive. To believers, they’re real questions, at least for some of us. Other believers might not have such questions, but that may be less about having greater spiritual insight and more about already being immersed in the world’s view of the subject. (Many younger believers think it’s odd and even reprehensible that some of us older Christians would even ask such things, but they are in schools and workplaces that have already embraced a much more open attitude toward this subject — and may even discipline violations of it.) </p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> So, I’m having the grammar conversations: “Should I use someone’s preferred pronouns at my school or workplace? Should I not use pronouns at all? Am I compromising my faith if I do? Am I contributing to the idea of the church as an intolerant mob if I don’t?”</p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> I think these are good questions that indicate a desire to live out our faith in the real world that we live and work in every day. If you’re honestly thinking through questions like these, honestly are trying to figure out how to navigate this situation at your own school, workplace, or even home, then read on. I’m just going to offer suggestions, not rules. Beginning points. Some hopefully solid ground you can stand on as you try to find leverage to deal with this issue. </p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> First, it’s not going away. The tide’s not turning, the preferred pronoun genie isn’t going back in the bottle. </p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> Second, let’s cut each other some slack, <i>especially </i>in the church. Let’s figure this out <i>together, </i>and let’s not try to immolate each other if we come up with different answers. This is complicated. There is no verse that says “Thou shalt” or “Thou shalt not.” Any answer we come up with is going to require some interpretation, and that can be as dangerous as it is helpful. </p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> One text that might be helpful is 1 John 3:18 — “let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth” John is addressing a situation where someone sees someone in need and “has no pity on them.” He asks, “How can the love of God be in that person?” So he wants <i>embodied</i> love — not just affirmations of care for human beings, but real, in-the-flesh evidence that you love people in the life situations that they’re in.</p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> It’s maybe significant that John was writing to push back against a heresy that the physical body and reality didn’t matter, a heresy that had reached the point of denying even that Jesus came in a body. Whether or not to feed to feed the hungry was likely an open question because they believed that physical bodies were only temporary vessels holding immortal souls. A disembodied gospel has consequences, including a lack of compassion toward those in need.</p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 5px; text-align: justify;"> John reminds us that human beings have bodies. Jesus came as a human being in order to bring redemption to those bodies, and he did it through laying down what he wanted in order to show love to others: </p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 5px 18px; text-align: justify;"><i>This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us.</i><span style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;"><i> </i></span><i> And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters. (I John 3:16, NIV)</i></p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> I don’t think it’s possible to love other people without taking seriously their physical reality. You can’t love someone who’s hungry without recognizing their hunger, you can’t love someone who’s sick without acknowledging their illness. And I don’t think you can really show love to someone whose gender and biological sex are in some way disjointed without acknowledging that fact. </p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> Some might argue that love <i>requires</i> us to refuse, that a person who believes they’re anything other than their biological sex is deluded. That might be the case. But agreeing with their belief and going along with what they ask are not necessarily the same thing, are they? Assuming that it is a delusion, isn’t going along with their pronoun choice simply one small way to let them know that they are accepted and valued as human beings, even if we can’t really understand what they’re feeling? </p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> Besides, very few of us would be even <i>close</i> to qualified to try to talk someone out of their feeling that their sex and gender don’t match, and to try could have devastating consequences. </p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> I think that sometimes in trying honestly to deal with this topic from a Christian perspective, we make the mistake of failing to show compassion. Maybe we too quickly turn it into a cultural battleground, and it becomes all about politics and our frustration that traditional Christian faith doesn’t seem to have a comfortable place in the world anymore. Maybe it’s just because we’re uncomfortable with the whole idea. But most people who ask you to address them with a particular pronoun aren’t trying to make a political statement. They’re trying, as well, to find a comfortable place to live and work. </p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> It’s my belief that if we’re going to make mistakes — and we will sometimes — then we should make those mistakes on the side of compassion, love, and kindness. </p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> Here’s where I come out, if you’re curious: I don’t post preferred pronouns. My name, my appearance, my voice, the way I dress point other people to the pronoun that’s appropriate for me. I believe God intended that when he created us male and female.</p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> But I also believe that, as with other aspects of creation, sometimes there are disconnects in the way we see ourselves. What should be done about that is for people more qualified than I am to determine. What we’re called to do is to show love, compassion, and kindness to people who are struggling to navigate those complex questions and feelings about who they are. If one of the ways we can do that is by simply using the pronouns for them that they prefer, then — for myself — I don’t see what would be wrong with that. </p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> Let’s don’t forget that it’s also our job to introduce people to the God who knows them better than even they know themselves, who created them and who, if they can learn to trust him, is able to offer them clarity about who they are. Certainly more able than any of us.</p>Patrick Odumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08344818381111725780noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2585446544910042015.post-38379920732818410992023-08-11T12:41:00.003-05:002023-08-11T12:45:05.126-05:00Stay in the City: A Wish for Churches<p> <span style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; text-align: justify;">Last week, Harding School of Theology made a significant announcement. Reaction has been both sorrowful and joyful, and I suppose depending on your perspective either reaction is appropriate.</span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrg4TnozLP_0xfrTCv_XnAlwQf6OUnnZIytxXYqx039T6HdoBVESZLfQQSrUQ-iA7RFT0WC7TzzfRLN2g1ioKm-7l-AFOI8x824Cma1TFTtPqfrXn8jveYdLg5L3_F2rSaSbEUt-ixfrNCjFszZRaFPVsSITw61glKCJdTHiiWheXwfOUQAzrBA5611BCC/s1600/l-intro-1674662963.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="902" data-original-width="1600" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrg4TnozLP_0xfrTCv_XnAlwQf6OUnnZIytxXYqx039T6HdoBVESZLfQQSrUQ-iA7RFT0WC7TzzfRLN2g1ioKm-7l-AFOI8x824Cma1TFTtPqfrXn8jveYdLg5L3_F2rSaSbEUt-ixfrNCjFszZRaFPVsSITw61glKCJdTHiiWheXwfOUQAzrBA5611BCC/w400-h225/l-intro-1674662963.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><span style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; text-align: justify;"><br /></span><p></p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> They announced that they would be leaving their longtime home in Memphis, Tennessee, and relocating to Harding University’s main campus in Searcy, Arkansas. </p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> And they also announced that they’ll be dropping their price per credit hour from $740 to $100.</p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> That last isn’t a typo, and if you’ve ever considered graduate education in theology next fall would be a really good time to start! </p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> It’s the relocation, though, that I’m thinking about right now.</p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> HST has been located in Memphis since 1958. Bob Turner, one of the ministers at White Station Church of Christ, just about a mile and a half from the campus, used to work for HST. He wrote an excellent reflection on the move, titled “<a href="https://www.cocws.org/stationery/running-from-nineveh/">Running from Nineveh</a>,” that’s worth your time to read. In it, he writes about the “suburbanization or (worse) white flight” of the late 20th century that “sent people packing for the suburbs.” He says: </p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0px 18px; text-align: justify;">“This suburbanization has presented challenges for the church. The churches that I’ve spent my life in have struggled ministering in urban settings. Despite the fact that by 2050 most of the world will live in urban areas, Christians still seem uncomfortable in them. Most urban areas are littered with old, empty churches that used to be relevant for the community, but their membership died or moved away.” </p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;">Here in Chicago, it looks like the former Kenwood Methodist Episcopal Church will be converted to office space and apartments. Two or three other similar redevelopments are at least in the planning stages. Though there was a time when churches were being built in cities, and served their communities well, now I think I agree with Bob that at least many Christians do seem somewhat uncomfortable in cities. At least many white Christians. So, in many places, Christians have simply withdrawn from the city.</p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> I did a little research and quick math, and came up with some interesting figures. Searcy, Arkansas, has just over 23,000 people, and they have 7 Churches of Christ — one for every 3,286 people. Chattanooga, Tennessee, where I grew up, has 182,000 people and at least 25 Churches of Christ — one for every 7,280 people. That’s about 5 more Churches of Christ than are located in Chicago, which has a population of 2.7 million. One for every 135,000 people. Bob points out that Seattle has 6 Churches of Christ and nearly a million in population, and New York City’s 8 million people are served by 7 Churches of Christ. </p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> I’m cherry-picking, of course. In larger cities in the south, there are more of us. Memphis has around 45 Churches of Christ for its 628,000 people — but that’s still only about one for every 14,000 people. In Atlanta, where 496,000 people live, there are 15 Churches of Christ, by my count; one for every 33,066 people.</p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> Maybe other tribes of believers are doing better in cities. I can only really speak to my own.</p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> I’ve been a minister in an urban church for almost 30 years, and here’s what I know: I’ve sort of gotten used to Christians reacting with concern and even pity when they find out I’m in the evil, wicked city of Chicago. Much of that reaction, I think, comes from a very one-sided view of cities in general, and Chicago specifically, that they mainly get (as near as I can tell) from Fox News. I know for a fact that visitors to Chicago sometimes drive past my church from their hotel in the Loop to go to a suburban congregation where they feel safer and more comfortable. OK, that’s their choice. But I worry when Christians’ attitudes about the city are informed more by politicians and country songs about small towns than they are by God’s love for human beings. When we’re more concerned with echoing hysteria about cities than we are with sharing the gospel there, something’s wrong. Something is deeply wrong.</p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> I get it, there are reasons not to live in cities. I’m not saying everyone should. But when the church — and the schools that train its leaders — runs from the challenges of urban life to suburbs and small towns, something is missing from our perspective on cities. </p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> One other thing, and I hate to say this, but I do think the abandonment of cities is by and large a white church thing. We should grapple with the questions about why. Do we just prefer our churches more homogenous? Are there racist attitudes behind our choice to leave cities? Do our ideas of success and prosperity influence the choices we make about where to live and where to put our buildings? Have our churches become too focused on making our members comfortable? I can tell you this; young Christians who grow up with different worldviews and assumptions about urban life and diversity notice when our churches lack any diversity. </p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> Ethnic churches — Black, Latino, Asian — have continued to be a presence in urban areas. To the degree that we want to reengage with the city, we should look to those churches for leadership. Partner with them.</p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> After preaching last week from <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Jeremiah+29:1-9&version=NIV">Jeremiah 29</a>, I’ve been thinking about what the prophet wrote to exiles to Babylon who, no doubt, weren’t crazy about being relocated to the wicked, pagan city. Jeremiah told them to “build houses and settle down.” Become a part of the community. Invest in it. He told them to “plant gardens and eat what they produce.” Literally, put down roots; you don’t plant a garden if you don’t plan to be there for a while. Not to mention that gardens give you something to share with neighbors! He advised them to “work to see that the city where I sent you as exiles enjoys peace and prosperity. Pray to the LORD for it. For as it prospers you will prosper.” They were to work <i>and</i> pray for their city; invest their time, energy, resources, and prayers into helping their new city prosper. They were to participate in the life of the city and contribute to its future by raising children who would be confident in their identity as God’s people, but also as citizens of Babylon.</p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> It’s the easiest thing in the world to isolate ourselves behind the walls of our home or church buildings, behind privacy fences and gated communities, away from the Lazaruses at our gates. Part of the reason churches retreat from the city is that it allows us the illusion that the problems of the city aren’t our problems. You hear it in some of our rhetoric that dismisses cities as “cesspools,” Sodoms and Gomorrahs where the people are totally unlike the people that “we” know and live and work around. </p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> We need to be planting churches in the city. We should literally plant community gardens we can share with our neighbors, and serve in ways that make us part of the fabric of the neighborhood. When considering whether or not to leave an urban area for the suburbs or small towns, Christians should at least ask whether or not God might have called us to the city for a reason. There are good reasons to leave, but there are also good reasons to stay.</p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> I’d love to see struggling urban churches decide to stay in their neighborhoods instead of closing the doors. I’d love to see them ask God how they need to change to reach their neighborhoods with the gospel. I’d love to see fewer condos and shopping centers on former church properties, and more places where urban people can come to know Jesus. I’d love to see churches committed to praying and working for the city’s prosperity.</p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> Our cities need us more than they need another Starbuck’s.</p>Patrick Odumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08344818381111725780noreply@blogger.com0