Book Review – The Christian Calendar

I love books and reading.  I enjoy browsing through used book stores for hidden gems.  I don’t do it often, and I don’t do it for long, but it’s enjoyable.  Ever since I was a kid, this has been an inexpensive indulgence for me.  The reality is that most of what I pick up isn’t all that great.  At least historically.  I’ve become a lot more selective in what I buy now, but I still take chances now and then which occasionally pay off.

Such is the case with The Christian Calendar: A complete Guide to the Seasons of the Christian Year.   It combines two of my favorite things – history and historical illustrations and photos – and combines them in an examination of the liturgical year.  The historical illustrations are great and drawn from a variety of sources spanning nearly 2000 years.

The book focuses on the traditional Roman Catholic lectionary and liturgical cycle (a one-year cycle rather than the more contemporary three-year cycle).  Brief commentary or exegesis on the Gospel lesson is frequent, and the helpfulness of these comments varies widely.  But the artwork is beautiful, and there are frequent notes of local customs (particularly English but also Continental) associated with various Sundays in the Church year.  The book concludes with a list of saints venerated on literally every day of the year.  Most are just names and dates of death, but there are more expanded biographies included throughout.

If you enjoy liturgical history and artwork and can pick this up second-hand, I definitely recommend it.  Don’t necessarily take the exegetical work too seriously, but it’s a nice book to have in your library.

 

Spiders

A beautiful thought to consider for a Tuesday.  Or any other day.  Or not.

You’re welcome.

ANF – The Epistle of Mathetes to Diognetus

After considerable delay, here is another document in ancient Christian literature and the second document included in the Ante-Nicene Fathers.

The there is no authorial identification or designation, so we don’t know who wrote it.  The traditional title is The Epistle of Mathetes to Diognetus, however mathetes simply means disciple in Greek.   The manuscript for some time was attributed to Justin Martyr, although stylistic differences have resulted in most scholars today dismissing that attribution.  Nor do we have any clear idea of the identity of Diognetus, although some propose that it is the teacher of Marcus Aurelius who we know had the same name.  Although convenient, it is at best a stretch to insist on this connection.  The date of the writing ranges from early second century (perhaps 130 AD) to sometime in the late second century, and is likely the earliest surviving example of Christian apologetics.

The letter purports to explain to Diognetus more about the Christian faith and how it differs from both Jewish belief and pagan religions.  The letter cites Christianity as a new kind of practice, arguing for a very early dating for the document.  The author also claims to be a disciple of the Apostles, which many argue means a very early dating but which could also be a description applied to Christians today.  Many scholars dismiss the last two sections as later additions.  Only one copy of this document is known to have existed, and it was destroyed in 1870.  It was first translated and published in 1592.

The author first demonstrates the futility of worshiping physical idols.  Then he moves on to dismissing Jewish religion as equally misguided.  The pagans are foolish in that they offer material things to carved images.  The Jews are silly in that they propose to offer material things to an immaterial God who has no need of them and who is indeed the source and creator of them.  The author then moves on to explain basic Christian theology, emphasizing the Gospel or the sweet exchange in which we who are dead in our sins are credited with the righteousness of the Son of the living God.

It’s a great, brief contrast of the Christian faith to other religions, emphasizing our need for and God’s provision of a Savior.

Reading Ramblings – April 2, 2017

Reading Ramblings

Date: Fifth Sunday in Lent – April 2, 2017

Texts: Ezekiel 37:1-14; Psalm 130; Romans 8:1-11; John 11:17-27, 38-53

Context: Palm Sunday is technically the last Sunday in Lent, but it has gradually been absorbed into the larger observance of Holy Week, leaving the fifth Sunday in Lent as the last. As such, the readings culminate the Lenten season of self-examination and repentance. The tone is a climactic anticipation – truly we are dead in our sins and unable to save ourselves! The Old Testament and psalm both heighten this sense of anticipation – where is our rebirth from dry bones? Must we wait on the watchtowers for the dawn? The Epistle lesson from Romans points us ahead – no, we need not wait for new life! We have new life in Christ! Here, now, today. Not perfectly of course, which leads us to doubt if we really have received new life. But Paul assures us we have. I opted for the abridged Gospel lesson, which shows us the new life – life from the dead – that Jesus is capable of giving. Lazarus being raised from the dead foreshadows our resurrection in Christ made possible through his victory over his own grave Easter morning.

Ezekiel 37:1-14 – This vision comes towards the end of a series of the Lord’s commands to Ezekiel to prophecy against various powers. Ezekiel is also commanded to prophecy in chapter 37 but the structure is markedly different from the surrounding chapters. Though the breath of God brings the reconstituted bones to life in this passage, it is not the same as the first breath of life given to Adam in Genesis 2. The interpretation of the vision is provided in vs. 11-14. We can read it symbolically, but there is good reason to also read it literally – if the bones represent the whole house of Israel, all of God’s people, then it encompasses past, present and future. This means those who have already died as well as those who still wait for the Lord’s salvation. The promises in this vision should include not just deliverance from spiritual lifelessness, or hopeless situations in general, but also deliverance from death itself in resurrection.

Psalm 130 – A psalm of hopeful waiting, a song of hope in the midst of struggle and loss. This could mean adversity but it could also mean despair over their sinful condition. The speaker is in dire circumstances, yet is hopeful that the Lord will hear and respond because the speaker is forgiven (v.4). Trusting in forgiveness, the speaker is free to wait for the Lord’s arrival and the speaker’s deliverance. The final three verses exhort the congregation of God’s people to hope in the Lord’s love and redemption, redemption enough for all of Israel and all Israel’s sins.

Romans 8:1-11 – Paul speaks the reality that the incarnation, death, resurrection, ascension, and promised return of the Son of God creates in those who trust in him. The condemnation of the Law against the sin in us is removed. We could not set ourselves free – only God could, and He has. In faith, we are recreated so that we desire the things of God, not simply what we want for ourselves. The problem is that we are only too well aware that we do still have sinful and selfish impulses, and these get the better of us often. It would be tempting to think that the new life we are promised in Christ is either a false promise, or we have not actually received it. But Paul assures us this is not the case. The Spirit of God dwells within those who profess faith in Jesus Christ. How can this be? Because only by the Spirit’s power can such a confession be made. The transformation is not simply begun but actually completed by Christ. Only in our resurrection or his return in glory will this be made obvious at last, though. This is our hope – that we will be freed from our sinful natures just as we will be physically raised from the dead. Ezekiel’s vision is a reality in Christ, and the cries of the psalmist are answered in the Easter dawn.

John 11:17-27, 38-53 – Jesus exercises power over death itself, commanding a man who has been dead for four days to come out of his tomb. Jesus’ power is total – over the elements, over demons, and over death itself. Technically Lazarus is raised from the dead as opposed to resurrected. Lazarus eventually does die again, but in resurrection we will never die again, just as Jesus cannot die again. Death is the one enemy we are powerless against. While we race to figure out how to tweak our genetic code to eliminate death, we are promised eternal life through faith in the resurrected Son of God.

The community of faith is in the business of removing burial clothes. Together we remind one another that we are alive, not dead. As such we are to put off the habits and practices of the dead and live like the living. It wouldn’t be appropriate for Lazarus to continue to wear his burial wrappings. Now that he is alive again his community surrounds him to free him from the inappropriate wrappings and lead him to more appropriate attire. Christian community does this in leading others to conduct themselves like the new creations they have been made in Christ. Biblical injunctions to Godly living are not the means towards life, but the logical behavior of the living. Our behavior has no power to save in and of itself, but through faith, our obedience to God’s revealed way of living glorifies him and benefits those around us. Our actions cannot earn us God’s approval, as they are only appropriate – we don’t congratulate or praise the living for breathing or eating, because those are just the natural behaviors of someone who is alive.

The readings this week point us towards the approaching Holy Week. Jesus takes our death on himself, becoming dry bones so that we might receive the breath of life from God the Holy Spirit. We celebrate with Lazarus in anticipation of Jesus’ own glorious resurrection on Easter morning, and anticipating our own resurrection when our Lord returns.

Good Riddance

Thanks to Ken for this article on recent developments among Presbyterians here in the United States.  A traditional and hugely successful (in terms of numbers, books, congregations and ministries planted, and 5000 worshiping members in his current church – which may or may not be the best definition of successful) pastor and theologian has been rejected from an award after being awarded it because he dares to hold to the Bible and thus the traditional teachings and standards of the Christian church that deny we get to remake God into whomever we desire him to be in order to justify our redefined peccadillos of the day.

Tim Keller is a well known author and pastor who happens to teach and confess what the Church has taught and confessed for nearly 2000 years – human sexuality and gender are created by God, who alone gets to define how they are expressed and interacted with.  This if course is not the most vocal definition of things today, and those who oppose the Biblical stance on these issues in favor of radical reinterpretation that legitimizes what the Bible calls sinful demanded Princeton Theological Seminary rescind the award.

Amazing when a few letters and e-mails and phone calls can ride rough-shot over the Bible and centuries of teaching and confession derived from it.  It calls into question not so much Mr. Keller’s orthodoxy, as who determines the arc and trajectory of the institutions that train people like Mr. Keller.  What are theological seminaries committed to – the long-standing confession of the Bible and clear Biblical witness or the preferences of the students it hopes to attract to the program.

When I went to seminary, the buzz-word was theological formation.  I’m not sure this was ever really explained fully, but the basic assumption was that whatever I thought I knew as I entered the program, the intent of the program was to shape and shape me, rather than visa versa.  I could take or leave the program, I couldn’t demand the program accommodate my personal theological preferences.  It amazes me that other programs – theological or otherwise – around the country have so much trouble explaining this to their students.  I assume this has to do more with economics than anything.  For a school to survive it needs students.  To entice students you make it appealing to the students.  If the students demand something, you have to take it seriously or else your institution or your faculty are at risk of disappearing (at least that’s the assumption).  It is predicated on the relatively recent idea that students get to determine what an institution is, rather than students selecting an institution of higher learning (or a business to work for, or whatever) for what they want the institution to teach and define about them.  The authority is completely reversed.  The students get to lecture the institution.

At which point, the institution is already irrelevant and has for all practical purposes already disappeared.  I suspect Mr. Keller does what he does not for academic prestige or awards.  I have little doubt this snub will not change his theology or practice.  And as such, he demonstrates greater permanency than Princeton and it’s 200+ year tradition of education.  That’s commendable for Mr. Keller, but so sad for Princeton.  I hope what results from this are future generations of theologians questioning if they really want to attend an institution that allows students to dictate what it teaches, where the students insist on being the smartest and wisest people in the room.

Fear or Life

In a few weeks we depart on an epic family vacation that has taken us almost four years to plan and save for.  It is the culmination of persistence and hard work and great blessing as well as a particular approach to education and life.

But in the past few weeks there have been multiple reports of terrorist attacks throughout Europe.  Paris.  Dusseldorf.  London.  Not all places that we plan to visit, but reminders that there are dangers to this type of education for our children and for ourselves.  I don’t believe that the world is a fundamentally more dangerous place today than it has been in times past.  But our ability to know instantaneously what is happening across the globe certainly affects our way of looking at the world and the people in it.

On a regular basis people in town here die on a particular highway just outside of town.  I don’t drive it often but there are times that I do and I think about the fact that it is a notoriously dangerous stretch of road.  Sometimes I opt to take the longer way around, but sometimes I don’t.  Life is full of risks and dangers.  Ones close to home somehow seem less ominous than those far away, where we’ll be guests and visitors rather than locals and residents.

Our children have to learn to balance fear and life.  They have to learn to make the best decisions possible given the available data.  They have to recognize that there are no guarantees of a happily-ever-after.  Every day there are people just like us who become statistics out of no fault of their own.  It is not what I wish for myself or my children or those people, but it is a reality of this broken, sin-infested world.  We have to learn to handle the statistics and the fear they create if we hope to live.

I believe that ultimately, this means that we have to learn to look death in the face and acknowledge it.  We are taught to avoid thinking about death, regularly coddled and swaddled in assurances that if we just do the right things, good things will follow and bad things will stay away.  But this isn’t necessarily true.  Certainly we can and should make good decisions.  But sometimes those decisions don’t protect us from the variable, the random, the unknown, the unpredictable.  And those things can kill.

It’s possible to be run down by a terrorist in a foreign city just by being at the wrong place at the wrong time.  I also know people who get hit by distracted drivers right here in town.  These things happen.  I have to acknowledge that this is a possibility and then determine whether or not to get out of bed in the morning, or drive on the freeway, or fly across an ocean, or find my way through lands where I don’t speak the language.  I have to decide whether those things are important enough to my wife and children to expose them as well.  And I have to be able to live with my decision, whether we return from an amazing, life-altering but fundamentally safe trip, or whether some or all of us never return.

I can face death and reality through my faith that death has been defeated by the God who created everything.  I rest that faith on the historically accurate material contained in the Bible.  It tells me some things that are hard to believe.  But it also tells me other things that plenty of people assumed weren’t true or real, only to be proved wrong.  Incredulity is not a reliable means of determining truth.  I trust the accounts of people 2000 years ago who saw a dead man raised to life and then raised to heaven with the promise to return.  I trust that my life and my children are not accidents of chance and time, that we have meaning and purpose beyond mindlessly perpetuating genetic code, and that our lives don’t end in a plane crash or a terrorist’s explosion.  We don’t go out looking for these things.  We try to avoid them.  But we recognize that if they should find us, we are together in the hands of the God who brought us into existence and has promised to sustain us for eternity.

So we’ll keep finalizing plans.  We’ll keep assembling the final elements for our trip.  Shoes and jackets and fleeces all crammed into carry-on luggage to sustain us on an adventure that will require us to face down death.  That is the adventure that every single one of us is on, ultimately.  Not a matter of if but when and how.  I’m ready.  I’ll do my best to make sure my children are ready.  And I’m always prepared and willing to talk to anyone – even you – who want to be ready as well.

Tax Dollars at Work

I’m a proponent of small government and allowing people to govern themselves as much as possible at the local level.  I’m continually amazed at what our Federal government does.  I’m not saying whether this is good or bad – I’m sure that there are defensible reasons for it as well as arguments against it.  But it is surprising.

It Bears Repeating

As we get closer to Easter, the number of articles, television specials and other commentaries on the Bible and Jesus are likely to snowball.  Very few of them will be faithful, helpful, or accurate.

This essay is an old one and came out around Christmas rather than Easter, but the points are salient and need to be reiterated over and over and over again.  Because the false assertions never let up.

Reading Ramblings – March 26, 2017

Reading Ramblings

Date: Fourth Sunday in Lent – March 26, 2017

Texts: Isaiah 42:14-21; Psalm 142; Ephesians 5:8-14; John 9:1-41

Context: We are blinded by sin. It’s easy for us to forget this, to treat sin as a matter of what we do or don’t do separate from our ability to rationalize or understand things. But blindness affects not only what we do but how we perceive and relate to the world around us. There is no aspect of us that is unaffected by sin. The readings for this Sunday center around the issue of blindness, and the vision and light God desires to restore to us. The result is God’s glory but also our very real and eternal benefit.

Isaiah 42:14-21 – Previous chapters have spoken words of comfort and encouragement to God’s people while deriding the foolishness of those who place their hope in idols and false gods. In Chapters 41-42 God the Father elaborates on his Chosen Servant, the one through whom He will deliver his people and bring judgment on those who resist his sovereign and divine will. Today’s reading picks up God’s voice in a song of praise to God for his action. God who has restrained himself as He watches his own people wander away and others seek to dislodge him from his people’s hearts, but that restraint has come to an end and God will act powerfully and irresitibly (vs. 14-15). So pervasive and all-encompassing will his actions be that the ways will be unknown. The blind will be guided, and the darkness that surrounds them will turn to light as the ground levels, making their passage possible. But those who persist in blind worship to idols will be shamed and shown as fools. Israel was supposed to be God’s messenger to the world, bringing the light of God’s Law to the nations. He has failed this utterly. Israel is blind and deaf to the revelation of God, and so his blindness and deafness exceeds that of all others. Yet in all of this the goal is not to remove or eliminate the Law of God, but rather to magnify it to show it for the true glory that it is – the very purpose and intent of God the Father. All creation will one day fully understand that God’s Word has been right in every respect all along.

Psalm 142 – The psalm is introduced by way of explanation – composed by David in a cave. Perhaps this is a reference to the events of 1 Samuel 22:1, or perhaps 1 Samuel 24. Regardless, it is a beautiful cry to God for help and guidance. The speaker recognizes their limitations. They are overwhelmed with fear because their enemies wait for them, but they have no ally to stand with them, nobody to watch over them and protect them. Human help fails, but God can save and so it is right to cry out to him for deliverance. The speaker exhorts God to save them so that they might praise God and join those who love him and rely upon his mercy and grace. Throughout the psalm the idea of vision and perception is woven. Traps are hidden, God is told to look to the speaker’s right side, and none takes notice of the speaker’s plight.

Ephesians 5:8-14 – We are new creations in Christ, through faith and baptism we die with Christ and are raised to new life in him – our old behaviors and ways of thinking about the world are no longer appropriate or relevant. Having summarized in vs.3-5 some of those previous ways of acting and thinking, Paul exhorts the Ephesians rather to walk in light, since what happens in the light is good (as opposed to the list of bad things previously, which happen under cover of darkness and shadow). Exposure to the light is the means by which the dark things lose their power. Personal transparency in our temptations and struggles is a means of freeing ourselves from their destructive power. Our first instinct is to hide our sinfulness and temptation but Paul assures us that the opposite is far better for us!

John 9 – This healing episode in Jerusalem is an extended consideration of the nature of blindness and the power of God to heal our blindness and give us sight. The physical restoration sight to the man is only the beginning of this process. Through the episode, the man who can now see is moving towards spiritual sight and understanding. He moves from not knowing who Jesus is (v.11 – the man called Jesus) to recognizing him as a prophet of God (v.17) to finally worshiping him as the Son of God (v.38).

In contrast, the religious officials remain blinded the entire time, refusing to see in Jesus’ actions the hand and affirmation of God the Father. Instead they lash out in frustration at the formerly blind man, angered that they are powerless while Jesus, who they seek to expose as a fraud or an apostate is able to do amazing things. The man with restored sight is last described humbly worshiping Jesus. The religious leaders are last described in proud indignation, throwing the healed man out of their sight.

The man had no predetermined attitude or knowledge of Jesus. As such he was able to be led to proper faith in a very short time. The religious leaders were convinced that they fully knew and understood Jesus (John 7:27), yet they do not (John 1:10). They remain blind as they insist that they alone can see clearly.

Our sin blinds us, and even those saved in Christ do not have full sight restored – yet. This should lead us to a degree of humility in regards to those things of the faith that are not explicitly defined by Scripture. We see our savior, but if we are convinced that we completely apprehend him, completely understand him, we are on dangerous ground, possibly demonstrating blindness to what He is doing among us or where He wishes us to follow him.

Movie Review: Is Genesis History?

I’ve stopped doing movie reviews by and large, since I’m apparently hyper-critical.  However this movie bears mentioning, and actual encouragement to see it.

Is Genesis History? provides an examination of common assumptions about our world that are grounded in an evolutionary/natural selection model.  The movie asks the question, is the evolutionary/natural selection model, which predicates that the earth is millions and millions of years old and that all of the animal and plant species we see today evolved from much simpler organisms over time supported by the physical evidence in our world?

The movie is a series of interviews with a variety of scientists who are Christian and believe that the best interpretation of the data available in the world around us is the Genesis explanation, which states that creation came into being in six days and that the earth might be much, much younger than the evolutionary/natural selection model asserts.  They offer intelligent and compelling arguments showing how the answers most of us were given in school about the world and how it came to be are unsatisfactory at best, and completely contrary to what we actually see in the world.

Normally I wouldn’t go to see a movie like this, but last week at happy hour, a recent Westmont Grad who is preparing to go to medical school mentioned that she had seen it and it made a favorable impression on her.  She doesn’t hold to a six-day creation perspective despite being a strong Christian, and is much more comfortable with some sort of theistic evolution answer, where God gets the ball rolling but evolution is the tool He uses.  She thought the movie raised some really good questions that gave her good food for thought.  I’m pleased to report that her assessment was very fair.

Is Genesis History? is not an attempt at debate.  No counterpoints are raised, no experts are interviewed to explain how they refute the assertions made by the experts in the film.  That’s not the film’s purpose.  The film intends to show that there is some good reason to doubt the prevailing ideas about the universe and our little corner of it, and to suggest that Genesis might really be taken seriously not in contradiction to science, but in an alternate interpretation of physical data.  It isn’t the Bible or science, but the Bible as a guiding lens for how science interprets the data it has.

The biggest question that was raised in my mind against their interpretations of data has to do with the Flood.  I believe the flood narrative, and I believe that it means what it says – a worldwide flood.  My question is that the various experts in this movie proposed a theory that says that the dinosaurs lived before the Flood, and went extinct with the Flood.  Yet Genesis 6 & 7 give the impression that representatives of every type of living creature were present on  the ark with Noah and his family (Genesis 6:19-20; 7:8-9, 14-16).

Did God determine which animals would be saved and which would not?  Did some of the animals that were saved on the ark die on the ark?  Genesis doesn’t state specifically that every animal or species on the ark was saved.  I like the answer that the experts in the film give, but if we want to take Genesis seriously (and we should!), then how do we come to grips with this issue?  I’ll be doing some more research to see if they answer that question on their web site.