Having Two Legs

Archives For June 2011

Word made Flesh

June 23, 2011 — Leave a comment

Luke says of the transfiguration that Elijah and Moses “appeared in glory and spoke of His decease which He was about to accomplish at Jerusalem” (Lk. 9:31).

Literally, Luke says that they talked of His “exodus” which He was about to “fulfill” in Jerusalem.

As Matthew’s use of the word “fulfill” also indicates, Jesus means to exemplify, embody, incarnate the words of Moses and the Prophets. He is the Word made flesh, and therefore He becomes the words of the law and the prophets. He is the archetype toward which all of the words of the Old Testament pointed. The Old Covenant words were all types and shadows of the Christ. They were signs of God coming in the flesh.

And Luke’s summary of the conversation between Jesus, Moses, and Elijah, emphasizes this point. Jesus came to fulfill the exodus. He came to do what the original exodus pointed toward. He came to “fill up” and “fill out” all that the original exodus and all the other mini-exoduses only previewed and pointed to. Continue Reading…

In Bible - 1 Peter, Bible - Exodus, Bible - Luke, Pentecost, Sola Scriptura, Theology - Pneumatology

Proverbs 31:28-31

June 20, 2011 — Leave a comment

Introduction
In these last four verses, the word “praise” is used three times. This is the same root for the word “hallelujah” which is used throughout the Bible to offer praise to the God of Israel. In this context, the word is being used for a wise woman, and we do not confuse worship offered to a creature for worship offer to the Creator. But as we have noted previously, there is a sense in which this Virtuous Wife is a type of Israel and of the New Israel, the Christian Church. And therefore, the work of the Church, the worship and ministry of the Bride of Christ is a sacrificial ministry for her husband Christ and for His people and for the world. In this sense, as we worship Christ faithfully in thought, word, and deed, God returns that worship to His bride, and she becomes a praise in the world. Continue Reading…

In Bible - Ephesians, Bible - Proverbs, Marriage Bed

The Fortress of Forgiveness

June 18, 2011 — 1 Comment

Guilt magnifies our sins. It is God’s gift to the world that people feel guilty, most people — even unbelievers– feel some tinges of guilt at least sometimes. And the Holy Spirit is the Helper in this. He shines the light of the gospel in the dark basements and attics of our souls so we can be cleansed, so we can be freed and healed.

But when we resist God, when we resist the Spirit we are doing so because we think the sin is too big, too grimy, too sticky, too gross. We’re afraid of the sin and its consequences. We don’t believe the gospel about our particular sin.

I can’t confess that sin because it would destroy my wife. I can’t confess that sin because it would ruin my career. I can’t confess that sin because it would let everyone down.

But that is to look up at your sin, as though it is a giant standing over you, mocking you. And you are afraid of it, afraid of the consequences.

But Jesus came to bind the strong man, to take down the devil and every giant-demon of sin. This doesn’t mean that consequences evaporate, but the confidence and courage we need to deal with sin has everything to do with where we are standing. Continue Reading…

In Justice & Mercy, Lent, Pastoral Theology, Theology - Soteriology

Somehow Joy

June 16, 2011 — Leave a comment

There is always the danger of the health and wealth gospel. This dime store Jesus puts out like a hooker, and the shyster pastors on TV are his pimps. We have no use for such healer and dealer players.

But on the other side of the spectrum, we have the Puddleglums of Christendom who are functional third cousins of the first century heretic Marcion. They have a different version of the Choose-Your-Own-Adventure Bible, performing a sort of Jeffersonian surgery on the Scriptures, leaving only Job and Ecclesiastes and all the other painful and creepy bits that celebrate their depression and angst and confusion.

There’s a sick sort of comfort in the false gospel proclamation: life sucks. It’s as if we believe that if we can just say this mantra out loud, if we can just put it into words and stick this ingratitude on our bumper somewhere, the fact that we feel like God and the world and everyone and their little sister have given us the royal shaft, then we feel better. And every day these puddleglummers mount their whiner defenses with more proof: disease, death, murder, abuse, traffic jams, the TSA, Lady Gaga. Continue Reading…

In Culture, Grace, Justice & Mercy, Lent, Pentecost, Wisdom

This Christmas Life

June 15, 2011 — Leave a comment

Life in the Garden of Eden was an invitation to Christmas every day.

The Garden had two Christmas trees: one for now, one for later. And the place was piled up high with presents: fruit and plants and animals, sunsets, natural springs, and love, all wrapped by our loving Father with the glory of the Spirit.

And when we rebelled, when Adam and Eve disobeyed, we rejected this Christmas life. We rejected the gifts, rejected the joy, rejected the merry life. We scorned our Father. We grieved the Spirit.

The Christian faith is an invitation back into this Christmas life. The Christian faith is an invitation back into the Garden, back to the Christmas Tree of Life, back to life piled high with gifts and joy and merriment.

This is not because Christians never have anything bad happen to them. We do not live in a different dimension. We do not pretend to live in a different universe. No, the Christian faith merely recognizes that every human being naturally rejects this Christmas life. We are all like Adam and Eve, insane rebels, and we daily scorn the gifts of the Spirit. We pretend that life and health and happiness are random, automatic, or that we deserve them, and we shake our fists at the God who continues to graciously give them. We refuse to give thanks to the Giver and refuse to read the instruction manual that came with this mind-blowing gift we call life.

The Christian faith recognizes that the only way out of this dead end existence is not by looking at our problems, not at our failures, not at ourselves, but looking to Jesus who suffered and died to put everything right and who was raised from the dead proving that it will be. Jesus suffered and died to free every slave from the prison of this rebellion. We love our sin, and we hate the God who made us. But He is still intent on Christmas, still intent on Christmas for this entire sorry world.

This is the good news of the Kingdom, the good news that the Christmas life begins by faith, by trusting God, the original Father Christmas, who gives us every good and perfect gift. And who has proven this through the gift of His Son, Jesus Christ and the gift of His Holy Spirit.

This is Pentecost: Merry Christmas in June (and every day).

In Bible - Genesis, Christmas, Church Calendar, Creation, Pentecost, Theology - Soteriology

The Original Hippie Dad

June 8, 2011 — 1 Comment

I think it was Mark Horne who pointed out in his commentary on the Gospel of Mark that when Jesus calls the twelve disciples he takes privileges that normally only fathers take: he names and renames the twelve. Simon, He calls Peter, James and John are the Sons of Thunder, etc. And several of them are literally leaving their fathers to follow Jesus. Jesus is replacing their fathers. Jesus assumes the role of a father for them, and this means that the twelve are His children.

Naming is a parental prerogative.

For God to name creation is for God to father creation. But this is literal in the original creation week. God brings forth light by speaking and names this new creation: His first child He names “Day”, and the darkness he adopts as his child as well, naming it “Night.” Likewise, He names his next three children “Heaven,” “Earth,” and “Seas.”

God was the original hippie dad.

This naming doesn’t continue in the creation week explicitly, though it is perhaps implied.

The next explicit naming is when God creates the animals and brings them to Adam to see what he will name them. God has fathered creation, and now He is teaching Adam, the son made in His own image, how to be a father-creator like Him.

Then Adam names his wife “Woman” as a sort of co-creator/father of Eve. He did provide the rib afterall.

To name is to father, but this also means that to be named is to be fathered. To be named is to be a child.

In Bible - Genesis, Child Kingdom, Creation

Creation as Incarnation

June 8, 2011 — 3 Comments

It has been pointed out that the Spirit hovering over Mary was the same Spirit that hovered over the waters in Genesis. Jesus was incarnated in the womb of the virgin ex nihilo. The womb of Mary was formless, void, and dark. The Spirit hovered, God spoke, and the Word became flesh.

But this works backwards as well.

The creation of the universe was a virgin birth. The virgin cosmos, formless, void, and dark, came to life by the hovering of the Spirit, God speaking, and the Word becoming flesh.

The heavens declare the glory of God, the Psalmist says: they are words that can be understood in every tongue, every language. They are living words of the Word of the Father.

Creation is itself incarnation, a lesser, derivative incarnation to be sure, but incarnation nevertheless.

In Bible - Genesis, Bible - Psalms, Creation

Missionaries Hurting the Cause of Christ

June 7, 2011 — Leave a comment

In Reformation in Foreign Missions, Bob Finley describes the problems with the modern tradition of foreign missions. In particular, he points to the stumbling blocks created by the vast economic disparity between most western missionaries and the people they minister to:

“Missionaries’ houses served to assist the Communist cause in China. Zealous young Marxists would point out the mission compounds and ask, ‘Where do all these rich foreigners get all their wealth? They don’t work at any job or profession. They are not engaged in business. There is only one answer. They are spies sent here by the CIA.’ And most people would believe these allegations. To follow the Communists (at the time) was considered patriotic because they were exposing these foreigners as enemies of China…

Individuals who have above average property and power are assumed to be working with the government (even more so after World War II when so much foreign aid was doled out to socialistic government bureaucrats by industrialized countries) unless they are land-owners who rent to sharecroppers. They are universally envied and despised by the poor. So when foreign missionaries build spacious houses, drive around in cars, and seem to have abundant money for food, clothing, special schools for their children, medical care and plane tickets, it is assumed that they have been sent here by their governments or are absentee landlords. This assumption hurts the cause of Christ in many nations because it identifies the Christian faith with the wealthy class of people who are usually hated.” (39-40)

In Books, Economics, Evangelism, Justice & Mercy

Lowering the Standard

June 7, 2011 — Leave a comment

Couple of great posts on parenting from Nancy Wilson:

“Rather a row of squirmy kids with mismatched socks who are happy and love their parents than a battalion of persecuted and long-faced misery counting the minutes until church is over.”

Read them here and here.

In Child Kingdom, Family, Wisdom

The Table That Only Has Highchairs

June 6, 2011 — Leave a comment

As you all know, we welcome our baptized children to this table. This is because Jesus said unless you are converted and become as little children you cannot enter the Kingdom of Heaven. He says let the little children come to me for of such is the Kingdom of God. This means that the qualification for entering and remaining in the Kingdom of God is childhood. It is not that this is mostly a gathering for grownups but the children can come along if they would like. It is not as though we worship together in the heavenly places despite the squawks and squeals and cries. Actually, God is quite aware of what children are like. He knows their short attention spans, frequent needs, he knows their hurts, their questions, the things that makes them excited. He knows their wiggles. And he looks down at the little children and says, that is what you must be like. And this seems odd to us, this seems strange since we spend so much of the service trying to get them to act like us. We’d like them to sit still like grownups and have straight faces like grownups and take notes on the sermon like grownups and worry about what the people in the row behind them are thinking like grownups do. It’s no problem to work on worshiping. We want our children to love singing, to love listening to the Word read and preached, to shout out their amens with vigor and to love eating the bread and drinking the wine with God’s people. But God says He has ordained strength in their mouths to silence our enemies and every false accusation. Wisdom is justified by her children. So if you’ve been stuffy cranks, you need to repent. Children are not only welcome at this table. You must be a child to participate, and this means resting in the care of your loving Heavenly Father. Put away your worries, your fears, stop worrying about what the people around you are thinking, stop worrying about tomorrow. Rest in the care of your Father. You have a Father and He loves you with an everlasting love. That’s what it means to be His children. That’s what it means to be children. Imagine that this table only has high chairs, and come: eat, drink, and rejoice.

In Child Kingdom, Eucharistic Meditations, Theology - Sacraments, Worship