Today is Easter for the Orthodox Christians. Check out St. John Chrysostom's Easter sermon. Amazing!
Hidden
Sunday, April 23, 2006
Saturday, April 15, 2006
Good Sermon
There is a Church out here in KC called Jacobs Well. I was told the sermon from this past Palm Sunday was particularly good... It was. I have never heard the story of the triumphal entry into Jerusalem told this way. If you have time listen to it. I have put the link in my side bar under sites titled Jacobs Well. Click there and find the sermon from April 9, 2006. I suggest listening to the sermon before reading my blog because Tim keel did a masterful job at tell the story.
We are prone to only discuss Jesus' entry into the Jerusalem and how laying down the palms represents our saying that He is our peace and that even as we shout Hosanna, we know that we goes to the cross for our betrayal of him the next day. We are truly more like Judas than we think, which is why he was given no insight into the mysteries of the kingdom in order to bring about Christ's death as some Gnostic believers were prone to think. On a side note, check out this article by Roger Hahn on the NTS website regarding the Gospel of Judas.
What is often the case is that we forget the context of which scripture is written and that it is very likely that on the other side of the city of Jerusalem another parade, another entry, was occuring.
It was the custom of Pontius Pilate to come to Jerusalem during the Passover. While the Jews were gathering to celebrate there release from Egyptian oppression, it was Pilates goal to reinforce that, yes, the Jews are aloud to worship God freeing them from captivity and oppression, but look around you and know that we, Rome (empire) are incharge. It was custom to arrive in the city portraying power through military force.
On the other side, Jesus. On a donkey. Alone. Going to the cross.
What a portrayal of power.
We are prone to only discuss Jesus' entry into the Jerusalem and how laying down the palms represents our saying that He is our peace and that even as we shout Hosanna, we know that we goes to the cross for our betrayal of him the next day. We are truly more like Judas than we think, which is why he was given no insight into the mysteries of the kingdom in order to bring about Christ's death as some Gnostic believers were prone to think. On a side note, check out this article by Roger Hahn on the NTS website regarding the Gospel of Judas.
What is often the case is that we forget the context of which scripture is written and that it is very likely that on the other side of the city of Jerusalem another parade, another entry, was occuring.
It was the custom of Pontius Pilate to come to Jerusalem during the Passover. While the Jews were gathering to celebrate there release from Egyptian oppression, it was Pilates goal to reinforce that, yes, the Jews are aloud to worship God freeing them from captivity and oppression, but look around you and know that we, Rome (empire) are incharge. It was custom to arrive in the city portraying power through military force.
On the other side, Jesus. On a donkey. Alone. Going to the cross.
What a portrayal of power.
Friday, April 14, 2006
Weekly Bresee Article
School has got the best of me these past few weeks. I am excited to say that thanks to good friday and class being canceled I slept eight hours today. I have also been able to finish up some papers I have had to write on integrating the Incarnation and Atonement; Christian pacificms vs. Just War Theory; and a paper correcting Zwingli's memorial supper. I enjoyed writing that one because I got really see how the Eucharist has been the central act of worship since the early church and how it came to be distorted through the differnet eras of conflict in the Church. Before we get to the article I want to leave you with quote from William Cavanaugh's Torture and Eucharist commenting on Herni de Lubac, who has provided a good reading of just what went wrong during in the Church's Eucharistic theology in Scholasticism, the Medieval synthesis, and its breakdown in the Reformation, which is where Zwingli pops up.
“The corpus mysticum was identified with the sacramental body, and the corpus verum with the church. However, around the twelfth century, as Henri de Lubac’s important study Corpus Mysticum shows, there is an inversion of meaning. In subsequent centuries the altar would be the site of Christ’s corpus verum, his true and knowable body, and the church would be his corpus mysticum.”
I think that leads nicely into the article.
Peace.
From My Heart
Rick Savage
In speaking about why God entered into human history through an incarnation Hebrews 2:17 says that God "had to be made like His brethren in all things, so that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people" (2:17).
Propitiation means to "make atonement." It is an act of incredible self-giving that takes away the sins of people. This is amazing when we remember that the One we've offended is the One who acts in such away as not to hold our offense against Him. That is called forgiveness; I mean, out-of-this-world forgiveness; the kind of forgiveness that redirects a persons' journey and literally enables them to reorient their lives.
Jesus is the One who helps us reorient our lives. He doesn't simply forgive. He comes into our life experience and lives there as "a merciful and faithful high priest." An act of forgiveness would be wonderful in-and-of itself, but I think we human types need more that an act of forgiveness. We need someone to come alongside us and show us what it means to be forgiven, to show us what it means to reorient our lives, to show us how to turn around and come home to God and then how to live in God's home.
This is something for all of us Christians to take seriously as we seek to be faithful to God. A great question for every local church is, "How do we be faithful to the merciful and faithful high priest?" Whatever the answer is we need to pursue it together and then commit to be a community of that Jesus, our merciful and faithful high priest.
Huge issues are at stake here. Life-energizing and transforming grace awaits us.
“The corpus mysticum was identified with the sacramental body, and the corpus verum with the church. However, around the twelfth century, as Henri de Lubac’s important study Corpus Mysticum shows, there is an inversion of meaning. In subsequent centuries the altar would be the site of Christ’s corpus verum, his true and knowable body, and the church would be his corpus mysticum.”
I think that leads nicely into the article.
Peace.
From My Heart
Rick Savage
In speaking about why God entered into human history through an incarnation Hebrews 2:17 says that God "had to be made like His brethren in all things, so that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people" (2:17).
Propitiation means to "make atonement." It is an act of incredible self-giving that takes away the sins of people. This is amazing when we remember that the One we've offended is the One who acts in such away as not to hold our offense against Him. That is called forgiveness; I mean, out-of-this-world forgiveness; the kind of forgiveness that redirects a persons' journey and literally enables them to reorient their lives.
Jesus is the One who helps us reorient our lives. He doesn't simply forgive. He comes into our life experience and lives there as "a merciful and faithful high priest." An act of forgiveness would be wonderful in-and-of itself, but I think we human types need more that an act of forgiveness. We need someone to come alongside us and show us what it means to be forgiven, to show us what it means to reorient our lives, to show us how to turn around and come home to God and then how to live in God's home.
This is something for all of us Christians to take seriously as we seek to be faithful to God. A great question for every local church is, "How do we be faithful to the merciful and faithful high priest?" Whatever the answer is we need to pursue it together and then commit to be a community of that Jesus, our merciful and faithful high priest.
Huge issues are at stake here. Life-energizing and transforming grace awaits us.
Thursday, March 23, 2006
Weekly Bresee Article
'Ekstasis' and 'Kenosis' are words attributed to God. God is the one who's being is a complete and utter giving and emptying of himself. He is this as he is the myserty of the trinity. In the Spirit, the Father wholly gives himself in the Son who, in return, obeys the will of the Father. It is difficult for us to comprehend the notion that light consumes darkness. We understand it when we turn a light on in a room because there is no longer any darkness. Viola! But when we talk about Jesus, who is the light (life), entering darkness (death), we are talking about mystey (or, crazy talk). True light has proceeded from the Father, has come in the flesh, has been put to death, and has killed death. Enjoy the article!
From My Heart
By Rick Savage
Jesus said people love darkness rather than light. I guess there is something in the human heart that longs to embrace its own lusts and fantasies; something that demands self-expression and self-exaltation and self- sufficiency. Jesus called it darkness and said that people love darkness and choose it.
This makes the incarnation all the more breathtaking to me. Can you imagine being God knowing totally and fully what you were getting yourself into and then choosing to come anyway into a world that loves darkness rather than light? That's a huge thing don't you think? And, three years into His ministry sure enough the darkness had had enough of Him and nailed the light to a cross.
It is a sobering thought to think that God "emptied Himself of all but love, and bled for Adam's helpless race." And, it is a sobering thought to think, as horrific as it sounds, you and I were children of the darkness no less guilty than the people who physically carried out His crucifixion.
Thankfully, the light of God was so light that the darkness could not put it out, and even though darkness took Jesus to the cross it could not keep Him there. Yes, it took His life but on the third day He rose up again to conquer sin and death. In His very dying He overcame darkness, and today His love woos us into the arms of God where we discover life and meaning we never thought possible in this world.
Today, the Church is present to be the light of Jesus. It's pretty dark at times, isn't it, but not so dark as to overpower the love of God. The power that raised Jesus up from the dead is the power at work in our lives. May God help us to let His light shine through our lives.
Tuesday, March 21, 2006
"This is the first and principal benefit caused by this arid and dark night of contemplation: the knowledge of oneself and of one's misery. For, besides the fact that all the favours which God grants to the soul are habitually granted to them enwrapped in this knowledge, these aridities and this emptiness of the faculties, compared with the abundance which the soul experienced aforetime and the difficulty which it finds in good works, make it recognize its own lowliness and misery, which in the time of its prosperity it was unable to see" (From The Dark Night of the Soul, XII).
Friday, March 17, 2006
There is often a tendency for some in the church to be very much aware of what St. John of the Cross calls "spiritual gluttony." Such is a misunderstanding of penace so that the person finds something joyful in and of the act itself, not in moving toward God. The hymn from Wesley was written to be sung at the Lord's Supper, a fitting place to receive the true gift of Christ and offer it in excahnge to others. Hopefully, penance will be seen in light of the table.
"WITH respect to the fourth sin, which is spiritual gluttony, there is much to be said, for there is scarce one of these beginners who, however satisfactory his progress, falls not into some of the many imperfections which come to these beginners with respect to this sin, on account of the sweetness which they find at first in spiritual exercises. For many of these, lured by the sweetness and pleasure which they find in such exercises, strive more after spiritual sweetness than after spiritual purity and discretion, which is that which God regards and accepts throughout the spiritual journey.[40] Therefore, besides the imperfections into which the seeking for sweetness of this kind makes them fall, the gluttony which they now have makes them continually go to extremes, so that they pass beyond the limits of moderation within which the virtues are acquired and wherein they have their being. For some of these persons, attracted by the pleasure which they find therein, kill themselves with penances, and others weaken themselves with fasts, by performing more than their frailty can bear, without the order or advice of any, but rather endeavouring to avoid those whom they should obey in these matters; some, indeed, dare to do these things even though the contrary has been commanded them" (From Dark Nighk of the Soul, XI).
"My Savior, how shall I proclaim, How pay the mighty debt I owe?
Let all I have and all I am Ceaseless to all Thy glory show.
Too much to Thee I cannot give; Too much I cannot do for Thee;
Let all Thy love and all Thy greif Grav'n on my heart for ever be"
(from Wesley's Hymns, No. 149."
"WITH respect to the fourth sin, which is spiritual gluttony, there is much to be said, for there is scarce one of these beginners who, however satisfactory his progress, falls not into some of the many imperfections which come to these beginners with respect to this sin, on account of the sweetness which they find at first in spiritual exercises. For many of these, lured by the sweetness and pleasure which they find in such exercises, strive more after spiritual sweetness than after spiritual purity and discretion, which is that which God regards and accepts throughout the spiritual journey.[40] Therefore, besides the imperfections into which the seeking for sweetness of this kind makes them fall, the gluttony which they now have makes them continually go to extremes, so that they pass beyond the limits of moderation within which the virtues are acquired and wherein they have their being. For some of these persons, attracted by the pleasure which they find therein, kill themselves with penances, and others weaken themselves with fasts, by performing more than their frailty can bear, without the order or advice of any, but rather endeavouring to avoid those whom they should obey in these matters; some, indeed, dare to do these things even though the contrary has been commanded them" (From Dark Nighk of the Soul, XI).
"My Savior, how shall I proclaim, How pay the mighty debt I owe?
Let all I have and all I am Ceaseless to all Thy glory show.
Too much to Thee I cannot give; Too much I cannot do for Thee;
Let all Thy love and all Thy greif Grav'n on my heart for ever be"
(from Wesley's Hymns, No. 149."
Thursday, March 16, 2006
Weekly Bresee Article
I want to draw your attention to a specific line from the third paragraph.
"When Jesus calls us to be alognside Him in His Father's redemptive involvement He calls us to be salt and light."
It is very true that the church continues the work of Jesus in a redemptive involvement. Too often it seems that the church is reluctant to recognize their lives as participating in God. Most are content with a superimposed grace-from-beyond that leaves their lives the same. They wait for another time while remaining bound to the powers of this age. The Kingdom of God is irrupting in space and time. We have only to receive it and reflect it. This is our redemptive involvement.
From My Heart
By Rick Savage
In all of our efforts to be faithful to Jesus and to reach people for Jesus and His Church there is one overwhelming truth to which we must ever cling. It is this: Christ planned to attract people to himself through the transformed lives of his people.
I fear that too often the Church has turned being church into a glorified sales-pitch for God, laying out the bait, setting the hook and reeling in the fish. Isn't that just about the most demeaning thing you can imagine? And, it is very far from what Jesus had in mind when He said, "Follow me, and I will make you become fishers of men" (Mark 1:17).
When Jesus calls us to be alongside Him in His Father's redemptive involvement He calls us to be light and salt. He calls us to be a fragrant aroma of Christ. By a wondrous and marvelous grace He calls us to Himself and transforms our lives by the impact of His grace in us. Then, He calls us to go forth and to live transformed.
Long before people know what we believe, hopefully they are seeing how we live. In fact, they are seeing how we life -- good or bad. Let's make it good.
If we talk about being transformed but don't live transformed our words are empty and do more harm than good. Long before people come to know what we think they experience who we are, and if who we are is less than our talk, we build insurmountable obstacles over which people most likely will not climb in their search for God.
If it is true that Christ planned to attract people to Himself through me, I must ask how appealing or attractive my life really is. Do I make God look good or do I embarrass Him? May God help us all to live the grace we have received. Let's live so as to make God look good.
"When Jesus calls us to be alognside Him in His Father's redemptive involvement He calls us to be salt and light."
It is very true that the church continues the work of Jesus in a redemptive involvement. Too often it seems that the church is reluctant to recognize their lives as participating in God. Most are content with a superimposed grace-from-beyond that leaves their lives the same. They wait for another time while remaining bound to the powers of this age. The Kingdom of God is irrupting in space and time. We have only to receive it and reflect it. This is our redemptive involvement.
From My Heart
By Rick Savage
In all of our efforts to be faithful to Jesus and to reach people for Jesus and His Church there is one overwhelming truth to which we must ever cling. It is this: Christ planned to attract people to himself through the transformed lives of his people.
I fear that too often the Church has turned being church into a glorified sales-pitch for God, laying out the bait, setting the hook and reeling in the fish. Isn't that just about the most demeaning thing you can imagine? And, it is very far from what Jesus had in mind when He said, "Follow me, and I will make you become fishers of men" (Mark 1:17).
When Jesus calls us to be alongside Him in His Father's redemptive involvement He calls us to be light and salt. He calls us to be a fragrant aroma of Christ. By a wondrous and marvelous grace He calls us to Himself and transforms our lives by the impact of His grace in us. Then, He calls us to go forth and to live transformed.
Long before people know what we believe, hopefully they are seeing how we live. In fact, they are seeing how we life -- good or bad. Let's make it good.
If we talk about being transformed but don't live transformed our words are empty and do more harm than good. Long before people come to know what we think they experience who we are, and if who we are is less than our talk, we build insurmountable obstacles over which people most likely will not climb in their search for God.
If it is true that Christ planned to attract people to Himself through me, I must ask how appealing or attractive my life really is. Do I make God look good or do I embarrass Him? May God help us all to live the grace we have received. Let's live so as to make God look good.
Wednesday, March 15, 2006
"For when the spirit and the sense are pleased, every part of a man is moved by that pleasure[34] to delight according to its proportion and nature. For then the spirit, which is the higher part, is moved to pleasure[35] and delight in God; and the sensual nature, which is the lower part, is moved to pleasure and delight of the senses, because it cannot possess and lay hold upon aught else, and it therefore lays hold upon that which comes nearest to itself, which is the impure and sensual. Thus it comes to pass that the soul is in deep prayer with God according to the spirit, and, on the other hand, according to sense it is passively conscious, not without great displeasure, of rebellions and motions and acts of the senses, which often happens in Communion, for when the soul receives joy and comfort in this act of love, because this Lord bestows it (since it is to that end that He gives Himself), the sensual nature takes that which is its own likewise, as we have said, after its manner" (From Dark Night of the Soul, IV.2).
Tuesday, March 14, 2006
This morning is cold. I can't get out of my mind the people on the street who had no rest last night. I am reminded of a scene from Schindler's List. In one of the last scenes, Schindler is with a group of people whom survived the holocaust through his efforts. Overwhelmed at the situation he loses control and starts wranting about what else he could have sold or done to save one more person.
I don't know what to do with scenes like this. I am grieved by my moral deficiency. Thank God for the church that carries on the Incarnation of his Son in the world by the Spirit.
"They are too much embarrassed to confess their sins nakedly, lest their confessors should think less of them, so they palliate them and make them appear less evil, and thus it is to excuse themselves rather than to accuse themselves that they go to confession" (From Dark Night of the Soul, II.4).
I don't know what to do with scenes like this. I am grieved by my moral deficiency. Thank God for the church that carries on the Incarnation of his Son in the world by the Spirit.
"They are too much embarrassed to confess their sins nakedly, lest their confessors should think less of them, so they palliate them and make them appear less evil, and thus it is to excuse themselves rather than to accuse themselves that they go to confession" (From Dark Night of the Soul, II.4).
Monday, March 13, 2006
My Lenten Jounrey
I'm procrastinating a little bit tonight so I thought I would put up a post. School has been consuming my time. I hope to write a summary of what I have been studying and where this semester is (has)taking me. I also hope to write a few words about the Wesleyan Theological Society that meet a couple weeks ago out here at Nazarene Theological Seminary.
During the season of Lent I will be posting quotes from St. John of Cross' Dark Night of the Soul so continue on.
"INTO this dark night souls begin to enter when God draws them forth from the state of beginners—which is the state of those that meditate on the spiritual road—and begins to set them in the state of progressives—which is that of those who are already contemplatives—to the end that, after passing through it, they may arrive at the state of the perfect, which is that of the Divine union of the soul with God" (From Dark Night of the Soul, I.1)
Monday, February 20, 2006
Weekly Bresee Article
Here is an article that my dad writes for his church (Bresee Church of the Nazarene) each week. I would like to include them as a reoccurring addition to my blog.
Enjoy.
February 12, 2006
The apostle Paul spoke for all of us when he said, "If I...do not have love, l am nothing" (I Cor. 13:2). That's quite a statement when it is taken in the context of a person perhaps having the gift of prophecy, knowing all mysteries, having all knowledge and even exercising the kind of faith that moves mountains.
Is love really that important? Jesus seem to think so because He said to His disciples, "By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another" (John 123:35).
Again, the apostle Paul suggested to the Corinthian congregation that what moved him and drove him and controlled him was nothing other than "the love of Christ" (I Cor. 5:14). May it be true of us.
There are many important aspects to the Christian life, and may God grace us with them all; but, in the end, the Bible calls us to "pursue love" (I Cor. 14:1). After all it was the love of God that pursued us and gave us Jesus.
The love of Christ in us is like an oasis in a desert place. Mother Teresa, when asked how she had accomplished such great things in her life said this, "None of us can do anything great on our own, but we can all do a small thing with great love."
How can we reach our neighborhood for Christ? Maybe by just doing small things with great love. People are drawn to love. Maybe the best thing we can do in our town is love it with the love of Jesus, and then trust the Holy Spirit to draw others to Christ.
Enjoy.
February 12, 2006
The apostle Paul spoke for all of us when he said, "If I...do not have love, l am nothing" (I Cor. 13:2). That's quite a statement when it is taken in the context of a person perhaps having the gift of prophecy, knowing all mysteries, having all knowledge and even exercising the kind of faith that moves mountains.
Is love really that important? Jesus seem to think so because He said to His disciples, "By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another" (John 123:35).
Again, the apostle Paul suggested to the Corinthian congregation that what moved him and drove him and controlled him was nothing other than "the love of Christ" (I Cor. 5:14). May it be true of us.
There are many important aspects to the Christian life, and may God grace us with them all; but, in the end, the Bible calls us to "pursue love" (I Cor. 14:1). After all it was the love of God that pursued us and gave us Jesus.
The love of Christ in us is like an oasis in a desert place. Mother Teresa, when asked how she had accomplished such great things in her life said this, "None of us can do anything great on our own, but we can all do a small thing with great love."
How can we reach our neighborhood for Christ? Maybe by just doing small things with great love. People are drawn to love. Maybe the best thing we can do in our town is love it with the love of Jesus, and then trust the Holy Spirit to draw others to Christ.
Thursday, February 16, 2006
I just want to point your attention to the "For Today" link under the Daily Prayer heading in my side bar. Often times while working through my thoughts I write prayers that help sustain my attention to God instead of the topic of God. I hope they are helpful, faithful, and reflective God's magnificant image.
Peace,
Scott
Hidden
Peace,
Scott
Hidden
Thursday, February 09, 2006
My Africa?!
I found this article in my sojomail. I mourn with Davied Batstone as well at the outcome of Wilkinson's efforts thus far in Africa. I hope and pray for Christ's return, and quickly at that.
The Prayer of Jabez falls short in Africa
by David Batstone
Bruce Wilkinson, author of the best-selling book The Prayer of Jabez, made a big splash nearly four years ago when he announced his ambitious plan to help children suffering from AIDS in Africa.
Not everything for Wilkinson has gone according to plan, unfortunately. A page one feature in the Dec. 19 The Wall Street Journal captures the sad tale in a nutshell: "In 2002 Bruce Wilkinson, a Georgia preacher whose self-help prayer book had made him a rich man, heard God's call, moved to Africa and announced his intention to save one million children left orphaned by the AIDS epidemic. In October [2005], Wilkinson resigned in a huff from the African charity he founded. He abandoned his plan to house 10,000 children in a facility that was to be an orphanage, bed-and-breakfast, game reserve, Bible college, industrial park and Disneyesque tourist destination in the tiny kingdom of Swaziland. What happened in between is a story of grand hopes and inexperience, divine inspiration and human foibles. ¿[H]is departure left critics convinced he was just another in a long parade of outsiders who have come to Africa making big promises and quit the continent when local people didn't bend to their will."
It is not my aim to gloat at Wilkinson's failure. To the contrary, I mourn what this means for the millions of African children in crisis who apparently will not benefit from his efforts. I also want to honor Wilkinson's desire to help the least fortunate. It would have been easy for him to take the wealth he gained from his book sales and live a life of personal comfort.
This chain of events, however, should not pass without a moment of theological reflection. The "blessed life" that Wilkinson has helped to promote carries with it a number of assumptions about where God is present in the world, and how God acts in response to the prayers of the faithful.
The Prayer of Jabez is based on a passage out of the book of Chronicles, in which a devoted man named Jabez asks God for a favor: "Oh that you would bless me and enlarge my border, and that your hand might be with me, and that you would keep me from hurt and harm!" The fact that God honors Jabez' prayer and blesses him with great riches indicates to Wilkinson a God-principle. If we in pure heart ask God for a blessing - and do so using the very words that Jabez prayed - then God will bring wondrous gifts into our life. As The Wall Street Journal reports, Wilkinson interprets the wild commercial success of his books (roughly 20 million copies sold combined) as yet another proof of the miraculous power of the Jabez prayer. In other words, it worked for Jabez, it worked for Wilkinson, and now it should work for you. With the fiasco in Africa now behind him - and the full Journal report makes clear that fiasco is the appropriate term - I wonder if Wilkinson has reconsidered his theology.
Maybe because I spent so many years in poor regions of the globe I could never accept the prayer-in-blessing-out approach to faithful living. Straight to the point, I have known too many devoted Christians for whom life did not bring them material blessing. Their children still died of infectious diseases that plagued their village. They could not avoid the violence that dictators and ideologues so often use to cow the powerless. Their territory did not expand because their only path for survival was a daily labor with their hands. Yet they did not lose faith, or cease praying for God's blessing.
As I ponder on their lives, I find a more fitting theology for God's presence and action in the world to be laid out in the book of Hebrews. There we are encouraged to have "faith in things not yet seen," and are offered models of individuals who tried to lead devoted lives that honor God. We read that some of them did receive great material blessings, while others ended up in the dens of lions or stoned due to their principled living. We learn, in other words, that God does hear their prayers and loves them profoundly, but it does not always bring them material riches or expanded territory.
Wilkinson's doctrine in fact implies that social structures are immaterial. An individual reciting the right prayer can transcend an AIDS epidemic in his or her village or escape being bought and sold into slavery (like 27 million people on this planet yet today). Perhaps now that Wilkinson has immersed himself in Africa, he better understands that the curse of poverty is not a spiritual punishment, or an indication of a lack of faith. To bring blessings to the orphans and widows of Africa, a dramatic shift in values - political, economic, and personal - will be required. And that challenge cannot be owned by Africans alone; it falls squarely on the shoulders of us in rich nations, who enjoy such great material "blessings."
Just like the next Bible reader, I could pick out individual passages that seem to suggest that God will give us whatever we desire as long as we ask for it with a pure heart. "You can even move this mountain" with such a prayer, as Jesus teaches his disciples in the gospels. I do not summarily discount these passages, nor do I assume that we should never pray for rain in a time of drought.
But the weight of the biblical message balances heavily toward a prayer life that yields courage, love, and compassion to do the will of God. The expectation of material gain and miraculous blessings may even distract us on that pilgrimage. The passage in Hebrews calls us, based on past heroes of the faith, "to run the race in front of us," confident that devoting our lives to God's work is all the reward we will ever need.
The Prayer of Jabez falls short in Africa
by David Batstone
Bruce Wilkinson, author of the best-selling book The Prayer of Jabez, made a big splash nearly four years ago when he announced his ambitious plan to help children suffering from AIDS in Africa.
Not everything for Wilkinson has gone according to plan, unfortunately. A page one feature in the Dec. 19 The Wall Street Journal captures the sad tale in a nutshell: "In 2002 Bruce Wilkinson, a Georgia preacher whose self-help prayer book had made him a rich man, heard God's call, moved to Africa and announced his intention to save one million children left orphaned by the AIDS epidemic. In October [2005], Wilkinson resigned in a huff from the African charity he founded. He abandoned his plan to house 10,000 children in a facility that was to be an orphanage, bed-and-breakfast, game reserve, Bible college, industrial park and Disneyesque tourist destination in the tiny kingdom of Swaziland. What happened in between is a story of grand hopes and inexperience, divine inspiration and human foibles. ¿[H]is departure left critics convinced he was just another in a long parade of outsiders who have come to Africa making big promises and quit the continent when local people didn't bend to their will."
It is not my aim to gloat at Wilkinson's failure. To the contrary, I mourn what this means for the millions of African children in crisis who apparently will not benefit from his efforts. I also want to honor Wilkinson's desire to help the least fortunate. It would have been easy for him to take the wealth he gained from his book sales and live a life of personal comfort.
This chain of events, however, should not pass without a moment of theological reflection. The "blessed life" that Wilkinson has helped to promote carries with it a number of assumptions about where God is present in the world, and how God acts in response to the prayers of the faithful.
The Prayer of Jabez is based on a passage out of the book of Chronicles, in which a devoted man named Jabez asks God for a favor: "Oh that you would bless me and enlarge my border, and that your hand might be with me, and that you would keep me from hurt and harm!" The fact that God honors Jabez' prayer and blesses him with great riches indicates to Wilkinson a God-principle. If we in pure heart ask God for a blessing - and do so using the very words that Jabez prayed - then God will bring wondrous gifts into our life. As The Wall Street Journal reports, Wilkinson interprets the wild commercial success of his books (roughly 20 million copies sold combined) as yet another proof of the miraculous power of the Jabez prayer. In other words, it worked for Jabez, it worked for Wilkinson, and now it should work for you. With the fiasco in Africa now behind him - and the full Journal report makes clear that fiasco is the appropriate term - I wonder if Wilkinson has reconsidered his theology.
Maybe because I spent so many years in poor regions of the globe I could never accept the prayer-in-blessing-out approach to faithful living. Straight to the point, I have known too many devoted Christians for whom life did not bring them material blessing. Their children still died of infectious diseases that plagued their village. They could not avoid the violence that dictators and ideologues so often use to cow the powerless. Their territory did not expand because their only path for survival was a daily labor with their hands. Yet they did not lose faith, or cease praying for God's blessing.
As I ponder on their lives, I find a more fitting theology for God's presence and action in the world to be laid out in the book of Hebrews. There we are encouraged to have "faith in things not yet seen," and are offered models of individuals who tried to lead devoted lives that honor God. We read that some of them did receive great material blessings, while others ended up in the dens of lions or stoned due to their principled living. We learn, in other words, that God does hear their prayers and loves them profoundly, but it does not always bring them material riches or expanded territory.
Wilkinson's doctrine in fact implies that social structures are immaterial. An individual reciting the right prayer can transcend an AIDS epidemic in his or her village or escape being bought and sold into slavery (like 27 million people on this planet yet today). Perhaps now that Wilkinson has immersed himself in Africa, he better understands that the curse of poverty is not a spiritual punishment, or an indication of a lack of faith. To bring blessings to the orphans and widows of Africa, a dramatic shift in values - political, economic, and personal - will be required. And that challenge cannot be owned by Africans alone; it falls squarely on the shoulders of us in rich nations, who enjoy such great material "blessings."
Just like the next Bible reader, I could pick out individual passages that seem to suggest that God will give us whatever we desire as long as we ask for it with a pure heart. "You can even move this mountain" with such a prayer, as Jesus teaches his disciples in the gospels. I do not summarily discount these passages, nor do I assume that we should never pray for rain in a time of drought.
But the weight of the biblical message balances heavily toward a prayer life that yields courage, love, and compassion to do the will of God. The expectation of material gain and miraculous blessings may even distract us on that pilgrimage. The passage in Hebrews calls us, based on past heroes of the faith, "to run the race in front of us," confident that devoting our lives to God's work is all the reward we will ever need.
Sunday, February 05, 2006
My Beef with the Bottom Line
I recently rented The Constant Gardener. My first reaction to the movie was that it was not what I was suspecting. I did not read the box label and had not seen any previews. All I knew was that this guys wife dies and he sort of becomes a detective to find our why. Way off! Well, sort of. She does dies and he does find out why but, what makes the movie is the context and portrayal of the African struggle to receive sufficient health care juxtaposed to the people who make and sell the drugs for the sake of profit increase. The movie raises a lot of ethical questions. Two scenes stand out in particular.
In one scene, Justin Quayle, played by Ralph Fiennes, finds himself in this remote village in the Sudan, finally starting to put together some big pieces of his wife’s death. The neighboring tribes, however, has arrived to raid the village and it becomes a mad dash for the aid workers to get to the plane before it takes off. The rest of Sudanese people must get to the next village for safety or hide until the raid ends. In the process murder and kidnapping, Quayle ends up with a little girl in the plane where he faces the pilot’s request to leave the girl behind because the plane is for aid workers only. They argue about whether or not helping this one girl right now is the right thing to do or whether recognizing the one girl in millions won’t make a difference. The girl ends up running off the plane. As the plane takes off Quayle asks what will become of her. The aid worker from the village answers she might make it to safety in the next village. This scene, as well others in the movie, portray those who are trapped in a game of which they have no control.
The second scene is a scene between Quayle and Sandy Woodrow, played by Danny Huston. In this scene, Quayle wants to know why they are testing a drug of people that has not been proving sufficient. It ends up killing thousands of which they bodies are hidden and lied about. Huston remarks that it would take three years and millions of dollars lost to make the drug sufficient.
There is no happy ending in this movie. In fact, Quayle ends up returning to the location where the hired militia “took out” his wife’s vehicle. By this time those in power know that he could threaten their business. He waits for the hired militia to arrive and they do what they have been hired to do. The movie provides no answers. It portrays suffering that looks to be endless.
In one scene, Justin Quayle, played by Ralph Fiennes, finds himself in this remote village in the Sudan, finally starting to put together some big pieces of his wife’s death. The neighboring tribes, however, has arrived to raid the village and it becomes a mad dash for the aid workers to get to the plane before it takes off. The rest of Sudanese people must get to the next village for safety or hide until the raid ends. In the process murder and kidnapping, Quayle ends up with a little girl in the plane where he faces the pilot’s request to leave the girl behind because the plane is for aid workers only. They argue about whether or not helping this one girl right now is the right thing to do or whether recognizing the one girl in millions won’t make a difference. The girl ends up running off the plane. As the plane takes off Quayle asks what will become of her. The aid worker from the village answers she might make it to safety in the next village. This scene, as well others in the movie, portray those who are trapped in a game of which they have no control.
The second scene is a scene between Quayle and Sandy Woodrow, played by Danny Huston. In this scene, Quayle wants to know why they are testing a drug of people that has not been proving sufficient. It ends up killing thousands of which they bodies are hidden and lied about. Huston remarks that it would take three years and millions of dollars lost to make the drug sufficient.
There is no happy ending in this movie. In fact, Quayle ends up returning to the location where the hired militia “took out” his wife’s vehicle. By this time those in power know that he could threaten their business. He waits for the hired militia to arrive and they do what they have been hired to do. The movie provides no answers. It portrays suffering that looks to be endless.
Friday, January 27, 2006
My Vicarious Existence, Part Two
Yesterday I took my dog out six times, on the hour, every hour, beginning at 8:00am to go to the bathroom (potty as she is accustomed). That is not the structure in which I would prefer to enjoy my mornings. I got frustrated. I also went to the grocery story after she finally went. There I met Jennifer. Jennifer bagged my groceries. Jennifer also has Downs Syndrome. I learned something...
As much as the lady that helped Jennifer bag groceries is responsible for her, I am responsbile for my dog. Now, I do not want to make a parallel comparison, for the lady helping Jennifer was much more virtuous than myself standing with my dog on a leash. However, I was reminded of our responsibility to care for creation, to be our brothers and sisters keepers. I found myself caught up in Jennifer in such a way that it first, brought a smile to my face, and second, reminded me of my participation in God through Christ and that may I exist in Jesus, through Jesus, and because of Jesus. And, as T. F. Torrance is helping me see, I have a vicarious existence as a part of the body of Christ. I am deficient, like in blogging, of living in holiness. My dog and Jennifer (mostly Jennifer) helped me yesterday. This may seem quaint, but pleae see through my weak analogies.
As much as the lady that helped Jennifer bag groceries is responsible for her, I am responsbile for my dog. Now, I do not want to make a parallel comparison, for the lady helping Jennifer was much more virtuous than myself standing with my dog on a leash. However, I was reminded of our responsibility to care for creation, to be our brothers and sisters keepers. I found myself caught up in Jennifer in such a way that it first, brought a smile to my face, and second, reminded me of my participation in God through Christ and that may I exist in Jesus, through Jesus, and because of Jesus. And, as T. F. Torrance is helping me see, I have a vicarious existence as a part of the body of Christ. I am deficient, like in blogging, of living in holiness. My dog and Jennifer (mostly Jennifer) helped me yesterday. This may seem quaint, but pleae see through my weak analogies.
My Vicarious Existence
Like I always do, I role-play in my mind different scenarios and situations that I might find myself in to see what I would do or what I would say. Maybe I’m a little paranoid, maybe just weird. Reading T. F. Torrance's The Mediation of Christ has brought to my mind, once again, what I would say and do if I ever had to preach as a church summer camp.
"Likewise sin has been so ingrained into our minds that we are unable to repent and have to repent even of the kind of repentance we bring to God" (85).
My fear is leading teenagers into the kind of struggle that I was led into so that they feel like each year of their summer camp experience they have to have this one significant moment of repentance, usually following a respiratory marathon of singing, thus utterly exhausting them, which could actually be the cause of their crying out to God, where they "feel" like they have done it this time. They could say with confidence, "I have repented!"
Wouldn’t it be better to preach the gospel in such a way that indicates, as God establish in Israel, that we can never bring true and real repentance? Wouldn’t this actually make it gospel?
“But Jesus Christ laid hold of us even there in our own sinful repentance and turned everything round through his holy vicarious repentance, when he bore not just upon his body but upon his human mind and soul the righteous judgments of God and resurrected our human nature in the integrity of his body, mind and soul from the grave” (85).
I do not want to erase moments where teenagers have had a specific experience of encountering God. I believe that summer camps can be particularly useful in helping teenagers in their development from the emotional to cognitive and hopefully disciple them into a balance between the two towards worshipping God, who alone in Jesus has restored true humanity. However, the current, and longstanding, trend of revival needs to be reconsidered. At the very least, the language we use about God in such times needs a revision.
Confessing that God was in Christ reconciling the world indicates that our repentance needs to be more than just a static/completed moment. It needs to be a way of life in which we find ourselves caught up in God in a continual turning towards reflecting His image. Even in my own denomination, The Church of the Nazarene, this is being attempted. We hold that we are entirely sanctified, but we speak of this growth in grace. I am not sure I particularly like the language, but it allows me/us to let teenagers/adults walk with God, rather than maintain with God.
It seems that because there is still space and time where sin roams, that what it means to be caught up with God in Christ involves the space and time to allow such to occur.
"Likewise sin has been so ingrained into our minds that we are unable to repent and have to repent even of the kind of repentance we bring to God" (85).
My fear is leading teenagers into the kind of struggle that I was led into so that they feel like each year of their summer camp experience they have to have this one significant moment of repentance, usually following a respiratory marathon of singing, thus utterly exhausting them, which could actually be the cause of their crying out to God, where they "feel" like they have done it this time. They could say with confidence, "I have repented!"
Wouldn’t it be better to preach the gospel in such a way that indicates, as God establish in Israel, that we can never bring true and real repentance? Wouldn’t this actually make it gospel?
“But Jesus Christ laid hold of us even there in our own sinful repentance and turned everything round through his holy vicarious repentance, when he bore not just upon his body but upon his human mind and soul the righteous judgments of God and resurrected our human nature in the integrity of his body, mind and soul from the grave” (85).
I do not want to erase moments where teenagers have had a specific experience of encountering God. I believe that summer camps can be particularly useful in helping teenagers in their development from the emotional to cognitive and hopefully disciple them into a balance between the two towards worshipping God, who alone in Jesus has restored true humanity. However, the current, and longstanding, trend of revival needs to be reconsidered. At the very least, the language we use about God in such times needs a revision.
Confessing that God was in Christ reconciling the world indicates that our repentance needs to be more than just a static/completed moment. It needs to be a way of life in which we find ourselves caught up in God in a continual turning towards reflecting His image. Even in my own denomination, The Church of the Nazarene, this is being attempted. We hold that we are entirely sanctified, but we speak of this growth in grace. I am not sure I particularly like the language, but it allows me/us to let teenagers/adults walk with God, rather than maintain with God.
It seems that because there is still space and time where sin roams, that what it means to be caught up with God in Christ involves the space and time to allow such to occur.
My Little Plan
So Katie and I have this ongoing game/list of things we like and dislike about Kansas. What can I say, you have to make it through change the best you know how. We consider it therapeutic, not unlike a good episode of Scrubs (my newfound obsession). So without further suspense the newest reason in favor of moving to Kansas is... Getting out of jury duty in the United States District Court of Los Angeles.
It's my way of sticking it to the man.
Peace.
It's my way of sticking it to the man.
Peace.
My Deficiency
I guess it was bound to happen. I do not have my "Read More!" links up and running. I am not as advanced as I thought I was. I still hold true to everything I said in the previous post because at the time it was true. I recant of certainty, not of my experience. I hold no regrets!
Consequently, any help would be appreciated.
Peace,
Scott
Consequently, any help would be appreciated.
Peace,
Scott
Okay...So I'm reading Hauerwas' Community of Character and have come up with a great blogospherical analogy for the training of people to embody the character formed by the virtues of their particular narrative. By the way, Hauerwas is very helpful in navigating the postmodern waters of nihilism. My analogy is blogging. Yeah! Okay, so maybe it's a little anticlimactic. But, since I am frustrated that I have spent half my morning trying to understand why all my post's say "Read More!" when there is nothing more to read I am happy that I, thought not I, have figured it out. Thanks to my friend Charlie and the nice the people who have supplied the blogosphere's helpful scripture (located at the top right corner if your using blogger) I am able to supply a "Read More!" option. Needless to say. I am ready to get back to my reading and am confident that I (We?) have successfully navigated the bloggy waters and am no longer formless and void. Consequently, I have come to realize that part of the bloggers charcater formation is the ability to cram something else into an otherwise nicely scheduled morning of reading and relaxing before work during your break between semesters.
Peace,
Scott
Peace,
Scott
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