From the mouths of babes

Putting Liam to bed we prayed, as we normally do, asking God to help Liam love and trust Jesus. The little fella interrupted - "Jesus can come into my room" (we're still struggling with issues of the resurrection body and where Jesus is now) "and help me make a train track" (we're also very, very big on trains). Well, I said, he could - he'd probably make a very good train track, don't you think. A long pause. "Well, it would probably have a bridge". Yes, I said, it would probably have a bridge - Jesus can make anything. "But he couldn't play with it" said Liam. Why not, his somewhat aghast father asked. "Because he made it for me" responded my little picture of original sin. And there you have it. We surely mount more complicated and (we think) compelling arguments for sin, but at it's heart it's all the same. Even though God makes it, we won't let him play with it.

This past week in New Zealand a tragedy occurred – 6 students and a teacher lost their lives in a flash flood. They were all from Elim Christian College – a Pentecostal church school in Auckland. The funerals have started being held, and comments are being made on God’s will and him allowing this to happen. Two of the more direct for your thoughts:

A Pentecostal pastor:

Pastor Luke Brough who led the [funeral] service said the tragedy took seven lives was not God's will. Life was not always fair and it was not a perfect world, he said. "When people say to me this is God's will, I say rubbish. That is not true. God is grieving too." He said God could have stopped the tragedy but to do that he would have to take away peoples' free will, the opportunity they had to choose. He said the greatest blessing God had given was the freedom of choice but it was also the greatest curse because "often we choose the wrong thing" and when the wrong choices were made, sometimes innocent people suffered.

And then there was this from a liberal Christian:

One thing is certain to me, while it is always appropriate to thank God when we survive a hazard it is not right - though for a young person understandable [referring to a survivor who spoke of God saving him but not others] - to declare that God saved us or that God refused to save others who most likely prayed with at least equal fervor. It is evident that God is not in control of the world having committed it to our charge.

While each speaker is coming from a completely different theological background, where they end up is remarkably similar. Simply put: God is not in control. The Pentecostal because he [presumably] wants to protect God from blame – the liberal [presumably] because he believes that God doesn’t get involved (because he won’t – or can’t?). And if this is the case, then really – what hope is there?

Show them the money

A little something from the Didache

...if anyone should say in the spirit "give me money" or anything else, do not listen to him. But if he tells you to give on behalf of others who are in need, let no one judge him.

Dead Sexy

I know this isn't going to float many of your boats, but Ben Myers has just reviewed Barth's Church Dogmatics digital edition. Find it here. That's right - digital edition. With this bad boy the latin and german phrases are translated (but who really needs that!); you can annotate the text and make your own comments; and the dogmatics are fully integrated into the Logos software system - that means you can cross reference Barth with himself (where else he mentions a certain text), with significant commentaries, the TDNT, etc. as well as searching the 6 million words themselves for where Barth mentions regula fidei, etc. And at a pre-publication price of only US$500, its worth the kidney that you'd have to give up for it. This is hot. Smokin' hot. Hotter than extra tobasco on a Nelson's special hot. So hot it, well, you get the picture.

Pop quiz - answer

Well, after the 'flood' of responses, no clear winner has emerged (that's because there were no responses). Dissapointing, Methven's a great place for a holiday!

But the answer is 2 Timothy 4:5

But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry.

Brothers and sisters, it means that at all times (in season and out of season as 4:2 puts it) those of us who are ministers are to do the full work of ministry. We can't hide away for a time because we've said something the church doesn't like, and relationships are a bit cool. We can't claim the 'I’m not gifted as an evangelist' excuse, for we are to do the work of one. We can't let the winds and waves of our ministry slow us down or blow us off course. Even when leaders leave, when saints sin, when allies appear to attack us, we keep our heads, and get on with our work - we discharge all the duties of our ministry.

That's why this verse is (one of!) the scariest in the Bible, because it calls us to a life where we push on no matter what opposition. It calls us to a very hard life. But it leads to this:

I have fought the good fight, I have finished the rase, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge will award me on that day - and not only to me, but also to all who have longer for his appearing.

A sunday evening musing

Today at All Saints we celebrated the harvest, and were joined by the Presbyterian church down the road to rejoice in God's provision and providence. And after a great day (possibly the best Sunday we've had since we've been here), as I sit here receiving with thanksgiving (1 Tim 4:4) the bounty of Cuba and Scotland, I am struck again by God's kindness to us.

We who were dead in transgressions and sins, who simultaneously ignored and raged against our creator, were graciously made alive in Christ. He looked on us in mercy, and in unfathomable love gave himself - made himself nothing - so that we might be made his very own. We have been given everything - life, love, grace, forgiveness, freedom, peace, fellowship, communion. We deserve nothing but receive everything - oh the glory of the cross!

And so now we serve - in freedom and love. We proclaim boldly, love freely, forgive willingly - and in God's grace he even uses us in his ongoing work - through us reconciling sinners like us to himself.

Mondays in ministry can be hard. We look back on opportunities missed and people who appear unaffected by this fathomless love. But don't lose heart, brothers and sisters! God is always at work, his word going forth, always effective as he intends it.

Rules of the Community

The Community Rule is the name given to a manuscript discovered at the Qumran Caves. It probably dates from around 100 BC and details the rules of life in a Jewish splinter community. Some of the more eye-opening ones are:

If any man has uttered the Venerable name [i.e. YAHWEH] even though frivously, or a result of shock or for any other reason whatsoever, while reading the Book or blessing, he shall be dismissed and shall return to the Council of the Community no more.

Whoever has interrupted his companion whilst speaking [shall do penance for] ten days.

Whoever has lain down to sleep during an Assembly of the Congregation [shall do penance for] thirty days.

Whoever has guffawed foolishly shall do penance for thrirty days.

Whoever has drawn out his left hand to gesticulate with it shall do penance for ten days.

The sound of silence...

Just so we don't think that pop psychology was a new invention, here is Ignatius in his letter to the Ephesians (15:1): 'It is better to be silent and to be than to talk and not be.'

Guard Us, Guide Us - Prologue

Packer and Nystrom (P&N) set out very helpfully the heart of the issue in the prologue. Christians have always believed that:

God in his omniscient wisdom and grace is working out his plan for our lives and that he helps us in our decision making and strengthens us and strengthens us to do what obedience to his revealed will required of us (p10)

However, they identify that it is now widely held that getting and following guidance from God (over and above ‘making commonsense decisions in Christian terms’) is ‘a matter of great importance in the Christian life’, and note that many think that God’s plan is ‘thought of like a travel itinerary' – if you miss a turn (or, in their language, a connection), God’s plan A has to turn into plan B.

P&N note that this thinking was originally grounded in teaching which sought to urge people to follow plan A – to become a missionary, a minister, a teacher etc. This in itself was incredibly unhelpful - intimating a class A Christian and then the rest. To put it in language many of us might be aware of, the thinking was that if you weren't a bloke worth watching, you really hadn't made it - you weren't worth watching!

The present situation, P&N suggest, is one of fear. Fear that major decisions can’t be made without an immediate and direct sign from God, and fear that a wrong decision will ruin ones life. P&N conclude – 'it is to try and help in this area of tense sensitivity that the present book has been written'.

Clearly these issues are alive and well - they seem to have become part of evangelical culture. While Jensen and Payne's Guidance and the Voice of God has been incredibly helpful to many, I wonder if it hasn't had the wide readership that the topic it addresses deserves.

On a personal note, I have known this second aspect for many years. A family friend is convinced that s/he made a ‘bad’ decision in marrying the person they did, and this has played out in the partner’s sexual unfaithfulness. The friend thinks that s/he has been sentenced to a second-class life – God’s plan B (or C, or D, or E…) because the wrong decision was made. This fear and regret is deep-seated amongst many God fearing, Bible believing brothers and sisters.

It is crippling, demoralising, and depressing. It grows Christians who not only live in fear before God, but live with a constant sense of guilt, of ‘what-if’, or ‘if-only’. Their ‘sin’ (for that is how many see it) cannot be forgiven, and certainly cannot be forgotten, for they must live, (so they think) with the consequences of it every day.

Theologically, and I’m sure P&N will come to this, it is grounded in deficient thinking about God’s sovereignty, about the nature of the ‘new man’ and the affect of the gospel on the mind (Eph 4, Rom 12), and about eschatology. Theologically, it is at times little more than superstition.

If this book does nothing else than clearly and carefully put an end to such thinking about 'God's plan for your life' (usually justified with reference to Jer 29:11), it will be invaluable. But I have the feeling it will do much more!

Pop quiz

Here's the question - and let me tell you that there's an all-expenses paid ski trip* on offer for the correct answer. What is the scariest verse in the Bible for a minister?

Answer in the next day or two.

(Judges decision will be final and no correspondence will be entered into).

*all-expenses does not cover air fares, transfers, lift passes, equipment hire, transport, meals, but does include accommodation (only).

It's not a spade, it's a ....

Phillip Jensen has spoken recently on the nature and limits of Christian unity. Listen here. I listened to it yesterday, and am going to do so again today (one of the joys of living in Methven is that it is an hour away from Christchurch - just the right amount of time to listen to talks!). Jensen provides an excellent overview of the Bible's teaching on unity and reaches some hard, but, I think, justified conclusions. Like much Jensenian material it is direct, and that directness can be taken as being offensive or overstated. But then again, you know exactly where he stands, why he stands there, and you've got to come up with some pretty good reasons to disagree with him. Of course, putting his exposition of Scripture into practice is another thing, particularly, I might humbly suggest, outside of Sydney. But despite what some think, the Bible is true wherever you are, and requires our obedience because it is God's very own word breathed out to us. In Methven, Christchurch, Sydney, Lambeth - the list goes on!

Have a listen, post your thoughts, and maybe offer some advice!

Liber-Pento Angli-Costals

Having more to do in recent months with both Pentecostals and Liberals than in the last four years, a strange similarity has been observed. Strange, maybe, because I hadn't thought about it, but, then again, in thinking about it I wonder if it actually goes to the heart of what it means to be evangelical (and, therefore, what it means to be non-evangelical). The similarity is this - both place a great deal of stress on the present, immediate, contemporary revelation of God. Of course there are massive differences in their approaches (particularly towards Scripture) - but the similarity remains. Indeed, in the space of a few days I have heard (or read) representatives from both groups utter the words "I just feel that God is telling me...". In sweepingly broad terms, Liberals feel that God is leading them, through science, culture, etc. to see that it is wrong to 'discriminate' (to marriage or ordination) on the basis of homosexual practice (essentially the acting out of a 'God-given' attraction). Pentecostals rely on God's immediate leading for all manner of issues - from the direction a church should take to what the message should be this Sunday - often through words or visions, but also through feelings and inclinations. Clearly Pentecostals approach and regard Scripture differently from Liberals, but God's most powerful, and therefore most important revelation - his word or message - seems to be the one most recently received.

An evangelical (or, let's say - my) position would be that God certainly is at work in the world, but for the 'big' decisions (and I would include in this the homosexual issue, the direction a church should take, and what the message should be this Sunday), we turn to the Bible as God's present and immediate revelation. Through God's work in us by his Spirit, we read his Word as living and active - present and immediate - and therefore it takes precedence. I realise that there are all sorts of hermeneutical issues here, but the basic tenet is, I hope, clear.

Here's the question, though. Are evangelicals (or, let's say - me) 'closed' to God's extra-biblical revelation. In no way suggesting that this revelation would contradict his written word, nor, indeed, that it should be taken as as authoritative as the Bible, but have we closed ourselves off from God's living and active work in all creation (all creation being us as created beings as well as in the world around us)? Clearly I'm moving towards the Pentecostal end of things (I'm way too 17th century to become 19th century), and realise the potential difficulties with exploring these issues. But still - maybe we should ask the question - are we as evangelicals too closed off (if indeed that is the right phrase) to God's work and word to us today?

And here's the really interesting thing. As I am writing this Packer's 'Gourd us, Guide us' has turned up on my doorstep (not really that miraculous – I ordered it through Amazon 6 weeks ago). Nevertheless, taking this as a bit of a prompt, I'll endeavour to read a chapter every couple of days and post my thoughts. We’ll let the great Rev. Dr. JIP settle this (while he’s still Rev.)!