04.05.08

Finishing Up in 90 Days

Posted in Reading, Scripture at 11:04 am by Anthony

Like other churches in Albany, our church has been involved in the Bible in 90 Days program.  It has been great for community unity and has gotten a lot of people into the Word.  It has also been very difficult for people to keep up.  As a minister, I was able to, but only because I was able to devote part of my “work” day to the task.  This week, I completed my Bible reading (in 89 days, no less!), and made a note of it on my Facebook page.  A friend of mine asked what new perspectives I had gained from reading the Bible cover-to-cover in a relatively short time span.  My reply was off-the-cuff, and I need to think about it more, but I thought I would post my thoughts here:

“As for new perspectives on the Bible, reading the OT was a needed reminder on the wrathful side of God’s holiness. It’s something we don’t talk/think about much anymore, but it dominates there. Another perspective is that I came to the conclusion that the Bible isn’t really meant to be read in 90 days. There were parts, especially in the NT, and there, especially in the gospels, where I really needed to camp out and let Jesus’ words work on my heart, but I didn’t have time because I was rushing to keep up with the schedule.

Not that the experience was a waste — it wasn’t. There are lots of things that tie together that I was able to connect — like the book of Obadiah & Malachi 1 and the Romans 9 thing about “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.” Was he really talking about predestination of individuals, or God’s election of certain peoples, e.g. Israelite over Edomites / believers over unbelievers? In thoroughly CofC fashion, I lean strongly toward the later.”

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09.10.07

Preaching the Crucifixion

Posted in Preaching, Scripture at 1:04 pm by Anthony

Yesterday I preached the crucifixion.  It was probably the most sober and personally impacting sermon I have yet to preach.  You would think that I would be used to it by now.  That Christ died for our sins — however you understand that phrase — is one of the most foundational tenents of our faith.  There’s been a lot of discussion about how his death makes possible reconciliation between us–corporately and individually–and God, but there can be no debate that he did die and he did it for us. 

 Yesterday I preached the event of the crucifixion — how Christ died.  The horror of the cross has been portrayed more graphically that I ever could with words or images, so I did not even try.  But, as others have said, Scripture does not so graphically portray the pain of the cross as it does the shame of the cross, so that is what I attempted to do in my sermon.

The previous week I had preached on Jesus’ trial before Pilate.  In pouring over many images, brilliant paintings, of the crucifixion, I had difficulty finding one that I did not feel was too shameful to display.  Actually the artists’ renditions may portray the crucifixion as more modest than it actually was.  I don’t even want to think about it. I finally found one image that I felt that I could show, to remind us of the way of salvation that Christ offers.  This week I choose not to show any — it just didn’t seem right to put him on display again like that.  I’m not saying that I’ll never again show an image of the crucifixion but, focused on the shame as I was, it just didn’t seem appropriate.

Reading Matthew’s account, it is amazing how often the words “mock” and “insult” occur.  Why couldn’t they just kill him?  What is so amazing is not that people would mock God (they do every day), but that God would take it — and I guess he does that every day, too.

 4 Surely he took up our infirmities
       and carried our sorrows,
       yet we considered him stricken by God,
       smitten by him, and afflicted.

 5 But he was pierced for our transgressions,
       he was crushed for our iniquities;
       the punishment that brought us peace was upon him,
       and by his wounds we are healed.

 6 We all, like sheep, have gone astray,
       each of us has turned to his own way;
       and the LORD has laid on him
       the iniquity of us all.

Isaiah 53:4-6, TNIV

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05.08.07

Let God Be God — Part II

Posted in Reading, Scripture at 7:02 pm by Anthony

In The Spirituality of the Cross, Gene Edward Veith, Jr. describes his journey from atheism through mysticism and liberal theology to faith.* He found that the God of the Bible–specifically the Old Testament–revealed a sovereign God who will not conform to our image of what he should be or who we would like him to be.

I remember when I first began to read the Bible seriously. As I read the Old Testament, I was overcome with its sublimity, later horrified by passages such as God’s commands that the Canaanites be slaughtered. I began to realize that God was something “other,” someone far above my comprehension. I realized that I had been constructing God according to my preferences, positing qualities that I liked and ascribing them to the deity I believed in. In effect, I was making God in my image. But the God I was reading about in the Bible, whose energy blasted those who touched the Ark of the Covenant without the mediation of blood, was very different from myself, numinous, holy, and dangerous. And yet He rang true.

I probably never really believed in the vague, domesticated spirit of niceness that I had constructed for myself and found in my humane liberal theology. The real universe, with its danger and consequences and hard edges, such as cancer, shows no trace of having been created by such a sentimental deity. I probably knew, deep down inside, that I was making up a private little religion to make myself feel better, … . But this God I was reading about in the Bible had hard edges. He is absolute, utterly mysterious, and despite all appearances radically righteous. I began to see God in a completely different light, the light of holiness. And I saw myself in the rebellious children of Israel, ungrateful, inconsistent, and idolatrous. (pp. 39-40)

Veith, of course, doesn’t see God as all “hard edges.” He says that

“the reader comes to realize that this God of wrath is also the God of grace, that from the beginning He provided for sacrificial blood to cover His people’s sins, that He came in Jesus, that His wrath is swallowed up in the cross. As we read … we encounter the Law and the Gospel, through which the Spirit works to change our hearts and bind us to Christ.” (p. 39)

*This book is an explanation of Lutheran theology. I find much in common with my understanding of biblical Christianity, but also several important points of difference.

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05.05.07

Let God be God

Posted in Reading, Scripture, Theology at 8:07 pm by Anthony

Tomorrow I’ll be talking about doubt. I came across the following story which, though it didn’t end up in the sermon, I thought was worth sharing.

Missionary Gracia Burnham, who was held captive by terrorists in the Philippines for more than a year and whose husband was killed during the rescue, writes:

Sometimes I wonder, Why did Martin die when everyone was praying he wouldn’t? Why does Scripture lead you to believe that if you pray a certain way, you’ll get what you pray for? People all over the world were praying that we’d both get out alive, but we didn’t.

Her questions made her realize it isn’t always easy to comprehend God’s nature:

I used to have this concept of what God is like, and how life’s supposed to be because of that. But in the jungle, I learned I don’t know as much about God as I thought I did. I don’t have him in a theological box anymore. What I do know is that God is God—and I’m not. The world’s in a mess because of sin, not God. Some awful things may happen to me, but God does what is right. And he makes good out of bad situations.

Corrie Cutrer, “Soul Survivor,” Today’s Christian Woman (July/Aug 2003), p. 50

Incidentally, I’ve heard Gracia Burnham speak about how, during t heir capativity, they were greatly encouraged by the broadcasts of World Christian Broadcasting. This is a shortwave ministry sponsored primarily by Churches of Christ. I’ve been able to do some writing for them over the past few years.

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04.24.07

Name Calling

Posted in Scripture, News at 6:54 pm by Anthony

Today I read a news story that quoted one politician who pretended to take the moral high road by saying,  “I’m not going to get into a name-calling match with someone who has a 9 percent approval rating,” and then went on to refer to the object of his disdain as an “attack dog.”

Ever done that?  “I’m not going to call names,” and then proceed to do so.  I’m sure I have.  Or, “I’m only telling this because I’m concerned.”  Or, “You might want to pray about this … .”   Or any of the countless ways that I slide in a verbal dig to build myself up or put someone else down.  (Aren’t they they the same thing?)

The Bible has a lot to say about our words.  Among the most helpful is James 1:19, “Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to become angry…” (TNIV). 

“I don’t want to call names…,” then don’t.
“I don’t want to gossip…,” then don’t.
“I don’t want to hurt your feelings…,” then don’t.

Quick to listen.  Slow to speak.  No name calling.

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