God’s sovereignty

Some Christians at least try to console themselves with their view that God is somehow in some terrible matters mysteriously in control, so that no matter what happens, God is the cause. While I disagree, at the same time I want to try to understand their point which has something to do evidently with God’s decree in a sense in which we get into that aspect of God which perhaps to some is getting more at how we should see God. As utter mystery.  After all, God is God. God’s ways and thoughts are not our ways and thoughts, as the prophet says. And they  certainly believe that God brings about good even out of evil in and through Jesus.

Awhile back I was reading a book on the Amish and was a bit surprised to learn how God’s sovereignty is an important staple in their own theology and life. So that whatever takes place, somehow God’s will or hand is in it.

God is in control in everything, even when he lets certain things happen. God’s wisdom and understanding certainly go far beyond our own, so that we’re not able to track with him with reference to how he works out his judgments on earth, along with his salvation. So a big part of our thought here needs to end up saying, I don’t know, and I don’t think I’ll ever fully understand it. Someday I trust in God through Jesus that I simply will know that it all ended up being good, that God’s good will and the end of that is indeed good.

Along the way I do struggle to try to answer why such and such happens. But in doing so I’m often unwittingly wanting to be out from under God’s sovereign working. Whatever view of God’s sovereignty we hold to, we have to agree as followers of Christ that God is at work for good in everything. That God is in control no matter what is happening. And that God is working out his purpose in judgment and salvation in and through Jesus. We need to trust that this is true through both the large and smaller things of life, in our own lives, as well as in the lives of others, indeed in the entire world.

We must return to Jesus to see God’s final word and revelation of himself. God in Christ comes and becomes one of us. So that it is no longer just God, or just a human, but the God-Man, or God-Human. God in Jesus lives where we live, identifying with us fully, so that by grace through faith we can identify fully with him. We see that in Jesus’ case, living out the will of the Father was not easy. Jesus was living with the limitations of being human and in full dependence on God. That may well have been, and in some way is reflective of the Trinitarian relationship between Father and Son, but it also has a unique aspect about it, given the incarnational life of God becoming flesh, fully human, in the person of Christ. So we see that facing God’s will, indeed God’s sovereignty was not always easy for Jesus himself. And yet in all of that, Jesus fully entrusted himself into the Father’s care, right to the very end. As he quoted the psalm just before his final breath, when he gave up his spirit, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.”

And so we trust in a good God who is at work even in the smallest details of life. Somehow often mysteriously to us, since God is always God, and we are not. And that all that God does is good, and from a heart of love. Seen and fulfilled in Jesus. And we in Jesus are part of that, together in and for the world.

come Lord and heal our brokenness

Sometimes when I look at the world, even my own world inside our four walls, even when it looks fine on the outside and all seems alright to us as well, I still have to say, “Come Lord and heal our brokenness.”

I think of this in eschatological terms, but not really in terms of Jesus’ Second Coming, especially as has been popularly depicted in our evangelical circles. Nor in terms necessarily of some great outpouring of the Spirit as in another “Great Awakening” as has been seen in the past. But I think of it simply in terms of Jesus appearing, one way or another, usually quietly, rather unobstrusively as in hardly noticed at all by the many. Yes, by the Spirit most often in the ordinariness of our humanity. Sometimes in unusual ways, or in the gifts of the Spirit, while oftentimes in the bump and grind of life as we seek to follow our Lord both individually and in community. Strictly speaking, I’m not using the term translated “appears” according to scripture. There it is Jesus himself actually appearing in person, just as he did some two thousand years ago. But I’m thinking of appearing metaphorically in the sense of his presence by the Spirit, of “seeing” him in us- his disciples, and in the good works we do, which glorify the Father before the world. Thus bringing something of the future into the present.

It is easy for me to find brokenness in this world. Broken relationships, families, commitments, promises. Brokenness in any sense of purpose and direction in life, in finding one’s self at a loss to know how to move on to fulfill the sense of calling one does have. Broken down bodies, broken down minds. And in the case of those of us in Jesus, not complete wholeness, so indeed a brokenness which at times is painful, but many times simply causing us to groan and long for the completion and fulfillment of the hope in the promise we have in Jesus. But these groans not just for us, but for the world around us, indeed for the whole world.

What is needed in the midst of all our brokenness, in the midst of the world’s brokenness is Jesus, God in him, his presence with us. Yes, Jesus is present with us in him by the Spirit. But scripture suggests he is especially present during certain times, such as when two or three come together in his name, perhaps in that context to indeed apply God’s authority for forgiveness of sin and healing of something broken, or to withhold it with the end in view that it might happen at a later time.

We go through life crying out, or deeply within groaning for the Lord’s salvation, for what only God in Jesus and by the Spirit can bring to us and to this world. Together in and through Jesus.

saving justice

The justice God brings in Jesus through God’s kingdom come in him is a saving justice. Justice at heart is what is right and good in God’s eyes. Different from other standards set in the world, such as the past Roman justice, different in heart and therefore in the results. That is not to say that in a certain elemental sense justice can’t be served today, limited though it is from human government. But there is only one justice in the world which is truly saving. That which comes from God through Jesus and God’s kingdom come in him.

We recognize that God sets a certain order in place in a fallen world. These are governing authorities who are answerable to God, and whose direct responsibility to God is to keep order and restrain evil. When one studies  one classic passage, it would seem what they do is indeed limited, yet necessary in this present age. What is said of them elsewhere must also be considered, such as the hold Satan has on them. Somehow the world, the flesh and the devil are in unholy alliance in this present age.

Beginning in this present age, there is one saving justice in the world. The justice that comes through King Jesus, which brings salvation in him. Yes, in individual, personal terms, but also a justice that is meant for society and the world at large. Not to be implemented in full until Jesus reappears. But to be lived out and indeed worked out in this world by us in Jesus even here and now. The only justice in which lives are changed forever even into the likeness of the one who saves, King Jesus, who brings in a new humanity of which we in him are a part, together for the world.

Anna Rapa on the ministry of reconciliation through Jesus

Our firm decision is to work from this focused center: Jesus died for everyone. That puts everyone in the same boat. He included everyone in his death so that everyone could also be included in his life, a resurrection life, a far better life than people ever lived on their own.

Because of this decision we donʹt evaluate people by what they have or how they look. We looked at the Messiah that way once and got it all wrong, as you know. We certainly donʹt look at him that way anymore. Now we look inside, and what we see is that anyone united with the Messiah gets a fresh start, is created new. The old life is gone; a new life begins! Look at it!

Instead of selfishness, we now can be selfless.  Instead of greed, we now can give generously what we have.  Instead of being filled with lust, we now can love people who are ugly.  Instead of being prideful, we know that everything that we have and are comes from God.  Instead of seeking the approval of others, we now know that we have God’s approval.

All this comes from the God who healed our broken relationship with him, with ourselves, and with each other.  He now asks us to spend our lives working to help other people heal their broken relationships.  If we choose to walk with God, then our job is to also walk with others and bear their burdens and help men and women drop their differences and enter into God’s work of making things right.

But how is this possible?  It’s possible because God made Jesus, who had no brokenness, to be broken for our sakes, so that through his body and blood, we could become the children of God.

Anna Rapa, Second Story: seeing what’s not being said, 75-76.

“This passage is a mixture of the author’s paraphrase,
the NIV, and The Message…”

a damaging dualism

I keep hearing from Christians no less that we’re not to be concerned with earthly, material matters, but only spiritual matters. This betrays an unbiblical, devastating dualism. Dualism carries with it the idea of two entities that in no way correspond.

When I open my Bible I read words like, “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world” (James 1).

Spirituality cannot be reduced to a relationship between a person and God. It must work out that relationship in love with other human beings and with good works. Otherwise scripture tells us such a profession of spirituality or faith is hollow and indeed dead (again, James, etc.).

The individualism which we have inherited from the Enlightenment brings with it another damaging dualism which blinds our reading of scripture. Of course God deals with us as individuals in and through Jesus. But fundamental to scripture is the centrality of community. We are in this in God through Jesus, together. And it’s not just to help a bunch of other individuals get on well with life. It is the making of a community no less, the people of God, in and through Jesus. And in the end we can’t simply think in terms of ourselves, but must include others. In fact we need to develop a mindset of us, instead of me. Or perhaps better said, ourselves yes, but always in terms of others. Which of course is the way of Jesus.

This does not deny the need for solitude, or to take personal responsibility. Nor is this to deny that we can be taken in by a world system that is at odds with the kingdom of God in Jesus. Not everything is okay.

But this is saying that the gospel is good news through Jesus’ coming as Messiah which brings us back to God’s intent and is for all creation. And in the end brings judgment and salvation with reference to everything. In and through King Jesus.

born in weakness

The circumstances surrounding Jesus’ birth were profoundly humbling, as is well known. And yet surrounded by glory, to be sure. Jesus was indeed born in weakness, a sign of what was to follow. (Luke and Matthew’s accounts.)

Who likes weakness? And yet from start to finish that is the way of Jesus, from his birth to his death. And lived out now in him by the Spirit. It is the new way of being human in the face of the old. A kingdom of serving rather than lording it over others. It is the way of the cross, the way of obedience out of love. Period.

From that comes God’s answer. Resurrection. Vindication. Salvation. All in Jesus who made this way for us. By faith we follow in this salvation. Together for the world. But in the way of Jesus. Together in weakness.

Yes, our precious Savior was a baby boy. Born like all the rest of us, though unique in his conception and person. But just as human as you and I. What a wonderful gift from our Father! A gift for the world.

We in him are all bearers of that gift. Individually and together. In weakness that the world might know God’s strength and saving reign in and through Jesus.

Mary’s Song

Mary’s Song, called the Magnificat, is political in nature, as she rejoices over God’s move in history, even through her. She was looking forward to nothing less than the coming of God’s kingdom in and through her son. The fulfillment of the promises in scripture. A kingdom destined to rule over the entire earth forever.

Mary lived during hard times. Many Jews had come home, in fact temple worship had been established, Herod the Great took* the title, “King of the Jews.” But essentially the promises surrounding the return had yet to be fulfilled. Israel in a true sense was still in exile, under the heavy arm of the Roman empire, subject to heavy taxation. Yet living in some freedom. But awaiting God’s promise of the coming Messiah.

Now at last, Mary had received the news that she was to be the bearer of the promised one. And her soul breaks out in song:

“My soul glorifies the Lord
⁴⁷ and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
⁴⁸ for he has been mindful
of the humble state of his servant.
From now on all generations will call me blessed,
⁴⁹ for the Mighty One has done great things for me—
holy is his name.
⁵⁰ His mercy extends to those who fear him,
from generation to generation.
⁵¹ He has performed mighty deeds with his arm;
he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts.
⁵² He has brought down rulers from their thrones
but has lifted up the humble.
⁵³ He has filled the hungry with good things
but has sent the rich away empty.
⁵⁴ He has helped his servant Israel,
remembering to be merciful
⁵⁵ to Abraham and his descendants forever,
just as he promised our ancestors.”

From the beginning until now, while Messiah has come, it has not been like anyone supposed, surely including Mary. But her words, politically charged in terms of God’s kingdom bringing in shalom, remain important and appropriate for us to understand what the good news that Jesus is the Messiah means to and for the world.

Mary learns that the way of Jesus is not the way of the sword, nor is it the way of living faithfully according to Torah**. In his coming was a fulfillment that no one had dreamed of. Yes, found in scripture but not expected in his day, as we can see from the narrative in the gospels. Indeed a sword would pierce deeply into Mary’s soul, as was prophesied to her. Jesus’ way was the way of the cross.

It is through the church that God puts the authorities and powers on notice that a new day has come and that their days are numbered. And it is the church faithfully being the church with all that means from scripture, which accomplishes this. Actually God at work through the church to do this.

I don’t see an overt kind of activity by the church to accomplish this. We know its completion happens, or better put, the resolution, when Jesus reappears. But in the church as the light of the world and the salt of the earth through Jesus, the world is to be impacted now. We are those in the world, but not of it. Not only in terms of a personal relationship with God through Jesus. But also as those who are not to be part of the world’s system. If there are any Daniel’s today, I take it they are likely few and far between.

Indeed we are called to mind our own business, work hard with our hands, so that our daily lives may win the respect of outsiders. Always being ready to give an answer to anyone who asks us to give a reason for the hope we have, doing so with gentleness and respect. Caring for the poor, oppressed and bereft.

As we live out this witness faithfully before the world, showing the way in Jesus, God is at work. In grace, salvation and judgment. Justice with mercy are characteristics of God’s kingdom come in Jesus.

Anything less than this is not the full gospel of King Jesus.

See The Real Mary: Why Evangelical Christians Can Embrace the Mother of Jesus, by Scot McKnight.

*Not Davidic of course, but provisional under Rome.

**As did the Pharisees. Jesus didn’t violate Torah. Its intent was fulfilled in him. In his identity and life (which includes his death and resurrection, and what follows after). See Eugene Peterson, The Jesus Way: A Conversation on the Ways That Jesus Is the Way

contrition

a broken and contrite heart
you, God, will not despise.

from Psalm 51

It is interesting, and actually rather disconcerting when one can be sailing along with little care (of course there are always deep concerns in this world) only to be hit by something unexpected which challenges one’s sense of well being in grace, I mean even one’s holiness, to the core. You’re left shaking inside, not at all reconciled to the development, realizing that you’re lost on this count. And apparently not as holy as you thought. Not that we should think that anything at all is anymore than a gift to us. But character transformation is to be occurring in Christ.

That is when it’s good to bring the matter to God in prayer and then just leave it sit. We can’t change ourselves. It is God who changes us. Of course we do change then, but that takes a working of God, nonetheless. Surely God wants us to sit with our sin, to realize our weakness and failure, indeed lostness at a certain point. And this may go on for a time. Before God gives us a certain sense in thought, conviction and movement by the Spirit toward new growth in Christ.

This all normally takes place in the context of relationships. God is interested in building up his people together because community and relationships are inherent in the God who is Trinity: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

So instead of “kicking against the goads”, I want to be willing to lay low, and be still during such times. Knowing that whatever I’m kicking against involves something that is not right nor holy in me. And that I need whatever change would come from God through Jesus in this. This can involve intervals of change, or a longer, drawn out process we’re working through. As we do so, we have this sense of God’s grace active and at work in our lives.

God does not despise a broken and contrite (or crushed, repentant) heart. Neither should we, and we should submit to God in this, and let him do his good work in our lives. In and through Jesus, together for the world.

 

Eugene Peterson on Jesus: our way to God and God’s way to us

The way we come to God is the same way that God comes to us. God comes to us in Jesus; we come to God in Jesus. It is the same way, the Jesus way. God comes to us in Jesus speaking the words of salvation, healing our infirmities, promising the Holy Spirit, teaching us how to live in the kingdom of God. It is in and through this same Jesus that we pray to and believe, hear and obey, love and praise God. Jesus is the way God comes to us. Jesus is the way we come to God. “The way up and the way down is the same way.”*

Jesus is the way of salvation. We follow his way. Jesus is the way of eternal life. We follow his way. The way Jesus does it is the way we do it. Jesus is the way we come to God. Period. End of discussion.

And Jesus is the way God comes to us. On earth, Jesus is the way of faith and obedience and prayer–to God. From heaven, Jesus is the way of God’s revelation, God’s salvation, God’s blessing–to us.

Everything we need to know of God comes by way of Jesus. “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth; we have beheld his glory” (John 1:14 RSV). St. John’s Gospel, carefully and in a most leisurely way–”unresting, unhasting, and silent as light”** tells us the story, all the operations of the Holy Trinity revealed to us in Jesus, the Christ.

Several decades ago Charles Sheldon wrote a book that was widely read, What Would Jesus Do? Good question, But if another question is not given equal billing alongside it, it yields answers that are only a half-truth. We must also ask, What is God doing? Jesus tells us what to do; at the same time he tells us what God is doing. Jesus is God in action. Jesus is God speaking. Jesus is God touching lepers. Jesus is God forgiving a condemned and dying criminal and an adulterous woman hounded by men holding rocks and poised to kill her. Jesus is God blessing children. Jesus is God giving sight to Bartimaeus, life to Lazarus. Jesus is God calling down judgment on religious posturing. Jesus is God weeping over Jerusalem.

Jesus. Jesus. Jesus. Jesus is the way we come to God. Jesus is the way God comes to us. And not first one and then the other but both at the same time. Not God’s way to us on Sundays and our way to God on weekdays. It is a two-lane road. Much mischief has been perpetrated in the Christian community by not keeping both lanes open. The road up and the road down are the same road.

Psalm 84 speaks of men and women “in whose hearts are the highways to Zion.” We know something about highways and we know what happens when an accident blocks the lane we are in. We sit there stuck, while the cars on the other side of the road are free to drive home, or to work, or to the mountains to ski, or to the ocean to surf and swim. It is not enough to have a single lane. We require a highway with the traffic going both ways–Jesus. Our way to God. God’s way to us.

Eugene H. Peterson, The Jesus Way: A Conversation on the Ways That Jesus Is the Way, 37-39.

*”Heraclitus, the pre-Socratic Greek philosopher” from Charles H. Kahn, The Art and Thought of Heraclitus (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1979), p. 74.

**”From the hymn by Walter Chalmers Smith, “”Immortal, Invisible, God only Wise,” The Hymnbook (Philadelphia: Presbyterian Publishing Co., 1955), p. 82.

lived in life

Much is made, and rightfully so of the sacrifice many have made in going to far flung lands to share Christ, seeing breakthroughs there often at risk, and sometimes paying the ultimate price. As well as those who have plodded on year after year in difficult places, planting seed.

The vision the New Testament gives to how God’s people are to be witnesses in this world, I think by and large is that they are to settle down and live a life that reflects the faith, to be faithful in life. And to always be ready to give the reason for the hope they have.

We’re to live lives of good works done in love. People should see a difference in us; there should be something about us which can’t be explained in terms of the world.

Community around Jesus, a community which is Jesus-like is to be a regular aspect of this life. We are indeed called to be witnesses, to tell our story to others, to point them to the one who saved us, and is ultimately to save all things. Jesus, the Messiah.

We’re to live this faith in life, where we’re at. In the mundane, ordinary, extraordinary. Day to day and year after year. By and large this will be the calling for most of us.

God in Jesus will be present with us by the Spirit. And we’re in this together, in Jesus. The one who turned the water into wine.