when forsaken

Spirituality as often spoken even by those who walked with God, along with certain versions of it today, seems to me not only something other than human, but something different than what I see in the witness of scripture.

I am told essentially that relationships don’t matter. It’s all about a relationship with you and God. If you can get that together, or let God get that together, or something like that (I know I’m not using their best words which more often than not, are steeped in scripture), then nothing in this world will matter at all. That you can get to that place. And if you can get to that place, indeed you should.

And so I’m made to feel on some sort of guilt trip, because I off and mostly on struggle with depression, and think I really am not needed or wanted, except by my wife and family, which in itself does mean a lot. Well, I can’t discount at work either, though we can all be replaced there if need be. And we all have our place in Christ’s body, the church.

I find some Christian spirituality to smack of something which in essence becomes antichristian, because it ends up skirting the Incarnation. Our faith in and of Jesus is an incarnational faith, one in which God becomes flesh, and flesh is lifted into a new place, to be sure, but it is still flesh, human.

I know I speak to some significant extent out of pain, but I am not at all open to the idea that in this life we can and therefore should reach some sort of place in which the struggles of humanity are gone. Yes, scripture does speak of perfect peace to those whose minds are steadfast because they trust in God. And yet in this life we will have trouble. Which is why we need to keep trusting. I consider the meaning to be iterative, that is something we need to experience over and over again, not unlike the filling of the Spirit (see the Acts in the New Testament on the latter).

Maybe I’m speaking from a low place away from those experiencing the heights. But go back to scripture, and consider the narrative there. As well as the nature of our faith. You have folks like Moses, Miriam, Ruth, David, Jeremiah, Esther, Mary, Peter, Paul. And many lesser known names. It is about a walk of faith in spite of many problems inside and out. I distrust any spirituality which minimizes this and somehow wants us to experience a deeper life oblivious to the pain and suffering, indeed sin, of this world.

When forsaken we cry out to God. We may have a sense that indeed God has forsaken us, as the psalmist had, and as Jesus later experienced. Though neither Jesus nor the psalmist were actually forsaken by God, they had the sense that they were. When you’re forsaken by friends, and no longer think your life matters, that somehow you just don’t fit. It all gets rather troubling and hurting. Does that make me less spiritual? I don’t think so.

Let’s continue on, and seek the Lord, and love him and each other, indeed the world. Not denying our humanity and the struggles in it. But seeking to live in a fully incarnational faith, down to earth, completely human. A faith in which we are being changed, but never out of this humanity which the Lord shares with us. The one who remains as human as we are, while indeed the glorified Lord.

getting real

“Get real” is a saying in our culture which can be trite, but with the right understanding, can be helpful. A really good post that got me thinking this way brings home the point that while a dose of down to earth realism has its place, a part of reality is God’s work in accord with his promises in Jesus.

Yes, I am human. I am not necessarily what people would like me to be, or even what I would like myself to be. I struggle at times for this and that reason. I can be down. I am not always happy, at least not about some things, even many things if you begin to think about the world.

But God is in the equation through Christ. The Spirit is at work in this weak human being. Indeed our faith, being incarnational in its core through Jesus, is one of strength through weakness. A kind of dying going on in us, that life might be manifest in and through us.

There is an anti-Christian sentiment that seems to be about carrying a certain image. It seems close or one in the same to keeping up appearances. Or it is about a certain air that is supposed to be carried by us. Usually one of rejoicing and being positive about life. Rejoicing with an expectant faith is indeed good. But it is of no value if it is put on. It must be real.

Jesus will be manifest in us as we live out this incarnational faith in all our humanity. And it is lived out through the glorified yet still very human Jesus, by the Spirit. The image of Christ through the Spirit in that way being manifest in and through us to the world.

a living, breathing word from God

C.S. Lewis said that the Bible is not the word of God; that Jesus is.* Actually elsewhere and in all his writings Lewis is dependent on what is called “the rule of faith” discerned by the church out of the writings of scripture which the church determined to be uniquely from God when the canon we call the New Testament was formed in the church’s early centuries. Scripture is the mediating word of God to bring us to the Word, Jesus. By this overstatement,** Lewis was making an important point.

What we need is what we got, and what we are celebrating this Advent season. No less than  a living breathing word from God. All in a baby born in Bethlehem. A personal, relational commitment by God to humankind. Covenanted with his people who are so blessed to be a blessing to the world.

We in Jesus not only experience by faith this living, breathing word for ourselves. We in Jesus are to live this out in the same way Jesus did, to and for the world. The Spirit in us takes the real humanity of Jesus and touches the world, and others through us.

Yes, the world needs to understand the good news that the Messiah has come, Jesus. The church indeed needs to proclaim that message clearly, without shame, in bold humility. And just as important, the world needs to see that message lived out in us in and through Jesus. That same living, breathing Word which is Jesus, that needs to mark our lives. In a sense, as C.S. Lewis suggested, we are indeed little christs. Bearers of Christ in this world, yes, through our very flesh and blood, human lives.

A living, breathing word from God, the Word made flesh and dwelling among us. That little baby long ago. Now seated at the right hand of the Father. To return and make all things right and new. That work beginning now through his Body in the world by the Spirit.

*“It is Christ Himself, not the Bible, who is the true Word of God. The Bible, read in the right spirit, and with the guidance of teachers will bring us to Him.” (C.S. Lewis, Letters of C.S. Lewis (Harvest Books, 2003), 247, quoted by Christian Smith, The Bible Made Impossible: Why Biblicism Is Not a Truly Evangelical Reading of Scripture, 117.

**I take it as an overstatement, though I’m not an expert on C.S. Lewis in any way, so I don’t know how he would respond, or explain it.

John 1:1-14

John 1

The Word Became Flesh

¹ In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ² He was with God in the beginning. ³Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. ⁴ In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. ⁵ The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

⁶ There was a man sent from God whose name was John. ⁷ He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all might believe. ⁸ He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light.

⁹ The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. ¹⁰ He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. ¹¹ He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. ¹² Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— ¹³ children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.

¹⁴ The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

John 1:1-14

Christmas carols

Christmas carols are a wonderful part and tradition of Advent season. The words speak powerfully about the reason for the season, Jesus. We are taken back in time to those wonder filled days, when the Messiah, God’s Son was born into this world.

It is good to dwell on the words. To really sing these carols. The ones we sing year after year have endured for good reason. In poetic word and song they help us reflect on the Incarnation, when the Word became flesh, God becoming one of us, in the person of his Son, Jesus. When the hope of the world, the Messiah was born.

It is next to impossible for me to pick a favorite. I have several favorite carols, though for different reasons I can well say I love them all. But if I have to choose a favorite, I’ll choose this one:

What Child is This?

What Child is this who, laid to rest
On Mary’s lap is sleeping?
Whom angels greet with anthems sweet,
While shepherds watch are keeping?
This, this is Christ the King,
Whom shepherds guard and angels sing;
Haste, haste, to bring Him laud,
The Babe, the Son of Mary.

Why lies He in such mean estate,
Where ox and ass are feeding?
Good Christians, fear, for sinners here
The silent Word is pleading.
Nails, spear shall pierce Him through,
The cross be borne for me, for you.
Hail, hail the Word made flesh,
The Babe, the Son of Mary.

So bring Him incense, gold and myrrh,
Come peasant, king to own Him;
The King of kings salvation brings,
Let loving hearts enthrone Him.
Raise, raise a song on high,
The virgin sings her lullaby.
Joy, joy for Christ is born,
The Babe, the Son of Mary.

William C. Dix

Let’s sing the Christmas carols. Maybe just choose one, or one at a time to sing for awhile. Yesterday someone shared enduring lines from “O Little Town of Bethlehem”, after which I sang that for a time.

As we remember the awe and wonder of this season in Jesus and his birth.

Jesus: the human God

The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.

John 1

Sometimes we rightly criticize the human tendency, indeed our own tendency to make God into our image, rather than honoring God as God. Paul does this in Romans 1. In fact humankind stooped even lower, depicting God in idols of animals such as reptiles.

While that’s true and important, it is also true that now we know God through the face of a human, Jesus. God became human, and so became a human God. We as human beings are made in God’s image: male and female. And Jesus is the icon (eikon, transliteration of Greek word) meaning image of God. Jesus is that image and in him that image is to become all it was meant to be in the new humanity, beginning now, even in this life.

In Jesus we are shown the new Adam, the new humanity, the new way to be human. How that’s lived out now is by the Spirit in the one Body of believers, in Jesus. It is relational at its core: to God and to each other, as well as to others.

In and through Jesus comes the fulfillment of all that God created in the beginning. The goal is not a return to Edenic bliss, but rather the new creation. There we find a city, along with paradise in the renewed earth, after heaven and earth become one at Jesus’ reappearing.

God becomes one with us, that we might be one with him. Not becoming God ourselves, and yet partaking of his very nature, made his children as humans, through and through when it’s all said and done. All in and through Jesus.

And so as we celebrate Advent, let’s celebrate the wonder of the God who is human, the human who is God, in Jesus. Who became one of us to live with us, that we might be one and find our true life in him. Together with others in Jesus for the world.

Emmanuel: with us as one of us

Advent is a time of celebrating Emmanuel: God-with-us in and through Christ. Christ came into the world that God may dwell in a new way with his people, not only with us, but as one of us.

Indeed this is the mystery of the Incarnation. “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.” Christ can reside in our hearts through faith. And he came to live on earth as one of us, that we may be made one with him. A oneness that is together, certainly communal at heart.

Christ became just as human as the rest of us. He was named Jesus as the angel had said, meaning Yahweh saves. So the name is tied to his saving work, as the angel said, “for he will save his people from their sins.” And that name is tied to his humanity as well, given to him at his birth. Others had that name, but it was, is and will be fulfilled in and through him.

So Christ is present with us his people dwelling in and among us by the Spirit. God the Father dwells in him and he in God, so that we find our home together in Trinitarian fellowship, that of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.

And through us, his Body, Christ is made known to the world. He is present in and for the world in his Body, the church. In humility and love. In sufferings, the way of the cross. In resurrection life by the Spirit. So that even in our own humiliation as his Body, we begin to experience resurrection life, to be perfected in our glorification.

So Christ comes to be with us as one of us, taking us up in him. So that his life is our life, through our sharing in his death. And our identity and indeed our very heart begins to beat one with his heart, and with him. Together in him and for the world.

 

lost in wonder

One aspect of this Advent season that we do well to dwell on: being lost in wonder. In the words of Charles Wesley: “lost in wonder, love and praise.”

What God did in Jesus is beyond words, though we need every word of the Book to begin to get it. So it would begin to dawn on us what God in his great love has done for us in Jesus.

To be captured in that. To live in that. That is what I want. Heart broken and life changed. Deeper and further, indeed more faithfulness together to this beautiful will of God in Jesus in and for the world.

What Child is this who, laid to rest
On Mary’s lap is sleeping?
Whom angels greet with anthems sweet,
While shepherds watch are keeping?
This, this is Christ the King,
Whom shepherds guard and angels sing;
Haste, haste, to bring Him laud,
The Babe, the Son of Mary.

Why lies He in such mean estate,
Where ox and ass are feeding?
Good Christians, fear, for sinners here
The silent Word is pleading.
Nails, spear shall pierce Him through,
The cross be borne for me, for you.
Hail, hail the Word made flesh,
The Babe, the Son of Mary.

So bring Him incense, gold and myrrh,
Come peasant, king to own Him;
The King of kings salvation brings,
Let loving hearts enthrone Him.
Raise, raise a song on high,
The virgin sings her lullaby.
Joy, joy for Christ is born,
The Babe, the Son of Mary.

from The Cyber Hymnal

different cultures

Sometimes one can be lost or confounded, either not knowing or misunderstanding due to the different culture they are in. There are many cultures at various levels. Some on what we might call macro levels representing people groups such as American natives, and others on micro levels within those groups, such as the academics. Each people group for the most part is likely to have some of the same subgroups such as the formally educated, and those who are not.

I think it helps us immensely to understand the difference in these cultures so that we won’t be lost, and perhaps may even be able to contribute something. To those who don’t know the Lord, sharing our faith in him, for example. For those in academic pursuit, learning to appreciate what they’re about so we can learn from them, and perhaps join in, in our limited way.

Paul said he became all things to all people that he might win to Christ as many as possible. Paul was willing to identify with them and their way of life as long as while doing so, he was able to follow Christ. In fact this was a part of his following the Lord, to better understand people. So that he could identify with them as fully as possible, even as Jesus fully identified with humans in the incarnation, and with those he was sent to.

We often can misunderstand or take something personally when it has little or nothing to do with us, but is simply due to the culture we’re interacting with. I like to interact a bit with academics, to take one example from my own life. But I’m not an academic. So I need to remember that. I still want to participate in it, acknowledging my own limitations, and not expecting to be received on a level with them. After all, they’ve read the books (and journals). I haven’t.

We all have our place, and it is unique. In that sense each of us lives within a distinct culture. One does well not to measure others by themselves, as we read elsewhere. However the one culture we are to become steeped in is what might be called the Jesus culture. Yes, we each have our distinct place or uniqueness in that. But that is the culture in which we’re to grow and live. A culture which is inclusive in the sense of reaching out and inviting in all others. As we accept them in love unconditionally. Learning to understand and appreciate their worlds, so that they might come to understand and enter the way in Jesus.

the good news

When Jesus began his earthly ministry, he announced  this message: “The time has come, The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!” The good news, or gospel Jesus was proclaiming was that God’s kingdom had arrived in him. That kingdom would be formed with a King, land–the entire earth, and citizens. That would constitute the kingdom, but it would begin as a mustard seed, we find in one of Jesus’ parables, until indeed it would cover the entire earth, to be fully realized at Jesus’ return. Beginning to be realized now as God gathers converts to this message, from every nation and tribe on earth.

Of course this good news includes the message that the Messiah died for our sins according to the scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the scriptures, and then seen by many eyewitnesses, including Paul himself. At the heart of the good news through which the new covenant comes, and God’s kingdom is established is Jesus’ death and resurrection.  And the requirement is faith. We are to believe the message and hold to it. This faith brings us into a kingdom in which God’s will is restored, on earth as it is in heaven. It is the beginning of that restoration in full reconciliation to God and to each other in Jesus.

Of course we understand from Romans that we must accept what is called “the bad news” that we indeed are sinners. That we are lost. That we are under both sin’s power and its penalty, which is death. But we read that Jesus died in our place, that God in him indeed took our judgment on himself. That he died as a ransom to set us free from our captivity. That he became sin for us who had no sin, that we might become the righteousness of God in him. That through his death, he destroyed the one who holds the power of death, the devil.  That indeed through his death, Jesus destroyed death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel/good news.

The good news is in Jesus, and we do well to look well to him, and what he has done for us. Jesus is our salvation, our salvation resides in him, in his person–which includes his incarnate life, and his work–his death and resurrection for us.

And we are called to repent. That means to change our minds, indeed to change our hearts and lives. From our false life, to life in Jesus on God’s terms in the coming of his kingdom. Becoming a part of that kingdom here and now, and living that out in that kingdom community as a witness in words and good deeds, perhaps in the opposite order today, though both are essential.

And we’re to have faith. In Jesus no less. In what he has done for us in his great salvation. In his death for us and for our sins, and in his resurrection to bring us into new life, into God’s new creation in him. This comes through baptism, which is identification with Jesus in his death–a death to sin, and in his resurrection–a resurrection into a new life, a life to God and to righteousness. We are to live that out the rest of our days. In and through God’s grace, through which we not only are forgiven, but given this new life, indeed this full salvation.

People need to see us live out this good news, in our individual lives, and together. They need to see that something about us is different, a difference marked by love and holiness (or holiness and love, if you prefer). And they need to hear from us the message as well as the difference it has made in our own lives.

And we need to be about the business of God’s kingdom in Jesus on earth. Led by the Spirit. What that  is we need to see from the gospels in terms of all of scripture. What is fulfilled in Jesus. God’s goal in him in shalom, which is to begin now in us in Jesus, in God’s kingdom.

God help us to know and live this out more and more together in Jesus for the world.

Follow-up to this.