the spiritual battle in which we’re in is down to earth

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his power; put on the whole armor of God, so that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil, for our struggle is not against blood and flesh but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, so that you may be able to withstand on the evil day and, having prevailed against everything, to stand firm. Stand, therefore, and belt your waist with truth and put on the breastplate of righteousness and lace up your sandals in preparation for the gospel of peace. With all of these, take the shield of faith, with which you will be able to quench all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. Pray in the Spirit at all times in every prayer and supplication. To that end, keep alert and always persevere in supplication for all the saints. Pray also for me, so that when I speak a message may be given to me to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it boldly, as I must speak.

Ephesians 6:10-20; NRSVue

In case we haven’t received notice, we’re in a spiritual battle whether we realize it or not. This battle, while spiritual definitely has ramifications on the ground. It addresses principalities and powers which not only engage persons, but systems. At the heart of it is Christ and the gospel of Christ, which actually is what the whole armor of God is tied to. God gives strength to that end. And that good news is about freeing all who are in bondage, the bondage of sin, and also giving the freedom to follow Christ in this world.

Any system which is not of this good news in Christ, not tied to or a part of God’s kingdom and rule in Christ is suspect. In fact systems which seek to impose standards of virtue and goodness and mark characteristics that are not supposedly good, short of working at stopping violence, are worse than suspect. They are indeed part of the problem, oftentimes with religion backing them, in our own context: church and state.

We have nothing to fear in Christ, in the good news in him. It will prevail after all else has failed or has been judged in the end for what it actually is. We are together in this, it’s not only an individual, daily matter, not even primarily, though it does include that. This directive is addressed to the church, very much for today, yes on the ground, down to earth where we live. God’s victory in Christ ultimately the winner.

what is needed today more than anything else

Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” And they said, “Some say John the Baptist but others Elijah and still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you but my Father in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”

Matthew 16:13-19

God put this power to work in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the age to come. And he has put all things under his feet and has made him the head over all things for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.

Ephesians 1:20-23

Of this gospel I have become a servant according to the gift of God’s grace that was given me by the working of his power. Although I am the very least of all the saints, this grace was given to me to bring to the gentiles the news of the boundless riches of Christ and to make everyone see what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God, who created all things, so that through the church the wisdom of God in its rich variety might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places.

Ephesians 3:7-10

It doesn’t take long before one is reminded that it seems like people have lost their minds, and for a good variety of reasons. Yes, it’s complicated, and the world has always been challenged, with catastrophes added. It is a wondrous, beautiful, wild, threatening and broken world, all at the same time. But the God who created it is somehow present in all of this, and will make, in fact has begun to make all things new, bringing in a new existence. And that’s present now, and what is needed today more than anything else.

It is nothing more or less than the church, yes, the church. The church, which more than understandably has gotten a hard rap, and probably to some significant extent, richly deserves it. When the church buys into, or is bought into the principalities and powers, and is subsumed in them, then the church deserves critique, even scorn, and like some of the churches named in Revelation 2 and 3, is in danger of being church no longer. Yes, there’s a more than understandable saying that many love Christ, but not the church. I’m afraid that the church is often watered down and contaminated, not that any church that’s ever existed is without something of this problem.

But the church is Christ’s body on earth. And through the church, Christ somehow fills everything, whatever precisely that means. What could possibly be more important than that? It turns out, all kinds of things. Let’s make an inevitably partial list: an inerrant Bible with just the right theology and doctrine supposedly Spirit-led, nothing more than fiction; a supposed government/state, which is godly, even Christian; being “right”; everyone knowing their place and remaining there; (ab)using the earth for more and more profit; a large, powerful military; laws that supposedly facilitate justice, and we could go on and on and on.

At least something of the intent and some of what’s listed might have some grain of truth in it, even when still mistaken. In the world in which we live, faith and visions can’t be imposed on others, and there ought to be an appreciation of a common grace from God to all, so that everyone is involved when it comes to the state/government. You can see that I strongly support democracy, and am opposed to any kind of authoritarian government.

But regardless of how we parse anything and everything, as far as believers and followers of Christ should be concerned, there is one thing that makes everything else not only pale in comparison, but really not exist at all, since it’s not in that level or sphere. And that’s yes, the ordinary church. Simple people like myself, voluntarily joined together by baptism and faith, and in that entity and gathering by the Spirit, nothing less than the body of Christ.

To be present in the world, with God’s mysterious work in that. To be about doing good works in helping where help is needed. Being what the world needs, a light to expose all darkness, salt and light to influence all society for good. The church being Christ’s body on earth.

This certainly doesn’t answer all the questions, yet that is what we Christ-followers can and should settle into. Yes, we’re concerned, and there’s many things we could humbly suggest, and should do in reference to the problems of the world. But what is needed above and beyond anything else is the church, the good news of God in Christ for the world present in that church, shining out to all the world.

Advent and freedom

Then Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him, “If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.”

So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed.

John 8:31-32, 36

Advent is the hope as in the anticipation of Christ’s coming to set God’s people and actually in the end all humanity free, liberated. And in Jesus’s time, this was certainly on the minds of his people who generally probably wanted nothing more than to break loose from the yoke of Rome. They may have felt like exiles in their homeland.

But Jesus pointed out to them that the slavery humanity needs to break away from, yes, even them, God’s people, was sin. And sin in the sense of violating love of neighbor which is the marque expression of love for God. In scripture this involves breaking away from all that binds us, be it human rules thought necessary for life, as well as powers holding sway over nations, peoples and individuals.

Advent is anticipation of Christ’s coming when we will truly be free at last, ultimately and forever. The beginning of that freedom is present through Christ’s first coming when by faith people can enter into something substantial of this very same freedom, meant one day to free all of creation, all humanity.

In the meantime, we need to be aware of what binds and blinds us. Cultic thinking is not confined to what is popularly called cults as in false ideologies, teachings, philosophies and religions. It is found anywhere anything is imposed which is insistent that only by adhering to this ideology, way of thinking and way of life that freedom will be found. That false insistence is coupled with the idea that all who don’t adhere to their movement are enslaved or in danger of such.

But in Christ we’re free even now, free to live fully in God’s will for us today, away from all that binds and would bind us, yes, even today. Anything insistent on their way or the highway is cultic, and actually does the very thing they’re telling people that they’re victims of. Such cultic thinking of any and every kind simply binds and blinds. Only in Christ are we set free. And we await the full completion of what is present now when Christ returns.

fellowship

what we have seen and heard we also declare to you so that you also may have fellowship with us, and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ.

1 John 1:3

Central to and part of the core of the Christian faith is fellowship, or what some might prefer to call communion. Just as God in God’s triunity is in communion with God’s self, of course something we can’t parse out and understand, so we humans are created to live in such a relationship in harmony with God and each other. Fellowship or communion is at the heart of who God is, the nature of God. And so if God is a reality, or in Christian or Jewish terms maybe we could say the overriding reality, then any fellowship with God automatically takes us into this space with God and with each other.

Of course as the biblical story tells us, and as we see all too clearly in life, such harmony is rarely present, and indeed our fellowship and communion is indeed broken, or at least strained and cracked. This is not where we live or at least not what characterizes our existence. We are off on another quest, far removed from that so that we’re actually removed from life itself.

But Christ, what is called the cosmic Christ, but not divorced from the Jesus of the gospels, in fact united with that, is really the reality that gives humanity the hope which brings humanity together toward a harmonious whole. In this time and present existence there will always be the principalities and powers, both human and spiritual, which are ever resistant and downright opposed to this, infiltrating everywhere. We need to know that the answer is present in Christ, but that the struggle in the present will continue. Not that there can’t be progress, but it seems that this side of the end will always include opposition and struggle.

The fellowship here is not only a sense of blissful intercourse, but also a love which is concerned for all in the love for our neighbor as ourselves. It is a fellowship not at rest until what is true in Christ becomes something true of the world itself, of all things, certainly to be finished when Christ returns, but something we are to be committed to here and now. As we more and more live and experience with each other the reality in God and in Christ by the Spirit.

no longer a slave

My point is this: heirs, as long as they are minors, are no better than those who are enslaved, though they are the owners of all the property, but they remain under guardians and trustees until the date set by the father. So with us; while we were minors, we were enslaved to the elemental principles of the world. But when the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, in order to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as children. And because you are children, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” So you are no longer a slave but a child, and if a child then also an heir through God.

Galatians 4:1-7

The Bible is, from beginning to end, a book about slavery, about how to escape it, defeat it, destroy it. That’s what I learned from the black church during my recent sabbatical research. What’s the point of the law given through Moses? To remember the LORD thy God who brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Why did Jesus come? To preach deliverance to captives and to set at liberty them that are bruised. From Genesis to Revelation, the Bible is a story and a guide of how not to be a slave—to sin, to human masters (or managers), to empires, to domination systems, to privilege (your own or someone else’s), to idolatry, to ideology, to addictions, to possessions, to anxiety, to fear, to suffering, to violence, to abuse, to death. We should change the name of the Bible to: “Holy How Not To Be a Slave.” And then have the Gideons pass the scriptures out with that cover and title to everyone from here to kingdom come.

Gerald J. Mast

I think Gerald Mast’s words and considering the scripture from Paul above are good pointers to us toward the freedom that God wants for us, indeed has for us as humans. But it’s a freedom in contrast to the world, its values and how it operates. We are taught from young to fall into place, and along with this, you have the enslaving principalities and powers within systems which hold us captive.

Like most everyone else, all of this should speak powerfully to me, right where I live and counter to how I’ve handled life through the years. The truth has been gradually seeping in, but I’m a slow learner. Instead, I need to learn to let this full truth, indeed reality meet me in all the challenges and seeming setbacks of life, to more and more settle into that, whatever my experience or situation may be.

From what we read in scripture and experience in life, it does seem like struggle is involved in this. Yet at the same time, surely we’re meant to be within this struggle as those who already are emancipated, even if the powers trying to get and keep us under their power and control are still very much present.

I accept this as a needed word not only for all us who are Christ followers, but ultimately meant for the entire world. And especially resonating with the marginalized and oppressed. In and through Jesus.

I am incapable of representing Gerald J. Mast’s true thoughts even on this post. So what I wrote should in now way be attributed to him, only the quote I share from him.

the persecution we can expect

I have said this to you so that in me you may have peace. In the world you face persecution, but take courage: I have conquered the world!”

John 16:33; NRSVue

Tradition tells us that all the apostles were martyred except John. They all faced persecution, and mostly from the Jewish religious authorities. You might as well say that all of Jesus’s confrontations were with them. There’s no doubt that given the principalities and powers at work in the world, that there’s always going to be resistance to Christ. And the Roman empire afterwards infamously persecuted Christians. But what ends up being maddening, but then becomes like par for the course is the spiritual enemy entrenching themselves into the Christian religious establishment. That was true in Jesus’s day, and became true after Constantine. To avoid persecution one had to adhere to what the church/state ordered. And that included taking up arms against enemies, even going on expeditions of conquest, though always considered holy since such had to have the sanction of the state with the church tied to it.

Persecution can come from anywhere as we’ve seen, continuing to come from atheistic totalitarian regimes today, as it did in the twentieth century. But it can come wittingly as well as unwittingly from the religious establishment, indeed the Christian establishment, not far removed from the old Christendom in that their view of faith is so tied to a Christian nationalism or the idea of some Christian empire in which Christianity is supposedly protected by the sword, as well as laws put in place.

Christ said he would build his church, and nothing would prevail against it. But oddly enough that very same church can be subsumed into something else so that the light of Christ eventually is snuffed out.

There is nothing more dangerous than persecution that comes from the religious or has some sort of religious justification attached to it. I think today we need to be ready for that along with the backlash it will bring. A significant quarter of the church has lost its mind, which will eventually result in a loss of heart and soul. We’ll have to watch our step in days to come from the very ones who profess the same faith we do, but are infected by principalities and powers which make them callous to, even to some extent complicit in resisting what God is doing in the world especially in faithful churches that are set in following only our Lord.

devotion to prayer along with certain kind of prayer

Devote yourselves to prayer, keeping alert in it with thanksgiving. At the same time pray for us as well that God will open to us a door for the word, that we may declare the mystery of Christ, for which I am in prison, so that I may reveal it clearly, as I should.

Colossians 4:2-4

Prayers of all kinds for ourselves and for others should be a practice which we regularly do. We should have a special prayer time along with prayer punctuating our days. Again, all kinds of prayers. For needs, but also with praise and thanksgiving. But looking to God. Waiting on God. Wanting God’s help, even breakthrough for whatever problems we and others are facing.

Usually when we read Paul’s personal request in the above passage, we think of it mostly if not completely in terms of souls getting saved. While that’s certainly included, the ramifications of the gospel are often all but lost. We should be praying for those in strategic places, who are in the open, that the word which goes out from them will not only save souls, but shake and shape the world in terms of the gospel. That all the barriers of “race” might be broken down, that the principalities and powers embedded in the world system might be served notice not only that their day is going to come, but that in a sense it’s already here, as we anticipate the curtain closing on them when the present kingdom of God finally enters in in its fullness at Christ’s return.

We need to begin to understand that the wisdom of God through Christ and the way of the cross is not only the power of salvation for all who believe, but also through the church serves notice to the principalities and powers of the world order that something good is coming, a light penetrating the darkness, and indeed exposing them for what they truly are. That is the way of the cross, the way of the love that comes from Christ. So that the world will be shaken, and ultimately turned upside down, really right side up. As we anticipate the Day when all of this will be finalized once forever when Jesus returns.

In and through Jesus.

mind set and the Spirit

For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace.

Romans 8:5-6

What do we fill our minds with will affect our outlook on life, our very life itself. And the choices and difference here is flesh and Spirit. When we gravitate toward the things of the flesh, we will not only be influenced by that, but the flesh can take over. By flesh here, what’s really meant is all that’s not of the Spirit. The world system along with the principalities and powers which are part of that are in that mix. The Spirit involves all that is of God revealed in Christ.

What is emphasized here is perhaps both practice and disposition. We set our minds on what is of God and become acclimated to that. Or else we let ourselves drift into the thoughts and ways of the flesh, that which is in opposition to God.

If we have the Spirit through Christ, then we can set our minds on the things of the Spirit. And actually when you consider this passage (click above link), it is really something of a description of those who are in Christ and thus in the Spirit and live with a mindset given by the Spirit, and those who are in the flesh without the Spirit and therefore live with a mindset of the flesh (see NET footnotes).

A number of scholars believe that this chapter is getting at what the rest of the book addresses as a problem within the church made up of house churches in Rome. They weren’t always getting along, dividing over disputable issues in which Christians can differ. So even though this passage in Romans 8 seems to draw a stark line, it’s not like we as followers of Christ can’t falter and live apart from the Spirit. That is as plain as day in the letter of 1 Corinthians, but plain enough here too, I think.

The Spirit makes the needed difference. But it seems clear enough to me that this is not automatic, but something we’re to practice, to both set our minds on the things of the Spirit as well as on the Spirit. Regardless of what our experience is, we keep on doing that. In and through Jesus.

the need for a social gospel

Aware of this, Jesus withdrew from that place. A large crowd followed him, and he healed all who were ill. He warned them not to tell others about him. This was to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet Isaiah:

“Here is my servant whom I have chosen,
the one I love, in whom I delight;
I will put my Spirit on him,
and he will proclaim justice to the nations.
He will not quarrel or cry out;
no one will hear his voice in the streets.
A bruised reed he will not break,
and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out,
till he has brought justice through to victory.
In his name the nations will put their hope.”

Matthew 12:15-21

Christian scholarship in the past few decades has helped us see more clearly the ramifications of God’s kingdom comes to earth in Jesus, now seen primarily in the church. For example what resistance to the principalities and powers involves. It is not only about life in the hereafter, as if this life doesn’t matter. Though the promise of resurrection and new creation is central in this “hope” or as we followers of Christ might want to say, “blessed assurance.” It certainly involves feet on the ground, living in the real world, hands getting dirty, and we doing all we can to help in this life.

It’s probably something like when we get our vision tested. If need be the optometrist gives us a focus by which we can both read and see clearly afar. 20/20, or sometimes better. We need correct focus when we consider God’s kingdom come in this world, and salvation present in Jesus. It’s about following Jesus in relationship to him through faith and baptism. And it’s for advocating justice in God’s love for all in the here and now.

Back to the vision analogy, maybe it’s more easy to understand how we might be wrong if we consider God’s salvation in Christ to be only about the life to come after this life. It does begin now with God’s present working of salvation in us, working to change us more and more into the likeness of Jesus. And it also clearly exposes the darkness around us, wherever it might be, advocating for the good of others. And above all, helping others to find the true and perfect good which is found in and through Jesus.