why not?

The Individual and Community

2011-12-05T07:35:00.000-05:00

For thousands of years, the primary way that a human identified himself was through a community. And then came the Age of Enlightenment, the Light of Reason, the Way of the Individual. And we live amongst the confusion, a few centuries later, mired.

When people fail, we look at them with disappointment, assuming that they didn't take responsibility as an individual for their own life. We discount the role of their community and lift up too high the assumption that people have great power as an individual over their destiny.

We see people succeed and we admire them for taking their life by the reigns and victoriously surging forth as an individual. We downplay the contribution that any kind of community played in their life to prepare them for there accomplishments.

This downgrade of community and obsession with individuality has been part of our heritage for a few centuries now. It's too easy to look at our parents or older generation and reject their traditions and perspectives - for that's what they did in their days, and so on. We inherit from our parents the desire to think for ourselves - which means we must reject any accumulated wisdom they might be able to pass on. How smart is that?

What are the fears associated with a renewed emphasis on community? People don't like to be told what to do. They don't like to be forced into a routine, to have a tradition enforced. People don't like being accountable to people outside their family. People don't want to feel obligated to care for others outside their selective network of friends.

Christians are born into this aura of individualism. It's why we struggle so much with community. Yet Jesus places a high value on community, almost more so than on individualism. In our age, we think that community results from the gathering of individuals. But for Jesus, community is both the origins and nexus for individuality.

Christians are identified as the body of Christ - which implies that we only exist because of our connections to each other. How can a foot increase it's value to the body by insisting on its individuality? Of course the foot is a sort of individual, differentiated from the hand and heart. But it's value is not just that it is different, but that the difference plays a substantial role in giving life to the community to which is attached.

The greatest command for Christians is to love. God is love. We are go give God, to give love to the world. But we can't do that as individuals. Love can only happen in community. You can't love by yourself. You can't even come to know God or love by yourself. It requires a community to give birth to you and those ideas and structures and history from which you benefit and are nurtured. Love is can't be just an exchange between two individuals. Love is what makes community possible, what makes individuals able to be attached and make a contribution to the life of others.

It's almost as if you have to pick one: love or individualism. If you pick love you get community. If you pick individualism, you get yourself, your way of doing things, your thoughts, your attempts to relate to God and know love on your own terms. But God seems to insist on being first and primary - often at the expense of your individuality. God wants you to love and be loved, and that means embracing community, his way of becoming.

The funny thing is, people throw away their individuality in dozens of ways, all the while insisting that they are not going to be bound to community and let someone tell them what to do. So they live in this shadow world, rootless, anchorless, drifting. They claim to be an individual while at the same time embracing the fashion styles of celebrities. Just like a few million other fans. The individual asserts the ability to think for himself, and then aligns himself with a popular modern writer. Just like a few million others.

Oh, we want community. We want to be led. We want to be bound to tradition. We want love. But we've drank so long from the toxic well of the Enlightenment. Even our readings of Scripture, our thoughts on God are fueled by this pervasive attitude of individuality. We think of God as the supreme individual. Except that he exists as the Trinity. And he bound himself up to Israel, and the church. And the world. God lives in community. It's how he expresses love, himself.

We ought to reconsider our attachment to individuality. I am just as much an individualist as the next person. I was born into it, like everyone else. And yet. As powerful as the drug is, the call of community continues. The desire to love and be loved - God, my wife and children, friends, church - results in a draining of those individualistic energies that drive me towards loneliness. I want God's kingdom to come. I want to love. I want to see my city flourish. I want the church to prevail as a blessing. Those are all community-oriented themes that undermine my individuality. So be it.

What is an Advent Sunday?

2011-11-27T22:54:00.000-05:00

Today is the first Advent Sunday! There are four Advent Sundays leading up to Christmas Day. Today is also the first day of the church year. Interestingly, though, today is not the first day of the Christmas Season. Christmas begins on... Christmas Day - and lasts 12 days. It ends on Christmastide, January 5th.

The word "advent" means "coming," connected to the idea of arrival, appearance, emergence, occurrence, birth, rise, development, approach. The church has for well over a thousand years celebrated the advent or birth or arrival of Christ by marking out the four Sundays before it as a season of preparation.

The church re-enters into the Nativity Story, imagining in a way that we are participants with Mary and Elizabeth, Simon and Joseph and others who sensed that God was about to appear in a new and radical way.

As you consider your life, don't you think you would benefit from some time of reflection on what the significance of God's advent as an infant? Do we assume we have a rich and robust grasp on the Incarnation? How could we spend four Sundays preparing for the celebration on Christmas Day of God becoming one of us?

When we consider the Advent of Christ, it carries two meanings. We remember the birth of Jesus, born into poverty, under the tyranny of a vicious king. We also remember the promise of Jesus that he would return, that he will come again, that there will be another, final, advent. The church starts the new year with four Sundays to consider the promises - then and now - of what the coming King Jesus will do when he arrives.

It's likely that the bewilderment and controversy that surrounded Jesus the first time he came will follow him the second time around. Maybe we need the four Sundays to remind us of how much we don't understand. Of our need for help when it comes to believing.

We think we understand the First and Second Advent of Christ. We need our Sundays to point us to Jesus - to help us understand what he actually said and did. The life of Jesus shapes our understanding of the Advent that was, and the Advent to come.

Advent Sundays are not a substitute for celebrating Christmas. The church celebrates Christmas for twelve days. Advent Sundays point to Christmas, they challenge our understanding of Christmas, but they are not part of the Christmas season.

Some of us are sick of Christmas by the time we get to December 25th. We've spent so much time shopping and partying and stressing and getting wrapped up in the drama of family dysfunction around the holidays that Jesus gets the shaft.

Really, how much of your Christmas energies go into worship of Jesus? Attending a Christmas Eve or Christmas Day service is the classic way of worshiping the newborn King. But that is supposed to be the beginning of twelve days of worship, not the exhausted end.

There is plenty of material out there on how to prepare yourself during these four weeks of Advent. To the degree that you are interested in keeping Christ in Christmas, don't let your busyness cause you to push the baby Jesus off to the side. Keep it simple. Keep it intentional. Keep it focused on Jesus.

Some suggestions:

* Read each Gospel - one a week, leading up to Christmas Day. (There are about 20ish chapters in each Gospel, read up to three chapters a day)

* List out all your questions about Jesus and his teachings on a piece of paper, and put it in your Bible. As you read through each Gospel, add to your list. Trust me, most of what you will read about Jesus will cause more questions. It should.

* Do some research into the history behind the Christmas hymns that we sing each year. Or the traditions that we observe each year. Or the origins of the Santa Claus myth.

* Spend time reflecting on your unconfessed sins each Sunday morning or evening The greatest gift you can give God and others and yourself is truth about the sins you hang on to, the sins you won't forgive - in yourself, and others. To forgive and let yourself be forgiven is the true fulfillment of Christmas.

* Look for a way to give away something good everyday. A good word, a good attitude, a good ear, a good hand, a good prayer - as prompted by the Spirit of Christ.

* Find a way to integrate Jesus into everything you do during what you consider the Christmas Season.

* Don't go in debt to buy presents for people as a celebration of Jesus' birth.

* Pray the Lord's Prayer everyday - and reflect on how God's Kingdom has come through the First Advent, and will come in full with the Second Advent.

* Eagerly desire to let poverty into your life. Either take a vow of poverty, or give away your possessions such that you only have the bare necessities, or become friends with those who are poor. Jesus was born into poverty, lived in poverty, ministered amongst the poor, taught the poor, loved the poor.

* Put a Nativity scene in your front yard.

* Make your own list of how you will live this December in light of the Advent of Jesus?

Teaching Me To Love

2011-11-26T10:53:00.000-05:00

In 1847 a Danish Christian wrote at length on how we can love in light of what God had revealed to us through Jesus. Soren Kierkegaard, a brilliant philosopher, turned his searching mind and heart towards the truth of love and how it works in our world. Long story short, I found his book, Works of Love in 2004 having spent a few years praying to God that he would teach me how to love.

Today, six and a half years later, I finished Works of Love. A lot of life has happened since then. It would seem that God has been helping me answer my own prayer, thanks to my wife and kids and family and friends and church. And Kierkegaard. I also realize how much more I have to learn about love. Or, what I learned was only the beginning of how to love.

The advantage of reading really old reflections on the works of love is rooted in its disconnection from our post-modern ways of thinking about God and relationships and self. But, 1847 was also among those nascent years of the Enlightenment, our Modern period of thinking. It's odd to read Kierkegaard's critiques on his culture and church - they sound so similar to ours today. What he has to say is relevant to our situations now.

I grew up in a loving home. I have loving parents and brothers and extended family. I have a loving wife and four loving children. I am part of a loving church. I am loved by many friends. There is much love in my life. What does that tell me? That I am an expert in loving? That I have much to teach about love? Or, that God has been helping answer my prayer. And that every opportunity I have to give love is also a revelation of how much more I have to learn.

If love is truly the greatest thing in all the world, then I'd be crazy to settle for a mediocre love. There is much left to understand in this world of how God gives love, of how God gives himself, of how Jesus is our supreme image of love at work in the world. There is so much confusion. So much hurt and rage. There is much discontent about the kind of love that is being offered up these days. How to enter into the most excellent way of love - and let that overflow onto all those connected to my life?

So in the final pages of Kierkegaard's thoughtful Works of Love, here are some disturbing and striving discourses on love:

Christianity's view is: forgiveness is forgiveness; your forgiveness is your forgiveness; your forgiveness of another is your own forgiveness; the forgiveness which you give, you receive, not contrariwise, that you give the forgiveness for which you receive.

It is as if Christianity would say: pray to God humbly and believing in your forgiveness for he really is compassionate in such a way as no human being is; but if you will test how it is with respect to the forgiveness, then observe yourself. If honestly before God you wholeheartedly forgive your enemy (but remember that if you do, God sees it), then you dare hope also for your forgiveness, for it is one and the same.

God forgives you neither more nor less nor otherwise than as you forgive your trespasses. It is only an illusion to imagine that one himself has forgiveness, although one is slack in forgiving others.

It is also conceit to believe in one's own forgiveness when one will not forgive, for how in truth should one believe in forgiveness if his own life is a refutation of the existence of forgiveness!

For, Christianly understood, to love human beings is to love God and to love God is to love human beings; what you do unto men you do unto God, and therefore what you do unto men God does unto you.

If you are embittered towards men who do you wrong, you are really embittered towards God, for ultimately it is still God who permits wrong to be done to you. If, however, you gratefully take the wrongs from God's hand "as a good and perfect gift," you do not become embittered towards men either.

If you will not forgive, you essentially want something else, you want to make God hard-hearted, that he should not forgive, either: how, then should this hard-hearted God forgive you? If you cannot beat the offences of men against you, how should God be able to bear your sins against him?

If you have never been solitary, you have also never discovered that God exists. But if you have been truly solitary, then you also learned that everything you say to and do to other human beings God simply repeats; he repeats it with the intensification of infinity. The word of blessing or judgment which you express concerning someone else, God repeats; he says the same word about you, and this same word is blessing or judgment over you.

Such a person will certainly avoid speaking to God about the wrongs of others towards him, about the speck in his brother's eye, for such a person will rather speak to God only about grace, lest this fateful word of justice lose everything for him through what he himself has called forth, the rigorous like-for-like.

Soren Kierkegaard, Works of Love, p348-353

Audacious Collaboration

2011-10-14T19:52:00.003-04:00

Christian Community Development Association audaciously works to lift up broken neighborhoods in the Spirit of reconciliation and restoration. Whether it is a startling story of unacceptable injustice, or the unnoticed tales of disintegration, CCDA involves itself to help.

Thousands of Christians across America and the world are participating in this renewal of all things. Its this mighty stream that Anchor is sipping from, that I am stepping into. Our neighborhood collaboration of churches and schools and non-profits and corporations and local government is a story that's being lived elsewhere as well. The good news can really be present in our communities.

We can develop people and places that add truth and beauty and freedom and goodness in the name and way of Jesus. To be part of Anchor is to be part of something much bigger than we could ask or imagine. God tells his people to seek the prosperity and shalom for their city. Is there anything for Christians and churches to do in our city of Fort Wayne?

Is Jesus wanting to still rescue the broken-hearted in your neighborhoods? Yes - especially when it gets messy and complicated. God moved into our neighborhood, became like us, was our friend, and set an example for his disciples for how to join him in his enduring work to renew all things. Renew broken school systems, broken economic policies, broken foreign policy, broken taxation system.

Sin is personal. Sin is systemic. Rescue and restoration are for individuals and communities. God has big work for us in Fort Wayne. Its exciting to join with others in this work of development and shalom.

There Are Two Kinds of People

2011-09-06T06:57:00.000-04:00

Yawn. A bunch of churches getting together in a local park to worship together. Who cares! It sure doesn't look like anything is really happening. And yet...

On Sunday five neighborhood churches worshipped together in Hamilton Park for the first time. It could become an annual event. We prayed together, we sang, we took communion together, we shared ways of increased collaboration together, and we feasted together. It was good. It was fun. And it was strategic.

We had Roger Reece, Executive Director of Associated Churches preach - and it was good to introduce him to our congregations. Most of us are members of the organization, and in one way or another are involved in serving our neighborhood. But it's important that we think about how we can care for our neighbors together. And it's the togetherness aspect that I think was strengthened on Sunday.

Churches have become very irrelevant and obsolete in their neighborhoods. Sure, they still find a way to contribute to the needs of the community, but ask a neighbor how they've benefited from the local church. The answer will reveal the disconnect.

Anchor has worked hard to be relevant to our neighbors - but we don't want to continue to do that work alone. We want to learn from our other neighborhood churches from the ways they've become helpful. From the collaboration comes more helpful churches, a unity of spirit that adds strength to our good work, and new opportunities for the Spirit to accomplish the impossible in us and through us.

There were about 165 of us gathered together in front of the brown cinder-block pavilion at Hamilton Park. It was inspiring to hear the voices singing together, to see heads bowed in prayer, to join the long line for Communion. We were planting seeds. Now our vision is to grow our churches and invite our neighbors so that we fill the park, we want people sitting on the far back hill! Wouldn't that be a great testimony to the help we have given in the name of Jesus to our neighbors?

More than anything, our churches want the Gospel of Jesus to be good news for our neighbors. We want our churches to be harbingers of that announcement. We want the kingdom to come where we live. This means, though, that we have to get involved in the lives and issues of our neighborhood. All the divorced families. All the kids without a father at home. Homes where the man is in prison. Families that are caught up in the court-system. Families that are dependent on the welfare system. Parents that don't know how to make it work together. People on disability, who are depressed, who are angry. People struggling to start over again, to get an education, to get a better job, to be a better parent.

There are also great families in our neighborhood, homes that are good and stable and shine a lot of light. And our neighborhood needs our churches to do their best in making disciples who are the hands and feet of Jesus where they live. Disciples who use their resources, their connections at work, their influence, their skills, their wallets, their prayers, their kitchen tables, their community assets, their political involvement, their local schools, to help make our neighborhood a better place to live. Disciples who jump into a project that will outlive them, a task that is bigger then all of us, a work that requires more than we can ask or imagine. Disciples who work together, in the wisdom and grace and diligence and creativity and truth and perseverance of Jesus.

For me, the quotes below capture these ideas. They inspire me. May they provoke you as well.

Find out how much God has given you and from it take what you need; the remainder is needed by others.

~Saint Augustine

Wherever a man turns he can find someone who needshim.

~AlbertSchweitzer

The only way you can serve God is by serving otherpeople.

~Rick Warren

There are two kinds of peopleone can call reasonable: those who serve God with all their heart because theyknow him, and those who seek him with all their heart because they do not knowhim.

~Blaise Pascal

The first question which thepriest and the Levite asked was: "If I stop to help this man, whatwill happen to me?" But... the good Samaritan reversed thequestion: "If I do not stop to help this man, what will happen tohim?"

~Martin Luther King, Jr.

There are two kinds of people:those who say to God, "Thy will be done," and those to whom God says,"All right, then, have it your way."

~C.S. Lewis

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.

~Margaret Meade

Click here for more information about the neighborhood churches involved.

Remember One Dead

2011-08-23T08:24:00.000-04:00

Thus death is the briefest summary of life or life reduced to its briefest form.

What is the benefit of pondering the deaths of those you love? Yes it is painful, yes it is sorrowful, yes it is difficult. And yet much wisdom in life can be gleaned from reflecting upon the deaths of those you love.

Yes, once again go out to the dead in order there to get a look at life.

Our family goes out to visit Ben and Matt's grave each year on their deathday. We've been going to Ben's graveside since 1994. It's hard to put into words why we make the trek. Every couple of years we wonder whether we should still head out to Huntington on this evening. But we do. And Kierkegaard teaches me why we ought to continue the tradition.

In truth, if you really want to make sure about love in yourself or in another person, then note how he relates himself to one who is dead.

In our Western civilization, we turn our backs on our ancestors. Maybe it is the Western Christian aversion to pagan and Eastern veneration of our elders. Either way, we have an uneasy relationship with our dead. It causes angst, confusion, rage, despair, helplessness - but love?

How we express love to our dead reflects our ability to love the ones who live. But, you ask, am I to still love the dead? As Kierkegaard writes in Works of Love: But we do have duties towards the dead. If we are to love the men we see, then we are also to love those whom we have seen but no more because death took them away. No, one must remember the dead; weep softly but grieve long.

In this chapter on the work of love in remembering one dead, Kierkegaard asserts three things: the work of love in remembering one who is dead is a work of the most unselfish love, of the freest love, and the most faithful love.

He comments that for the living, our understanding of love is often based on repayment. Love is strengthened when it is rewarded with a thank you, with a gift, with kindness, with devotion, and so on. But the dead cannot repay you for your love. If, therefore, you wish to test for yourself whether or not you love disinterestedly, note sometimes how you relate yourself to one who is dead. Do you weep softly and grieve long over the dead you love because of what it does for you, or for how you continue to express your love to them. That you give the love is more important then that they acknowledge the love.

Not only is the work of love in remembering one dead the most unselfish love, it is the freest love. The stronger the compulsion, the less free is the love. A baby's piercing cry compels you to come care for it. The dead utter not. Your husband complains, a wife nags, a child whines, a neighbor or coworker comments... and so you adjust your works of love. But the dead you do not hear, they can't compel you to give your time, your attention, your devotion. And so if you give love to the dead, it is the most free. If, therefore, you want to test whether you love freely, observe some time how over a period of time you relate yourself to one who is dead.

The work of love in remembering one dead is unselfish, it is free, and it is the most faithful.

When two living persons are joined in love, each holds on to the other and the relationship holds on to both of them. But no holding together is possible with one who is dead. Immediately after death it perhaps can be said that he holds on to one, a consequence of the relationship together, and therefore it is also the more frequent occurrence, the customary thing, that he is remembered during this time. However, in the course of time he does not hold on to the one living, and the relationship is broken if the one living does not hold on to him. But what is faithfulness? Is it faithfulness that the other holds on to me?

Kierkegaard goes on to say: One who is dead does not change; there is not the slightest possibility of excuse by putting the blame on him; he is faithful. Yes, it is true. But he is nothing actual, and therefore he does nothing, nothing at all, to hold on to you, except that he is unchanged. If, then, a change takes place between one living and one dead, it is very clear that it must be the one living who has changed.

In our fast paced, pleasure-obsessed culture, who has time to love the dead? And who has time to love the living? How does one cultivate unselfish, free, faithful love these days? It was difficult in the 1840's, and it still is today. We honor the dead when we remember them, yes. But Kierkegaard presses us to love the one dead. Love is love is love. Love to God, love to the living, love to the dead.

He concludes: The work of love in remembering one who is dead is thus a work of the most disinterested, the freest, the most faithful love. Therefore go out and practice it; remember one dead and learn in just this way to love the living disinterestedly, freely, faithfully.

If you fail to love the dead, you can't blame the dead. And thus you are given the opportunity to consider why you fail to fully love the living around you. Maybe you should quit blaming them for your failure to fully love them.

Remember one who is dead, and in addition to the blessing which is inseparable from this work of love, you will also have the best guidance to rightly understanding life: that it is one's duty to love the men we do not see, but also those we do see.

I'm thankful my family makes the yearly trip to the cemetery. And now I more fully appreciate this work of love. I am more aware of how selfish, unfree, and faithless is my love to God, the living, and the dead. Yet with this confession comes the opportunity to learn to love in a new way. While I am alive, I will always have more to learn about the work of love. And when I am dead and join Ben, and Matt, may those I loved weep softly and mourn long.

[Soren Kierkegaard, Works of Love, pgs 317-329]

15 Years

2011-08-08T07:41:00.000-04:00

It's a small milestone. It was this month 15 years ago that I joined North Summit Church as their Associate Pastor. In those years as a pastor I've learned much - including that I have much, much, much more to learn. 15 years in a profession, in a job, in a calling lends itself to some observations about people, life, ministry, God, the world and the church. My Dad reminded me a few months ago that I'm still really young and in the beginning of my ministry. I was really relieved to hear his reflections. The learning curve for me has been so high! Knowing that I'm still in the beginning stages helps with perspective and confidence and wisdom.

Serving North Summit Church was a real gift. Tara and I had helped Pastor Brooks Fetters and Ed Souers (and lots of others) start the church in a movie theatre. Fun times for sure! There was risk involved, lots of hard work, and plenty to learn. The finances took a hit though, and after a year there with NSC, I was able to join Emmanuel Community Church as part of an internship. I was in my final year of my Master's at the Huntington College Graduate School of Christian Ministries, so it seemed to work out well to serve at ECC. It was supposed to be a two year internship, but about six months into it, an opportunity to restart a church in downtownish Fort Wayne opened up. Six months after that, Tara and I and about fifty others from ECC started up Anchor Community Church. I owe much to North Summit and Emmanuel Community Church, to Pastor Brooks and to Pastor Dennis Miller.

Reflecting back on that first bunch of years, I wish that I could have spent a few more years as an Associate or Intern. I was too eager to get out there and do ministry my way. It's too late now to go back, but I think I would have benefitted from more training, mentoring and experience from being an associate or with the internship. However, I've learned that I've got to make the best of my decisions, even when I regret those decisions later. With my Dad being a pastor, I was familiar with church, and had lots of my own ideas of how I would run MY church. Well now I had MY church and it was a lot harder then I imagined.

Only in the last few years have I been able to let go of Anchor. It's not MY church. It's OUR church - Jesus and whoever wants to be part of it. I've had to learn that it's more important to grow people then grow a church. My vision for MY church was all about me, sadly enough. God's clever enough to still use MY church for lots of good, but I think more good has happened since I let go. Pastoring people is way more fun then running a church. Helping people know God, learn the Scriptures, live in the way of Jesus, love their neighbor, become good news, listen to the Spirit, serve their community - all of this has been a joy. Difficult, but good.

Most of the pain of ministry has come from within, my expectations, my immaturity, my strategies. Of course others have disappointed me, and learning to handle that well has been a great source of wisdom. I am my biggest obstacle to fruitful ministry. My ego. My fears. My ideas. My pride. I'm surprised how much fear plays into my decisions, my energy, my humility. I'm more fearful then I want to admit or let on. The antidote to this is trust, and it seems that every year of ministry requires me to trust God more and more and more. This makes for more beautiful ministry, more letting go, more fearlessness, and more good news. As I gain wisdom about myself and in serving others, I am able to relax in ministry and enjoy it.

In serving others, I've met and worshipped with and ministered to a wide variety of individuals and families. Some of those relationships I've bungle, some of those I've had to let go of, and others have been a real test. But most of them have been a learning experience to me about how to love, how to respect, how to add dignity, how to see Christ in each person. I try to listen and learn from others more. Instead of having all the ideas, I want to hear what others think. In caring for those in need, I've learned to let them affect me. In meeting people not like me, I've been learning how to empathize. Being part of Anchor all these years has been an unsurpassed education in learning how to trust and love, in gaining wisdom and growing in maturity.

It's easy to feel inferior as a pastor. There's always plenty of bad press out there. Some church somewhere has abused somebody, disappointed somebody, failed somebody, hurt somebody. Most people don't go to church, and half the people who don't go to church used to go to church but got let down by their pastor, so they don't go anymore. There's usually more failure shrouding most pastors than almost any other profession. And if we fail people, we believe people go to hell. Talk about pressure! We preach, but statistics show that those that listened will forget 95% of what we say by the next day. Yet we get evaluated on how good our sermons are! We get evaluated on how many pastoral visits we do, but if we do too much, then we produce lousy sermons. And pastors have to run a church efficiently, be really good at handling conflict, stay up on the finances, keep the programs exciting, and also set a good example for how to be rested and unbusy.

What is success as a pastor? It can't be the numbers. It's not the paycheck. It's not fame or recognition. I've had to learn that love is the greatest measure of success. My willingness to be loved, my willingness to love others, that's what makes pastoring successful. Of course I want to sharpen my skills as a pastor when it comes to leadership and management and counseling and teaching. But without love, it's all nothing. The temptation is to skimp on the love, to exchange it for being nice, or to excuse yourself from it because you're not a "people-person" or don't have the gift of mercy. Love is patience and kindness, and I've found my pastoring has become much more sustainable and fruitful when I focus on those two. There's plenty more to love, but I'd do well to focus on the first two as a pastor. And as a man.

In 15 years of pastoring, I've learned to value of ministering with other churches and pastors. I've benefitted from cultivating relationships with other non-profits that can further improve our church's ministry. I've had to learn how to befriend people despite being a pastor, how to be a neighbor without having an agenda. I've had to learn how to lose my faith and gain a new one while being a pastor. I've had to come to terms with my deep darkness within, to see how we all have addictions that must be healed. I've had to say goodbye to many friends, and start all over again with new ones. I've seen my heart put up walls, and I've had to tear them down. I've let people severely depress me, and I've had to learn to choose joy. I've been humbled many times, and I'm getting better at being okay with it. I've learned more about what drives me, about what controls me, about the ways I want to be free to love and serve and give.

I'm thankful for my wife Tara, who has been with me on this journey of pastoring. It's only been a decade and a half. May the next fifteen be full of adventure and joy! I'm thankful for my best friend Don Gentry, a fellow pastor who inspires me. I'm thankful for my Dad and Mum, who pray for us daily, who serve with us weekly at Anchor, and who pour so much love into my children. And I have more family and more friends to whom I owe much. Anything I accomplish is because of what others have poured into me as a gift. I also owe gratitude to my brothers. Jerm, Matt and I had to say goodbye to Ben way too early. And then Jerm and I said farewell to Matt. I am profoundly shaped by my brothers. They inspire me, they drive me, they are the other parts of me. I always cherish our growing up together. The Happy Hallman Home. It was a good life we had as brothers - and I continue to learn about how it's influenced my first fifteen years of ministry. Thanks, brothers!

What will I have accomplished in the next fifteen years? I'll be 52. Ack! I immediately feel the pressure to perform and strive and measure and go. But I want a sustainable life as well, one where I am able to nurture my marriage, bless my children, care for my family and friends, and become fully human. I don't want my ministry and work to grow a church to hijack my life such that I fail the people closest to me. In the first fifteen years of ministry, I've been learning to absorb the wisdom of Jesus, to trust God, and follow the promptings of the Spirit. I believe that this will be more then enough for the next fifteen years, come what may.

Seek the Truth

2011-08-07T07:08:00.000-04:00

THE TRUTH IS NOT FOR ALL MEN, BUT ONLY FOR THOSE WHO SEEK IT.
~Ayn Rand

All truths are easy to understand once they are discovered; the point is to discover them.

~Galileo Galilei

LOVE TRUTH,

AND PARDON ERROR.

~Voltaire

All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident.
~Arthur Schopenhauer

The opposite of a correct statement is a false statement. But the opposite of a profound truth may well be another profound truth.

~Niels Bohr

FICTION IS OBLIGED TO STICK TO POSSIBILITIES.
TRUTH ISN'T.
~Mark Twain

Whenever you have truth, it must be given with love,
or the message and the messenger will be rejected.
~Mahatma Ghandi

Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing ever happened.

~Sir Winston Churchill

How often have I said to you that when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth?

~Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

If one tells the truth, one is sure sooner or later to be found out.
~Oscar Wilde

Take the Long View

2011-08-04T14:19:00.000-04:00

It helps, now and then, to step back
and take the long view.
The kingdom is not only beyond our efforts,
it is beyond our vision.
We accomplish in our lifetime only a tiny fraction of
the magnificent enterprise that is God’s work.
Nothing we do is complete,
which is another way of saying
that the kingdom always lies beyond us.

No statement says all that could be said.
No prayer fully expresses our faith.
No confession brings perfection.
No pastoral visit brings wholeness.
No program accomplishes the church’s mission.
No set of goals and objectives includes everything.

This is what we are about:
We plant seeds that one day will grow.
We water seeds already planted, knowing that they hold future promise.
We lay foundations that will need further development.
We provide yeast that produces effects beyond our capabilities.

We cannot do everything
and there is a sense of liberation in realizing that.
This enables us to do something,
and to do it very well.
It may be incomplete, but it is a beginning, a step along the way,
an opportunity for God’s grace to enter and do the rest.

We may never see the end results,
but that is the difference between the master builder and the worker.
We are workers, not master builders,
ministers, not messiahs.
We are prophets of a future not our own.

Amen.

-A prayer of Archbishop Oscar Romero, who was martyred in San Salvador in 1980

This quote was found on the justice blog for Trinity Grace Church in New York City. This church is doing some great work, an inspiration for what could happen in my city of Fort Wayne. These words of Oscar Romero add fuel to the fire for what I feel called to help create and accomplish. May his words add to your calling...

Get Your Heart Broken

2011-07-10T06:41:00.001-04:00

God comes in all his grand and searing holiness to hopeless and pain-ached sinners. He becomes like us - all the brokenness - not because he sins but because he so vulnerably and generously loves sinners. He comes to the proud with truth and the rebels with grace and the disturbed with peace.

His loving sinners will require him to forgive sinners for how they reject him and disbelieve him and misunderstand him and betray him. But a holy priest / prophet / king like Jesus loves his unholy neighbor, he let's the unholy hold him and feed him and follow him. Somehow, someway, his holiness transforms the unholy.

His love changes us in the midst of a mad and angry world. But he moved into this vale of tears to restore all things. It will be a lot of cross and tomb before there is resurrection.

Christians ought not think of themselves as saved, rather as those who are working out their salvation by loving the unholy and forgiving those who sin against them.

Christians associate with other Christians in such a way as to promote false holiness and insular love. Jesus wants Christians to get their hearts broken because they love the unholy so deeply. Jesus wants Christians to forgive a lot because of the sinful people they love.

Jesus wants Christians to become good news - those who love the poor and the prisoner, the maimed and diseased, the oppressed and distressed - not just those on the other side of the world though - but the ones that are your neighbors.

do.not.hate

2011-07-03T09:51:00.001-04:00

Hatred paralyses life; love releases it. Hatred confuses life; love harmonizes it. Hatred darkens life; love illuminates it.

~Martin Luther King, Jr.

You can safely assume that you've created God in your own image when it turns out that God hates all the same people you do.

-Anne Lamott

We have just enough religion to make us hate, but not enough to make us love one another. -Jonathan Swift

In time we hate that which we often fear.

-William Shakespeare

Hatred is the coward's revenge for being intimidated.

~George Bernard Shaw

It is easy to hate and it is difficult to love.
This is how the whole scheme of things works.
All good things are difficult to achieve;
and bad things are very easy to get.
~Rene Descartes

Hate is too great a burden to bear.
It injures the hater more than it injures the hated.
~Coretta Scott King

If you hate a person, you hate something in him that is part of yourself.
What isn't part of ourselves doesn't disturb us. -Herman Hesse

Hating people is like burning down your own house to get rid of a rat.

-Henry Emerson Fosdick

I imagine one of the reasons people cling to their hates so stubbornly is because they sense, once hate is gone, they will be forced to deal with pain.
-James Baldwin

When we don't know who to hate, we hate ourselves. -Chuck Palahniuk

Darkness cannot drive out darkness;
only light can do that.
Hate cannot drive out hate;
only love can do that.
~Martin Luther King, Jr.

Of Passive Men and Flailing Pastors

2011-06-29T17:30:00.000-04:00

It was a good day for a long drive with the windows down. Plenty of sunshine and blue sky. Lots of time to think to be grateful. And think.

My trip took me to a prison. I spent a few hours with a friend. He's a good guy and I always learn something from him. Today we were talking about our fathers. I was also trying to recruit him to become a pastor.

In sharing our stories with each other, we got to talking about the different ways that men can be passive. How passivity in a man can become addictive, a form of bondage, and how a wife's response is often counter-productive. We ruminated on the ways that this passivity can get passed on to the next generation. It's a form of giving up, of disconnecting, of disengaging. It's part laziness, part selfishness, part apathy, part despair. It's also toxic.

We also got to talking about the ways pastors can flail in their ministry. There are pastors who are very religious, but disconnected from reality. There are pastors who are above others. There are pastors who are popular but then disappoint. There seems to be an expectation of pastors to never fail. But there is also an expectation for pastors to be useless. The common experience seems to be that pastors will let you down sooner or later; they are ultimately unreliable, just like everyone else.

For the boys and men in our church who have passive fathers and flailing pastors, what is their fate?

And what is the antidote?

My friend in prison is honest with me about his life, his experiences, his assessments of people. He can see through people. He knows what failure is. And recovering. Together we discussed some options for dealing with a past that included passive men and flailing pastors. It involved authentic introspection, identifying the ways that we were passive, the ways we flail.

How do you impart courage into a passive man? What's the antidote for cowardice, the fear to engage and love and make decisions? There is help, it doesn't have to be a mystery. It's not about ignorance, it's about desire.

What to do with the flailing pastors of your past? Forgive them? Be wary of them? Learn from them? Pity them? Mock them? Reconnect with them? When a pastor flails, it often results in others falling away from the church, their faith, even God. The pressure to not flail can be oppressive. And yet flailing pastors will always be part of the church experience, of our culture. Why the scorn for flailing pastors?

I know a lot of passive men. I could be one of them. I know pastors who are flailing. I could be one of them. I have been passive, and it was toxic. I have flailed, and it has hurt others. What do I do with that part of me? What do I do when I see that in others? When those men and pastors are part of my life?

Initiative. Decisions. Confidence. Choices. Engage. Listen. Learn. Sacrifice. Desire. Lift. Care. These have been my attempts to erode my passivity, to make amends for my flailings.

Hmmm...well, yes... there is plenty on which to ponder.

My Brief Review of Love Wins

2011-06-23T19:55:00.001-04:00

Article first published as Book Review: Love Wins: A Book About Heaven, Hell, And The Fate Of Every Person Who Ever Lived by Rob Bell on Blogcritics.

There is a long-standing belief that Christians go to heaven and that God sends everybody else to burn in hell, in eternal conscious torment.

This way of phrasing the situation is common. It is also unhelpful. It misrepresents heaven and hell, God and Christians. And so Rob Bell decided it was time to present another way of of looking at this controversial belief, thus Love Wins: A Book About Heaven, Hell, And The Fate Of Every Person Who Ever Lived.

In covering ground from Genesis through Revelation, pastor Rob Bell concludes heaven and hell are right next to each other, and that you get endless invitations from God to enter heaven and depart hell — both now and in the life to come. The implication is that there will be people in hell, that hell will be temporary, and that eventually every person who has ever lived will repent of their sins in response to God's love as demonstrated through Jesus.

For Christians who are repulsed by the long-standing belief of hell as eternal, conscious torment, Bell's idea are a welcome relief. But Bell has also fired up immense controversy amongst those Christians who adhere to eternal conscious torment — which is a majority of conservative evangelical Christians. Using the same Bible, both sides have conjured up opposing views of God and the afterlife. Whose interpretation is right?

In his book, Bell methodically addresses some key ideas that undermine the traditional view of hell as eternal, conscious torment while making the case for his understanding that love wins. He tackles what the Scripture teaches about heaven, hell, free-will, resurrection, atonement, gospel, and love. Each of these topics are highly-contested theological ideas. Scholars have written thousands of pages on each of those topics, denominations have been formed on varying interpretations of these ideas. And Bell wrote a short book trying to summarize the whole Bible — not an easy task, one open to much criticism and misinterpretation.

Love Wins insists that Jesus' death on the cross atoned for the sins of the whole world, of every person who ever lived. Love Wins understands hell as necessary and needed judgment for evil actions and thoughts, but it is restorative and corrective judgment. Love Wins frames the gospel as good news for the wicked, forgiveness of their sins and the grace-full offer of reconciliation by God. Love Wins believes that people can choose heaven or hell, now and then; and that every person will someday choose heaven. Love Wins demonstrates how resurrection explains the way the world works, and that Jesus' resurrection points to a day when God will make all things new. Love Wins sees heaven as that time and place where God will get what God wants — the rescue and restoration of all Creation.

Love Wins requires the reader to rethink what they've been taught to believe about heaven and hell, God and love, Jesus and the gospel. But it's a requirement that takes thinkers back to the Scriptures, the primary source for what Christians believe about heaven and hell. Rob Bell takes you back through the two Testaments, presenting a Biblical view of the world that is Jewish in its origins, and Jesus-centered in its proclamations. This will result in an understanding of heaven and hell that differ from what has become pop-culture visions of the afterlife.

Pastor Rob Bell's interpretations are certainly open to debate, his controversial conclusions need scrutinized. And while many may dismiss or reject the idea of Love Wins, it is certainly proper and Christian to hope for it.

Does It Really Matter What You Believe About Hell?

2011-06-16T14:56:00.001-04:00

For the sake of argument, there are three general positions that Christians take towards the belief in hell:
1) Hell is a real place of eternal, conscious torment (ECT)
2) Hell is a real place of temporary, restorative judgment (TRJ)
3) Hell is an imaginary place

There have been different reports out indicating that many Christians don't live as if they believed in option 1. Though many denominations are on record as holding to a belief in hell as ECT, their members act otherwise. Evangelicals are known for their emphasis on evangelism, and they still struggle with getting their congregations motivated to save their neighbors from a hell of brimstone and burning sulfur.

So despite what doctrinal statements are declared or pronounced, the overall American Christian behavior belies a belief in hell that is either temporary or non-existent or at least not all that bad. Maybe it'd be fair to say that based on people's behavior, they either don't ever really think about hell, or else kind of view it from a Gary Larson point of view.

An interesting dilemma arises: should their be more teaching and preaching on hell in order to get more people to live according to a real fear of ECT? This would seem to lead to an over-emphasis on hell, out of line with how Jesus himself preached in light of hell. It seems to lead to a "fire-insurance" kind of Christianity.

Should hell even be any kind of motivator for evangelism? It would seem that the parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus teaches that even if a dead man came back from hell to warn people about the agony of the next life, it would not be effective. If this is the case, what should our attitudes be towards the hell that Jesus describes? It seems it is proper to teach about hell as a reality, but to not be inclined to use it as a motivator for people to get saved.

So what's the use in believing in hell? How should a belief in hell affect how I live my daily life? If I believe in ECT, then shouldn't I be using every waking moment to try and convince every living person to convert? How could I ever go to the movies for fun or take a vacation or even raise a family if I knew that it distracted me from keeping people out of ECT? If I believe that hell is TRJ, then I'd end up focusing more on the consequences that actions have in this life, letting the bad consequences experienced now be motivation for turning to God for help now.

Do you think it matters what people believe about hell? How do you justify your behavior in light of what you believe about hell?

Is the doctrine of hell up for debate? Can we learn anything new about what the Scriptures teach about hell, or has it all been figured out already?

The Far Side of Hell

2011-06-15T11:46:00.000-04:00

Who/What/Where Is God? Exodus

2011-06-08T10:12:00.000-04:00

What are your big questions for God?

A common one has to do with God's goodness and the existence of evil in the world.

It's really interesting that in the Scriptures there is a big story about God's own people suffering, of their oppression by an evil system of slavery. These people cry out to God for help, he hears their cry, and sends them someone to deliver them. It's the story of the Exodus.

There are layers and layers of insights and truths about God and life and humanity in the Exodus story. It's Israel's own story of their deliverance from Egypt and how they entered the Promised Land. What's so fascinating about the stories they retell about themselves is the raw honesty. Moses was a flawed leader. Israel was a stiff-necked and stubborn people. God got really, really angry with them. Within weeks of delivering them from Pharaoh's raging army, Moses had to talk God out of abandoning them in the desert of Zin.

There are five big stories that Israel tells about itself in the Old Testament, about their existence, about their covenant relationship with their God YHWH, and about what happened to them. Creation is the initial story of how they believe the world got started. Covenant is the heart of the story of how God brought Israel into existence. Exodus is the defining story of when Israel became a nation. Kingdom is a messy story of how Israel staggered it's way through political and economic realities. Exile is the fifth story, the very tragic story Israel tells of what happened to them due to their failure to keep the covenant they had made with YHWH.

If you want to know more about God, if you want to find better answers to your questions, you'll want to learn how to read the Old Testament. These are the stories about God that Jesus grew up with, stories about who he is, what he has done in the world, and where we can look for him to act next. Exodus teaches us that God always hears the cry of the oppressed. It also teaches us that God uses humans to deliver people from oppression. And we learn that there are humans who resist being used by God to rescue people from oppression, to help be part of the answer to their prayers. God's got to find a way to prevail using very flawed people in a very messed up world.

Exodus is Israel's story of how God delivered them from an evil system of slavery that had oppressed them for a few hundred years. God rescued them from their demise by raising up Moses. It took eighty years for God's rescue plan to come to fruition. It would take another forty years to actually get Israel to the Promised Land. We learn that it often takes God a long time to answer prayers. Are you okay with that?

God also wanted to get his people back to the Promised Land, the ridge of mountains and fertile valleys that had been promised to Abraham all those years ago. God's work to deliver Israel out of Egypt was part of God's work to keep his part of the covenant. God proved his loyalty to Abraham by providing a rescuer like Moses to save Israel from Egypt. It's this story that helps us understand the story of Jesus and Israel and Rome.

In keeping his part of the covenant, in getting the ancestors of Abraham back to the Promised Land, God was giving his people a land where they could worship him and live according to his Way. An essential part of the Exodus story includes introduction of Torah, the Ten Commandments and all the statutes by which Israel was to live as God's community. Torah was God's gift to Israel, the instructions on how to live as the light, commands that would result in them becoming a blessing to the world. Exodus is deliverance from Egypt, but Exodus is also deliverance of Torah.

We learn that not only does God hear the cry of the oppressed, but he responds. But his response is part of a bigger work in the world. Part of God's answer to their prayer for rescue is Torah. The people want freed from slavery, but what will they be freed TO? How will they live once they are delivered from bondage?

Torah is laws and commands and instructions on how Israel will live as a new nation with new freedom amongst the moon-worshipping, death-obsessed, empire-tyrannized nations. Keeping Torah would bring blessings for Israel and surrounding peoples. Rebellion against Torah would bring curses. For to rebel against Torah is to rebel against the God that rescued them - a real poke in the eye that cannot go ignored.

Observing Torah helps Israel become the special nation God intended for them. If Israel became like Egypt, they would be cursed. If Israel enslaved aliens, they would become cursed. If Israel worshipped the sun and moon and idols of stone and wood, they would be cursed. If Israel stooped to justice stained by bribes and favoritism, they would be cursed. This helps explains some of Jesus' harsh words for the political and religious leaders of Israel. They were not living out Torah, God's instructions for how to live as a blessing to the world.

When you look around at the suffering today, when you look around at the prevalence of evil today, you might wonder what God is doing about it. The Exodus story reveals a lot about how God has worked in the past to relieve suffering. The Jesus story is another essential story about how God responds to evil in the world. One of the lessons we learn is that God answers prayers through the willingness of people to serve and save. Jesus is an example of someone who was willing to go to great lengths to be used by God to help set people free from evil. The big story of Exodus is still being written, it is still our story.

Maybe the next Exodus is depending on someone like you. God took eighty years to prepare Moses. Moses didn't know he was being prepared for anything until the eightieth year. God has to work in our world with people as they are, with nations as they are, with empires as they are.

God is always at work - redeeming, rescuing, restoring. But it's a two way street - he can save us from evil, but he also saves us for good. Torah was his instructions on how to live a good life in a wicked world. If you want God's help - he doesn't just help you get out of a bad spot, he helps you get into a good place - but it's on his terms. Jesus comes to us, in our life, to both free us and to prepare us to help free others. Will you let Jesus be Moses to you? Will you let Jesus make you into a Moses for others?

Exodus is still the defining story for Israel. Do you need an Exodus? Do you need rescued? Do you need new instructions for a new life? God always hears your cry. God will bring people into your life to help answer your prayers. And God will have instructions for you to follow.

Go here for more study questions.

My Review of Love Wins: Chapter Eight

2011-06-07T11:25:00.000-04:00

The End is Here.

That's been a central idea of Love Wins. Instead of keeping our eyes on a future life way out there somewhere else, we ought to keep our eyes focused on life now with our neighbors, here. In the End, God comes down to us, to dwell with us Here. Here is where the End will occur - with a God who is Love. In the End, God wins. In the End, Love Wins. In the End, Love will be Here.

Whatever you've been told about the end - the end of your life, the end of time, the end of the world - Jesus passionately urges us to live like the end is here, now, today. Love is what God is, love is why Jesus came, and love is why he continues to come, year after year, to person after person. (197-8)

This is the core of Rob's summary. An emphasis on God as Love - an emphasis gleaned from an immersion of the Scriptures, from Genesis thru Revelation. God is holy, just, glorious, jealous, and righteous - but the Great Commandment is for us to Love God and Love our Neighbor (just as God in Christ loves us). It's not an emphasis on love to the exclusion of holiness or justice, but an emphasis that points to the heart of God.

...I believe that the indestructible love of God is an unfolding, dynamic reality and that every single one of us is endlessly being invited to trust, accept, believe, embrace, and experience it. Whatever words you find helpful for describing this act of trust, Jesus invites us to say yes to this love of God, again and again and again. (194)

So here is a focal point of the controversy, of the rejection of Rob's argument: "endlessly being invited" instead of eternal conscious torment. From Rob's point of view, Scripture points to a God who loves covenantally, who loves through substitutional atonement, who loves through global redemption. A God who blesses his own people, but then curses them. The curse is part of the judgment, but it is also the beginning of the restoration. The judgment is a form of discipline that is to bring about repentance and righteousness. Judgment is designed to be ultimately restorative for those that God loves. God punishes rebels so that he might bring about their reconciliation.

Jesus invites us to trust that the love we fear is too good to be true is actually good enough to be true. Jesus invites us to become, to be drawn into this love as it shapes us and forms us and takes over every square inch of our lives. Jesus calls us to repent, to have our minds and hearts transformed so that we see everything differently. (195-6)

What's the motivation to repent if hell is not forever? If the conscious torment is not eternal, what's the motivation to cease rebelling and embrace reconciliation? As Rob seems to insist, God's love compels love as a response. Obedience to God through fear of fire, or appeal to restoration? Is it possible that people will still repent of their sins though they don't believe in the traditional teachings of hell? Yes. But then what to do with the images and words of Jesus himself that seem to point to eternal conscious torment?

These are strong, shocking images of judgment and separation in which people miss out on rewards and celebrations and opportunities. Jesus tells us these stories to wake us up to the timeless truth that history moves forward, not backwards or sideways. Time does not repeat itself. Neither does life.

While we continually find grace waiting to pick us up off the ground after we have fallen, there are realities to our choices. While we may get other opportunities, we won't get the one right in front of us again. That specific moment will pass and we will not see it again. It comes, it's here, it goes, and then it's gone.

Jesus reminds us in a number of ways that it is vitally important to take our choices here and now as seriously as we possibly can because they matter more than we can begin to imagine. (197)

When Jesus spoke words of judgment to his fellow Israelites, it was within a particular historical and cultural context, within an economic and political reality. Those words he spoke were for them, not us. The phrases and ideas recorded by the Gospel-writers were done so in light of those contexts and realities. And so we "listen" in on their wrestling to believe and understand. As Hebrew Christians, immersed in the First Testament, expectant for a deliverer, they grappled with what actually happened through Jesus. The Messiah they had waited for did not accomplish what they had anticipated - he did something bigger and better and more beautiful. And so it is for us.

Can our choices "matter more than we can begin to imagine" if there is no eternal conscious torment? Is there another compelling way to think about the connection between our decisions today and our experience in eternity aside from the fear of burning for billions of centuries? What will God do with all the rebels and idolaters, the doubters and deceivers, the ignorant and innocent little babies? Will the mass of humanity writhe in agony as fulfillment of God's justice? Does this bring glory to God?

The End is Here. We take today seriously, tomorrow has enough worries of its own. The consequences of the decisions we make now have ramifications now that we ought to pay more diligent attention to. The threat of hell is by itself insufficient to prompt rebels to repent. The work of God is the only hope we deceived humans have for receiving a second chance. If we ignore or reject or misunderstand God's overtures for salvation now in this life, that has consequences for now, in this life. But will God continue those invitations in the life to come? Or is this life it?

Rob seems to believe the invitation is endless. Only God can turn a heart towards him - and God will not cease until every man and woman repents. Rob believes that the fires of affliction, the torment of hell that we experience now will continue - on both sides of death - until we surrender and relent in our rebellion. Love never fails.

That seems to be what Rob believes. When God comes down to Earth, everyone who has ever lived will dwell before him - their experience in God's presence will be heaven or hell - it's their choice. Their response to God's presence, their response to God's gift of faith and grace through Jesus will determine their experience in God's midst. Those outside the gate can walk through any time they want. It's their choice. And Rob believes that God will wait out their rebellion, that his patience and kindness will prevail. In the End, God will win. Through Christ, love will win Here.

Rob Bell & Bin Laden: Hell

2011-06-02T13:05:00.000-04:00

Funny stuff.

My Review of Love Wins: Chapter Seven

2011-06-02T11:41:00.000-04:00

The Good News Is Better Than That.

Better than what?

The word "gospel" literally means "good news." But in these days, the word "gospel" has become the shorthand way of framing our message about Jesus and Christianity. There has been a great emphasis on correctly stating and preaching the "gospel." For the normal person on the street, or in the pew, if you were to ask them what is the good news of Jesus, what kind of answer would you get? Despite all the books written about the gospel, the answer will lack nuance, depth, and scope.

I think Rob is writing to those people on the street, immersed in real life, giving them a working definition of the gospel that they can remember - more than that, that they can grasp with their heart and either truly embrace or clearly reject. Rather than the gospel becoming a complex set of doctrinal beliefs, Rob seeks to reveal the thumping heart and blood of the gospel in Jesus.

To do this, Rob retells a story/parable that Jesus made up about God and his love for sinners and the righteous. You can read it for yourself in Luke 15, it's about a father with two sons. One of the interesting angles Rob takes on this story is by pointing out the different stories at work in this one parable. Rob points out that both the younger son and older brother have a version of their life-story. The challenge is this: will they believe the story that their Father is telling them?

The younger son believes he is "no longer worthy to be called the father's son." (165) The older brother believes that he has been slaving for his father all these years without so much as a word of thanks, not even a small goat for a party. The older brother also believes that the father has been unfair.

The father, when the younger son comes home, tells a different story - here is a robe for your shoulders, a ring for your finger, and soon lets fill your belly up with roast beef and fine wine! And the father, when angrily confronted by the older brother, tells him a different story - "My son, you are always with me and everything I have is yours." (167) This is followed up with an invitation to join the party.

Rob points out that the challenge for each of the sons is about trust and belief - will either one of them trust the story the father is telling them? Will they believe their father? The differences between the two stories - the one we tell ourselves and the one the father tells us - Rob says it's "the difference between heaven...and hell." (169)

Heaven and hell seem to be right next to each other in this story - the younger son enjoying the party being thrown for him, the older brother fuming just outside the tent doors, refusing to enter, "to join in the celebration." (169) Rob is going to use this parable as a launching point for ideas about the good news, about heaven and hell. This is a unique approach, sure to attract lots of objections.

Rob has made the argument in earlier chapters about the temporary nature of hell. This comes into play in this chapter about heaven and hell as thought about from the perspective of the parable in Luke 15.
"Hell is our refusal to trust God's retelling of our story." (170)

What? This is not what most people think of when it comes to hell - where's the fire and brimstone?
But in reflecting through the story, Rob observes that belief and trust are essential to our experience with God - or without him. And this story that Jesus tells points to a moment of decision for each son - will they believe their Father, will they trust his words to them about their situation?

"We believe all sorts of things about ourselves. What the gospel does is confront our version of the story with God's version of our story." (171) Some people are full of flaws, they're marked by failure, they carry around heavy weights of shame and guilt. They believe they are not good enough. Certainly not for church. Or heaven. There are others, though, who believe they are good enough. Their pride keeps them out of church, keeps them independent, keeps them convinced that is God for the weak. And God brings to each of them, to each of us, another story which will challenge the story we've been telling ourselves.

"It is a brutally honest, exuberantly liberating story, and it is good news. It begins with the sure and certain truth that we are loved. That in spite of whatever has gone horribly wrong deep in our hearts and has spread to every corner of the world, in spite of our sins, failures, rebellion, and hard hearts, in spite of what's been done to us or what we've done, God has made peace with us." (172)

Rob implies that when Jesus died on the cross, the sins of the world, of every individual who had ever lived, who ever will live, were forgiven. The blood of Jesus atoned for the sins of every person, forever. It's not fair, but it is generous. It is shocking, when you think about it. But, as Rob shares, "we create hell whenever we fail to trust God's retelling of our story." (173) When we see Jesus, we see God - and so what Jesus tells us about God, well, it's something we have to decide whether to trust it. When we don't believe the story that Jesus tells us about God and about ourselves, we miss out on the party.

One of the observations that Rob makes, though, is that the older son - and even the younger one - he had a distorted view of God. This is what made it hard for him to trust the new story the father told them. The younger son gained a new view of of his father, and thus trusted him. The older son struggled much longer with the conflicting views - a longstanding belief that his father was a slavedriver, stingy... now challenged by a father who seems to be generously unfair and outrageously forgiving. Even towards him.

It's this idea of a distorted view of God that Rob is going to focus on - that the good news often preached today presents a distorted view of God. The summary: For God so loved the world that he gave us his one and only son, that whoever believes in him won't die, but will live forever. But if you don't believe in this God, this same loving God will throw you into the lake of fire, eternal conscious torment. Billions of years of screaming, writhing, agony for seventy or eighty years of rebellion against God. "A loving heavenly father who will to to extraordinary lengths to have a relationship with them would, in the blink of an eye, become a cruel, mean, vicious tormenter who would ensure that they had no escape from an endless future of agony." (173-4)

For those Christians that believe in eternal conscious torment, Rob's characterization of their belief and God will certainly irk and offend them. Apparently Rob has many friends, though, who are terrified and traumatized by the kind of God that would damn men and women to eternal conscious torment. Rob and others ask the question: "Just what kind of God is behind all this?" (175) The good news is better than the distorted view of God you've come to believe in...or disbelieve.

He goes on to write:

Because if something is wrong with your God, if your God is loving one second and cruel the next, if your God will punish people for all of eternity for sins committed in a few short years, no amount of clever marketing, or compelling music, or great coffee, will be able to disguise that one, glaring, untenable, unacceptable, awful reality.

Hell is refusing to trust, and refusing to trust is often rooted in a distorted view of God. Sometimes the reason people have a problem accepting "the gospel" is that they sense that the God lurking behind Jesus isn't safe, loving, or good. It doesn't make sense, it can't be reconciled, and so they say no. (175)

Hermeneutics is the science and art of interpretation of Scripture. Rob's hermeneutics are obviously at odds with that of many other Christians. His hermeneutics of Luke 15, of the gospel, of God as revealed through Scripture clash with other classic beliefs. But Rob's hermeneutics are rooted in the Scriptures, so I think his ideas are worth wrestling with - which will lead either to a strengthening of our traditional beliefs, or a doorway into a more faithful reading of Scripture. As Rob says, "our beliefs matter. They are incredibly important. Our beliefs shape us and guide us and determine our lives." (176)

Rob is challenging our traditional and culturally popular notions of God. The good news we preach is connected both to the God we believe in, and the God our audience believes in. Rob is inviting his readers to reconsider the God that is presented in the Scriptures, particularly in Luke 15, as presented by Jesus. As Rob sees it, we are free to choose what to believe - we can believe the story that God is retelling us about ourselves, "or we can cling to our own version of the story. And to trust God's telling, we have to trust God." (176) To reject God, his story, his love and grace "will lead to misery. It is a form of punishment, all on its own." (176) God's is love, what God does is love, and the essence of love is such that "it can be resisted and rejected and denied and avoided, and that will bring another reality. Now, and then." (177)

Not only is Rob challenging the notion of what we believe about God, and about heaven and hell, but also what we believe about what this relationship with God ought to look like. He describes it as the difference between entrance and enjoyment. "...when the gospel is diminished to a question of whether or not a person will 'get into heaven,' that reduces the good news to a ticket, a way to get past the bouncer and into the club. The good news is better than that." (178-9) The good news is better than fire insurance.

He goes to say:

When the gospel is understood primarily in terms of entrance rather than joyous participation, it can actually serve to cut people off from the explosive, liberating experience of the God who is an endless, giving, circle of joy and creativity. Life has never been about just "getting in." It's about thriving in God's good world." (179)

Also:

Jesus calls disciples to keep entering into this shared life of peace and joy as it transforms our hearts, until it's the most natural way to live that we can imagine. Until it's second nature. Until we naturally embody and practice the kinds of attitudes and actions that will go on in the age to come. A discussion about how to "just get into heaven" has no place in the life of a disciple of Jesus because it's missing the point of it all. (179)

Rob notices amongst many Christians that there is a certain lack of distinctiveness. Many surveys show that there is little lifestyle difference between Christians and non-Christians. When many Christians talk about their faith, the main point of it is so that they can go to heaven when they die. And there is something in us that recoils at that over-simplification. What is the connection between believing in Jesus and life transformation? I think that is what Rob is trying to get at in his articulation of the gospel - a belief, a trust, a relationship that bleeds into a way of life that looks and smells and feels like Jesus. And so he starts with what we believe, which is a very controversial place to go.

"We shape our God, and then our God shapes us." (183) With that phrase, Rob cautions us to rethink what we believe about God. More than that, to re-examine the effects of our life, and then work backwards to see what we really believe. What we believe about God deeply affects how we live. Do you believe God is a slavedriver? Or do you believe that "God is the rescuer?" (182) The good news is better than being ruled by a slavedriver God.

More on this - it's central to Rob's big point in this chapter:

There is another dimension to the violent, demanding God, the one people need Jesus to rescue them from. We see it in the words of the older brother, when he says he "never even disobeyed." You can sense the anxiety in his defense, the paranoid awareness that he believed his father was looking over his shoulder the whole time, waiting and watching to catch him in disobedience.

The violent God creates profound worry in people. Tension. Stress. This God is supposed to bring peace, that's how the pitch goes, but in the end this God can easily produce followers who are paralyzed and catatonic with fear. Whatever you do, don't step out of line or give this God any reason to be displeased, because who knows what will be unleashed.

Jesus frees us from that, because his kind of love simply does away with fear. (184)

What kind of love does Jesus describe for us in the story?

"Our badness can separate us from God's love, that is clear. But our goodness can separate us from God's love as well. Neither son understands that the father's love was never about any of that. The father's love cannot be earned, and it cannot be taken away. It just is." (187)

And so:

Your deepest, darkest sins and your shameful secrets are simply irrelevant when it comes to the counterintuitive, ecstatic announcement of the gospel. So are your goodness, your rightness, your church attendance, and all of the wise, moral, mature decisions you have made and actions you have taken. It simply doesn't matter when it comes to the surprising, unexpected declaration that God's love is simply yours. There is nothing left for both sons to do but to trust.

Our trusting, our change of heart, our believing God's version of the story doesn't bring it into existence, make it happen, or create it. It simply is. On the cross, Jesus says, "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing." (188)

His summary:

Jesus meets us and redeems us in all the ways we have it together and in all the ways we don't, in all the times we proudly display for the world our goodness, greatness and rightness, and in all of the ways we fall flat on our faces. It's only when you lose your life that you can find it, Jesus says. The only thing left to do is trust. Everybody is already at the party. Heaven and hell, here, now, around us, upon us, within us. (190)

This is the Good News as Rob understands it. This is the God of the Scriptures that Rob believes. This is the Gospel of Jesus that Rob trusts.

I agree that the heart of the Gospel is God's love for us, as demonstrated through Jesus. I agree that trust/believing/faith is central to our relationship with God. I'm not sure the parable of the two sons can carry as much theological weight as Rob wants it to. And I think there is an oversimplification of the Gospel going on here in this chapter. Yet I think it is crucial for Rob to publicize the vicious views of God that are being created by the sloppy preaching of Evangelicals.

And I agree that too many people have turned away from God - not the God of the Scriptures, but the God of the different Christians who present a confusing and hard-to-love God. Rob sees in God a very non-violent being - but I think that there is much to discuss - and disagree with here. I see his point though about the way Christians can embrace a particular view of God and violence that leads them away from the way of Jesus.

Indeed, the good news is better than it is often presented. Is it better than what Rob presents?

Notes on Hell: the Lake of Fire

2011-05-25T22:30:00.001-04:00

It would seem that when most people talk about hell, what they are really talking about is the lake of fire.

So, when we talk about the eternal destiny of people, we're referencing whether they spend forever with God or in the lake of fire. Interestingly, hell gets thrown into the lake of fire!

What is the lake of fire? What is the eternal destiny of those who get thrown into the lake of fire? Who goes into the lake of fire? What does this teach us about hell?

The phrase lake of fire shows up five times in the Bible, all in Revelation.

Revelation 19:20 And the beast was captured, and with it the false prophet who in its presence had done the signs by which he deceived those who had received the mark of the beast and those who worshiped its image. These two were thrown alive into the lake of fire that burns with sulfur.

Revelation 20:10 and the devil who had deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur where the beast and the false prophet were, and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.

Revelation 20:14-15 Then Death and Hades (hell) were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. 15 And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.

Revelation 21:8 But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.

What can we surmise from these five references? The beast, the false prophet, and the devil are thrown alive into the lake of fire where they will be tormented day and night forever and ever. Death and Hades are also thrown also into the lake of fire. It is called the second death. Anyone's name who is not found in the book of life, along with the cowardly and faithless, are also assigned to the lake that burns with fire.

It's not clear how the lake of fire is the destination of Death and the cowardly. The author says that the lake of fire is the second death - does this mean that lake of fire is a metaphor for a reality - Second Death? Is this death a different kind of death then Death and Hades death? It must be - but what kind of death is it? And what determines if someone is cowardly? Once? The end of their life? Always? Occasionally? There is no mention of faith in Jesus Christ or rejection of Jesus Christ in these references to the lake of fire. And clearly the lake of fire is the destination of hell, not hell itself.

So what happens to the people that had been in hell?

Revelation 20:11 Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. From his presence earth and sky fled away, and no place was found for them. 12 And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done. 13 And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, Death and Hades (hell) gave up the dead who were in them, and they were judged, each one of them, according to what they had done.

Throughout the Bible, sheol and hades, along with gehenna, have been referred to as hell. Gehenna never gets mentioned in Revelation, only hades. If hades gives up its dead, that implies that hell gives up its dead, which means that hell is not a place you go to forever. Whatever hell is, it is not a person's eternal destination. From our study, it seemed that hades was just another name for sheol - which means it was just another name for the grave. If we take into account Greek myths, hades is possibly a place where spirits have a shadowy existence.

Either way, it doesn't come across as a place of torture. Hell - if it is hades/sheol - is a temporary existence (either as a corpse in the ground or/also spirit in the netherworld). Hell is emptied through resurrection of the dead, and then hell/hades gets thrown into the lake of fire - it exists no more. [The description of Hades given by Jesus in Luke 16 does not carry enough weight to determine clearly that it is a place of torment. The parable's point is not a literal description of hades, but of how the rich ought to treat the poor.]

The people that do not have their name found in the book of life - and who are cowardly and faithless, etc. - they also get thrown into the lake of fire. One text said that the beast, false prophet, and devil will be tormented forever and ever - but the text does not say that for the people who are thrown in. Are we to assume they have the same experience as the devil? Or, does the lake of fire totally consume the people who are thrown in, and they cease to exist? The text doesn't make it clear.

A reference in Revelation 14 says that the smoke of the torment goes up forever and ever - that of those who worshipped the beast. The smoke goes up, but does that imply the torture of the people is eternal, or just the smoke from their destroyed corpses? The text doesn't make clear.

So what is the lake of fire? Is it like lava from a volcano? Is it like the flaming Gulf of Mexico saturated with crude oil? Is it like a vast forest fire, the massive heat shimmering far into the distance? Is it like a shattered naval fleet, flotsam and jetsam burning across the littered sea? Is it like a gigantic fiery furnace?

It's interesting that in Gehenna/the Valley of Hinnom there are pools. The word for lake in Greek can also be translated pool. If the Valley of Hinnom was renamed the Valley of Slaughter, if the valley became a place of death and destruction, the pools would be filled with rotting blood and burning corpses. Is that part of the background to the image of the lake of fire? Does it imply a pool of fire? A place of judgment? Of destruction?

Here's another idea that may also give background to the idea of the lake of fire, it's found in Daniel 7:9-11

"As I looked, thrones were placed,and the Ancient of Days took his seat;
his clothing was white as snow, and the hair of his head like pure wool;
his throne was fiery flames; its wheels were burning fire.
A stream of fire issued and came out from before him;
a thousand thousands served him,and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him;
the court sat in judgment, and the books were opened.
"I looked then because of the sound of the great words that the horn was speaking. And as I looked, the beast was killed, and its body destroyed and given over to be burned with fire."

Here you have judgment for rebellion, a stream or river of fire which is used to kill and destroy and burn. If this judgment and destruction occurred in the Valley of Hinnom, the streams of fire would run through the Valley of Slaughter, collecting in the pools, forming a lake of fire. Interesting possibility, but nothing definitive can be declared for certain.

The other question is: do the few mentions of eternal torment in Revelation outweigh the more numerous references of fire being destructive and all-consuming? (Like in the story of Sodom and Gomorrah - the imagery of which is obviously alluded to in the usage of lake of fire.) It is clear that the devil and his trio are tormented forever, but it is not specifically declared that it is eternal torment for those that worshipped the beast. Maybe it is implying that the state of destruction in the lake of fire is eternal. Second death implies similarity to first death - and if first death is rotting corpse in the ground with promise of resurrection, then second death is destruction of the body with no promise of resurrection.

Revelation is the primary source for most popular notions of hell. A lot depends on how you interpret the content of Revelation, and how you relate the context of Revelation to the rest of Scriptures. If you read what is in Revelation, in context with what else the Bible has to say about hell/hades/sheol/gehenna - you won't necessarily come up with the common versions of hell.

Jesus never talks about a lake of fire. He talks about being thrown into the fires of Gehenna - but that is something different. He talks about people going down to hades - though sometimes it is a reference to sheol. He talks about people being thrown into a fiery furnace. He says some will be thrown into an eternal fire along with the devil. There is only one verse where Jesus says someone will be with him in paradise. Does John change the image of fire from what Jesus referred to in the Gospels? We have no idea what he definitively means. Our imaginations want more clarity then the Bible provides on what happens after death.

It's interesting what Jesus has to say in the final chapters of Revelation.

22:12"Behold, I am coming soon, bringing my recompense with me, to repay everyone for what he has done. 13 I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end."

Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they may have the right to the tree of life and that they may enter the city by the gates. 15 Outside are the dogs and sorcerers and the sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices falsehood.

16 "I, Jesus, have sent my angel to testify to you about these things for the churches. I am the root and the descendant of David, the bright morning star." The Spirit and the Bride say, "Come." And let the one who hears say, "Come." And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who desires take the water of life without price.

It's hard to determine what is chronological in all these visions. But following the visions of the New Heavens, the New Earth and the New Jerusalem, of God's throne issuing a river of water by which the tree of life gives forth leaves for the healing of the nations, of a city with gates that never shut, only the pure and unashamed can enter - there is this statement above from Jesus. If there is any kind of chronological semblance to these visions, it seems to imply that even in the New Heavens and New Earth, there will be "dogs" hanging around outside the New Jerusalem.

These dogs are beckoned to enter the gates - the Spirit and the Bride and all who hear say, "Come!" Anyone who is thirsty is invited to enter - the gates are always open, the leaves of the tree of life are there for the touching. It would seem that either these "dog's" have yet to be thrown into the lake of fire, or, this is what it means to be thrown into the lake of fire - to be always outside the gates of the New Jerusalem but never having the courage to enter. They are too cowardly.

Another way to translate torment is torture. Not only physical torture, but internal torture. Another word is vexation. To be too ashamed to enter the city where God and the Lamb fill the place with shalom and light - to hear the words, "Come!" and not believe it. It would seem that the invitation is unending. Or, the lake of fire is the destination eventually of those who will never be willing to enter.

Maybe it is that the visions are overlapping, and each one presents a new angle to the future reality of all people. All people are resurrected, all people are judged. Some are found to be righteous, others found to be wicked. The righteous are welcome to enter the New Jerusalem. The wicked are invited as well - if they are willing to wash their robes. To repent. To trust the words of Jesus. To believe Jesus.

In summary: there is nothing conclusive to say what is the lake of fire - other than it is called the second death. The lake of fire could refer to the fire of Gehenna - the Valley of Slaughter. The lake of fire could imply total destruction of whatever is thrown into it. The lake of fire could refer back in part to the Daniel vision. The lake of fire could be a way of describing irrevocable judgment. It could be similar to the fiery furnace Jesus talked about in the Gospels, or the eternal fire for the devil. The lake of fire could be literal or it could be a metaphor pointing to something else very real. The text does say that hell/hades is thrown into the lake of fire, so hell is not the same as the lake of fire.

So is there any more clarity that we can gain on who goes into the lake of fire? How does one get your name into the book of life? What is the book of life? What is the correlation between being cowardly, faithless, etc and having one's name missing from the book of life? What is the connection between Jesus and the book of life? What about forgiveness of sins, repentance, grace, and reconciliation with God? What about the teachings of Jesus and Paul - how does that connect with the book of life and being thrown into the lake of fire?

That's what we'll attempt to examine in the final study.

My Review of Love Wins: Chapter Six

2011-05-24T09:21:00.011-04:00

There Are Rocks Everywhere.

There is an odd story about the Israelite people dying of thirst as they shuffle towards Mt. Sinai. God instructs Moses to strike a big rock with this walking stick - upon which water starts to flow. Ahhh, what a refreshing story!

Rob Bell observes that Paul summarizes that story by saying Jesus is the rock. What???

And what does this story have to do with the overall book about heaven and hell and the fate of every person who ever lived? In short:
Heaven is full of surprises, and people come to Jesus in all sorts of ways.

There you go. What do you think of that idea? Do you agree?

Rob reflects on how Paul writes about Jesus:
Jesus, for these Christians, was the ultimate exposing of what God has been up to all along. This is, of course, a mystery, which is exactly the word they used for it. (148)

It's a mystery how Paul can see Jesus in the Moses-rock story. But then as Rob sees it: Paul finds Jesus there, in that rock, because Paul finds Jesus everywhere. (144)

Just as baffling as it is to see Jesus in the rock, so it is to imagine God in the flesh. Rob writes:

Here's where the claims of the first Christians come in. They believed that at a specific moment in the history of the world, that life-giving "Word of God" took on flesh and blood. In Jesus, they affirmed, was the word, that divine life-giving energy that brought the universe into existence. The word that gave life to everything and continues to give life to everything, they insisted, has been revealed in fullness. (146)

It's surprising to see God in Jesus. It's surprising to see Jesus in the rock. It's surprising to see what Jesus did when he walked the hills of Israel. If the religion scholars back then were surprised at the teachings and activities of Jesus, why shouldn't we be surprised that there are more surprises awaiting us?

What's the implication of this? Where is Rob going with this?

As obvious as it is, then, Jesus is bigger than any one religion. He didn't come to start a new religion, and he continually disrupted what ever conventions or systems or establishments that existed in his day. He will always transcend whatever cages and labels are created and name him. Especially the one called "Christianity." (150)

Whoa. Does this comment from Rob surprise you? Do you believe that God has more good surprises up his sleeve? Can Jesus still surprise us today? Are Christians the only ones that know anything about Jesus? Are we the only ones who know the truth about the universe and the way the world works? Does Jesus show up in the world outside the bounds of Christianity? Could Jesus surprise you - much like he surprised the observant Jews all those years ago?

Rob puts it like this: Jesus is supracultural. He is present within all cultures, and yet outside of all cultures. (151) Think about it - this is our Father's world. Jesus has been given the authority and responsibility to overcome evil with good, to make everything all right. When the work of Jesus in his world is finished, he will hand everything back over to God. If this is God's world, if it is Jesus' Creation, then of course Jesus is present yet transcendent.

Again - where is Rob going with this? He goes to the well-known and oft-quoted Evangelical verse in John's Gospel: "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." What [John] doesn't say is how, or when, or in what manner the mechanism functions that gets people to God through [Jesus]. (154)

This is where a lot of Christians will resist the development of Rob's proposition. Rob agrees that Jesus is the only way. There is only one way to God, and it is through Jesus. He writes: What Jesus does is declare that he, and he alone, is saving everybody. (155) I can agree with that. But then Rob points out: People come to Jesus in all sorts of ways. (158) Does this statement unsettle you?

Rob opens his chapter with an unusual story of how a pot-smoking friend was saved by Jesus. Rob states that he has heard many unusual stories that after awhile point to his observation: people come to Jesus in all sorts of ways. What to do with that observed reality? The surprise of how Jesus worked out salvation in those people ought to bring us joy but also remind us of the mystery involved.

Jesus is Lord - so he can bring about salvation however he wants, even if it goes against our understanding of how we thought he was going to do it. Right? Can we definitively know who will be joining us in heaven? How can we for sure know who is in and who isn't? Is there value in going public with who is going to hell and who isn't? Is it enough that only Jesus knows?

Are you okay with there being a diverse way of people coming to Jesus? Do Muslims have to convert to Christianity? Do atheists have to embrace religion? Do the mentally-handicapped have to articulate orthodox doctrines? Does Jesus have the right to work in His world however he chooses? Even if it surprises us?

What we see Jesus doing again and again - in the midst of constant reminders about the seriousness of following him, living like him, and trusting him - is widening the scope and expanse of his saving work. (159) Does that make you uncomfortable? Why?

In the end, Rob is working to establish the idea that just as Paul saw Jesus in the rock, so we can see Jesus everywhere - in every culture, in every religion, in every nation. We can see Jesus, but we don't control Jesus, we don't have a hold on Jesus, we don't have any special claim on Jesus. Jesus is the one with the claim on us. Jesus is our Lord - he is the one with the ability to save, and surprise.

If he surprised us once with the incarnation, and again with crucifixion, and again with resurrection, and again with ascension, and again with the Spirit, and again with the calling of Paul, and again with the salvation of Gentiles... well, does Jesus have any more surprises for us?

What is the fate of every one who has ever lived? We know what we read in Scripture. We know that there is a variety of interpretations. We know it is in God's hands. We know of our calling to love and serve and go. And we know that God is full of surprises. Jesus is the only way, and people come to Him in all sorts of ways. Don't they? What does that mean for your faith if Jesus still pulls off surprises?

Who/What/Where Is God? Covenant

2011-05-23T12:54:00.000-04:00

You have big questions for God.

When you look at the world and the way it works, you wonder what God is up to.

Why does God intervene sometimes, but not other times. From our perspective, it all seems so random.

The Bible is a collection of stories about God and his work in the world. The two parts of the story are called the Old Testament (or the First Testament or the Hebrew Scriptures) and the New Testament. In the Old or First Testament, we've been looking at the five big stories that Israel told about God and their relationship with him.

These are raw, honest, compelling stories about God. They're not cleaned up, they're not edited for propaganda, they're not fairy tales. They are rooted in reality - they reflect how people really act and live and think and react. They're about God dealing with the world as it is really is, and with people as they really are.

The first big story of the Hebrew Scriptures is Creation. The second big story is Covenant. The others are Exodus, Kingdom and Exile. In the story of Covenant, we learn how Israel understands where they came from - how God first initiated a relationship with them. Israel traces their ancestry back to Abraham and Sarah - you can read about them in Genesis 11-25. Fascinating stories!

How did Israel understand God and his relationship with them and Abraham? It's important to notice that God chose Abraham. It wasn't anything unique or special about Abraham, but God made a decision to choose one man, a family out of whom he would build a nation. God intended to bless the world through a nation, a nation specially devoted to him. Abraham would be the man from whom this nation would come - a man God would bless and make a blessing to the world.

When Abraham was first introduced to God, he was a wealthy rancher in the region of Babylon. A moon-worshipper, he was fully immersed in the pagan culture and thriving economy. But God inserted himself into Abraham's life - calling him to leave everything behind and head to the Promised Land. And what do you know, but Abraham believed God. He took his wife and possessions and headed for Canaan. Abraham followed the promptings of a God he'd never met before, a land he did not know, for a future that wasn't guaranteed.

At this point of the story Abraham and his wife Sarah are already old, and without children. It took a lot of guts to believe that in their old age the could conceive and have a son who would be the initial fulfillment of the promise of a nation as numerous as the sand on the seashore. But they believed. And that made all the difference. Sometimes you have to believe something first in order to see it.

God chose Abraham. He chose him and initiated a covenant relationship with Abraham. It wasn't because Abraham was deserving or special. God made a promise to Abraham, putting in place the parameters of their relationship. God promised to bless Abraham, to bless the world through the nation that would come from Abraham. God chose to do this in the world, and by it God promised to be loyal.

God chose to be loyal to Abraham and his descendants. If you read through the rest of Genesis, you will find God being loyal to people that are quite undeserving. Isaac played favorites with his sons. Jacob played favorites with his wives and sons. Jacob's sons would become guilty of atrocities and gross abuse. Yet God kept his promise to build a nation through the descendants of Abraham. God chose to continue his work in the world through one man, one family, one nation. A family of real people who commit real sins and devastations. God bound himself up in loyalty to very, very, very imperfect people.

The big story of Covenant is Israel's story about how God chose them for a special relationship, about how God chose to be loyal to them. God promised blessings for obedience - that's the great part of this covenant relationship. But this kind of relationship also comes with curses for disobedience. There has to be consequences for Israel's unfaithfulness and disloyalty. Because God interconnected himself with the people of Abraham, God used blessings and curses to move his people forward. Unfortunately for God, despite his amazing promises for blessing and bounty, the people drifted towards disobedience with as much speed as sand pours through the fingers.

In Creation we learned that God created a good world, a good world in which people become deceived, and consequently bring curses down upon themselves. We see this played out in the Covenant story, when God chooses to bless this good world through the real descendants of Abraham. God makes a covenant relationship with people who are capable of great good but also terrible evil; people that God blesses, but then is forced to curse. People that are a blessing to their neighbors, but then people who become a curse upon the region.

If Creation is the start of the big stories that Israel tells about God, then Covenant is the heart of the story.

Covenant describes the relationship that God has with the world through Israel. It's this understanding of the story that helps us understand Jesus and his message to Israel - and to all those who would believe. To those that believed what Jesus taught about God and Israel and the world, they were called sons of Abraham.

To those that believed Jesus, they were promised to be included in the the story of Covenant made with Abraham all those years ago. The radical nature of this implies that non-Israelites, pagans, barbarians, strangers and foreigners of faraway lands - whoever believed the teachings of Jesus could be included in this great work of God in the world. To all who believe, they can be called sons and daughters of Abraham.

If you believe what Jesus taught, if God has made you a son or daughter of Abraham, if you are part of this Covenant relationship, then you find yourself part of an enduring relationship with God. God chooses to be loyal to you - no matter what. He is loyal to you when he blesses you in your obedience, and he is loyal to you when he curses you in your disobedience. God is loyal to you in the way that a good Father is loyal to his children, a father who rewards obedience and disciplines for disobedience.

What is God doing in the world? He is working through real people to bless the world, to bless his good yet cursed world. God is loyal to the world, he is loyal to his creation, he is loyal to those who believe him. God does not give up on you. He chose you, and he is loyal to you.

The question is not so much what is God up to in the world, but what are you going to do with what God is doing in you? God can bless the world through people - can he bless your world through you?

God does not let sins go unpunished, he must bring about justice to those that are sinned against. God brings curses upon those who sin against themselves and those around them. Sooner or later your sins will find you out. God curses so that we will abandon our sins and repent, to turn around and love our neighbor. God curses to the third and fourth generation, but he blesses to the thousandth generation. God brings a curse in order to bring about an honest confession of sin and repentance. God blesses in order to further his good work of rescue and restoration in the world.

Do you have a relationship with God? What seems accursed in your life? What do you need to repent of? What do you need to confess? In what are you rebelling against God? Are you being stiff-necked and stubborn towards what you know God would want you to do next with your life?

The big story of Covenant is about how God works in the world through the sons and daughters of Abraham. God has his work he is doing through people. When people open themselves up to His way, they become the kind of people through whom God can bless. When people close themselves to God and His way, they shut themselves off to the blessings God wants them to receive.

With all the accursed wars and violence and evil that permeates our world and communities and families, we are desperately in need of more people who will let God bless through them. God wants to bless the world through you. It's what God did through Jesus. It's what God wants to do through those who follow Jesus today.

Sometimes you have to believe something first in order to see it.

Notes on Hell: Valley of the Son of Hinnom

2011-05-19T08:29:00.000-04:00

When Jesus talks about hell, he uses two different words: hades and gehenna.

We've explored the two possible meanings of hades - that Jesus is referring back to the Hebrew idea of sheol, and that Jesus is tapping into the popular cultural beliefs about the afterlife (ie. Greek and Roman tales of hades). It's my observation that Jesus uses both meanings of hades, depending on the point he's trying to make.

With gehenna, we explored the use of the word in context - it seems to be a real place - associated with the idea of judgment. In a previous note we observed that gehenna is Greek word for the Aramaic word for the Hebrew word Valley of Hinnom. So what is this valley and why is it used by Jesus as a place of judgment? What is this hell that Jesus refers to?

If you go to your Old Testament you'll find several interesting references to this Valley of Hinnom. First in Joshua 15:8 and 18:16 we are introduced to the valley, it's a sort of boundary, rather innocuously located at the southern shoulder of Jerusalem. (See also Nehemiah 11:30)

But then in 1 Kings and 2 Chronicles we are introduced to a Valley of the Son of Hinnom where kings of Judah are burning their sons and daughters as a sacrifice to the local gods. Not only that but the Valley is a place for sorcery, necromancy, obsession with the dead and knowing the future. It becomes a very evil place.

In 2 Kings 23:6 we read about King Josiah trying to clean up this accursed valley - one polluted by his father and grandfather. "And he defiled Topheth, which is in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, that no one might burn his son or his daughter as an offering to Molech." King Josiah had mixed success. His sons did not follow in his steps, nor did they listen to the prophet Jeremiah - who prophesied doom and bloodshed, judgment and destruction for this idolatry and murder."

In 2 Chronicles 28:3 we read about King Ahaz, the great-great grandfather of King Josiah and his introduction of Molech worship in the Valley of Ben Hinnom (Ben is Hebrew for Son): "and he made offerings in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom and burned his sons as an offering, according to the abominations of the nations whom the LORD drove out before the people of Israel."

In 2 Chronicles 33:6 we read about King Mannaseh, the grandson of King Ahaz and the grandfather of King Josiah: "And he burned his sons as an offering in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, and used fortune-telling and omens and sorcery, and dealt with mediums and with necromancers. He did much evil in the sight of the LORD, provoking him to anger."

This is evil stuff. I encourage you to read the whole chapter, read these verses in context. The kings were leading their nations forward into an idolatry that would bring economic havoc on the poor, vile religious prostitution upon women and preying men, association with political entities that subverted Israel's devotion to Torah, and desecration of the Temple, God's holy dwelling place amongst his people. God and neighbor were defiled. Moloch's name sounds a lot like the Hebrew name for king. A perversion of what a true Israelite king was to be doing in the name of God.

So now we know a bit more about the ugly history of Gehenna, of the Valley of the Son of Hinnom. What we also need to learn about is why it became a place to be cast for judgment. The prophet Jeremiah is the one to confront the kings of Judah, to turn them from their wicked ways and unveil to them the consequences of their sins. Three different prophesies against those that do evil in the high places of Topheth in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom:

Jeremiah 7:31-32 "And they have built the high places of Topheth, which is in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire, which I did not command, nor did it come into my mind. Therefore, behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when it will no more be called Topheth, or the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter; for they will bury in Topheth, because there is no room elsewhere."

Jeremiah 19:2, 6 "...and go out to the Valley of the Son of Hinnom at the entry of the Potsherd Gate, and proclaim there the words that I tell you.  6 therefore, behold, days are coming, declares the LORD, when this place shall no more be called Topheth, or the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter."

Jeremiah 32:35 "They built the high places of Baal in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, to offer up their sons and daughters to Molech, though I did not command them, nor did it enter into my mind, that they should do this abomination, to cause Judah to sin."

Read these verses in context, read the chapter (the link is there for your convenience).

A couple of observations:
Jeremiah renames the Valley of the Son of Hinnom the Valley of Slaughter. It's a place of judgment for Moloch worship, where bodies will be thrown, their corpses will rot in the sun - Babylonian arrows, swords and spears dripping with blood. The nation would be judged - and another nation would be used to do the judging.

There must be consequences when a king and a nation thumb their nose at God, they sacrifice their children in the fires, when the rich indulge in gross luxury while the poor have their noses ground into the dust. How does God turn Israel around? After a few hundred years of sending messengers announcing the need to repent, to return to God and Torah, the LORD had certainly gone out of his way to make his plans known. And still God was ignored. And so God used Babylon to bring an end to the disgrace Israel had become.

We learn that Potsherd Gate led down to the Valley of Hinnom. Some contend that in Jesus' day Gehenna was the town garbage dump. It's become a popular characterization for that valley, but it is unsubstantiated. The legend goes way back to the seventh century, but it can't be verified as true for first century Jerusalem.

Potsherd Gate would indicate that somewhere in the region of the Hinnom Valley was a dumping place for potsherds. Pottery was used for most cookware and dining. When a jar of clay cracks and is no longer useful, it is cast out through the Potsherd Gate, in the general direction of the Gehenna. We can't verify whether the Valley of Hinnom was the city dump, but we can verify the legacy of that accursed place, the vile stories of burning children as sacrifices, of the Babylonian slaughter, of the judgment.

Becoming familiar with these stories in Kings and Chronicles, and of Jeremiah's sermons regarding the Valley of the Son of Hinnom helps add context to Jesus' use of the Gehenna. Jesus said people were in the danger of "the gehenna of the fire" if they didn't quit being angry and lusting. This is different then going to hell because you don't believe in Jesus.

Interestingly, the teaching on anger and lust are connected to Jesus' teaching on murder and adultery - killing and sex, this is what the Valley of the Son of Hinnom had become known for. Jesus also directed his threats of "the gehenna of the fire" towards the Pharisees - he even calls them sons of hell, or literally "sons of gehenna" or more literally: "sons of the valley of hinnom!" What were the Pharisees doing that induced Jesus to so vehemently denounce their work? It was their leading people astray from God! Which is exactly what the kings of Judah had done with their Molech worship.

Jesus' teaching on hell is rooted in his teaching on Gehenna. Rather then guessing what Gehenna means, we can go to the Old Testament to put the valley in context. Gehenna was a real place with a real history with a real accursedness. To be thrown into that valley was another way of referring to God's judgment brought by the Babylonians in the fifth century. And Jesus had another empire in mind, that would be used by God to judge Israel. Rome was the new Babylon.

Jesus could see where the nation was headed. Their political, economic, and religious leadership were headed towards a clash with Rome that would result in destruction, devastation, slaughter. In 66AD Rome initiated a siege of Jerusalem that resulted in annihalation of many citizens. By 70AD the Romans prevailed, the Temple was razed, and the Valley of the Son of Hinnom once again flowed with blood and bloated corpses.

Jesus came as a prophet, just as Jeremiah did, to turn the nation away from destruction, back to God. It was Babylon for Jeremiah, and Rome for Jesus. And both times the words of the prophet were ignored by the masses. But not all. The remnant that believed Jeremiah survived the slaughter, and endured into the Exile. And the remnant Jews that believed Jesus were the first and second generation Christians who heeded their Lord's words to both forgive their enemy and flee the slaughter. Gehenna was much more about the political, economic, religious and national judgment of God upon Israel then it is about a comprehensive teaching on hell.

Notes on Hell: Gehenna

2011-05-18T06:37:00.000-04:00

There are four basic words in the Bible that form our understanding of hell - sheol in Hebrew, hades and tartarus in Greek, and the Aramaic word gehenna. (Click here for notes on those words.) The KJV translate these words as hell. When you explore these words in their original language and cultural context, they seem to all have different nuances. What is gehenna and how is it different from the other words?

Listed below is the references where gehenna is used by Jesus according to Young’s Literal Translation.

Following each given reference will be a commentary on how gehenna is used in this context.

Matthew 5:22

but I -- I say to you, that every one who is angry at his brother without cause, shall be in danger of the judgment, and whoever may say to his brother, Empty fellow! shall be in danger of the sanhedrim, and whoever may say, Rebel! shall be in danger of the gehenna of the fire.

This first reference is found in Jesus' Sermon on the Mount. In this particular pericope he is discussing the Torah teaching on murder. Not only will murder put you in danger of the judgment, so will being angry with your brother without cause. What are two examples of the judgment? the Sanedrim and the Gehenna of the Fire. So what does this tell us about gehenna? It's a place of judgment for those that murder and are angry without cause, comparable to that of the Sanhedrim (the 70 elders of Israel, the ruling council for observance of Torah). Since there is not much of a difference between the words "Empty Fellow!" and "Rebel" - they are mere examples of being angry with your brother without cause; it's hard to argue that there is much of a difference between judgment with Sanedrim and Gehenna of the Fire.

Matthew 5:29-30

`But, if thy right eye doth cause thee to stumble, pluck it out and cast from thee, for it is good to thee that one of thy members may perish, and not thy whole body be cast to gehenna. 30 `And, if thy right hand doth cause thee to stumble, cut it off, and cast from thee, for it is good to thee that one of thy members may perish, and not thy whole body be cast to gehenna.

This second usage of gehenna is also used by Jesus in his Sermon on the Mount, this time in his teaching on adultery. Looking at a woman lustfully is equated as adultery. How serious is Jesus about his disciples and Pharisees in accepting this teaching? He uses hypberbolic language to capture their imagination. Lust is about imagination, and so Jesus gives them images of gouged out eyes and hacked off hands as preventative measures for lusting and committing adultery. Jesus argues that it is better to use an eyeball or a limb then to have your whole body thrown into gehenna. Jesus isn't using literal language here - amputation doesn't stop adultery. Neither does the threat of gehenna. But Jesus promises that there will be judgment on the men who oppress women through their lusting and adultery.

Matthew 10:28

`And be not afraid of those killing the body, and are not able to kill the soul, but fear rather Him who is able both soul and body to destroy in gehenna.

In this third use of gehenna Jesus is instructing his disciples just prior to sending out the twelve to proclaim the gospel and heal the sick. Part of his instructions include a warning about impending persecution. He tells them to not be afraid of those who will persecute them.

Here's how Jesus' logic goes: don't be afraid of those who persecute. IF you were going to be afraid of suffering, be afraid of God who can destroy your body and soul in gehenna. But God cares for you, so you don't have to be afraid of God destroying you in gehenna. Therefore you don't have to be afraid of those who can kill your body. What do we learn here about gehenna here? It's a place of destruction of body and soul, that God is the one that sends people there. And that Jesus' followers have nothing to fear about gehenna.

Matthew 18:9

`And if thine eye doth cause thee to stumble, pluck it out and cast from thee; it is good for thee one-eyed to enter into the life, rather than having two eyes to be cast to the gehenna of the fire.

This is another reference to gehenna by Jesus, similar to his usage in the Sermon on the Mount. Interestingly, instead of adultery being the context, it's being the cause for a child or young disciple to stumble. How serious is Jesus about people not being a cause for stumbling? First he says it's better for you to have a millstone hung around your neck and being cast into the depths of the sea. So the judgment of gehenna of the fire is compared with judgment of tossed into the chaotic sea. It's not a description of two different kinds of judgment, but a graphic attempt to make the same point. Do. Not. Cause. Kids. To. Stumble.

Matthew 23:15

`Wo to you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! because ye go round the sea and the dry land to make one proselyte, and whenever it may happen -- ye make him a son of gehenna twofold more than yourselves.

Matthew 23:33

`Serpents! brood of vipers! how may ye escape from the judgment of the gehenna?

In this powerful sermon against the Pharisees, Jesus declares seven Woes upon these religious leaders of Israel. It seems that he is purposefully drawing upon the imagery of the Old Testament Valley of Hinnom. You can read about it some in Jeremiah 7, 19, & 32. The old name of the landmark was Valley of the Son of Hinnom, south and west of Jerusalem. And in the one example, Jesus says that the Pharisees, by making proselytes, are making foreigners a Son of Hinnom even more than themselves. And in the second example, the idea of judgment is clearly linked with the idea of gehenna, or the Valley of the Son of Hinnom. Reading the prophet Jeremiah's words to Israel give great context about what is the nature and purpose of gehenna. That is next week's lesson!

Mark 9:43

`And if thy hand may cause thee to stumble, cut it off; it is better for thee maimed to enter into the life, than having the two hands, to go away to the gehenna, to the fire -- the unquenchable --

Mark 9:45

`And if thy foot may cause thee to stumble, cut it off; it is better for thee to enter into the life lame, than having the two feet to be cast to the gehenna, to the fire -- the unquenchable --

Mark 9:47-48

And if thine eye may cause thee to stumble, cast it out; it is better for thee one-eyed to enter into the reign of God, than having two eyes, to be cast to the gehenna of the fire -- where their worm is not dying, and the fire is not being quenched;

The usage of gehenna here is an expanded teaching of the same material found in Matthew 18:9 about causing children to stumble. In Mark's version of the teaching, the threat of gehenna and to the fire is repeated three times. Jesus, in this case, doesn't want anyone to doubt how serious he is about this issue of causing children to stumble.

Jesus does something interesting here - highlighting the connection between gehenna and fire - with the the fire, the idea of it being unquenchable. This is an obvious allusion to Isaiah 66:24, which is quoted in part in Mark 9:48. The description of judgment in Isaiah 66 matches the kind of judgment that Jeremiah prophesies will happen in the Valley of Hinnom, gehenna. Jesus is not attempting to give literal descriptions of what gehenna is like, but rather link the kind of judgment that will come down upon those who cause children to stumble - the judgment will be like that which God brings down upon Israel through the nation of Babylon as prophesied by Isaiah. And we know from history that Rome was used by God to judge Israel, much like Babylon had been almost six hundred years earlier.

Luke 12:5

but I will show to you, whom ye may fear; Fear him who, after the killing, is having authority to cast to the gehenna; yes, I say to you, Fear ye Him.

This singular usage by Jesus in Luke's account is similar to that of Matthew 10:28, but here used in a set of warnings and encouragement to his disciples in the midst of the crowds of thousands who gathered around Jesus.

James 3:6

and the tongue [is] a fire, the world of the unrighteousness, so the tongue is set in our members, which is spotting our whole body, and is setting on fire the course of nature, and is set on fire by the gehenna.

James, the brother of Jesus, is writing to Hebrew Christians about the dangers of the tongue. Like his brother, James knows how to use graphic language to capture imaginations and make his point. Everyone, especially teachers, will be judged for their use of the tongue. How many times have our words brought punishment on ourselves? The tongue can be a powerful tool for good, but it can also be a pervasive weapon of destruction - both for our own bodies and those around us. James effectively makes his point in his use of gehenna.

In all of these uses of gehenna, it is not obvious that Jesus is referring to an afterlife. The word gehenna is clearly connected the idea of judgment, but the idea of judgment is not obviously tied in these verses to an afterlife event. In context, Jesus makes a connection between actions now and the resulting consequences to come in this life. Just as the Valley of Hinnom became a real symbol of judgment in the lifetime of those who heard Jeremiah preach about it, so many of Jesus' listeners were around when Rome made the Valley of Hinnom once again a place of judgment.

An exploration next week will examine the Old Testament references to gehenna, or the Valley of Hinnom. This will help us keep Jesus usage of gehenna in context. To be sure, Jesus was serious about people changing their actions, about fueling their imagination with graphic details to compel them to repent and act righteously. The threat of gehenna did not come across to those first readers like the threat of hell is used in our modern age. The threat of gehenna meant something different then. And we'd be wise to consider what the threat of gehenna meant then so that we can better understand what it is to mean today.

My Review of Love Wins: Chapter Five

2011-05-17T09:47:00.000-04:00

Dying to Live.
Or, What Happened When Jesus Died On the Cross?
These are the themes of the chapter, the first is the title, the second is the key question.

The book is about heaven and hell and the fate of every who ever lived. What happened to Jesus on the cross, and what we believe about Jesus and what happened on the cross often become the key components of whether we end up in heaven or hell. So it's kind of important for us to examine what did happen on the cross, according to the Scriptures - and consider what we ought to believe about it. And how we ought to live in light of it.

In this chapter, Rob first explores how the New Testament described what happened to Jesus on the cross. Or, what Jesus did for us, or what God did for us, through the cross. Then Rob talks about resurrection, and then connects it to crucifixion. This leads to a summary of what it means for us today.

Rob opens with a story of seeing a cross hanging around Eminem's neck at a concert. What did this mean? It was a comeback concert of sorts. Was the cross a symbol - representing the death of the old Eminem and the arrival of the new? Rob is pointing out that the cross has come to mean many things - thus we gotta go back to the Scriptures to see what the original writers insisted happened on the cross.

The first idea he explores is that of animal sacrifice. The Hebrews, along with almost all of the other religions in the world, included animal sacrifice as part of their worship. God gave specific instructions to the Hebrews for their animal sacrifices which set them a part from the other nations. But the Jewish Christians saw in Jesus the end of animal sacrifice. In the Hebrews, a letter in the Bible to Jewish Christians, the writer says: Jesus "has appeared once for all at the culmination of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself." (123)

If your religion, if your way of relating to God, if your way of pleasing God and atoning for (or covering over) your sins had been tied up in animal sacrifices, it was a very radical notion to believe that what happened on the cross through Jesus means no more slaughtered lambs. This would open up a new way to relate to God. Instead of through butchered bulls, it was through a human, Jesus, that we could find favor with God. His death on the cross, his blood poured out as an atoning sacrifice for the world. This was less about the hassle of slitting goat necks and more about how to relate to God.

I think Rob highlights this example of what happened on the cross because it is central to our understanding of atonement. It's how many religions viewed atonement - through animal sacrifice. It's how the Hebrew people understood it. And most of the early Christians were Hebrews. But this isn't the only way that people talked about atonement, of how Jesus covered over our sins. They use other language - language that is connected to this sacrificial event, but it also points in new directions.

Rob points out what Paul wrote in his letter to the Colossians: "that through the cross God was reconciling 'to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.'" (125). So now we have two metaphors to describe what happened on the cross - Jesus is the end of the sacrificial system, and he is the one who reconciles us to God.

Rob then takes us to another one of Paul's letters where we hear language about justification. We learn that what happened on the cross resulted in being "justified by grace through faith in Jesus." (126) It's courtroom language to describe the effects of Jesus's sacrificial death on the cross and his reconciling us to God.

In another of Paul's letters to his friend Timothy, he writes that Jesus has "destroyed death" (126). He notes that John writes that "this is the victory that has overcome the world." (126). These are war and battle metaphors to describe what happened on the cross. And then there is Paul writing to the Ephesians that "We have redemption through his blood." (127) This is an economic term, added to the usage of the military term, and the legal term, and the relational term, and the religious sacrificial term.

"So, back to the question: What happened on the cross?"

Obviously Rob is pointing out that different metaphors and terms were used to describe one event. All the ideas mentioned in Scripture inter-relate. Rob is wanting us to become familiar with all the terms. Why? Because in some Christian circles there is what he thinks is over-emphasis on penal substitutionary atonement. This emphasizes that on the cross Jesus was a substitutionary sacrifce for us, paying our penalty of death so that we might live with God for eternity. Of course this is true, and it is an important theory of atonement, but it's not the only way to describe what happened on the cross.

So why are there different explanations of what happened on the cross? Rob is going to insist that those first Christians, as they preached about Jesus, about his death and resurrection, that they used different metaphors to try and help people understand what happened. They used metaphors from the sacrificial system, for the economic system, from the legal system, from the military system, etc.

Rob says that different ages and cultures of Christianity have emphasized different metaphors. The early church, being mostly Hebrews, used the sacrificial metaphors heavily for obvious reasons. The author of Hebrews is able to go all the way back to Torah to connect how Jesus is the fulfillment of the sacrificial system God set up long ago. But then, according to Rob, the church shifted to the "victory in battle" (128) metaphor, emphasizing that Jesus had conquered death.

So now, in our age, when we don't do animal sacrifices anymore, and through medicine have conquered death in ways, is there another metaphor from Scriptures that we can highlight that will resonate with our culture today? Well all of them can still relate in some way, and that is the point. Actually, Rob goes on to say that Jesus is the point.

Rob transitions from his summary of what happened on the cross to teach us about what happened because of resurrection. He will argue that resurrection is "a symbol of elemental reality." (131) This is not a commonly held perspective. In fact, Rob declares that for those first Christians, it wasn't the miracle of resurrection that amazed them, but what resurrection represented. Rob insists that resurrection is "not a new idea." (130). That'll make some Christians gasp!

He points to nature, the turning of leaves, the changing of the seasons. "Death gives way to life. A seed has to be buried in the ground before it can rise up from out of the earth as new life" (130). As Rob explains it, the resurrection of Jesus wasn't a stumbling block to most people. Most people, so it seems, had no problem believing in resurrection because that is "how the world works." (131). So, then, what is the value in resurrection, for Rob?

Rob uses the storytelling of the author of John's Gospel to help explain the meaning behind resurrection. We know that in John's Gospel different events are marked as a sign. Rob takes us through the different signs that make up the storyline of John's Gospel. The seventh sign is the raising of Lazarus from the dead. The way John tells the story, it is very compelling. Each of the stories associated with the signs is fascinating. But then there is one more sign, an eighth sign - Jesus being raised from the dead. What does this mean?

Rob connects the seven signs of John's Gospel to the seven days of creation. If there is an eighth sign, what day is that then? It's "the first day of the new week, the first day of the new creation." (133) Resurrection itself wasn't the point - it was to point to something bigger - something God was doing in the world through Jesus. The stumbling block wasn't about whether you believed in resurrection or not - the stumbling block was whether you believed that "God has inaugurated a movement in Jesus's resurrection to renew, restore, and reconcile everything 'on earth or in heaven' just as God originally intended it." (134)

Part of the point Rob wants to make is that cross and resurrection is not just about people, it's not just about us having a relationship with God. It is that, but it is more than that - it's a God centered movement for all creation. We are saved from sin and death, but the story is bigger and grander than that. The cross and resurrection are about what God is doing in the world - and people who respond in love are part of that work - but it is not only about people.

When Rob referred to the resurrection as a symbol of elemental reality, this is part of what he's trying to get at:

...the cross and resurrection are personal. This cosmic event has everything to do with how every single one of us lives every single day. It is a pattern, a rhythm, a practice, a reality rooted in the elemental realities of creation, extending to the very vitality of our soul. (135)
When we say yes to God, when we open ourselves to Jesus' living, giving act on the cross, we enter into a way of life. He is the source, the strength, the example, and the assurance that this pattern of death and rebirth is the way into the only kind of life that actually sustains and inspires. (136)

Cross and resurrection as a pattern for life. Jesus tells us to take up our cross and follow him. To repent of our sins, to "leave behind the old ways." (136). We die to our self so that Jesus can pour new life into us. Our letting go of pride, the need to be right, rebellion, stubbornness makes room for what Jesus has to give.

"When we cling with white knuckles to our sins and our hostility, we're like a tree that won't let its leaves go. There can't be a spring if we're still stuck in the fall." (136)

Rob seeks to connect the spiritual realities of the cross and resurrection together, and then to connect them to the elemental realities of life: "Lose your life and find it, he says. That's how the world works. That's how the soul works. That's how life works when you're dying to live." (136)

The theologian in me wants to summarize Rob's chapter using clearly defined theological categories. What is Rob's theology of atonement? Salvation? Sin? It should be obvious at this point that Rob is not writing to scholarly theologians.

He is writing to cynical individuals who have deep questions about reality, about how God and Jesus fit into our post-modern world of technology, science, medicine, and violence. Rob is seeking to connect these skeptics and searchers with compelling elements of the Gospel, bypassing the oft contentious arguments about science vs. religion, are miracles real, and is the Bible a piece of propaganda?

Is this chapter highly controversial? Yes. Does it leave many theological questions unanswered? Yes. Does it cause conservative Christians to squirm at Rob's explanation of the elemental realities of the cross and resurrection? Yes. Does it cause liberal Christians to squirm at his insistence of the reality of the cross and resurrection? Yes. Does Rob create a compelling bridge for cynics with profound questions? Yes.

Who/What/Where Is God? Creation

2011-05-16T11:09:00.001-04:00

You have questions for God.
And about God.

Where can you go for answers?
Or better questions?

The History Channel can be an interesting source. Your buddy at work can be a good sounding board. Maybe another Christian you know who you like. But there just isn't any substitute for actually opening up your Bible and reading it.

There are plenty of people out there who can pick apart the Scriptures, pointing out all the violence, conflicting stories, and legalistic tomes. By not taking the Scriptures very seriously, it's easy to mock them or disregard them. But if you are interested about what you can learn about God from the Scriptures, there is hope. There is a way of reading the Bible that allows you to take the stories seriously, to take your own life seriously, to take your questions seriously.

This series of posts is designed to help you get to know your Bible better - and God. By taking the stories seriously, in context, it will help us navigate our way through our questions. Questions are good. Finding answers is hard, but worth it. You'll know how much you want better answers by how hard you're willing to look. And keep looking.

The Christian Bible is made up of two parts: the Old Testament and the New Testament. If you want to get to know God, you've got to start in the beginning. There are 39 books in the OT, and it's not always the easiest literature to read - some of it is over three thousand years old. But to get us started with the stories we find there, I've summarized them into five big stories. These are the stories that the Israelites passed down to us through the ages: stories of Creation, Covenant, Exodus, Kingdom, and Exile.

When we start at the beginning of the Old Testament (some call it the First Testament) we find ourselves reading the book of Genesis. In the first eleven chapters we find some unique stories that reveal to us how Israel viewed their God and the whole universe in which they found themselves. The big story of Creation is made up of smaller stories about the origins of the universe, an accounting for evil in the world, God's judgment for wickedness and rebellion.

In our post-modern era, we read this Creation stories and either a snicker or we close the book in bewilderment. With all we've learned through science about the galaxies and our Earth, about anatomy and social sciences, is there anyway that these stories in Genesis are true? We don't have to pit science against religion! Here's a fascinating piece below on how vast and grand is our universe:

First things: these Creation stories in Genesis are Israel's stories they told about God and the universe. Three thousand or more years ago, as they sat around their campfires under the Milky Way, they told and retold the stories of where they came from.

The stories you tell are powerful - and these stories in Genesis are compelling. The human body is an amazing, complicated...what? Creation? Machine? Something rings true when we acknowledge that there is something unique and gifted about the human being. We were created - specially designed with a purpose. We are not just biological machines. The vast cosmos - the best theory we have besides a Creator is the Big Bang. Either one takes faith. A story about a worldwide flood and the spread of languages - those stories teach us about how the Israelites understood God's work amidst evil people and nations. We still wonder - will God deal with evil societies, evil nations, evil corporations?

Second things: we can learn about God from these Creation stories. They are the stories we have, passed down through the years, about who God is and how he works in the world. We may not always like the stories, but they are what we have to work with. And they work. Unless you want simplistic answers for life and God.

When we think of the Big Story of Creation, here are some things we can learn about life and God:
The stories teach us - One God created sky, earth, sea, animals and humanity – and it is all good.
Amidst pagan nations that believed in a multiplicity of gods and goddesses, this was a radical notion. The other gods are "no-gods" compared to Israel's God. Creation did not come from the warring factions of Canaanite warrior gods. Creation is not a senseless roar of chaos. Israel's story of Creation is radically refreshing once you read it in context. One God, who creates as a gift, who declares it all good. That's a good story to live by.

The stories also teach us - Humanity is capable of goodness and rebellion - we bring curses upon ourselves and the world.

People are not just a mass to be herded and conquered. God created a man and a woman - and declared them to be good. He gave them good work to do, work that would cause the world to flourish. The fruitfulness of humanity would make for a blossoming world. Isn't that a great story? But how to account for life as we know it? It's as if this good world is cursed? And these first stories reveal how we bring these curses upon ourselves. God gives instructions for blessing the world, and the first humans rebel. Rebelling always leads to corruption. We know this to be true still today. We have something good, and then we ruin it. And yet God can still bring good out of it.
That's another good story to live by.

Some characters we read about in these first eleven chapters of Genesis, in this big story of Creation:
Adam & Eve in the Garden of Eden - temptation, blaming, shame, judgment
Israel passes on to us stories about reality, about how people when given something good, still have a way of giving into temptation and abusing the gift, of blaming others when things go wrong, of holding on to shame and letting it subvert our life, of how we judge others unfairly. We can argue how scientifically the Garden of Eden story is untrue, or we can observe how the Garden of Eden story with Adam and Eve is still true.

Cain & Abel: East of Eden - anger, crouching sin, murder, judgment
Israel preserves a story about two brothers - the first brothers - and their relationship to each other and God. We'd like an inspiring story - instead we get a raw one fueled by all to common anger. Anger doesn't always make much sense, and it rarely makes things better. The crouching sin gets passed on to the next generation, but becoming more extreme. The death promised to Adam and Eve for eating of the fruit was experienced first by their son. The sins of the parents do get passed on. Cain was exiled to life East of the Garden of Eden, in the wilderness. We still know what it's like to wreck our life, to see others get banned for their sins. This story of Cain and Able is still true, isn't it?

Noah & Nimrod: A Good, Cursed Earth - floods and towers, remnant righteous and mass rebellion, intervention, judgment.

An ark full of animals makes for great images in the newborn's nursery, but it's really a terrible story of judgment. God regrets having made humanity. Israel tells the story that God started over again with Noah - a direct ancestor of Israel. We can focus on the scientific data of a real global flood, or we can explore what it meant for Israel to retell this story of Noah and the flood. Nimrod and the tower? We still build towers? We still seek to transcend languages so that we can collaborate to build bigger and more amazing structures. And it's still often done with no regard for God - or in defiance of him. Some stories are still true...

Here is a link to the sermonnotes for some more information and study-questions.

To read the big story of Creation requires you to submit yourself to the text, to the cultural context in which it was written. To get something out of it, you must first learn what those first audiences got out of it. It's not easy to glean wisdom from the Bible. But then it's not always easy to get wisdom from life. Sometimes we want our lessons to come to us conveniently. Life doesn't work that way. And neither does learning about God from the Bible. It's hard work, but it's good work.

What are the questions you have about the Creation stories?

Who/What/Where Is God?

2011-05-13T14:25:00.000-04:00

Most everybody has questions about God.

Part of growing up is learning to ask better questions.

When there are big questions about God, - who is he, what is he like, where is he in the world - Christians would obviously point to the Scriptures for some answers.

Christians commonly refer to the Hebrew Scriptures as the Old Testament. This is to distinguish it from what we call the New Testament. We consider both Testaments to be Holy Scripture, authoritative for our life. Those two Testaments are our primary documents for discerning the nature of God and his work in our world. There are other ways to learn about God, but they all flow from what is revealed in the Scriptures.

Not only do most people have big questions for God, they also have a low regard for the Bible. It's common these days to distrust the Scriptures. There is a lot of fuzzy thinking about the origins of the Old Testament, and lots of suspicion about who wrote the New Testament, why it was written, and how it is often used today to control people. Which all adds to a general abandonment of reading the Bible to learn about God. And this makes it real hard to know anything about God.

Fortunately there are better ways to think about the Bible.

One helpful way is to start with the Hebrew Scriptures and think of them as Israel's big stories about God. Whether you believe the stories to be true or not is beside the point. The Old Testament is a record of stories compiled over many centuries, stories about Israel and their relationship with God. It's not propaganda - some of the stories are pretty embarrassing towards God and Israel. It's not barbarian fiction - there is plenty of archaeological evidence to back up events and places. It's not ancient religious prattle - this is sophisticated poetry, compelling narratives, and intriguing compilations of laws and regulations.

By approaching the Old Testament as Israel's stories about God, it allows us to read the stories at face value. It's not about pitting them against science or history or modern notions of religion. It's allowing the stories to speak for themselves and reveal to us what they believed about God and his work in the world.

There are several different ways to summarize the big stories of the Old Testament - I've focused on these five:
Creation
Covenant
Exodus
Kingdom
Exile

Each story connects with the next, with specific people taking on significant roles. Fascinating characters who, when you are honest, kind of remind you of people today. Though the stories are very, very old, and contextually there is often some work we have to do to understand ancient Sumerian, Canaanite or Babylonian culture, people are people. What we learn about God and his interactions and instructions to people back then will often seem to have a very pertinent application to our life today.

This series of posts will help you connect the dots on people and events you may be familiar with in the Bible. If you don't know much of anything about the Bible, this will be a helpful introduction to the big themes and stories that can still capture our imaginations today.

What are some of the big questions you have about God and the Bible and Christianity and Faith?

My Review of Love Wins: Chapter Four

2011-05-11T10:39:00.000-04:00

Does God get what God wants?

That's the first big question of the chapter.
And the last big question of the chapter is:
Do we get what we want?

Yes. To both. But not a simple yes, rather a tension, drama-full yes.

Rob is going to make a case from Scripture that God "wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth." [1Timothy 2]

And so the big question of the chapter: Does God get what God wants? Or in the end, "will God shrug God-sized shoulders and say, 'You can't always get what you want.'" (103)

It is pointed out in Luke 15 that "the God Jesus teaches us about doesn't give up until everything that was lost is found. This God simply doesn't give up. Ever." (101) Rob insists that God accomplishes what he purposes to do, and that the Scriptures point to a God who "will be united and reconciled with all people." (100)

Some will say, though, that we only have this lifetime on planet Earth to make a decision that will effect our eternal life in heaven or hell. They emphasize the nature of love - that it requires freedom. (103) God allows people to choose, God allows people to get what they want. If people want God in this life, they will get him in the next; if they don't want God in this life, why would they want him in the next? And thus there will be eternal reward for those that love God in this life and eternal torture for those that didn't love God in this lifetime.

Though this has been the majority view, Rob goes on to point out other perspectives Christians have held to over the years. Some, like C.S. Lewis, proposed the idea that a person's humanity just ebbs away after refusing to love God in this life and the next. A few have suggested that we maybe God gives us a second chance after death. Or endless chances, believing that "the love of God will melt every hard heart." (107)

What Rob will do then in the rest of the chapter is increase the tension between believing that both God and people get what they want, that "love, then, wins and all will be reconciled to God." (109) Rob upholds the free-will nature of love, that God allows people to reject him, but also that God never stops inviting people to repent - in this life or the next.

At the heart of this proposal is a focus on three main texts - here's how Rob writes it:

And so beginning in the early church, there is a long tradition of Christians who believe that God will ultimately restore everything and everybody because Jesus says in Matthew 19 that there will be a "renewal of all things", Peter says in Acts 3 that Jesus will "restore everything", and Paul says in Colossians 1 that through Christ God was pleased "to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven." (107)

Because there are Eastern Church Fathers who upheld a belief in the reconciliation of all things and people, and these three texts as well as the one initially referenced in 1Timothy 2 are in the Scriptures, Rob wants Christians to be gracious to one another when it comes to the eternal destiny of mankind. He points out that within the Christian texts and tradition there has always been "that vast a range of perspectives" (110), and that "one has to admit that it is fitting, proper, and Christian to long for it." (111)

It's Rob's way of saying that he could be wrong, or that you could be wrong. Either way, we're still Christians, we're still Christ-centered, and we can still accept one another. The problem can arise when one group of Christians are convinced they are right and that the other group is wrong - even heretical. Interestingly, the early Eastern Church was more reluctant than the Western church to condemn and declare an idea heretical. And it is in the Eastern Church fathers that we find more openness to the idea that through Christ God will save everyone.

In chapter three Rob argued that the purpose of hell was correction, that it was form of judgment intended to bring about repentance. In this chapter Rob is arguing that the correction and judgment will be effective - not because of the torture but because of God's love for them and how he works in their heart. Rob is insisting that those who go to hell when they die will not stay there because of what Christ accomplished on the cross. Since love requires free will, God will not force his love on people, nor will he ratchet up the torture to coerce confession. Rather the emphasis seems to be on letting people live out the consequences of their actions - both in this life and the next, while at the same time being continually loved by a God who doesn't ever give up. As the Apostle Paul says, "Love never fails."

The chapter ends with an overview of Revelation - a book of the Bible that is highly influential on people's understanding of heaven and hell, who is in and who is out. It's a book "written by a real pastor in a real place to a real congregation going through very real suffering." "At the heart of the letter he paints a picture for them of God acting decisively to restrain evil and conquer all who trample on the innocent and the good." "But the letter doesn't end with blood and violence." (112)

Here is Rob's three summarys about the final two chapters of the book - and the Bible:
"God must say about a number of acts and to those who would continue them: not here you won't." (113)
He also observes that the gates of the New Jerusalem will be open. He wonders if this implies that for those that continue to choose hell in the next life, God keeps the gates open, that repentance will always be an option. "Will everybody be saved, or will some perish apart from God for ever because of their choices? Those are tensions we are free to leave fully intact. (115)
Finally, "God announces, 'I am making everything new.' That is what God love does. It speaks new words into the world and into us." (115-116) This leaves open the possibility for God to do a new thing - even for people in hell.

In Revelation, death and Hades (hell) get thrown into the "lake of fire." Rob doesn't really ever explore what is this lake. It's a metaphor for something. The end of hell? The end of the judgment and correction? The end of wickedness? The beginning of something new? The emphasis has been on the torturous nature of the "lake of fire." But what if is supposed to emphasize a cleansing, much like a raging forest fire is necessary for an old forest to become renewed? It's this kind of direction that Rob seems to be pointing.

His final paragraph:

That's how love works. It can't be forced, manipulated, or coerced. It always leaves room for the other to decide. God says yes, we can have what we want, because love wins.

Rob seems to believe that people get a second chance, that hell is corrective, that people choose their own hell now and then, he thus also believes that God seeks to save people from their sins both now and then. God's love compels him to rescue people from their hell now, and their hell in the life to come.

God will give people as much time as it takes for them to repent. He'll let them live with the consequences of their sins as long as they want. When they're ready to turn around and love God and neighbor, he'll be there to help them start over again. So love wins - love waits, but love also actively works. Love is both the end and the means.

Where Rob is most vulnerable in this chapter is his interpretation of Scriptures. To keep the book accessible to a wide audience, he can't do thorough exegesis of each Scripture he points to that supports his ideas. And he can't address every Scripture that would seem to undermine or challenge his suggestions. For those who don't know their Bible well, his use of Scriptures may or may not be helpful. For those that do know their Scriptures - well, it's up to them to do their own comparing and contrasting.

Rob is a savvy writer and pastor - part of his argument hinges on people considering the consequences of their own life now. As they consider whether or not they believe in hell or a loving God, he's attempting to get them to look at their life now. It's not really about whether a loving God sends billions of people to a torture cell for a billion years. The real issue is that you have to live with the consequences of your actions.

For Rob, speculating about heaven and hell distracts you from actually becoming the kind of person who loves God and neighbor. God is holy, God is just, God is righteous, God is lots of things - including love. And the Great Commandment is not "Be holy as I am holy." It's not, Be without sin as I am without sin. It is: Love God and love your neighbor. And love always perseveres. And thus it is permissible for Rob to point people to a God who doesn't quit in this life or the next.

A logical response to this chapter and idea: what if Rob is wrong? What if it is only in this life? What if people read this chapter and decide to procrastinate on making a decision for Christ because they think they can repent in the next? What if more people go to hell because of Rob's book? What if Rob is leading people astray by this teaching? Is the risk worth it if Rob is wrong?

This a very Evangelical Christianity kind of question. And so it's true - he could be wrong. But since it's mostly American evangelicals that will be reading this book, and since most American evangelicals aren't actually evangelizing, the concerns of American Evangelicals may not be so warranted. I don't like it when Rob uses a straw man to support his arguments, and I don't like it when others use a straw man to undermine Rob's points.

Rob is reaching out to people who already have rejected some form of Evangelical Christianity. And in doing so have left behind church, a vibrant faith, and some even their faith in God. They are already doomed to hell, according to American Evangelicals. Rob is trying to help them find a new way to connect to the God of the Scriptures - which is a very Evangelical thing to do. For Rob, everything centers on Christ - that's very orthodox. But for Rob, he doesn't hold to the Evangelical version of hell - and that's unacceptable for many.

So how great is the risk? Would you stop evangelizing if people didn't stay in hell forever? Would you cease to invite friends to church if you knew that in Christ all will someday go to heaven? Would you stop encouraging people to follow the way of Jesus if you knew that God has already forgiven all our sins? Would you quit reading your Bible and neglect growing in Christian maturity if you knew that God would let you into heaven anyway?

My Review of Love Wins: Chapter Three

2011-05-06T14:52:00.000-04:00

Hell is real.

That's my initial summary of the third chapter in Love Wins. For Rob Bell, as he works his way through the whole Scriptures, hell is real for Jesus.

Not only is hell real, it is a real experience that begins now, in this lifetime, for far too many people. It can be an individual experience, or it can be the torment of a whole society. For Jesus, hell is a future destination for those that refuse to repent from their sins - for those individuals who stubbornly live according to the evil in their hearts - for those societies that fuel chaos and corruption. It's a future destination as soon as tomorrow - and as far away as the day of your death.

Hell, for Rob, is a consequence for our sins. Jesus makes that really clear. But it also seems to be clear in Scripture that God intends consequences to be corrective. God brings judgment and punishment to us for the consequences of our sins so that their might be repentance and restoration. And Rob deduces that God purposes the same for the experience of hell - in this lifetime and in the one to come.

The chapter gets broken down into two main sections: an exploration of the Scriptures that explicitly refer to the place of hell. The second section refers to those Scriptures that are clearly about judgment and punishment, but don't mention hell. In his summary of this Scriptures, Rob is searching for what is the revealed purpose of hell, who goes there, and where is it.

In the first section he briefly examines the Hebrew word Sheol and then the Greek words Gehenna, Tartarus, and Hades. These are often translated as hell in the KJV and most modern translations. Rob comments that Sheol and Hades carry similar connotations - a murky underworld, a dark abode of spirits of some sort. The Hebrews are very imprecise about the nature of Sheol, mostly using words like grave and pit to describe it. The Greeks have a vivid and rich mythology surrounding Hades and Tartarus, but at the end of the day, it is netherworld of sorts for all people like Sheol.

Then there is Gehenna - the real place known as the Valley of Hinnom on the south and west side of Jerusalem. Rob focuses on the legend that Gehenna is the city dump. This is an unproven theory. What is known specifically is that it was the place of child-sacrifice by Jewish kings where they burned up in the fires a son or daughter to idols. Their practices were an abomination to God and the cause for threats of impending judgment and punishment. Rob would have been better off citing the Scriptures own reference to the Valley of Hinnom as a valley of graves, a place of slaughter, a place of curses with a legacy of abominations and wickedness.

Those are the references to hell - only one of them points to a real place, the others point to ideas that get loosely translated as the grave. A far cry from the vivid imagery we've come to believe about the terrible flames of hell that are the dancefloor for a prancing devil with his pointy tail and jabbing pitchfork.

Rob asks: How should we think, or not think, about hell? (70)

He is not about to waver from a belief in hell. He challenges those who say they don't believe in hell or that are uncomfortable with the idea of sin. "My first response is to ask, 'Have you ever sat and talked with a family who just found out their child has been molested? Repeatedly? Over a number of years? By a relative?' Some words are strong for a reason. We need those words to be that intense, loaded, complex, and offensive because they need to reflect the realities they describe." (72)

This is an important point for Rob: the repulsiveness of hell is intended to reflect the repulsiveness of our own personal and collective sins. We are repulsed by a notion of hell as punishment - but Jesus intends for us to see how repulsive is our individual sins and the chaos of cultures in decay. We need detestable visions of hell to help us see the detestable nature of our unconfessed and stubborn sins. They wound and hurt others - and hell helps us imagine the consequences for us, for how our sins ruin others.

Sure Jesus uses hyperbole. Cutting off limbs will not prevent more lusting. But it makes the point. And so do the Lord's hyperbolic descriptions of hell. Rob uses the story of the Rich Man and Lazarus as an example of this. The point of the parable isn't to describe the literal physical features of hell, but to point out the consequences of not loving one's neighbor. God will judge and punish those who don't love their neighbor. The rich, though they consider themselves blessed, will be punished for their refusal to love their poor neighbors. And Jesus reminds them of this old prophetic theme by using imagery of Hades.

There are individual hells, and communal, society-wide hells,
and Jesus teaches us to take both seriously.
There is hell now, and there is hell later,
and Jesus teaches us to take both seriously. (79)

This is really the point of the chapter - pointing to ethical behavior that reflects the heart of Jesus' teachings to the disciples and Pharisees and anyone else who would listen.

The second part of the chapter focuses on those passages about judgment and punishment. Before he gets into specific Scriptures, he makes two observations that will help keep this whole conversation in context. He discusses the political context of Jesus' teachings, as well as the religious audience to whom most of his words about hell and judgment and punishment were directed.

Judgment and punishment for not loving one's neighbor, for Israel rejecting the Messiah, for individuals not embracing God's way of peace and insisting on resistance to Rome - this all came to pass in 70AD. Jesus' warnings had "now" implications. To reject him, to not repent of their sins, to continue in their rebellion to God's ways would lead them to a confrontation with Rome which result in their destruction. Slaughter in the Valley of Hinnom could have been avoided had the religious leaders and others followed the ways of Jesus.

Teachings of hell and judgement and punishment were most often made to the religious people - to those who thought they were "in" and part of the covenant people, the believers. God didn't refer to coming destruction as incentive for pagans to convert, but to religious people who failed to obey God's word to them in Jesus.

In this political and religious context, Rob points out Jesus' use of Sodom and Gomorrah as examples of judgment and punishment. He'll go on to refer to Scriptures from the Prophets. The point he will be making is that God's judgment and punishment is corrective and redemptive in purpose and effect. His example with Sodom and Gomorrah is a bit weak and unconvincing. Rob effectively makes the point that Israel will be judged more harshly than Sodom. I suppose one can then deduce that since the harsher punishments that Israel will receive are still corrective in nature, so it is for Sodom. Sodom's sins of inhospitality and injustice to the poor are similar to the evils of Israel - except that Israel had God incarnate come and instruct them, and still they hardened their hearts.

For people are not cast off
by the Lord forever.
Though he brings grief, he will show compassion,
so great is his unfailing love.
For he does not willingly bring affliction
or grief to any human being. [Lamentations 3v31-33, TNIV]

Return, Israel, to the LORD your God.
Your sins have been your downfall!
Take words with you
and return to the LORD.
Say to him:
“Forgive all our sins
and receive us graciously,
that we may offer the fruit of our lips.
Assyria cannot save us;
we will not mount warhorses.
We will never again say ‘Our gods’
to what our own hands have made,
for in you the fatherless find compassion.”
“I will heal their waywardness
and love them freely,
for my anger has turned away from them. [Hosea 14v1-5, TNIV]

The LORD has taken away your punishment,
he has turned back your enemy.
The LORD, the King of Israel, is with you;
never again will you fear any harm.
On that day
they will say to Jerusalem,
“Do not fear, Zion;
do not let your hands hang limp.
The LORD your God is with you,
the Mighty Warrior who saves.
He will take great delight in you;
in his love he will no longer rebuke you,
but will rejoice over you with singing.” [Zephaniah 3v15-17, TNIV]

Judgments have a purpose, punishment is for the sake of correction, for inducing repentance.

In the New Testament Rob points out the Apostle Paul handing Hymenaeus and Alexander over to Satan [1Timothy 1v20], a punishment intended to bring about correction. Another similar example is given in 1Corinthians 5v5.

This punishment is to allow them to live with the full consequences of their choices, confident that the misery they find themselves in will have a way of getting their attention. (90)

Finally, Rob deals with Matthew 25 and the idea of eternal punishment. Interesting that those that get eternal punishment are those that do not give a cup of cold water to Jesus. One would think that it would be for not confessing Jesus as Lord, or believing in him, or praying to receive forgiveness of sins. Rob points out that the Greek word used for punishment carries with it the meaning of pruning or correcting. And as for the idea of eternal, he goes back to his insistence that it doesn't mean unending, but rather something like a period of time. Aside from the unconvincing ideas on eternal, the point remains that the punishment will go on as long as there is stubborn refusal to repent. Resisting correction requires the punishment to go on and on and on.

In summary:
For Rob, hell is real.
It is both a present experience and a future one.
Hell is the consequences for our individual and society-wide sins.
Jesus gave us hyperbolic descriptions of hell to catch our attentions - to reveal the true nature of the effects of evil within us and around us.
Our repulsiveness to hell should result in a repulsiveness towards the effect of our sins upon our neighbor - and thus prompt repentance and restoration.
The consequences of hell are to be corrective. Judgment and punishment are from God, as an act of justice, to stop the horrific sinning, and to provoke repentance and restoration.

Notes on Hell: Hades, Tartarus & the Underworld

2011-05-03T22:51:00.001-04:00

What does the Bible teach about hell?

If you've got an old King James Version of the Bible, you'd find over a hundred references to hell. Except that in the original languages, there are a few different words for hell. And they don't all carry the same nuances. And so the vision of hell gets a little more complicated.

First we looked at the Hebrew word sheol that the KJV often translates as hell. Then we looked at the Greek word hades, which the KJV translates as hell, especially those uses that seemed to be similar in usage to the Hebrew word sheol. However, there are other uses of hades that don't seem to refer back to the Hebrew idea of sheol.

For example, when Jesus tells the parable about the Rich Man and Lazarus, Luke records the story by having Jesus use the Greek word hades. The parable has the Rich Man and Abraham having a conversation. Granted it is a parable, but it's not one that is referring to a Jewish idea of the afterlife. So which hades is Jesus referring to? Maybe the one of popular culture, the idea of hades that floats around in the minds of people who have been influence by Greek and Roman culture for the past three hundred years?

In sheol, dead men don't talk. In a Roman vision of hades, they would. So it seems that here we have Jesus using the popular notion of hades to make a point about how the rich ought to treat the poor. Does this mean that Jesus is giving us a literal description of what hell is really like? Or is it more likely that since Jesus is telling a story, he's referring to the legends of hades? It doesn't mean he's affirming that the Roman view of the afterlife is correct, but rather that he is using those stories for great effect.

Another example: Peter in his two letters refers to Tartarus and to a prison. In Virgil's map of hades (as seen in Alice K. Turner's book: The History of Hell) there is a prison of Tartarus that is separated form the Elysian Fields by a great river of fire. Tartarus is a deep abyss, an inescapable prison where there are terrible torments and endless torture. Peter says that God sent rebellious angels to Tartarus. He also says that Jesus went and preached the gospel to these spirits. So is Peter saying that Tartarus really exists? Or he, like Jesus, is using a common notion for the after life to make bigger points about judgment and the scope of Jesus' ministry.

Paul writes in his letter to the Philippians that there will come a day when every being in the heavens, upon the earth, and under the earth will bow down before Jesus. The ancients believed in a three tiered universe - so this is Paul's way of saying that every being in existence will acknowledge Jesus as Lord. But Paul also seems to be asserting that there are beings in the Underworld that exist - which is not a Jewish idea. Paul seems to be referring to notions of classic hades rather than sheol - and this is a big deal. In sheol there is nothingness, but in hades there is a shadowy existence. Whatever beings are there, they will someday confess Christ as King.

Hades does not carry the same meanings as sheol. Often times the gospel writers used the words hades when quoting an Old Testament verse that originally used the word sheol. Did that writer mean to change the meaning? Or was it a "dynamic equivalent" situation? Hades was the closest meaning available in Greek? Simple research shows that what the ancients believed about hades is not the same as what the Jews believed about sheol.

So there seems to be a shift within the Bible, from the Old Testament to the New Testament in ideas about what happens after you die. In sheol, everybody is in the grave or the pit, eaten by worms and no hope for the future. In hades, everybody goes down to the depths to a shadowy existence crossing the River Styx maybe into the Elysian Fields. Some part of the man or woman, the soul or spirit, continues existence in hades, not as punishment or reward, but a listless abode of the dead. And some New Testament Scriptures seem to affirm that there is some kind of place that exists, which is in conflict with what the Old Testament teaches.

Up to this point in the study, we've examined the use of sheol and hades. It's not revealed anything definitive about hell as we moderns understand it. It's not a place of torment for everybody. It's not a place of punishment, it's not the destination of sinners - it's just where everybody goes after they die, according to Greek and Roman notions about the afterlife.

In Revelation it describes death and hades being thrown into the lake of fire. Since hades has been our understanding of hell up to that point in the Bible, it makes you wonder what John means when he prophesies that event happening. How does death and hell get tossed into a lava pit? What happens to death and hades in a pool of flames? Is this a reference to sheol and classical hades? Is this a reference to general pagan notions of death and the afterlife? What is the lake of fire? It can't be our definition of hell, since hell gets thrown into it. Rather then getting a clearer picture of hell, the vision is getting murkier.

And so it is that there is more the Bible has to say about hell then just references to sheol and hades. Next week we explore the idea of gehenna as Jesus used it. This is another word that the KJV translated as hell.

My Review of Love Wins: Chapter Two

2011-04-29T14:48:00.000-04:00

Here Is The New There

That's the summary of the chapter, as well as the title. Rob is going to argue that eternal life/heaven/life in the age to come/God's kingdom/God's will begins now, in this life and continues into the next.

It's not really a radical position to take.

Rob makes the not-so-obvious point in the middle of the chapter, though: What you believe about the future shapes, informs, and determines how you live now. (46). And that's what this chapter is really about - digging through the Scriptures to present to the reader a very Jesusy vision of heaven. This will mean we get a very Jewish vision of heaven. And that's where some people may get very uncomfortable.

Rob starts the chapter by describing an ugly picture that used to hang on the wall in his Grandma's house. It represents popular notions about heaven, notions that Rob wants to push back against. To start his argument, Rob begins in Matthew 19, a story where a Rich Man asks Jesus how to enter into eternal life. From there Rob will unpack his chapter, tackling three big themes: our notions of "eternal life," "treasure," and "heaven." (29)

Rob tries to argue that the traditional exegetical interpretation for "eternal life," which is the Greek word "aionon," fails to incorporate the Hebrew concept of "olam habah." Aionon gets translated "eternal life" and we think time without end, minute by minute, day after day, century following century without end. But Rob points out in the Old Testament that "olam habah" carries with it the idea of "life in the age to come." He implies that we're missing the point of olam habah by focusing on a traditional interpretation of eternal life.

Different scholars have pushed-back against Rob and his attempt to add a new nuance to "aion." However, I think the point still stands: Jesus is a Jewish prophet who's words were recorded in Greek. Whatever the Greek word "aion" traditionally means, we have to take into consideration what the Jewish tradition meant by the idea Jesus was addressing. The New Testament is written in Greek, but Jesus is Jewish - so he might be recorded as using the word "aion", but it's likely he was referring to the Jewish idea of "olam habah." Rob is not convincing in his case to present a nuanced meaning to "aion." But I don't think it undermines his bigger points about eternal life.

Rob walks through the OT prophets to make points about what "life in the age to come" would be like. Isaiah 2 & 25, Ezekiel 36 and Amos 9 are used as examples of how God's prophets described eternal life, or life in the age to come. He summarizes thus: "It's here they were talking about, this world, the one we know - but rescued, transformed, and renewed." (34) This is what Jesus and the Rich Man had in mind.

This provides the transition to the discussion about "treasure in heaven." Rob phrases it like this:

How do you make sure you'll be part of the new thing God is going to do? How do you best become the kind of person whom God could entrust with significant responsibility in the age to come? The standard answer was: live the commandments. God has show you how to live. Live that way. The more you become a person of peace and justice and worship and generosity, the more actively you participate now in ordering and working to bring about God's kind of world, the more ready you will be to assume an even greater role in the age to come. (40)

When Jesus lists the commandments to obey, he lists five of the final six, omitting the one about coveting. The rich man insists he's kept the five Jesus listed, but he can't commit to keeping the sixth one. As Rob puts it, Jesus is inviting the Rich Man to use "his wealth to move creation forward" and if he can do it, "he'll have 'treasure in heaven.'" And so ideas about reward and "treasure in heaven" imply direct connections between life now and life then. The reward of quitting coveting now begins now - and it carries over into the life to come. To the degree that we enjoy the reward of living the commandments now, we can appreciate the rewards of heaven now.

So what is heaven like then? "Heaven comforts, but it also confronts."(48) Rob points to John the Revelator's reference to Isaiah, about a day coming when there will be no more tears or pain. Comfort. But then Rob points to Paul and his insistence that on the day of judgment some will enter heaven "even though only as one escaping through the flames." "Flames in heaven." (49) Heaven confronts. To enter heaven is comforting, then, but there is some kind of purification that must occur in order to prepare each human for life in the age to come. Purification implies transformation, which implies change - which sounds a lot like repentance.

It's important, then, to keep in mind that heaven has the potential to be a kind of starting over. Learning how to be human all over again. Imagine living with no fear. Ever. That would take some kind of getting used to. Soul would a world where loving your neighbor was the only option. So would a world where every choice was good for the earth. That would be a strange world at first. That could take some getting used to. (50-51)

Rob reflects that peoples confusion about heaven comes from their assumption that the change will be immediate. And that's where a lot of resistance is going to emerge to what Rob is suggesting about entering life in the age to come, about getting eternal life. What if it is not immediate, but something that takes time?

One last thing about heaven: who will be there? Rob goes to the story in Matthew 25 where Jesus distinguishes between two types of people. One group will assume that heaven is their destination, and be surprised when it is not. Another group will not consider heaven as their destination, and will be surprised when it is. Rob summarizes: "Heaven, it turns out, is full of the unexpected."

I'll let Rob give the summary of his own chapter:

...when Jesus used the word "heaven," he was simply referring to God, using the word as a substitute for the name of God.
Second, sometimes when Jesus spoke of heaven, he was referring to the future coming together of heaven and earth in what he and his contemporaries called life in the age to come.
And then third - and this is where things get really, really interesting - when Jesus talked about heaven, he was talking about our present eternal, intense, real experiences of joy, peace, and love in this life, this side of death and the age to come. Heaven for Jesus wasn't just "someday"; it was a present reality. Jesus blurs the lines, inviting the rich man, and us, into the merging of heaven and earth, the future and present, here and now. (58-59)

Rob seems to be attempting to invite readers to swap visions: their fluffly cloud, obscure and super-spiritual vision of heaven for an earthy, love your neighbor, feasting kind of heaven. If anything, Rob is trying to help people incorporate Jesus' Jewish beliefs about life in the age to come into their modern visions of what heaven might be like.

But Rob is also trying to make you reconsider about who will also be in heaven with you. We might be surprised at who Jesus welcomes in the age to come. But rather then focus on who is in and who isn't, Rob is pleading with people to start living "eternal life" now, live in light of the age to come now, be part of the answer to Jesus' own prayer: "...your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven." It's this kind of activity that will make any kind of evangelism we do much more fruitful, much more Jesusy.

Notes on Hell: Sheol & Hades

2011-04-28T15:19:00.001-04:00

In the King James Version of the Bible, sheol and hades are almost always translated hell. Sometimes death or grave, but mostly hell. Thus we get our many of our notions of hell from those verses using sheol and hades. However, as we probe each word, we find that sheol and hades carry different nuances. And sometimes the use of hades in the NT is a reference back to the OT, meaning we ought to consider the original meaning before we add a new meaning. And this has implications for which verses we draw on to construct our vision of hell.

In examining the different occurrences of the word "hades" in the Greek New Testament, it seems that often it is referring to the Jewish word "sheol." This prompts the question: what does Jesus mean when he uses the word "hades"? Does he mean the common Greek culture perception of hades? Or, as an observant Jew, does he mean sheol, even though his words were recorded in Greek?

For a review of the usage of sheol in the OT, see last weeks' notes on Hell.

A clue to how to translate and understand the different uses of the word hades has to do with context. There are some verses where it seems that Jesus is either indirectly or directly quoting from the Old Testament. Thus, though the word in the New Testament is the Greek hades, the original word is the Hebrew sheol.

Below are Scriptures in the New Testament that use the word "hades," accompanied by Scripture from the Old Testament that I think is the original reference.

Matthew 11:23 (NIV) And you, Capernaum, will you be lifted to the heavens? No, you will go down to Hades. For if the miracles that were performed in you had been performed in Sodom, it would have remained to this day. [see also Luke 10:15]

Sheol Reference: Isaiah 14:15 (YLT) Only -- unto Sheol thou art brought down, Unto the sides of the pit.

Here it seems that Jesus is drawing on Isaiah's prophecy of doom towards Babylon, and using it to denounce the unbelief of Capernaum. It's very similar language, such that whatever connotations come from the use of "hades" to the reader of Matthew, it is likely that Jesus quoted from Isaiah using "sheol". Thus this description of hell by Jesus points us back to our understanding of sheol.

Matthew 16:18 (NIV) And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.

Sheol Reference: Isaiah 38:10 (YLT) `I -- I said in the cutting off of my days, I go in to the gates of Sheol, I have numbered the remnant of mine years.
Job 38:17 (YLT) Revealed to thee were the gates of death? And the gates of death-shade dost thou see?

There is one use of "gates of Sheol" in the OT. Often times sheol and death equate a very similar idea, and thus I've included the reference that uses "gates of death." One wonders if Jesus is inferring back to the story of Hezekiah when using the phrase "gates of Hades." Or the suffering of Job?

Others point to archeological evidence that Jesus is referring to geography and mythology. Jesus makes this statement while in the area of Caesarea Philippi, also known as Panea. Worship of the god Pan was common in this area, and at one of the worship areas to Pan was a Gate of Hades.

Click here for a helpful website with pictures of the Gates of Hades and archeological insights.

Click here for a blog with good insights on Caesarea Philippi. Context is everything!

So here we have an example of where the gospel uses the word "hades," and while there seems to be slim evidence that Jesus is referring to the Jewish idea of sheol, it's more likely that he is referring to the notions of Greek mythology held in the popular imagination.

Acts 2:27 (ESV) For you will not abandon my soul to Hades, or let your Holy One see corruption.
Acts 2:31 (ESV) he foresaw and spoke about the resurrection of the Christ, that he was not abandoned to Hades, nor did his flesh see corruption.

Sheol Reference: Psalm 16:10 (YLT) For Thou dost not leave my soul to Sheol, Nor givest thy saintly one to see corruption.

Peter is preaching, making the case that King David was referring to resurrection in Psalm 16, and that Jesus was the one actually resurrected. Peter then goes on to point out the implications of this fact. What's interesting is that the author of Acts quotes Psalm 16:10, substituting the Jewish word sheol for the Greek word hades. King David meant sheol when he wrote Psalm 16, not hades. To those that heard Peter's sermon, it's likely he directly quoted Psalm 16 and used sheol. But Luke records the sermon in Greek, and uses the word hades. This dosen't mean that hades and sheol mean the exactly the same thing. There is a reason for this substitution, including for cultural reasons.

1 Corinthians 15:54-55 (YLT) and when this corruptible may have put on incorruption, and this mortal may have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the word that hath been written, `The Death was swallowed up -- to victory; where, O Death, thy sting? Where, O Hades, thy victory?'

Sheol Reference: Isaiah 25:8 (YLT) He hath swallowed up death in victory, And wiped hath the Lord Jehovah, The tear from off all faces, And the reproach of His people He turneth aside from off all the earth, For Jehovah hath spoken.
Hosea 13:14 (YLT) From the hand of Sheol I do ransom them, From death I redeem them, Where [is] thy plague, O death? Where thy destruction, O Sheol? Repentance is hid from Mine eyes.

Here Paul is writing at length about resurrection. He is nearing the end of his piece when he pulls together two direct quotes from two different authors, Isaiah and Hosea. The two poems that Paul pulls from are compelling, imaginative, resonating ideas about what God will do in the future. The NT Greek has hades, but the original OT has sheol. The KJV here uses the word death in the OT. But it's the same word sheol that in other contexts it translates hell.

Revelation 1:18 (NIV) I am the Living One; I was dead, and now look, I am alive for ever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades.

Sheol Reference: Matthew 16:18, Hosea 13:14 (see above)

John the Revelator is quoting the words of Jesus to him. The idea of death and Hades together points back to the Hosea text. Jesus' reference to the gate of Hades earlier now comes to mind as he describes holding the keys to Hades. Here the KJV uses the word hell. But when examining the Hosea and Matthew texts, Jesus seems to be implying something else other than our popular notion of hell.

Revelation 6:8 (NIV) I looked, and there before me was a pale horse! Its rider was named Death, and Hades was following close behind him. They were given power over a fourth of the earth to kill by sword, famine and plague, and by the wild beasts of the earth.

Sheol References: Deuteronomy 32:22-25, Ezekiel 14:12-23, Leviticus 26:14-39, Hosea 13:14

Again, John uses "death and hades" together, though he seems to personify them in this text. His usage of the ideas of sword, famine, plague, and beasts all come from previous texts in Torah and the Prophets. Whether John is referring to Hades as the Greek mythological god, or a personification of sheol, as sometimes the OT does, is not abundantly clear. What is clear is that the KJV usage of hell here does not clear up any notions of how we ought to think of hell.

Revelation 20:13-14 (NIV) The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each person was judged according to what they had done. Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death.

Sheol Reference: Deuteronomy 32:22 (ESV) For a fire is kindled by my anger, and it burns to the depths of Sheol, devours the earth and its increase, and sets on fire the foundations of the mountains.

Song of Songs 8:6 (YLT) Set me as a seal on thy heart, as a seal on thine arm, For strong as death is love, Sharp as Sheol is jealousy, Its burnings [are] burnings of fire, a flame of Jah!,

Daniel 7:10 (YLT) A flood of fire is proceeding and coming forth from before Him, a thousand thousands do serve Him, and a myriad of myriads before Him do rise up, the Judge is seated, and the books have been opened.

This is an interesting and creative use of references to "death and hades", as John the Revelator has done elsewhere in Revelation. I looked for references in the OT where there is a connection between sheol and fire. I included the reference from Daniel since it refers to a "flood of fire" which seems metaphorically close to "lake of fire" and it includes a reference to the book of life, which is in the same verse of Revelation as sheol and fire and death. According to the KJV, hell is cast into the lake of fire. However, it seems clear that hell here means sheol. And the end of sheol has been prophesied elsewhere using different imagery. So we don't have here a very clear notion here of what the popular vision of hell is like.

These have been examples of the usage of hades in the NT and it's referring back to OT uses of the Hebrew word sheol. I am contending that in these instances, though the Greek word hades was used in the written text, the original meaning was Hebrew. Thus, though the KJV often translated hades and sheol as hell, getting clarity on what those two different words mean shapes what we understand hell to be. These usages of the words hades points more back to a Jewish understanding of sheol then our current popular notion of hell.

Victory Over Gluttony

2011-04-27T07:59:00.000-04:00

If you've come to the conclusion that you wrestle with the deadly sin of gluttony, now what? How do you achieve victory over gluttony?

We saw that Jesus was initially tempted with gluttony. Those first temptations were very powerful, much like the ones we face on a regular basis. Somehow Jesus continually found ways to be victorious over gluttony. How? Through fasting.

WHAT IS FASTING? Abstaining from food and/or drink for a period of time as a way of worship, a humbling of oneself, a form of contemplative prayer, a preparation for service to others.

Not only was fasting a key reason for why Jesus was able to be victorious over the temptations to gluttony in the desert, it was a regular part of his ministry. He would often withdraw to the mountains to pray. It's hard to believe that Jesus would pack a papersack of bread and dried fish as he trekked through the hills in order to get away to pray.

If you struggle with gluttony, you ought to become familiar with the themes of Isaiah 58 - it reveals the heart of God and what he wants to accomplish in the world through his people. If Isaiah 58 gave direction to the life of Jesus, it ought to be instructional for us. It reveals what is true fasting, what God expects from us, as well as what God wants to do in the world through us.

Here's how I would summarize Isaiah 58 (from the Message):

Hey, You’re a Glutton!
1-3 "Shout! A full-throated shout! Hold nothing back—a trumpet-blast shout!
Tell my people what's wrong with their lives,
face my family Jacob with their sins!
They're busy, busy, busy at worship,
and love studying all about me.
To all appearances they're a nation of right-living people—
law-abiding, God-honoring.
They ask me, 'What's the right thing to do?'
and love having me on their side.
But they also complain,
'Why do we fast and you don't look our way?
Why do we humble ourselves and you don't even notice?'

Your Gluttony Plugs Up God’s Ears
3-5"Well, here's why:
"The bottom line on your 'fast days' is profit.
You drive your employees much too hard.
You fast, but at the same time you bicker and fight.
You fast, but you swing a mean fist.
The kind of fasting you do
won't get your prayers off the ground.
Do you think this is the kind of fast day I'm after:
a day to show off humility?
To put on a pious long face
and parade around solemnly in black?
Do you call that fasting,
a fast day that I, God, would like?

Fasting That Feeds Your Neighbor
6-9"This is the kind of fast day I'm after:
to break the chains of injustice,
get rid of exploitation in the workplace,
free the oppressed, cancel debts.
What I'm interested in seeing you do is:
sharing your food with the hungry,
inviting the homeless poor into your homes,
putting clothes on the shivering ill-clad,
being available to your own families.
Do this and the lights will turn on,
and your lives will turn around at once.
Your righteousness will pave your way.
The God of glory will secure your passage.
THEN WHEN YOU PRAY, GOD WILL ANSWER.
YOU'LL CALL OUT FOR HELP AND I'LL SAY, 'HERE I AM.'

Generosity On An Empty Stomach
9-12"If you get rid of unfair practices,
quit blaming victims, quit gossiping about other people's sins,
If you are generous with the hungry
and start giving yourselves to the down-and-out,
Your lives will begin to glow in the darkness,
your shadowed lives will be bathed in sunlight.
I will always show you where to go.
I'll give you a full life in the emptiest of places— firm muscles, strong bones.
You'll be like a well-watered garden,
a gurgling spring that never runs dry.
You'll use the old rubble of past lives to build anew,
rebuild the foundations from out of your past.
You'll be known as those who can fix anything,
restore old ruins, rebuild and renovate,
make the community livable again.

Jesus Triumphs On An Empty Stomach
13-14"If you watch your step on the Sabbath
and don't use my holy day for personal advantage,
If you treat the Sabbath as a day of joy,
God's holy day as a celebration,
If you honor it by refusing 'business as usual,'
making money, running here and there—
Then you'll be free to enjoy God!
Oh, I'll make you ride high and soar above it all.
I'll make you feast on the inheritance of your ancestor Jacob."
Yes! God says so!

A Summary: Turn Away From Gluttony To Fasting That Feeds Others

Turning away from gluttony will be a continuous process. The temptations will grow in intensity to the degree that you learn to resist them. The ongoing response to the temptations of gluttony will be to turn towards serving and blessing others with generosity and food and justice. Think about it: the temptation of gluttony can be your reminder and prompt to lifting up your neighbors out of poverty and hardships!

WHAT IS FASTING? Abstaining from food and/or drink for a period of time as a way of worship, a humbling of oneself, a form of contemplative prayer, a preparation for service to others.

Your fasting is not about impressing God or seeing how long you can go without food. We traditionally think of fasting as a spiritual discipline that is to benefit ourselves. But clearly from Isaiah 58, while fasting does have obvious personal benefits, it is at its best when it blesses others. Our fasting is worship and prayer, but God wants it to alleviate the suffering others.

Which is why I think Jesus entered Jerusalem as king on a growling belly. Victory over gluttony comes from fasting that results in generosity to those who hunger and are oppressed. Apparently it takes a lot of work to overcome gluttony. And it also takes a lot of work to alleviate suffering in the world. And God makes a connection between the two with his idea of fasting. Jesus the starving king who saves the world.

If you are considering a lifestyle of fasting, you must consult your doctor. If you have any ongoing medical conditions or on any medication, you need to discuss with your doctor how you can make fasting a regular part of your diet without harming your self. Everybody can fast, and fasting can take many forms.

Victory over Gluttony. Where there is a will, there is a way.
And where there is unwillingness, there is an excuse.

He is Not Here. He is Risen!

2011-04-24T10:07:00.001-04:00

On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices they had prepared, and went to the tomb.

They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus.

While they were wondering about this, suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightening stood beside them. In their fright the women bowed down with their faces to the ground.

But the men said to them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here, He’s risen! Remember how he told you, while he was still with you in Galilee? ‘The Son of Man must be delivered over to the hands of sinners, be crucified, and on the third day be raised again.’”

Then they remembered his words.

Then they remembered his words.

They had forgotten his words.

How could they have forgotten Jesus’ words about crucifixion and resurrection?

Didn't they believe in resurrection?

Why didn’t they remember Jesus’ words? Didn’t they believe Jesus? Maybe they didn’t remember because they didn’t really believe that Jesus would be resurrected. Maybe they believed that once Jesus died, that was it. Done. Finished. Over.

Even though they had heard Jesus repeat his little line about death and raised to life at least three different times, they must not have really understood what he was talking about. They didn’t understand, and so they didn’t really believe.

How could you be a friend of Jesus, feed him, care for him, and then forget about his dire warnings of death on a cross? How could you forget about your friend promising to be raised up again?

Sometimes people have no imagination.

Sometimes people only hear what they want to hear.

Sometimes you have to believe something in order to see it.

Mary Magdalene loved Jesus. Joanna financed Jesus’ ministry. Mary the mother of James took care of everyone, including Jesus. How could they not remember his words about resurrection?

How did Mary Magdalene not remember Jesus’ words?

Jesus had saved her life. He had rescued her.

She had been home to demons. Seven of them ravished her soul.

She was helpless. Mary of Magdala was driven to madness. Until she met Jesus. Or, until Jesus met her.

Maybe a friend dragged her screaming and frothing corpse to the feet of Jesus. Maybe Jesus heard her wails and seen her writhing as he passed through the dirty streets of her hometown.

When Jesus arose to deliver her, when Jesus placed his weathered hands on her worn out body, when Jesus’ stern gaze caught her tear-drained eyes, when Jesus commanded with steely authority for the demons to depart, when Mary’s exhausted body dropped into the carpenter’s arms, she had been born again. She had a new life. When she woke up, she was starting over. She was loved. She was healed. She was at peace.

So when Mary hears a few years later that Jesus is telling the apostles about upcoming tragedies, she is frightened. She wonders: what does Jesus mean that he must be delivered unto the hands of sinners and crucified, and on the third day raised again?

What does Jesus mean? Crucifixion? Why will he let that happen to himself? What will we do if that happens? What will happen to us? And what does he mean that he’ll be raised back to life again on the third day? On the third day you’re dead-dead. Maybe I could believe that he’d be raised again on the first day, but the third day?

No way.

Is this another parable? I don’t understand what he’s saying.

How did Mary of Magdala not remember Jesus’ words?

She got busy? She stayed confused? She couldn’t believe in resurrection? She loved Jesus, but she didn’t always understand Jesus. She didn’t always understand Jesus, and she didn’t always agree with what she did understand.

Crucified and raised again on the third day?

To be crucified is to be cursed. Cursed by God.

If Jesus is crucified, does this mean he is cursed by God? Why? What would Jesus have to do in order to be cursed by God? I understand why some of the Pharisees and Herodians want Jesus crucified, but God? Surely God won’t allow Jesus to be cursed and crucified?

Didn’t Peter confess that Jesus is the Messiah, that Jesus is the Son of the Living God? What about the stories that we heard from Mary and James about when Jesus was born in Bethlehem? Surely God won’t let the Savior of Israel be crucified! Why would God let Israel’s Deliverer become accursed? And if God curses Jesus, why would he bring him back to life three days later? Why would God curse Jesus on one day, and then raise him back up on the third day? What does this mean?

Why do you look for the living among the dead?

He is not here, He is risen!

You can imagine the two men rehearsing their lines. Should they shout it out loud and full of joy, or should they come across as serious and exasperated? Should they say it together in unison, or take turns with the different lines?

Here’s what I think they were supposed to say when they confronted the unbelieving women coming to put the burial spices on Jesus’ entombed body – it comes from Deuteronomy 32:29, a chapter that charts out Israel’s history – a history that God is prepared for, a history that God is preparing for:

See now that I myself am He,

There is no god beside me:

I put to death and I bring to life,

I have wounded and I will heal,

And no one can deliver out of my hand.

I think that was the first line, and here’s what was supposed to be the second line, a portion from Isaiah 53:

After he has suffered, he will see the light of life and be satisfied;  

By his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many,  

and he will bear their iniquities.

Therefore I will give him a portion among the great,

and he will divide the spoils with the strong,

because he poured out his life unto death,  

and was numbered with the transgressors.  

For he bore the sin of many,

and made intercession for the transgressors.

But I think the men – messengers from God, clothed in gleaming garments of flashing lightening – they got so excited about announcing this good news to the women that they blurted out a much shorter, concise, and memorable announcement:

Why do you look for the living among the dead, he is not here – he is risen!

And then they remembered his words.

The Son of Man must be delivered over to sinners and be crucified.

And on the third day be raised again.

He is not here – He is risen.

So don’t go looking for him.

So now what. What do we do now? This is crazy good news! We’ve got to tell the others! Except we know what they’re going to say: you girls are crazy!

Jesus is dead! He’s been crucified! Cursed of God! We’re doomed! Doomed I tell you! You’re crazy to leave this Upper Room. You’re crazy to visit the tomb. You’re crazy if you think we’ll believe it’s empty and that two linen-lightening clad men told you that Jesus is alive. You’re crazy and we’re doomed. All is lost.

Even when Jesus did show up in the flesh – with obvious wounds to his hands and feet and side – everyone was very frightened. They just didn’t expect to see a resurrected Jesus. Even with Mary and Joanna’s crazy good news, even with Peter’s confirmation of a missing body and empty tomb, even with the weird story of Cleopas claim having broke bread with Jesus – nobody was ready for Jesus to show up amongst them.

Jesus was hard pressed to convince the cowering crowd that it was really him and not a ghost. What to do with disciples who are more apt to believe in ghosts then resurrected rabbis? What do with doubters?

Jesus had to eat fish to show his friends he was really alive. You got to wonder how much fish did he have to chew up before the doubting turned to delightful belief?

Maybe He spent the first hour disproving he was a ghost by downing bowls of broiled fish. Then maybe he spent the next hour with a stomachache while letting James and John stick their fingers in his feet, letting Peter and Andrew hold up his wrists and peek at each other through the holes.

Enough!
Jesus pulls his friends together, big smiles, big eyes, big hearts – and he reviews with them his version of what’s happened, what’s going on, and what’s going to happen.

This was the way things had to be.

It was hard. It was tragic. It was difficult. It was confusing. It had to be this way.

And this changes everything.

You know how I healed you Lazarus. You know how I rescued you Peter. You know how I delivered you Mary. And now I’m back – I was crucified by sinners and cursed by God, and I’m back – blessed by God and ready to forgive sinners!

You didn’t believe me. You betrayed me. You abandoned me. You denied me. You ran away. You fell asleep on me. Yet hear me now: I. Love. You. I. Forgive. You. We. Are. Friends. My. Peace. I. Give. You. God has blessed you. God has been making you a blessing. And now God is ready to bless the world through you.

Now hear this – this is what’s next for you:
I’m going to send you out into the world that God loves. You remember how through God’s Spirit I helped you change your life? Well you get to go into the world and help sinners and cripples and the brokenhearted, showing them how to change their life. You get to preach repentance and demonstrated forgiveness of sins with that Same Spirit of God!

Just as I invited you to change your life – so you get to go and invite others to change their life. Just as I forgave you, so you go and forgive others. Just as I taught you how to forgive others, so you go and teach others how to forgive. Just as I healed you, go and heal others in my name, with the Same Spirit of God. Just as I saved you, rescued you, delivered you – let me save and rescue and deliver the world through you.

Don’t just believe in resurrection.
Live in light of the resurrection.

Resurrection. Raised up. New beginnings. Born again. Invincibility. Getting back up. And the resurrected Jesus – what’s the first and best message he gives his followers? Forgive. Teach others to forgive.

How do you sow seeds of resurrection in the world God loves? Repent. Change. Forgive. Love. The resurrected Jesus came to forgive and save sinners. To those that remember his words: remember to forgive, to help others forgive.

Don’t just believe in resurrection.
Remember the words of the resurrected Jesus.

This is how the world that God loves learns to believe in him. When those that follow the resurrected Jesus remember his words and choose to proclaim forgiveness of sins.

Don’t just believe in resurrection.
Believe in the resurrected Jesus.

He is not here, he is risen!

He is risen!

He is risen indeed!

It's Resurrection Sunday!

2011-04-24T06:45:00.001-04:00

Resurrection!

What do you believe?

Do you believe in resurrection?

I do.

resurrection announces that God has not given up on the world
because this world matters
this world that we call home
dirt and blood and sweat and skin and light and water
this world that God is redeeming and restoring and renewing

it’s easy to be cynical

everybody believes somebody
Jesus invites us to trust resurrection
that every glimmer of good
every hint of hope
every impulse that elevates the soul
is a sign, a taste, a glimpse
of how things actually are
and how things will ultimately be
resurrection affirms this life and the next
as a seamless reality
embraced
graced
and saved by God

resurrection says that what we do with our lives matters
in this body
the one that we inhabit right now
every act of compassion matters
every work of art that celebrates the good and the true matters
every fair and honest act of business and trade
every kind word
they all belong and they will all go on in God’s good world
nothing will be forgotten
nothing will be wasted
it all has it’s place
~ Rob Bell

Why Is Today Called Good Friday?

2011-04-22T15:00:00.000-04:00

Why is today called Good Friday?

As my six year old son said, “Shouldn’t it be called Sad Friday?”

His twin brother suggested that it be called Bad Friday, since Jesus was killed on a cross.

Indeed it was a bad day for God. His one and only son was unjustly condemned, slandered, betrayed, abandoned, tortured, mocked and murdered.

It was a sad day for God. It was a sad Friday for Jesus.

Why call it Good Friday when it is a day of grief, of sorrow, of suffering, a day of affliction and transgressions, a day of iniquities and wounds?

Why call it Good Friday when God’s Son is humbled and crucified for preaching the Good News of God’s Kingdom?

If anything, it should be called God’s Friday. On it God’s Son was killed by God’s people, they had killed another of God’s Prophets as they had done in centuries past, another of God’s Servants rejected. On this Day it was God’s Kingdom that was resisted, God’s good News of Deliverance and Salvation of Peace and Righteousness was rejected.

God the Father sent His Son to be the New King of Israel; to fulfill that ancient promise to Abraham: I will bless you, I will make you a blessing, through you I will bless the world.

They killed their king.

It was a bad Friday for God the Father. Why call it Good Friday when it’s a day marked by violence, rebellion, and defiance?

If nothing else, call it God’s Friday, just not Good Friday.

The earliest Christians called today Holy Friday. Holy carries with it the meaning of set apart, unlike all else. For obvious reasons, today is holy, unlike all other Fridays in all of history.

Today also became known as Great Friday. A tradition developed in early Christianity when every Friday became a Holy Feast Day in remembrance of Christ’s crucifixion. This day today became known as Great Friday, a distinction from all the other Holy Feast Days.

Holy Friday. Great Friday. Those are the ancient names for today.

Maybe we should reclaim those early titles for today. Instead of calling it Good Friday, call it Holy Friday, or Great Friday. Just not Good Friday. For too many years now, whenever someone hears the title for today, it often prompts that searching question: Why is today called Good Friday?

For obvious reasons, today is God’s Friday. It’s when God died. We believe that God was in the flesh on the cross. Here’s how St. Paul writes it:

Who, being in the form of God,
did not consider equality with God something to be grasped.
Rather, he made himself nothing,
By taking the form of a servant
Being made in human likeness.
And being found in appearance as a human being,
He humbled himself
By becoming obedient to death
Even death on a cross.

You could say that God’s heart was hammered onto a hardwood tree that day. A day of rejection, a morning of brokenness, of shattered, bleeding love.

Instead of calling it Good Friday for all these years, we should’ve been calling it God’s Friday. All by itself, there is nothing good about today. When you look at just today, it’s not a Good Friday.

It’s God’s Friday. God suffered on this Friday. God in the flesh was staked to a rough-hewn pole amidst criminals. On this Friday God the Son who came to serve and save was ripped to shreds. His life and blood pouring out onto the stones on this Friday.

God gave a vision of this many centuries earlier to a prophet who was also rejected and tortured and destroyed on a tree. Well, according to legend, in a tree. It is told that on his final day, Isaiah was stuffed into a hollow tree and then sawn in half.

Isaiah was a servant that suffered. He was the servant of a God who suffered. He was given words to remember about another servant to come who would suffer. A poem for how God would suffer again:

Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering.
Yet we considered him punished by God,
stricken by him and afflicted.
He was oppressed and afflicted,
yet he did not open his mouth.
He was led like a lamb to the slaughter,
and as a sheep before its shearers are silent,
so he did not open his mouth.
By oppression and judgment he was taken away,
yet who of his generation protested?
He was assigned a grave with the wicked,
and with the rich in his death.
Though he had done no violence,
nor was any deceit found in his mouth.

This makes for a Sad Friday. As my son Levi said, “It should be called Bad Friday.” Or at least, instead of Good Friday, God’s Friday.

If any of you know your German, you’ll remember that today is known in their land as Gottes Freitag. For a nation that predates ours, they carry the tradition of calling today God’s Friday. But it also seems that some in Germany long ago referred to today as Gute Freitag.

Gute carries with it the meaning of Benevolence, Charity, Kindness, Goodness.

And so it seems the tradition of calling today Good Friday can stand.

Today is God’s Friday. And on His Friday, God turned a Bad Day into a Good day.

As we read the sorrowful story in the Gospel According to Luke, amidst the words of grief and paragraphs of pain, there is a simple, stunning line from God’s Son that transforms God’s Friday into a Good Friday:

Two other men, both criminals, were also led out with them to be executed. When they came to the place of The Skull, they were crucified him there, along with the criminals – one on his right, the other on his left. And Jesus whispered amidst his tears groans: Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.

He’s not supposed to be there, between two brigands.

Jesus was a good man. He brought good news. He was good news. He healed the sick, fed the hungry, befriended the poor, lifted up the lame, set sinners free, generously gave away faith, hope, and love.

It can’t be a good day when God’s good Son is unjustly put to death. But even amidst the torture and agony and pain, God’s Good Son lets his body:

Be pierced for our transgressions,
Be crushed for our iniquities.
He bore the sin of many and made intercession for the transgressors.

Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.

This is the Father’s Friday. For those that believe, trust, accept, want it, today can be a Good Friday.

How would someone know that you believed that today is a Good Friday?

How would someone know that you trusted in the Father’s Forgiveness?

How would someone know that you believed that on Good Friday the Father laid on his Son the iniquity of us all?

How would someone know you want today to be a Good Friday? They would know it when they hear you whisper those same words of Jesus on the cross amidst your own sorrow and suffering.
Father, forgive them, they do not know what they are doing.

When you are afflicted and crushed, we’ll know you believe God’s Friday is a Good Friday when you whisper the words of God’s Son.

Why is today called Good Friday? Because one by one, Christians quietly choose to respond with forgiveness when they are sinned against.

It’s always been God’s Friday. Through our response to the Father’s forgiveness, our lives, our words, our forgiving just as God forgave us – this will become the best answer to the annual question:
Why is today called Good Friday?

Notes on Hell: Sheol

2011-04-21T16:41:00.001-04:00

In beginning to understand what the Scriptures teach about hell, one must start at the beginning. For those that grew up reading the King James Version of the Bible, the word sheol was translated hell. So to understand what we mean by the word hell, we ought to become familiar with the word sheol.

I typed in the word sheol using BibleGateway.com, selecting Young's Literal Translation. Here's what I found. I used YLT because it is consistently gives us the word sheol in its translation from Hebrew to English. Most other translations give it a variety of words like grave, realm of the dead, or place of the dead.

Using YLT, there are 62 occurrences of the word sheol in the Hebrew Scriptures. By glancing through each verse, you would could conclude that the Hebrews don't believe in an afterlife, that there is no reward or punishment after death. Sheol is not what we typically think of when we use the word hell.

Here's the summary of some of the best Christian scholars on the meaning behind sheol.

In the Torah, Sheol carries with it two general meanings: that of the grave, as well as some kind of netherworld in the "lowest depths of the earth." (Dictionary of the Old Testament: Pentateuch - Life, Disease and Death, Cosmology).

Burial is simply recorded as an event, with no religious ceremony. The destiny of the dead is not generally addressed in the Pentateuch. ...the world of the dead was cut off from Yahweh, and it's exploration firmly forbidden. Yahweh is the author of life and the God of the living, and this life is the sphere of obedience and blessing. (536-7)

For the wisdom, poetry and writings of the Hebrew Scriptures, Sheol is the destiny of all people, used as a description for death as well as some kind of place, an underworld of "non-life." (Dictionary of the Old Testament: Wisdom, Poetry & Writings - Afterlife, Chaos & Death).

Poetry in psalms and wisdom is by nature evocative and elusive, and their references to death reveal as much about its emotional impact as its conceptualization. Alternative views of destiny after death emerge in other, nonpoetic texts. The emergence of these views is often dated well into the postexilic period for many reasons, including the possible influence of Persian dualism and the development of apocalyptic. (5)

Ecclesiastes is the only OT book to contain significant reflection on death itself. The Pentateuch prescribes death as a penalty, the Historical Books record it as an event, and the psalms offer prayer against its untimely occurrence. (7)

Together, these books illustrate well the traditional Hebrew focus on this life and its events and the general disinterest in any individual consciousness beyond death. (8)

...Death enlarges its appetite (Habakkuk 2:5), opens its throat wide (Isaiah 5:14), swallows people (Psalm 69:15, Proverbs 1:12) and is never satisfied (Proverbs 27:20, 30:15-16). Death's power over humankind is seen in the fact that all people die (see Psalm 89:48), and that those who go to the grave do not return to life (Job 7:9-10, 10:21). (52)

The imagery of death as voracious swallower meets an ironic reversal when we learn that YHWH will permanently "swallow up death" (Isaiah 25:8). Since death is the ultimate opponent of divine order, the death of death represents the establishment of the ultimate divine order. (53)

To conclude: death and sheol go together. The Hebrews reflected little upon death and sheol, they did not expect to return from it, did not hope for it, did not plan for it. However, there are glimpses here and there of yearnings for the "death of death." It is this glimpse that gets magnified in the New Testament. With this understanding of sheol, we learn that it modifies our traditional understanding of hell. Whatever it is you believe about hell, it must be rooted in what the Scriptures actually teach.

When Does Feasting Become Gluttony?

2011-04-20T20:08:00.000-04:00

We've been reflecting on the thoughts of St. Gregory the Great about gluttony: too much, too soon, too eagerly, too richly, too daintily.

Gluttony has always been a problem in society. We usually associate gluttony with big meals with big servings, or too big of plates or too many trips to the buffet. But if God commands his people to worship him through feasts, maybe gluttony isn't just about the portion size, but the purpose of the meal. And maybe not just about the purpose of the meal, but the people at the meal with you.

God spoke to Moses: "Tell the People of Israel, These are my appointed feasts, the appointed feasts of God which you are to decree as sacred assemblies. "Work six days. The seventh day is a Sabbath, a day of total and complete rest, a sacred assembly. Don't do any work. Wherever you live, it is a Sabbath to God.
~ Leviticus 23v1-3 (The Message)

Following this introduction in Leviticus, we learn about seven feast days, starting with the Sabbath, that are spread throughout the year. Days of worship when the people of Israel are to assemble together - a sacred gathering designated by feasts. You got to like a God who when giving instructions on how to worship him includes regular feasts.

Through this text, I observed three things about feasting - when it's connected to worship, when it's connected to rest, and when it's connected to community.

Feasting as Worship: Eating with gratitude, with God in mind, as a sacred task

Feasting as Rest: Eating slow-food instead of fast-food, preparation instead of pre-packaged

Feasting as Community: Eating as a family, eating with your neighbors, eating as sacred event

Gluttony is probably connected to scarfing your food. And scarfing your food is rarely connected to gratefulness. Feasting becomes worship when we consider the gathering to be sacred, a special moment of the day. Feasting becomes worship when we let God sit at the meal with us, listening in on our conversations, adding to the experience. Feasting becomes worship when we eat with a grateful heart to him and those around the table with us.

Why not prepare home-cooked meals? Because we're too busy. Why not eat dinner at home with your family at least five or six times a week? Because you're too busy. The purpose of a meal is to add energy to your life, to add life to your family - which is the same definition of rest. We've forgotten how to make meals rest-full, instead we've made them stress-full and a chore.

The irony is: eating fast-food fuels only a fast-paced life that does not lead to rest. Busy people don't usually grow gardens. Busy people don't usually do dinner as a family. Busy people eat pre-packaged meals which add to their waistline instead of their family legacy.

Michael Pollan observes that most American families today report eating dinner together 3-4 nights a week. But - Mom cooks alone; Dad and each kid prepare an entirely different entree for themselves. They might join Mom as long as it takes to eat, but not necessarily at the same time. This does not create for rest and refreshment.

Michael Pollan also observes that people eat more when they are alone. If you have family that live in your home, you ought to do the hard work of rearranging schedules in order to enjoy the blessings of meals together. Of course this may require some mending of relationships, of adding to people's lives before and after the meal. Which would be a good thing, right?

Feasts are meant for community. Every dinner could be a feast - not because of the mounds of food - but because of the attitude towards those seated to your left and right.If you rarely eat with others, you have to ask yourself, why? And when it comes to the prospect of changing your life in order to feast with others more often, you have to ask: why not?

The ancient Israelites knew how to turn a worshipful community feast into an gluttonous affair of orgiastic proportions. And they were punished for it. You can read about it here in Exodus 32:1-6. The temptation towards gluttony is always powerful, always hard to resist. The rut we get into makes it so easy to eat too much, too quickly, alone. When we take matters into our own hands, life unravels for us. The same for our eating habits. Or addictions. God offers deliverance. But it doesn't come as a miracle, but from a way of life. And for us Christians, Jesus is our guide.

Jesus ate at plenty of feasts, and though he was accused of gluttony, it's easy to see him as making the event worshipful and sacred and good, of making it rest-full and refreshing, and making it a rich community experience. And one of the feasts he was invited to, he noticed how some people used the experience to their own advantage, so he made this observation:

Then Jesus said to his host, “When you give a luncheon or dinner, do not invite your friends, your brothers or sisters, your relatives, or your rich neighbors; if you do, they may invite you back and so you will be repaid. But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed. Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”
When one of those at the table with him heard this, he said to Jesus, “Blessed is the one who will eat at the feast in the kingdom of God.”
~Luke 14v12-15 (NIV, 2011)

Jesus wants us to reconsider who we are eating with. We all need to make our feasting more worship-full and more rest-full. But we also need to make it more community oriented. And that doesn't mean we only invite people who like us, or who are like us. Would we consider throwing a party or planning a feast and then inviting the poor, the disadvantaged, the socially awkward, the outcasts, the smelly or undesirable ones? Would you EVER do that? Why not?

Notice also about this verse: the assumption that we'll be feasting in the life to come with God. If you don't like feasting according to God's commands now in this life, what makes you think you'll like heaven? If you've got to spend eternity eating with people you avoid on earth, does that sound like joy and bliss? Maybe you ought to reconsider your assumptions about what you eat and who you eat with in the weeks to come.

What can you do this week:
to make Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner worship-full?

to eat more slow-food and less pre-packaged food?

to avoid eating alone – or add another chair to your family meal?

What can you do so that you're sharing a meal with the poor and marginalized?
Maybe at your church? Who in your neighborhood?
Do you even know any poor people?

My Review of Love Wins: Chapter One

2011-04-20T00:37:00.000-04:00

Questions.

Rob Bell begins the chapter with a story, but then he unloads a long string of provocative questions.

I imagine he's asking these questions because they're the same ones that get posed to him as a pastor.

He's also learned along the way that asking questions is how you...learn. Far too many Christians have quit asking questions. Ought not we critically examine our beliefs, test them against reality and the Scriptures?

Here's the leading question of the chapter - and the book:

Of all the billions of people who have ever lived, will only a select number "make it to a better place" and every single other person suffer in torment and punishment forever? Is this acceptable to God? Has God created millions of people over tens of thousands of years who are going to spend eternity in anguish? Can God do this, or even allow this, and still claim to be a loving God? (2)

It's easy to see someone one posing this question to Rob from across the cafe table over a cup of coffee. A young man who grew up in the church, who asked too many questions, who got too many cliche answers. A woman with a sensitive spirit who probes the mystery of Scripture and who connects with a wide array of people with wretched stories.

The second part of the question - a controversial summary:

Does God punish people for thousands of years with infinite, eternal torment for things they did in their few finite years of life? (2)

You can almost hear the sneer in the voice of the one posing this to Pastor Rob. For some it's a sneer, or cynicism, or bewilderment. And what should a pastor do at this point? Try and give the "right" answer? Or, maybe, help this questioner ask better questions. Which is what Rob attempts to do in this chapter.

He notes that this particular line of questioning raises questions about the kind of God who would do such a thing. It also poses a question of how you get to be one of the "select number" get to avoid "eternity in anguish." And it's a good question: "How does a person become one of the few? (2) How would you answer it?

Rob points out that there is not agreement on what a person is to do. He asks if you are to take a class, be baptized, join a church or have something happen in your heart, or say a specific prayer. And he points out that there's not agreement on what exactly to say in the prayer, or even what to call the prayer. And what about people who said the prayer, but maybe didn't fully understand what they were doing. (5) He then asks a question that seems out of context:

What about the people who have never said the prayer and don't claim to be Christians, but live a more Christlike life than some Christians?

The next statement and question also seems out of context for the chapter:

Some Christians believe and often repeat that all that matters is whether or not a person is going to heaven. Is that the message? Is that what life is all about? Going somewhere else? If that's the gospel, the good news - if what Jesus does is get people somewhere else - then the central message of the Christian faith has very little to do with this life...." (6)

Followed up with another zinger of a question:

So is it true that the kind of person you are doesn't ultimately matter, as long as you've said or prayed or believed the right things?

These are provocative questions that seem forced into his line of questioning, yet they are important ones to consider. It reveals the audience Rob is seeking to rattle: those Christians who don't really think about their beliefs, or the consequences of those beliefs for other people, their community, or their world. Their beliefs lead them to activity that focuses primarily on getting other people to go to heaven - and as Rob observes, at the expense of caring for the poor, caring for Creation, caring about their neighbor.

There's a barrage of questions. Rob points out that some would say in response to all this complexity, that everything can be boiled down to "how you respond to Jesus" (7). Rob agrees. But then he has to go and ask another pesky question: "Which Jesus?" (7) He goes on to point out all the different kind of Jesus's that have been portrayed that ought to be rejected or disbelieved. A man molests a daughter while reciting the Lord's Prayer. Christians herd Muslims into a building and then gun them down. Jesus who comes across as antiscience. "Some Jesuses should be rejected." (9)

So if you reject the unauthentic Jesuses, how do you discover the real Jesus? Rob mentions how people bring up the Romans 10 passage: "How can they hear without someone preaching to them?" And Rob wonders: what if the missionary gets a flat tire? (9) "Is someone else's eternity resting in your hands?

That's a scary question. And it deserves a good answer. But this chapter is about questions, not answers. Rob wants you to consider - what are the implications for what you believe? And what do you believe? How did you come to believe it? And do others have to believe the same way you do? Do they have to come to the same belief you do in the same way?

Ready for more questions?

If the message of Jesus is that God is offering the free gift of eternal life through him- a gift we cannot earn by our own efforts, works or good deeds - and all we have to do is accept and confess and believe, aren't all those verbs? And aren't those verbs actions? Accepting, confessing, believing - those are things we do. Does that mean, then, that going to heaven is dependent on something I do?
How is that grace?
How is that a gift?
How is that good news?

Isn't that what Christians have always claimed set their religion apart - that it wasn't, in the end, a religion at all - that you don't have to do anything, because God has already done it through Jesus? (11)

Whoa.

Now we're getting to some of the core questions of the book, of Rob's thoughts, his theology, the seeds for his answers to come later in the book. If you're like me, you're a bit overwhelmed with the onslaught of questions. But if you're not the type of person to ask a lot of questions, or you don't want more questions - you want more answers, you might be very annoyed with Rob.

His next set of probing questions might really annoy you. He's going to push back against the simplistic ideas we have about how one comes to be saved. He mentions stories in Luke 7, 18 & 23, John 3, Luke 20, Matthew 6, 7 & 10, Luke 19, Mark 2, 1 Corinthians 7, Acts 22 and Romans 11 that all reveal different ways that people were saved. (12-17) Jesus is central to all of them, but not in the same way.

Here's his summary of questions about how Jesus saves you according to the above referenced Scriptures:

Is it what you say,
or who you are,
or what you do,
or what you say you're going to do,
or who your friends are,
or who you're married to,
or whether you give birth to children?
Or is it what questions you're asked?
Or is it what questions you ask in return?
Or is it whether you do what you're told and go into the city?
...is it the tribe, family, or ethnic group you're born into?

Almost done with the chapter.

"...some would say, 'Just believe.'" (17)
Rob points out in Luke 11, Mark 3, and Matthew 16 that there was some uncertainty about who Jesus was exactly. Pharisees, family, and disciples had "a difficult time grasping just how Jesus [was]." (17)

Rob seeks to cause uncertainty in your mind and heart about what you believe.

Sowing seeds of doubt, maybe? This assumes that doubt can be a good thing. And that certainty can sometimes be toxic. Maybe you disagree with this premise? If so, you'll be annoyed, offended, or confused by Rob's methods.

But could we agree that most people could use some clarity about what they believe and the implications for them? And the path to clarity sometimes requires you to start over again, in a sense, with what you believe. To allow everything to be re-examined in the light of Scripture and reality.

Here's how Rob ends the chapter - it's a directive for where he's going in the book and the grand scope of what he's seeking to accomplish:

We could go on,
verse after verse,
passage after passage,
question after question,
about heaven and hell and the afterlife
and salvation and believing and judgment
and who God is and what God is like
and how Jesus fits into any of it.

But this book isn't just a book of questions.
It's a book of responses to these questions.

(If at this point you're still reading this post, I'll admit I'm impressed. If I make it too short, I'll get accused of taking stuff out of context. If I make it too long I'll get accused of losing people because they don't have a long enough attention span to read stuff that's this long. I guess you're not one of those people!)

You can see why Rob makes people nervous. He's asking questions about the heart of Christianity, the identity of God, the role of Jesus. No wonder such strong opinions surface in reaction to Rob's ideas. We protest and fight about what we hold dear. So push-back is good. I'd like to hear your push-back with this chapter.

Is Rob asking unfair questions?
Is Rob asking misleading questions?
Is Rob asking too many questions?
Do you resist asking too many questions? Why?

Is Rob making the issues too gray in this chapter? Is there really that much confusion about how to become a Christian? Is Rob misusing Scripture to point out the different ways people become a Christian? Does Rob mischaracterize Christians who have a strong focus on going to heaven when they die?

For me, the weakest part of this chapter is the characterization of Christians. The power of the questions come from a particular kind of characterization. Even the initial question which is at the heart of the book is carefully phrased, and I think it comes across a bit misleading.

However, I do think that these questions didn't all originate with Rob. I think a lot of them came from Christians and ex-Christians and anti-Christians who really struggled to make sense of the faith. In their struggle, in their experiences, in their life they ended up asking these kinds of questions. Rob puts there questions in his mouth and asks them on their behalf for us to consider.

What don't you like about this chapter?

What resonated with you?

My Review of Love Wins: the Preface

2011-04-14T23:17:00.000-04:00

Story.

That's how Rob Bell understands the Scriptures. What he writes in Love Wins comes from his interpreting the Scriptures as "Jesus's story." And what is the heart of Jesus' story? In the preface he centers on John 3:16. For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

Love Wins challenges your traditional understanding of this oft-quoted verse. It takes a firm stand against some interpretations - particularly those that promote belief in hell as a place of eternal concious torment for most of the people who have ever lived. Rob tells a story about God's love as revealed through Jesus that has in mind those who have walked away from the Christian faith that emphasizes this story of hell.

Love Wins asks really focused questions that are designed to make you squirm, to make you really think about what you believe about hell. Rob is comfortable with asking big questions, looking at a particular idea from different angles. There's no answer he's not willing to question. Discussing ideas - and allowing all view points to be considered and sifted and challenged - this is how we get clarity. Dousing controversial questions is not acceptable.

I think that Rob was fully aware of how the evangelical Christian community will generally receive his book. He knows he'll get accused of heresy, that debates will descend quickly to slander and misrepresentation, and that there will be "a massive exercise in missing the point." But it would seem that he also wants to share what he's learned from Scripture - as a pastor, as a student, as one immersed in the writings and research of many Christians who have come before him. And he senses that there are those within the evangelical community and many outside of it who are interested in learning from him.

Here's how Pastor Bell attempts to frame his telling of the Jesus-story in the preface to Love Wins:

...please understand that nothing in this book hasn't been taught, suggested, or celebrated by many before me. I haven't come up with a radical new teaching that's any kind of departure from what's been said an untold number of times. That's the beauty of the historic, orthodox, Christian faith. It's a deep, wide, diverse stream that's been flowing for thousands of years, carrying a staggering variety of voices, perspectives, and experiences.

Some Evangelicals are suspicious of non-evangelicals who are also part of the historic, orthodox, Christian faith. Rob isn't. Love Wins draws on plenty of non-evangelical yet historic, orthodox, Christian thinkers and theologians. Thus there will be plenty for some evangelicals to resist. But maybe more evangelical Christians should be reading from a wider stream. Love Wins, for many, may be their first dip.

I like asking big questions. I like digging around, pushing back against accepted tradition. And I like that others challenge me in what I say I believe. But I'm not interested in being novel or quirky in my beliefs. I want to know the truth. I seek to follow where the truth leads in Scripture. I try to read widely, to look at issues from a multi-faceted point of view. Thus my interest in exploring Scriptures and its idea of hell and the fate of every person who ever lived.

Lose the Weight: Gluttony & Worry

2011-04-13T14:40:00.001-04:00

What are you worried about these days?

What do you eat when you are worried? Anxious? Nervous? Upset? Afraid? Uncertain?

There's a connection between gluttony and worry. How many of us want to lose weight around our waist AND we wish we could shrug off the big backpack of worry that's wrapped around our shoulders? We become gluttons when we worry, when we open up the fridge or scrounge through the pantry to snack and ease our anxiety. We fuel our worry when we regret that tub of chocolate fudge caramel peanut butter ice-cream.

For me and for many of my friends, in our effort to resist temptations of gluttony, we need to worry less. In my learning to master my fears, I find I'm learning to control my snacking and second-helpings. Fear and food too often go together in unhealthy ways. Jesus observed the connection and put it like this:

“Be careful, or your hearts will be weighed down with carousing, [gluttony and] drunkenness and the anxieties of life, and that day will close on you suddenly like a trap. ~Luke 21:34 (NIV, 2011)

Our hearts and hips get weighed down, and we add to the burden when we fail to control our indulgences and insecurities. Gluttony may feel good for a moment, but it only adds to our problems. Remember: Gluttony = too soon, too much, too eagerly, too richly, too daintily.
And what is worry? Here's how some people put it:

“Worry is like a rocking chair--it gives you something to do but it doesn't get you anywhere.”
“Worry often gives a small thing a big shadow.”
“Worry is interest paid on trouble before it comes due.” ~W. R. Inge

How do you lose the weight of gluttony and worry? If they are often intertwined, what can be done to lighten the load of each? In looking at Jesus' words above, here are some considerations:

Pay Attention to your Heart.
When it comes to worry, you need to confess to someone else - at least to Jesus, and probably to a close friend - what you are anxious, nervous, or upset about. Confession gets the secret out of your heart and into the open. Confession allows you to share the burden with someone who cares. Confession opens you up to a new solution that undercuts the power of worry.

Along with confession comes repentance. In Hebrew the word repent means to turn around, to change your direction. In Greek the word means change your mind, your heart. Either way, repenting is committing to change, to good change. Confession and repentance go together as an antidote to worry and gluttony. Let a friend share the burden, and then together put in place the changes you've determined to make. Those are the kinds of prayers God loves to answer.

Pay Attention to Your Days.
As you think about what you've been confessing, of what you've been repenting, it's worth considering what your days are like. What are your habits and patterns, daily routines and weekly ruts that shape your life? Everybody has good habits that add to your life, and bad habits that drain your life. What are yours? Which of them need to be changed? Repented of? Confession and repentance strengthen your resolve to change your daily and weekly ruts.

When you take into account your habits and ruts, you ought to project into the future where all this is taking you? What's the bigger picture - if you change, and if you don't change. What if you leave life the way it is now - weighed down with gluttony and worry? How is that working out for you now? What will that be like in a year? Ten years? What if you started shrugging off the baggage of anxiety now? What if you did the really hard work of repenting and changing your worrisome ruts now?

Pay Attention to Jesus.
He'll help you relax and respond to God's initiatives in your life. Here's what he has to say about how he can help you today:

"If you decide for God, living a life of God-worship, it follows that you don't fuss about what's on the table at mealtimes or whether the clothes in your closet are in fashion. There is far more to your life than the food you put in your stomach, more to your outer appearance than the clothes you hang on your body.

"If God gives such attention to the appearance of wildflowers—most of which are never even seen—don't you think he'll attend to you, take pride in you, do his best for you? What I'm trying to do here is to get you to relax, to not be so preoccupied with getting, so you can respond to God's giving.

People who don't know God and the way he works fuss over these things, but you know both God and how he works. Steep your life in God-reality, God-initiative, God-provisions. Don't worry about missing out. You'll find all your everyday human concerns will be met.

"Give your entire attention to what God is doing right now, and don't get worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow. God will help you deal with whatever hard things come up when the time comes. ~Matthew 6:25, 30-34 (The Message)

You Can Lose the Weight of Worry and Gluttony.

This is the kind of work Jesus can sustain in your life. He can help you carry the load. He can help you change. Jesus is with you.

Jesus says, "Relax!"

Be A Glutton. Like Jesus.

2011-04-07T08:02:00.000-04:00

In reading through the Gospels while preparing for this series on Gluttony, I was fascinated by the idea of Jesus being accused of gluttony. Imagine Jesus guilty of gorging?! As I explored this theme, I came across where Jesus threw the accusations back at the Pharisees, naming them as gluttons. So who's right? What's the difference between a glutton like Jesus and ones like the religious leaders of Israel?

Here's how Jesus recounts the accusation:

The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and you say, ‘Here is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.’ But wisdom is proved right by all her children.”
Luke 7:34-35 (NIV)

He's been walking around Israel for awhile, doing a lot of good work, preaching the good news of God's coming. Lots of people were flocking to him, getting healed, getting touched, getting fed, getting loved, getting a new heart. People hung out with Jesus and they repented, they confessed, they turned their lives around. And they invited him to lots of dinners.

Mealtime was more than just about eating. It was about hospitality, about welcome, about community, about acceptance, about embrace, about love. To dine with someone was to become associated with them, to be with them, to be for them. So be careful who you dined with! Jesus, obviously was spending lots of suppers with sinners and tax-collectors. They were also doing a lot of repenting.

Now the tax collectors and sinners were all gathering around to hear Jesus. But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.”
Luke 15:1-2 (NIV)

So why were the Pharisees so bothered by Jesus? And what was it about Jesus' dining with the poor and the outcasts that solicited accusations of gluttony? There were two images behind this idea of gluttony. The first has to do with wisdom:

Oh listen, dear child—become wise; point your life in the right direction.
Don't drink too much wine and get drunk; don't eat too much food and get fat.
Drunks and gluttons will end up on skid row, in a stupor and dressed in rags.
Proverbs 23:19-21 (The Message)

The second image has to do with a stubborn and rebellious son:

If someone has a stubborn and rebellious son who does not obey his father and mother and will not listen to them when they discipline him, his father and mother shall take hold of him and bring him to the elders at the gate of his town. They shall say to the elders, “This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious. He will not obey us. He is a glutton and a drunkard.” Then all the men of his town are to stone him to death. You must purge the evil from among you. All Israel will hear of it and be afraid.
Deuteronomy 21:18-21 (NIV)

How could Jesus be a true prophet of the holy God if he was spending so much time with gluttons and drunkards? Either he is not full of wisdom and thus not a true prophet, or he's a prophet that has rebelled against God and has stubbornly refused to resist temptations of lamb-chops. Either way, the proper response for the religious leaders was either to drive Jesus out of the land, or sentence him to death.

Jesus wasn't scared by the accusations. He knew what they meant. And he knew what he was doing. He was bringing good news to the poor. He was healing the sick. Those who had faith were getting their sins forgiven. And Jesus wasn't going to let the wealthy or the powerful stand in the way. He turned on the Pharisees and pointed out their hypocrisy, their indulgences, their sins of gluttony:

"Instead of giving you God's Law as food and drink by which you can banquet on God, they package it in bundles of rules, loading you down like pack animals. They seem to take pleasure in watching you stagger under these loads, and wouldn't think of lifting a finger to help.

"Do you want to stand out? Then step down. Be a servant. If you puff yourself up, you'll get the wind knocked out of you. But if you're content to simply be yourself, your life will count for plenty.

"You're hopeless, you religion scholars and Pharisees! Frauds! You burnish the surface of your cups and bowls so they sparkle in the sun, while the insides are maggoty with your greed and gluttony. Stupid Pharisee! Scour the insides, and then the gleaming surface will mean something.
Matthew 23:4,11-12, 25-26 (The Message)

So what would you rather be? A glutton like Jesus or a glutton like the Pharisees? Here's how it often goes for us - we're a mix of sinner and Pharisee:

Like the tax-collectors and sinners: we eat to satisfy unending cravings, we try to avoid skid row, we get drunk and get fat, our life has been pointed in an unwise direction.

Like the Pharisees: we eat too much too often, we are vain, hypocritical towards sinners and the poor, we aren’t known for being a servant, our inside life can be maggoty

But here's the invitation to us:
Like Jesus: you eat with anyone, you can welcome everyone, you can be generous with the word “friend”, you can add love and joy to a meal, you ought to encourage gratitude, you ought to help people receive forgiveness for their sins, you ought to send people away in peace.

One more story of Jesus the glutton, a stubborn Pharisee, and a seeking sinner:

One of the Pharisees asked him over for a meal. He went to the Pharisee's house and sat down at the dinner table. Just then a woman of the village, the town harlot, having learned that Jesus was a guest in the home of the Pharisee, came with a bottle of very expensive perfume and stood at his feet, weeping, raining tears on his feet. Letting down her hair, she dried his feet, kissed them, and anointed them with the perfume. When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, "If this man was the prophet I thought he was, he would have known what kind of woman this is who is falling all over him."

Jesus said to him, "Simon, I have something to tell you."
"Oh? Tell me."

"Two men were in debt to a banker. One owed five hundred silver pieces, the other fifty. Neither of them could pay up, and so the banker canceled both debts. Which of the two would be more grateful?"
Simon answered, "I suppose the one who was forgiven the most."

"That's right," said Jesus. Then turning to the woman, but speaking to Simon, he said, "Do you see this woman? I came to your home; you provided no water for my feet, but she rained tears on my feet and dried them with her hair. You gave me no greeting, but from the time I arrived she hasn't quit kissing my feet. You provided nothing for freshening up, but she has soothed my feet with perfume. Impressive, isn't it? She was forgiven many, many sins, and so she is very, very grateful. If the forgiveness is minimal, the gratitude is minimal."

Then he spoke to her: "I forgive your sins."
That set the dinner guests talking behind his back: "Who does he think he is, forgiving sins!"
He ignored them and said to the woman, "Your faith has saved you. Go in peace."
Luke 7:36-50 (The Message)

What kind of glutton are you?

Be A Glutton Like Jesus. Follow His Way of Eating.

More Reactions to Rob Bell & Love Wins

2011-04-06T07:48:00.001-04:00

As the weeks go by, the reaction to Rob Bell and Love Wins continues. More people are taking a long look at what has been written down. There ought to be a critical and informed response to Love Wins - which will either lead to a proper rejection, a thoughtful acceptance, or at least more wisdom on what is true and good.

In my opinion, the best ongoing review of Rob Bell's Love Wins is by Scot McKnight, a professor at North Park University. He's a Christian from an Anabaptist tradition, which gives him a different perspective on the theology and hermeneutics (interpretation) revealed in Love Wins. You can check out his reviews at his blog Jesus Creed, the posts are called: Exploring Love Wins.

Here's a long and detailed post by Kevin DeYoung, a Reformed-theology minister from Lansing, Michigan. It's a 20 page rejection of the theology and hermeneutics of Love Wins, calling Rob Bell's teachings dangerous. He blogs regularly at TheGospelCoalition.org, his post is called: God is Still Holy and What You Learned in Sunday School is Still True. You may want to check out more of what Kevin DeYoung writes.

I really liked this review of Love Wins from Eugene Peterson, it's a thoughtful interview.

You will want to read this insightful review and compelling criticism by Mark Galli, senior managing editor of Christianity Today - Rob Bell's Bridge Too Far

I'll post more links in the days and weeks to come. This is enough fascinating reading for now. Here's one final link to a TV report on the controversy of Love Wins:

Gluttons Crave

2011-03-31T21:00:00.001-04:00

How well do you do in resisting the temptation to eat too soon or too much? The deadly sin of gluttony has it's grip on you. And me. And it almost had it's grip on Jesus. How did Jesus resist the temptations of gluttony in the wilderness? What we learn from him might - it might just be helpful to us.

Here's the story:

And Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness for forty days, being tempted by the devil. And he ate nothing during those days. And when they were ended, he was hungry.

The devil said to him, "If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread."
And Jesus answered him, "It is written, 'Man shall not live by bread alone.'" (Deut. 8v3)

And the devil took him up and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time, and said to him, "To you I will give all this authority and their glory, for it has been delivered to me, and I give it to whom I will. If you, then, will worship me, it will all be yours."

And Jesus answered him, "It is written, "'You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve.'"(Deut 6v13)

And he took him to Jerusalem and set him on the pinnacle of the Temple and said to him, "If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here, for it is written,   "'He will command his angels concerning you,  to guard you,' and   "'On their hands they will bear you up,  lest you strike your foot against a stone.'" (Psalm 91v11-12)

And Jesus answered him, "It is said, 'You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.'" (Deut. 6v16)

And when the devil had ended every temptation, he departed from him until an opportune time. And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee, and a report about him went out through all the surrounding country. And he taught in their synagogues, being glorified by all.
-Luke 4v1-15 (ESV)

There were three temptations - all variations of the deadly sin of gluttony. Gluttony is about craving food. But food is about life, and so gluttony quickly becomes about more than just one too many french fries. Gluttony is about craving too much, too soon, too eagerly - recognition and affirmation, attention and affection, sustenance and gifts.

What are the ways that gluttony is at work in your life? Your belly reveals your gluttony towards food and drink. Your impatience and anger reveal your gluttony towards accomplishment and accolades. Your insecurity and worry reveals your gluttony towards attention and affection. You can't hide your gluttony. You can misname it, deny it, or you can accept it and repent.

Jesus was human like you and me. The devil tempted him with real temptations. Forty days in the wilderness - would you and I resist the turning stones to bread? See, Jesus was re-enacting the story of Israel in the wilderness - that's part of the reason why he quotes from Deuteronomy 8. He's letting God test him. Israel failed their test in the wilderness, Jesus must pass his test in the wilderness.

Jesus was announced at his birth as a King. Just as Israel was promised a land flowing with milk and honey, so Jesus was promised all authority and glory. If the devil offered a short-cut, a more convenient way that bypassed crucifixion - would Jesus take it? A powerful temptation it was for Jesus. When he quotes from Deuteronomy 6, he is remembering the promises God made to Israel and to him...there is no easy road to greatness and goodness.

Jesus - his name means "God saves." He was called Immanuel at his birth - "God with us." In the midst of his hunger, his lonliness, his contemplation of the hard road ahead - will YHWH save Jesus? Is the LORD with Jesus? To be atop the Temple, the dwelling place of God - to test God there - it reveals great mistrust in Him. The devil quotes Psalm 91 - twisting the poem on trust to become a tool of testing. Jesus responds by referring to the story in Deuteronomy 6 again - unlike the Israelites who quarreled with God and doubted his ability to care for them, Jesus would stay loyal and full of faith.

Gluttony for bread, glory, affirmation. It's our story.
It's Jesus' story.

The deadly sin of gluttony was the starting point for the devil’s tempting of Jesus. And so it often is with us. To fail to resist this sin is to leave us too vulnerable with all the others.

The devil offered Jesus a short-cut, convenience, immediate results. The devil used lies, vanity, and fear; he sought to blind, to distort, to sow seeds of mistrust.

What are signs that you’re succumbing to the deadly sin of gluttony?
Do you crave short-cuts, to convenience, to immediate results?
Are you letting yourself get lied to? Do you let others appeal to your vanity? Are you often afraid? Is it easy for you to mistrust?

What To Do About the Deadly Sin of Gluttony?
It’s okay to stay hungry. God will provide - at just the right time, in just the right way.

There is only one way to greatness, goodness, and satisfaction. God is trustworthy.

Trust God to answer you when you call on him… and accept the form of help he gives you. God is with you.

Initial Reactions to Rob Bell & Love Wins

2011-03-30T09:55:00.000-04:00

There have been several responses to Rob Bell and his new book Love Wins.

Some have called him a heretic, a false teacher, a liar.
Others agree with him and appreciate his putting into words what they've wondered about for a long time.

There have been simplistic caricatures of the book - dismissing it outright, misrepresenting it and then disparaging it; or simplistic acceptance of the book absent any critical review or examination of Scriptures.

And many, many, more responses...

What about you? What are your personal beliefs about Hell? Are you vocal about it? Confident in it? Confused or unsure of what to believe? Disturbed? Inquisitive? Indifferent?

A good thing to come out of the release of Love Wins is the revived attention the idea of Hell will receive. Musty or muddled ideas on Hell can get a new light shined on them - and vigorous thoughtfulness can be applied again to what Jesus said.

My plan is to lead a Bible study on what the Scriptures reveal about Sheol, Gehenna, Hades and Tartarus - what the KJV called "hell." It will be a good introduction into the very broad and deep realm of theology on salvation, God, Jesus, heaven, judgement, faith, love and truth. (See more at the Anchor website.)

Here's the video that Rob Bell released to introduce his book:

Happy Birthday to My Mum!

2011-03-28T20:11:00.000-04:00

An ode to my Mum:

I am thankful to God for my Mum,
even though she made us drink cod-flavored oily stuff for our health.
I remember with fondness the never-ending supply
of strawberries on our Shreddies. And muffins for breakfast.

I thank my God often for my Mum,
especially since she has always believed in me,
inviting me to dream big, and introducing me to classical music.
She encouraged me to read. A lot. Narnia. Middle-earth. Scout.

I am grateful for my Mum,
making summer vacations at the lake so memorable.
And for sending me to church camp. Including Summit.
She took lots of pictures of us kids as we grew up. Lots!

The gratitude grows over the years,
So helpful, available to listen, to love, to change diapers.
Patient, understanding, praying. Laughing at ridiculously inane jokes!
Spending so many hours playing with the grandchildren

Happy Birthday Mum! You are the gift we celebrate today.

Neighborhood Churches & Great COMMUNITIES

2011-03-20T23:00:00.002-04:00

Tonight we met at Grace Presbyterian Church with Megan Kelly of Great KIDS make Great COMMUNITIES. Megan presented an overview of the 40 Developmental Assets, particularly those that congregations can build into kids and youth. It was a lot of good information, a very empowering session. Our 46808 Neighborhood Churches want to make our neighborhood a better place to live - and building assets into children and teens is a key investment.

During Lent Anchor Community Church and other congregations in the neighborhood are meeting during four Sunday evenings to learn more about how to better serve our neighbors. Click here to read more about our meeting last week with Judge Charles Pratt and Kate Rusher. Click here to read more about our helpful meeting with Megan Kelly.

If you haven't read it already, here's an article on our meetings in the Journal Gazette called Lent in a New Light by Rosa Salter Rodriguez!

Are You A Glutton?

2011-03-16T09:24:00.001-04:00

Have you ever been a glutton?

Yes! Of course I have. Maybe you have too.

Next question: in what ways are you living as a glutton these days?

Well, I ate a whole bag of Cheetos on the way home from Toledo yesterday afternoon to help me stay awake. But I was shoving them in my mouth so fast, the only reason they kept me awake was the resulting pain in my stomach. Ingesting junk results in gastric suffering - which also helps me avoid drowsiness.

I could go on. You?

Who wants to admit they are a glutton? Sure, maybe you need to eat a little more healthier. And who doesn't eat a little more than they really need. Doesn't everybody eat fast-food at least once or twice a week?

Face it. You are a glutton. You are guilty of the deadly sin of gluttony.

Once you are able to admit it, you can do something about it. Staying in denial only prolongs the inability to resist the temptations. Jesus was accused of being a glutton. His first temptations in the wilderness were all variations of gluttony. The Spirit of God led him into the Judean desert for forty days, and while there got really, really, really hungry. And then the tempations started.

And Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness for forty days, being tempted by the devil. And he ate nothing during those days. And when they were ended, he was hungry. Luke 4v1-2 (ESV)

Jesus knows what its like to have to resist the temptation of gluttony. As a follower of Jesus, we can learn from his way of resistance and let it shape our life. During Lent, we are to reflect on our own life, our sins, and our need for mercy, our will to follow Jesus. This prompts a reflection of the story of Jesus in the Wilderness. It also prompts a reflection of Israel's wandering in the wilderness.

We probably relate more to Israel, though we strive to follow the way of Jesus. Israel complained and whined when the hardships came. The were caught mistrusting God, pining for security and stability of Egypt (despite the cost of their slavery there). They couldn't see the end goal of the Promised Land. They wanted to head to the Guaranteed Land. They failed their testing, they succumbed to the temptations of gluttony.

Jesus re-enacted the story of Israel, and he played the part well. When he got hungry, instead of quarreling with God, he wrestled to obey. Instead of whining and complaining about his hunger, he formulated the Lord's Prayer. Instead of taking matters into his own hands, he persevered to the end. Gluttony tempted him to satisfy his hunger now, on his own terms. Trusting God required him to wait for God's timing on fulfillment. There is always much at stake in these tests and temptations of hunger.

It's interesting that in the original language of the story, it's the same word for test and temptation. One way to differentiate: a test from God to see where your heart is at; a temptation comes from within or from the evil one to mistrust God and pull away from Him. God tests, he doesn't tempt; God provides a way out of the temptation, and he never tests you beyond your ability. The powerful urges of gluttony you feel - the Spirit of God could still prevail in your life...

What is the deadly sin of gluttony? Here's how St. Gregory the Great put it all those years ago:
Too Soon
Too Much
Too Avidly
Too Richly
Too Daintily.

Here's the question again: in what ways are you living as a glutton these days?
Do you ever eat too soon? Do you ever snack? Do you ever eat when you are not hungry? Do you ever eat alone when you could eat with others? Do you ever eat too much? Do you ever eat until you are stuffed? Do you ever eat a whole bag of Cheetos?

Do you ever eat too eagerly? Do you ever value your meal at the expense of others? Do you ever eat too expensively? Do you ever eat too cheaply? Do you place more value on the cost of the food than the nutrition or source of the food? Do you ever value the taste of the food over the health of the food?

Do you ever eat too carefully? Do you ever obsesses about your food? Do you pay too much attention to your meals?

Go ahead - admit that you are a glutton at times. Just say it: I. Am. A. Glutton.

Now, what can you do about it?
Here's what Jesus did: He fasted. He prayed. He meditated on Scripture. He fueled rebellion towards the Evil One. He sustained his stubbornness towards the temptation of gluttony. He became uncomfortably honest with himself about his desires.

To fast is to intentionally go without a certain type of food, or to miss a meal. By withholding nutrition from your body, you become acutely aware of how hungry you can get. And then you begin to get a sense of what you are up against in attaining self-control over your appetite. You'll need God's help, won't you?!

To pray is to listen to the Spirit's promptings about what to do next with your desires for food. Listen for hints of reality, of wisdom, of truth about yourself and why you eat the way you do.

To meditate on Scripture is to let God speak to you in the way he has spoken to others who would listen in the past. Let God shape your understanding of you, your hunger, and what is more valuable.

There is more to be said on this. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst more for righteousness - for the right thing to prevail in their life and those around them. Knock, seek, ask, and you will find...

Rebel against your gluttony.

Neighborhood Churches & Subversion

2011-03-13T22:41:00.000-04:00

The 46808 Neighborhood Churches met tonight at First Mennonite Church with Judge Charles Pratt. We're a collection of churches committed to making our neighborhood a better place to live. Through our collaboration we want to subvert the powers of injustice and despair.

This is long-term work, but it's Jesus-work, and that's what we're all about. Coming alongside children and families and neighbors and meeting them in their world, offering a hand and heart and a way forward - that's what we're working to do.

Read more about our plotting at the Anchorblog.