Did I Kill Jesus

This is one of the most creative things I have attempted in a sermon... building something while delivering. This is about salvation, but even more about the crucifixion itself and God's purposes behind it.

Revelation Sermon

I have gotten a lot of positive feedback about this sermon and wanted to share it with you guys.  It takes a very broad look at revelation and hopefully takes what we learn and applies it to life in general.  Let me know what you think!

King, Manger and Palace

Did you know that the manger was probably not outside?  We explore the Archaeology of the manger scene and look at amazing structure called the Herodium that change the shepherd's journey and challenge us to radical discipleship!

Shavuot and Acts 2

I accidentally prepared for the wrong reading when working on the last video for the New Testament Experience. I figured I'd do a brain dump here and share the wealth.

Pentecost (literally the fiftieth day) is the beginning of the Jewish festival of Shavuot. This is the religious festival that was all about celebrating God giving the law (torah) to the people of Israel (which coincidentally happened fifty days after the Exodus).

If you remember your flannelgraph correctly, you may remember seeing a fire at the top of the mountain. This passage (along with Ezekiel 1-2) is one of the theophanies (visible manifestation of God) that the Jewish people read during the feast of Shavuot. The other main reading for this Festival comes from the book of Ruth. That is interesting because the book of Ruth foreshadows the incorporation of the Gentiles into the people of God as she is not a Jew but a Moabite (who are forbidden in Deuteronomy 23:3 to be part of the Jewish people... they are to be totally separate).

What a beautiful setting for the giving of the Holy Spirit! The festival celebrates the moment when all the people saw a fire on top of the mountain and received the Law that was to help them cover their sin and live in right relation to God once again. Now, through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, the fire is no longer on the mountain, but separates and rests on them individually. It fills them and they cannot help but cry out! The law that is being celebrated in Shavuot is being fulfilled before their very eyes.

Bit o' Trinity

The trinity is a difficult subject to understand because it is so far beyond our experience of life, but at the same time, it is core to our belief as Christians. I recently wrote a theology of mission for seminary in which I took by best hack at a concise expression of my understanding of this doctrine. The emphasis here is on concise. It means no more and no less than what it says, for more, it would require hundreds of pages to work out all the implications as many books have attempted. My hope is that sharing it here will cause you to take a moment to ponder the nature of the being of God. Questions welcome.

Before we get into the specifics of mission, we must recognize the underlying concepts from which it flows. Key to this entire venture is the doctrine of the Trinity. This doctrine is important as it places at its core the person of God. Two aspects of the trinity that are key to mission are connection/relation and sending/reaching out. What is difficult about understanding the Trinity is its nature of being three distinct beings that are simultaneously one being. This idea is echoed in the phrasing the Bible uses to describe marriage in Genesis 2:24 where it figures the result of the marriage relationship as being that the two individuals “will become one flesh.”[1] Is it referring to a literal organic connection that causes them to be joined as one organism? Of course not. Rather, it is trying to symbolically represent the depth of relationship that two beings experience in the consecrated marriage relationship. If we take this conception and apply it to the Trinity, we can understand it as saying that the three beings are so closely and deeply related as to become one. The most useful semantic conception of this for me is to say that the Trinity is the personification[2] of relationship.

The nature of the person(s) of the Trinity is not the singular important attribute to the discussion of mission. Quite applicable in this discussion is the dynamic of the Trinity as sending/reaching out. The most useful description of this has come through the writing of Killian McDonnell. His description is both clear and concise: “One model of this dynamic is God reaching through the Son in the Spirit to touch and transform the world and to lead them in the Spirit through the Son back to God.”[3] Here we see the Father as continually reaching and receiving, the Son as continually sending and channeling, and the Spirit as continually connecting and directing. This flows directly from the scriptures as Jesus is seen almost as the hand of God in John 5:19.[4] Though God sends the Son, his sending is not complete in the Son, but as the Son sends the Spirit,[5] or more accurately, the Father sends the Spirit in the name of (through) Jesus.[6] The theological peculiarities of this model are not as important as it expressing the core reality that can be seen throughout scripture; namely, God is constantly reaching and sending. If we are to be His people, and are called to strive to display the image of Him that He has placed within us by becoming more and more like Him, we must echo his sending and connecting. This is the spring from which flows the river of mission. It is the divine source for all that we do to bring God’s Kingdom to earth.

---

[1] Genesis 2:24 NIV

[2] This is not personification in the sense of the literary device that gives human qualities to inanimate objects, but in the sense that the trinity expresses relationship by creating a being that ex explained best by relationship. It is personification in the sense that is personifies (embodies, epitomizes, is the incarnation of) relationship.

[3] Killian McDonnell, The Other Hand of God: The Spirit as Universal Touch and Goal. (Minnesota: Michael Glazier Books, 2003), 3.

[4] In this verse it says that what the son does, the father also does, in a sense as if Jesus is the physical expression of the reaching of God into the world.

[5] Acts 1:4,8

[6] John 14:26

The Seven Last Words of Jesus

The tenebrae service on good Friday is the only service in the church year that is supposed to be a service of mourning. The rest of the year we celebrate the risen Christ, but in this service, on this day, we mourn the death of God. This is the reading for that service. A warning, it is powerful. Take time to imagine each scripture. Easter will come, but for now, mourn.

THE FIRST WORD
Luke 23:33-34 -- When they came to the place called "The Skull," they nailed Jesus to the cross there, and the two criminals, one on his right and one on his left. Jesus said, "Forgive them, Father! They know not what they do."

THE SECOND WORD
Luke 23:39-43 -- One of the criminals hanging there threw insults at him: "Aren't you the messiah? Save yourself and us!" The other one, however, rebuked him, saying: "Don't you fear God? Here we are all under the same sentence. Ours, however, is only right, for we are getting what we deserve for what we did; but he has done no wrong." And he said to Jesus, "Remember me, Jesus, when you come as King!" Jesus said to him, "I tell you this: Today you will be in Paradise with me."

THE THIRD WORD
John 19:25-27 -- Standing close to Jesus' cross were his mother, his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. Jesus saw his mother and the disciple he loved standing there; so he said to his mother, "Woman, here is your son." Then he said to the disciple, "Here is your mother." And from that time the disciple took her to live in his home.

THE FOURTH WORD
Mark 15: 33-34 -- And when the sixth hour had come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour. And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, "Elo-i, elo-i, lama sabach-thani?" which means, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?"

THE FIFTH WORD
John 19:28 -- After this jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said (to fulfill the scripture0, "I thirst."

THE SIXTH WORD
John 19:29-30 -- A bowl was there, full of cheap wine mixed with vinegar, so a sponge was soaked in it, put on hyssop and lifted up to his lips. When Jesus had received the wine, he said, "It is finished."

THE SEVENTH WORD
Luke 23:46 -- Then Jesus, crying with a loud voice, said, "Father, into thy hands I commit my spirit!" And having said this he breathed his last.





Christ has died.

Scapegoats & Yom Kippur

In my sermon I talked (or am talking depending on when you are reading this) about the Jewish ritual of the Day of the Atonement (Yom Kippur) which is full of symbolism that points to Jesus and helps us understand His sacrifice for us. As a matter of fact, all of the Jewish feasts in the Bible have a messianic nature to them, but that is a whole class I teach from time to time. I digress.

The scapegoat bit happened at the end of the liturgy of Yom Kippur. After the scapegoat was selected, there would be a crimson piece of wool tied to its horns, after offering all the other sacrifices, the high priest would place his hands on the head of a scapegoat, symbolically transferring the sins of the people onto the goat, and pray, "I beseech You, O Lord; Grant atonement for the sins, and for the iniquities and transgressions which the entire house of Israel has committed against You, As it is written in the Torah of Your servant, Moses: 'For on this day atonement shall be made for you, to purify you from all your sins - before the Lord you shall be purified'." The congregation responds with the words "Blessed be the Name of His glorious kingdom, for ever and ever."

Then, the scapegoat was taken out into the desert to a place called Azazel where the priest would push the goat off of a cliff. Before he did that, he would take a piece of the wool that had been tied around the goat's horns because once the goat had died, the wool would turn white fulfilling the scripture, "Though your sins are as scarlet, they shall whiten as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be white as wool" (Isaiah 1:18)

Hebrews 9:11-14 talks about Jesus being the replacement for the goats used on the Day of Atonement. Dying once and for all for the forgiveness of sin.

What is interesting to me about all this is that we still use this term to refer to people who are blamed for the wrongs of others. This happens often in families. Saying "If it wasn't for your ________ I/they wouldn't be so _________." The problem is that no other human can take the consequences of your sin for you. The only one that can do that is Jesus. He did it once and for all. He is the only scapegoat that will stand up under such a heavy burden. Maybe it's time for you to unload... don't worry, He can take it. He already did.

Aliens and The Trinity

I have been doing a bit of preparation and research for our upcoming series on the Trinity (it's going to be called THR3E). I was looking for trinity symbols and information about the relatedness of the Godhead when I stumbled upon several crop circle representations of various trinity symbols. At first glance I thought that was weird and cool all at the same time.

I'm going to confess, I am a bit of a geek and VERY interested in space and everything that is or might be in it. The first question that popped into my mind was this: If there are aliens who are trying to contact us by bending agriculture into symbols (that sounds crazier every time I try and reword it) do they know and have a relationship with God?

But then it occurred to me. Aliens and the Trinity are kind of similar to us! The trinity is so difficult to understand because it is so different from our experience (one might say alien to it). In fact it is so difficult and different that we don't discuss it or think about it at all. But for those of us who have experienced its power, we are never the same. So maybe we need to think in terms of a trinity abduction. I could go on, but I will stop while I am still sounding a bit sane.

BTW, there's a series of fiction books that talks about aliens and God written by C.S. Lewis starting with Out of Silent Planet... if you are into that sort of thing.

God and Time

I thought this might be interesting to share. This subject has fascinated me for years, and reading this book has really brought it to the forefront. So much so that I am going to be writing a much fuller treatment of what I think about it for my final philosophy paper this term (btw... my view is none of the ones below). The following is an excerpt from a review I wrote on the book God and Time: Four Views Edited by Gregory Gnassle.

After the introduction, Paul Helm makes the case for the classical view of divine timelessness. Ascribing to the B-theory of time, Helm asserts that God is timeless and atemporal and rejects the idea that analogies with our temporal existence will be able to describe that which is foreign to such a system of existence. Most of his argument is positioned as a defense against the common, popular objections to the classical theory.

Alan Padgett takes a quite unique stance in relation to the other contributors saying that God is “relatively timeless”. He makes a distinction between measured time and pure duration. The pure duration is defined as a quasi-temporal, changeless time that flows without any measure or increment. He suggests that God exists in this pure duration, and has created the current measured space-time in which we exist. So in this sense, God is timeless relative to the created space-time of our universe.

William Lane follows Padgett with a theory that addresses the problem of God existing before creation, and therefore, before created time. Lane suggests that God exists timelessly and alone until creation of the temporal universe at which point real relation to creation requires God’s entrance into time. In this system of understanding God’s relation to time, creation exists as a causal boundary to God’s timeless eternity.

Finally, Nicholas Wolterstorff delivers a hard-hitting argument for God’s unqualified temporality. Wolterstorff uses narrative as a basis for his argument asserting that any being who has a history that can be communicated narratively must necessarily exist in time, and to suggest anything else is to not take an honest look at reality and scripture.

Silence and Conversion

So, you may know I'm in seminary, and that means I'm doing a lot of late-night thinking and writing. I just finished a short response paper to an amazing book I had read about a year ago and reread for this class. The book is called "To know as We Are Known" by Parker Palmer. Here are some excerpts from what I said in the six pager.

Religion seeks to answer the deepest questions of human existence such as "What is the purpose of life?" and "What is the meaning of life?" and the like. When one teaches in that religious setting, it brings a certain amount of weight with it. Such a weighty setting requires a larger purpose than being merely informative. My teaching in that setting seeks to reflect that in its purpose; I focus on life change and spiritual formation, what Palmer refers to as conversion.

Our youth group is a part of our society. One of the most unfortunate developments in the church (especially the evangelical church) over the past several decades has been its separation from the "secular" world. We have our own colleges, books, bookstores, music, "art," and even theme parks. That being said, the piece of the human experience that has been pulled into our youth group as its main focus is spirituality. Students have gotten the message our culture (the church included) has been feeding them and have separated these questions and their application from the rest of their world for the most part. This enables them to give correct answers and seem spiritual without having to work through the cognitive dissonance (internal conflict) that true interaction with spirituality creates. Unfortunately, for true conversion to happen, those walls must come down.

Palmer says that teaching is providing a space where obedience to truth is practiced. This space needs to be open where truth can be encountered (71), hospitable to diversity of thought (74), but have boundaries that protect the process (72). He uses techniques like silence (80), introducing multiple viewpoints (78), asking questions instead of giving answers (83), listening in a way that can correct all (including the teacher) (83), and being aware of the feelings of the students (83-86).

I personally resonated with Palmer's use of silence. He explains beautifully how we fill silence with words so that we do not have to reflect and deal with who we are in relation to what is being explored. On top of that, adolescents are still developing mentally, and many times need the space that silence provides to process ideas and metaphors to fully understand them. I try to incorporate these times sporadically into our large group gatherings especially after a time of introduction (message) where students can allow their minds to process what was heard so that they can have a basis from which to respond and discuss.. Additionally, I instruct my volunteers to wait once they have asked a question. Not to fill the silence with gibberish until students answer or the volunteer can't bear it and gives the answer himself, but rather give the students space to think.

Silence is an integral part of our ministry as we seek to give voice to God's presence in our midst, and ss I seek conversion as a response to teaching, I must remember that it is through no power of my own that that will happen, but through a relationship with the person of whom I teach and with whom I live.

Not sure, but I think this is *becca's favorite* practice.

btw... I still post a good bit on Youthministrygeek.com

The Ethiopian's Salvation

Laura and I went to this thing called "dinner with the missionaries" on Wednesday and heard this story that was absolutely amazing from the guy who was speaking. He is currently a student here.

Ok, so he is in a field working with his brothers when he sees a vision of a man carrying a cross on the other side of the field. The man is beaten and bloody, and in a lot of pain. He realizes that his brothers in the field can't see the man, and he begins to become very distressed when he hears a voice say, "This is my son who died for your sins." He began to think and realized that there were many things he had been doing that were bad, and stopped doing them because he could not believe that someone who had never known him would suffer so much for him. He began to tell his brothers and friends about this man who he saw in the field, and that they needed to stop doing what they were doing, and live pure lives. Eventually the lives of those around him began to change as he kept retelling his vision. People began to refer to the man in the vision as the God of (I can't remember his name, but I will make up one) Beniamin because he did not know that this man's name was Jesus.

His father was not as happy. He kept urging him to stop speaking all this foolishness, but he refused. Beniamin said he could not stop talking about this man who suffered for his sins. His father eventually disowned Beniamin.

At this time Ethiopia was under communist rule, and as more and more people began hearing about Beniamin, he was taken to prison and asked to renounce his beliefs. He refused, but they had nothing to charge him with. Every day they would threaten his life, and then take him out to the streets to show him the people they killed the day before (that's where they dumped the bodies after shooting them... if someone went missing, people would search the streets every morning to see if they had been killed), but he still refused. This went on for 21 days (or months it was hard to understand him here) in a row. During his time in jail one of the guards mentioned that there were several others in jail for talking about a similar man in the north. This gave Beniamin hope. He was amazed that there were others in Ethiopia who had heard of this man.

Eventually he was released from prison, and decided to go to the north where he met these protestants who told him that he was a Christian. He continued to preach in the underground church, but was constantly being searched for by the police, and narrowly escaped several times (a whole post could be dedicated to the many stories he told about this). Eventually the communist government was overthrown and they were able to worship in public. He told of a story of a conference he helped organize during a spring break while working with an inter varsity organization where 14,000 people came to the Lord.

There's so much more to his story including learning to read, and how he got here to fuller, but I wanted to retell this to all of you so that you could hear the amazing things God has done in this Brother's life. Your thoughts are always appreciated... leave a comment (if you don't have a google id, choose the anonymous circle)

Blessing

OK, so I've been reading this book by Brad Young called Jesus the Jewish Theologian. If you heard my sermon on the kingdom suffereth violence, a lot of it came from this book. Anyway, in a chapter entitled: "Giving Thanks -- A Way of Life," he talks about the idea of blessing food. He says that pronouncing a blessing to God before eating was common all the way back to the time of Jesus. But the Hebrew idea and Greek term that is translated as blessing (e.g. Lk 9:16) doesn't mean to provide a blessing or to set apart, but rather to worship God by acknowledging his kingdom and his authority. So, we need to bless (worship) God for his provision for us. To bless food then is a basic misunderstanding of blessing. You don't bless a created thing, rather, you bless the source of the created thing -- God.

Obviously, this is a small thing, but interesting, and with interesting implications. When I bless food, the thought behind my words is, bless this food that I have worked for, and make it make me healthy, etc. I usually say "Bless this food and make it nourish my body so I can better serve you." The reality of the situation is that God has given me what I need to nourish my body out of what he owns already (Ps. 24:1), and what needs to happen there is me blessing Him for His provision. Another way of saying what I am garbling out is this: I am usually looking at myself as having provided the food, and asking God to bless what I have provided. In a very small yet repetitive way I am thanking myself, and asking God to add His blessing to what I have blessed my family with. ( I know I ended with a preposition, but I couldn't figure a clear way to say that without it)

Your thoughts...