Month: March 2012

Home

Home.

We often think fondly of our homes, where we are from. I grew up in rural South Carolina at the base of the Blue Ridge Mountains. I spent my summers exploring the woods around our house, playing in the streams and discovering interesting animals and plants. There was a cattle farm across the street from our house which emanated interesting smells and sounds. My grand parents lived two houses down, which was a quarter of a mile in those parts. I would often walk or ride my bike to see them. They would always offer me orange juice, cookies and ice cream. I had several trails through the woods that I could take to visit their house before my parents would let me walk or ride my bicycle on the road. I knew every square foot of those woods. Every hollow and every tree.

Home.

What is home? Is it a place or is it a feeling? Isn’t home the way you feel when you are most comfortable. The place where you can wear your PJ’s and not feel like you’re somehow being informal or immodest? Isn’t home the place where you can sleep a deep sleep and not wake up in the night wondering where you are? Isn’t home a sense of comfort, a feeling of relaxation, void of the worries and cares of the outside?

Home.

The rock group Metallica famously screamed, “Where I lay my head is home.” Their anthem is eerily, and perhaps uncomfortably, similar to Jesus’ own statement, “The Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” Metallica roams because they are revolutionaries, speaking their minds as they please. Is this similar to Jesus? Maybe on the surface, but there is a fundamental difference. Jesus has no place to lay his head because he has rejected his first home. Yet rebellion and anarchy is not the end of Jesus’ story. Jesus is not just rejecting his first home, he is busy building a new home and a new household and a new family. This is why he famously tells his mother and his brothers, “who are my mother and my brothers? Whoever does the will of God, he is my brother and my sister and my mother.” You see, Jesus is not just rejecting the old home in order to become a vagabond, a wandering ascetic, he is putting off the old in order to build something new. A new home. A new family.

Home.

One of the things that we most long is to feel at home. This is one of our deepest felt needs as human persons. We want to be loved. We want to be cared for. We want to be touched, embraced, and kissed. We want to feel comfortable, relaxed, and safe. We want to be home.

The good news of the gospel for you today is that Jesus is building a home for you here in his church. A place where you can be known. A place where you can be loved. A place where you can be safe.

Home

A New Pro-Life Strategy

If this is as good as it sounds and spreads it could be a wonderful thing!

A prayer for mothers who are considering abortion:
God of all grace, out of fatherly, divine goodness and mercy You have given us life and commanded us not to hurt or harm our neighbor in his body. Teach us to care for unborn children whom you have created in Your image. Grant your grace to all mothers that, by your word and Spirit, they may live according to your will and have the courage to nurture and cherish their children. Surround all mothers with those who will rejoice in the child, and provide for the needs of both mother and child both in body and soul; through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

Pro-Life Youth’s Innovative Save the Storks Effort Helps Women

Counter Culture: a Lenten Reflection

The National Anthem of the United States of America is “The Star Spangled Banner.” Yet while this song about the perseverance of a piece of cloth (for we have no human to revere in our great land) still tugs on our patriotic heartstrings from time to time, perhaps the real anthem of the modern America is a rock song by Queen:

I want it all. I want it all. I want it all. And I want it now.

This anthem is what drives the American spirit. Just walk into any Sam’s Club or Wal-Mart where you can literally have it all, and have it now, if you only have access to enough credit.

I want it all. I want it all. I want it all. And I want it now.

How did we get here? We are a country that was built on the backs of hard work and perseverance. How did we become so lazy, impatient, and averse to suffering? How did we get to the point that we truly believe that everything is our due, and we owe absolutely nothing for it?

I want it all. I want it all. I want it all. And I want it now.

No, this is more than our anthem. This is our litany, our national prayer, our creed. We name it, and we claim it. We shouldn’t have to wait, we shouldn’t have to save or do without, and we shouldn’t have to pay for it.

I want it all. I want it all. I want it all. And I want it now.

There could be nothing farther from the ethos of the scripture than this litany of consumerism, this patriotic anthem of acquisition, this creed of impatience, pride, and gluttony. The bible says, wait, be patient, and suffer. That’s actually what the bible says! Wait, be patient, and suffer. What could be farther from our cultural norm? Yet we see in Mark 8:31-38 that though Christ was God incarnate, omnipotent and omniscient, and he certainly could have taken the rule of the entire earth, for he certainly had the power,yet he didn’t! He waited, he was patient, and he suffered.

And yet even after he waited, faithfully passed the tests, was patient, and suffered for his bride, he still does not have the fullness of worldly power. Why? Why did he not at least then, after he waited so long and suffered so much, did he not then take what was due him? Why? Because he also wanted glory for his people, his bride, and the only way to real glory is to wait, to be patient, and to suffer. So we must wait, be patient, and suffer, though we are anointed priests, kings, and prophets to the world, we must wait, be patient and suffer for the life of the world just as our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ did.

We must wait, be patient, and suffer.

A Biblical Theology of Maturation and Renewal

The apostle Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians 3:18 that, “we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another.” How is it then that the Spirit is transforming us from glory to glory?

The pattern of maturation in the scriptures is a progression from priest to king to prophet. The priestly phase is a propaedeutic phase of keeping rules and doing things exactly according to the book. This corresponds to our childhood which is full of rules. The kingly phase is a phase of ruling and exercising dominion in the vocation that God has given us. This corresponds to the main phase of our adult life. The prophetic phase is a phase of increasing influence and wisdom based on a lifetime of knowledge and experience. This phase corresponds to  our “golden years” which all to often in our culture are discounted by the younger generation. Biblically speaking, the prophetic phase is the most glorious and most influential, though we tend to value the kingly phase the most in our culture.

The bible also shows us that moving from glory to glory is preceded by a time of testing. The first test is the wilderness trial, where the person must deal with the Heavenly Father and come to terms with their personal loyalty to him. This trial is shown in Israel’s wilderness wandering as well as Jesus’ 40 day temptation in the wilderness. At the end of the wilderness trial, Joshua says, “Choose you this day whom you will serve,” (Joshua 24:15). Passing this test makes one ready to become a priest, where performance is measured by doing exactly what God says, and blessings/curses are meted out accordingly.

The second test is the garden trial. The garden trial is a test to see if one is willing to lay down his life for others, specifically his bride. The garden trial is shown in the scriptures in Adam’s test by the serpent in the garden as well as Jesus’ temptation in Gethsemane. Being willing to lay down one’s life for the sake of others is the test that is required to move into the kingly phase of life and ministry, which requires exactly that one lays down one’s life on behalf of those which he (or she) has been given to rule. The kingly phase is marked by wisdom, and the exactness of the rules of the priestly period are stretched (and sometimes broken) according to the wise rule of the king.

The third test is the fiery trial. The fiery trial is a test to see if one will pass on the kingly rule and all the things which one has built to the younger generation of junior kings. The fiery trial is shown in the bible in several places: Abraham’s sacrifice of Isaac, Elijah’s handing down his ministry to Elisha, and Jesus sending the Holy Spirit to his church on Pentecost. Passing the fiery trial (which involves both being willing to let go of our “sons” as well as passing our ministries down to them) makes one ready to become a prophet. Being a prophet in the bible is the most glorious and the most influential. Where the king is taken up with the day-to-day aspects of ruling, and his influence is largely over those he rules, the prophet has time to spend influencing and impacting the greater world. Prophets in the bible are world changers. They usher in new covenants and phases of redemptive history. They have power to rebuke and instruct the nations of the world, not just the local Israel. Being a prophet means one has remained faithful through the three major tests of life, and that one has gained a treasure trove of wisdom and knowledge based on his life experiences, knowledge of the scriptures, and close connection with God. Prophets should always be listened to, and never discounted in the church.

For the most part we as Americans are good at getting to the kingly phase, but we stall before getting to the prophetic phase. How can we do a better job of passing the fiery trial and becoming world changers? Kings have power and influence, but prophets make kings and disciple the nations. This is the phase that we must most aspire to, and must value the most in our churches.